Inheritance
A mother had passed away and been laid to rest. All that remained was the reading of the will.
The only surviving relative was a son who had been asked to come to the office of the family lawyer on the morning following the funeral. The young man had arrived at the indicated time and was now waiting in the reception area for the lawyer to make anappearance.
A few moments, the lawyer rushed into the room, apologized for being late, and asked the waiting man to please accompany him to an inner office. The secretary watched the two men disappear behind a door marked ‘Private’.
The lawyer directed his guest to a chair on the near side of a table, and, then, headed for a chair across from the young man. Before sitting down, the lawyer took off his raincoat and hat, placed them in the chair next to him, opened his attache case, took out a manilla folder, shuffled a few papers, looked briefly at the young man across from him, and, then, back at the papers, cleared his throat, and, finally, took a seat.
He took some papers from the folder and passed them to his guest, saying: "That is a copy of your mother’s will. It’s pretty straight-forward, but I would draw your attention to two facets of the document.
“First, your mother left you the property, house, and contents which are located along the town line at the north end of our community -- the precise address is noted in your copy. Secondly, there is a proviso or stipulation concerning her bequeathing of the foregoing items – namely, on a daily basis throughout the non-wintermonths, you must place a special grass -- the name of the grass is specified in the text of the will -- in all of the rooms of the lower floor of the house, and if you are not prepared to comply with this condition, then, the property, house, and its contents are to revert to the town to be used for whatever purposes the town may deem fit, including the sale thereof.
“If you agree to accept the inheritance, then, there is an agreement which you need to sign stating you have been informed about the will’s contents and that you accept the conditions stated therein. If you would like a few days to think this matter over, then we could meet again on Thursday morning, but no later than Friday afternoon at the close of business,” and as the lawyer completed his short presentation, he leaned back in his chair, looking at the boy, awaiting some sort of response.
The young man’s eyes skipped down through the will. Raising his head, his eyes drifted to the left of the lawyer toward a large window which looked out onto the river that ran through the town.
He thought back to his youth. How he hated that chore of going out into the woods every day early in the morning, locating thespecial grass his mother had shown him how to find, cutting it, bundling it, bringing it back to the house, and distributing it throughout the lower floors of the house in which he had grown up– the one which, now, had been bequeathed to him -- well, possibly.
The young man’s thoughts returned to the office, and he asked: “How is my compliance supposed to be monitored?”
The lawyer replied: “Apparently, you are on the honor system, although you might want to note there is a rider, of sorts, following the statement of conditions in the will which indicates that should non-compliance become evident and provable, then, forfeiture to the town becomes automatic.”
The young man’s gaze once more went to the river, as his thoughts went inward. His mother never really told him why he had to do that daily chore when he was growing up. It seemed to be one of those things which parents think will make a man of a boy and teach a boy the value of responsibility, commitment, and hard work.
Or, maybe, to be fair to her, she had tried to explain to him why the chore was important but, being an immature kid, he never properly listened to what she was saying. In general, however, the task seemed pointless then, and it seemed even more pointless now.
On the other hand, he loved his mother, and despite the many arguments which had taken place over the years concerning the chore, the young man always had completed the job. Plus, at the present time, he was – as they say -- between jobs and was going to have difficulty covering the rent on his apartment for the coming month ... just a week away. Another question occurred to the youngman: “What if I want to sell the property,” he inquired.
The lawyer referred the young man to the appropriate section of the will and, then, read aloud the relevant paragraph. Concluding, he said: “So, you see, the language is quite clear – you cannot sell the property, the house, or its contents.”
The young man smiled to himself. This was vintage Mom, and while there was a certain amount of annoyance which had crept in about the way things had been set up by his mother, the son decided to accept the inheritance, along with its condition, and see how things went.
He would try to comply with his mother’s wishes. His mother was doing the son a favor, but, as usual, there was a catch to it ... or, so, it always seemed.
The first couple of months went fairly uneventfully. Eventually, he got back into the routine of his youth, but, initially, the whole thing was tiring and tiresome.
However, he did go through a short period of not even minding going outand finding the special grass. In fact, for a time, he sort of came to enjoy his walks in the forest, and didn’t know whether the walks in the forest were the means for collecting the grass, or collecting the grass became the means for taking a walk through the forest – either way, the chore and the walk brought him a certain amount of peaceand quiet, low-key happiness.
There came a time, however, when he began to feel a growing resistance to, and resentment of, the condition for his inheritance. First, this resistance began by delaying, for as long as he could manage to keep his conscience off his back, going out into the forest, and, then, a time came when he started to bring back less and less of the special grass, and, then, a time came when he would skip a dayhere and there, and, finally, he stopped doing the required task altogether.
The special grass had a peculiar odor to it – not exactly offensive, but not overly pleasant – and because the young man had gotten use to the smell, he didn’t notice any difference in things until, after acouple of days, the grass began to decay and produce something of a stench. He busied himself with cleaning up the decaying grass and removed it from the house altogether.
About a week later, the young man had fallen asleep on the living-room couch in the late afternoon. He awoke to a strange sensation –something was crawling up his leg.
Glancing down, he saw a black snake working its way toward his mid-section. Alarmed and panicked, he tried to brush the snake away with his hand, and the snake bit him.
Immediately, he began to feel the effects of the venom. He tried to rise and was bitten again.
He managed to right himself and watched dimly as the snake slithered off in the direction of the kitchen. He started to get up, felt faint and weak, reached for a chair in order to maintain his balance, missed the chair and toppled over onto the floor.
His breathing became rapid and shallow. His skin felt feverish and pasty at the same time. The places where he had been bitten throbbed with pain, as if they were on fire.
Lying there, vaguely remembered words of his mother concerning snakes and the special grass sprinted through his consciousness, disappearing almost as quickly as the memory of his mother speaking to him had appeared. His eyes stared blankly at the ceiling ... for he had died.
A short time later, the property, house and its contents reverted to the town council for its considered disposition. Sometimes, people are granted an inheritance which they do not understand or they do not honor, and, as a result, the inheritance is taken from them, one way or another, due to non-compliance.
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