Chapter 4—The Will

At the mansion, everyone sat in the living room, it was a large room with a high ceiling, large red drapes hung all over the room. Large blue couch-chairs and sofas took their places in different positions of the room. A thick blue rug rested underneath their feet on the ground, it covered the whole room, matching with the chairs and drapes, they all gave the room a dark, warm peaceful feeling. There were four table lamps in the four corners of the living room, they were the only source of light in the room.

The lawyer, Mr Edward Peters scanned through the documents he had spread out on the large, brown centre table, with a little torchlight and his reading glasses.

He wore a pair of brown trousers and a long, black coat, beneath the coat was a white, long-sleeved sweater. He kept scanning through and they all kept waiting-- impatiently.

"Ah ha! Here it is", he finally said.

He was a frail old man and late Mr Johnson trusted him enough with his will-- his dying wishes. Mr Edward then separated a white piece of paper with tiny letters on it, he gathered together all the other pieces of paper and kept them inside his little bag. He stood up in between the table and the couch, he looked around searching into everyone's faces, then he arranged his reading glasses on his face with two fingers then cleared his throat to speak.

"On this day, July 15 1980, I Johnson .A. Johnson (as grantor), hereby transfer and hand over the Johnson Mansion to my wife-- Mrs Johnson, and to my three children-- William, Monica and Viola Johnson. I give the full ownership rights of the mansion to my son William .A. Johnson.

Also, I leave the sum of £2,000,000 to my three children to be shared equally amongst themselves (because I love them equally).

And to my lovely wife, I transfer all my assets (she knows what I mean) and leave her with the sum of £200,000.

To my loyal friend and lawyer, I leave the sum of £60,000". He paused and sat down.

"So these were your father's wishes!" He winced then took a long look at the paper, fixed his shifting glasses in position once more.

"Oh and one more thing, 'My son, William .A. Johnson, is in charge of the mansion. All my three children are to sincerely and genuinely see to it that the mansion is safe! Its legacy must live on, they must guard it at all times!'", Mr Edward stopped and brought three more white pieces of paper with the same wordings as the first. Then he slided the first piece of paper on the table towards William.

"Here, you all are to sign these four documents as proof that each of you approves of the will and accept your benefits as the beneficiaries", he smiled, "Please sign on the spaces where you see your names, here's a pen!". William signed and passed the papers to the other folks; they all signed. The lawyer gathered up the documents and put them in his briefcase.

"I'll be back with two of these documents which are to remain in your possession. I'm taking them with me to the court and make them pass through the necessary, final procedures", he broke off.

"You do that Mr Peters, we'll be expecting you soon", Mrs Johnson pointed out inquirly.

"Of course ma'am, see you all soon. I'll take my leave", The lawyer stood up, cleared his throat, smoothed out his coat, he walked over to the others in the room and shook each one's right hand gentlemanly. William saw him off to the exit of the house. For some reason, the old man switched the briefcase from his left hand to the right one and gently brushed his wrinkled fingers through his silver soft hair.

He walked out into the cold; which made his white skin pale and to tingle. He tucked himself deeper into his long coat and moved briskly through the cobbled road of Mermaid street.