Backwater Publishing LLC

Last will and testament

 

by

 

Clem Mason

 

(age 11-15)

(wc 2800)

 

 

Anthony (Tony) Curtis, (No, not the old movie star.) was sitting in his office when the intercom interrupted his thoughts. It startled him. Frowning, he pushed the talk button.

“Yes, Mildred?”

“Mr. Curtis? There’s a Mr. Thomas Mull here to see you.”

“Does he have an appointment?”
“Yes sir. It should be right there on your calender,” she said.

He looked and there is was. “Send him in please.”
“Yes sir.”

Mildred opened the door and a squat, round little man stepped in, removing his hat. He reminded Tony of a mole. His eyes were black and set close together. He looked to be in his sixties or seventies. He waited for instructions from the young lawyer.

Tony waved towards a chair. “Sit down Mr….Mull. What can I do for you today?”
He sat, but wasn’t sure what he should do with his hat. He eventually placed it on the other chair next to him. He shifted nervously. “Please call me Tom, Mr. Curtis. I’ll get right to the point.” He cleared his throat. “I’m dying of cancer and I have about three months to live. It’s in-operable” He didn’t even bat an eye. It was like he was quoting the box score from the Bulls basketball game. He offered a few sheets of paper. “Here are the names of the people that owe me…and my wife. Twenty four thousand dollars to be exact. They borrowed it ten years ago and haven’t bothered to pay it back. Their signature is on the other sheet there.” He shrugged. “So much for loaning friends money. I know it isn’t much but I would like to have my…widow get what is rightfully hers.”
Tony sat back. “Why don’t you sue them for it?”
A smirk visited his lips. “She…, Dotty, doesn’t believe in suing friends. Or anybody for that matter. What I want you to do is, when you learn of my passing, you are to file suit against these people without her knowing a thing about it and place the money in her bank account. She’ll think I had some kind of secret life insurance policy or something to explain the deposit. That is all the money she’ll have to live on; what’s in our account.” He pointed. “All the information is on that sheet there. Account numbers; everything.”

Tony glanced over the paper and laid it down. He frowned. “Mr. Mull, I can do as you wish but I wish you’d have come to me sooner. We could have taken these people to court…”
He was shaking his head. “No! I will pay you now for the cost of your services so no money will come out of the twenty four thousand. Is that understood?”
Tony thought about it a moment. “Shouldn’t there be ten years of interest accumulating here? They…”

Again, he was shaking his head. “Twenty four thousand is what it is,” he said flatly.

Tony came forward to lean on his desk. “So…, Mr. Mull. Let me get this straight in my mind. After you pass…away, you want me to sue these people for what they owe you, completely without the knowledge of your wife. Is that correct?”
He nodded.

“And you want me to quietly place the money into her bank account and she won’t know where it came from! Is that correct?”

Again he nodded.

A thought came to Tony at that moment. If this man’s wife doesn’t know anything about a law suit and will have no knowledge of a deposit,…then she would never miss it. It would be the easiest twenty four thousand dollars he’d ever made in his life. This man was handing him twenty four thousand dollars on a silver platter. He looked up and Mr. Mull was looking right at him with unblinking eyes. He was shaking his head and waving his finger.

“You shouldn’t be thinking thoughts like that Mr. Curtis.”

Tony swallowed hard. Surely this man couldn’t be reading his mind. “What thought is that, Mr. Mull? …Tom.”

He smiled slightly. “You know.”

Tony pretended innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Tom leaned forward to stress his point. “Mr, Curtis. If you so much as take one dollar of my wife’s money, I will come back and haunt you.”
Tony burst out laughing in disbelief. He threw himself back in his chair, pointing his finger. “Come back and haunt me!” He couldn’t stop laughing. “That’s a good one. Really!”

Tom reached over to pick up a family portrait from the young lawyer’s desk. He nodded towards it and smiled. “Now, what’s your wife’s name?”

Without thinking, Tony blurted out her name and was instantly sorry he did. “Abby.”

“And your little girl?”

Tony was getting nervous. He pointed. “That’s an old picture. She’s only three there. I need to get a more recent photo.”

Tom carefully returned the picture. “She’s six now. Right? Anna is six?”
Tony’s mind went into a panic mode. Red flags were flying and sirens were sounding. “It seems you done some research, Mr. Mull.”

He shrugged. “No need.” Then he focused with unblinking eyes and Tony felt his was drawn into a hypnotic state. He couldn’t force his eyes away from the squat, little man. “On the day of my passing, Anna will bring home a picture from school. She will have colored a portrait your family. In the background will be a dark man with no face. And when you ask her who he is, she will not know.”

Tony scoffed. “That’s a bunch of crap.”
“And that night, you will have a dream of me and Anna will wake you up. And then I will ask you, ‘what were you dreaming about.’ ”

Taking his hat, Tom stood to leave. “I will go now, Mr. Curtis. Think about what I said.” He pulled the door closed and Tony never saw him again.

But he was very frightened. Very frightened indeed.

That’s all Tony could think about from that day forward. It seemed every word; each prediction was haunting every waking moment. He couldn’t concentrate on his work. He often found himself waking up in a cold sweat. How could this man be capable of doing such a thing. This is impossible. He tried to laugh it off but couldn’t shake it from his mind. It possessed his every thought. Those eyes! Those unblinking eyes. They visited his every dream.

One day, Abby asked him what was the matter with him and Tony started whimpering; tears running down his face. She was shocked and rushed to comfort him. He grabbed her in a firm hug and cried openly. They clung to each other a long time. Tony found much comfort in her arms. She was the strong one and would understand his dilemma. He released her and cleared his throat.

“This man came in the office about two months ago.”

“Yes?” she said. She looked worried.

“He’s dying of cancer.”
She moaned. “Oh, that’s so sad.”

He held up his hand. “Don’t…feel sorry for him yet.” He swallowed, trying to control his emotions. “I think he may be…the devil.”
Abby couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing. It irritated Tony.

“Yeah! Make light of it. Just you wait ’til you hear the whole story.”

She folded her arms and waited, smiling; nodding her head.

“He wants me to perform a service after he…passes on.”
Abby cleared her throat. “Are you sure you should be telling me this? What about client-attorney relationship?” She blinked. “Ten years and you…never say one word about your work,” she scolded. “And now…”
“This is different.”

“How?” she asked.

“Because this involves…family.”

She tossed her head back. “Family? Our family?”
“Anna!”

That got her attention. “What about Anna?”
Tony realized he was stepping on very thin ice right then. He had to proceed with great caution. “I hate myself for getting in this mess. I can’t sleep nights. My work is falling off.”

“What about Anna?” she asked, sternly.

He studied her a moment. There was genuine concern on her face.

“He wants me to sue for money owed without the knowledge of his wife and then place the proceeds into her bank account; again without her knowledge.”
Her eyebrows raised. “So! Sounds like a standard request; a dying man trying to look out for his widow.”

Tony nodded. “Yes.” He squirmed a little. “Sue without knowledge. Deposit without knowledge!”

“So? What’s the problem?” she asked.

“Here is where it gets weird.” He gestured wildly. Really…weird.”

Her patience was wearing out. She shook her head while tapping her foot.

“You’re not going to like this…but I thought how easy it would be to…just keep the money for myself. For us” He dropped his head in shame. “Nobody would ever know.”

Abby exploded. “Holy mother of God. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

Tony grabbed her arms. “He knew!”

She frowned, pulling away. “He knew…what?”
“He knew what I was thinking. He waved his finger at me and told me not to think that or else.”
Abby was shaking her head. “Or else what?”

“Or else he was going to come back and haunt me. No! Not me. Anna.”
Abby stood in stunned silence a long time. Then her face turned a bright red and she doubled over with laughter. She staggered around and finally sat down, holding her stomach. “Oh! Ow! That hurts.” She couldn’t stop laughing, flopping back on the sofa.

Tony didn’t appreciate her response; none what-so-ever, so he decided to drop the whole matter and hope it would go away and be forgotten. He went into the kitchen to get a beer from the refrigerator. He went out to sit on the patio. It was but two minutes before Abby found him. She was still giggling but maintained her composure. “So? What about…Anna?”

“Nothing!” He turned away.

Abby sat down opposite him. “No. Come on. You said he was going to…what was it?

Haunt Anna?”

Tony looked her straight in the eye. “Nothing. Drop it. Forget about it. You had a good laugh now let’s just drop the matter and be done with it.

She shrugged. “It’s done.” She went to make supper.

 

The office intercom barked to life and it startled him. “Mr. Curtis?”
“Yes Mildred. What is it?”
“I’m suppose to relay to you that Mr. Mull died this morning.”

A surge of fear swept through his body and he suddenly felt doom was descending. Fear and dread filled the remainder of his day and he hid from the world. He was afraid to go home for fear of what he would find. He had to force himself to drive to his country estate. He sat in the car after his arrival, thinking. It wouldn’t go away; the dread; the fear.

He went in and called for Abby. She stepped from the kitchen with a look of concern on her face. Tony pointed and told her to sit down. “I want you to be a witness to this.” She sat. He called up stairs. “Anna, darling. Do you have anything from school you want me to see?”
She yelled down. “I have a picture I drew all by myself. I’ll bring it down.”
Tony turned to Abby. “It’s a picture of us.”
She frowned. “Us?”

“The three of us,” he snapped. “And in the back, there will be a dark man with no face.” Tony almost started crying from utter dread. He shuttered. “Anna won’t know who it is when I ask her.”

“What are you talking about.”

Tony slammed his fist on the table and she jumped. “Listen to me,” he hissed. “Thomas Mull is the man that told me all this was going to happen.”
“The…the dying man?” she asked quietly.

He nodded. Just then, Anna came running into the dinning room, waving her picture.

“Give it to me,” Tony ordered.

Anna’s countenance fell and she handed him the paper. “I wanted to show you.”

Tony placed the picture face down in front of Abby. He prayed inwardly that what he most feared would not be there and he could have a real good laugh at himself. He turned it over. There were the three stick people: Mommy, Daddy and Anna. And there in the back was a dark man who had no face. Abby turned white. “Anna,” she asked softly, pointing to the man. “Who is this?”
Anna shrugged. “I don’t know.”

Tony lost it. He exploded in anger. “Then why did you put it in your picture,” he yelled.

Anna started crying.

He knelt down, hugging her. “Anna. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you. I’m sorry.”

“Did I do something wrong?”
Tony thought a moment and looked at Abby when he said; “No. I did.”

Anna’s eyes lit up and she put her hands on his face as she always does when she wants his full attention. “That’s okay daddy. I’ve decided to name him Tom.”

Tony frowned. “Who?”

Anna pointed. “The dark man.

Tony and Abby looked at each other with utter dread; their faces a ghostly white.

 

Tony was afraid to go to sleep. He finished all the coffee and watched the late news, trying to stay awake. At two in the morning, Abby came down.

“Honey, it’s two o’clock. You should come to bed.”

“I can’t.”
She hugged him. “Why not?”

“Because I’m suppose to dream of him and I don’t want to. I just want this to go away.”
“But you can’t stay awake forever.”
She grabbed her arms. Abby? Now do you believe me?”
She shook her head and started crying. He held her tenderly.

“One more thing,” he said.

Abby whimpered. “Please, no more.”

“Anna will come wake me up and…Tom will ask me what I dreamt about.’
Abby cried uncontrollably.

 

He was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. It was pitch black in there; his dream. There was no sound. Tony knew something was near by; lurking in the shadows. He could feel an evil presence as he looked about. Then it started raining and the lightening danced and the thunder rolled. He knew he should run but his legs wouldn’t move. He was knee deep in mud and the shadow came towards him. In a sliver of light, he saw the black, unblinking eyes of Thomas Mull. He felt a cold hand on his face. When he opened his eyes, a white, ghostly form was standing by his bed and he screamed out in terror, flinging his arms in defense; waking everybody.

Anna cried out. “Daddy, you were moaning in your sleep. You scared me.”

Abby turned on the light and put her hand on his chest. “Did you dream?”

“Yes…I did,” he said. “He was there.” His voice quivered.

Anna sat on the bed and put her hands on his face and looked at him with dark eyes. “What did you dream about?” she asked in a strange voice.

Tony grabbed her and he started crying. Anna hugged him hard. “No!” he cried out. “God no. Don’t harm her. This was my doing. In Jesus name, let all evil pass from this child.”

Just then, Anna let loose and fell limp in his arms. Her face was aspen and her eyes rolled up in her head. She wasn’t breathing. Tony shook her gently. Abby started screaming for him to do something. He shook her again, harder, calling her name. “Anna. It’s me. Daddy wants you to come home. Anna!” He yelled.

Anna’s eyes popped wide open and she sat up, smiling brightly. She put her hands on his face again. “Daddy, what’s the matter?”

He patted her hands. “You…you fainted away there a moment and it scared us.”

She looked out the top of her eyes, smiling. “No I didn’t, Daddy. You silly Dad.”

 

Tony went to visit the fresh grave of Thomas Mull. He brought flowers. Looking around so as not to be embarrassed, he got down on one knee.

“Tom? It’s me. I just want you to know that I am doing exactly what you intended. The case is on the docket and should be settled in about two days. By the way, I’m going to ask the judge to charge them interest on the debt owed. I hope that’s okay. Can I trust that..we won’t be seeing anymore of you?” He listened and all he heard were the birds singing. He shrugged. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
He went home with a happy heart.

 

The end.

 

If you liked this story and you think the poor, old author deserves compensation in his retirement for this creation, then please feel free to send $1.00 to Clem Mason, c/o Backwater Publishing. 66021-0213

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Questions and comments are welcome. Thank you for your honesty and integrity.