Chapter 9
Price Tag
Jade
I hate funerals. I hate how everyone acts so fake. Like if they say what they really feel, the person in the box will jump out and eat their face. I hate the way they all give you that small sad smile, and nod like they're sad for you, but you see that they are happy it's not them this time. And then there is the family. They all act like a loving happy family when someone dies, but in truth, none of them can stand one another. And don't get me started on the clothes. At most funerals, everyone dresses like they should, in black, nice clothes, but not in Hollywood. It's like everyone is waiting for the next photo op.
"I feel so out of place here," I tell Tori quietly as I pull at the sleeve of my form fitting coat.
"I know. I hate these things too. I never know what to say to anyone," she tells me as she slaps lightly at my hand, saving my coat from wrinkles and disgusted looks. I folded my arms and looked over my shoulder, scanning the crowd.
I see my father point at me with a sad smile, and the man talking with him walked over to Tori and I. I compose my face into stillness, hiding the mild grimace from having to meet another person I didn't know.
"Jade, I know you don't remember me, but I am a friend of your mother's." Oh God, here comes the nod and smile, no, not the hand squeeze too. What a sap. "I am so sorry for your loss." Puke.
"Thank you," I say as nicely as I can.
"Yes Jade, we should really keep in touch." I give him a smile and he faded away into the crowd. I shake my head at the absurdity of it all and turn to regard Tori. I gestured vaguely in the direction the man had gone.
"Why the hell would one of my mother's friends want to keep in touch with me?" I asked Tori, who was watching the guy closely. She leaned her head closer to mine, nearly laying her head on my shoulder.
"I don't think he is just a friend, Jade." She pointed to where my mother was standing, and that guy has his arm around her waist, his open palm really close to her ass.
"Oh," was all I could reply, momentarily nonplussed. This is how I meet the guy my mom was dating? Tactless.
My father walked up to me and Tori, taking one of each of our hands. "It's time for the family to have a moment together." He took us into a room I have been trying to avoid. I keep getting pushed up front to stand with my father and siblings. Tori took my hand and pulled me to her side and rubbed my back. I don't want to be here, in a big group of people or even alone, and now I am stuck in this little room, and I think the air is being sucked out slowly. I looked to my right and I am face to face with my grandfather. I swallowed once and looked away, my gaze finally resting on my father.
"Before we start, would anyone like to say any last 'good-byes'?" My father walked to the casket and said something quietly, and then wiped his eyes and turned to me.
"Jade, would you like to say anything?" he asked me.
"Um…okay, well." I turned to face the coffin and in my head I think, 'good-bye, Grandfather.' But when I looked at him, the memory came back to me of me sitting on his lap at a Cubs game, and he had a hotdog in one hand and a baseball glove in the other, cheering his head off. I had forgotten about all the baseball games we watched together, and the trips we had taken. I let a smile form on my face and I said, "Good Game." And then I turned to my wife, and let her take me into her arms.
After the funeral, we drove back home quietly. I was tired and just ready to get out of these clothes. "Jade? Out of everything you could have said to your grandfather, why did you say 'good game'?" Tori asked me as we sat at a red light.
"It wasn't until I looked at him that I remembered that he loved baseball, too. Believe it or not, even more than me. He took me to my first Cubs game, and he even caught a fly ball," I tell her, with tears gathering in my eyes again. "I can't believe I forgot about that, or him." We didn't say another thing until we got home.
On Wednesday, Tori and I walked into a law office. We had no problem finding the place, mainly because Mom works here. We walked to one of the larger conference rooms. My birth family was already there, my father on one side of the table and my brother and sister and mother taking up the other end to create their happy little family. Everyone looked up at us as we walked through the door. Dad got up and gave me a small hug, and smiled at Tori. He then pointed at the chairs that were left for us. I pulled out Tori's chair for her and sat down in mine after Tori had perched herself on the seat. Then I looked around and realized that we were pretty far away from the others.
The door opened again, and a lawyer walked in the room. "Tori, nice to see you. I didn't know you knew the West family," he said as he walked over to the other side of the table.
"Hello, Matt, it's nice to see you too. Yes, well, this is Jade's family, so I am in the West family. By marriage," Tori added with a small laugh. Matt gave her a polite smile and opened the folder that had been tucked under his arm. He began flipping through the papers inside, getting his presentation in order. Mom took the opportunity to face me directly and talk to me.
"Yes, I have a gift for the two of you. And I am so sorry I couldn't make it to your wedding," she said with a sad smile. I returned the smile politely, then turned to look at my sister as she spoke up.
"Oh! Yes, I too have a gift. I wanted to come to the wedding, but it turns out that you can't fly when you are in the third trimester of pregnancy," Tess told me.
"Well, I guess that works out. I didn't know you were pregnant again, so I forgive you," I tell my sister with a smile. "But, I'll need pictures to prove it." She nodded with a grin.
"I got the invite to the wedding, and then got the flu. But, I too have a gift," Mike said, and I laughed, joined by Tess. Tori cocked her eyebrow at me. I'd have to take the time to explain Mike and the flu to her. Every time something big was happening, my brother got the flu.
"I didn't think you wanted me there, so I didn't go. But I have the invite and the announcement from the newspaper framed in my office. I, of course, have a gift as well. I am so happy for you. I can't wait to have a picture of you two to put in that frame, and I just bought one so I can put your graduation picture in there." I was quite amazed. My father has never sounded very proud when it came to me, but today he was the proudest father in the world. The lawyer cleared his throat and we returned our attention to him.
We all settled down in our seats and the reading started. "So let's get started," Matt said, and my father passed me a copy of the Will. I folded the copy open to where the beneficiaries are stated and placed my copy on my lap. I know just enough from living with Holly to know I have no idea what this other shit means. Matt just kept reading, sometimes stopping to answer a question from my mother or father, and it all sounded like he has stupid stuck in his mouth, so I bent down and put my ear buds in. Tori, on the other hand, had brought a book and was quietly reading it. A time later, Matt must have gotten to a part that I needed to hear, because Tori started tapping me lightly on the leg.
I pulled out my ear buds and listened to what Matt was saying. "To Marcus, my only son, I leave to you the '64 Chevy and all of its parts, plus the lump sum of $15,000.00." Dad seemed very pleased. He loved that car more than grandpa, and that's saying something.
"To my grandson Mike West, I leave you the book collection and the amount of $10,000.00." I know Mike was a happy camper. That boy read all the time. I once caught him in the middle of five different books. I'm no dummy, but I'd get so lost if I tried to read that much at once. And grandpa had had an actual library, taking up one whole room of his home.
"To my granddaughter Tessa West, I leave you the music collection and the amount of $10,000.00." Well, that kind of sucks. Don't get me wrong, Tess was almost as big a music person as I was, but she'd back-burnered it when she had gotten pregnant the first time. I knew I'd be showing up at her place sometime, hoping to browse through all that vinyl she'd just inherited.
"To my daughter-in-law Joann West, I leave you all the rights to the West Co. shares that I held." Another pleased face. Mom has quite a large amount of West Co.'s stock already. I wonder if this gives her a controlling interest.
"And last, but never least, to my darling granddaughter Jade West, I leave you one baseball signed by the Chicago Cubs. In addition, I also leave the horror movie collection and writing collection. I leave to you the house in Los Angeles. I also leave you the amount of $20,000.00." I am stunned. I expected the movies and half hoped I'd get the writing. These were scripts and journals from the 1930s forward from some of the leading names in Hollywood. The baseball, well, I'd not known he had that, and it's exciting. I can't wait to see which players had signed the ball. But the house? No fucking way.
"This concludes this Will and Final Testament. Do you have any more questions for me at this time?" Matt asked as he gathered his things. We all shook our heads and sat quietly as he stood. "If you need some time, this room will be available for you for another thirty minutes." Matt cleared his throat and continued, "Well, you should see the amounts stated in the Will in you bank accounts by weeks end, and again, I am sorry for your loss. I will miss Lionel. He was a really good friend. And in the famous words of his lovely cousin, 'It ain't sin if you crack a few laws now and then, just so long as you don't break any.'" He smiled at each of us, shaking hands with both my father and mother, then left the room.
Tori and I looked at each other with wide eyes. "Mae West said that," Tori stated, a touch on the obvious side. I gave her a superior smirk. But before I could say anything, dad answered the question that Tori wasn't quite asking.
"Yes, she was your grandfather's cousin. And although beautiful and very talented, she will always be his Mary Jane. She was, of course, thirty years older than him, but she would call him her little Barrymore." My father smiled, most likely thinking of his own childhood. "I remember how heartbroken he was when she passed. I have some pictures you may like to have of Mae on the red carpet, and with the Hollywood royalty of the time," he told me as he gathered his stuff. "I know we wanted to go out for lunch, but you had said something about needing to get back, so if we can gather in the parking lot, we'll give you your gifts and get you on your way." I was surprised that I didn't want to see this to end, that I wanted to spend more time with them, but I knew that we had to get back home for Cat.
After getting everything packed in our car and we said our good-byes to everyone with promises of getting together sometime soon, Tori and I were on our way back home.
"What do you say we go look at this house? You know, just to see what it looks like," I say. I struggled to keep the grin I felt from showing.
"Sure, it couldn't hurt," Tori said, sliding just a bit closer to me. We drove to the address that was given in the copy of the Will and pulled up to the gates. "Um…what is that?" Tori pointed to the huge mansion beyond the gates.
"Our new home." I told Tori with a smile. "But just think what we can do with this place. Baby it's not about the money or the house itself, it's about what we can do to make life just that little bit easier for everyone." I said leaning over and giving her a kiss before pulling away from the gates and driving back to Hollywood.
A/N: Mae West's real name was Mary Jane West and Jade's grandfather's name was Lionel and of course one of the greatest and oldest acting families in Hollywood is the Barrymore's, in which the leading man of that family is Lionel Barrymore.