“Three months ago, in a hiking accident,” the lawyer explained to them.
“Oh, God,” her mom said with a small laugh and welling eyes. “I knew it would be those damn woods that would take him.”
“I’m so sorry,” Raven whispered, dabbing the tears that fell down her mother’s face. She assumed the man was a coworker at the nursing home because she couldn’t immediately place the name.
But then her mom said, “You remember Chuck, don’t you? I dated him for a few years when you were in middle school,” and a memory surfaced.
“He got me that iPod Nano for Christmas that one year,” Raven said reflectively.
Her mom had dated an older white guy with long hair and a mustache whose jeans had always looked dirty. Raven remembered him being kind and having a funny laugh.
The lawyer excused himself from the room to find his misplaced reading glasses, giving Raven a chance to ask her mother, “Why would he leave you anything? It’s been so long.”
“I know he put us both in his will while we were dating, so he must’ve forgotten to change it after we broke up.”
“There’s probably someone out there pissed about that,” Raven said.
Mr. McGowan returned with glasses on his face, and he proceeded to explain the limits of the will and his role as the executor. Then came the reading of the Last Will and Testament of Charles Hulme.
“This part is for specific bequests,” the lawyer began. “I leave Patricia Coleman, if they shall survive me, for their own use absolutely, the following: storage unit full of collectibles.”
Apparently, Chuck had a unit located a couple of hours outside the city full of vintage weapons he’d amassed. Donation and a garage sale were the only recourse for Raven’s mother, who admitted, “I hate those things. I have no use for them.”
“And I leave to Ray Coleman,” the lawyer continued, “if they shall survive me, for their own use absolutely, the following: Mountaintop Adventures Company, located in the municipal district of Cedar Lake.”
Raven shifted forward in her seat, unsure she’d heard correctly. “Wait, he left me a company? Like, a currently operating one?”
“Yes, an outdoor recreation and tour service.”
“Okay, wow,” Raven said as she looked at her mom, who appeared similarly stunned. “What am I supposed to do with that? I don’t want to run some random business.”
Again, Mr. McGowan shuffled through his papers and produced a coffee ring-stained document. “There’s a buyer, a Silas Reynolds. He has shown deep interest in purchasing.”
Raven scanned the Offer to Purchase. It presented the terms of the sale, disclosed business debts, legal obligations, and finally, a price. The amount of money being offered made Raven’s head spin, and she reached for the citrine crystal on her necklace as she reread everything.
The figure had more zeros than she’d ever seen at once in her bank account. It was several expensive-desert-retreats type money. A down-payment-on-a-modest-home type money.
“What are you thinking?” her mom asked her.
Raven laughed, then picked up a pen. “Tell me where to sign.”
“That will have to be done in person or through another lawyer you hire,” Mr. McGowan said.
Not interested in wasting any time, Raven said, “Then I guess I’m heading to Cedar Lake.”
ChapterTwo
The driveto Cedar Lake was a journey through the prairies to the Rockies. Trees and mountains jutted high from the earth, a sight worthy of the poems they’d inspired.
All Raven knew about the small town, however, was that it produced a portion of the country’s lumber and didn’t have a reputation for fun like Whistler or Banff.
As she neared her destination, hotels of varied sizes and ratings started to appear on either side of the small freeway. Not long after she passed the town’s welcome sign, she arrived at the motel she’d booked mainly for its low price point. Inside the small reception area, she found a woman with silver hair thrown roughly into a ponytail, poring over a crossword puzzle.
“A nine-letter word for an ancient symbol of wholeness or completion,” the lady said without looking up.
With no one but the two of them in the lobby, Raven assumed the older woman was asking for help, so she said, “Infinity?”
“Tried it already. Only has eight letters.”
