The Inheritance

The Inheritance

Julian McKenney

My ears rang, I couldn’t hear the doctor as his palm gripped my shoulder, almost pulling me back into reality. “I’m sorry Xander, he’s gone.”

No one really knows what to say to you at a funeral, even if they think they do, it’s never what you want to hear. If I had it my way, I would’ve been passing out note cards saying, “You’ve had an adequate experience with Xander Gray.”

Nothing could have made the experience more dramatic as a slow rainfall began to ricochet off of the solid willow which encompassed my father. My younger brother Davin holds our father’s rosary in his hands. Tortoise and maroon beads circled around his clenched fists. He then stormed off, disregarding the dry seat of my half rusted, past inspection car.

“Davin!” I shouted, but his headphones were already in. Walking always seemed to be his remedy, considering we had found him walking five miles out of town the day our mother died years ago.

I started after him, until a man with a near clean shaven head and stubble on his face stopped me with a stumble. “Let him go X, better I talk to you myself.”

Only my father had called me X, “Who are you?”

He took a deep swig off a brown leather flask, “Old friend of your pops. Hadn’t talked to him in a long time but he came around near the end there. Anyway, I promised him I’d give you this.” He extended his arm towards me, holding a small black book. “This thing is full of absolute gibberish, but he insisted you have it.”

I was dumbstruck and confused. I reached out and grabbed the book, but his grip tightened as he gave me a slight pull, “A lotta people stayed at bay because of your old man, and a lot of them still have hard feelings. He may be gone, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t want revenge. Whatever is in here and whatever you find, just watch your back.”

Perplexed, I feebly asked “... what?” I couldn’t put words together.

I took one more swig from his flask, slapped me on the shoulder and exhaled. Cinnamon. Straight cinnamon. “Good luck kid.”

The buzzcut man walked away, slipping his flask into his suit jacket once more. I looked around and realized there was an all-black car with tinted windows near the gate of the cemetery, I hadn’t noticed anyone enter or leave that vehicle. It drove away as I approached it.

…

The sliding screen door was wide open, it was one of those warm stormy summer days where you could smell the heat and the fresh rain. So much to do, so much to take care of, I don’t even know where to start. It's going to be hell to try to get Davin to complete high school now. I took a deep sigh and slouched down in my father’s favorite chair and pulled out the little black book the buzzcut man had given me. Whizzing through the pages from back to front, I stop on the first page. “reHHeghyoHwI'pue' ”

“What the hell…” I mutter thumbing through the pages, discovering the entire book is full of this nonsensical writing. This doesn’t even look like a real language… because it isn’t! I immediately took to the internet. Google translate couldn’t help me here, this language was Klingon! The fan-made language of an alien species in Star Trek, my father’s favorite. Translating this is going to be tedious, but luckily there aren’t many pages in this book.

After an hour of translating, research, and double checking, I discovered this book was instructions to… “a road to fortune. I’m sorry my son that I couldn’t share this part of my life with you, as it turned out to be more dangerous than I ever anticipated. I fear that I do not have enough time to tie up loose ends, and that may put you and your brother in danger. Use this book to find the fortunes I never had the time to pull from their seclusions, use this fortune for your safety and future my son. I’m sorry you had to learn the truth this way.”

Davin returned to the house, pulling his head phones out of his ears. His grim look reflected how I felt in all this chaos. How could I tell him about my findings here? I can’t risk setting him off.

“Don’t worry…” He said apathetically, “I’m still going to school tomorrow. I’d be disrespecting both of them if I gave up now.”

…

First thing in the morning I set out to find what my father had left me, and hopefully other clues as his black book appears to only scratch the surface of his past. I felt bad not being around to give Davin a ride to school, but perhaps another walk would help him. The only clue I had to go off of was, “... your mother’s favorite place to watch the fireworks.”

I pulled into the driveway of our old neighbor’s house from before we moved. The place looked vacant and I noticed a “For Sale” sign picketed to the ground. I took a look around and didn’t see anyone or anything, so I started for the backyard, which led into a forest. I noticed the grass was still struggling to grow where we’d lay our blanket multiple summer nights to watch the colorful explosions in the sky… Mom’s favorite… Could it be that easy?

Post raiding and breaking into my former neighbors’ garage, I discovered a shovel, and began to dig. Enough time passed for blisters to develop when I had hit metal. Could it be? My eyes darting around, still no one in sight, I dropped to my knees and dug my hands into the earth to uncover what remained of my father’s legacy. A solid metal box, black just like the book. As I was about to open it, my cell phone rang. “Hello?”

“Hello Xander, Jane from the school here. I’m so sorry about your father’s loss, and want you to know if you ever need anything please feel free to reach out.”

Jane was my old school secretary prior to graduating. “Thank you, Jane, I appreciate the phone call.” I attempted to conclude.

“I take it Davin will be out the next couple days?” She asked me.

I looked at my watch. 8:22am. He must have changed his mind on going to school, is what I thought until I heard him screaming from the woods in the backyard.

“Xander!” I heard a bellow deep in the trees.

“Yes, thank you Jane. Sorry I have to go.” I hung up and clutched the black box to me closely and ran for the woods.

I emerged through the trails as fast as I could and came to a halt when I saw Davin being held on a steep, rocky hill, by the buzzcut man from the funeral. “I told you your father was keeping people at bay X, told you to watch your back.”

I felt like I was standing in a pool of Tapioca pudding. Was he armed? Was he going to throw Davin down that hill? “What do you want?” I shouted to him, trying to sound tougher than I felt.

“I want what’s rightfully mine. Your old man and I used to run jobs together, until one day we crossed a line we couldn’t come back from and I did what needed to be done. To protect us, which in turn protected the two of you.” He explained to me.

I flexed my brow, “Well what did you do?”

“It was a stick up of some rich folks back in ‘89,” He reminisced, “It looked like just the broad was home, so it was going to be a simple grab and go. But that’s when the husband came out of nowhere, he took a swing on me and knocked me to the ground. Him and your father got into it, and resulted in your father losing his mask. I got up and shot the husband. Your father tried to stop me, but the damage was done, his face was seen ya see? I had to tie up loose ends…”

“So you murdered innocent people?” I asked him with disgust.

His grip tightened on Davin as he nudged him towards the edge with a growl. “I was protecting my partner! Your father would have spent the rest of his life in prison and I would’ve been right behind him. Want to know how I was repaid? When we got back to my safehouse, your father beat the daylights outta me. Took out all his years of guilt out on me. No one had ever died before on the job ya see? And after he put me on the brink of death, he took it all. That fool took my half of every score I had, and told me to never come near him again. Now I want that box and whatever’s in it. That belongs to me.” He nudged Davin closer to the edge.

“Wait!” I attempted to stall, “If he never wanted to see you again, why did he give you the book to give to me?”

He smirked. “He was finishing the book when I poisoned him. I just couldn’t decipher it. I figured I could make you do the dirty work since it was meant for you. Now give me the-”

Something snapped inside of Davin. It must have been the years of repressed aggression and pain, lack of an outlet, lack of a break. Davin bent at the waist, gripping his arm, flipping the buzzcut man over his shoulder and down the rocky portion of the hill, breaking his leg. He bellowed in agony.

Davin began down the hill, I ran towards him and restrained him. “Davin- Davin stop!” He tried to push me off.

“He has to pay for what he’s done!” Davin screamed.

“We have to be better than him. We have to do this the right way.” I petitioned as the buzzcut man wailed.

“Goodluck with that,” He said through gritted teeth, “You go to the police and they’ll take your beloved fortune.”

“Some things are more important than the money.” I said, eying Davin and the man.

…

We had dragged him by the arms out of the woods. I pulled out my phone to call the police, when Davin poked me. The all black car that had driven away at the funeral was now parked on the side of the road, sitting directly in front of us.

“Oh god no…” the buzzcut man said.

The door opened and one of the most beautiful, elegant looking women I’d ever seen stepped out, sporting a red power suit and… Converse. Accompanying her were two fairly buff men in all black suits. “Xander and Davin Gray?” She asked.

“Who’s askin?!” Davin shouted, still high on adrenaline.

“I owed your father a debt I never had a chance of repaying until now.” She glanced at the buzzcut man. “I’ll take care of this one, and you two can keep what your father intended you to have.”

“He needs to pay for what he’s done, and if that means giving up blood money that’s fine by me.” I explained.

She smirked. “Oh don’t worry, he’ll pay for what he’s done, but I wasn’t asking.” Her two bodyguards grabbed the buzzcut man by the legs as he screamed. “It’s not all blood money. Have you ever heard of Robinhood?”

With that she walked back to her all black car. I feared that I’d never see these people again, and I had so many unanswered questions. But now was not the time. I cracked open the black box to see twenty thousand dollars cash, and another little black book inside. A map to more?

The first page read, “reHDuSIghvavlI'.” Great, more Klingon to translate.