It's a Jungle Out There

At this point he paused.

With a mixture of emotions I absorbed this news. Later I reflected that Scalia may have thought my silence was sorrow from hearing about my ex-wife's death. It wasn't.

Finally I replied.

"But, John, what does this have to do with me, and why are you involved?" I asked.

"Okay," he began, "let me get to that."

And then he told me.

He had been contacted by an attorney in St. Louis. Apparently Claude Francis inherited the building that Papaya occupied from his mother, who's third husband had left it for her. Their mother passed away three years ago. Jasmine was named as the heir to 100% of Claude Francis' estate.

"And Jasmine never changed the will you and she set up when you were first married." He explained.

I sat in Scalia's office trying to absorb this information.

"So are you saying.... " I began, still somewhat unclear on what this all means.

"What I'm saying is you are the sole heir to real estate with an approximate value of two point eight million dollars. There are no living relatives to challenge the will. This includes a restaurant, retail space,...."

And he listed off the specific pieces of property some of which I knew quite well.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Papaya was now called Typhoon. It's menu was described as Pan Asian Fusion. Vikal was the executive chef.

Nephi and her significant other ran the coffee shop and with a new menu and decor business was booming.

And no, her significant other was not Dennis Libby. Dennis tried to rekindle something with Nephi but unfortunately he was too closely associated with the horrible night at Papaya. To this day he has remained a friend and has never spoken a word about the plan for revenge.

Nephi was now with Eka Effendi. They had grown up together and during the entire time Nephi was back home he took care of her. That was what she needed and Eka was happy to provide that to a girl he'd had a crush on since the fourth grade. They were engaged and would be married soon.

Bhakti had moved to America too. He left his farm to his cousin. The cousin had grown tired of fishing and had decided he wanted a life on land.

Bhakti was the perfect maitre'd for Typhoon. With his pleasant disposition and exotic look and speech, he was popular with the customers.

There were moments when I questioned if what we had done was right. I still wonder about that. But I never felt guilt.

I was happy that my family was happy. And as I left the manicurist I was happy my hands were clean.

THE END

First of all I apologize to all the agriculture professionals. I know little about that subject so it's quite likely I have made errors with the descriptions on that topic.

Also the reference to the town of Benton, Taft University, and most of the other landmarks in America were all fictitious.

Most of the stuff in Indonesia was accurate.

Finally, Komodo Island has the world's highest concentration of venomous snakes per square meter. Species include cobras, pythons, kraits, and vipers.