Joe's Legacy

"From that day until you did me this evening I've been celibate. Although I've got a few toys..." A surprised expression must have come onto my face. "Oh, I've shocked you. I'm sorry, but women masturbate as well as men, you know."

"I'm sorry, I've never thought about that before, Winnie."

"Well, some of us do especially if they enjoy having orgasms as much as I do. Anyway the point is I've only had those two men in my life. I need to be positive that you believe me when I say that."

"Winnie, it wouldn't make any difference to me how many men you've been with. God knows how many women I've slept with over the years."

"Yes, it would. You hold the institution of marriage in high esteem. You proved that to me in London. For a while there, because of how Joe behaved, I forgot, but now you're my husband and I need to know that you trust me as much as I trust you. Without that trust we'll have nothing, Ray."

"We have that trust, Winnie. Let's never mention it again," I replied.

"Good. Want to go again before we go and see your new children?"

---------------------------------------------------

We spent the afternoon and evening with Reba and LeAnn, before Winnie and I returned to the hotel for another tiring night's gymnastics. The following morning Winnie and I flew down to Miami for a few days on our honeymoon. A completely pointless exercise really because, except for eating and letting the cleaners in, we hardly left our hotel suite. Well it was a different bed and we had our own Jacuzzi en-suite so, I suppose it might have been worth the money.

On our return, life turned into a real rush. All of Winnie and the girls' stuff that they wanted to take back to the UK had to be packed up for the shippers to collect. There was also an endless round of impromptu goodbye parties for Winnie and the children to attend.

One of the things that I found difficult to get used to was Reba and LeAnn referring to me as their dad so quickly. Although it took them a while to switch from calling me Uncle Ray to dad. We went through 'father' for a while on the way, but I think they thought that didn't sound right.

But the first time I heard Reba say, "I'll ask my dad" to someone on the telephone brought a lump to my throat.

"Look at this," Winnie said the morning before we were due to fly back to the UK. She was holding the mail that I'd just taken from the postman outside.

"What you got?" I asked, as I was pouring out a cup of coffee.

"I'm finally divorced!" Winnie grinned at me. "I'm divorced from a dead man. Don't suppose anyone thought to tell the court that Joe was... What is it you say? 'Off this mortal soil?' "

"Something like that, Winnie."

"Well, I suppose I'd better hang on to this and put it with Joe's death certificate," Winnie said, folding the paper and putting it in her bag, or rather her purse as she referred to it.

----------------------------

Reba and LeAnn seemed to settle down very quickly in the UK. For the time being they went to an American school over here, but in time they switched into a British public school and continued their schooling in the British system. Both of them finishing up at university many years later.

There was, surprisingly, a lot more for us to do about Joe after we'd flown home than either Winnie or I imagined. Joe had died before the divorce came through so Winnie inherited his estate. I had to wonder where Joe had got all of his money from, because he owned property all over the USA. Some Winnie kept and rented out through agents, others she sold and we put the money into trust funds, for Reba and LeAnn.

The only odd thing that happened in the next few years was a guy from the US Embassy paying a call on us. We never were sure why he turned up or what he really wanted. Other than wanting to see everyone in the family, he even asked to see our marriage certificate, Winnie's divorce papers and for some reason he showed interest in Joe's death certificate. But maybe that was just because it was with the divorce papers.

Winnie said that she had the strangest feeling that she was being followed when she went out a couple of times after that. We told a neighbour of ours who was a policeman about it and I do believe he looked into it, but it came to nothing.

The next time I mentioned it to Winnie, she told me that she wasn't getting the feeling any more. So that was the end of that.

Winnie and I had been married for about four years and Winnie was pregnant with our second, her fourth, when the telephone call came.

"Ray?" a voice asked, when I picked the receiver up.

"Yeah."

"I've got a present from Joe!" the voice said in a definitely Australian sounding accent.

For a few seconds, I was confused about what the guy was on about. Then I remembered.

"I've been waiting for it since Christmas," I replied.

"South end of Chelsea Bridge at nine this evening. By the power station, there's a tea stall there. You'd better come alone," the voice said and then the line went dead.

I wasn't at all sure about this, but I decided that I'd have to go, or my curiosity would kill me. I took back-up along though in the form of a couple of my friends. They would turn up at the tea stall well before me in a van. In those days there was always a few vans and trucks parked there whilst the drivers took a break and had something to eat at the stall.

After ditching my car in the back streets of Chelsea, I walked across the bridge to the stall where I ordered tea and a bacon sandwich. My two friends were sitting in the van parked in the road right by the stall, but I managed not even to look in their direction.

Because there were so many people waiting to be served, I moved away from the stall a little, back towards the bridge. As I did so an old VW Microbus pulled up to the curb.

"Ray?" the driver called out to me.

I walked over to the Microbus. "Yeah?"

"Joe said I was to give you this, if he didn't make it," the guy whose face was hidden in shadow inside the Microbus said, as he handed me a thick package.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know. You'll have to open it and see. But I wouldn't open it here. Make sure that you're somewhere private." Then the guy let out the clutch and the old van bumbled off making the usual VW sewing machine noise that they do.

I took a quick look in my friends' direction to make sure they'd seen the guy pass me the package and then began to walk back across the bridge. When I was nearly all the way over my friends drove past me and I saw them turn into the road where I'd left my car.

They'd parked in front of my car, so I jumped into the back of the van when I finally got there.

"What is it?" one of them asked.

"Don't know. I'll have to open it to find out," I replied and began to tear at the package.

"Hold on. It could be a bomb or something," the other friend suggested.

"Don't feel like a bomb to me," I offered.

"Ray, when was the last time you handled a bloody bomb? How the hell do you know what a bomb is going to feel like?"

"Yeah, that's a point. What do we do to find out if it is?" I asked.

"We could get it ex-rayed, but my brother's got one of those metal detector things. It would have to have metal wires and things in it, if it was a bomb, wouldn't it?" my first friend suggested.

So we headed over to his brother's house, where the package was ceremoniously placed in the rear garden, whilst his brother ascertained that it contained no metal with his toy. Then I retreated to my car again where I tore the package open.

Inside I found twenty thousand dollars in US currency, a letter from Joe and some paperwork written in French that I couldn't understand. The letter told me that there was a considerable quantity of money tucked away in a certain Caribbean Island Bank, and that the paperwork in the package would allow me access to it whenever I wanted it.

I hadn't let my friends see what I removed from the package so I told them it was just the cash, giving them a thousand dollars each to keep their mouths shut. Everything else I put into a safe deposit box a few days later and in the next few years I only touched some of the money when Winnie and I went to the States to visit everyone over there.

Our lives went on; we were very fortunate. I had a good job and rose up in the company until I was a director. We moved to a much bigger and very expensive house overlooking Stanmore common. Among our neighbours were Saudi princes and the like.

My income alone would not have enabled us to afford to live there, but we also had regular money coming in from the property of Joe's that Winnie had kept. So to be honest we were having it easy.

Reba was our first daughter to graduate from university. Tammy, her husband and children came over for the graduation ceremony that was to be held in Bristol Cathedral. It was quite a long day for all of us, some of which we spent in a pub-come-restaurant having lunch. The problem there was that, as the ceremony came to an end, I needed to find a gents in a hurry.

Leaving the rest of the family in the queue to have formal photographs taken, I eventually found the conveniences; they were tucked away and very difficult to locate. So there I was doing my thing and relieving myself, when a voice behind me suddenly said.

"I told you she was a good lay, didn't I? That's two great looking kids you've got there."

I turned to find Joe leaning against the wall behind me.

"Fucking hell! Joe, you're supposed to be dead," I blustered.

"I am, Ray, and for god's sake don't tell anyone I'm alive."

"Why ever not?" Stupid question I know. Joe was quite obviously hiding from someone.

"Yeah, well, things were a real mess out in Nam. I was in a special unit working in Laos and Thailand. We even went into Burma some of the time. Look, mate, everyone was on the take and we were handling all sorts of stuff. You know the US was handing out money, guns and ammo to every Tom, Dick and Harry going.

"Well, some of us thought we'd set up a little business for ourselves. There was thousands of dollars going into everyone's pockets; why shouldn't we have some. The next thing you know the CIA is nosing around so we all had to disappear permanent like."

"So what have you been doing since? Where have you been?"

"Around, don't worry. We still got the business going, we just have to change our identities every now and again. I've been watching how my girls turned out. You've done a good job on them. It worked to my advantage Winnie marrying you; someone might have spotted me in the States. I think I got a little too close a few years back, you know, when the embassy guy paid you a call. Looks like they aren't convinced that I am dead."

"So, should you be here? They might expect you to turn up at Reba's graduation."

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty safe. Someone still on the inside has put out the rumour that I'm in Argentina; they called the dogs off for this little do. Look, Ray, don't let on to any of them that I'm still alive. I wasn't going to tell you, but for some reason I couldn't help myself. You've done right by them, Ray. I only wish I had. Now you'd better get back to them before they start to worry."

That was many years ago and I've never seen or heard from Joe again. As he asked, I never mentioned the incident to Winnie or the girls.

Joe's Legacy, the money in that Caribbean Bank? Well, I suppose that it will stay there unless Reba or LeAnn need any cash in the future.

Life goes on.