Time And Money

“Declan Moore! What are you doing?” My little sister—Caitlyn—scolds.

“Nothing.” I say, trying to block Caitlyn’s view of the wall with my body.

Earlier today when I ran into the house I tripped over my dog—Maple—and my head broke through the drywall. Don’t worry my head’s fine, but the wall isn’t, now there’s a hole in the wall about the size of my head. And I can’t let Caitlyn know, she’ll tell our parents, who aren’t happy that I'm even here in the first place, I just graduated college and I'm supposed to have my own job and apartment.

Caitlyn tries to shove me out of the way, but I won’t budge.

“Declan come on! What did you do?” She gives me her ‘you better tell’ stare. “I won’t tell Mom and Dad.”

I still won’t budge.

“I promise.”

I sigh and move out of the way.

Caitlyn stares at the hole in the wall. “Oh my gosh! Mom and Dad are gonna freak!”

“You said you weren’t going to tell them, Caitlyn!” I say.

“I'm not. We have to fix this.” Caitlyn says. “Come on you need to drive me to the hardware store.”

Me and Caitlyn fixed the hole in the wall and Mom didn’t even notice. Now I’m taking Maple for a walk. Maple is my dog. She’s a rescue, and she’s the best dog in the world. She is tan with white socks on her legs. I walk past our normal walking route and to the baseball field on the outskirts of town. The baseball field is perfect because it’s all fenced in and Maple can run without being on a leash. (As long as no one comes around, dogs aren’t really allowed to be in here)

“Hi!”

I turn around. It’s Maria, our new neighbor.

“Oh hi.” I say, suddenly worried that she will be upset about Maple being in the baseball field.

Like she can read my mind Maria says. “Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone.”

“Thanks.”

Maria and her family moved in to the house next door two months ago. Her family is originally from Greece. I might have a little crush on her. Just a little one. Very little.

“No problem.” She says and winks at me.

Maria tucks a strand of her shoulder length black hair behind her ear as she walks into the baseball field. “So what are you doing tomorrow?” She asks me.

“Not much. Why?” I ask, petting Maple.

Maria sits on the old bleachers. “I was thinking maybe we could get some coffee?”

“Um. Yeah!” I say. “I mean, sure. I like coffee.”

Maria smiles and says more stuff that I don’t really hear.

The next day my wealthy Uncle Gilroy dies, so I have to cancel coffee with Maria.

The next month I have to go to the lawyers office for the reading of Uncle Gilroy’s will.

We’re sitting in a dusty room around a dark brown rectangle table. Mom, Dad, Caitlyn, Aunt Mary, Aunt Kathy, Grandma Bridget, Grandma, and my cousin Aisling are all sitting around the table. Along with the lawyer who’s a middle aged woman.

“…Mr. Gilroy Moore left his watch to Kathy Peterson………his truck to Aisling Moore……his dog to Mary Moore….his paintings to Caitlyn Moore…” Then the lawyer keeps on discussing more about Uncle Gilroy’s stuff, but I kind of block them out.

I take a pen off the table and am now doodling on my hand. I’m in the middle of drawing a horrible doodle of my dog when I hear my name.

“...Declan Moore…”

I glance around the table, I have no idea what the lawyer said about me. Everyone looks so completely shocked that I get a little scared. I look at Caitlyn to see if her reaction will reveal what happened.

Caitlyn leans closer to me and whispers in my ear. “Uncle Gilroy left you all his money!”

“What!?” I yell, my eyes wide with shock.

My Uncle had millions of dollars, and I thought he would leave it to his wife or to his daughter Aisling. Why would he leave his fortune to me?

All eyes are on me and I feel a little self conscious. But, Caitlyn just rolls her eyes at me like that’s the wrong reaction to becoming a billionaire.

The next day we open up the bank account and I spend some of he money right away. I go to the car dealership and buy the car that I’ve always wanted, but knew I would never ever, ever get—the Dodge Challenger. It has 305 to 797 horsepower. That’s a lot of horses!

“Maple really wants to go for a walk.” Caitlyn says, pulling her long blonde hair into a pony tail and tying it back with a rubber band or whatever girls use to do their hair.

“I can’t I need to take my new car for a spin.”

“Take Maple with you.” Caitlyn suggests.

“I can’t get dog hair all over my new car, it costs $28,545!” I say.

“Whatever Declan, have fun with your new car.” Caitlyn says sarcastically and walks out of the room.

Jokes on her, I will.

When I’m on the way home from looking at expensive apartments I get a phone call. I pull over and park my beautiful car by the side of the road and answer the phone. It’s Ms. Broderick—the lawyer.

“Hello. I need you to come to my office and sign some more paperwork for the bank.”

“Ok,” I say into the speaker of the phone. “When do I need to come?”

“Whenever you can make it.”

“Ok. Be there in ten.” I say, and I drive my new car down the street.

I walk into the lawyers office.

“Declan Moore, these papers need to be signed.” The lawyer says and hands me a thin stack of paperwork.

“Ok, do you have a pen?” I ask sitting down at the desk.

“Yes.” She says, grinning mysteriously.

Well that’s a little weird.

She hands me a blue pen. “Remember, if you want to feel rich just count the things money can’t buy -Unknown.”

I sign my name at the bottom of the paper. But the ink starts glowing and the hands on the clock spin forward super fast.

I stand up and look around. The lawyer is gone and the office looks different. I stride over to the window and peer out into the street. A lot of things are different, but the main thing I notice is the small baby tree out front, that is now almost as tall as the building. I don’t understand. I flip through the pages on the calendar on the wall, apparently I'm twenty years into the future! On my way out of the building I glimpse a reflection of myself in the window.

“Sh—Sugar dumplings!” I peer at myself in the glass.

I still have blond hair but it has a ton of gray in it. And I have crinkles next to my eyes, you know the ones that old people have. I count the years on my fingers

“...Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five…”

Forty five. I’m an old man!

After a while trying to find my car I drive home. My mom answers when I knock.

She’s really old now, probably like in her sixties or something.

She let’s me in and looks really confused when I ask her if I live with her.

“Oh, Declan I've missed you. You haven’t come out of that old mansion of yours in years. I was worried about you.

“Where’s Caitlyn?”

Mom’s eyes widen. “Why you two have been fighting since the day you received your inheritance. She’s probably at home with her kids, are you going to talk to her again? Make up?”

“Kids! Like my nieces and nephews?”

“Of course. Why are you being so weird.” Mom asks.

“What about Maple?” I ask worriedly.

Now Mom looks very worried. “Declan do you need to go back to the Mental Hospital? Are you feeling well?”

“WHAT!?” I shout.

“You forget sometimes, it’s because of the medicine they give you.” Mom shakes her head.

“Mom. Where. Is. Maple?”

“She ran away the year you got your fortune. You stopped taking her for walks, she thought you stopped loving her. Sometimes I wonder if you stopped loving me…” Mom trails off, a tear in her eye.

“Mom, I'm sorry.” I say and give her a hug, she feels much more bonier than before.

I sit back in my chair. “So this all started when I got the money.”

Mom nods sadly.

I know what I have to do, I think. I hope this works…

“I have to go. I'll be back soon.” I promise, but she doesn’t look convinced.

I skip the car and run all the way to the lawyers office, which is just the way I left it.

I scramble around in the room and finally find the white-out. I take off the cap and poor the white liquid over my signature. The papers start glowing and the hands on the clock race backward.

And when I open my eyes I’m in the present again. The lawyer is across the room going through folders.

When she sees the white out on the paper she walks over to me and grabs the pen out of my hand. “I’ll take this.”

I stare at her as she locks the pen in the safe. “You did this.”

And instead of answering me she just smiles and nods.

“Thank you.” I say.

“No problem, now get out of here I have another appointment.” She says and then winks at me.

I’m not sure if what just happened to me was even possible, but I guess it was, considering it just happened.

I drive my car to the bank and donate half of my money. The other half I’ll use to start a family business. But I am not going to become that messed up jerk that poor Future Mom had to deal with. I’d rather have a family that loves me, than a billion dollars.

When I get home and hear Maple bark I can feel tears of joy burning in my eyes.

Mom and Dad are sitting in the living room when I walk inside and I give them each a hug.

“Thank you Mom.” I say sadly.

“For what Declan?” Mom asks, a confused expression on her face.

“For always being there for me.” I say, grabbing the dog leash off the counter.

“That’s what mothers are for.” Mom says.

“Maple! You wanna go for a walk?” she comes over to me and I pet her for a long time.

Later when Caitlyn comes home she’s still mad at me.

“You were right Caitlyn.” I say after dinner.

Caitlyn looks shocked. “Now that’s something I've never heard you say before.”

“Well I should say it more. You’re usually right. Do you want to start a family business with me?”

“What!” Caitlyn asks.

“I'm investing my money in a family business.” I explain.

“Really? I thought you were going to blow all your money on toys.” Caitlyn says.

“I was, but someone showed me what would happen if I did.” I say.

Caitlyn sits down on the couch next to me and Maple. “I’m not following?”

I pat Maple on the head. “A story for later.”

“Anyways…I forgot to tell you that Maria called earlier. She said that you weren’t answering your phone. She wanted to know if you wanted to see a movie with her this weekend?”

“Really?” I ask trying to keep my tone nonchalant.

“Yeah. She totally likes you.” Caitlyn says, in her gossipy voice.

“So was that a yes or a no to the business thing?” I ask.

Caitlyn laughs. “Yes.”

I pet Maple more. I’m so lucky. And the quote that the lawyer said keeps bouncing around in my head. If you want to feel rich just count the things that money can’t buy. Really all of the best things in life don’t cost any money.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Thank you so much to my Mom who is an amazing mom, helped me come up with ideas for this story and for letting me stay up extra late to finish this story before the deadline. Thank you to the Unknown person who wrote the quote featured in this short story. Thank you to my dog Maple who I based the the fictional character Maple off of for the story. And a special thanks to YOU for reading my short story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. Adios!