A New Chapter

“How much you willing to pay per word?”, the next writer would always ask. It felt as though the rate routinely went up. A sports column. An op-ed. Fantasies and science fictions. The daily beat. It all cost a fortune to print. It soon became apparent to Hal that people just weren’t willing to pay like they used to.

Few would have ever believed that Gaville Publishing would shutter its doors. The publisher had stock of the most cogent commentary, insightful journalism, and mind bending tall tales in a generation. All till those blasted splash pages, centerfolds, and comics changed everything. He never thought pictures of all these high falutin flights of fancy would be his undoing.

Gaville stood as the town’s cornerstone of the written word. Wild imaginations afforded by the Gaville family riches found plumbing the depths of the Earth for all it deemed precious. Imaginations and innovations that went as dry as the ground without the late Hal Gaville Sr at the helm.

The wrought iron gates seemed to bemoan the who’s who of mourners arriving. They grimly toddled along the red velvet ropes, up the winding driveway, around the ivy covered library, and finally graced the view of the sullen nods and waves of the Gaville family from their courtyard seats. The mourners were then briskly led out the manor’s turnstile guard post. The paltry last generation of this fallen pillar of the community stood like a blanched family portrait just soaking in the public’s somber disbelief.

The most beloved among them stood out front at the estate’s ornate roundabout and collected flowers from the procession. Emily Gaville was an undeniable warmth that consoled and melted even the most callous heart. A most callous heart that once was Hal Gaville himself. Afterall, he once was a shrewd rascal challenged by fair wage protests and union fights in his early days.

As the story goes, a widowed staff writer who was at wit’s end broke the old camel’s back by forcing Emily, her first bundle of joy, into Hal’s callous hands. The devil found his hands of no use after that. Raised with unabashed frankness ever since, this child would mature into some of the most lively office visits. Her brash honesty even made her mother blush and endangered her job from time to time. The Gaville dynasty was then brought into being, as marriage to this staff writer and children of his own would soon follow.

However, none of his children quite stood up to his demeanor as well as Emily. The brash young lady would goad him into bawdy stories even more outlandish than the last. Over the years, his own family would grow tired of the upteenth version of the upteenth telling. Hal would carry this on and exasperate himself with the tallest of tales as if he were running out of time. Cancer would have eventually proved him right and brought all his loved ones around him this very day. Loved ones that had not quite learned or appreciated the life lessons he had from Emily.

Just this morning, the Gaville family had met for the reading of the will. A sour taste was still left in their mouths as soon as little more than shares of the property were divied up evenly to the family. The little more was twenty of Hal Gaville’s favorite stories written in a black velveteen jacketed book. A collective groan was made as they couldn’t give the book to Emily fast enough.

“Get that thing out of my sight. If you don’t want it then please burn it. For the sake of humanity.”

“Do they realize he left us this house with not a pot to piss in? Are you offended? I’m offended.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. The estate is settled and will be fine for decades.”

“We’ll eat the floor boards then.”

“Would have been nice to have had some say on the estate’s affairs. It’s as if he didn’t trust us.”

“He didn’t. I wouldn’t.”

“I beg your pardon? Speak for yourself.”

“You know I’m not living on this property, right? Are you?”

“I don’t want to hear it. Not a single word.”

“Lemme tell ya’ what you can do with that book, Emily.”

Emily laughed and had been hugging the black book close to her all morning. When she first lay eyes on it she quickly flipped through the book and gleefully scanned the pages. She gasped and couldn’t believe her eyes. Not only had her familiar favorites made the cut, but she noticed some ornate “bookmarks” throughout. Given a closer look, her eyes grew wider and wider as she realized that these were no bookmarks at all, but from a federal credit union. They were none other than checks for $1,000 dollars inserted at the end of each story. Emily slapped the book shut with a Cheshire grin and squeaked with glee.

“I really think this is going to start a new chapter in my life.”, Emily sighed.

The Gaville family rolled their eyes and kept listlessly waving at the parting mourners.

“Go for it, kiddo. Write all the nonsense you’d like. But keep in mind that a picture is worth a thousand words.”