Learning to Hula

Holly DeJong. That's the name on the check. Not the signature, but on the payable-to line, which is good since that's my name, and there are a lot of zeroes in the box after it.A lot of zeroes but still not the most I've seen. I got a bigger check six months ago...when I buried my husband."Do you have any questions?" the bank manager asks. I shake my head. My hand is shaking, too, as I pick up the pen I just used to sign all the documents; I endorse the back of the check and hand it to him. "Here, you take it.""Holly...""Do your magic with it, Keith," I tell him. I'd given him the other check, too, and already the account he put it in has added zeroes to the original total.Rob would like that, that the value of his life has kept increasing even after his death. That's what that first check represented -- his life. The second, for the sale of his business, represents his life's work.I know he would make some joke about all the zeroes; he was always making jokes. Sometimes I think he's not really dead, just pulling one of his pranks that usually amused only him, and taking it too far."Holly, are you sure?" Keith asks. I glance up from the check and focus on him, staring at his dark suit and the matching circles beneath his eyes. His hair, once dark, too, has gone mostly gray. He hasn't looked this old in all the years I've known him.And I've known him a long time, ever since he started dating my oldest sister, Pam. He's been married to her for twenty-five years.But if she has her way, they won't make twenty-six. She's left him. I'm not sure which has made him look old so suddenly, twenty-five years of marriage to her finally catching up with him, or her leaving.The latter is why he's hesitating to take the check, why he hesitated to participate in the closing to begin with. But the twenty-five year relationship is why I would trust no one else.For the past six months he's held my hand and guided me through the maze of paperwork involved with settling an estate and transferring ownership of a business."Keith, you're always going to be my brother."I have none, just two sisters. Emma, the second oldest one, has been married twice, but I never felt as close to either of her husbands as I have to Keith. I can't understand why Pam is leaving him.She blames Rob.She blamed him for a lot of things when he was alive; I shouldn't have expected his death to change that. Pam never understood his sense of humor, so the only thing she "got" about the practical jokes he played on her was angry. After he let the air out of her tires once, she blamed him every time she got a flat, and whenever something sticky was on her door handle, she thought Rob was fooling around with the peanut butter again.Despite their mutual antagonism, she claims that his death somehow brought her clarity. She can't put off doing what she really wants because she sees now that life is too short.They hadn't agreed on much when he was alive, but Rob wouldn't be able to argue that one with her. He'd been forty-one when he died.Death by cupcake is what I call it. He lied and cheated on me with those things, breaking every promise he made to cut them out of his life and stick to the diet I put him on. I should have known he was lying. A man's waistband doesn't keep expanding like that. He'd called it a beer belly, but he'd never been able to swallow a sip of beer; he'd hated the taste of it. He actually hadn't liked anything that wasn't sweet.Well, at least Pam got something out of his death. I got nothing but zeroes. Lots of them, thanks to all the life insurance Rob had bought from one of his clients, an insurance agent. When he'd made the purchases, I'd thought it sweet of him to support the man's business. I hadn't realized it would one day be supporting us.Before Keith can overcome the emotion I see in his watery eyes, and say anything about my loyalty to him, the buyers come back into his office. They just rusChilds, Lisa is the author of 'Learning to Hula ', published 2006 under ISBN 9780373881055 and ISBN 0373881053.