ROYAL FLUSH

The family cried as Charlie Edwards’ coffin was lowered into the grave. His death came as a shock to everyone because of how sudden it was. An allergic reaction to food had spiraled out of control and claimed his life. It wasn’t the first time he would be suffering such allergic reactions, so they had expected it to blow over very quickly. They were astounded when they received the call from his brother, Shawn, announcing his untimely death.

The family was very suspicious of the circumstances that surrounding his death, so they had the police carry out an investigation. After weeks of digging into the case, they came up with nothing. If someone was responsible for his death, the person had done a good job of covering their tracks. The police didn’t even catch the slightest whiff of malpractice.

***

Charlie was loved by all. In his 35 years on earth, he’d been loving and caring to everyone he came in contact with. Everyone knew him to be a quintessential gentleman. He was handsome, he was soft-spoken, he was calm and collected, and he was astoundingly successful. He was a role model to the many who admired his story. They were all impressed by how he rose from the bottom of society and worked his butt off to claim a spot at the top.

Charlie was born into a middle-class family that fell on hard times and rapidly slipped into poverty during a protracted depression. His father, Timothy, struggled to fend for his wife and five children, but the burden increased by monumental proportions each day and good money-making opportunities were too far and in-between so he was rarely able to put a decent meal on the table. After struggling for two long years, he decided he had had enough. One night, while the family was asleep, Timothy Edwards left the house and hung himself on a tree.

After Timothy’s death, Charlie’s mother, Shelley, took it upon herself to provide for the family. She had been a housewife all her life, so she knew very little about the labor market and how it worked, but she was lucky enough to find a job as a maid in the manor of a widowed multimillionaire. Shelley did a very good job at tending to his home, she so impressed Mr. Swashbuckle that he asked her to move into the maid’s quarters so she could tend to his needs at all hours of the day.

It was after the family moved into the maid’s quarters that Charlie had his first glimpse at how the rich and affluent lived. He fell in love with the lifestyle instantly. Shelley tried to keep the children cooped up in her quarters so they would not trouble Mr. Swashbuckle, but Charlie and his immediate younger brother, Shawn, refused to remain imprisoned in the room. They devised multiple means of escape and kept their escape routes secret.

It was during one of those adventures that Charlie would first meet Mr. Swashbuckle. He’d gotten bored of roaming around the vast compound surrounding the manor, so he and Shawn decided to explore the inside of the home. Shelley was away at the farmer’s market and they believed Mr. Swahsbuckle was also away on business, so they found an unlocked window and climbed into the house. Their exploration led them to Mr. Swashbuckle’s bedroom. While they explored the bedroom, careful to not upturn anything, Charlie discovered the hidden door leading to a wardrobe. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to role-play.

Shawn was too scared to enter the walk-in wardrobe, let alone touch the clothes. He believed the wardrobe was hidden for a reason, so he thought they should leave it alone to avoid the wrath of Shelley and Mr. Swashbuckle. Charlie ignored his pleas and went ahead with his plan. He thrust his feet into a pair of oversize designer shoes, swaddled himself in an oversize coat, clamped a cigar between his teeth, and began to imitate Mr. Swashbuckle.

They’d secretly watched Mr. Swashbuckle on numerous occasions, so Charlie didn’t find it hard to imitate him. Shawn laughed his heart out while Charlie imitated Mr. Swashbuckle. He did such a good impression of him that it looked to Shawn as though he was staring at a miniaturized version of the man himself. When Shawn suddenly stopped laughing and stared, eyes wide open, at something behind Charlie, Charlie knew the jig was up. Shawn took to his heels and escaped through the window they’d left open. Charlie tried to follow suit but the coat and the shoes were too restricting. As he attempted to catch up to Shawn, he slipped and fell face-first on the hardwood floor.

He ended up spending a few days in hospital receiving treatment for his broken nose, but the encounter with Mr. Swashbuckle that fateful afternoon would be the turning point in his life. Mr. Swashbuckle was so impressed by Charlie’s impression of him that he decided to take him and Shawn under his wing and mentor them both. That mentorship would unlock immense wealth for Charlie, but at the same time, it unlocked the doors to drugs, gambling, and numerous other addictions for Shawn.

***

The story the police went with was that Charlie had arrived to an empty house and had treated himself to an unfinished bowl of food that his wife, Barbara, kept hidden in the fridge. Unbeknownst to him, the food contained peanuts, which he was highly allergic to, and as soon as he swallowed a few mouthfuls of the meal, he started to suffer an allergic reaction to it. His doctor said the allergic reaction must have been so serious that it immobilized him, causing him to collapse to the ground, where he struggled to breathe till his brother, Shawn, who happened to be passing-by a few moments later, dropped in to check on the family and discovered Charlie struggling in the kitchen.

An ambulance was called in, but as he was ferried to the hospital, he lost consciousness. Despite all attempts by his doctors, he never regained consciousness. In the space of a few days, Charlie’s condition worsened dramatically, to the point where he had to be hooked up to a life-support machine. After exhausting their options, Charlie’s doctors confirmed that he had suffered a brain damage, so his family decided to take him off the life-support machine. 

His doctors confirmed to investigators that they were surprised that his condition degenerated so quickly. Charlie had had such allergic reactions before, but never in the same manner as the one that cost him his life. They told investigators that while it was confounding, it wasn’t uncommon to find people who died of a severe allergic reaction, so there was not much cause for alarm.

***

The mentorship they received under Mr. Swashbuckle united the boys and divided them at the same time. 

Mr. Swashbuckle was very competitive in every aspect of his life. Rumor had it that he once chased down a vehicle that overtook him and struggled to exact revenge. When the driver of the other car wouldn’t give him room to overtake her vehicle, Mr. Swashbuckle was said to have rammed into the vehicle from behind, which caused the driver to lose control and crash her vehicle into a tree, clearing the way for Mr. Swashbuckle to drive in peace.

The mentorship united the boys when it came to their resolve. They were both determined to make something of themselves. They were both determined to make the best of the opportunities Mr. Swashbuckle made available to them. They were both united in the belief that they could create a better and brighter future for themselves if they just worked hard enough. However, the mentorship also created a big divide between both boys because Mr. Swashbuckle made them compete against each other for his praise and for opportunities. He would present the boys with a challenge, and whoever came out tops would be the one to receive his praise, a big learning or money-making opportunity, and a week-long stay in the manor’s guestroom with access to every luxury Mr. Swashbuckle’s guests usually enjoyed. 

Charlie came out tops most times. Partly because he was more intelligent, but mostly because he was the more patient of the two. Shawn was brash and boorish, while Charlie was meticulous and intentional. While Shawn was moving around and ‘breaking things’ in the hopes of finding a solution to the challenge, Charlie would be leaning back and conserving his energies as he worked on deciphering the challenge and producing the best possible solution. Once he happened upon a solution, he acted swiftly and produced the desired results. This was the case more times than not, and while Charlie tried to stay modest about his wins so as to not get in Shawn’s bad books, Mr. Swashbuckle wasn’t so subtle. He was accustomed to lambasting his employees and treating them harshly, so he did the same to Shawn. He would mock him by calling him all sorts of names, even going so far as to suggest he get a DNA test to ensure he was of the same blood as his brother, Charlie.

Shawn tolerated the mockery and criticisms despite the many nights he spent in the maid’s quarters, crying himself to sleep. He was determined to prove himself to Mr. Swashbuckle and Charlie, but no matter how hard he tried or how careful he tried to be, Charlie always came out on top. So one evening, he decided he had had enough. He packed up a few of his things and left the house without saying a word to anyone. 

It would be many years before he and Charlie would meet again. But for Mr. Swashbuckle’s heart failure and Shelley’s insistence that Shawn attend his burial, Shawn wanted nothing to do with both Mr. Swashbuckle and his brother. He had created a life for himself that he was proud of, and although it was nowhere near as luxurious as the life of Mr. Swashbuckle’s favorite, he was a contented man. 

When Shawn found out Mr. Swashbuckle had left his entire empire to Charlie, he wasn’t the least surprised. When he suggested Charlie give him his fair share of the empire – since Charlie would never had the confidence to invade Mr. Swashbuckle’s house on that fateful day without him by his side – and he refused to, on the grounds that Shawn would squander it on drugs and harlots, he was incensed. 

***

“I would never have thought my life would take such a dramatic turn.” Barbara said as she sat on the edge of the bed she’d shared with Charlie. “It’s confusing, you know; I still can’t remember leaving that bowl of food out in the open. I don’t even understand why I would have nuts and then be as wasteful and careless as to leave a half-eaten bowl of food containing it out in the open when I know about Charlie’s allergies. I just don’t get it! I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast that morning!” She sighed as she threw her hands up in defeat.

Shawn sat beside her and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Don’t think too much about it, Barbara. It was a costly mistake, but it’s in the past. I promised you I would protect you. I promised you I would make sure the police never find out where Charlie actually found the bowl of food, and I have delivered on that promise, haven’t I?”

She nodded. “Yes, you have. I am really grateful, Shawn. You came back into our lives at just the right time. I don’t know how I would have handled these past weeks without you by my side. I am really grateful.” She forced a smile.

Shawn smiled back at her. “Everything happens for a reason, Barbara. Everything falls in place just at the right time.” He held her jaw in his palm and caressed her face with his thumb. He grinned, and then moved his other hand under her shirt and caressed her back.

“I don’t know if this is the right idea, Shawn,” She tried to move away but he held her in place. “I’ve already made one big mistake. I don’t want to make another one.”

He shook his head and slowly pushed her till she was flat on her back. “What better way to atone for the grievous mistake you made that led to my brother’s death than to give him an heir? People everywhere are spreading rumors about him, saying all sorts of negative things. They say you’ve both been married for eight years and have no kids, so he must be impotent. The best you can do for him now to prove your remorse is to redeem his image by giving him an heir. It is your duty to put his detractors to shame.” He rose to his feet and stood above her as he undid his pants.

“Are you sure this will work?” she asked, nervously. She was deeply hurt by the rumors about Charlie’s impotency, it felt as if he had suffered a second death at the hands of the rumor-mongers, and she felt a sense of responsibility for it. Producing a child with the Edwards’ DNA would put the rumor-mongers to shame and at the same time, give her something she’d always wanted, a child of her own.

“I promise, it will.”

A few minutes later, laying naked in Charlie’s bed, with Charlie’s naked wife fast asleep beside him, and with everything Charlie had worked for on its way to an heir he would father, Shawn stared at the ceiling with a broad grin on his face, bemused by how swiftly a pack of peanuts had turned the tables.