The Heritage Paper

Chapter 4



Veronica watched as Eddie came up behind Maggie, and shouted, “Freeze, Maggot—you’re under arrest for being late to school!”

Maggie turned, and a big smile came over her face. She tossed the final shovelful of dirt onto her time-capsule and ran to Eddie. The kids were always so affectionate with him. Maybe because in so many ways he was still a child himself. She even let him call her Maggot—nobody else got away with that.

“Did you see the pictures I sent you?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah—they were great. Blood spattered everywhere!”

Veronica cringed, not liking where this was going.

Maggie pulled out her phone—the one Ellen bought for her last Christmas, despite Veronica’s insistence that she was too young—and they studied the images that Eddie had sent her. He turned to Veronica. “Couple of dead drug dealers we found in a loft apartment last night.”

Most parents worried about their kids text messaging too much with their friends—her kids got dead bodies. No wonder she was constantly meeting with their principal. “You sent my children pictures of dead people?”

“Not people—drug dealers. Best anti-drug commercial going. You should thank me.”

Eddie’s focus changed back to the time-capsule, and he began peppering Maggie with questions about it.

She swelled with pride as she went on a tangent about the contents. Eddie tried to get a sneak peak, but Maggie warned him that it couldn’t be opened for thirty years. This made him all the more eager to see inside, but Maggie didn’t relent. She did give him a rundown of the contents—family photos, copy of the Heritage Paper, family tree, and a memoir of Ellen’s life that they wrote together, expanding beyond the scope of the Heritage Paper. A record of her life that according to Maggie, Ellen hoped to pass down to future generations of the Peterson family.

Eddie began laughing. “Memoir? Only Oma could be narcissistic enough to think that anyone would want to read the story of her life. Who wants to read about some whiny housewife from New York?”

“She had a very interesting life,” Maggie contended. “I think you’d be surprised.”

It was almost two different lives, Veronica thought. As a young girl, Ellen had survived a concentration camp in Nazi Germany. Then when the war ended, she came to America, where she married a policeman named Harold Peterson. They had one child named Harry Jr., but when he and his wife died tragically, Ellen took in her grandchildren, Carsten and Eddie, and raised them. Maybe it wasn’t worthy of a movie, but she would have to agree with Maggie, it was in interesting life.

But the Ellen that Veronica had known since she began dating Carsten was more along the lines of Eddie’s description. She was a curmudgeonly woman, who was constantly complaining, and morbidly pessimistic. The only time she seemed happy was when she was around Eddie and Carsten. And in turn, they would do anything for her. Veronica suspected her downward cycle this past year was connected to Carsten’s death, even if the doctors were convinced it was part of her natural decline.

“I’m giving a presentation on her life today, but everyone seems to be too busy to attend. So I guess you’ll never get to find out,” Maggie said.

The words might have been directed at Eddie, but Veronica knew the attitude was meant for her. “Mags, I’m going to try to make it. As soon as I get done with Jamie’s principal,” she said.

“Whatever.”