When I inherited my great-uncle’s fortune, I quit my job at the drycleaners, but I kept driving my thirdhand Nissan. I didn’t stop shopping for housewares at Twice But Nice, and I even renewed the lease on my two-bedroom walk-up on Standard Street.
I had just started dating Steve, my car mechanic, and I didn’t want him to catch on about my fortuitous avalanche. Not until he quit dating his almost-ex. Not until he elected to spend all his weekends with me. Until he understood and accepted that I didn’t want to be wedlocked nor did I want kids, and he didn’t choose to leave me for either of those reasons like the last two guys I dated. I had to keep my windfall off his radar till he hung all his shirts in my closet, and set up his flat screen TV. At that stage, I couldn’t continue the looking-for-another-job charade I’d maintained over the last year, something that felt super pointless when I could do whatever I pleased every day of the week.
So, we’re having our breakfast bowls of Cream of Wheat before Steve leaves for work at Import Specialists, and he’s scrolling through YouTube clips on his phone for the latest on Trump indictments.
“Guess what!” I pipe up.
Rachel Maddow has bombshell news out of Fulton County. Something about charges against eighteen defendants along with Trump.
“Steve, you listening? I came into some money.”
Maddow is yapping on.
“A LOT of money…Are you listening?”
“Yeah, what?”
“I said I came into money gonna last a long time.”
Steve pauses the clip and looks up at me. “You win the lottery or something?”
I craft my explanation so it sounds like the windfall happened just this week: bachelor–real estate—no sibs, no kids then Steve’s on his feet, arms around me. How long is a long time, he asks, giving me a bear hug. Will I be a plump matron with a poodle perm before it runs out? A silver-haired biddy who covers her couch in plastic, one foot in the grave? That long?
I laugh and push him away. He laughs, too. He’s trying to grab and kiss me some more. That’s the best part of all. Steve can’t keep his hands off of me. The sun is pouring in like gold, and we’re both giddy as all get-out.
He’s got to get his lunch packed, so he’s at the counter folding together a cheese sandwich, pickle and soda for lunch, facing his day under the bellies of stockbrokers’ Fiat Coupés. And I’m finally facing the freedom to outright daydream. I can spend the whole day in my bathrobe and not justify it to anybody. Not cook up some cockamamie story about getting rejected for a hostess position at Café Hollander. Speaking of cooking, which I despise, I can take us out to dinner. It’s a new kind of liberty–I can do or buy whatever I want! Shall I buy a bungalow? A Victorian Tudor in Kallick Heights, the best part of town? How about a different town? Or a town for each season? Key West in the winters, Switzerland for summers. Maybe I’ll get a couple of Himalayan cats and a Dalmatian. Maybe three Dalmatians and hire a staff to walk them, take them to their vet appointments.
Then I happen to overhear my boyfriend at the bathroom sink brushing his teeth, and a cold nausea washes over me. Steve is humming a jaunty tune, and smacking his toothbrush against the sink. Just like my father used to do; I heard him when I’d wake up at bartime and he was home from the Bakeland Casino. Faucet on, faucet off; the smell of Irish Spring there in the kitchen outside my room while he hummed some charming little ditty. Every spoonful of that Cream of Wheat threatens to fill my mouth.
I always knew when my father won a round of Omaha Hold ‘Em.
Image: Google images. A picture of a Will form with a fountain pen laid across it.
literally stories 
Great stuff. Lovely narration with a ‘Be careful what you wish for’ ending.
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Thank you, Mick —–
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Shoshauna
I heard Lauper singing “Money Changes Everything” in my mind when I read this. And I bet it does. The little reveal connecting her past to the present is well placed. I imagine that having loot makes you paranoid–who is my friend? Where did everyone come from? Not that I’d know, but I imagine such happens.
Good work!
Leila
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Leila – Back when videos were a thing I liked the Lauper videos including Money Changes Everything. It is one of my itunes 5, and a bit of reality.
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Hi Doug-Yes, it is a good song, and I imagine is very very true to those who learn that money is not always happy ever after.
Leila>
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I appreciate your mention of that Lauper song, Leila. I used to think that if your partner “knew you when” before the windfall, the belief in their love would go without question. But then one might wonder, “Gee, are they staying because of the windfall?” Troubling scenario.
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Leila, I liked that this reminded you of that Lauper song. I used to figure that if somebody knew you before your windfall, their love would remain authentic. But then it occurred to me that the windfall could be a factor in whether or not they stayed. Kindofa dilemma.
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A finely judged tale of ‘cold realisation’ – beautifully executed!
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Thank you, Steven! Glad it spoke to you.
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Everyone’s dream! I do hope she gets the Dalmatians and Himalayan cats, but I think she should walk the dogs herself. Oh … and I definitely think she should trade-in Steve. Great read. Thank-you.
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Yeh, he was no prize to begin with, IMO — LOL!
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This is funny, poignant and thoughtful, all at once. I particularly like the final comment about retasting the Cream of Wheat. Very short, very good story.
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Yeh, Cream of Wheat has a distinct flavor going down and coming up. Thx for commenting!
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Why so many big winners keep it a secret, and how so many end up worse off than before winning. Still if somebody wants to send me ten million, I’ll try to prove that some people can handle sudden riches.
Come to think of it, neighbors / friends came into three million and she will buy some new clothes I think. Otherwise not much change. They are and were living at about the same level Sharon and I are. I think that the people in the middle, not poor and not rich might handle a windfall better than those at the extremes.
Even though I hate to think, the story does give one pause to ponder.
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Thanks for reading and pondering, Doug!
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Good flash fiction with an insightful look at relationships past and present and how they interact, for better or worse, throughout our lives.
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Can’t get through life without them—Thx for reading, David!
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Dear Shoshauna Shy,
Thanks for this offering of an ironic, well-focused tale with a Freudian twist.
It reminded me a little of an O. Henry piece, or Guy de Maupassant.
Leila and others, thanks for pointing out the all-important theme of this story: maybe more urgent than ever now.
Sincerely,
Dale
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I’m glad this spoke to you, Dale. Thanks for reading.
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Hi Shoshauna,
Brilliantly controlled. the timing of the ‘reveal’ is superb.
All in all a very entertaining story!!
Hugh
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Thank you, Hugh, I think she ought to ditch him!
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