Details of the Dead

Ante Mortis

In the Cold of the Eve of a New Year

We trudged back out to the gravesite, but selfishly wanted to believe that the grave would be settling in the wet, cold mud and my uncle merely gone. I kept telling myself he went off traveling, despite the fact that his normal travel method had been buried with my father. Others murmured to themselves that Morgan was an adult and could take care of himself. Denial and rationalizations were shattered when we found him half-supine in the mud. From the looks of it, he'd had a major seizure and was lucky to have landed face-down so fluids could drain from his mouth. In our deluded self-assertions that he couldn't be here, we neglected to bring any servents to help lift him. We crudely dragged him back, apologizing several times along the way.

He was washed up and laid in the infirmiry. Several times in the day his lips turned blue. When Georg arrived, he listened to his chest and heart, drugged him and sadly said he was severely incapacitated. Long exposure to the cold and his waxiness had led to nervous shutdown in his lungs and other organs. It was a trait that he didn't share with humans. He would repair eventually, but it would be months, possibly years, before he was close to what we would recognize as normal for him.

Mr. Shay turned to me as next executor. I looked at him in numb shock. My brother was six years old and obviously not old enough to manage the barony or the proprietorship. Morgan was named regent. If he was unable to fulfill that duty, I was the next in line for regency. My stepmother Margaret was next. I was also named to the proprietor's seat until Charles was deemed capable of running a company.

I couldn't think of filling my father's vaunted shoes. He was a great man by many measures. My uncle was, too, if by different measures. To add to the responsibilities, my father left me the lion's share of his money and the exhortation to “see to the family's needs.” I also inherited powers of attorney over my uncle. I had no idea my uncle was deemed incompetent. The only separate stipend went to Margaret who ran the household and “should be obeyed as a dowager.”

Oddly, only a quarter of my father's fortune was to be granted. With another quarter to be released after five, ten, then finally, twenty years. “After twenty years, if I have not been seen alive, nor any claims of me living have been put forth, I can be considered dead. Habeas corpus is not to be considered sufficient proof of my death for the release of my total funds to the beneficieries.”

Mr. Shay said the unusual stipulation was also in Morgan's will and I suddenly understood its purpose.