Bess Miller

 

She kept a small wooden box on her dresser.  It had a simple latch and tiny gold lock hanging on it.  No one assumed it had anything valuable because anyone could have just picked up the whole thing and slipped it into their pocket.  Therefore, it had always been ignored.

Then came the reading of her will.  Everyone assembled was there simply out of respect and sadness at her passing filled the room.  No one ever thought she left anything behind, as her life had been a simple one and never had there been anything flashy or showy about her.

It was, however, the way the will had been written that caught everyone’s attention.  The small wooden box seemed to be the focus of her entire estate.  Each word of the will had been specifically chosen.  Sentences were constructed in such a way that there could be no mistake as to her intent.

The bulk of her holdings would be going to Lacy McConnel, her granddaughter.  This included the house, any and all remaining investments and her automobile.  She was also to be the recipient of the tiny gold key, but not the box.  The wooden box had been willed to Ryan Newcastle, with instructions that it was never to be opened.

Ryan, the grandson of Hamilton Newcastle, the retired custodian of the local middle school, had always been a favorite of Bess.  In her will she spelled out that if the box was ever opened, all remaining proceeds of her estate would be sold at auction, with the money donated to the humane society. The key and the wooden box was to never be in the possession of the same person.  This was to help insure it was never opened.

For several months after the funeral of Bess Miller, townspeople were still talking about the small wooden box, speculating as to its contents.  People wanted to hold it to feel how much it weighed.  They wanted to shake it, to see if it rattled, but Ryan never let that happen.  He had placed the wooden box in his safety deposit box at his bank.  He didn’t want anyone to be tempted to steal it or to break it open, so there it stayed.

As far as I know, it still remains locked away inside that bank security box, and Lacy, some years ago, lost the little gold key.  It has never been found.  For those of you who had hoped the contents of the wooden box would be revealed by the end of this story, I’m sorry.  Even I do not know what was so darn important that caused Bess to go to such great lengths to insure it remained a secret.  I do know, however, that Ryan has made that safety deposit box a part of his trust with money set aside to pay the bank fees for years to come.