Alone Again_After the Collapse

by John Sullins

  Keith followed Joni up the front steps and onto the very long porch.

  Keith held out his hand to shake Ed Roy’s but the little man moved past his hand and wrapped his short arms around Keith’s waist.

  “My GOD, I never thought this day would happen. I am so happy to finally meet someone related to her, welcome, welcome!”

  “Keith, this is Ed Roy Short, Ed Roy, this is Keith Hunter.”

  “It’s nice to meet you Ed Roy.”

  Ed Roy moved backwards, almost dancing, “Come on in, come in and see your house.”

  Keith could hardly believe his eyes. The inside of the house looked nothing like anything he had ever seen. The living room was huge with a very large stone fireplace on the end wall. The ceiling was tall with massive wood beams every eight feet. A set of wide stairs led to a balcony which ran the entire length of the living room. Keith was speechless as he looked around. Ed Roy pointed to a large buck deer’s head over the fireplace. “That is the famous Big Ed.”

  Keith looked at the deer’s massive antlers. “That is the biggest rack I have ever seen”

  “It is the biggest deer ever killed in this county,” said Ed Roy, his voice full of excitement.

  “That’s the deer that linked your great grandmother to my grandfather. They were good friends.”

  Joni interjected, “I have not had time to give him a lot of details about the history of this house or the circumstances of the family. I was hoping you might take care of that. You know a lot more about the past than I do Ed Roy.”

  “That would be great, I’d love to do it.”

  He looked up at Keith, “I was named after Roy Hunt, the original owner of this property. The Ed is after my grandfather, the Roy after him. He was the grandfather of your great grandmother’s first husband Brad. I know all about that part of her life because my grandfather told me dozens and dozens of stories about her. They were good friends you know, my grandfather and your great grandma………...”

  He stopped in mid-sentence. “I know I am repeating myself, I am so excited I am out of control. Come on, let me show you the house.”

  Ed Roy pointed up at the rafters above them, “The beams and all of the logs were brought to Maine from Colorado.”

  They walked up the wide curved stairs to the second level and stood on the balcony overlooking the living room floor and fireplace.

  As Keith stood with the palms of his hands on the sturdy log rail along the edge of the balcony his thoughts turned to the rooms in the orphanage and some of the nasty places he had lived with foster parents. He spoke softly, “Is this really happening to me?”

  Neither Joni nor Ed Roy responded.

  They moved away from the balcony and walked through a large bedroom. He opened the closet doors and smiled when he walked into the most spacious closet he had ever seen. It was larger than any of his rooms at the orphanage.

  He left the closet and walked across the room to the bathroom which took his breath away, it was absolutely gorgeous. The shower was big enough for the starting five of any basketball team. It had two large round shower heads in the ceiling. The bath tub was deep enough to scuba dive and it had Jacuzzi jets on all sides.

  The sink top was marble or granite, he was not sure. There was a large flat screen television on the wall opposite the tub and Jacuzzi.

  He shook his head, “I can’t believe this.”

  He followed Ed Roy and Joni to the other two bedrooms on that level and then back to the balcony and up the stairs to the top floor.

  Ed Roy said, “I bet this will be your favorite room of the new house.”

  The room was the same shape of the house with the T part of the room on the rear of the house facing the lake. The long part of the T ran the entire length of the house, about eighty feet. There was another fireplace on the right side of the room and another large bathroom in the left corner. The walls were at the angle of the roof, but because of the large width of the room, nearly thirty feet, the room was huge.

  “Your great grandmother used this room as her office, rec-room, and the place she came to relax. But I think the best part of the entire house is the outside deck on the end of the T, overlooking the lake.”

  They stepped out onto the deck and Keith looked down. He guessed they were somewhere about forty feet above the yard.

  He looked out at snow covered trees and ice covered lake. To his left he could see for a couple of miles across the ice but when he looked to his right, he could see only a half mile because the lake split with one arm going south west and one arm to the northwest.

  “This is beautiful. I know I am repeating myself now Ed Roy, but I can’t believe this is happening.”

  Ed Roy said, “The house is ready for you. Will you be spending the night here tonight?”

  Keith looked to Joni, half expecting her to say he had to wait until the judge said the estate was settled.

  Joni said, “There is no reason you can’t stay. But your car is back in town. If you want to stay here tonight, I will come back around noon tomorrow to pick you up.”

  Ed Roy did his best to encourage Keith to stay.

  “I spent the past two days cleaning the house. I put clean sheets on all of the beds and washed the bedspreads too. Normally the bedding is packed away since no one has spent the night here, other than me, for years. As far as a car goes, your great grandmother’s cars are in the barn. One is a nice Cadillac. It runs, I start it up every month or two. I put gas in it last month.”

  “Where do you live Ed Roy?”

  “I have a place a couple of miles down the road.”

  “You are a very nice man, I appreciate your enthusiasm and loyalty. I would like very much to spend the night.”

  Joni asked, “Is there any food in the house?”

  “Yes, I keep some here for my lunch or dinner if I stay late. You are welcome to anything in the kitchen.”

  Joni glanced out the window at the approaching darkness.

  “I am going to get back to town while it is still daylight. I’ll be back in the morning. Enjoy your new house.”

  Chapter 35

  Ed Roy gave Keith a quick tour of the kitchen and the food in the cabinets.

  “I’d like to stay and talk, but my cat has kittens and I really need to get home to check on the momma, to get her some food. Is that ok?”

  “Of course, I might need a GPS to find my way around this place, but I’ll manage somehow.”

  Keith stood on the porch and watched Ed Roy’s old pickup turn left from the driveway onto the county road. As soon as the truck was out of sight he moved down the steps and walked between the trees in the front yard so he could take another look at the house from outside.

  He stopped at the base of a large cedar and rested his back against the trunk as he stared at the most beautiful house he had ever seen, his house.

  He looked up at the sky and softly said, “Thank you Rebecca. Without you I would not have come here. I would have never known about my relatives or this place.”

  The snow began falling heavily again as he walked around the house to the barn. Which was not what he expected. There was no hay or straw and no farming tools. He found a small tractor with an attachment for mowing parked near the doors. Beyond the tractor and parked along the left wall was a white Chevrolet van with a dent in the right front fender. He had no idea how old it was. Beyond the van was a large black SUV, maybe ten years old. He walked towards it and read the word Tahoe on the hood. Other than being a model he had never seen, it looked to be in very nice condition. Beside the Tahoe was an almost new white Cadillac. The last vehicle in line was a very old red Jeep Cherokee. The paint was faded and one of the tires was almost flat. He had never seen a Cherokee and could not even guess its age. He thought he remembered his Army buddy, the avid car guy, tell him that years ago some manufactures molded the year of manufacture in the plastic tail light lens so he walked to the rear of the vehicle, wiped dust from the right taillight with his hand and look
ed closely at the lens. He read the digits 00.

  “Damn, if I am right, it is a 2000, that’s eighty five years old! Why would she has saved this old thing? It looks like a box.”

  On the opposite side of the barn was a large pontoon boat sitting on a trailer. Beside it was a fishing boat also on a trailer.

  He looked around and saw a stairs leading to the loft. He went up was surprised to find it empty except for an archery target hanging on the far wall. Above the target was a row of flood lights. It appeared that someone had used the loft as an archery range.

  He returned to the house and wandered from room to room looking at everything closer than his first trip through the rooms. He looked in drawers, closets, and even the kitchen cabinets. When the electricity came on at six, he flipped light switches on and off to find out what they controlled. On the wall near the kitchen door was a grey electrical box labeled generator. He opened the box’s door and looked inside. Instructions attached to the inside of the door told him the switch controlled an all house generator. He made a mental note to ask Ed Roy about it.

  But just as Ed Roy had predicted, he migrated back to the top floor, which was already his favorite room. He went straight to the double doors to the deck and looked again at the lake. He spoke to his reflection in the glass.

  “I just cannot believe this is happening. This has to be a dream.”

  Over his shoulder in the glass he noticed the doors to a huge walk in closet. He seemed to be floating on air as he crossed the room to the closet.

  “This closet is bigger than any of my rooms growing up.”

  “The first thing he noticed there were two metal file cabinets, which were locked. He pushed them from side to side trying to tell if there was anything in them, but they would not move. Either they were attached to the floor or they were very heavy. He made another mental note to ask Ed Roy about them and continued his wandering through the house.

  Chapter 36

  He built a fire in the living room’s fireplace, found a thick comforter in one of the bedroom closets, and laid it down of the floor to watch the flames. As he enjoyed the heat from the fire he looked up at the beams above his head and asked himself if everything that had happened the past few days was real. Something in his gut told him it could not be true, there is no way he could be wealthy. A kid that grew up in an orphanage and foster homes could not inherit four houses and a bank full of money.

  He asked himself, “How can this be happening?”

  Then another question popped up in his mind, what was he going to do now? If he was really rich, if he could do anything he wanted with the money, what did he want to do? All day long as he saw the houses and talked to Joni, he never once thought about what he would do. He was so astounded and surprised at the circumstances, the question have not entered his mind.

  Then he laughed and asked himself why he was laying on the floor. Almost every night for a year he had slept on floors of abandoned houses, in hay lofts of barns, and even slept in ditches. Now he was in a huge house with a half dozen bedrooms, all with big comfortable beds and he was going to sleep on the floor again.

  Then he said it again, “Thank you Rebecca, thank you Jesus.”

  Chapter 37

  When Ed Roy’s old pickup turned into the driveway Keith was in the shower. Normally, Ed Roy would use his key and walk in, but this time he knocked on the front door, but there was no answer. He sat the bag he was carrying down, stood on his tiptoes, looked through the front room window and saw the comforter on the floor in front of the fireplace but did not see Keith. He picked up the bag and walked around the house and knocked on the rear door but again there was no answer. He opened the door and called out for Keith but got no response so he stepped inside the kitchen.

  He took a frying pan from the drawer on the bottom of the stove and began cooking breakfast.

  Keith smelled the bacon as soon as he stepped out of the shower. He got dressed quickly and went down the stairs.

  “That smells great Ed Roy. I can’t remember the last time I had bacon.”

  Ed Roy was standing on a small step stool at the stove. He turned to face Keith.

  “Good morning sir. I’ll have you some eggs and toast ready in a few minutes.”

  “Come on now Ed Roy. I am no sir. I am Keith. Please call me Keith.”

  “Ok, Keith it is.”

  Keith looked at the package of open bacon and the carton of eggs. He left the kitchen and returned with his wallet in his hand. He took out his only twenty dollar bill and handed it to Ed Roy.

  “Take this to pay for the breakfast.”

  Ed Roy shook his head vigorously. “No way, breakfast is on me.”

  “I’ve been told I am a very rich man now. You have to let me pay my own way.”

  Ed Roy cracked open three eggs and dropped bread in the toaster. “I understand, but today is on me. I have been receiving a pay check from your estate for years. This is my way to show you appreciation for that. I am so happy you found your way here.”

  Keith thought about that statement, placed the twenty on the counter beside the stove, and asked. “Do you work anywhere else?”

  Ed Roy suddenly knew he should not have said what he did. He had not intended to give the impression he was now out of a job.”

  “I do work for a lot of people, odd jobs mostly.”

  “Well, if the judge approves the estate, and I actually get all of this,” he waved his hands over his head, “Then I’d like to hire you to help me.”

  “Help you with what?”

  “With all of this. I have never owned my own place. I went from foster homes into the Army. Hell, I’ve never even owned a car until about a week ago.”

  “What will you want me to do?”

  “Just be here, like you’ve been doing in the past. Except I want you to tell me everything you know about this house and property, anything you know about my great grandmother, her family, and anything else about the past that relates to my family.”

  Ed Roy put the eggs and bacon on two plates along with the toast and sat the plates on the table.

  Keith took a bite from one of his pieces of bacon. “This is great, I love bacon.”

  He ate the breakfast like a starving dog. Between bites he said, “Do you have keys to everything here?”

  “Yes, they are in my truck. I will go get them for you.”

  “That’s not necessary right now. I was asking because I saw the two locked file cabinets upstairs. I was wondering what is in them.”

  “I don’t know if I have keys for them. I never tried. I figured it might be personal stuff. If none of my keys fit them, I think Joni may have them but I am not sure.”

  “Has she ever opened them? They feel very heavy.”

  “I don’t think she has opened them. As a general rule I don’t snoop through things here. I have looked through the closets when I have been cleaning, stuff like that. But I don’t go through desk drawers or anything like that. I always hoped someone would come to claim the estate, and I wanted to be able to say I did not invade their privacy.”

  “What’s the deal with the generator? I saw the breaker box.”

  Oh yea, I should have told you about that. It runs the entire house. I keep it switched off most of the time. I should have turned it on for you yesterday, but forgot.”

  He got up and went to the box, flipped a switch. “It will come on when the electric company turns off the juice.”

  Keith put down his fork on his empty plate. “You are a good man Ed Roy.”

  A car horn honked and they both turned their heads in that direction. Ed Roy put down his fork, “That must be Joni.”

  Chapter 38

  She came in through the kitchen door carrying a large brown envelope and a green metal box about a foot square and six inches tall. She put the box and the envelope on the table.

  “Good morning boys.”

  Without asking if she wanted coffee, Ed Roy poured a cup and handed it to her.


  Keith noticed that the envelope had his name written in large print across the front.

  She said, “The judge called me at home last night. He has approved the estate. He has approved me to give you everything I have concerning the estate including some confidential papers. She pointed at the envelope.

  Keith said nothing.

  Ed Roy picked up the two plates, put them into the sink and excused himself.

  “I will leave you two alone. I can come back tomorrow and we can talk about the house and your great grandmother.”

  “Good, see you then, thanks for cooking breakfast.”

  Joni waited until he was gone before she opened the envelope. She removed two thin stacks of papers, each stapled together in the upper left corner.

  This is the Sue Davis Lang Hunter’s Will, you need to read it thoroughly. Once you’ve read it, I will need your signature on each of these pages. She pointed to the second stack. I think it would be best for you to take your time reading the Will and then come to my office tomorrow to sign the papers.”

  “Is the Will so complicated it will take me all day to read it?”

  “It’s not that complicated, but there is something in it that is extremely important. There are some…………”

  She hesitated before she continue, “Some requirements. You will understand when you read it. If you want to read it now, it is ok with me, but you really need to think about what is in it”

  He flipped from one page to the next counting the pages.

  “I’ll read it now, it is only six pages.”

  She leaned back in her chair and took a sip from the cup. “Go ahead.” She watched his face and eyes as he began reading. She did not expect any unusual reaction until he got to the middle of the fifth page.

  He read the first page quickly, then the second and third. Before reading page four, he went back to page one and began re-reading the first three again. Joni leaned forward and rested her elbows on the table and stared at his eyes as he began reading page five.