Envelope in a hand

Ava had to get back to Brent Atwell. If she hid out in the Ladies Room any longer he’d be coming in to look for her. She splashed cold water on her face, patted it dry with some paper toweling and headed back to his office.

Ava knocked softly at his door. The door swung open so fast it nearly sucked her into the room. “Are you alright?” asked an anguished Brent Atwell, “I didn’t mean to upset you earlier.”

For a moment Ava felt sorry for this great hulk of a man. He was so strong physically and yet obviously possessed of a soft underbelly to his personality. “I really need to be getting home,” said Ava, “Can we finish this?”

What Ava really needed to get home to was her bed. From early childhood she’d always made a beeline to her bed and hidden under the covers when deeply distressed. Not having a real mother of her own, her bed became her substitute mother offering her the only nurturing she had known. Right now Ava needed her mother, she needed her bed.

“Certainly, yes, of course,” replied Brent picking up the envelope he’d asked Ava about twenty minutes earlier. “Now, I think its safe to say you’ve seen this before,” Ava nodded. “Do you know what’s in it?” he asked.

“No,” said Ava, “Chris and I.”  And here Ava paused not knowing how to say it. “Well we cut our evening short before the envelope came up in conversation” She felt no need to reveal to Brent Atwell why she and Chris hadn’t gotten around to talking about the envelope. “And then the next day Chris was gone.”

Brent proceeded to explain how the envelope had turned up months after Chris’ untimely death. That it was found in a pocket of a jacket hanging in his closet when his clothes were being readied for Goodwill. Once it came into Brent Atwell’s possession he immediately set to contacting Ava Land. But for weeks she’d refused to respond to any of his phone messages. It took that Special Delivery letter to her this morning to get Ava Land into his office.

Brent Atwell opened the envelope and pulled out the contents taking his time unfolding the sheets of paper before reaching over his acre of desktop to lay them before Ava. “This is a deed to a property,” he said, “A property you own.” Brent looked directly at Ava to assess her reaction. There wasn’t one. Ava sat there looking at him apparently not understanding a word he’d said to her.

“Miss Land? Do you understand what I just said?” asked Atwell. Ava was faraway remembering what happened between she and Chris that last night before he died.

Brent Atwell cleared his throat speaking a little louder and slower as one tended to do with a person hard of hearing, “Apparently Christian Graber purchased a property and put it in your name,” said Brent Atwell.

Ava jumped to her feet, “I don’t want it! This has nothing to with me,” she shouted.

“Legally the property belongs to you Miss Land,” said Atwell.

“I told you, I don’t want it. Just - just put it with all of Chris’s other property and leave me out of this,” said Ava growing more agitated.

Brent Atwell sat back in his leather chair and paused. Taking a deep breath he began to speak slowly but decisively explaining that legally the deed to this property could not be “put in” with the rest of Chris’s assets.

“Look,” he said, his English accent more pronounced now that he was intensely focused on the matter at hand.”You don’t have to keep the property. Put it on the market and sell it. You can do whatever you want with it.”

“No - no,” she said. Guilt was strangling Ava. “I don’t want the land and I don’t want the money that comes from the sale of the land.”

Brent Atwell pushed the point. He explained to Ava that if she did nothing with the property, especially not pay the taxes on it, that in 3 to 5 years it would be taken by the county government and sold off for back taxes. He felt that would be a shame and told her so. “You have to think of what Chris would want,” he said. “Take some time and think about it. There’s no rush.”

With that Brent ventured around his desk. Tucking the deed back into the envelope he placed it in Ava’s hand. Skillfully he steered Ava through the doorway towards the elevator.

“What part of the city is this property located in?” mumbled Ava.

“Oh its not in the city,” said Brent Atwell, “Its located out in the country. Near a small farming town called Eden.”

Ava stared into Brent Atwell’s face but saw nothing. It was as though she’d gone temporarily blind. “Why would Chris buy property out in the country and put it in my name?” Ava asked. The elevator softly pinged right before the doors opened.

“I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to that,” said Brent Atwell, “I should think Chris assumed you’d understand why.”

Right before the elevator doors closed between Ava Land and Brent Atwell she blurted out, “But I don’t!”