Nina lights a candle

Nina followed the toll of the church bell all the way to the heavy iron-latticed doors at the top of the church steps. Each bell toll laying down the soundtrack to her uneasiness. It wasn’t a conscious decision to walk into the church, it was more steps guided by her uneasy, sad subconscious looking for peace and some meaning to the last five difficult hours of her life.

Choosing to stay behind at the end of her shift hadn’t been a hard decision for Nina. Staying and holding the hand of her patient as he lay dying in his hospital bed all alone, without family or company was something Nina felt compelled to do. Working in a city that had swallowed her patient up and spat him out only to run over and ruin his body had left him all alone to die without one solitary visitor. So Nina sat by his side knowing his time was coming to an end. She held his hand, spoke to him, and watched as the light slowly left his body. Five hours, that’s how long Nina sat with him until he took his last breath and she could finally wish him safe travels as she said goodbye.

She wasn’t religious. Nina’s uneasiness wasn’t about God or the great beyond. It was about searching for peace, for greater meaning for anything that could explain why a life was cut short without meaning or destiny.

The last bell toll signaled her entrance through the church doors. Automatically Nina picked up a candle and took it to the front of the church using the flame of the one single candle in the sandbox to light her own. She turned and sat in the front pew and stared at her candle and the one next to hers, thinking of herself in that hospital room, just her and the young man – the only two in the sandbox. She felt like crying, she wanted to cry and yet she had buried that emotion so far down while holding the man’s hand that she didn’t know if it could ever find its way out again.

“Excuse me, ma’am,” said a deep voice startling her out of her meditation. “We have a funeral about to begin and I wonder if I may ask you a kindness.”

Nina looked around her for the first time, noticing the grand oak casket facing the church’s altar with the lid half-open. White and yellow Calla lilies cascading over the top and sides of the remaining lid. She looked to her side and noticed a priest sitting next to her, smiling, waiting patiently for a response. Somewhat dazed, Nina looked around her and saw a church empty of parishioners or mourners. Nina startled herself back into her body and started gathering her things.

“I’m sorry,” she said as she turned to the priest. “I’m really tired. I’ve just come off a double shift at the hospital. I didn’t realise a funeral was about to start. I don’t want to intrude, I’ll just leave.” Nina felt exhausted as she sat and faced the priest ready to leap out of her seat.

The priest gently placed his hand on Nina’s covered arm, “Please,” he said. “I don’t want you to go. In fact, the small kindness I wanted to ask you, it’s about this funeral. We are ready to start,” he said, as he removed his hand and turned to face the casket.

“No-one has arrived for the funeral. You are the only other person in the church and I was wondering if you would stay and light a candle as we speak the blessings over this man’s body, just so that he is not alone.”

Nina looked around the church again, then at the casket. She wasn’t sure her mind was processing what the priest was saying, and who doesn’t come along to a funeral anyway.

“Why isn’t anyone here?” Nina asked the priest. “Who is he?”

“He was a member of my congregation, although I use the word member very loosely. He donated a lot of money in exchange for attendance.” The priest smirked as if the joke was between him and whoever watched over his church.

“He wasn’t well-liked. He didn’t like to share, not anything with his family and any friends he had if he had any. Not his life or his wealth. His children became estranged many years ago and he lived the latter part of his life working and ignoring anyone that couldn’t help him along the way. He was an angry kind of fellow that never had a kind word to say about anyone and never helped another person, not physically or financially, including his children. Well except for the church, but that was a bargain he struck up between himself and God.”

Nina sat watching the priest open-mouthed, shocked as the priest continued to watch the coffin with a smirk and a somewhat affectionate expression on his face as if he expected the body to rise up and chuckle at the impromptu eulogy the priest had shared with Nina.

Still, it seemed to be the theme of Nina’s day. She was tired, she wanted to go home, take her shoes off, and lay on the couch to watch cooking shows on TV. Instead, she decided to stay, light a candle and say a prayer over this man’s body while the priest completed the funeral rights. Regardless of the priest's words about this man, no matter that everyone he knew disliked him so much they couldn’t find it in their hearts to say a prayer, Nina decided that regardless of all that, he deserved a prayer for the simple reason that he had once lived and for that reason and that reason alone, Nina stayed and prayed with the priest.

Nina took a few more minutes watching the three candles burn down in the candle box. The funeral was over, the casket lid replaced to cover this man forevermore and Nina felt every nerve, muscle, and emotion she held depleted. It was time to go home. She nearly managed to make it out the door when the priest chased her out urging her to come back into the church.

“Please,” he said once again. “I have one more thing to ask of you,” as he guided Nina back into the church’s foyer. “We have a book here. Would you be so kind as to sign it and add contact details? You are the only one here and the funeral home would like to send you a thank you note.”

Nina signed the book. She didn’t give it a second thought. She simply signed her name, added her mobile number, and slowly walked the rest of the way home dreaming of the TV and her couch.

Several days had passed since Nina had comforted a dying man and prayed over another who had already lost his life. Her shifts had finished for the week and Nina had finally managed to sleep in, drink coffee and take some well-earned rest. The sheer depth of sadness she had felt at the beginning of the week had started to ebb and was replaced by rest and sunshine.

She noticed four missed calls on her phone from a single number she didn’t recognise. The last accompanied by a message: “Please return call from Barton and Melling Solicitors. Important.” Short, sweet, and didn’t make a lick of sense. There was no return number other than redialing the number on the phone. A small amount of panic had started to seep into Nina’s breath as she wondered why a solicitor’s office would so persistently try to contact her. Nina took the only path that made sense to her. She ignored the phone calls. For several days in fact. Nina couldn’t deny that she watched her phone as it rang once in the morning and once in the afternoon, followed by the ominous ‘call the solicitors’ message.

She watched the phone as she sipped her coffee and as she watched TV. She held her phone, feeling the ringtone vibrate as the call came again and again until out of pure frustration she answered with a curt “what do you want?”

“Hello. Am I speaking with Nina?” came a voice on the other end of the phone.

“Yes, this is Nina,” she all but screamed into the phone. “What do you want?”

“Nina, you attended a funeral several days ago at the Church of St Peter on Linsdale St.” It was a statement, not a question. This person already knew she had and the stated fact only rubbed Nina’s nerves all the more.

“I did,” said Nina, worried now, wondering what she had done wrong by attending the funeral.

“Excellent,” said this satisfied voice on the other end of the line. “My name is Stuart Melling of Baron and Melling Solicitors and I would like to invite you to our offices. We have a small matter to discuss with you. We have an opening at 10:00 am tomorrow. We would be very happy if you could come.”

“Why?” asked Nina. “What did I do wrong? All I did was sit through a funeral. You can’t tell me I did anything wrong.” Nina was afraid she would hyperventilate. She didn’t understand what she had done wrong.

“Oh no. You misunderstand. You haven’t done anything wrong. It is just that it is a delicate matter and we would prefer to discuss this with you face-to-face. Please say you will come.”

Mr. Melling made it sound like he was inviting Nina to a picnic and her suspicious nature was at war with her curiosity playing a game of tug-of-war with each side was looking for a win. In the end, both sides combined forces and decided they would attend the appointment knowing that Nina was suspiciously curious. After all, Mr. Melling did say she had done nothing wrong. Which is how Nina was now standing outside the glass doors of a downtown street full of solicitor's offices wondering if this was one big practical joke and her world was about to come crashing down.

The receptionist welcomed Nina with a big smile and a promise of a nice cold iced tea while she waited for Mr. Melling in his office. Nina had spent a sleepless night trying to unravel her conversation with Mr. Melling for clues as to the reason for the appointment and was just as baffled now sitting in his very modern office facing floor-to-ceiling windows, as she had been after her phone conversation.

A shuffling of the door had Nina turning around as an elderly gentleman came towards her, hand extended waiting for Nina to clasp and shake his hand in welcome.

“So good to see you Nina, my name is Stuart Melling. Please sit down and enjoy that scrumptious glass of tea,” he said, and he guided Nina back to the chair while still shaking her hand. Nina did not know what to make of him however, he did give out those friendly vibes and again Nina took a breath believing she actually hadn’t done anything wrong.

“I know this is all very surprising and mysterious,” said Mr. Melling. “I didn’t want to tell you over the phone because quite frankly I wanted to see the expression on your face when I told you this glorious news.” Nina still hadn’t uttered a word as she quietly sipped her ice-tea. She still didn’t know what to make of the situation and just waited patiently for Mr. Melling to explain the reason for her appointment.

“Now just to confirm with you Nina. You attended a funeral a few days ago of Mr. Arthur Stonewall. Is that correct?” Nina hadn’t given the funeral another thought since she had arrived home mentally and emotionally exhausted that day having fallen straight into bed for a night of deep sleep.

“I did attend a funeral, I believe his first name was Arthur. It was quite strange, there was no-one else there, so I stayed just to say a prayer for him,” said Nina. She couldn’t help but feel that there was a right thing to say and a wrong this to say. So she waited, watching Mr. Melling’s reaction waiting for the right or wrong reaction.

“Yes well, not many people liked our Mr. Stonewall. Well, really nobody liked him. He was a difficult, unforgiving, driven, egotistical man who never had a kind word or comment for anyone. Including his family. He engaged my services as a solicitor when we were both young and just starting out. He was a little kinder then, but life really drained him. Still, he had a feeling no-one would attend his funeral out of spite and that, Nina, is why you are here.”

Mr. Melling reached over to his drawer and pulled out a little black book placing it in front of Nina. He gestured to Nina to pick the book up. She looked at the little black book as if it would burn her fingers if she so much as thought about picking it up.

“I don’t understand,” said Nina. “I really don’t understand why I’m here.”

“Yes well,” said Mr. Melling gesturing towards the book. “Mr. Stonewall made a very clear request in his will. Whoever attended his funeral was to receive this journal. The journal is an invitation to something far greater. Should you unravel the puzzle inside that journal, you, my dear, will receive a fortune.” Mr. Melling sat back for a moment to enjoy the look of utter disbelief on Nina’s face before he continued.

“Your kindness in staying for his funeral to say a prayer afforded you a gift of this book,” he explained as he tapped the little black book in front of Nina.

The book itself was not remarkable on the outside. Inside, however, it held the general ramblings of a journaling Mr. Stonewall. At least to an uninterested observer they were ramblings. What they were in fact was a detailed map to Mr. Stonewall’s fortune and Nina had been given the privilege of owning the book and the map to the entirety of Mr. Stonewall’s fortune.

Mr. Stonewall instinctively knew no-one would come to his funeral. He also knew all his relatives and friends would be lining up at the solicitor’s door trying to claim his fortune. He didn’t want them to have it. He had believed that failure in attendance of this funeral meant that no-one would claim the book and had instructed Mr. Melling to distribute his fortune to several charities. As it happens, Nina’s single kindness played into the game Mr. Stonewall so dearly wished would take place.

Nina still hadn’t said anything. Mr. Melling had started piling paperwork in front of her that needed her attention. All the while Nina stared at the book, not quite believing what was happening.

Eventually, the shock had started to wear off as Mr. Melling added a tiny splash of gin to Nina’s iced tea as he encouraged her to continue drinking. “I don’t understand,” Nina breathlessly said.

“It is quite simple my dear Nina. You attended Mr. Stonewalls' funeral. He wanted whoever attended to play his last game. If you can decipher the journal before you, you will have access to a vast fortune. All for you.”

“What happens if I don’t solve this puzzle?” Nina asked quietly.

“Then the remaining fortune all goes to charity. You have 30 days from tomorrow to puzzle this all out and find the answer that unlocks your key to the Stonewall fortune. Now, I must warn you that the vultures are circling and there are family members after the fortune. I will not reveal who you are or why the family isn’t receiving the fortune. However, from my experience, vultures are clever and may ferret you out. If that happens you will contact me and I will help you keep them at bay. Now finish your tea, there is something a little extra in there to help with the shock. When you’re done, we will complete this paperwork and I will leave you to unravel this little mystery.”

Mr. Melling was enjoying this all too much as he watched Nina scull the rest of her tea. She was in a very hazy daze and he couldn’t help but think she was a very deserving recipient of all this fortune. He had spoken to the priest about her and knew she had held the hand of a dying man before attending the funeral. In his own way, Arthur Stonewall would have liked this about Nina. As hard a business and family man as he was, Arthur always had a spot in his heart for acts of charity and Mr. Melling couldn’t help but believe that Mr. Stonewall was enjoying Nina’s reaction right now and was hoping she would solve his puzzle and win his fortune.

It took Nina well over two hours to arrive home. She had been wandering around the business centre of the city aimlessly playing the conversation with Mr. Melling over and over in her head. She had carefully placed the book inside her bag, holding it protectively to her side logically knowing what she held was a gold mine even though her front brain was still unraveling the craziness of the situation she found herself in. All because she lit a candle.

By the time Nina had reached her one-bedroom apartment, she had decided on a course of action. Well, it was more a short-term idea of what to do. Actually, she didn’t get past ‘call her brother and ask him what to do.’ Nina’s brother Teddy was a nerd. Plain and simple. A video game playing, comic book reading, genre movie critic, techno-wizard nerd. Nina’s mind had decided that calling a nerd was the sensible thing to do. Hopefully, together they could puzzle out the little black book, right after she convinced herself this was all real.

Teddy made a beeline for the pizza and beer when he arrived, thankful that Nina was coherent enough to order fuel for them both. In fact, eating pizza was when her brother did his best work. Teddy didn’t utter a word while Nina started to tell her story with, “you’re not going to believe what happened to me today.”

The pizza box was empty when Nina finished her story, Teddy washing down the last bite of pizza with a long swig of beer. Nina wondered if he was stalling for time trying to figure out how to tell her she needed to buy a new strappy white coat and that he had better things to do. He was quiet as Nina waiting patiently, chewing on her nail willing Teddy to speak.

“OK then. Let’s see it.” Nina stared at Teddy, it wasn’t quite what she had expected him to say. “The book, the black book. C’mon show me,” he said, holding out his hand expectantly. Nina reached into her bag drawing out the book. She noticed for the first time that it was soft, velvet-like. Moleskin she thought, remembering she had seen many journals covered in this beautiful fabric her tactile fingers enjoyed holding. Teddy all but snatched the book out of her hands and started flipping through the pages stopping every now and then to read something, making non-committal grunts while flipping through more pages. He did this three times before closing the book, placing it on the table next to the pizza box, and staring at Nina. There was no way Nina was leaving the precious book next to the greasy box. She quickly scooped it up checking for greasy fingerprint stains before holding the book protectively against her chest.

“So,” she asked quietly, afraid of what Teddy may say. “You believe me, right?”

Teddy drew his hands through his messy curly brown hair, most likely wiping the pizza grease through it. He took a deep breath while he laid his elbows on his knees and looked at the floor below the coffee table.

“Well to be honest,” he finally looked Nina in the eyes, “I have no clue whether this is one giant prank or a ridiculously serious cut-throat screw you to this guy’s family. They must be livid.” And that definitely was not what she expected him to say.

“It’s a puzzle. The whole book is a puzzle disguised as a journal. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure those entries are real, but he wrote specific things leading whoever reads it in a specific direction.” He looked thoroughly pleased with himself, as he well should.

“So, will you help me solve it?” Nina asked hopefully. “Absolutely,” Teddy exclaimed with a grin. “This is going to be epic.”

“You know I’m going to share the prize with you yeh,” said Nina. She adored her brother, messy nerd hair an’ all. “Of course you are,” he said confidently. “That’s what big sisters do.”

Nina’s nausea started to calm. Since this whole thing began she had lost a bit of her centre and finally, sitting here with her brother, discussing the unbelievable possibility of actually solving a puzzle to a giant treasure chest, she finally started to breathe through her centre again.

“So how do we do this?” Nina asked. “How do we start?”

“Well,” Teddy started gesturing wildly with his hands betraying his excitement. “We need perspective. I think the best approach would be for us to both read the book and see what each of us makes of it. Then combine our superpowers and solve the puzzle.” Yep, just like that. “Let’s go to my place and scan a copy of the book, then we read, then we meet and figure it all out.” Yep, just like that.

A few hours later, Teddy had a scanned copy of the book and Nina had her original copy safely stored in her secret cupboard draw. Yes, she had one of those. One tends to create secret places when one has a nosey, nerdy brother who likes to ferret out secrets. She needed sleep. Reading the book while Nina was exhausted would not yield anything useful. She decided to call in sick to work that night. Her head wasn’t in the game, and quite frankly a nurse should never turn up to work without her head in the game. A restful night, then a day of reading. Teddy and Nina had agreed to meet again in Teddy’s techno cave of an apartment and discuss their views and ideas. Then, treasure hunting.

Both Nina and Teddy spent the next day and night pouring over the contents of the little black book. It was a journal of sorts, outlining daily activities. Not business activities as you may expect. The journal read as a man who didn’t have a care in the world and emulated the gentlemen of old who spent their days eating, reading, socializing, and taking air as they traipsed through the city.

A pattern had begun to form in Nina’s mind, and she was interested to hear her brother’s thoughts on whether they were forming the same patterns. As usual, pizza and beer denoted their regroup session. Nina absently wondered if that would change if and when they were able to recover the prize at the end of this trek.

“There’s definitely a pattern here,” said Teddy. “He doesn’t seem like a man who has a lot of time to just mosey through the city and have nothing much else to do in life. That’s our very first clue.” Teddy pulled out a map of the city, straightening the crumpled corners as he lay it in front of Nina.

“I’ve marked out the parts of his journal that stood out to me,” explained Teddy as he traced the red line he had drawn connecting the landmarks. “I believe the landmarks are our clue. If you look at the map there is actually a path to follow. I also believe that each landmark has a clue that we need to figure out and that the last landmark will probably tie the whole thing together. Not sure what answer we’re looking for at this point, if we follow this path, we can figure it out. What do you think?”

Nina took a long drink to finish off her beer. “I figured out the landmark bit but I hadn’t thought to map it out. I think we should follow your red line and see where it takes us. Are you ready to do this tomorrow morning Teddy?”

“Hell yes I am. I don’t know what is at the end of this but I’m willing to find out.”

Nina decided to spend the night on Teddy’s couch to make an early start the next morning.

With coffee and bagel in hand, Nina and Teddy visited all the landmarks on their map. They took photos and noted every detail, address, building name, street name, anything of note as a pattern wasn’t apparent at first. Nina knew her brother would eventually figure it out, her gut instinct, however, told her the pattern was in the building numbers. It was the only constant in all the places they had visited.

Their last stop was the most surprising. It was one of the town’s two cemetery’s and the journal had guided them to a gravesite. The grave of Mary O’Reilley. The inscription on her grave read, “A life lived with unrequited love. I miss you every day.”

Teddy took a picture of the gravestone as Nina stared on feeling a wave of melancholy sweep through her heart. She had been on her own for so long, dedicating her time to her nursing duties because she hadn’t believed a life of love and children were in her future. She didn’t even feel like she deserved the love of a pet, let alone another human being. Looking at this gravestone, she realized how lonely she was and wondered how Mary O’Reilley had lived her life. She had passed away at 55 years of age according to her gravestone and Nina couldn’t help but wonder if Mary was happy until her life ended.

Teddy nudged Nina’s arm indicating it was time to go. He had all the photos and information they would need to solve this puzzle. Nina promised herself to return with flowers to lay at Mary’s grave, to let Mary know someone was thinking of her long after she had passed away.

Mary’s name hadn’t made an appearance in the black journal and Nina now had a new puzzle she was determined to unravel as she thought about Mary and her relationship with Arthur Stonewall. She thought about Mary’s featured role in his treasure hunt, for Nina was in no doubt that this was the end of the hunt and all they had to do was put the pieces together and present them to Mr. Melling.

Another round of pizza and beer and Nina’s dining table was covered in a map, photos, and notations. Nina couldn’t shake the feeling that it was the building numbers that were important, so she started to collate them. All the while Teddy was looking at the rest of the information from every which way trying to decipher the deeper meaning behind the clues. Nina didn’t think it was that complicated.

She also couldn’t take her mind away from Mary O’Reilley. As she finished the last slice of pizza, Nina typed Mary O’Reilley’s name and date of birth into her search engine. She was ready to find out who Mary was. There wasn’t a great amount of information on her either. Mary was a philanthropist, not so much a rich woman donating time and money to various charities, more like dedicating her life to the needier and poorly funded charities raising money, funding, and awareness for the charities she had chosen to represent. Buried there in one photo caption was Mary standing next to a man named Arthur Stonewall. It had to be our guy. He was standing so close to her, looking down at her while she looked back at him with a radiant smile on her face. “Could it be?” thought Nina. Is this all about romance? Is Arthur Stonewall not the cold-hearted person all who knew him believed him to be or was he exactly that cold and it proved to be his downfall in love. Either way, Nina knew what she had to do. If she received this fortune, she would dedicate it to Mary O’Reilley’s charities in her name. She felt determined now and was ready to solve this puzzle.

Mary typed the numbers she had gathered from their research into the search engine and was mildly surprised with the results. There wasn’t a specific entry for the specific number she had typed in but the number resembled account numbers, backed up by the fact the various financial institution came up as a result of her search. Could it be?

“Teddy, what do you think about this?” Nina showed him the numbers and showed the list of results of her search. Teddy spent some time considering this, using his resources to follow this line of questioning. It was an hour before he looked up from his computer.

“I think it’s time to call the lawyer. You’ve figured this out.”

The following afternoon Nina sat sipping her special iced tea in Mr. Melling’s office. Teddy preferred a tall, cold glass of soft drink. Mr. Melling was smiling as he looked through their results and listening to their treasure hunting story. They all took a moment to sit back in their seats and take a breath.

“Right,” Mr. Melling said as he walked over to his filing cabinet taking out an envelope from the top draw. He handed the envelope to Nina.

“I was instructed by Arthur Stonewall to hand this over to the person who I believed solved the puzzle. I believe this is for you.” He waited as Nina took the envelope from him. Releasing a deep breath, Nina opened the envelope, Teddy watching her every move carefully trying to look over her shoulder as Nina shared the letter with him.

“Congratulations. You are only moments away from amassing my entire fortune,” the letter read. “I am not a man that will discuss my life with you. Know only this, for reasons I do not care to share, you will now be the recipient of everything I own and you have achieved this by uncovering the name of a woman I fell in love with but was unable to make mine. My heart broke when she passed away and I buried her promising I would change and become the type of man she would be proud of. I never did. I broke my promise to her. Although my methods may seem cruel and unruly to my family, I believed my fortune deserved to go to someone my Mary would have approved of. You uncovered my Mary’s name and the secret bank account I had created for her and that is enough to let me know that you are smart enough to deserve what I am offering. The choice is yours. Take my fortune or not. If you do, please take a small moment to think of the good you could do with it. That is what my Mary would have wanted. I am a mean bastard, I could have just given the money to charity but it brings me great satisfaction to go about it a different way. Arthur Stonewall.”

Nina and Teddy sat staring at their letter as Mr. Melling opened the second letter addressed to him. Several minutes passed in silence before anyone spoke.

“Well, there is another mystery solved,” said an exuberant Mr. Melling as he looked up at Nina and Teddy from the top of his glasses. “There was a ‘mystery’ bank account in Arthur’s assets which we were not to touch until the letter you were reading was opened. Upon the recipient reading that particular letter, the contents of the mystery account, Mary’s account, were to be distributed between her favoured charities. You have now activated that response. It’s quite a lot of money, the charities will be most pleased.”

“What happens now?” Teddy asked. Wide-eyed, Nina was unable to speak. She was more than happy for Teddy to take the reins at this point.

“Nina, we just need some bank details from you and a copy of your birth certificate and ID. I will do the rest for you. We can have another meeting once you have overcome your surprise. You are now a rich young lady. We can discuss your finance and assets and decide how best to use them. You have a lot to think about.”

Thinking was all she had done as she lay a dozen red roses at the grave of Mary O’Reilley. Nina had been overwhelmed when she understood the extent of her riches. She was warned there would be legal battles with the relatives but that everything had been assessed and protected in Nina’s name. All she wanted was enough to secure hers and her brother’s financial futures. A business manager was hired to manage all the businesses until a decision could be made about their fate. For the most part, the businesses would be sold and a charity foundation created in Mary’s name with the funds. A new career for Nina, to look after the foundation in a way that would make Mary proud. After all, that was what this was all about, about how one man fell in love with one woman and could never be the man he wanted to be for her. So Nina would show Mary who Arthur Stonewall really was by dedicating the journal’s puzzle and fortune to her.