Well, this is it! The last leg of NaShoStoMo on the last day of April. I will post the remaining stories throughout the day (while I'm finishing up the last few) and, holding thumbs, I will reach the big 30 by tonight.
Day 30 – April 30 – NaShoStoMo Challenge – Part 1 – Inheritance
“But I visited every month!” Veronica screamed, first at the lawyer and then at Eleazar. “What did you ever do? Sit in this stuffy library? Looked at him while he chewed on that awful pipe of his?”
“I’m sorry.” Eleazar felt his cheeks grow hot. Around him his family was congregated to hear what stood in Uncle Belkan’s will. And it was not what they had expected. “I didn’t know that he had changed his will.” He tapped absentmindedly on the floor with the walking stick in his right hand.
“The bloody cat got more than me! And I visited every month!” Veronica stormed out and slammed the door, followed closely by her parents – his aunt and uncle. He and the lawyer were left alone in the room and, he was surprised to hear, the lawyer chuckled as he got his papers together. With a smiling ‘congratulations’ the lawyer left him alone with his inheritance.
Eleazar sank down into the old leather chair. Behind him was the only window in the room. Or, at least, the only visible one. For to say that his uncle, Belkan, was a prolific book collector, was an understatement. Bookshelves lined the walls of the room, floor to ceiling. The door could barely close. And more books stood in haphazard piles on the floor, coffee table and other chairs that were once sat in. Anna, his aunt, as plain as her name, didn’t want more than one or two on the coffee table in the lounge, so Belkan moved all his books into one room. And here he practically lived. He even had a bar fridge hidden beneath his enormous mahogany desk.
His pipe stood on the table still, its end chewed but only used for image as his uncle never smoked. He also didn’t dare take fire near the room lest a stray spark ignited the whole lot. Eleazar could follow the world’s literature through the ages – starting on the right hand side of the door and meandering through shelves and piles to the present day.
Eleazar stood up. His young hand clenched around the carven head of his walking stick. His felt his cell vibrate in the top pocket of his jacket, but ignored it. This time of mourning should at least be his own. Not interrupted by family members wanting to know when he was going to clean out the old room and sell the books. He walked to the starting point of the collection. Various copies of ancient scrolls and vellum texts stood side by side in notebooks – copied by Belkan’s own hand in his youth.
Soon printed material replaced the texts copied by hand. Editions of sacred texts, literary texts, botany texts, studies in biology and physics...
He ran his fingertips lovingly over the soft leather of the covers. One of the newer books, printed in the nineteenth century, he took from the shelf. It was a thick tome, but small enough to fit into his hand. The old leather felt like silk and the remaining pieces of the title shimmered. Steadying himself against the bookcase, he opened the book slowly, cringing at the creak of the spine. He paged through the deckle-edged pages until he came to one folded in half. He opened it, wanting to smooth the bent page. Folded inside the page, was a hundred dollar note. Eleazar felt his heart skip a beat. Did Balkan know of this? Had he forgotten the money?
He walked to the door and slowly turned the door knob, making sure that the door was locked. The will had stated that the library’s contents was his. Everything in the library. To be used as he saw fit. To pay for an operation to fix his legs. But it didn’t explicitly state that he should sell the books...
He placed the book back on the shelf and took down the one next to it. It was a fluke, surely. But this book had folds in three places. Another three hundred dollars. He looked at the books on the floor. Sure enough, he could faintly make out folds in the pages of the books. One here, two there. He smiled to himself. The movers were set to take the books to his house tomorrow...
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