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Joana's Inheritance

Seriously a safe?

By Sherry KochPublished 3 years ago 9 min read
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Gram's "Little Black Book"

My friend Sandra asked me to stop by the Farmer’s Market to pick up some

brown eggs so she could bake goodies for our annual Bakeoff that our Bed and Breakfast (Inn as we called it) sponsored. We made the categories a little different this year including both teens and juniors as well as a vintage category.

From our first bake off with our grand opening, The Vagabond Inn had always worked hard to

Include as many people as possible. We also made ourselves eligible to enter should we so desire. We were both considering an entry in the “Vintage” category. We also made sure everyone understood that “Vintage “meant the age of the recipe not the age of the person who created it.

As I scurried into the kitchen of our Inn, I was horrified at the mess in front of me. I dropped my bags and reached for my cell phone to call the police to report a break in.

“Sandra! Sandra! Are you ok?” I ran into the kitchen and headed to the dining area shouting as I ran trying to dial 911 at the same time. “OOF” I ran into solid wall that was Sandra! “What are you doing? Are you ok?”.

Catching my breath, I was staring at Sandra’s frantic pale face in front of me. “I can’t find it! I am beside myself! I cannot find it! I don’t know what I am going to do!”

I grabbed Sandra by her shoulders and hugged her to me. She was trembling so hard, I could barely hold her.

“Ok girlfriend, breathe and tell me what is going on? What can you not find?”

Sandra took a deep breath. “I cannot find Gram’s book. She had this little black book that she

kept all of her favorite recipes in. I always keep it in the safe in the kitchen.” (I must have looked at her rather funny because she paused, beginning to explain) “Well, when we had the remodel done I found a safe in the pantry. I don’t know why it was there but I thought it was nifty so I kept our mad money, Gram’s book, and other important items in there. I never mentioned it because it just never came up in conversation.”

I had to shake my head at all of this rush of information. Safe? In the pantry? Where did that come from?

“OK what is so important about the book? “

“Well the value was to me. It had no monetary value but, it was so old. It belonged to her Great Granma Rose. I don’t know where she got it. It had recipes added by each generation of women in our family that they either created or borrowed from friends. I kept it in there because I did not want to take the chance of losing it. I was looking for it to get my recipe for our Vintage contest. Then I could not find it. I was trying to remember if I had it out and just did not put it back. I have looked everywhere. I just can’t find it. Then this Mr. Brewster showed up telling me that Gram left some special inheritance in it. I even tried to think if I had sent it to one of my cousins to copy but I don’t think so. I don’t think I will ever be able to breathe until I have it in my hands! “

I began cleaning up the mess so I could put up the groceries while trying to process everything that Sandra had told me. An inheritance in the book or was it the book? Honestly, I was still stuck on the idea of a safe in our pantry. Why would there have been a safe in a pantry of all places AND who had put it there. I had no doubt that the proverbial “Little Black Book” was somewhere right in front of Sandra. I doubted seriously if she had sent it to any of her cousins since I usually did the mailing and it did not go through my hands. Who was this Mr. Brewster? My thoughts seemed as scattered as Sandra’s. I had to laugh at the two of us.

Sandra and I had so much to do to get ready for incoming guests as well as entries for the bakeoff that we did not have time to discuss the missing book, Mr. Brewster or the safe.

As I began putting the bakeoff entries in the computer I noticed that Sandra had an entry but no title. She had not given up. It did seem that she did not have her recipe in her hands yet. I had been at the computer for over an hour when nature called as well as cramped muscles cried to stretch. I was going downstairs to go outside for sunshine when I heard Sandra on the phone.

Seeing me she said, “I asked my cousin, Jenn, if she knew Mr. Brewster or what he was talking about. She seems to know as much as I do. On a different note, how many contestants do we have this year?”

“Well, we set a maximum of 20 in each category. We have almost every category filled. Oh, that is counting yours and mine. I am so excited that I can’t stand it. This is going to be the best year ever!”

Sandra began making the gift bags that we would give to each entrant. The bags were Burgundy with Little Black Books on them (our private joke about the recipes). I began checking our guest lists for the next two weeks to make sure that we had enough supplies for breakfast and snacks for each day as well as munchies for the day of the Bake Off.

“There are two weeks until the Friday of the Bake Off Weekend. Do you think you will find your “Little Black Book” by then?”

“I don’t know. I sure hope so. This just gets more interesting by the day.”

I laughed and said, “It sounds like one of those TV mysteries shows. “

“That’s not funny!” Sandra made a face at me as she growled out her words.

I had to giggle as I carried the gift bags into the great room to add to the entrance table. We had the gift bags, aprons, bowls and spoons, as well as name tags ready for each entrant.

We were down to two days before magical Friday, the day that brought everything together. We were always amazed at how much happened on the Friday before the Bake Off.

Sandra made a couple of recipes that she knew by heart. I know it sounds corny however, her heart was not in either of them.

Some of the guests would be checking in on Thursday morning so they could relax before Friday. Many of them were repeat bakers so the time was like a reunion for them. Several of our entrants stayed at neighboring Inns, B&Bs, motels and campgrounds. We loved it that our Bake Off had grown large enough to help bless our whole community.

Sandra decided to check our safe one more time to see if she had just over looked her precious ‘Little Black Book.’

As she set out to check the safe I left her to see who was making all of the noise as they were coming in the front door.

.

“Hey ladies. You all are early! “Six of the most charming little old Grandmas tottered toward the desk with their bags in tow.

“Hey Honey. We are exhausted. We need some tea and some delicious muffins that I am sure MS Sandra has put away for us.” MS Rosalee said in her sweet Southern drawl as she nodded to all of the other ladies.

“Well let’s get you checked in.” I worked quickly so MS Rosalee could lead her tribe down the hall to their rooms. Keeping them below stairs near the kitchen and their own private bathroom made life easier all around. Their two adjoining rooms always made it seem as though they were at a slumber party.

Sandra was taking pies out of the oven when I told her which guests had arrived. “I haven’t made it to the safe yet.” She grinned acknowledging MS Rosalee and crew. She nodded to the ready teapot. “The muffins are warm in that red basket.” delivered them to our guests. ” After you drop off the goodies, join me.”

Join her? Of course, I would. Since I didn’t even know we had a safe, curiosity was killing me!

I returned to follow Sandra toward the pantry. She was moving the pantry’s back wall. What? How?

For the first time I saw our “safe”. It was actually a hidden room behind the back pantry wall. I followed Sandra slowly, watching her search as she moved around the room. I crossed the room to sit down in a rocking chair. (I laughed to myself. I was sitting in a “safe”) I switched on a lamp that showed me a shadow under the chair. Tentatively I reached under the chair. Voila! The Little Black Book!

Sandra shrieked as she hugged me, crying as she thumbed through her precious book.

“What could Mr. Brewster have wanted with Gram’s book?” I was looking around our “safe” in wonder as I listened to her rattling on about Gram’s book. I could not believe that I had never been in this room or even known of its existence.

“Now that I have this book, let’s go get some tea. We can check out the safe another day!”

Still stunned over the “safe” I followed Sandra into the kitchen. Sipping our tea, we began looking through the Little Black Book to find whatever the mysterious Mr. Brewster was going to show us.

Sandra told me several stories about different recipes as well as the authors that her Gram had shared with her. One pie was called ‘Mr. Lincoln’s favorite pie’. We figured that Mr. Lincoln was one of the Granma of that time’s neighbor.

We laughed over that title as well as many of the others. There were pictures with many of the recipes. Some were drawn and some were actual photos either of the food or the authors, The page next to ‘Mr. Lincoln’s pie’ was thicker than some of the others pages. Sandra looked thoughtful as she fingered the page.

She looked up at me and said, “Hand me a knife please.” Curious I handed her a small knife, watching in wonder as she pried the edges of the picture. There were actually two pages stuck together. Stuffed carefully between the pages were newspaper pages fold neatly, appearing almost new. As Sandra unfolded the pages her eyes grew huge. She turned the pages to me.

I read the date:

April 15, 1865.

We were looking at an original front page of a newspaper printed on the day after President Lincoln was assassinated.

We were looking at Sandra’s mysterious inheritance!

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About the Creator

Sherry Koch

I am an active Boomer who loves Jesus. I love to create stories, change lives, and help in any what that I can to make our world better. Welcome to our world .

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