Last Will and Testament
When her beloved husband died in a tragic traffic accident, twenty-six-year-old Judith Wilkerson vowed she would be both mother and father to their infant daughter. The grieving widow was true to her word, abandoning her own dreams and ambitions in order to make the girl's childhood as happy as possible. The devoted mother dutifully assumed the presidency of the local PTA and acted as leader of her daughter's Girl Scout troop. Throughout Lacy's school years, Judith could always be counted on to help organize a fundraiser, bake cupcakes for a class party, chauffeur the girl to gymnastics and ballet lessons and chaperone a school dance or a class field trip.
After high school graduation, Lacy Wilkerson left Puritan Falls to attend college in southern California. For four long years, Judith eagerly awaited her daughter's return, all the while working a second job to pay the girl's tuition and room and board expenses. At the end of Lacy's senior year, the proud mother flew to the West Coast to attend the commencement exercises. The ceremony over, the graduate cheerfully announced that she had been offered a part in a new Lifetime movie.
"It's just a small role, but who knows what it can lead to?"
"That's wonderful, darling!" her mother proudly exclaimed. "It will be quite an experience for you, just as long as the film is completed before you begin law school."
The smile immediately disappeared from Lacy's face.
"I've decided not to go to Harvard, after all. I'm going to remain here and pursue an acting career."
"But I thought you wanted to be a lawyer," her mother said, crushed by the news.
"Get real, Mom!" Lacy exclaimed, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "I never wanted to practice law. I only said I did because that was what you wanted me to do. My father was a lawyer, and you wanted me to follow in his footsteps."
Judith's heart sank, not just because her daughter would not be pursuing a law degree but also because she would be staying in Los Angeles.
"I suppose you're right," she conceded. "It's your life. If you want to be an actress, then I wish you all the best. I'm going to miss you terribly, but I want you to follow your dreams."
Despite her disappointment, Judith promised to give Lacy the money from her husband's life insurance policy, which she had invested and put aside for Harvard.
"You're going to need money to live on until you can support yourself with your acting."
When Judith returned to Massachusetts three days later, the big house on Atlantic Avenue, which had always been warm and welcoming, seemed eerily empty and unbearably lonely.
"What you need to do is get out and meet people," fellow teacher April Brower advised.
"But I know plenty of people," Judith insisted, although the friends she had were the parents of Lacy's former classmates or people whom she met at soccer games and PTA meetings.
"Oh? How many single men your age do you know?"
"None, and I'm not really interested in meeting any. At my age, the last thing I want is a romantic entanglement."
"What do you mean 'at your age'? You're only forty-five. Face facts, Judy: your daughter is on her own now, and your nest is empty. What do you want to do with the rest of your life? Watch television and read those dreadful Yvette Delacroix romance novels?"
Judith knew April was right, but how was she to go about looking for a suitable man? She had no desire to hang out at the local bars or join an online dating service.
Surprisingly, fate stepped in and placed the perfect man in her path. Ross Freeman was a handsome, intelligent and personable middle-aged bachelor, an architect who had amassed a small fortune by creating affordable condominiums out of former hospitals, schools and factories.
The relationship started slowly: an occasional dinner, a movie, a concert or a day sailing on Ross's cabin cruiser. Neither one pressured the other for something more than a close friendship, but Judith suspected it was only a matter of time before they took the first steps toward intimacy.
* * *
As Christmas approached, the middle-aged couple got caught up in the holiday social whirlwind. Although Judith enjoyed all the seasonal parties and get-togethers, she hoped that the two of them would be able to spend Christmas Eve alone in front of the fireplace, watching the Yule log burn down and listening to Christmas carols on the stereo. Her romantic plans fell through when, early on the afternoon of December twenty-fourth, her daughter unexpectedly came home from California.
"My money ran out," Lacy confessed.
Her mother was taken aback. How could she have gone through a quarter of a million dollars in a little over eighteen months' time? Still, Judith did not reprimand the girl for her extravagance and careless spending habits. As long as Lacy was happy, that was all that mattered to her.
Although the unexpected homecoming put an end to Judith's plans for a romantic Christmas for two, it was a joyous holiday nonetheless. Even at such short notice, she was able to prepare an excellent meal for three. After coffee and dessert, the mother and daughter found themselves alone together in the kitchen.
"What do you think of him?" Judith asked, referring to Ross, who was in the living room lighting a fire.
"He's not bad looking for a man his age. Has he got any money?" Lacy asked rudely.
"Not that it's any of your business, but yes. He's quite wealthy."
"I like him then."
As Judith enjoyed a festive Christmas Eve with the two people she cared most about in the world, she never guessed that her twenty-three-year-old daughter regarded Ross Freeman as anything but a potential stepfather. She was flabbergasted and inconsolable, then, when she received word on New Year's Day that Lacy and Ross had flown to Las Vegas and gotten married.
Despite her own shattered dreams, Judith held no hard feelings toward the bride and groom. Still, notwithstanding her lack of rancor, the new mother-in-law could not bear to see the man she had grown to love playing the dutiful, affectionate husband to her own daughter. When Lacy announced that she and Ross were planning on residing in Puritan Falls, Judith sold her house and relocated to her birthplace, York, Pennsylvania.
Years passed. When the Freemans were not travelling around the world on expensive vacations, Lacy spent a good deal of her husband's money on designer clothes, shoes and handbags. Her love of luxurious things was well known in the little Massachusetts town, and she soon gained the nickname "the poor man's Paris Hilton."
Meanwhile, Judith led a rather quiet, solitary life in Pennsylvania, dividing her time between teaching eighth grade mathematics and volunteering at a local no-kill animal shelter four days a week. Aside from the obligatory birthday, Christmas and Mother's Day greeting cards, she had little contact with her daughter and son-in-law.
Then, almost ten years after that fateful New Year's Day, Judith learned she had cancer. Preparing for the worst, while praying for the best, she put her townhouse in Pennsylvania on the market and made arrangements to return to Puritan Falls. If modern medicine failed her, she wanted to be near her daughter when she died.
* * *
"Damn it!" Lacy swore and tossed her mother's letter aside.
"What's wrong?" Ross asked.
"My mother's sick—cancer—and she's moving back to Massachusetts. She's asked Jacqueline Astor, the real estate agent, to find her an apartment in either Puritan Falls or Copperwell."
"I think we should invite her to move in with us. We've got more than enough room."
"Are you kidding? I don't want her living here, especially if she's dying. Ugh! How depressing!"
It was left to Ross to help Judith during her illness. He not only helped her move into her new home, but he also drove her to and from the hospital and her doctor's office; and when her condition worsened, he hired a full-time nurse to care for her.
During his mother-in-law's final days, Ross visited her daily. Having once been close, the two had a lot to talk about. Invariably, though, the conversation turned to Lacy, and he found it necessary to make excuses for his wife's absence.
"You needn't apologize for my daughter," Judith said, pretending that Lacy's lack of devotion was not breaking her heart. "She's always been uncomfortable around sick people. I know that deep down her heart is in the right place."
When Judith Wilkerson passed away six months after returning to Puritan Falls, however, all Lacy felt was relief.
* * *
As the mourners walked away from D'Agostino's Funeral Home, a short, stocky man with curly dark hair and an unshaven face approached Lacy Freeman. After offering his condolences, he took a business card out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her. The card identified the unkempt man as Omar Applebee, Attorney at Law.
"I represent your late mother," he announced.
"My mother hired a lawyer?" Lacy asked with disbelief. "Whatever for?"
"To draw up her will."
"Why would my mother need a will?" she asked with a laugh that was inappropriate considering her surroundings. "She didn't own anything, not even the proverbial pot to piss in."
"Nevertheless, your mother had a will, and you were named in it. If you would call my office at a convenient time, we can schedule an appointment for the reading."
It was more out of curiosity than a belief she would inherit anything of value that Lacy phoned Applebee's office. The appointment was scheduled for late in the evening, long after normal business hours. The shabby little office, tucked away behind the Days Gone By antique shop on Gloucester Street, was not what Lacy had expected of a lawyer—not a successful one anyway.
"Did you just start your practice?" she asked when she sat in the well-worn chair in front of Mr. Applebee's second-hand desk.
"No, why do you ask?"
"You don't have any file cabinets or law books. I didn't even see a desk for your secretary."
"My operations are more streamlined than those of other lawyers. I keep all my records in here," he said, tapping the side of his head with his index finger.
"I'll bet the IRS just loves that."
"Shall we begin?" the lawyer asked, taking a document out of a torn manila envelope on top of his desk.
"Sure, I'm anxious to get this over with. I want to stop at the mall on my way home."
"The terms of the will are simple," Mr. Applebee announced. "You are the sole beneficiary of your mother's estate. She bequeathed everything to you, her daughter."
"And what exactly did she leave me?" Lacy asked impatiently.
"The contents of her apartment: her clothing, family photographs, jewelry, books, furnishings, linens, dishware ...."
Lacy had heard enough.
"Thanks, Mr. Applebee, but no thanks," she said arrogantly and then left the small, untidy office, got into her late-model Jaguar and headed for the Puritan Falls Mall.
* * *
Several times during the next two weeks, Judith Wilkerson's landlord tried to contact Lacy in regard to clearing her mother's belongings out of the apartment. Finally, Ross took the unpleasant task upon himself. One Saturday morning he drove to the Essex Street home with a stack of cardboard cartons and a roll of packing tape. He began in the bedroom, placing his mother-in-law's clothes in boxes to be donated to the Good Will.
When he started emptying the bookshelves in the living room, he was overcome with emotion. He remembered the good times he and Judith had enjoyed, the quiet dinners, the long talks and the comfortable silences. At one time he gave serious thought to marrying her. That was before Lacy entered his life with the force of a tsunami, pursuing him with the single-minded determination of Captain Ahab hunting Moby-Dick.
What if Lacy hadn't run out of money and returned from California, putting aside her dreams of stardom to marry me?
Ross sighed with resignation, not wanting to question his choices more closely. What was done was done, after all. There was no remedying the mistakes of the past.
* * *
"I finished cleaning out your mother's apartment," Ross announced when he walked through the front door of his elegant Danvers Street home.
"Good. Now that landlord will stop hounding me," his wife replied.
"You might at least thank me."
"Why? I didn't ask you to do it. The landlord could have just thrown all her stuff in the dumpster, for all I care."
Ross did not want to argue with his wife, especially so soon after her mother's passing. Instead, he reached into his pocket and took out a small velvet jeweler's box.
"I dropped everything off at the Good Will store, except this. I thought you might want to have it."
Lacy opened the box, took one look at the ring inside, snapped the box shut and returned it to her husband.
"I doubt it's worth much."
"It was your mother's wedding ring. Surely, it has some sentimental value."
The bored look on his wife's face said it all: Lacy didn't care about the ring. She didn't care about her mother. She didn't care about anything or anyone but herself.
Ross frowned and put the blue velvet box back in his pocket.
"I'll keep it then. I always liked Judith."
"I'm sure you did," Lacy said snidely.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"You should have married my mother when you had the chance. She was more your type, and she was certainly more your age."
It was the first time Lacy had ever spoken of the difference in their ages, and the implication that he was too old for her stung Ross. Despite his normally easy-going nature, he retaliated.
"I do believe you're right, my dear wife. I should have married your mother. If I had, I'm sure my life would have been much happier."
Acting in what she believed to be her own best interest—as always—Lacy decided to apologize to her husband, or at least smooth things over between them. She did not love Ross, but she did love being married to him.
Why wouldn't I? she thought. He's filthy rich.
Later that evening, wearing her most alluring perfume (and little else), she walked up behind her pouting spouse and wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Don't be mad at me," she whispered in his ear. "I hate it when we fight."
Ross turned around and embraced her.
"I don't want to argue either."
To add a crowning touch to the tender scene, Lacy reached into her husband's pocket and removed the jeweler's box.
"I think I'll keep this ring after all. I'll even wear it in remembrance of my dear mother."
When she placed the simple gold band on the ring finger of her right hand, a chill engulfed Lacy, and she shivered.
"I hope it's my kiss that caused that reaction," her husband laughed softly.
"I feel ... odd."
"In what way?"
"What's that old cliché? I feel like someone is walking on my grave."
* * *
The change was not immediate. Lacy did not suddenly see the error of her ways and turn over the proverbial new leaf. On the contrary, the transformation was much more subtle. Within a few months, however, the result was quite noticeable. Gone were the expensive shoes, the designer handbags, the slinky dresses, the tight-fitting pants and the low-cut tops The heavy makeup was toned down, and the hair was a softer, more natural-looking shade of blond.
The greatest change though was in Lacy's personality. Where once she was acerbic, truculent and self-centered, she was now kind, compassionate and thoughtful, more like ....
More like her mother, Ross thought.
A smile spread across his face. Yes, Lacy was becoming more like Judith every day, a fact that pleased him greatly.
Being an intelligent man, one not prone to flights of fantasy, he naturally assumed guilt, grief or a combination of the two had been responsible for his wife's change of heart. The idea that something completely out of the ordinary had transpired never occurred to him. His only concern was that the new and improved Lacy Freeman would revert back to her old self.
Although he did not know it, Ross had no cause for worry. The provisions of Judith Wilkerson's last will and testament had been written in blood and tears rather than ink, and the mysterious Omar Applebee would make sure the mother's wishes were carried out to the letter.
When the ungrateful daughter's personality was finally fully assimilated by her mother's, Omar brushed the crumbs from his wrinkled suit and smiled with satisfaction. His job was done, and he vacated the small office tucked behind the antique shop on Gloucester Street. As he walked away from Puritan Falls, he smiled at the irony of the situation. Lacy Freeman, a greedy young woman who thought only of material goods, was convinced her mother owned nothing of value. But in terms of love, kindness and simple human decency, Judy Wilkerson had been a very wealthy woman.
Salem, whatever made you bequeath your first life to Angelina Jolie?
