It was only 7 am but the sun was shining through the crack in the drapery, shooting a thin beam of sun over the foot of the king-sized bed.  Born with blond curly hair, the woman was now sporting a reverse ombre style with blond roots and dark brown ends.   She rolled over and reached toward the phone on the side table, as it rang for the third time.  Realizing her husband wasn’t around to answer the phone, she woke herself up.

“Hello?” she said into the receiver.  She cleared her throat once or twice to get rid of the rasp in her voice.

“Scarlett, it’s me. Agatha.  We need to talk.” the woman on the line said. She was sitting at her kitchen table, green Starbucks coffee cup in hand, dressed in a grey Champion sweatshirt.

Scarlett sat up as she heard the urgency in her sister’s voice, adjusting her spaghetti string tank top so it didn’t cause a nipple slip, and sat up against the headboard.  The weather was still nice in Southern California so she pushed the comforter down to her ankles, exposing her pajama shorts and long legs.

“Agatha? What time is it?”

“I’m worried about the Nikita situation”, Agatha said, ignoring Scarlett’s question.

“What do you mean?  Did something happen?  I thought she was working on getting better and going to therapy,” Scarlet’s voice was stronger now that she was fully awake.

“I was thinking about Mom and Dad and how Nikita is the executor of their will.  Do you think Nikita is in any condition to be taking charge of Mom and Dad’s estate?  I’m worried about her mental state.” Agatha got right to the point of her call.

“I don’t know Agatha.  She isn’t her usual self, but she’s been taking care of herself and the parents.  Maybe we should talk with Mom and Dad about this.”

“Scarlett. I just don’t think she should be bothered with the parents’ estate right now.  She needs to relax in a low stress environment.”

“Well, it is low stress. She’s not working. She’s not doing everything for Wayne all day long. Sure, she’s doing more for the folks since she’s with them, but it has to be less stressful not being around Wayne all the time. Ben’s not there, and Alex is almost done with school, so she does have less to manage day to day.”

“Scarlett, I just know she’ll worry about everyone else, and the more time she has the more she’ll offer to help everyone else.  You know she can’t keep out of other people’s business.”  In an undertone voice, as if she was telling a secret, Agatha continued, “I need to tell you something.  You know her hospital release papers?  I have them.”

“What?  You took her papers, Agatha?  She will be pissed when she finds out you have them.”

“No, I didn’t take them exactly. I borrowed them. And made copies at Target.”

“Wow.  Well, what did they say?  Is she crazy?”

“I didn’t see a diagnosis on the paperwork, just some information about the meds they wanted her to take.  But there was a workbook in there that she filled out.  Some self-reflection inventory thing.  She admitted that she’s not good with boundaries and always helping other people.  You know she’ll fall back into that.  She’ll end up doing a bunch of stuff for everyone but herself and maybe have another breakdown. “

“Well, I’m not convinced she had a breakdown. But she is different. Like a shell of her former self.  I can’t believe Wayne did that to her.”

“That’s what I mean. She isn’t herself, she needs to get better.  We need to help her.  And we need to protect Mom and Dad.  She’s the executor of their will and if she isn’t mentally all there, then they need to find another executor.”

“Well, aren’t you an executor as well?  You could be in charge.”

Agatha had a pleased expression on her face and she replied, “Sure. I would be happy taking on that responsibility. But, they need a backup. And right now, that’s not Nikita.  Mom and Dad really need people they can rely on.  If Nikita isn’t well, we need to find someone else. “

“Right.  Well, I don’t want to do it. And Casper probably won’t get involved.  What do you suggest?”

“If I take on the lead executor role, then we just need a solid backup person.  Someone the folks trust, someone honest, and fair. Someone Nikita would trust because she’s not going to be happy if she finds

out she’s not on the executor list.  If you don’t want to do it, and Casper won’t, then maybe someone like Tony should be put on the will instead of Nikita.   Tony is honest and will do what they want. They love him. What do you think?  I could become the first executor in charge, and he could be my back-up.  We probably wouldn’t need him, so it’s not like he’ll have to do any real work.”

As she made a logical case for changing the will, Agatha hoped that Scarlett would see how reasonable this was.

Scarlett replied with a reluctant, “I suppose Tony could do it.”

Agatha pushed a little more, seeing she was making progress, “It’s time for us to do that for her. Mom and Dad shouldn’t rely on her so much. They should probably help Nikita relax and take some stress off her plate. Maybe you could talk with Mom about this.”

“Agatha, Mom and Dad would have to agree. You know they won’t want us to say anything bad about Nikita, the favorite.  I don’t think they’d mind having Tony on the will, but they won’t be excited about removing Nikita.  And Nikita will push back too. She will take this badly.”

Scarlett thought about how everyone will take this push to make the change. She knew that Nikita would see this as Agatha trying to take over. Casper probably wouldn’t care, but Dad wouldn’t like the favorite to look slighted.

“But you could talk to the parents, right?  You could make them understand that I’m still on the will and would just step up.  Tony would be a good alternative for Nikita, until she’s well.  They can always change it back when that happens.”  Agatha laid out a logical argument for Scarlett.

In a resigned voice, Scarlett replied, “Agatha, I’ll try, but I’m not going to push hard. I don’t want to piss Dad off, going against Nikita. You know he won’t like us pushing this issue.  I’ll talk to Mom.  Maybe we need a family meeting.”

Having accomplished her agenda, Agatha was looking very pleased. They shared some small talk, updating each other on the latest news in the family, then said their goodbyes.

Scarlett got out of bed and located Tony in the kitchen with his morning coffee.  He was surprised to see her up so early on a Saturday morning.  He had been out in the yard when the phone rang, so didn’t know she was on the phone.

“Tony. I just talked with Agatha.  She’s worried that Nikita isn’t mentally up to being the executor on my parents’ will.  Especially given her stint in the mental institute, we should probably identify a new executor.  I’m going to talk with Mom about having Nikita removed.  We talked about having you added to the will. But don’t worry, we’d put Agatha as primary and you would just need to be the back-up.”

Tony gave her a steely look.  She knew that look. He didn’t like what they were doing. “Scarlett, I don’t like this.  I don’t need to be on your parents’ will. I’m not even related to them.  And why remove Nikita?  Your parents arranged their will the way they wanted it. Why are you trying to change it?”

“Tony, you know I told you how weird Nikita was, right after the hospital? She was not herself. She was decimated. She looked like a ghost of herself. She was keeping herself isolated, she was depressed, she

wasn’t thinking straight. She was whacked out.  I don’t think she should be on their will, in her condition.”

“Maybe, but they need to make those decisions, not you and Agatha, pushing them into something.”

“We aren’t pushing. I’m going to talk to Mom and see what she thinks.  She can make the plans with Dad, but I am going to offer you as the replacement for Nikita, if they want one.  Are you OK with that?”

“I’m OK with helping out.  But you said yourself, you weren’t sure what was going on with Nikita.  You weren’t convinced she was crazy.  Maybe this isn’t permanent.  I hope so.”

“Tony, I hope so too. I am not convinced Wayne isn’t involved somehow. This was all so sudden, and with him acting so weird and frantic, something is going on. I just don’t know what yet, but I will. I am not going to let him do anything to my sister.  Right now though, my parents need to be in good hands. I’m not sure that’s Nikita – right now.”

Scarlett took this conversation as permission to talk with her parents.  She’d do that later today when she knew they were awake and ready for a conversation.

When Scarlett called her Mom later that day, she broached the topic of Nikita not being a fit executor, but Mom wasn’t interested in talking about changing the will.  Dad got on the phone to talk too.  He said there was nothing to take over because he was still in charge of his finances and legal matters.  He was ignoring the fact that Nikita had been helping him every month with his financial management. They’d been paying his bills and balancing his accounts together, every month, for the last year. Scarlett was able to convince him to think about making the changes.  And he said he would.  Of course, Mom would do as Dad said.  He was the boss of their financial matters.

Scarlett texted Agatha later that day to discuss the outcome of her call with their parents.

Scarlett: Dad says everything is fine. I told him that Nikita isn’t well. He said leave it alone.

Agatha: Let’s talk with Casper and see what he thinks. Maybe he’ll tell them to change it. I’ll contact him. And get back to you.

Agatha then texted Casper.

Agatha: Scarlett and I talked. Nikita is whacked-out, so the parents need someone else as executor on their will. Scarlett talked to Mom/Dad but they are in denial. Dad thinks he’s still in charge, never mind Nikita pays his bills, but says he’ll think about it. Tony can replace her on the will. I’ll be primary. Thoughts?

Surprisingly Casper replied in short time, and didn’t need to be prodded a few times, as was tradition.

Casper:  What’s Dad say?  If he says it is fine, then leave it alone.  Just leave me out of it.

Agatha replied to Scarlett, with a scheming look on her face.

Agatha:  Casper won’t help. Says leave Dad alone.  I’m worried that leaves Mom and Dad with only one capable executor on their will.  If necessary, we call a family meeting and talk about this.  Someone needs to be looking out for their best interests. 

Agatha continued to text,

Agatha: Scarlett, there’s another issue we need to manage as well. With Nikita whacked-out, Linus and I have to rethink our wills. We had Nikita as our executor, too.  Now we have to think about who to put in charge.  What a pain! Don’t you have her as your executor too?

Scarlett hadn’t thought about how this applied to her and Tony.  Shit! She and Tony will also have to take action now as well.

Scarlett:  You’re right! Shit!  We have Nikita as our executor, too. I’ll have to talk with Tony and see what we can do.  Who does Casper have as his executor?

Agatha:  Nikita.  She was everyone’s executor.  We knew she’d do the work and be honest. Now we have to find someone else. Maybe Tony can be ours and Casper’s replacement.

Scarlett:  Agatha, I don’t know. I don’t think he would mind, but you’d have to ask him. And you need to call Casper and let him know he needs a new executor, as well.

It wasn’t surprising that Agatha was the first to realize Nikita was executor on all their wills.  She and Linus were always astute at protecting their personal interests.

Agatha: Ok. I’ll call him.  I don’t know if I’ll reach him, since he avoids us as much as possible, but I can always text him. He’s probably more likely to read a text than take a call from me.

As Agatha texted a “TTYL” to Scarlett, she had a glint of determination in her eyes.

Photo by Melinda Gimpel on Unsplash

Episodes are based on a true story, written anonymously under the name of Nikita Mears.

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