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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Drama / Human Interest
- Subject: Life Changing Decisions/Events
- Published: 11/21/2019
Okay, Here's The Deal
Born 1956, F, from Smithville/ Texas, United States"Kimmy Johnson? This is the law office of Taft and Taft out of New York City, and it is imperative that we meet with you and your sister as soon as..."
Kimmy Johnson hung up on the morning caller with a yawn. Another bill collector. God, would it never end?
Kimmy was responsible by nature, but never really worried through unpaid bills. Anyway, she was just too tired to even give the morning call a second thought.
Kimmy had dragged herself through two back-to-back shifts at the pancake house. It was waitress work so grueling that even her tattoos looked faded after 16 hours on her feet. The couch in the old beach cottage that she shared with her twin was her refuge for nights like the last one, and Kimmy gladly fell into it, clothes and all.
Kimmy Johnson had already slipped back into slumberland when another call came through moments later on another cell phone in the house. This one went unanswered and straight into the voicemail of Kirby Johnson, her equally exhausted twin sister who drank beer and played bass in a band.
The Johnson twins were adult orphans. Family-less. The bulk of their background and upbringing was a big, fat mystery. The only collective memory of their original childhood was an early one, when they were maybe two or three years old. The twins remembered how they were kissed and squeezed tightly by an elderly, sweet-smelling woman before they were hurried out of their home onto a big airplane with an interior that looked like a living room. It had couches and even a big screen TV.
As little children, the twin sisters were hardly cognizant of the luxury and wealth that the private jet carrying their banishment exemplified. As grown-ups, they were only subliminally aware that they had even been sent away. Hidden. Yet, at 25 years of age, the twins had many, many more things on their minds than the whats and whys of their past.
"Kirby, I got another call from one of our fans this morning," Kimmy called out to her twin over her lunch of crispy fish tacos. They liked to refer to their many bill collectors as their fans. Community college debt. Medical bills from extreme sports injuries. Foolish twenty-somethings' habits of running up credit card purchases. The Johnson twins were like rock stars with a strong fan following.
Kirby's response was not her usual "Oh, screw our fans". Instead, Kirby rushed into the kitchen, stricken and grasping her phone, gasping out, "They weren't bill collectors! Oh my god... Oh my god... Oh my god." She collapsed against the counter and stared at her twin.
Kimmy wrenched her sister's cell phone from her hand and hit re-play on the voicemail message.
"Kirby Johnson? This is Taft and Taft law office out of New York City, and it is imperative that we meet with you and your twin sister as soon as possible. You two have been named as beneficiaries in a will of rather, um, vast proportions. In addition, an unusual codicil was attached to the will stating that the bequest be read aloud in a group meeting of the decedent's family. Arrangements have been made for one week from today at our offices. Please contact us immediately. Private air travel will be made available if you so choose."
Twenty-two years ago, the twins had arrived by a private jet in Corpus Christi. As frightened, yet excited as they had been at the age of three, Kimmy and Kirby had fallen asleep for most of the evening flight from New York City. The toddlers had still been sleeping when they were carried into a limousine and driven to the unassuming coastal town of Rockport, Texas.
When the Johnson twins awoke, it was to the sound and smell of the Gulf and to the tender, but emotionally uncommitted ministrations of their new foster parents. A quiet, hard-working couple, kind and providing but not loving, pretty much let the girls raise themselves. And the Johnson twins grew up among the waves and along the tides of the Gulf of Mexico.
Kimmy and Kirby Johnson sat stunned at their kitchen table, their fish tacos lunch untouched. Never in their lives had the twins experienced any kind of windfall whatsoever. Not a single winning lottery ticket in the couple of dozen times they even tried. Nor an unexpectedly large tax refund. Nothing. The twins' windfalls came in extra large tips at the pancake house or an extra band gig at a private party.
On top of that, the thought they even had had a once-living relative, much less a rich one, was a revelation so remarkable that suspicion couldn't help but creep into their usually trusting thoughts. As always, though, and perhaps because of their Piscean astrology, the Johnson twins turned to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico for answers. For years, through boyfriend break-ups, job changes and all the tribulations of young adulthood, the twins ran along the beaches to make important decisions.
"Don't you think we should, like, you know, Google these lawyers and stuff?" Kirby asked, pulling her hair into a ponytail while she ran easily with her twin. "I mean, we could be getting ourselves all stoked over nothing."
"Yeah, we definitely should, but what about a lawyer for ourselves? Cause I remember hearing something like if you win the lottery big-time, then that's what you're supposed to do," Kimmy replied.
A half-mile was covered when the sisters decided to forgo securing legal services until after the reading when they were made aware of the will's contents.
"And look, do we really want to travel in some private jet? I mean, like, that's just obscene," Kirby pointed out.
"It's disgusting," Kimmy agreed. "I don't want to. Besides, it'll be more fun if we drive. And if we leave this afternoon, we'll have plenty of time to get to New York City."
"Yeah! The drive will be phat. And we can talk about how we're gonna spend our fortune," Kirby enthused.
Kirby and Kimmy did indeed leave Rockport, Texas that afternoon for New York City. They had stocked their car with roadtrip snacks and a fly playlist that Kimmy recorded earlier. They had their GPS and knew what route they would take. What they didn't know was that they would never, ever return to run on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.
New York City was everything the twins expected. The pace. The partying. The shopping. It was thrilling and with a lot of money, a whole lot of it, the twins knew it would be even more so. They could hardly wait to get their hands on what they now considered their rightful inheritance.
During their road trip toward their waiting wealth, Kimmy and Kirby had a marathon of spending ideas that matched the mileage of their three-day hurried driving session. Cruising through Louisiana, Kimmy talked about buying an SUV at first, then a Jeep, finally settling for the idea of driving around in a Maserati in Christian Louboutin heels. Kirby dreamed aloud of a fully-funded band travelling the world first-class and playing to adoring crowds in the hottest venues. She, of course, would be the band's star playing the world's most expensive bass guitar.
By the time they reached Tennessee, they had determined their first choices in cars, mansions, fashion and jewlery. Heading out of North Carolina, they had added toys like sufboards, power skis, jet packs, hang gliders and motor boats. An extensive, expensive list of dream purchases lenghtened with every mile covered. Every lavish expenditure in their desire for materialistic acquisition was included. Yet, when they reached New York City, neither twin noticed that not one thought of charitable giving or educational endeavor was even brought up, much less considered. If it had, perhaps they wouldn't have suffered the twin miseries of shock and disappointment upon the reading of the mysterious will.
"...and at the conclusion of their 10-year service to those in need and the successful completion of advanced degrees in their chosen studies, Kimmy and Kirby Johnson shall receive a sum of 1.8 billion dollars..."
Kimmy and Kirby faced a decision that would clearly affect the rest of their young lives. They were given 24 hours.
The attorneys had explained that the bequest was rather specific about the time-line of the inheritance as well as the activities to acquire it. A personal letter to them from the decedent outlined everything...
"Dearest Kimmy and Kirby,
Your grandfather loved you girls very deeply. As do I. The day he was forced into sending you away from this house was the beginning of his end. He died a year later. I will not burden your hearts with his reason for secreting you away; except to say, it was to save your lives.
"Your grandfather disinherited his family and left his estate in my hands with directions to bequeath what I wished to you girls. I have quietly kept up with you both and am so happy that you're healthy and well. However, it's my feeling that your lives will bloom with greater learning and shine with love by helping others.
"So, okay. Here's the deal. I am leaving all of your grandfather's liquidated cash assets to you girls, $1.8 billion. It will be all yours at the end of your ten-year service and education tour around the world. I know this seems like a long period of time, but you'll see how quickly it passes when you're doing good works and studying hard.
"I have commissioned a 180-metres long, solar-powered luxury mega-yacht. At my specifications, it has been refitted as a rescue, medical, and educational vessel. You both will work alongside the crew, in addition to executing your philanthropic activities and immersive studies. Your teachers have all been selected and will mentor you through your online studies. The medical, security and rescue crew are all at the ready.
"Only your decision remains. Good luck. I love you."
It took Kimmy and Kirby about an hour to decide. They were boarding the mega-yacht that afternoon.
Ten years later, it took even less time for the Johnson twins to make another important life-changing decision. What to do with their $1.8 billion cash inheritance which, with interest, had grown beyond the two billlion dollar mark?
Kimmy, the former waitress, had left her heart, her husband and her twin boys in Suriname where she had helped establish sustainable community gardens and kitchens throughout the country. Her decade-long studies in botany and indigenous South American languages enabled her endeavors tremendously. It was her intent to re-join her family and friends immediately.
Kirby was eager to return to Ghana where she provided security and logistics for an orchestra of musicians representing every African nation. Their goal was to tour the entire continent and provide the motivation and means to re-plant millions of native trees. She had selected the martial arts as one of her fields of study. After an immersive ten years, Kirby was appreciated by the musicians as a more-than-capable head of security and a fun bassist to occasionally jam with. They were scheduled to perform in Burkina Faso within days. Kirby had to get back.
Sitting once again in the law office of Taft and Taft in New York City, Kimmy and Kirby Johnson settled back to explain to their attorneys exactly what they could do with their two billion dollars. It only took five minutes.
Okay, Here's The Deal(Martha Huett)
"Kimmy Johnson? This is the law office of Taft and Taft out of New York City, and it is imperative that we meet with you and your sister as soon as..."
Kimmy Johnson hung up on the morning caller with a yawn. Another bill collector. God, would it never end?
Kimmy was responsible by nature, but never really worried through unpaid bills. Anyway, she was just too tired to even give the morning call a second thought.
Kimmy had dragged herself through two back-to-back shifts at the pancake house. It was waitress work so grueling that even her tattoos looked faded after 16 hours on her feet. The couch in the old beach cottage that she shared with her twin was her refuge for nights like the last one, and Kimmy gladly fell into it, clothes and all.
Kimmy Johnson had already slipped back into slumberland when another call came through moments later on another cell phone in the house. This one went unanswered and straight into the voicemail of Kirby Johnson, her equally exhausted twin sister who drank beer and played bass in a band.
The Johnson twins were adult orphans. Family-less. The bulk of their background and upbringing was a big, fat mystery. The only collective memory of their original childhood was an early one, when they were maybe two or three years old. The twins remembered how they were kissed and squeezed tightly by an elderly, sweet-smelling woman before they were hurried out of their home onto a big airplane with an interior that looked like a living room. It had couches and even a big screen TV.
As little children, the twin sisters were hardly cognizant of the luxury and wealth that the private jet carrying their banishment exemplified. As grown-ups, they were only subliminally aware that they had even been sent away. Hidden. Yet, at 25 years of age, the twins had many, many more things on their minds than the whats and whys of their past.
"Kirby, I got another call from one of our fans this morning," Kimmy called out to her twin over her lunch of crispy fish tacos. They liked to refer to their many bill collectors as their fans. Community college debt. Medical bills from extreme sports injuries. Foolish twenty-somethings' habits of running up credit card purchases. The Johnson twins were like rock stars with a strong fan following.
Kirby's response was not her usual "Oh, screw our fans". Instead, Kirby rushed into the kitchen, stricken and grasping her phone, gasping out, "They weren't bill collectors! Oh my god... Oh my god... Oh my god." She collapsed against the counter and stared at her twin.
Kimmy wrenched her sister's cell phone from her hand and hit re-play on the voicemail message.
"Kirby Johnson? This is Taft and Taft law office out of New York City, and it is imperative that we meet with you and your twin sister as soon as possible. You two have been named as beneficiaries in a will of rather, um, vast proportions. In addition, an unusual codicil was attached to the will stating that the bequest be read aloud in a group meeting of the decedent's family. Arrangements have been made for one week from today at our offices. Please contact us immediately. Private air travel will be made available if you so choose."
Twenty-two years ago, the twins had arrived by a private jet in Corpus Christi. As frightened, yet excited as they had been at the age of three, Kimmy and Kirby had fallen asleep for most of the evening flight from New York City. The toddlers had still been sleeping when they were carried into a limousine and driven to the unassuming coastal town of Rockport, Texas.
When the Johnson twins awoke, it was to the sound and smell of the Gulf and to the tender, but emotionally uncommitted ministrations of their new foster parents. A quiet, hard-working couple, kind and providing but not loving, pretty much let the girls raise themselves. And the Johnson twins grew up among the waves and along the tides of the Gulf of Mexico.
Kimmy and Kirby Johnson sat stunned at their kitchen table, their fish tacos lunch untouched. Never in their lives had the twins experienced any kind of windfall whatsoever. Not a single winning lottery ticket in the couple of dozen times they even tried. Nor an unexpectedly large tax refund. Nothing. The twins' windfalls came in extra large tips at the pancake house or an extra band gig at a private party.
On top of that, the thought they even had had a once-living relative, much less a rich one, was a revelation so remarkable that suspicion couldn't help but creep into their usually trusting thoughts. As always, though, and perhaps because of their Piscean astrology, the Johnson twins turned to the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico for answers. For years, through boyfriend break-ups, job changes and all the tribulations of young adulthood, the twins ran along the beaches to make important decisions.
"Don't you think we should, like, you know, Google these lawyers and stuff?" Kirby asked, pulling her hair into a ponytail while she ran easily with her twin. "I mean, we could be getting ourselves all stoked over nothing."
"Yeah, we definitely should, but what about a lawyer for ourselves? Cause I remember hearing something like if you win the lottery big-time, then that's what you're supposed to do," Kimmy replied.
A half-mile was covered when the sisters decided to forgo securing legal services until after the reading when they were made aware of the will's contents.
"And look, do we really want to travel in some private jet? I mean, like, that's just obscene," Kirby pointed out.
"It's disgusting," Kimmy agreed. "I don't want to. Besides, it'll be more fun if we drive. And if we leave this afternoon, we'll have plenty of time to get to New York City."
"Yeah! The drive will be phat. And we can talk about how we're gonna spend our fortune," Kirby enthused.
Kirby and Kimmy did indeed leave Rockport, Texas that afternoon for New York City. They had stocked their car with roadtrip snacks and a fly playlist that Kimmy recorded earlier. They had their GPS and knew what route they would take. What they didn't know was that they would never, ever return to run on the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico.
New York City was everything the twins expected. The pace. The partying. The shopping. It was thrilling and with a lot of money, a whole lot of it, the twins knew it would be even more so. They could hardly wait to get their hands on what they now considered their rightful inheritance.
During their road trip toward their waiting wealth, Kimmy and Kirby had a marathon of spending ideas that matched the mileage of their three-day hurried driving session. Cruising through Louisiana, Kimmy talked about buying an SUV at first, then a Jeep, finally settling for the idea of driving around in a Maserati in Christian Louboutin heels. Kirby dreamed aloud of a fully-funded band travelling the world first-class and playing to adoring crowds in the hottest venues. She, of course, would be the band's star playing the world's most expensive bass guitar.
By the time they reached Tennessee, they had determined their first choices in cars, mansions, fashion and jewlery. Heading out of North Carolina, they had added toys like sufboards, power skis, jet packs, hang gliders and motor boats. An extensive, expensive list of dream purchases lenghtened with every mile covered. Every lavish expenditure in their desire for materialistic acquisition was included. Yet, when they reached New York City, neither twin noticed that not one thought of charitable giving or educational endeavor was even brought up, much less considered. If it had, perhaps they wouldn't have suffered the twin miseries of shock and disappointment upon the reading of the mysterious will.
"...and at the conclusion of their 10-year service to those in need and the successful completion of advanced degrees in their chosen studies, Kimmy and Kirby Johnson shall receive a sum of 1.8 billion dollars..."
Kimmy and Kirby faced a decision that would clearly affect the rest of their young lives. They were given 24 hours.
The attorneys had explained that the bequest was rather specific about the time-line of the inheritance as well as the activities to acquire it. A personal letter to them from the decedent outlined everything...
"Dearest Kimmy and Kirby,
Your grandfather loved you girls very deeply. As do I. The day he was forced into sending you away from this house was the beginning of his end. He died a year later. I will not burden your hearts with his reason for secreting you away; except to say, it was to save your lives.
"Your grandfather disinherited his family and left his estate in my hands with directions to bequeath what I wished to you girls. I have quietly kept up with you both and am so happy that you're healthy and well. However, it's my feeling that your lives will bloom with greater learning and shine with love by helping others.
"So, okay. Here's the deal. I am leaving all of your grandfather's liquidated cash assets to you girls, $1.8 billion. It will be all yours at the end of your ten-year service and education tour around the world. I know this seems like a long period of time, but you'll see how quickly it passes when you're doing good works and studying hard.
"I have commissioned a 180-metres long, solar-powered luxury mega-yacht. At my specifications, it has been refitted as a rescue, medical, and educational vessel. You both will work alongside the crew, in addition to executing your philanthropic activities and immersive studies. Your teachers have all been selected and will mentor you through your online studies. The medical, security and rescue crew are all at the ready.
"Only your decision remains. Good luck. I love you."
It took Kimmy and Kirby about an hour to decide. They were boarding the mega-yacht that afternoon.
Ten years later, it took even less time for the Johnson twins to make another important life-changing decision. What to do with their $1.8 billion cash inheritance which, with interest, had grown beyond the two billlion dollar mark?
Kimmy, the former waitress, had left her heart, her husband and her twin boys in Suriname where she had helped establish sustainable community gardens and kitchens throughout the country. Her decade-long studies in botany and indigenous South American languages enabled her endeavors tremendously. It was her intent to re-join her family and friends immediately.
Kirby was eager to return to Ghana where she provided security and logistics for an orchestra of musicians representing every African nation. Their goal was to tour the entire continent and provide the motivation and means to re-plant millions of native trees. She had selected the martial arts as one of her fields of study. After an immersive ten years, Kirby was appreciated by the musicians as a more-than-capable head of security and a fun bassist to occasionally jam with. They were scheduled to perform in Burkina Faso within days. Kirby had to get back.
Sitting once again in the law office of Taft and Taft in New York City, Kimmy and Kirby Johnson settled back to explain to their attorneys exactly what they could do with their two billion dollars. It only took five minutes.
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Kevin Hughes
11/21/2019Martha,
I have two things to say: If only...and...Hooray !
Smiles, Kevin
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