Last Request

She heard the phone ring and her daughter yelled, “I got it!”. A few minutes later, she came in and said, “Mom? There’s a John Halliday on the phone asking to see you. He says he’s Porter’s grandson.”

Alice Parker looked perplexed for a moment and said, “Porter’s grandson? What in the world? Oh, well, only one way to find out.” She picked up the extension and said, “Alice Parker speaking.”

“Mrs. Parker? I’m Porter Halliday’s grandson, John. I was wondering if I could stop by and see you for a few minutes today. I have something to give you.”

“I didn’t know Porter had a grandson.”

“Ma’am, up until about a year ago, neither did I. It’s a long story.”

“Well, I’ve certainly got time to hear it. Come on over. Do you have the address?”

“Yes, ma’am. I think I can be there in about fifteen minutes. Is that okay?”

“Certainly. I’m looking forward to meeting you.”

She hung up and said, “Grandson? Most peculiar. Anyway, he’ll be here in about fifteen minutes. Would you start a pot of coffee, Julie? It’s bitter cold out there.”

“You bet. It’s not every day that my mom has a man of mystery come calling”, Julie said as she went into the kitchen.

Alice snorted to herself. “Man of mystery, indeed. Still…” She pushed her wheelchair back from the computer she had been working at and rolled into the bathroom, where she grabbed a brush, gave her hair a few strokes and messed with her makeup. She then rolled into the living room. A few moments later, just as Julie came in with a tray and set it on the table, the doorbell rang.

Julie opened the door and Alice heard her say, “You must be mom’s gentleman caller. I'm Julie. Come on in and get warm.”

A male voice said, “Thank you very much.”

Julie said, “Let me hang your coat here on the rack. Mom’s in the living room.” Footsteps sounded and a tall young man in his early twenties entered the room, carrying a small package about the size of a thick paperback book.

“Mrs. Parker? I’m very sorry to disturb you with such short notice. I’m John Halliday.”

“Yes, Porter’s grandson. I can see the resemblance. Please sit down and make yourself comfortable. My daughter has made us some coffee. And please ignore her banter about gentleman callers. That girl reads too many romance novels.”

John chuckled. “I’ll tell you my deep, dark secret. I’ve been known to read the occasional romance novel myself.” As he seated himself, he set the package on the couch next to him. Julie came in and sat at the other end of the couch.

“Oh, God, I’m surrounded by syrupy love novel readers.” Alice wheeled a little closer and set the brake. “Now, John Halliday, I believe you said there was a story to tell?”

“Yes, ma’am. And it will probably sound like one of the novels you so love so much.” Julie giggled at that and Alice gave her the mom-death-glare, which made her giggle even more and caused John to smile.

“You know Granddad died a week ago, right?” Alice nodded and he continued. “I didn’t. I didn’t even know about him until a year ago. My mother and he were estranged. She died a little over a year ago and it wasn’t until I was settling her affairs that I found out Granddad was still alive. She told me he had died before I was born.”

Alice frowned and said, “I wonder why she did that?”

“I found some letters that Granddad had written her over the years and realized that they were written long after when she told me he had died, so I wrote to the return address. He responded and gave me his phone number. We spoke a few times on the phone and got to know each other. I came down and visited him for the first time about two months later.

“Granddad and I would talk on the phone about once a month, and I came down to visit a couple of more times. I did ask him once about Mom and all he would say is that it was water under the bridge. I didn’t press the issue. Now I wished I had.”

John paused and sipped his coffee, then set the cup on the table. “I’ll get to the point. We talked on the phone about three weeks ago and he seemed fine. Then last week, I got a call from his attorney telling me that Granddad had died of a heart attack and I was his sole beneficiary.

“I took time off my job and came down the day before yesterday to sign some papers. Mr. Harrison, the attorney, gave me the keys to the house and explained that Granddad’s will said to keep what I wanted and sell the rest or give it away.”

"Do you know yet if you're going to stay in the house?", asked Julie.

"I'm thinking about it. My job is going nowhere and the change of pace might do me some good."

He shifted position on the couch as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black notebook. He said, “This is why I am here today. I found this while looking through Granddad’s desk. It had a message to me in it.” He opened it and read:

John, if you are reading this, I will have passed away. I know that we have not known each other long, but I have a request to make of you. In the lower left drawer of this desk, there is a package. Please take it to Alice Parker at 142 Lakeview.

I loved your grandmother very much. But before I met her, I loved another and continued to love her from afar. This is the last thing that I can do for her and her family.

He closed the notebook and put it back in his pocket, then picked up the package and set it on the coffee table. “This was the package he mentioned. As soon as I found it, I looked up your phone number and called you. And here we are.”

Alice leaned forward and picked it up. “Do you know what’s in it?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Well, let’s find out, shall we?” She looked at the package, then turned it over. Her fingers found the tape on the back and pulled it off. The wrapping paper fell away, revealing two stacks of $100 bills, each stack banded with a bank wrapper that read $10,000. She stared at the money for a moment, then dropped it into her lap as she clasped both hands to her face.

“Mom, are you okay?” Julie was at her side immediately.

Alice looked up at Julie with tears in her eyes. “It was him. It was him all this time…” She got a faraway look in her eyes for just a moment and then she took a deep breath and settled herself. “I’m okay, Julie.” She looked back at John. “It looks like it’s my turn to tell a story.”

“Everybody knew Porter and he knew everybody. Advantages of living in a small town, I guess. I grew up knowing Porter – he was ‘Uncle Port’ to me. I’d see him around town occasionally, then he would go off somewhere for months at a time. I asked him once what he did for a living, and he laughed and told me that he was a consultant. He said people would hire him to come into their companies and pay him lots of money to tell them stuff they already knew. At age eight, it didn’t make much sense to me.

“At any rate, my parents went through a couple of rough patches, where money was really tight. They later told me that occasionally, an envelope would show up in the mail that had money in it. They never knew who sent it and the postmark was different every time. But it always got them through the rough spots.

“Three years ago, when Julie was nineteen, my parents and my husband were killed by a drunk driver. Julie was at college and we had gone out to celebrate my birthday. The wreck left me like this.” She gestured to the wheelchair.

“Julie had to quit college to take care of me. I was in therapy for a long time. I fully expected to lose the house and everything, but someone anonymously paid off the mortgage, and paid for all the hospital bills that the drunk driver’s insurance didn’t cover. I tried to find out who, but no one would ever tell me. And every once in a while, one of those envelopes would arrive in my mailbox. Sometimes one would show up for Julie’s birthday, sometimes right before Christmas, and other times when things just got rough.”

Tears began to shine in her eyes again and she took another deep breath. “Last month, I had a follow-up with the doctor, and he said that there is a surgical procedure that might enable me to walk again. The drunk driver’s insurance company first refused to pay for it and my lawyer – Bill Harrison, by the way – finally got them to agree to pay more than half of it. But I still had to come up with ten thousand dollars, which we didn’t have.” Her eyes fell to the stack of bills again. “Until now. And Julie can use the rest to finish her education.”

There was a pause and then she said, “It had to be Uncle Port. Grandma Betty told me once that she had two men courting her. She chose Grandpa Paul, but she never said who the other was. It just had to have been Porter. And he...he watched over her and continue to love her like a guardian angel. And he did the same for me. It had to have been him.” She broke down and sobbed as Julie stroked her shoulder. As she did, she whispered to John, “Bathroom down the hall. Kleenex please?”

John quickly returned with a handful of tissues. Alice blotted her face and slowly recovered her composure. “Please forgive me. I don’t usually get emotional like this.”

“Nothing to forgive, ma’am. This has been quite a shock for both of us. I’m glad to have been the bearer of good tidings, but I think I need to leave and let you two be alone. Thank you for letting me come over.”

Alice held her hand out to him. “You’re a good man to have done this, John. Thank you. And please do come see us again.” She looked up at Julie and smiled. “It will do my daughter good to have a gentleman caller of her own.”

“MOM!,” squawked Julie and John laughed as she blushed. He said, “I’ll see myself out. And I’m looking forward to seeing you both again. I might even bring Julie a romance novel!”