“Kallie, are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?”
She shook her head that she didn’t. “No mom, it will be fine.”
“I just don’t like this. I haven’t heard from him in years and now this?”
This that she referred to was her father’s death. Kallie barely even remembered her father, but now she was being summons across the country for a reading of his will. He was a rich man and had always helped Mary out when she needed it, but it was strange to know that he was gone. Kallie wished that she had gotten to know him better and now the only connection she had was whatever he had left for her. More than money, she wanted photos, something to remember him by or learn more about him.
“I don’t think it was planned.”
“No, of course not. It is just a surprise and I am being insensitive. How are you holding up?”
Kallie shrugged. It was strange that he was gone, but she didn’t have much to miss. “I’m fine. You know I want answers, maybe meet some of his side of the family. Everything happens for a reason, so I should at least see what it is about.”
“I know, but I hate that you are going by yourself.”
Kallie didn’t want her mother going. She was too emotional and would be ready to go the next day. It was something that she had to do by herself, work through it herself in some way. “I am going to be fine. It’s just Texas, not another country.”
“Honey, I’ve been there. They used to say you had to have a passport to go down there. It is a lot different than here in New England.”
That is what Kallie was hoping for, something different. She needed a change and since leaving college with a few classes shy of graduating, she was looking for what direction her life was supposed to go. Kallie had gone to school for business, but she got cold feet and needed some time off. It seemed like once she graduated, her life path was chosen for good. To get the news was a shock, but she was a realist and she instantly saw it as an opportunity to get out of the area for a while.
“I know, that is what I am hoping for. I haven’t been out of this area but once and that was on a vacation. I am going to drive down there and see what the will is about, than maybe visit a few relatives I’ve never met. I hear that I still have a grandmother there, a brother.”
Nothing she said was going to calm her mother’s nerves, so she really didn’t try much harder to do so. She was going to worry, it was in her nature.
“I am going to be fine. I will call you every night so you can get some sleep. I should be there in a couple of day. The reading is Monday so I will have plenty of time to get there.” She didn’t mention much after that, how long she planned to stay. Kallie still wasn’t sure, but she had no intentions of coming back right away. She just didn’t have the backbone to tell Mary.
“Just come home Kallie. Don’t get lost out there.”
It was strange how she said it, prophetic almost, but Kallie ignored her. She didn’t plan to get lost anywhere.
The next morning she had the car packed and she as ready to set off to a new adventure. That was how she was looking at it, not able to look at it as a goodbye. Kallie had missed the funeral, so it was not really a goodbye. He was already gone, so Kallie had to see it as part of her journey instead.
She said goodbye to her mom and stepdad. Kallie ignored the look in Mary’s eyes, the one that made her feel guilty in some way, like going to Texas would somehow negate the relationship they already had.
It wasn’t until she was a hundred miles away that she believed that she was actually going to go. She didn’t have to. She could have just waited for the paperwork from the lawyers, but there was supposed to be a video and it was too much to deny herself.
Taking her time, it took her three days to get to Texas, stopping at several attractions on the way. Kallie knew she was stalling, never one to be early for anything. She made it just on time for the will reading at the lawyers.
***
Moving out of the elevator, she was met with a small conference room full of people that she had never met before. Trying not to look as nervous as she felt, Kallie smiled and pushed her blonde hair back behind her ears.
“Ah, Miss Glenn. Thank you for coming. I know that you had quite a ways to travel.”
Kallie nodded to the short, portly man that she had assumed was the lawyer she had talked to a few days before. They had seemed to be waiting for her and she felt her cheeks reddened as she found a seat open for her. There was no introduction, just her and all the people around her that were family and friends of her father that she hadn’t even met before. There were a couple of people there that looked familiar, having some of the same features as the pictures she had of her father in her mind. She told herself that she would talk to them afterwards, but when the lights went out and the screen came on, Kallie was staring ahead in rapt attention like the rest of them.
He looked much like she remembered, but older and a little more weathered in his appearance. There were a few moments that it was just him sitting in a chair at his desk. Kallie wasn’t expecting to feel the way that she did. There was something about the sadness in his eyes that made her wish that it was a different way they were seeing each other for the last time.
There were individual statements to everyone and that was how Kallie learned some of the names. When she heard her name, her eyes went back to the screen and she held her breath to hear the last words she would ever hear from her father again.
“Kallie. I am sorry that this is how we meet for the last time. I should have been there more, I know that now, but I’m sorry I was not and won’t be able to see you go forth. I know that you have been studying business and I would like to give you some land and a business in Texas. I love you Kallie and I hope that you can find happiness in the west like me and Mary did so long ago. Just know that you are always loved Kallie.”
Tears came to her eyes and it was less, but more than she had thought it would be. The only thing that she could do was take the offered tissue and listen to the rest of what Mel Glenn had to say in his final words. He was a man of regrets, but he had lived and that was what Kallie wanted to hold on to.
Then the lights were put back on and most were teary-eyed and squinting to the sudden brightness. As she was leaving, she was given a couple of numbers of relatives that wanted to have lunch when she was feeling up to it. Kallie was also given deeds to her new home and store, though she couldn’t figure out what it was for by the name or the paperwork in her hand. She was exhausted and she told herself that there was no rush.
Going to a hotel, Kallie tried not to think about the video and her father. It was hard though, when all she wanted to do was get some sleep. The next day was a mystery and Kallie finally went to sleep with the possibilities in her mind.