Dustin Parker sat with his hand caressing the old clock, his mind ranging back to other days. Days spent with his beloved Rebecca and their precious Elizabeth, the apple of his eye. When things were bright and the sunlight still shone in his life. The days before the "accident" that had taken all the light from his life.
The clock had been Becky's first present to him. She had scrimped and saved enough money to send away for this ornate clock claiming that a man as successful as she knew he was going to be should have an elegant clock as a centerpiece for his parlour. Her love, pride, and faith in him had meant so much to him and was the motivator for all the success he had eventually achieved. All that love was symbolized for him by the clock and he had treasured it and it always had a place of pride in a succession of increasingly bigger houses even after they could have afforded something finer.
He smiled as he ran his hands over the old clock. He patted it fondly and slowly got up to put it back in its proper place. "You, my old friend, I know I can trust."
Thunder slowly penetrated Jonathan's sleeping mind. As the downpour rattled against the window of their bedroom he floated just beneath the surface of consciousness and relished the warmth of the blankets and of the form that lay cuddled next to him. The thought of her brought him fully awake. One of his favorite occupations was watching his wife while she slept. These days she was much more of a morning person than he was, often arising before he was awake. That cut down on his Jennifer watching. Of course, he liked watching her when she was awake too but the unguarded sweetness of her sleeping face was so beautiful he could scarcely contain himself. Even after years of marriage he sometimes had a hard time believing she was his, that she accepted his love and loved him in return. "Jonathan, you are one lucky guy" he whispered to himself. Too soon, Jennifer stirred and he reached out to brush her hair back from her eyes and caress her cheek. She responded, moving her head to kiss his palm. Her eyes opened and looked at him with such love that it took his breath away.
"Good morning, beautiful, did you sleep well?" He asked as he reached over to kiss her. He started at that soft spot at the corner of her eye, moved on to the tip of her nose and the corner of her mouth. He stopped there for a second helping before losing himself in the journey down her long beautiful neck.
"I always do when I'm next to you. Mmmm, nice. You bring me the sweetest dreams. If I'd known you were in this kind of mood I would've woke up sooner! Mmmmm" She sighed happily as he continued his amorous exploration of her body, content to let him lead the way. She planned to do a little exploring of her own a little later. But, first things first.
"Uhm, Jonathan? Sweetheart, do you think you could put that thought on hold for a minute?"
"Hmmm? What's wrong?" he answered, not looking up from his task.
"I do hate to be depressingly mundane at a time like this but I gotta go!"
Laughing, he let her up. "Never let it be said I interfered with the Call of Nature."
"You just be ready for the Call of the Wild when I get back!"
AAAWOOooooOOOOooooo! echoed through the dressing rooms and Jonathan smiled.
Basking in the after glow of their passion they lay together quietly, enjoying the closeness and drowsy conversation.
"What time do you have to be at the office today?" Jennifer asked.
"I am still officially on vacation. They don't even know that we're back from our trip yet. I thought we could use a little down time here at home before hitting the front lines again. I know I could. The kind of travelling we do saps a fellow's strength, y'know?"
"It does? You couldn't have proved it by this morning's activities," she teased him gently. "You must have been playing close attention to all that wildlife on our safari. Talk about the call of the wild! I expected you to start swinging on a vine any minute. You Tarzan, me Jane. Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" She smiled dreamily at the memory, drawing circles in his chest hair with her fingers. "I suppose you need a big breakfast after expending so much energy. Max is still in Las Vegas so we will have to forage on our own. Does anything in particular sound good?"
"There is one thing that I would like but it could take a while. What's on your schedule for today? "
"I have an article that I need to work on for Marcia sometime this week but it isn't urgent. I am willing to consider anything you're up to suggesting."
"That sounds like a challenge to me!"
"Well, you're the one with the sapped strength...." Her eyes sparkled at him suggestively.
"Okay, here's the plan. We stay right here all day. Sure, if we want to we can go on a grocery run to the kitchen. But that's all. No telephones, no newspapers, mail, TV, other people or clothes."
"No clothes?"
"Nope, we don't need them. Unless we decide to play Strip Monopoly, Strip Trivial Pursuit, or Strip Whatever. I hereby declare Naked Day!"
"You're on. Sounds like a productive day to me." Jennifer laughed, eyes sparkling with amusement. "Where do you want to start? You know, we haven't given that new washing machine in the "Hart Treatment" yet."
"Hmmmm?" He asked, puzzled.
"You remember, the way we initiate every new piece of furniture or appliance that we bring into the house?"
"Oh yeah. We haven't done that one, have we? Well, it at least has a flat surface. It will have to be more comfortable than that damn dog house we bought for Freeway. And the chimney won't keep falling off either!"
"Washing machines don't have chimneys dear."
"Neither should dog houses!"
"Well, it was your idea to do that one. We wouldn't have had to since it didn't exactly go in the house."
"Well, we didn't exactly initiate it in the house either, did we?" They both smiled at the memory.
"So, you want to go down and see if we can get agitated into a spin cycle?" She proposed.
"Not right now. I don't think we've finished in this room yet. Come here."
"Closer than this?" She wiggled to show him they were already just about as close as two people could get.
"I think I can find a couple ways to get closer," he murmured as he began exploring her body with his lips. The sensual morning combined with his skillful handling had her body singing with sensations almost immediately. He paused and watched her face as the powerful feelings swirled within her like a wave filling a tidal pool. As she began climb to the surface he resumed his stroking. This time she wasn't going to let him send her off alone. She pulled away, pushed him flat on the bed and climbed onto his back, trailing kisses as she massaged her way across his shoulders and down his back to his buttocks. There was a secret little place there where his legs met that cute little rear. She didn't get to see it often, only when he was nude and bent over or walked away from her in a certain way. For some reason these shy, tender little bits of untanned skin did wicked things to her libido. She loved to kiss and nip and caress there. She focused her attention on that area until she she was returned to reality by the sound of Jonathan moaning her name. Turning him over she kissed him tenderly on the lips and assumed one of their favorite positions. He needed no further encouragement. They came together in a frenzy of rocking movements that seemed to continue even after they had both reached the heights of pleasure.
In fact, even after the haze of pleasure began to recede from their minds some things that shouldn't be moving seemed to be doing a dance all their own and the house was making strange creaking noises.
"Jonathan, did the earth just move for you?"
"You too, huh? Damn, I knew we were good together but this is ridiculous."
"Do you think it really was an earthquake?"
"I don't know what else could have shook the house up this way. Maybe we ought to go check on things." As they got out of bed the earth trembled again, shaking the house. They heard breaking glass downstairs and more omnious creaking noises.
"Jonathan, I have a bad feeling about this."
"You're not the only one. Let's get out of here!"
"Darling, I think this should be an exception to the no clothes rule. I'm not going out there without shoes and we'd better dress in case we can't get back in safely."
"Party Pooper!"
"Do you want to explain Naked Day to the police or whoever comes to fix the house?"
"Well, when you put it that way."
There were no more big shocks but the small aftershocks came fairly regularly for a while making walking down stairs seem like a ride at the carnival. They had to descend by the back stairs because when they came out of their room they could see broken glass and tree limbs covering the landing area. What they saw from the outside was worse.
"Oh Jonathan!" Jennifer cried as she surveyed the damage to their beautiful home.
A large tree had fallen across the porch and taken out the dining room windows and had broken out the several of the stones from the dining room wall. Not good since that was a supporting wall. It had been a big tree. The porch roof had fallen completely. The tree had knocked down two pillars and the one one the far end seemed to have crumbled on it's own initiative. The remaining pillar hadn't had a chance. While it had not fallen, it was no longer holding up any part of the roof. The rest of the house wasn't so bad but a lot of windows had broken out and the arborlike carport area had fallen over and buried the cars.
They stood holding each other, looking at the wreckage.
"Well, I guess Naked Day is over. It doesn't look like we'll get to that washing machine today, after all." Jonathan said regretfully.
"Although we did get the benefit of the agitation and spin cycles! Oh Jonathan, can you imagine what would have happened if that tree had fallen in that direction," she asked, pointing toward their bedroom window. "It would have come all the way into the room and landed right on us. In that position everyone would have known what we were doing when we died!" She was blushing just thinking about it.
"I don't know, I can think of worse ways to go and besides, they'd probably just be jealous.
"Oh you!"
They walked carefully around the wreckage of the front porch, stopping by the pillar farthest away from the fallen tree. Even though the pillar had shattered halfway down its length there didn't seem to be as much rubble here as there was around the others.
Jonathan moved in to take a closer look. "Jennifer! Look at this. No wonder this pillar crumbled even without the tree hitting it. It's hollow."
"Hollow? Are you sure? Why would the builders have made one hollow and the others solid?" She came over and looked down into the recess. "Wait a minute! Look at this." She reached down into the hollow space and lifted up a yellowed envelope.
Inside, over coffee, the Harts examined the letter.
"Should we open it?" Jennifer asked.
"That's they only way we're ever going to find out what it's all about."
"But, it's not addressed to us. Maybe it's something very private."
"Jennifer, where are your journalistic instincts? Don't you want to know what's in there? Whoever put that envelope inside the pillar is long gone. Besides, we own the house now and that means whatever is inside is ours too. Just open it."
"Okay, here goes." She tore open the envelope and took out a single sheet of paper. She read the hand written document out loud.
To whom it may concern.
I, Duncan Parker, being sound in mind and body, do hereby revoke any previous will made by or for me, in favor of leaving no will at all. This letter is to attest to my reasons for doing so.
I have changed my mind. My remaining relatives, such as they are, have shown no interest in knowing about me or my family or my life. All they are interested in is my money and how much they will get when I die. Greed is such an evil thing. Another's greed and lust for what was not his cost me what I treasured most. I let that loss posess me until money and revenge were all I lived for. That sad truth shames me. My girls deserved a better memorial.
As I approach the end of my life I am reminded of something I knew long ago. Money means nothing. Money cannot bring you happiness, it cannot heal your wounds and it cannot replace the precious experience of living and loving and making your own way through life. I have come to despise my money. I know my eager young relatives will not see this as a kindness but I mean it as such. Since they are only interested in the money and not in real reasons and motivations I had for building this fortune I am going to do them all a great favor and leave them nothing in the fond hope that they will find and keep, as I failed to do, the greatest gift life can give ... true love and that it will move them to find thier own fortunes. I have destroyed all copies of my last legal will. Let them fight the state for what money is still there. It's unimportant.
I am secreting this note in the pillar in the hopes that some future owner of this house will find it and act on it. Before you, my future friends, I place a challenge. In this house I have hidden a great deal of money. If you can solve the riddle then the money is yours. Seeing as only a rich man would be able to afford to live here I guess more money won't corrupt you. It's either too late for you or you already know about the most precious gift this life can offer.
Dustin Parker
August 3, 1966
Hands covering my face I stand alone
running even though I have no feet.
Measuring what cannot be seen or held
but in passing can be keenly felt.
Age brings wisdom, adding a rich patina
Surround yourself with knowledge to
Do not judge by my appearance
Others have more value
For he who hid my secrets
Treasured not for dollar value
"Wow," Jennifer said as she stopped reading.
"Wow is right. What do you make of all that?"
"I wonder who he was? Maybe the realtor we bought the house from can tell us something. If not, I bet the newspaper archives at the library would have something in the files about a very rich man who died intestate. I wonder...."
"Uh oh, I recognize that look."
"What look?" The look that says you aren't going to let go of this until you have solved this little riddle and know exactly who Mr Duncan Parker was."
"Oh, that look." She nodded. " I can't just walk away from a story like this in our own house. That would go directly against all my investigative instincts. Nancy Drew would probably come and give me nightmares!"
" I can see it now. You'll end up knocking on the walls looking for more secret passageways and you'll be distracted by that riddle for weeks."
"Surely not that long, especially if you help me."
"Me!"
"Yes you! You don't think I recognize your looks too? This has stirred up your Hardy boy persona and you want to solve it as much as I do."
"Well, it could be kind of interesting..." he trailed off with a challenging sparkle in his eye. "Partners, Nancy?"
"Sure thing, Frank!"
The two shook hand to cement their new project.
find my secret place and when we meet
but look beyond my face.
but none my worth can replace.
loved me best of all his things.
but for fun and love of memories that I bring.
