CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
I spend a good half hour tearing apart the house. I've been frantic, running around and trying to decide what to take with me before the tyrant attorney strips me of everything. Until it hits me: Where the hell do I even expect to take everything? To the Peace Hunters' hideout? Uh-I don't think so. Leave it behind with Mario, so he can give it all to Edwin? Maybe, I suppose.
Everything I come across I consider equally significant. I can't seem to separate what's symbolic and meaningful from everyday items that hold no true sentimental value. At one point I find myself contemplating between the mug Estelle always used for her morning coffee and an opened carton of pancake mix she used the last morning she made me breakfast.
The doorbell rings and I set the mug and carton on the counter, and hurry over from the kitchen, expecting Dakota and Perry. Instead, a burly man in a navy uniform polo and jeans is standing there holding a small cardboard box in his hands.
"Are you Mr. Greene?"
"Yeah..."
"I have a delivery for you." He holds out the box. "These are..." He checks the label on the side of the box. "The ashes of Estelle Greene."
I can't move my lips. I can only stare at the simple, ordinary brown box. This is what she's been reduced to. He hands me the box. My mind suddenly goes blank.
"I'm sorry for your loss," the guy says before turning around and walking away.
My grief tries to weigh me down, and for a moment I think it may succeed in taking over me once again. But then I remember everyone who visited me and remember what they each told me. I remember what I promised Leyla.
I hurry up to Bud and Estelle's room. Dakota and Perry will be here any minute, and I want to do at least one thing before they arrive. I grab the double-helix urn that holds Bud's ashes on one, twist open the cap to the empty side, and shake Estelle's ashes into it. My hands are shaking so much I almost spill them.
I glance up at the photo of Bud and Estelle in their twenties at the Great Wall of China. "I promise you guys ... if I make it out of this alive, I'll spread your ashes there just like you wanted." I kiss the two sides of the urn and tell them, "Look out for me, okay?"
The doorbell peals again. I set the urn beside the photo to remind me to take them with me to Mario's house, and sprint downstairs.
Perry's and Dakota's silhouettes are shaded behind the glass. I open the door.
Dakota barges past me and asks, "So what's this major news?"
"Don't worry about me," I answer sarcastically. "I'm good. I've been all right since you left. Thanks for asking."
She rolls her eyes. "Come on, let it out."
"Yeah, what's going on?" Perry asks, holding a medium-sized filing box in his arms.
I shut the door, walk over to the dining table and grab the folder containing the Will. I walk back over to Perry, and toss it on top of the box. "Read for yourself."
He walks over to the table and sets down the box. He scans the document in silence, and then slaps it against his thigh in disbelief. "You're kidding me?"
"No joke," I grin.
"What is it?" Dakota asks, snatching it from his hand.
"Turns out Bud and Estelle left him everything!" He gives me a friendly, assuring hug. "What a relief. This is great news. I'm really happy for you."
