Save or Spare

“Save or spare, only you can decide who’s the lucky heir” were the bold black words printed on a sheet of banner style paper that lay above 5 Moleskin notebooks on a large desk. All different colors and all had different titles written across the covers. 5 notebooks for 5 family members, this will be interesting I thought.

I looked around the office at the familiar faces. My brother’s kids, James and Janessa, who were some of the most ungrateful and spoiled kids one could ever imagine. Never wanted to work for anything and they, just like their mother, were in favor of abandoning my hard working brother for some rich man. But those are still his kids so I’m not surprised they’re here. Next, our oldest brother, Jacob. He thinks he knows everything about everything and never cared to support anyone else in the family, so I’m not sure why he was chosen. Finally, our baby sister, Karmen, a very spiteful woman. She’s always looking for revenge if you cross her, so much so that the family identifies family misfortunes as Karmen’s Karma. Always behind something, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was behind this.

“Welcome family,” said a stocky, well dressed, Italian man standing next to a large marble top desk. I wondered where he came from, I’ve never seen him in or around my brother’s office before. And as a single, struggling woman, I would’ve definitely remembered him. My thoughts were interrupted by another boom of his deep voice.

“You’re all here because my boss, your family, Mr. Francesco Ferrari has passed. My condolences. He set this opportunity up for you before passing and asked for me to host it. On his desk you see 5 notebooks, each with a title. Each notebook contains instructions and something dear to Mr. Ferraris' heart or something significant to his life. It may be his possessions, ideas, final thoughts, who knows; even I don’t know. You may all choose one notebook that only you can open and read. You cannot trade or share what’s in the notebook until you come back here. You may save and use the information in the notebooks or you may spare the notebook to someone else here today and walk away with nothing. You have 3 days to decide. In 3 days you’ll come back and choose whether you’re going to save or spare your notebooks. Mr. Ferrari chose who gets to choose first, and he chose his children. Please step forward to claim your notebooks.”

The siblings walked quickly to the desk to read the notebook titles out loud.

“Antiques, Cars, Jewelry, Vacations, Interesting People,” said James as Janessa smiled and rubbed her hands together.

“I already know which one I want!” she exclaimed as she snatched the red notebook that read “Jewelry” on the front and walked back to her spot. “My dad rarely gave me jewelry, so I’m sure he has some stashed somewhere for me.”

“Oh, you can have that one,” James scoffed as he snatched the green notebook that read “Cars” on the front of it and skipped back to his spot. “You guys are screwed with what’s left.” he laughed to himself, “My step dad can pay for anything that’s left on that desk 100 times over. My mom made a great decision to leave a struggling low budget entrepreneur for a self made millionaire.”

The host took out a notecard and read it to himself before pointing at my sister, “Karmen... you’re next.” She smirked, glanced at me and Jacob then happily stepped up to the desk.

“Well, the little brats already took what they thought would be luxury items,” she giggled to herself, “I don’t see why they chose those, we never saw him with either of those things on the luxury end, poor things, still at square 1." She giggled again and snatched the baby blue notebook that read “Vacations” on it. “I don’t have time to be reading about his antiques and there’s clearly nobody more interesting than me, not even dear old Francesco. I’ll choose the free vacation spots. As much as he travelled, I’m sure he has some paid resorts somewhere, so I can save my money.” she said and proudly walked to her seat.

I shook my head in shame, I couldn’t believe the nerve of our crazy family. Jacob and I looked at each other. I didn’t know who was going to be called next but either way, I had a desire to be last. The host took out his notecard again and then looked at me.

“Shamaria,” his booming voice startled me, “you’re next.”

I didn’t move. I looked at Jacob again and then back at our host. “Is it ok if I allow my brother to go first? I want everyone to get what they really hoped to have before I choose.”

The host didn’t look surprised and gave me a nod of approval.

“There’s nothing that says you cannot pass on your turn, so yes, you may allow your brother to go first if he’d like to.”

Jacob looked relieved. “Yes! Thank God, I was hoping to go next. I know it’s not much to you guys, but I actually wanted the Antiques notebook. Francesco seemed to be interested in antiques from his hometown, Milan, Italy. There's very expensive antiques there, I heard that he has some from past relatives and business partners that we don’t even know,” he said as he quickly approached the desk to snatch the yellow notebook that read “Antiques” on it. He looked and laughed at Karmen, “You just don’t know, you’re all still at square 1,” he said as he danced foolishly back to his spot with Karmen rolling her eyes at him.

Everybody looked at me as I approached the desk to claim the very last notebook. I picked up the black notebook that read, “Interesting People'' on it. James bursted out laughing and pointed at me, “Interesting People, yeah, that’s really interesting!” he exclaimed, still laughing. “Aunt Shamaria when are you gonna learn to stop putting other people first? You do this every time and always get the shortest end of the stick. Gotta grow a backbone; Interesting People, ha, that’s probably a freakin biography,” he chuckled. “Well now we all know that you’re not the lucky heir. You should’ve ditched this family and married a rich guy like your sister in law.”

“It's actually an autobiography James and even if it is an autobiography, I believe my brother lived an interesting life. I’d love to know about the interesting people he crossed paths with during his lifetime. I’m happy to read this. However, a video would’ve suited you better since you don’t like to read.” I said before going back to my spot while the family laughed at his ignorance.

“Ok, “ said our host, “you all have 3 days, I’ll see you back here then.”

3 DAYS LATER

“Save or spare, only you can decide who’s my lucky heir” was printed above a small box sitting on the large desk labeled “spare”. I haven’t heard anything from any of my family members but I was very curious as to what they may say. After the family shuffled in and found an empty chair to occupy, in came our handsome host in a freshly tailored Italian suit. I saw my sister staring him up and down, I could only imagine what she was thinking, she just left husband number 4.

“Welcome back family,” our host started but didn’t get to finish.

“Wait, before we waste any more unnecessary time,” said Karmen, standing up and heading to the desk, “because this is; I am sparing my notebook... to you.” She handed her notebook to our host.

“There wasn’t anything useful in there for me, I wanted free travel, not travel I have to pay for to enjoy. You look like you could use a vacation from this boring job. Maybe you can read about a place I'm sure you've never been to. When you’re done reading, come find me, I’d love to take you on an enjoyable trip alright,” she seductively said and left. The host looked disgusted by her behavior.

“Yeah, same here,” Jacob chimed in and stood up with his notebook. “I’m going to spare my notebook too for whoever wants it. Shamaria your life seems pretty boring since you enjoy autobiographies. Maybe you'd like to read this too. I stopped reading after the 4th page when I saw he was writing about some antiques he supposedly has. He’s wrong, his information is wrong, he doesn't know nothing. The antiques he thinks he has, he doesn’t and I know that for sure.” He threw his notebook into the spare box and sat down.

The siblings stood up together. “Leave it up to our dad, the supposedly hard working man with a thousand dreams,” James said looking at me. “You were right Auntie Shamaria, I don’t like to read, and I didn’t even read this stupid notebook. I only came to see what everyone else found out in theirs first. If they came back with good reports about things to inherit, then I was going to keep my notebook and have someone else read it so I could collect. But after seeing how he played them, with boring, incorrect useless information, I’m sparing mine too. I was sure I’d at least get an actual car, not just drawings of one, I’m good. Keep this useless notebook.”

He threw his notebook into the spare box and looked at his sister.

“Well, I started to read the notebook, but it was boring. I heard that everything you need to know about a book will be written on the first and last pages. There’s nothing talking about inheriting valuable jewelry, so I’m sparing mine too.”

She placed her notebook into the spare box before they both sat down.

Everyone was now looking at me holding my small black Moleskin notebook close to my heart. I slowly stood and walked over to the desk. I looked at the collected colorful notebooks that lay in the “spare” box and sorrowfully shook my head before lifting it to smile.

“My notebook is called, “Interesting People," I started, showing them the cover. “The interesting people he wrote about…was you. What’s even more interesting is this black notebook predicted what just happened here play by play.”

Their faces turned to shock as I continued.

“I already knew the false information would stop you from continuing to read Jacob, that you weren’t even going to read your notebook James, that you were going to try to cheat your way into valuable information Janessa, and that Karmen would lose interest because she had to pay for something. I knew that you’d all spare your notebooks, which are now mine by the way.

I also found out that your step dad and mom just filed bankruptcy James and Janessa. Want to know why? Karmen’s Karma, of course. She emptied your step dad's bank accounts for revenge towards your mom for stealing her second husband. How’d she do it? Fraud, and she’s being investigated. Jacob, you’re also wanted by the FBI for theft of Francesco’s antiques from Italy, and you’ll be arrested once you leave here. All of the notebooks included instructions and start-up money to build million dollar businesses, just like Francesco’s is today. And then there’s you, “ I said, turning to the host.

“You’re the son of my brother’s mysterious business partner, Maria, who inspired his business idea creating these very notebooks. We’ve all been challenged, even me. My challenge? Turning $20,000 into $20 million dollars and you are the successful business advisor to help me do it. Francesco always said checks written by integrity and hard work don’t bounce and that the rest of you are lazy, selfish, forgiven... and broke.

I’ll be keeping my notebook. I guess I’m the lucky heir.” I said and gracefully sat down.