“No. I’m sorry, there was a clause in the will. Mr. Smyth
stated that you had to come in person to our office to get the
cheque. He was adamant about that.”
“Umm….” The last thing Dallas ever saw herself doing
was going back to Topeka.
Dallas loved to travel. Just not to Kansas. She’d grown up
there. When she left with her parents ten years ago, she was
certain she’d never set foot in that state again. They lived in
Tampa Bay now. Tampa was her home. She didn’t spend a lot
of time thinking about her roots. She actually spent a
significant amount of effort not thinking about them.
“I- wow,” Dallas stammered. “I- I don’t know if I can get
there. How much is it?” Maybe if it wasn’t a lot of money, she
wouldn’t go. She could just tell the lawyer to donate it to
charity.
“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” the lawyer informed her.
He had that no-nonsense type of voice that she thought would
actually make for good audio book narration.
“Twenty-five thousand?” she gasped. “Why? Why would
he leave that to me? That’s crazy!”
“He wanted you to have it. He came here two years ago to
have us help him with his will and I remember quite clearly
that he said that he considered you a member of his family and
he hadn’t forgotten about you just because you moved. He
wanted to make sure you were okay, and since he didn’t feel
that he could contact you, he wanted to leave you a sum of
money to help you along if you should need it.”
“I…” Dallas was about to say that she didn’t need it. That
she was doing fine. That she’d made a life for herself and she
didn’t have a use for the cash. “Can I get you to donate it?”