Introduction
I have never been afraid of death, few things scared me during my life other than me suffering from Trypanophobia. But my grandfather's death rattled me worse than I thought it would.
I was sitting towards the front of the church were they were doing his final rights and allowing people to speak about him. I didn't really know much about him, but it was the first death I was around for.
There was only one summer I spent with him and I was only ten at the time. My mind wandered back to those days with a smile. He and I did everything together during that time. Everything from riding horses to building newspaper boats to tending to the gardens he kept out back.
Though I never did figure out any of the weird plants he took care of there and he refused to tell me.
It was a wonderful place. It was tall, three stories to be exact. And painted a light blue I always wanted my room to be painted. My favorite thing though was the forest that surrounded his home that I was able to wander around in and explore while he was busy with his work in the barn.
I smiled slightly at the memories, but I was suddenly snapped back into reality as my mother harshly shook my side in anger. "Artyom," She said in a whisper. "They want to speak to you about Grandpa Mincovski," She said grabbing my sleeve and pulling me from the pew.
Within six minutes, I was alone in a darkened room with a suited man who was reading through my grandpa's will. It seemed like the average stuff. A few grand for each of his children, including my mother, causing me to wonder why I was asked into this meeting.
"To Artyom, my eldest Grandchild, I leave my estate and all assets connected to it." The room was silent before, but everything seemed to pause as I heard it. His estate... that meant home right?
There were half a dozen gasps from around the room including myself though it didn't register for a long moment that I was among the mass. "There must be something wrong." My aunt Darla shouted as she stood. She was a stout woman who tended to be the one known to complain out of the whole group. "That cannot..."
The man held a hand to silence her. "You may doubt it all you want. His will has not changed in six years and it is written here among his things that Artyom is to receive the land while his assets are split evenly among his kin."
I sat awkwardly listening to the rest of the will reading, but all the while I could feel the stern looks of both envy and anger radiating off of all the others around the room. This was going to take forever...
