The Surprise

"Bob I want you to transfer some money from my "piggy bank" account. You know my pastor friend John, his wife, and his daughter, Right?"

"Yes, I do; why"

"Well here are their account numbers. (Not shown for obvious reasons.) I want you to transfer $10,000 dollars into each of their accounts and post it immediately. Will you do that?"

"For you, yes. When the roads are clear I'd really like you to come in and sign some papers to make this really official. I have no problem transferring a few dollars without real paperwork, but when the total is tens of thousands of dollars I like to have the paper trail. Is there anything else you need?"

"Yes, Bob, I just got married to a very old friend and want to open an account for her. Basically, I want to put one tenth of my net worth into the same kinds of investments that they are now. Can you set up the necessary paper work so that we can come in and sign it when the roads are clear?

"You bet, Jim. I'll see you in a few days."

I hung up the phone.

"Did I hear him right? I thought he said that you had transferred a few million dollars"

"Yup, I did. When I was buying this property and having this house built I put about fifteen million into the effort."

'I don't want to be nosy, but how could you afford to do that?"

"Well darling I think I need to tell you a bit about my investments. You heard that I want to transfer a tenth of what I am worth into investments in your name. What you don't know is that tenth is about thirty-five million dollars. I've done rather well financially over the years."

She just sat there staring at me. She couldn't think of what to say. While she was in this state I connected to my satellite broadband connection on my kitchen computer. Moments later, while she watched, I emailed my pastor friend, his wife, and his daughter.

I then entered my account numbers, one after another so that Jane could see the numbers.

"My God, I had no idea that you had this kind of money!"

"Most people don't know my net worth. I don't use it extravagantly, except for the house and land; and I have no use for people who would try to become 'friends' because they wanted money or favors. My only reason for indicating what is there is to give you a feeling of security. As my wife, you will get all of this when I die. You should be set for life."

"I don't know what to say. I need to mull this over for a bit. In the meantime, let's go to bed, husband of mine. We have a few things that need to be taken care of."

Boy did we ever, but that is another story.

This is both the end, and the beginning!