Looking at his uncle's former home, a dilapidated farmhouse, Erik started to understand why there was so much money. It didn't seem to be spent on anything, at least not the house or vehicle.
An old poop green house with flaking paint and wood siding slouched with old age. The yard had thinning grass that made him think of a balding man in his seventies. Two stories tall it wore a wrap around porch on three sides and a ramp was held out as if to shake Erik's hand. The whole facade made him think of a tired old man struggling to take each exhausted breath.
Railing wiggled on the ramp when Erik grabbed it and started up. He stopped to look at the gold Chevrolet Astro perched next to the house facing out, like a house cat purring in its master's lap.There was a sliding door on the driver's side and what looked to be a lift inside of it.
An image of his uncle began to form and it occurred to him that the man must have been wheelchair bound to at least some major extent. He wondered why that was because Erik thought that his uncle had been walking. Then again, he had never really known or heard about him until today. He continued up the ramp to the porch.
Aged plywood that had replaced the original flooring some time ago sagged under Erik's weight. He wondered how that must have felt in a wheelchair. The screen door looked like it had been built in the thirties and it complained when he opened it. The front door matched in appearance with paint chipping off and showing a yellow color under its skin, but it opened without comment.
Inside, the neglect continued into the front living room. Worn floorboards showed their age with sun faded spots in high traffic areas while dust hung in the stale air. No furniture in the living room existed, just a black and white family photo in a wood frame on one wall that looked as old as the house itself.
A doorway to the left led to a hallway and he assumed bedrooms, while a white archway on the right opened up to a tallow colored kitchen where sunlight streamed in. It had flaking laminate counters and peeling linoleum flooring that showed the floorboards underneath. A small table with two chairs huddled against a window. The fridge hummed without warning, making Erik's heart pound as a ice cold adrenaline dumped into his blood. On impulse Erik went and opened it. Nothing of note besides some cottage cheese resided inside.
Looking around the kitchen after shutting the fridge, Erik tried to find anything that might give hints to him about his uncle. Coming out here hadn't proved fruitful in the least but something had to be out here. What could he use? What could have important information in it that would give Erik some sort of idea.
Mail. He needed mail. Maybe a bedroom would offer up something.
He went back to the living room then down the hall, finding two bedrooms opposite each other. Peeking into the smaller one on the right, he found it had been turned into a closet where racks of clothes hung. At first glance he could tell they were definitely not his size. They were too small. Erik was a thick bodied man and the narrow shirts would never fit.
The other bedroom's doorway was directly across from the first. He turned around and peered in.Larger than the living room, it was three times the size of the first bedroom with a freshly made king-size bed resting in the middle. It faced a huge flat-screen TV at its foot, held up by a short, wide chest of drawers. Windows allowed light to stream into the room.
This must have been where David lived, if he stayed here at all. It had the only look of use about it. If anything was anywhere, it was likely to be here. Minutes later after searching every drawer and table, Erik came up empty and he knew he had been wrong.
"Hello?" a woman's voice called while he still stood in the bedroom.
"Yeah." Erik barked out. He turned and left the room to find a thin young woman in pale blue nurse scrubs standing in the doorway.
"Sorry," she said, "didn't want to scare anyone. I didn't know David would have visitors."
"You're fine. He doesn't have a visitor though, I'm his nephew, Erik." he studied her for a moment. "Kind of odd that his in home caregiver would still come by."
She tilted her head and gave him a questioning look. "What do you mean?"
Erik rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, awkward and unsure of how to say it. So, he just said it. "David is dead."
"Oh," she said, her body jolting up straight and her mouth puckering around the word. "Oh, wow, that would have been good to know." She paused a second then asked, "Who are you?"
He explained himself to her and how he basically was handling everything now.
"Okay," was all she said at first then perked up a bit and offered her hand, "I'm Courtney. I was David's in home nurse."
He took it, restraining his grip from crushing her hand. "Okay, so maybe you can give some insight then. What was wrong with him? I never knew this guy and suddenly I'm the one who ended up with..." he gestured around him, "well, everything."
"Sure, I can tell you what was going I suppose, as long as you can prove what your saying." she said, "otherwise it's a privacy violation and I don't like being in trouble." a joking smile ghosted her lips, "It's gets me spankings I don't like." Courtney's eyes went big as saucers in surprise, as if she didn't intend to say that.
Instead of engaging the moment and taking advantage of her surprise and embarrassment, Erik just let it slide. She hadn't meant to say it. It was nothing to read into. "I'll get the paperwork from the truck."
When he came back in a moment later, Courtney was sitting at the little table in the kitchen with a cup of coffee. The smell of brewing coffee filled the room, covering the dusty stale air.
"Here," he said and laid the black binder down. Opening it he showed her the death certificate and the paperwork making him executor of David's estate.
She sipped at her mug then said, "So, David was wheelchair bound because of his back. He was paralyzed from the waist down because of an accident."
"Okay, that makes sense with the ramp and the van and stuff." Erik acknowledged.
"He also got a huge settlement from the company after a lawsuit for safety violations, was medically retired and received a pension since they couldn't actually fire him for being injured."
