It Was Long Ago And It Was Far Away

IT WAS LONG AGO AND IT WAS FAR AWAY

Knock! Knock! Knock!

I looked up from my tablet, where I'd been reading today’s newspaper. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and I hadn’t ordered anything on line, so who was at the door? For a moment I considered ignoring the knock. There was no way I wanted to listen to someone trying to sell me something that I didn’t want or need. But curiosity got the better of me, as usual. I have serious FOMO. I padded to the towards the front of the house. When I opened the door, there was our letter carrier, Benson, holding a small envelope out to me.

“Morning, Roxy. I’ve got a registered letter here for you.” He handed me the letter and the proof-of-delivery machine at the same time. “I just need you to sign for it, please.”

“Huh! A registered letter. I didn’t realize I was this important,” I said, scrawling my electronic signature.

Benson smiled. “I hope it’s good news!” He turned and walked down the driveway.

“Me, too,” I said quietly, looking down at the envelope.

I wandered over to the kitchen counter. Not bothering to sit down, I tore open the back of the pouch, and pulled out the letter.

To: Ms. Roxanne Belmont

From: J. K. Worth, Attorney

Re: Last Will and Testament of Bryan Gylford

Dear Ms. Belmont:

As per Mr. Gylford’s instructions, I will be requesting your presence at the reading of his will, Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 10:00 am.

If this is an inconvenient time, please contact my office.

Sincerely,

J. K. Worth, Attorney

I looked down at the letter in my hand. Bryan Gylford. Wow.  Bryan Gylford was a big old blast from my past. I paused, suddenly realizing the implications of why I was hearing his name. This letter meant he’d died. I’d had no idea, so it was a bit of a shock. Was he sick? Was it sudden? Was he hit by a bus? I knew nothing except what was in the letter. I was a bit confused. Why was I even mentioned in Bryan's will? I hadn’t spoken to him in over four decades. 

Bryan and I had been a couple for the last two years of high school, right up until the end of my first term at universtity, but then it ended. Only I hadn’t known it’d ended until I heard that he and Angela Dinkins were engaged.

I had been destroyed when I had found out. I’d seriously thought we were going to be together forever—marriage, kids, white picket fence—the whole deal. Apparently Bryan didn’t share the same sentiment.  After high school graduation, I’d gone off to university, and Bryan had stayed home working in his dad’s electronics shop, taking business classes at night. We tried to see each other every couple of weeks, on weekends and holidays. I admit that I was the first person to drop the ball—midterms were coming up, and I needed to study, so I’d canceled one of our weekend meetups. But that was the only time. When I went home at Christmas, everything seemed to be fine—we’d exchanged gifts, visited each other’s families, spent time together, just the two of us. Then, near the end of January, he’d send me a letter. Actually, it wasn’t even a letter, just the wedding announcement cut out of the local newspaper stuffed into an envelope. No note, no explanation, just the announcement. His way of telling me were officially broken up. That was in 1980, forty-four years ago. It was the last time he’d contacted me.

“Who was at the door?”  

I snapped out of my reverie. I turned and saw my husband Troy walk into the kitchen. Troy—my rock, my cheerleader, my best friend, the love of my life. We’ve been together forty years.

I held up the letter. “You remember Bryan Gylford?

He smiled. “The guy who dumped you, and sent you straight into my ever-loving arms? Yeah, I remember him, fondly."

I smiled back. Troy often said the best day of his life was the day that Bryan dumped me. I couldn’t disagree.

“Yes, that Bryan.” I looked at the letter. “Apparently, he’s dead, and I am mentioned in his will. I have an appointment at his lawyer’s office tomorrow.”

Troy took two long strides and enveloped me into a hug. “I’m so sorry, Roxy.”

I felt his strong arms around me and relaxed. “It okay. It’s not like I’ve seen him recently. Or even this century.”

“I know,” he said, “but it’s still hard when someone you knew dies. It’s like a reminder of your own mortality.”

I couldn’t disagree. While technically a stranger, Bryan, had, at one time been an important part of my life. A part that didn’t end very well, but still an important part. His death was reminder that we were no longer young and were all going to die sooner rather than later. 

I never got the opportunity to tell Bryan how much he had hurt me. Now it was unfinished business forever.

We broke our embrace. I handed Troy the letter. He read it quickly.

“Do you want me to go wtih you? To the lawyer’s office?”

I shook my head. “No, I’ll be fine.” I smiled. “I’m not sure how well a ‘plus one’ would go over.” He handed me back the letter and I glanced at it again. “I’ve never been to a reading of will. Have you?”

Troy smiled. “Yes. And it’s nothing like you see on TV. If you have been bequeathed something, then you go to the lawyer’s office, and he or she tells you what it is, and arranges for you to receive your bequest.” He smiled. “Easy peasy. You should be in and out in no time.”

I looked at him. “So, no family sitting around, all dressed in black, waiting for their cut of the pie? No outrage because Grandma gave slacker Chad everything?”

He smiled again. “Nope. It’ll just be you and the lawyer.”

That set my mind at ease. At one time I’d been close to Bryan’s family, but after so many years, I had no desire to see them again. Too awkward—way too awkward.

The next morning I set out for the lawyer’s office. I didn’t know how long I was going to be, but based on what Troy had told me, I figured I wouldn’t be there all morning, so Troy and I made plans to meet at a favourite bistro for an early lunch.

On the drive over, I continued to wonder why I was even mentioned in Bryan’s will. It seemed wrong, somehow. To quote Meatloaf, “it was long ago and it was far away.” Surely there were family and friends who were more important to him than a girlfriend from high school? 

I pulled up to the office a couple of minutes before ten o’clock, got out of the car, and headed into the office. The receptionist lead me to an office at the back of the building. “J. K. Worth” was written on the door in gold leaf.  

Fancy, I thought.

As I entered the room, a distinguished looking gentleman about my age, walked around his desk, hand extended, to greet me.

“Ms. Belmont? John Worth. I’m glad you could make it.”

We shook hands, and I settled into the visitor’s seat he indicated in front of the desk.

“Can I get you anything?” he asked. “Water? Coffee? Tea?”

I would have killed for a tea, but declined his offer. I just wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. No lingering.

“No, thank you. I’m fine.”

I looked around the office. If I had been asked to design the quintessential lawyer’s office, this would have been it. It was all dark wood, bookcases loaded down with legal tomes, big mahogany desk, small conference table and chairs nestled into the corner. Very lawyerly, I decided.

“I suspect that you have a lot of questions,” he said, casually leaning against the front of his desk, to my right.  

I nodded my head. “I do.”

John Worth nodded his head, while looking at me, then he slapped his hands on his thighs, and pushed himself upright. “All of your questions will be answered straight away.” He walked out of the office, shutting the door behind him.

He returned less than a minute later, followed by another man.  

“Hello Roxy.”

I recognized that voice. I turned towards it. Then I recognized the face. My stomach lurched. My pulse hammered.

“Bryan?” My mouth hung open. Literally hung open. I gaped. “What the—”

He smiled widely. “Yup. In the flesh!”

I closed my mouth, and whirled on him. “What the actual hell! You’re supposed to be dead!” I turned to John Worth. “What the hell is going on? I thought he was dead!” I stood facing the two men.

John Worth looked contrite. “The letter didn’t actually say Bryan was dead. It said that we would be reading his will, which we will be.”

“Pretty shitty semantics, John” I stared at him.

Bryan interjected. “John’s innocent here. This is all my idea.”

I swung back to Bryan. “Well it’s a pretty crappy idea! Why would you do this to me? You haven’t hurt me enough in this lifetime? You just wanted to hurt me once more? For fun? You know, one last shot before we todder off into old age?”

He shook his head vehemently raising his hands in supplication. “No, Roxy. No way. I just wanted to see you again. I would never hurt you.”

I gave him the stink eye.

“Again,” he amended.

“So, why set up this very stupid ploy? You do now realize that it is stupid? Right?

Bryan shrugged. That may have been endearing for a cute but dopey twenty-year-old. Now, not so much.  On a sixty-six year-old grown-ass man, it just made him look confused and stupid.

“I wanted to talk to you before, you know, either of us died ... for real. We’re getting getting older. Who knows how much time we have left?” He shrugged again. Yuck.

“And you thought that this—” I waved my hand to encompass the room, ”was the best way to accomplish that goal?” 

John Worth put his hands up to calm me. “Why don’t we all have a seat at the conference table, and talk this out?”

I think he was worried I was going to assault Bryan, and wanted to defuse the situaton. The thought had occurred to me, but I couldn’t imagine having to call Troy for bail money.

We walked over and sat down, Bryan and I facing each other, John Worth between us, like a referee. I could tell by the looks on their faces, this was not how they expected this meeting to go. I don’t know what they expected, but this was not it. Was I supposed to be so overjoyed to see Bryan alive that I broke down and cried? Not a chance.

John Worth opened a file folder on the table. “Okay,” he started. “Bryan wanted to review his will with you while he was still alive.” He slid a document over to me.

I ignored the document and said nothing, arms folded tightly across me chest. I was pissed, and my body language was screaming just how very pissed I was.

Before John Worth could begin going over the document, I interjected.

“How could you do this?” I slapped my hands down on the table. “Both of you! It’s cruel.” I turned to Bryan. “ I mourned your death.” I paused. “Maybe it was only for a day, but, damn it Bryan, I was sad.” I looked him up and down contemptuously. “Now, I’m not sure why.”

He looked contrite. “I’m sorry Roxy. I really am. But I couldn’t think of another way to reach out to you.”

“Really?” Incredulity spread across my face. “You really couldn't think of a single way to get in touch with me? A phone call? Facebook? A letter? A knock on my front door? Apparently you know where I live.”

“Would you have spoken to me? After all this time?”

I shook my head. “Probably not. But WTF, Bryan? Pretending to be dead? That is beyond the pale.”

John Worth spoke up. “Just to reiterate, we never said he was dead.”

I swung my head towards him. “Shut it,” I said. “You know that there was an inference of Bryan being dead vis-a-vis the reading of the will.”

He continued, “I understand that you may have inferred Bryan’s death, but—”

I stared at him. He stopped talking. I turned back to Bryan.

“So, what’s so important that you had to pretend to be dead?”

His face changed then. He looked almost sad. He took a big breath, looked down at the table, then back to me.

“I need to tell you that I’m sorry. I was a jerk. I should never have dumped you. I should never have married Angie. I should have done a whole lot of things better than I did.” He looked at me, gauging how his apology was landing.  “I knew almost right away that Angie was a mistake. She told me she was pregnant. Her parents pressured me to marry her. I was a catch, apparently—a good job at the successful family business.” He shrugged. Again. For God’s sake. “Angie wasn’t pregnant. In fact we never had kids. We divorced after about five years. But by then, you were getting married.”

I narrowed my gaze. “How do you know that?” I asked.

He shrugged, again. “Your mom told me.”

“What!” Oh, she was going to hear from me.

“It was a couple of years after I got married. She came into the store. She was as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She told me about your upcoming wedding.” Shrug. Argghh! 

After an awkward silence, Bryan spoke again. “I was at your wedding ceremony,” he said.

“What!” I couldn’t believe my ears. “Are you kidding me?”

I sat there glaring at him. He shook his head no. “And your graduation.”

“Creepy, much?”

He started to laugh. “Yeah, now that I say it out loud, it does sound pretty creepy.”

We sat for a few moments in silence.

“So, why am I here?” I said.

He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a blue velvet box. “I bought this for you before, you know, the whole Angie thing.” He flipped open the lid. There was a very nice solitaire diamond with a platinum setting. It was lovely. “I was going to ask you to marry me at Christmas, but then you cancelled that one weekend, and I ran into Angie, and well …”

I stared at him. “Well, I’m glad you ran into Angie, and I’m glad you didn’t ask me to marry you.”

He looked stricken.

“I met and married Troy, who is the best man in the world.” I looked hard at Bryan. “Troy has been the best partner I could ever have imagined. He’s a great father to our two kids. A fantastic grandpa to our three grandkids and two grand-dogs.” I took a deep breath. “Troy made it so I never pined for you.” I smiled slightly. “He’s the reason that I was able to feel sadness at your death—I wasn’t destroyed, just sad.”

He smiled wanly. “I’m so glad to hear that. Sorta. I was kinda hoping that you were miserable, and longing for me all those years.”

I just shook my head. “Nope. My life has been amazing.”

“I’m glad,” he said. He slid the ring box towards me. “This is for you. Do with it as you please. I’ve had it for the last forty-plus years. It was always meant to be yours. Do with it what you see fit.”

I looked down at the ring, and shook my head. “I don’t want it Bryan. It was never mine.” I looked back up at him. “Give it to your wife.”

He shook his head. “I’m not married. I never found anyone to replace you.”

John Worth cleared his throat. We looked at him. “There’s the other thing,” he said.

“Right!” said Bryan. He looked at me. “I don’t know if you’ve heard, but I was pretty successful. Computers. I have no family, and no close friends. So, I’ve named you as my sole beneficiary. Everything I have is yours. And if you die before me, then it goes to your heirs. All sixty-three million. It’s yours.”

I shook my head. “No thank you.”

I got up and left the office. As I was walking towards the parking lot, I saw Troy leaning against my car. My face erupted into a huge smile.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, hugging him.

“In case you needed moral support.” He kissed the top of my head. “How’d it go in there?”

“You’re not going to believe what happened. But first, let’s get some lunch.”

We hopped into the car, and and drove away, without looking back.