1.1 } A Death In The Family

I never really knew anybody who died before.

I mean, not really.

Not until today.

I had never known my father. I wasn't sure if he was dead or alive, none of my family did.

My mother raised me mostly by herself, and I knew none of my grandparents.

My mother was an only child, so the only other relative I ever knew was my Uncle Castillo.

He was my father's brother, and I only saw him twice a year. For as long as I could remember, he would come and visit on the first day and last days of the year, no matter what. He was a strange man, with a face and demeanor that probably would have frightened most people. But to me, he was my uncle, and he was kind to me and I loved him.

It wasn't until I grew older that I noticed my mother's apprehension to his presence. When I asked her why she seemed to dislike him as much as she did, she couldn't really give me an answer. All she said was, "It's not that I dislike him, Amalia. I just don't approve of his way of life."

When I pressed her further, she ended the conversation and never spoke of it again. So I wondered, was Uncle Castillo gay? Did he worship Satan? Did he have eighteen wives? Truth be told, I didn't know that much about his personal life. When he visited, we talked about me, and he told me stories about his travels around the world which always interested me. 

When I turned 18, his visits stopped. I wondered if because I was an adult, he stopped caring about me. But I started to receive post cards, and learned that Uncle Castillo had taken a wife and was taking the time to show her the world. He promised to bring her to meet me, and maybe take me on a trip or two now that my mother couldn't tell me not to go. 

Sadly, that never happened. 

After the sixth post card (Greetings From Shang Sim La!,) they stopped completely. I was in the middle of the packing for university when my mom came to my bedroom with the phone in her hand.

Uncle Castillo and his new wife, Ivanka, had died in an accident while abroad. I didn't know what kind of accident, and neither did mom. At the time, I didn't really care. I was just sad. Uncle Castillo was the closest thing I'd had to a father, and even though he was strange and only visited twice a year, I had loved him and I knew he had loved me.

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind. 

I was sitting in the waiting room in a stuffy lawyer's office in the town of Midnight Hollow. It was a few hours away from my hometown of Riverview, but I had made the drive because I felt obligated to attend the reading of Uncle Castillo's will. 

I was wishing they had some updated reading material though. Their magazines were so old, I ended up thumbing through a legal text book to pass the time. I wasn't sure why it was taking so long. Aside from the ancient secretary, I was the only one in the waiting area.

After about an hour of learning more about the Goth v. Landgraab case of 1946 than I ever really wanted to, I was called back to the office of one Mr. Kristofer Crawls, Esq.

I greeted him, but he didn't say much. He was an older man who seemed like he just wanted to get his job done and get me out of his office, which smelled like pipe tobacco and maybe whiskey. Basically, this guy was having his own private party and I was apparently crashing it.

He took the seat across from me before opening up a file folder on his desk.

"Um, shouldn't we wait for everyone else?" I ventured to ask. I expected distant cousins I never knew, or some of Castillo's friends or co-workers from whatever job he had worked all these years.

"You're the only one I'm expecting, Ms. Quinn," Mr. Crawls replied. "Which makes this much easier for the both of us."

I stared at him. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You're the sole beneficiary for Mr. Castillo Armandi's estate. His money, properties, and entire worth are now yours."

"I'm sorry...what?"

Mr. Crawls sighed as he laced his fingers together and leaned forward. "Let me make this very simple for you, Ms. Quinn - you just became a very rich young woman."

I nearly fainted.