Focus

Chapter 22: The Will

"Louis, I need you to come over." I clutched Uncle's will to my chest as if it were the only thing keeping me planted on Earth. It was delivered this morning by hand. By hand. The envelope even had special instruction to mail it to me. Me of all people.

"What for?"

"I just do."

A short pause later, Louis agreed, "Okay,"

"Thank you." I whispered as I hung up the phone.

The man from the office where they make wills and whatnot came by just a few seconds before I called Louis. He was wearing a fancy gray suit and a red tie. He was balding and looked... sad. I guess if you delivered people's wills to their grieving families for a living you would have a good reason to be sad. Before the man left, he said, "Sorry for your loss," and handed me the yellow envelope and a smaller white envelope.

I still hadn't opened either of them. I just couldn't do it by myself.

Staying with Louis had helped my brain ease on the fact that Uncle Daryl was gone... but it still wasn't enough.

Louis showed up in about fifteen minutes. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and some black skinny jeans along with a gray beanie.

"I'm here." he announced quietly as I answered the door. He didn't have enough time to even take two steps in the doorway when I crashed myself into him, sobbing, in a tight embrace.

"Louis," I cried. "He's gone,"

He rubbed the back of my head and wrapped a long arm around my mid back. "I know he is,"

"He isn't coming back, Louis." I wailed.

"I know... I know he isn't."

He picked me up and carried me to the sofa where he sat down and put me in his lap gently, like I was an expensive relic that could shatter at any moment. I cried into his shirt and crumbled the blue fabric between my fingers like it could bring Uncle back.

It couldn't.

Louis dipped his head down to mine and lightly placed a kiss to my forehead and the top of my head. He rested his forehead against mine so I had to look into his cerulean eyes.

"Listen." he demanded. "It's going to be okay." he let me sniffle and wipe away tears that were streaming down my cheeks. "It's all going to be okay."

I nodded at his words, trying to convince myself that these words were true.

We had never touched foreheads like this before, that I could remember, but it felt.... familiar. I glanced at his eyes, half expecting them to be... gray for some reason.

I mentally shook the feeling away and brought my focus back to the situation at hand.

I pointed slowly at the envelopes that I had thrown down on the coffee table. Louis nodded.

"Are you going to open them?" he whispered.

I shook my head.

"Do you want me to?" he asked gently.

I nodded.

He took the white envelope in his hands first and smoothly ripped it open at the top. A large sheet of white printer paper with golden accents was pulled out of it. Louis tried to hand it to me but I shook my head. "You need to know what it says, Andy." he pleaded. I shook my head again and cried into his shoulder. "Alright, alright, I'll read it to you."

I sniffled once more before he began.

"Dear Andrea Mays,

"If you're reading this, this means that I've passed on. This means that the cancer cells have finally caught up to me. You might be grieving. You might be depressed. You might be angry with me. Andrea, I want you to know that I love you. I always will. I always have.

"To start off, I have a few things I would like you to know. First off, life is a terrible, terrible place. It will pull you down and it will keep you there unless you fight back.

"Second, the most important days of your life is the day you were born and the day you find out why.

"Third, love is like the wind. You can't see it, but you can feel it.

"You know that I'm no poet, and that's why I stole those quotes from other people, but hey, I'm dead so what can they do about it?

"On a more serious note, I want you to move on. I don't want you to dwindle on my absence. I want you to move on in this terrible world and I want you to find your purpose and I want you to find true love. I want you to find true love, if it's real or not. Make it a reality.

"In the other envelope that a man handed you is my will. I had him deliver it to you because I trust you to make sure all is sorted away to the correct people. If my belongings try to tear the family apart (which I doubt) I want you to throw it all away. All of it. I don't want any one's lives to be ruined and destroyed over trinkets and objects with no true value.

"With this, I would like to bid you goodbye.

"With all the love this old body could hold,

"I love you Andrea Mays. I really, really do.

"Love, your Uncle Daryl"

Louis looked up from the letter only to see me covered in my own tears. I looked down at my shirt. It looked like I had just walked out in a strong downpour.

"Are you ready for the will, Andy?" he asked cautiously.

I gripped his shirt tighter and sniffled. Louis and I made eye contact for a few seconds.

I nodded.

~

Turns out that my mom got a few of his belongings and my brother and sister got a few things as well. I received everything else, like he had promised.

I looked up from the will with wet eyes and just stared at the wall.

It was my wall suddenly; not Uncle's.

Just as I set the sheet down, Louis held out his hand, stopping me.

"What's that say?" he asked, pointing at a small squiggle at the very bottom.

I picked the sheet back up and squinted at the small print.

"And finally, I would like to leave Louis Tomlinson with my neice, Andrea Mays."

"Son of a bitch," I added with a smile.