Mary Beth Rohan was with Judy, best friend, constant companion and pal since the earliest days of her youth, when the news arrived.

It was her Uncle Ned who called, actually. Mary Beth could tell immediately that it was something major. Uncle Ned could hardly keep his voice from breaking right over the phone.

He didn't say what it was. He only told her that he needed her to come over right away.

She was worried, as she told Judy about it and Judy told her to call, as soon as possible with whatever the news was.

As it turned out, it was about the death of her three cousins. They were coming home from a trip to the shore and, it seems, were run off the road by a road raged driver. All three were killed, as the car careened over the edge of a long steep drop. The other driver simply went on.

Mary Beth was devastated. Her parents had died about seven years previously and at the time, she was simply taken in by Uncle Ned. She lived, as another daughter, with her cousins, Mike, Mindy and Wayne, all now dead.

During the ensuing time, after the accident, Mary Beth stayed with Uncle Ned and saw to his care. She made sure that he was taking his meds and that he had everything that he needed.

For that time period, up to and including the funeral, Uncle Ned just leaned on Mary Beth. She took time off from her job as a tax accountant, trainee and stayed with him. There was a fairly huge amount of decisions to be made and arrangements to be settled. Mary Beth took care of those kinds of things.

She also acted as Uncle Ned's hostess for the gathering that was a post funeral gathering.

Mary Beth, at the time was 27. She had plotted out a kind of career path for herself. She'd majored in economics and accounting in college and had a quirky interest in tax accounting. She found a job as an intern first and then a trainee, with a promise that she'd be hired, after a time period.

All of that was now on hold.

At the same time, she moved out of Uncle Ned's house and moved in with her 'bestie' Judy Walsh. They had a small apartment that was furnished, as they reminded each other with smiles, in 'neo-attic' style. But to the two of them, both the same age, it was home.

Mary Beth called Judy that same day.

"Bethie?" Judy said with great affection. "You all right?"

"Got to be," Mary Beth said, "Uncle Ned is on the verge of falling apart."

"Anything I can do?" Judy asked.

"Maybe there is," Mary Beth said, "There are so many details to take care of. I might need a hand, especially if there's a big gathering after the funeral. I'm going to talk to Uncle Ned about that."

"Okay, sweetie, you just let me know," Judy said, "I can get some time or just take some night time shifts at the hospital."

(Judy was a nurse at the local Medical Center.)

Mary Beth was constantly by Uncle Ned's side for the funeral and also for the gathering at his home afterwards. Judy did come along and acted as a kind of assistant hostess to make sure that things were being done. Uncle Ned simply let it all in Mary Beth and Judy's hands.

Together the got through it. Afterwards, for a number of nights, they sat and talked. Uncle Ned talked about not being able to get used to suddenly losing his children, all three of them at one time.

In the meantime, the police had gotten a line on the driver of the other car, the one that ran Mary Beth's cousins off the road.

She was at Uncle Ned's a few days after the funeral, when the doorbell rang.

She answered it and a youngish man at the door identified himself as Detective Gray. Mary Beth greeted him and asked him in, once he told her that he was there about the road rage incident.

They talked for a bit, prior to Mary Beth getting Uncle Ned. The young detective seemed, to Mary Beth, to be very sensitive and apologetic about causing a stir for them with the investigation news.

Detective Gray, Mike Gray, spoke with Mary Beth and Uncle Ned for a bit and gave them an outline of where the police were at.

He told them that this person had a history of reckless driving and road rage incidents and was driving that day on a suspended license.

"I think that he'll go to jail with this incident," Mike Gray said. "I know that will in no way compensate you for your loss but I did at least want you to know where we're at and what we're doing about the incident.

"Thank you, sir," Uncle Ned said, as Mike got up to go.

"I'll see the detective to the door," Mary Beth said. "You stay where you are."

"Thank you, sweetheart!" Ned said, and said 'farewell' to the detective from where he was sitting.

The ensuing days, and weeks, were not easy ones. Uncle Ned was restless and was having a very difficult time dealing with the death of his children. It had been a very hard two year period. First, Aunt Ruthie died of cancer and then the accident had taken the children, all at once.

Uncle Ned was then in his late 60's but seemed a good bit older. The recent battles of life had seen to that.

It was a Tuesday evening and Judy and Mary Beth had their plans to meet for a quick dinner and some talk.

The first thing that Judy wanted to know was how Mary Beth was.

"Oh, I'm okay," Mary Beth answered, "It's just so hard. There seem to be ghosts behind every door and in every room and every corridor. It's just hard."

"Uncle Ned," Judy asked.

"Going through the motions," Mary Beth answered. "At least that's the way that it seems to me." She shook her head then and there were tears in her eyes.

Judy held her hand and just let Mary Beth have the silence and the sadness.

"It's taken everything out of him," Mary Beth said. "Just everything. I keep hoping that he'll come around and I do everything that I can for him. I know he loves me but he lost them all that crazy afternoon."

"Progress with the other driver?" Judy asked.

"Detective Gray was back again and the other driver has gone to jail. I guess he's gotten, from his record, fifteen years in jail."

"At least that's something!" Judy said.

"Yes, but kind of cold comfort in its way," Mary Beth answered.

"How are things at the dive?" Mary Beth asked then. (It's what they always called their apartment, 'the Dive'.)

"Oh, as jumbled as ever," Judy said with a smile. "You'd recognize all the old piles of things and ancient furniture right away."

"Need to make it a future priority to spruce it up," Mary Beth said. "This thing for Uncle Ned can't last for ever. I know how strong a man he actually is!"

"I hope you're right!" Judy said.

She wasn't.

It was about ten days later. By then Mary Beth was back at work and got a call from a neighbor. Her Uncle Ned had collapsed out in the back yard of the house. He'd been taken by ambulance to the University hospital.

Mary Beth went there in a kind of a 'oh not more, not again, not him!' panic.

She was allowed to see him but the doctor said that it had been a heart incident and they simply had to see how he'd make it through the night.

Judy joined Mary Beth at the hospital that night, and the two of the kept a vigil.

During the night, Uncle Ned had a fatal heart attack. Efforts that were expended to revive him, were to no avail. Judy was there with her, when he died.

Mary Beth spent a good half hour with Uncle Ned holding his hand, with Judy sitting in a chair nearby. Mary Beth felt that she needed to tell him one last time how much she loved him, and how grateful she was for him taking her in, after the death of her parents. With tears streaming down her face, she talked to him, as calmly as she could, saying her thanks, pledging her love and taking her leave of him.

It was very hard for her. When he was finally taken away, Judy took her to their apartment, the 'Dive' and put her to bed. She watched over her and took care of her.

The next few days were tough ones. The memorial, after cremation, by Uncle Ned's wishes, was a difficult one to get through. There was a brief gathering of various friends and associates at the house afterward. Mary Beth had it, at Judy's insistence, catered, as well as the clean up. Uncle Ned had left 'funeral' money to take care of such things.

One of the guests that was there was Uncle Ned's lawyer, Matt Stewart. He had been Ned's lawyer for ages and ages.

As he was about to leave, Matt said to Mary Beth: "Honey, I'll be in touch with you within the next two or three days. We need to get together and look over Ned's things and his wishes."

"Yes, sir," Mary Beth said.

"You know better than the 'sir'!" he said with mock severity.

Mary Beth just clung to him and cried for a few moments. Then she said: "Just let me know; I'll be available."

The caterers cleaned up and Judy saw that the bill was paid, again from the 'funeral' money that Ned had assigned for such tasks.

The two of them sat that evening, once everyone was gone.

"I can hardly say 'thank you' enough for all you've done for me!" Mary Beth said.

"It' what you've already done for me," Judy said. "We're 'besties', it's what we do!"

There was a brief silence.

"I have no idea what's next," Mary Beth said.

"I'm sure that Matt Stewart will guide you," Judy offered.

"Yes," Mary Beth answered, "He told me that he and I would meet in a day or two to go over things. I just don't know the status of things is all."

"Best not to worry until you have the meeting and it's all clear," Judy said.

"Yes, I guess so," Mary Beth said. "I'm so tired."

"Yes, we're all taken care of here!" Judy said.

"Yes, thanks to you and your level headedness," Mary Beth said, tears streaming again.

They, by mutual agreement, slept together that night and comforted each other.

Mary Beth, in conversation with Judy, decided not to begin doing anything with household effects until she met with Matt Stewart. It seemed like the very best idea at the time.

That meeting was scheduled for two days after the funeral. Matt asked Mary Beth to come to his office to look things over.

Mary Beth was nervous but she and Judy met for coffee before Mary Beth went to Matt's office to talk to him. It helped to keep her calm. All of the events of the past six months or so were weighing on her mind and the friendly meeting with her pal Judy helped a great deal.

Mary Beth was ushered into Matt's office as soon as she arrive, though she made sure that she was a few minutes early for the appointment that they'd set for themselves.

The secretary offered her condolences and Mary Beth collected a hug from her, as she was going toward the door to Matt's office.

Matt already had the documents that he needed on his desk. He waved Mary Beth into a chair in a window alcove and then picked up the documents and sat opposite her, with a small table between them.

"Coffee?" he asked kindly.

"No, thank you," she said, "Judy and I had some coffee this morning. She was helping to calm me down." Mary Beth said this with a rueful smile.

He put his hand over hers and said: "Honey, I know how strong you are; how you took care of that man and what a blessing you've been to the family. I'm sure that you'll get through this."

"Thank you, Matt," she said, holding this hand.

"Okay," Matt said, "Let me get to this."

Mary Beth paid close attention.

During the next fifteen minutes to a half an hour, Matt detailed Mary Beth's Uncle Ned's business successes. It was a part of his life that Mary Beth had never actually had any clue about.

Matt explained that Ned had made arrangements to settle his estate on his three kids, with a handsome bequest to Mary Beth also.

"You have been, you see," Matt went on, "The contingency beneficiary, which is only important if the unlikely event of all three children dying occurred. I'm sure that you see what that means."

"Ohhh," Mary Beth kind of sighed into her hand.

"There are no other relatives, either on Ruthie's side or on Ned's. You and your parents were the only ones really," Matt continued.

Matt smiled at her then and offered the coffee again. She took him up on it this time. Matt made arrangements with the secretary to bring in the coffee. They waited until the coffee was there and they were settled again.

"Okay," Matt said, "Let me go on with this."

Mary Beth nodded her head.

"What this means is that you are the sole heiress. Everything in Ned's estate goes to you now," Matt said.

"Ohhhh," Mary Beth sighed again, her hand going to her mouth instinctively, and only barely holding back tears.

"Ned has lately been liquidating some things; It's almost as if he suspected something like this was going to happen, at least to him," Matt said.

Mary Beth nodded.

"In the various accounts and value of securities, stocks etc," Matt said then, softly. "There is an accumulation of about 10 million dollars."

Mary Beth just stared at him, not really, at first comprehending.

"What?" she said.

Matt repeated what he'd said.

"Ned sold a junior partner's interest in a business a while back and it gave him a nice amount of capital to work with; he was also good at the market," Matt explained.

"I'm just having a hard time taking all of this in," Mary Beth said. "I mean, what ... what do I do?"

Matt smiled. "You let me take care of getting all of this settled," he said. "I've made arrangements for a credit card for you to draw on the funds. Much of it will continue to earn, and I'll keep an eye on it for you. If that's okay with you!"

She hugged him then.

"Oh, you're being such a big help to me! I'll love having you as my lawyer!" she said with enthusiasm.

He had the papers for her to sign that made the transfer of everything legal.

They sat for a few minutes.

"I have to go," she said, "And just think about it. Maybe lunch out and just let my mind try to get used to it. Is there, are there any other things?"

"You just take a few days," he said, "And we'll go over it all again. I know it's that much of a shock, especially on top of all that's happened just recently."

She thanked Matt and gave him a hug and a kiss. She felt almost a new weight with the new credit card in her wallet. She knew that she just had to go someplace and think about it.

She picked a restaurant almost at random and had her lunch. She took time to look at people, especially couples around her, and take in the sense of their comfort and normality. She just didn't really feel comfortable or normal just then. She continued, through lunch, to toss the whole idea around in her mind, and found herself coming continually back to the fact that she was now worth over ten million dollars. It wasn't real, didn't seem real, and she didn't know when it would seem real.

Judy had an evening shift that day, and would already be at the hospital, working until past midnight. Mary Beth didn't know if she should go back to the 'dive' or stay at Uncle Ned's. She decided that it would be the 'dive'; she couldn't face the possibility of being at Uncle Ned's house over night.

It was precisely then that the first of the items that she needed to take care of was decided in her mind. She simply decided that she was going to sell the house, and the furniture. She really didn't want it. She thought that maybe some place new for her and Judy would be the best idea, though in the back of her mind, when thinking about that, was the fact that Judy was dating a doctor from the medical center and they had already talked about the possibility that it was getting serious. So, that impacted the future also.

She was surprised at how calm she felt about all of this now. She said a soft but sincere 'thank you, Uncle Ned'; you were always a blessing to me, ' before she left the restaurant.

She had copies of all the material that Matt had for her, but she set them aside to think about later. She fixed herself a light dinner and then watched tv. She wanted to stay up until Judy got home.

Judy was a bit surprised to see here there at the 'dive'. They hugged, when Judy entered.

"Didn't know if you'd be here or at the house," Judy said.

"Oh, honey," Mary Beth said, still hugging Judy and beginning to cry, "I don't want the house. It's got these bad memories for me now, with him collapsing there and all."

They hugged for a few minutes.

"So tell me," Judy said.

Mary Beth had a bottle of wine opened and poured a glass for Judy.

"Ahh, just what a tired nurse needs!" Judy said.

"Apart from your handsome doctor!" Mary Beth added with a smile.

"Got that right, girl!" Judy answered.

Judy took her uniform off and donned a robe and they sat to talk.

"I have to tell you about this," Mary Beth said, "I'm so up in the air about it."

"Tell," Judy said, putting her hand on top of Mary Beth's.

Then Mary Beth went into all of it with Judy.

"I never expected anything like this," Mary Beth all but wailed, her face in her hands. "And I admit that I don't know what to think about this, let alone what to do."

"How much, did you say?" Judy asked.

"Oh," Mary Beth moaned, still overwhelmed a bit by it, "He was talking about ten million or so."

"Wow!" Judy said, "That's a lot."

"What do I do?" Mary Beth asked, the tears coming now again.

"Well, it seems to me that the first thing that you need to do is to grieve. You've had, in this short amount of time, a huge loss and some of that grieving was probably set aside because your Uncle Ned needed you, and you responded to that right away. But now I think that you need to let go," Judy said.

The truth of what Judy was saying hit Mary Beth both hard and with accuracy. She gave into it immediately.

Judy sat there and simply let her friend cry, and Mary Beth's tears lasted a long time, as she finally had a chance to cry it all out.

"They were so wonderful," Mary Beth said, once she'd calmed down a bit."

"I know," Judy said. "A great loss."

"Yes," Mary Beth said next, "I've gone through two families now, it seems."

Judy just hugged her and let her ramble about it.

They spent the evening that way, talking with Mary Beth breaking down a few more times. Mary Beth took the time to talk about her relations with her cousins and with Uncle Ned.

"They were wonderful people," she said, wiping tears from her cheeks, "All of them."

Finally, she was pretty much wound down.

"Thank you so much," Mary Beth said, giving Judy a hug. "You're the best of the best!"

"Tell Dr Damion Ryan that!" Judy said with a grin.

"I bet he already knows it!" Mary Beth said.

"Hope so!" Judy said.

"Plans?" Mary Beth asked.

"He has the weekend and has asked me to go away with him for the weekend," Judy said.

"Going?" Mary Beth asked. She noticed how Judy hesitated and hastened to say: "Hey, you go. I'm going to be fine. I'm not going to buy a new house or do anything really rash over the weekend. You go and enjoy yourself."

"He might ask me this weekend!" Judy said softly.

"Ohhhhh!" Mary Beth enthused,"Won't that be great!"

Judy smiled and admitted that it would indeed be 'great'.

By then they'd finished the bottle of wine that they'd been drinking and both of them were ready for bed.

That weekend, with Judy off with Damion on Friday loomed up for Mary Beth and she wasn't sure what to do with herself. She finally decided to fall back on a kind of pattern that she'd had before she roomed with Judy. It was a pattern of going out for a pleasant drink for herself. She and Judy went out periodically but often enough stayed in and watched movies on tv. But Mary Beth decided that tonight would be her night to go out and have drink. It would be, she thought a toast kind of to Uncle Ned, Mike, Mindy and Wayne. She dressed casually for her 'night out'; it was jeans and a tee shirt for her that night.

She picked a quiet place that she used to slip into now and again for a drink. She settled with her favorite, a G & T, and sipped it as she allowed herself to think.

Her reverie was broken by something hitting her in the side of the face. She looked around and saw two college kids, at a nearby table, grinning at her.

"Hey, Momma," one said, "Lonely?"

"No," she said softly, "Just please leave me alone!"

"Don't think you really want to be left alone!" the one talking said next, throwing another piece of a straw covering at her, and hitting her.

"I said leave me alone!" she said a little more vehemently.

Then another voice chimed in: "The lady said that she wanted to be left alone!"

Mary Beth looked up into the smiling face of Detective Mike Gray.

"Mike!" she said with some relief.

"Who are you, hero?" the one college kid asked, smirking at his friend.

Mike went over to their table and pushed open his sport coat in one direction, showing his badge, attached to his belt, and then pushed the coat open in the other direction, showing his gun.

"I'm the one who is going to rip your arm off and beat you and your nitwit friend half to death with it, if you don't leave the lady alone!" Mike said.

From the tone of voice that he used, there was no mistaking his absolute seriousness about what he said.

The one college kid put his hands up in the air and said: "Okay, okay, no trouble!"

"Then don't start trouble!" Mike said.

The two of them nodded and got up from the table and left.

Mike turned back to Mary Beth and smiled.

"It's okay now!" he said.

"Please join me," she said, "Can you?"

"Pleased to," Mike said, sitting down at her table and ordering a glass of Stout for himself.

"Off duty?" she asked.

"Yes, just protecting fair maidens from the vulgar and stupid!" he answered, it made her giggle behind her hand.

"You are so nice!" she said.

"Out alone?" he asked.

"Yes, I used to go out once a week or so and have a drink and think my thoughts. Judy, my roommate and I kind of got away from that practice once we moved in together. It's just that now I need to think a bit and decided that this was an old and proven way and it might just do me good; that is, until the goon squad began throwing pieces of straw paper at me," she said, sighing at the end.

"Not a problem any more!" he said, raising his glass to her. They clinked glasses and toasted each other.

She smiled at him and said: "No one you need to go home to?" She thought about it and said quickly: "Sorry for asking."

He held up a hand and said: "No problem with the question. Important information. But, no, no one expecting me but my cat, Mabel."

She laughed and said: "Mabel, I like that!"

They were silent for a few seconds and he ventured: "Something going on? I mean the drink and the thinking time."

"Oh, yes," she said.

She proceeded to tell him about the sudden death of her Uncle Ned.

"Sorry to hear that," he replied, "From my limited contact, I liked him."

"He was a grand guy!" Mary Beth said, wiping her eyes with a tissue.

"I've promised myself that I wouldn't keep crying about this!" she said softly.

"Would it help at all to dance?" he asked.

A small combo had begun playing soft music and there was a dance floor area for couples that wanted to take advantage of it.

"I'd like that!" she said to him, taking his offered hand and getting up.

At this point in their lives, Mary Beth Rohan and Mike Gray were certainly a good looking couple.

Mary Beth, at 27, was a lovely young woman. She had sandy blondish hair, that she kept short and had the legs and build of a runner, which she'd done in college for the university. She carried her 118 lbs well, and for all who took time to notice, Mary Beth Rohan had a wonderful heart shaped ass. It was one of her best features.

Mike Gray too had been an athlete in college, both a wrestler and a letterman in track and field. He'd been with the police force, right out of college, for 9 years and at 31 was in tremendous shape.

Mary Beth was just a few inches shorter than Mike, and enjoyed a great deal the feeling of being surrounded, in the dance, by his arms.

"I like this!" she said into his ear. "You rescued me and now we're dancing; I like this!"

"Hardly a rescue!" he said.

"They were about to grab me and haul me bodily out of here," she insisted, giggling, when she finished.

"Watch out or I'll grab you bodily and haul you out of here!" he warned.

She giggled then again, and feeling bold, declared: "And get your hands all over me!"

"Sounds like a plan to me!" he said, joining the mirth but more than half serious, as she was too.

The dance ended and was followed by another, which they danced together. When that one was finished, they sat and sipped their drinks a bit and then ordered burgers, meant to be their dinners.

"You worked today when?" she asked.

"I had the 8 AM to 4 PM shift today," he said, "Though if we have something going, hours hardly mean anything."

"Came here from work?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, "I got a 'fair maiden in distress' signal in my car!"

"What about poor Mabel?" she asked.

"She's the one who sent me to you!" he said with a grin.

"Then she needs to get a reward in due time," Mary Beth said, grinning at him.

"She'll be okay until I get home; she's used to it, and I make sure that I put out enough food to get her through the day," he insisted.

They ate companionably and then they danced some more. The dancing was lovely for both of them but even, perhaps, more significant was the fact that they sat and talked. Though she didn't talk to him, at that point, about the one major thing still on her mind and still to be faced.

Mary Beth went over, with Mike, the two funerals that had invaded her life, and took her loved ones during the past six months. She went further back and talked to him about losing her Mom and Dad and being taken in by Uncle Ned and simply made a member of the family, equally accepted by the kids.

It was a tale that made her weepy again. She apologized but Mike refused to allow her to apologize for having loved her family the way that she did.

They danced again then and, when they sat, he talked about his 'love affair' with the police department.

"Have wanted to be a cop as long as I can possibly remember," he said. Then he chuckled: "On those 'career day' occasions, I always, in those days, took heat for admitting that I wanted to be a cop. But entered the force, after college, as soon as I could, and have loved it ever since."

"Is it exciting?" she asked.

"A lot of routine," he said, "And a lot of plodding but there are some unusual silver linings too."

He smiled at her then and said: "Like meeting a lovely woman named Mary Beth Rohan, and helping her Uncle and her with the road rage death and then rescuing that same Mary Beth Rohan from bad mannered fools at the local watering hole."

She was grinning at him by the end of his little speech.

"So what about poor Mabel?" she asked.

"Ah, Mabel has a buddy!" he said. "Yes, I need to go home to her soon."

It was at that point that the manager of the place came up to the table. He said a friendly 'hi' to Mike and went on to apologize to Mary Beth for the actions of the college kids earlier.

"I would have intervened," he said, "But I saw the cavalry coming to your rescue!"

Mary Beth hugged him and thanked him.

It was getting toward 8:30 PM by that time and Mary Beth was beginning to feel a bit tired but she had an idea, an unusual one for her and had already decided to act on it.

"Mike," she said softly, during their final dance. "Do you mind if I ask if it's alright for me to go home with you tonight?"

He looked at her and smiled: "You'll improve both my and Mabel's lives by doing that!" he said.

She put her head against his shoulder and said: "If I had to simply look at you over the table and ask that, I don't think that I'd have had the courage!"

"Good that we were dancing then!" he said.

"Yes, good that we were dancing!" she agreed.

"I guess I need to say that I don't do that, or haven't done that kind of thing very much," she said softly to him, while still dancing. "No, that's not true!" she said, "I simply haven't done that. Been very careful about my trysts but it's what I want this night!"

"Hush with the explanations now," he said. "Me and Mabel will be proud of your company, and loving you is going to be a treat!" This last was said with his lips on hers.

"Oh, yes," she whispered into his lips: "Loving me!"

They left hand in hand. He told her that he'd lead and she only needed to follow him home.

"Keep an eye on me," Mary Beth said, "My car has its quirks. I don't want to fall by the way side!"

"I guess not!" he said.

His car was parked in the tavern's lot near hers. He walked her to her car first and, as they arrived at it, he moved and put his arms around her. She sighed and greeted his embrace, lifting up her face for a kiss.