Ascher Legacy

Five - Uncle Theo's Will

To Miss Lenneth Anarci,

We regret to inform you of a death in your extended family: Theodore Latten. Mr. Latten has, according to his will, left a sizable piece of property to yourself and your sister, Miss. Georgia Drake. This property is to be divided at your discretion between yourself and your sibling; however, there are instructions in the will regarding you coming to visit the land prior to its disposal. Please contact us at your earliest convenience for the address and assistance with travel arrangements.

Cooper, Anderson, and Co. 

Lenneth stared at the spidery handwriting on the white linen paper. Perhaps she should have been surprised they didn't use a typewriter, but what she knew about where Uncle Theodore Latten lived made it unlikely they cared.  Eccentric town for an eccentric man. Didn't matter. He was dead.

The death was no surprise. Uncle Latten was old. That he had no children, also not strange. The confirmed bachelor had made it clear at the few family functions he attended there would be no Mrs. Latten. Lenneth remembered him saying that once with the ghost of a smile on his face. Followed by, "Women of this day and age have no idea what a man like me would need." At fifteen, she hadn't asked what that meant. Now at twenty-five, she knew she didn't care. His memory left behind a warm feeling. He'd never been mean or harsh. Secretive sometimes, but not overly so. He told stories her parents never approved of. 

The letter mentioned her twin sister, Georgia. Three months past, they stopped speaking. Eric, Georgia's fiance, probably thought that was wonderful. Lenneth felt it as a curious absence like a pulled tooth where one couldn't stop sticking their tongue in the empty socket. To her knowledge, Georgia wasn't mad at her, probably. They just weren't speaking. If she went out to see Uncle Theo's house though, maybe they would get a chance to talk. 

Without Eric.

Kicking her feet up on the coffee table, which groaned and shifted under the weight, she sat back and lit a cigarette. She could contact the lawyer in the morning. Until then, she would mull over what she remembered about the old man and his house out off of the High Run. 

A long time ago...

Pandora walked with one hand on her growling belly. Sun up to sun down she walked without seeing anything but waist high grass and dots of trees. Her arrival the day before had come in with a thunderstorm leaving her soaked to the bone as the weather raged overhead. Now she walked, unsure of where she was going, but looking for something more precious than company: water. 

Go to the water, little one. Her father had taught her survival depended on the ability to find water. Always find the water. Man tended to stay close to the water. 

She had explored the idea of eating the grass, but it was just grass, not grain. High enough it tickled her elbows and parted around her in a wave. 

Above, dusk approached. Twilight offering stars. That first night, they had been obscured by clouds. Now she searched those first lights to find something familiar. Nothing. Constellations in shapes which meant nothing. 

Suddenly she wanted the warmth of her siblings, of her father, of her mother, anyone, anything she could put a name to. Huddling down in that thick grass, she shivered to her bones. Night would come soon enough, but would it find her alive. Her heart ached for home. She cleared herself a hollow in the grass and tucked into a ball drawing her dirty nightclothes around her as best she could. It would do little against the chill of the night.