The Complicated Life of Gargoyle Motts (Chapter 1)

Magdilla L. Del la Rosita, age 78, died of cancer and other health complications on October, 6th 2024. She left behind her family, and most importantly, her small dog named Gargoyle Motts. Gargoyle goes by the nickname Gar-Gar and owns a successful, international dog clothing company. A large amount of proceeds from the company are put toward dog refugees. Many of these dog refugees are escaping their countries in order to avoid being eaten by people living in communistic counties.

Magdilla L. Del la Rosita inspired Gar-Gar from his early pup days to dream big, and that he did. He soon developed a paw tapping technique in order to communicate with sophistication with his owner. Over time, he also developed a network across the whole neighborhood with all the other dogs. The network of dogs helped aid him in developing his company. She would push him around in a velvet stroller in the shape of a king’s crown. Every day, on the menu, there was non-dairy Neapolitan ice cream with colorful sprinkles served for lunch. Life was brilliant and everyone agreed.

Until, one day, the doctor diagnosed Magdilla with cancer. Despite Gar-Gar’s desperate attempts to help his owner become better through consistent treatments and dietary supplements, alas, she died leaving a large legacy and a larger fortune. The fortune was from Gar-Gar’s wise stock investments and successful clothing company. Since he was a dog, and the will had not been fully developed in time, all the fortune was likely about to go to the extended family. Magdilla did not know most of these family members while she was alive. She definitely didn’t know them now since she was dead, but there’s no need for stating the obvious…

The will was soon to be read at a large table that had plenty of dog high chairs along both sides. Gar-Gar sat poised with the house butler on his right and the house cook on his life. They both communicated well with him as they’d been working for the family for many years.

The thick oak doors opened and in walked five distant family members. They all had thick eyebrows and even thicker mustaches. There were two adults and three gangly children with scowls on their faces. They looked like they’d eaten a dozen lemons apiece. Ironically, the cook had just brought in lemonade and lemon bars as refreshments. None of the family members resembled Magdilla in the least, mostly because she didn’t have any eyebrows at all, except for when she drew them on. She didn’t have a thick mustache either but she never opted to draw one of those on for some reason.

The person who was about to read the will had on a dark purple suit that seemed too large and far too uncomfortable. Gar-Gar could not help but notice the poor fashion choice as he designed a whole clothing line for dogs so he knew what looked good. The will reader had on very thick glasses, which made his eyes appear a bit bug eyed. He was not particularly interested in reading another will today, as this was his fifteenth will that he’d read today. He was, however, particularly interested in getting home to conduct a scientific experiment in his science lab. His day job was reading wills and his evening and nightly hobby was to do science experiments.

The kids gobbled the lemonade and lemon bars down quickly and looked toward the cook to see if she’d bring in more, but she didn’t. They still seemed grouchy despite their sugar intake.

The will reader cleared his throat which sounded like gravel under car tires. He coughed and the paper will blew to the floor. He bent down to pick it up. Out of his front suit pocket dropped a small vial of acidic potion that he was suppose to use later for his experiment. The top of the vial popped off and the liquid dripped onto the paper will. Before he could he could respond, the paper caught fire and burned to a crisp before all of their eyes. The will reader looked around the room with embarrassment.

“That’s never happened before!”

He sat down on the chair in bewilderment.

“From what I can remember from reading the will, silently, to myself before it burned… it either said that everything was to go to the butler and the cook or it said that the butler was a crook. Or, maybe it said something to the effect that the cook should butter up the butler. Oh, this is a pickle. I can’t remember anything else.”

“I do believe you mean, we are in a pickle.”

The butler spoke up to correct him. He had a habit of correcting people.

One of the distant relatives finally spoke up.

“There are no pickles here, unless you’re referring to pickle heads that is! The will makes perfect sense to me as my first name is Butler and his name over there is Cook.”

The will reader blinked in confusion and then looked at Gar-Gar, the butler and the cook. Then he looked at the other side of the table at the distant relatives named Butler and Cook and the three kids who still remained nameless. The will reader scratched his head.

“I think I need the restroom, as I’m feeling a bit dizzy.”

He stiffly stepped out to the restroom and down a series of three hallways and he was never to be seen or heard from again. In fact, after that day, he actually quit his job working as a will reader and pursued his career in scientific research instead.

There was a moment of cold silence at the large table…

The distant relative who spoke before, spoke again.

“The conclusion of the matter is that since we are the only people named Butler and Cook, then we have inherited this estate.”

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