The subject was far from over. The next day, Grandma May showed up in our door. The only time I had seen the woman before was in my wedding day, five good years ago. She was extremely agitated. After half a dozen biscuits and a cup of tea, we got her to talk. Apparently, she had been reluctant to give her piece of the map to Little Earl, who had become obsessed with finding his grandfather’s money. Grandma May believed money had set that family apart. She said Maggie might not remember, but back in the days when she was just a little girl, her being the youngest grandchild, everyone was so attached to each other they would meet every other weekend at the big farm for a family picnic. During one of those occasions, Little Earl’s father, Bert, married to their firstborn Lucy, insisted Grandpa Earl should create a bank account in his agency and invest his money. After an uncomfortable number of conversations on weekends to come, her husband had decided to do it just so the man would stop bothering him with it. Bert ended up making a big mess out of it, saying he had lost all the money in a safe investment that proved to be risky after all. Grandpa Earl was very mad, but decided not to lose his temper, as the large amount he had deposited in the said account was no more than ten percent of his total savings. The thing is, Bert suddenly got richer, buying expensive cars, renting expensive houses and going on expensive trips with his wife and kids. The obvious suspicion over that fact had raised an argument that split the kids into sides and from which they had never quite recovered.

             Grandma May said the reason why she was there was because she had found out we also hadn’t given our share to Little Earl, so we were probably the only ones who would take her side and protect her. The kids had been calling her all week trying to talk her out of it, as if she was a senile woman who couldn’t make sensible decisions on her own. Just because their judgement on the situation was different from hers, it didn’t mean she was wrong.

            We came clean about how it hadn’t been our decision not to collaborate, but that we were a hundred percent with her on that matter. It shouldn’t be anybody’s decision but hers. Of course later in bed we discussed the subject further. How odd was that that someone should have access to so much money and simply deny it? It wasn’t as if it was going to somebody else. The money was simply going to die. We were still firmly on her side about the fact that it was her decision, though. And we could perfectly understand her position considering all the history.

            Little Earl wasn’t about to give up without a fight. After writing contracts, taking signatures and collecting every piece of the map he was able to put his hands on, he still couldn’t make out the route to the money without the two missing parts. The day after Grandma May had arrived, we got several calls from the family asking us to put some sense into her. The calls had started to get annoying. Eventually we began to hang up on everyone at the first mention of the word “money”.

            Then we got a call that made us particularly angry. It was from the garbage deposit somewhere in our tiny town. Apparently, there was someone snooping around and asking to see the garbage that came from our neighbourhood the past week, a very tall man with a huge belly. There was a reason why we had moved to such a quiet neighbourhood in such a tiny town: to be left alone. Having Grandma May in was already proving to be stressful, but we felt sorry for her and wanted her to be left alone as well.

            As soon as we found out about that, Maggie decided to have a serious talk with her cousin. She told him over the phone to stay out of our lives and to keep a good distance from our town and she said he had no right to suffocate their own grandmother over something so selfish and none of his business in the first place. He wasn’t embarrassed by her words, though. His prompt answer was that he didn’t give a damn about us or our stupid town and that yes, he did have the right to that piece of paper, as was stated in the official document he had picked up that very afternoon from his lawyers.