And She Signed Her Name

Leslie drove into the drive of her parent’s summer home on Lake Superior. Ten miles between two small towns and a great view of the lake, it had been her favorite place to visit. The family did this weekend every September. She could see the cars of her three kids and her parents’ car had been parked in the garage. Sitting in a semi-circle facing out were her parents, George and Bonnie Sellers. Her three kids who all attended college in two different states. George the oldest, and Lillie and Linus her twins. Her kids were the joy and wonder of her life. All the people that mattered most to her sitting in lawn chairs drinking beer. Waiting just for her.

            “Troy, wake up. We’re here.” She nudged her husband of twenty-eight years. He slept four of the five hours it took to drive from the home they shared in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

He grumbled and came back to reality.

The first night Leslie helped her mom get all the salads on the table while the others all contributed their opinions how best to grill the burgers. Over dinner the family laughed as they told stories from their lively past.

“I always knew when you brought some guy over for the first time he wouldn’t work out.” He looked over to Troy.

Leslie always hated that. After what seemed like a nice time when she brought a date home, it came crashing down when her dad had her alone for the first time after the dinner.

“Look, you might as well end this now.” He would say.

“What? Why?”

“I’m telling you it isn’t going to last. You should just break up with him now.”

Which she never did. At least not right away.

When Troy came over to meet the family for the first time nearly thirty years before, her dad said nothing. In fact, they had met at the families favorite Italian restaurant and he ordered a second bottle of wine. Something he hardly did even with family.

Leslie believed her father must have really liked Troy, because he had never said otherwise.

Saturday morning, the family went on a nice hike along the top to the cliff that ran parallel to the beach one-hundred feet below. They stopped for a picnic lunch before taking the path down to the shore.

“What ever happened to old what’s his name? That guy you dated back in your freshman year at state?” George had asked his daughter as they sat together on a rock. They each were eating a bologna sandwich.

“You mean Mark?”

“Yeah, Mark.”

“Oh, wow, dad. I don’t know. Why?”

“Oh, nothing just wondering. I guess he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.”

Leslie thought it had been an odd thing to say. She felt a twinge of anger. She had really loved Mark. She actually broke it off with him just because her dad had said it wouldn’t last. He had been her first real love. Last she heard, he had moved to the other side of the country and had done well for himself.

After lunch the family walked back to the house on the beach. The weather had been perfect for a Saturday hike in late September. Not too hot and not too cold.

Back at the house, Leslie excused herself and took a book out on the patio. She sat in the sun and pretended to read. She actually had been satisfied to just listen to the waves as they gave a gentle nudge to the shoreline. Her dad came out a short while later and handed her a beer.

“Everything going good for you, kiddo?” He asked.

“Yeah, sure dad. Why?”

“Oh, I don’t know. You just haven’t seemed like yourself this weekend. I dare say the last few months.”

“Well, dad, I am happy to report everything is just fine.” She had lied. “You have nothing to worry about.

Things weren’t fine. She had recently found out her husband had been cheating on her with a woman who worked with him in the office. They were both accountants at a large tax firm. She had recently left her husband and needed to work a few extra hours. Troy offered to help her out on a big audit their team had been working on. Leslie brought him a late lunch one Saturday afternoon. Troy’s car had been missing from the parking lot. Leslie had tried calling him but it went straight to voice. She had waited a few minutes when his car pulled in. He must not have seen her parked there or maybe it had been because the other woman had been hanging all over him. When they both got out of the car, he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a big kiss. He squeezed her ass and bit into her neck with the same love peck he would have given her back in their more romantic years. It had been then he saw his wife watching him from the front seat of her car.

Together they went to marriage counseling. Both had felt their marriage should be saved.

The women took charge of dinner that night. A baked lasagna with tossed salad and garlic toast. They were all in the kitchen drinking wine and doing what the family did best. Laugh.

Ten minutes before they sat down to eat, without saying a word, George got up and went into the den. He sat down in his beloved chair and died. It would take twenty minutes until the first scream could be heard. The coroner’s report said massive heart attack.

Two Weeks Later….

At the reading of her father’s will, the entire family again sat together. Only this time they were not laughing and the table they sat around had been her father’s lawyer.

Her father had made a video of his final request for his family. The more technical details the lawyer had in a small pile of paperwork. When it had been Leslie’s turn to hear her father speak to her the tears began to roll down her cheeks. She missed her dad.

“Leslie, my beautiful Leslie. My only daughter. I am so sorry I am not there to comfort you. God, do I love you sweetie.”

He talked about a few of his favorite memories and everyone chuckled when he told the story of the first time he took her out for a driving lesson and she went around the sharp curve in the road in the wrong lane.

“Leslie, I am leaving you two-hundred and fifty-thousand dollars.”

Leslie blew her nose as her dad continued. “However, if you divorce Troy, I will triple that sum.”

Everyone in the room, except the lawyer, gasped. Troy choked on his water he had just swallowed.

“I’m sorry, could you rewind what my dad just said?” Leslie asked. Her mother nodded in agreement.

Money wasn’t the issue; George had plenty of that. It had been his requirement that shook everyone to their core.

“And when I say divorce, I mean within the next eighteen months, start to finish. If you sign the promise of intent papers I had drawn up, I will have the funds in full transferred into an account with your name on it. After the divorce is final, the money is all yours, sweetie. If you choose to stay with Troy…”

“Hey, thanks you old bastard!” Troy interrupted.

“Troy!” Everyone shouted.

The lawyer paused the video while everyone collected themselves. He pressed play when the dust had settled.

“I have drawn up papers for that too. Just know, I will love you no matter what choice you make.”

Then her father turned and looked right into the camera. His conduct became very serious when he spoke.

“Leslie,” Her father said, “You might as well leave him. I can tell you right now, it’s not going to work out.”

After a few seconds the screen went to black and her dad was gone.

Leslie asked the lawyer to rewind it three times so she could let it soak in. On the last request he gave her a hard stare. The lawyer had been an older man than her father. He had been grossly overweight and hadn’t seen the better side of a barber’s chair in weeks, His slight beard had been three days overdue for a clean-up. When Leslie had said she had seen enough the lawyer pulled out two folders and opened each one up in front of her.

“These papers here are if you decide to stay with Troy.” At that Troy could be heard whispering his thoughts. The lawyer ignored him.

“These papers are the promise of intent your father mentioned.”

He pulled out a pen from his breast pocket. With an overexaggerated click he handed Leslie the pen.

Leslie’s eyes looked up. She had realized she needed to breathe. She took a large inhale as she held out her hand and took the pen. She paused there with her hand suspended in the air. She could feel the eyes of everyone in the room upon her.

She exhaled with a sigh as her hand went down towards the two piles of papers and she signed her name.