Aaron 6

When Aaron was still eighteen a voice came to him. It said “Are you insane?”

And Aaron said “It’s no big deal.”

“It’s ten million dollars. Are you aware of how much money that is?”

“Not as much as four hundred million. Besides, it’s the least we can do after all this time. And we only need 365 million for controlling interest. I did my research.”

“Did you now?”

Aaron paused, then spoke. “Yes I did, Mr. Grimes.”

There was a long pause, much longer than usual. Finally the voice spoke. “I see that you have indeed done your research. Just don’t forget who’s in charge.”

Aaron said “I haven’t so far.”

Another pause. “I’m not sure I like your tone,”

“It’s just the teenager in me” said Aaron. “It will wear off soon enough. After all, we’re involved in a serious business with serious people, people who need to take me seriously. And like I said, I’ve done my research. I won’t mess this up.” 

The voice paused once again, and said “Just make sure that you don’t.”

It’s been a week, and Alice’s head is still spinning. They spent three days in San Francisco so that  Aaron could claim his “inheritance”, then he sent her home alone. And now three days later she sat on their cheap couch in their small apartment looking at her phone. At her bank balance. At all the extra digits. She was scared and happy and confused and excited and frightened. This can’t be real, she thought. Any minute now the cops are going to bust down her door and take her away. Any minute now, you watch.

She sat there all day, and then all night, and into the next day. No one called, no one knocked on her door. She dared to wonder what would happen if she looked out her wood framed window with the peeling paint. Would she see the SWAT team surrounding her building? Would she see men covertly talking into their collars? Should she even look out the window?

She continued to sit. She should be getting ready for work. She should be making coffee and preparing breakfast and picking out something to wear. She should be washing her face and brushing her teeth and finding her shoes and checking on the plants and grabbing her purse and making her bed and getting Aaron ready for school. Wait, he graduated. No school for Aaron. Then what? She didn’t know. She was up all night looking at her phone, at the bank balance with too many digits. Is this for real? She was never so unsure of what to do next as she was right then.

The phone rang in her hands, making her jump hard enough to send it flying. After checking her heart she scrambled half way across the bare wooden floor for it, hoping it wasn’t broken. She flipped it over and saw it was Aaron! Quick, she thought, answer it before you lose it. Somehow her shaking finger found the call button. She put it to her ear and said a little too quickly “Hello Aaron?”

“Yes, I see the money. But how?”

“You promise you’ll tell me everything?”

“Away? How long?”

“Okay. I guess you know what you’re doing. But it’s all so sudden.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“When you do you’ve got a lot to explain.”

“Okay. I trust you and love you too. Don’t you forget me. And be careful. I don’t know what you’re doing but I hope I raised you to be smart enough not to spend all that money in one place. And stay away from the strip clubs. And don’t go drinking and doing drugs or staying out late. You know that’s bad news. And don’t trust anyone.”

“Okay, bye bye, and I love you.”

She hung up the phone and let it fall back to the floor. She let it settle in that all those extra digits were real and she was set for life. She could quit her go-nowhere job and get a much better home in a much better neighborhood, and even get a car. She could get much better food and and much better clothing in much better stores, and not the Alls-Mart and thrift stores she’d become all too comfortable with. She could live simply, gardening out front, swimming pool in the back, and margaritas on the porch. And she could do these things and not have to worry about the electricity bill or the rent bill or the food bill or the clothing bills and school supplies and all the other things that made living a struggle.

Something  began to blossom in her chest, and when it bloomed she let out a scream that scared the neighbors.