‘Where Did It All Go?’ by Maureen Bradley

Mary sits looking out of her flat window as the tide ebbs across the wide, flat sands.
‘What had Sue spent all the money on? It was a total mystery.’
Neither of them had married, but lived happily together in a house where they had both looked after their elderly parents and when their mother and father died they had continued to live together in the family home.
In time, Sue died of a heart attack and Mary visited the solicitor to see what she would inherit. When she walked into the office to see Mr. Snodgrass, the family solicitor, he told her to sit down as he had some things to discuss with her.
He looked very solemn and then startled her by saying, ‘I’m very sorry to tell you Miss Jenkins but I don’t think you’ll like what I’m going to say.’
Unfortunately,’ said Mr Snodgrass, ‘ the family home must be sold to clear your sister’s debts and there might just be enough left for you to purchase a flat.’
So Mary had to move to a one bed-roomed flat in not the most desirable part of the town. She now lives very simply and appreciates what she has. ‘It’s not what I want, it’s what I can do without, that matters.’
‘But where did all that money go?’ she thinks to herself, ‘Where did it all go?’
It is late evening and the setting sun glows a deep orange colour on the horizon.