Hey there, this story is based on the book 'To Love A Texan' by Georgina Gentry. In the book, the story is set in 1880, but I can't decide if to leave it like that or not. Obviously, there are many things to take into consideration, race being the most prominent. I've tried modernizing it as best as I could, however, if I feel it's not running as smooth as I'd like, I'll take it back to 1880.
Thank you for your continued support and I invite you to give it a try...read with an opened mind. Sam and Mercedes are a bit out of character here.
I do not own Glee or the characters, neither do I own 'To Love A Texan' Georgina Gentry does.
I don't know anything really, about Nacogdoches. I just like the name.
The town of Nacogdoches, Texas. Population 36 614
They were burying Sue Sylvester today and it was the biggest funeral this east Texas town has ever seen.
It could've been bigger and would've been bigger, Sam Evans thought, if the local men hadn't been so chicken-livered and scared of their wives, to attend.
So here he stood, in the graveyard with whores, card dealers, Carmen, the part Hispanic, part black, cook/housekeeper, a billy-goat named Sherwin and most of the single men of the town, plus cowboys from all over the county, paying their last respects to a woman, who'd put the name of the town on the map.
Reverend Lovejoy was conducting the service, although his congregation might have something to say to him, next Sunday.
It was one thing to talk about redeeming the lowly and quite another to preach a respectable sermon, for the biggest Madam in the Lone Star state.
It was a warm day.
Sam sighed and shifted the goat's leash, to his other hand, so he could wave away a fly.
He really missed Sue. She was a great old gal.
Reverend Lovejoy droned on and on, trying to find nice things to say about the sudden death of the owner, well, half owner, of the most successful 'hotel' in the county.
Because of Sue's generosity in letting him buy in, Sam owned half the Texas Lily.
The Reverend motioned for Sue's 'girls' to come forward and sing.
Unfortunately, a few knew the words to the hymns, while some didn't, so they rendered an off-key chorus of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing.'
Since it was nearing spring, it wasn't appropriate, but, whilst Sue was good-hearted and generous, she wasn't an angel.
Reverend Lovejoy said a final prayer and Sam reached down to pat Sherwin, who was now chewing the edge of his frock coat.
"Reverend," a lawyer by the name of Will Shuester spoke up. "I wanted to inform all of Sue's employees, that in her will, she's left each of you, one thousand dollars, so you won't have to work the day of her funeral."
The customers, meaning the single men there, moaned, but the girls squealed in delight.
"Now ain't that thoughtful!" a guy by the name of Noah 'Puck' Puckerman, sarcastically said. And Sam snickered.
The preacher flushed and cleared his throat.
Mr. Shuester walked over and put his hand on the preacher's shoulder, lowering his voice,
"And there's five thousand dollars for the church." The preacher nodded his grey unkempt head and said,
"I don't know if my congregation…"
"I'll see that it is anonymous," the lawyer assured him. "You know Sue was always generous with her money, covering everything from scholarships to charities and everything in between."
Reverend Lovejoy nodded in agreement.
Sam started to walk away, still leading the goat, but Mr. Shuester caught his arm.
"I need to see you and Carmen in my office."
"Sure," Sam replied, brushing his hair back from his eyes, and then handing the leash to one of the girls.
"I believe you girls can walk back to the hotel," he said, nodding towards the establishment, on a little rise at the end of the street.
"Carmen, let's go to Mr. Shuester's office." The wrinkled old cook/housekeeper nodded and wiped her eyes.
"Mr. Sam, it just don't seem real that she's gone."
'Sue's gone all right,' Sam thought with a sigh.
She was gone when she fell over that rail of the open balcony, last Saturday night…landing on a billiard table, breaking one of its legs off.
"Yep, she was one in a million."
He took Carmen by the arm, and helped her into his fancy car, looking back at the small graveyard, at the edge of the town. The grave was now covered with Texas bluebonnets, because the common orange day-lilies Sue loved so much, weren't that plentiful. With a loud exhale, he drove off and headed for the lawyer's office.
In Mr. Shuester's office, the two settled into chairs, in front of the dusty, cluttered desk.
Sam leaned back with a sigh and looked up at the ceiling. He was feeling older than his twenty-nine years all of a sudden, probably because, they had buried Sue, today.
He had really cared about her.
She was old enough to be his mother and sometimes he thought of her that way.
She had taken him in and given him a fresh start, three years ago.
He'd been just another drifting gambler and sometimes guitar-singing 'pretty-boy', like his younger brother, Stevie.
Will cleared his throat and shuffled papers, as he settled behind his desk.
"Sue Sylvester was one woman in a thousand. Too bad we know so little about her or where she came from." He looked at Carmen.
"I heard you've been with her, at least twenty-five years."
"Yes. She rescued me from a rich slave-driver, back in Atlanta," Carmen said and wiped her eyes. She went on. "There wasn't nothin' I wouldn't do for Miss Sue."
Sam looked at her and it dawned on him, she had to know Sue pretty well.
"So, you probably know more about her than anyone else," he said, hopeful. She gave him a steely look.
"Not that much. There are some things she didn't want people to know." Sam shrugged.
'What did the past matter,' he mused internally.
Mr. Shuester shuffled the papers and said,
"Here's the will…you two are mentioned."
"Us?" both asked, surprised. Mr. Shuester ran his hand through his full head of hair, nodded and began to read:
"I Sue Sylvester, being of sound mind, do make this my last will and testament. I bequeath the employees of the Texas Lily, one thousand dollars each, so they can party, instead of work, on the night of my funeral." Sam laughed.
"That sounds like Sue, alright." The lawyer went on.
"She left the church five thousand dollars and a little, here and there, to other charities, but that's just for your ears, not your lips. This part's for you Carmen…"
"For my good and faithful cook/housekeeper and friend, I leave twenty-five thousand dollars…"
"Twenty-five thousand dollars!" Carmen said, her mouth falling open.
"Yep. You've got a nice nest egg there, Carmen. The money's in my safe. You can retire and not work another day in your life."
"Humph!" The old woman said, wrinkling her nose. "And just what would I do with my time, then? If Mr. Sam don't mind, I'd like to save that money and keep workin' at the hotel."
"Sure. That's fine by me," Sam grinned. "I don't know how I could run the place without you, anyway." The old woman stood up and brushed her rumpled black dress.
"Then, if'fen you're through with me, I want to inspect Miss Sue's grave and make sure the flowers are just right, then I got to get a roast in the oven. Folks got to eat, funeral or no."
Sam stood up and opened the door for Carmen.
"You can take my car. I'll walk back after I'm finished here," he said, offering her the keys. She gratefully took them, nodded and left.
Sam returned to his chair and sat again.
Will Shuester walked over to a table in the corner, picked up a bottle of bourbon and two glasses, and returned to his desk.
"We've lost a great woman in Sue Sylvester. Let's drink to her." He poured the drinks.
"She saved me from possibly a life of crime or worse. I'm gonna miss her," Sam said and took his glass and clinked it with Will's.
"She built the Texas Lily, into the best hotel, bar, and gamblin' hall…in east Texas. My life in Tennessee could never compare to the one I have here," he went on to say.
"She could get under my skin, call me butt-chin from sun-up to sun-down…but she was still a great woman and this town is poorer without her," Will said, clinking his glass to Sam's again.
"So true. But she was a shrewd business-woman and a successful business-woman at that."
"You had something to do with the success of the business," Will reminded him. "As good as you play poker. Anyway, she left you something as well."
He looked at Sam, over his own glass of bourbon.
"I expected that someday, but not yet. After all. I don't reckon she's got a relative in this world. At least, she's never mentioned it. I don't even know if she was ever married, or where she came from. She never talked about her past, but then, I didn't know her as well as Carmen did," Sam said. And then,
"I suppose, we should let her past die with her." Will frowned and placed his glass down on the desk.
"Uh…Sam, she's left you two things," he said.
'I bet one is, her half of the business. Hell, I'd rather have her back, any day,' Sam thought to himself.
Never in his wildest dreams, did he imagine her dying in such an unexpected accident.
"Actually, she's left you three things." Will studied the papers before him. "One is the goat. You're to look after her beloved pet, Sherwin." Sam smiled.
"That smelly old billy-goat, will probably out-live me. All he's good for, is to chew up the day-lilies growin' out front of the house."
"And she's left you money...fifty thousand dollars and ten thousand in gold bars. It's in my safe. She never had much faith in banks."
"I know that. There's a rumor around town, that she hid her profits in the walls of the hotel," Sam said. Will shrugged and smiled.
"I believe that's just a local tale…or maybe…she did. But she didn't tell me. Also, she's left you that big fancy birdbath, at the front of the Lily…the one in the center flowerbed."
Sam nodded.
He really didn't care about the birdbath, although he knew that Sue had set a great deal of store by it.
She'd bought it on one of her random trips out of town and put it among some of her favorite flowers, in the middle of the Lily's front lawn.
Even now, as he's sitting in Will's office, he could close his eyes and see her, in that visor she always wore, to protect her eyes from the Texas sun.
Sometimes, she liked to be out at dawn or dusk, gardening and planting flowers, while the goat munched grass peacefully, beside her.
His mind went over what Will had just said.
"Uh…Will, you said three things." Will fiddled with the papers, a little nervously.
"That's three, ain't it?" Sam began to get a sinking feeling in his stomach.
"What about the business?" he asked. Lawyer Shuester took a deep gulp of his drink.
"That's the hardest to explain, Sam."
"Try."
Will shrugged and read aloud from the papers in front of him.
"I leave my half of the Texas Lily, to my God niece, Mercedes Jones, a music and etiquette teacher at MC. Kinley High, Lima, Ohio, along with fifty thousand dollars."
"What?" Sam said, as he half rose from his chair and stared Will down.
"Now, take it easy, Sam, there's more…"
"Since I'm certain Mercedes will not be interested in this property, I suggest my partner Sam Evans, offer my God niece twenty thousand dollars for her half, out of what I've left for him, thus making him, sole owner."
Sam felt as though he'd been punched in the gut.
"Well I'll be damned. A niece and a respectable schoolteacher at that. Hell, I didn't even know she had any family…rather, anyone so close as to call a relative."
Mr. Shuester, pondered Sam's words for a few seconds.
"Hmm…I reckon there's a lot we didn't know about Sue, even though she's lived here for more than twenty years."
"I don't know whether to be insulted or not, that she didn't left me the business. Why do you think she didn't deed me the business, and tell me to send her niece the twenty thousand?"
"I don't know, Sam. There has to be a reason. Maybe she knew you too well and wanted to make sure the girl really got the money."
Will chuckled and raised his hands defensively.
"Not funny. Anyway, I ain't that slick, even though I used to be. And I'm not that kind of a guy. I've been using my share of the profits to buy some land between here and Beaumont. I'm thinking of raising cattle in my old age," Sam said. Will nodded.
"So, it's simple. I'll write this God niece a letter and tell her about the deal, only I'll spare her knowing what the Lily really is." Sam had a sudden chilling thought.
"Suppose this girl won't take it and tries to hold me up for more money?"
"An 'old maid' teacher from Lima?" Will snorted and went on, "Why, she'll jump at the chance to sell a property she's never seen. I'll write an official letter for you. I believe by late May, you'll own the Texas Lily outright, without ever having to meet this lady."
Sam heaved a sigh of relief and drained his glass. He stood up, set the tumbler on the edge of the desk and said,
"I'm getting upset for nothin'. You just go ahead and do that. And let me know when you hear from her."
He opened the door and stood looking out, mumbling under his breath.
He was more than a little annoyed with Sue, for not trusting him to do the right thing by her niece. And it's not as if Sue didn't know him…and pretty damn well, too.
"The money is alright…but a damn goat and a bird bath. If that doesn't beat all," he grumbled to himself.
"Oh! One more thing," Will called out, just as Sam stepped through the door. "I almost forgot. Miss Sue said there was a box of stuff that's up on the top shelf of her closet. She said Carmen would know what to do. Will you please tell her?"
"Sure, sure," Sam said. He was only half listening, as he closed the door and started down the sidewalk.
He had to admit to himself, that something good had still come out of the meeting.
He wouldn't have to borrow to pay the old maid niece twenty thousand dollars. The business was a profitable one and he could soon be a rich man, once he owned it outright.
But he felt slighted and insulted.
He thought Sue had more affection for him than that.
Oh, well, he internalized, he was a helluva lot better off now, than the poor white trash way he'd grown up. That thought cheered him, as he started walking towards the hotel on the hill, at the end of the street.
How was it? Yay or nay? Tell me everything. :)