An Inheritance

Chapter 13

At first Lauren thought she'd start in on some more letters, but when she looked at the large pile of things that had to be shredded, she knew she had to get rid of that first.  

It took almost two hours to shred all of the unnecessary papers that her grandmother had amassed.  Part of the time was spent looking over each piece to make sure it really wasn’t important.  When the shredder bin got full, she then had to empty it into plastic bags and hoped Sam would like to help her with all of these too.  As she was finishing up, the Range Rover popped into her mind and Lauren realized she had better call Jerry Washburn.

Walking into the living room, Lauren found the paper she had written the voice mail information on and called the number.  Jerry was very pleasant and offered his condolences on her grandmother’s death.  He then said he was busy for the rest of the day, but he’d be able to bring it by around 12:30 in the afternoon the next day.

Lauren thanked him and offered to drive him back to his shop, but he declined saying he’d drop it off before he headed to lunch with one of his friends. 

Lauren went back into the bedroom and headed straight toward the paisley dressers.  She had seen that the drawers right underneath the letters from Armand held those written by her Aunt Adelaide so she pulled open the top drawer of the second dresser.  She just knew that these would be letters from her mother, and she was right.  Lauren then pulled the top drawer out of the third and last dresser and saw that these too, were also from her mother.

She stood there and debated on which letters to look through next, but Lauren finally decided she’d read through her Aunt’s first; she would want to spend more time with the ones written by her mother.

Lauren pulled out the entire drawer and placed it on the cot sitting cross legged next to it.  Abigail jumped up and curled herself against her thigh companionably.  The first letter was written in a teen’s hand, after all, she had eloped before she had gotten out of high school.  Evidently it was about three weeks after Adelaide had left for Atlanta.  She apologized for her leaving without letting her mother know, but knew she would not have approved of Richard.  At least would not have wanted them to run off to be married so soon after meeting.

“… but he is so handsome, so sweet and so smart ma mere.  Richard is everything I had ever wanted.  The day before I left I could tell you were starting to feel something was happening and I couldn’t wait for you to completely understand it all.  I’m sorry I left so abruptly and that the phone call was so short, but I had made up my mind and didn’t want you to try to persuade me to return.”

Most of the other letters after this were upbeat and continued to extol the virtues of her sailor husband and the big city he had come from.  His family was wealthy and Richard would join the family’s business when he was through with his military obligation.  Some letters were sad, especially when her husband was sent out for his final six month tour.  From the postmarks, it appeared Adelaide wrote at least every other week and from what was in the letters, her mother wrote back just as often.

Lauren continued to read and realized she liked this woman, her aunt.  From teen to young woman and from woman to ‘mature’ woman, she wrote about her life experiences, some good, some bad.  The births of her daughters were clearly a joy and the mention of the pictures indicated she had sent many in her letters.  Lauren looked around at some of the storage boxes still left untouched and knew she’d probably find picture albums in some.

It puzzled Lauren that there were only a few letters that mentioned Adelaide coming back home for a visit, and those appeared to have been brief and basically to introduce the new grandchildren.  But after one such visit, the next letter from Adelaide seemed terse and angry.    

“… mother I know you mean well, but I cannot have you interfering with my daughters.  I will not have them subjected to what I was all of those years back in Slidell.  These are beautiful, normal young girls and I cannot have you disturb them with your stories and accounts of our family;  they, after all, are NOT Almas.”

It seemed right after this that the letters came spaced out further; maybe every couple of months.  They were not as long or gossipy, but more directly to the point.  Then one letter gave Lauren pause … it was a letter about her own mother’s visit.         

… she really is such a sweet girl and is so much like you.  She knows this and that is her greatest fear.  Even here in Atlanta she can feel the pull of your will.  She left yesterday to go further north, possibly to New York.  She doesn’t want the adventures I needed, but just  wants a normal life.  Ma mere, please allow her to find her own way, not everyone is meant  to live the life you have …”

Lauren’s mother had told her about the visit to Aunt Adelaide on her way to New Jersey.  She never talked much about Slidell except that ‘Nothing good ever comes from the bayou’.  She was so adamant in keeping Lauren away.  It was evident that her mother did not want to live out in the bayou, and probably just found rural living not much fun for a young girl.

Lauren flipped through the remaining letters, not much in them … there were a few from Adelaide’s daughters, with gossip about their newest boyfriends.  She wondered if maybe her cousins would want this correspondence and made a mental note to call Millicent.

The last one was about a year before Adelaide died.  The content was brief and seemed to brush off some concerns her grandmother must have had about Adelaide’s health.  Although not unfriendly, it was in the line of ‘mind your own business’. 

Lauren pulled back her shoulders, stretched her neck and untangled her legs.  She had been at this for a number of hours and sitting this way on the bed was not exactly easy.  Abby had long ago abandoned her spot near Lauren’s thigh and had gone into the living room.  Lauren wondered why Abigail hadn’t been back to complain that she wanted her dinner.

Getting up and walking towards the kitchen, Lauren didn’t see Abby anywhere.  As she crossed into the kitchen she saw why Abby hadn’t come back to whine, her treat box was on the counter where Lauren had forgotten it and it was on its side with treats spread out. 

“You are so in trouble young lady!”  She shouted to an empty room.  “No treats tonight or tomorrow and only dry food for dinner.  And don’t come poking around looking for hand outs from my dinner either!”  Lauren knew she’d never find Abby.  That cat could hide for an entire day when she had been bad.  When she finally would reveal herself, Lauren would just be happy to see her and always forgave her; how could she resist those eyes?

For dinner, Lauren cooked some chicken and cut it up over the remaining salad she had made for lunch.  Abby didn’t appear.

After cleaning up, Lauren took the plant books and ledgers to her bedroom and got ready for bed.  She thoroughly enjoyed reading about the various plants and herbs her grandmother had planted in the both the green house and garden.  It seemed she grew everything she would need to sustain herself, except for meats and staples like sugar or flour. 

After a few hours, Lauren felt her eyes start to tire so she turned out the lights and snuggled into the bed.  A bounce of the bed announced Abby’s return.  She crept over to Lauren and sat near her arm, purring loudly.  Lauren smiled, reached over and gently scratched her ear.  “All is forgiven.  It was partly my fault, I should have remembered to store those treats away.”

Satisfied that she was now back in her friend’s good graces, Abby walked over to the adjoining pillow, curled up, yawned and closed her eyes.