So, who got the fainting couch?
“So, who got the fainting couch?” Mira’s brother had come to pick up his own pile of furniture and knick knacks. She didn’t want to tell him. He walked over to the fainting couch and pointed. “Who’s pile is this?” Mira shook her head and looked at him and he knew. “Ricky? This is Ricky’s pile?” He picked through the pile and growled, “He got dad’s watch, too?!”
Mira shook her head, “It’s broken. It’s just a broken watch.” He spun around at her, angry. “It’s dad’s retirement watch! He got it from Lancaster. It was ’bout the only thing he ever got for his thirty years workin’ there! Ricky’s just gonna pawn it!” Mira nodded. She had been thinking about just that since the day her mother and father were good enough to write such a specific will. Her father hadn’t cared, but her mother had been very clear about who should have what, and Ricky was to have the fainting couch, dad’s retirement watch, and… “The Ancient One?” Her brother held up the bubble wrapped figurine. “Ricky gets The Ancient One?!”
Mira tried to calm her brother. “I’ve known about this for a long time. My plan is just to follow him around until he pawns all the stuff and buy it back.” Her brother was infuriated, “Buy it back! It’s OUR stuff! We shouldn’t have to buy it back!” Mira shook her head. “No, Mom was very clear about this when they made the will. Ricky was supposed to have all this stuff.” He paced around the room. “You KNOW he’s still using! He’ll just sell our stuff!” Mira hugged her brother into submission. “It’s just stuff. None of it will bring them back.”
“I just… It just… It feels like they both died. I know Mom died six years ago, but somehow Dad kept her alive and now everything is wrong and you’re dividing things up and I just…”
Mira understood. She just… as well.
“So who got the fainting couch?”
Katherine, Mira’s oldest sister, had a pile of dark wood furniture and mother’s brooch collection, but she eyed Ricky’s pile. “Ricky got the fainting couch.” Her sister sat on the old, worn out thing. “It needs reupholstering.” Mira shook her head. “The velvet isn’t worn.” She watched her sister bounce. “Yeah, but the springs are gone.” She looked around as if Ricky was in the room and could hear. “He won’t get more than fifty bucks for it.” Mira sighed. “I know. I’m tempted to offer him a lump sum for it all. All Mom and Dad left me was the house. I didn’t care when I was helping them write up their will, but now I care.” Mira eyed the couch jealously.
Katherine hugged her. “You can have a couple of the brooches.” Mira couldn’t stop the tears from flowing. “No, Mom didn’t want to break up the set and she said she remembered how much you liked them when you were a little girl. They don’t even remind me of her. She stopped wearing them by the time I came along. God! I just wish we could find her wedding ring!” Mira faced her older sister. “I’ve looked everywhere and I can’t find it!”
Her older sister sat her on the fainting couch. “Listen to me, Mira. I think Ricky stole Mom’s ring when she went into the hospital. Dad and I looked for that ring EVERYWHERE and we couldn’t find it. Either she was wearing it that night she had her stroke and the hospital staff stole it off her body or Ricky stole it while visiting.” She pronounced the word “visiting” as if Ricky had never visited someone in his life and it was true. “Which do you think is more likely?”
“No, Kit Kat!” Mira couldn’t believe that Ricky would steal their mother’s wedding ring, but her sister disagreed, “It could be the hospital staff, but she usually took her rings off before she went to bed. If you ask me, I think it was Ricky.” Mira sobbed into her sister’s shirt, soaking it with tears and snot.
Ricky was late. Not just normal Ricky late, but DAYS late. Mira had been sleeping on the bare floor of the house in a sleeping bag for two days waiting for Ricky to finally come and claim his inheritance. The check for his portion of the estate was sitting on top of his pile of furniture in the front room. When he finally arrived, she was livid. She held her tongue, letting the anger burn inside her.
“That’s it? That’s all I get?” He was looking at the check and hadn’t even noticed the most precious family heirlooms that her parents had left him. She tried to be calm when she answered. “They didn’t have much money, Ricky. In fact, I was sending Dad some every month just to make sure he wasn’t starving on Social Security. That’s your portion of the life insurance.” He snorted. “You must have spent a ton on his coffin, then.” She clenched her jaw and mumbled under her breath, “How would you know? You didn’t see it…”
She motioned toward the fainting couch. “Here are the items from the home that they gave you.” Ricky picked up the watch, glanced at its scratched crystal and tossed it back on the couch. “This stuff is just crap.” Mira nodded. It wasn’t a surprise. She had expected him to act like these precious items were just junk. “I’m willing to pay you for them.” Ricky was interested for the first time. “Really? How much? What’d you get? Your rich husband will have to pay big if you want my stuff.”
Mira breathed deeply, trying to stay calm. The anger and the grief mixed within her while she waited. “I ASKED what did you get? What did they leave you?” She answered him, “They just left me the house.” When she saw Ricky’s eyes light up she knew what her mother had been thinking all those years ago. This was Ricky’s final chance at absolution. She had given Ricky all the most prized possessions that she owned. This was his last chance to prove that he was a good son. If he wanted the fainting couch as much as all her brothers and sisters did, then he would be worthy.
Mira signed her parents’ house over to Ricky in exchange for the fainting couch, her father’s watch and a broken ceramic figurine that cost her mother four dollars and twenty-five cents back in 1962.