I stood over the grave. There, clear as day, my brother's name was written on a tombstone. It had his birth year and a recent date chiselled into it. I wiped some tears off my face with my sleeves and sniffled. Al came over and gave me a paper towel pulled from his pocket. I blew my nose on it. Why did this happen? He was perfectly fine just a couple of weeks ago and now this. It felt like a part of me was gone. I sent a prayer to my departed brother. I tried saying something to him but the words got caught in my throat. When nothing would come out, I turned around and started walking back to the car, Al following in silence.

We sat in the car for a bit. "How're you feeling?"

"Horrible now..."

"Yeah, I know how that feels. I still can't believe he's gone."

"..."

"..."

"You said he was trapped in a fire?"

"Yeah, it was all over the local news. I even saw the smoke from our place. It was that local gas station by your house. When I heard the news say one person passed I thought, damn, hopefully it wasn't anyone we know. Yeah, pretty selfish to think that, I know, but no one wants that to happen. Easier to cope when it's a stranger. Then we got the call since your sis is his emergency contact and got the horrible news." Al started the car and went back to the road.

Al drove in silence for some more then broke the silence. "Hey man, don't be upset. These things happen. He would've wanted you to enjoy being free and say don't worry about stuff that's out your control."

"Yeah, he'd say something like that."

We reached Al's and Anila's place. It was dark out now. The lights weren't on in the house. Al parked the car in the driveway so we got out and went to the front door. After he let me in, suddenly I heard in unison "Surprise!"

It was my parents, sis, and nephew. They turned on the lights. The room had some nice streamers and balloons and food from my favorite fast food joint. I was really happy to see everyone again, distracted momentarily from my grief. I gave tight hugs to everyone. We all sat down in the living room to chat.

"You guys came back to the country!" I happily exclaimed to my parents.

"Of course we did," said Dad.

"… was it for the funeral?"

Anila turned to Al and asked "you told him?"

"Of course I did, he was asking about Rumey. I couldn’t lie about it," responded Al.

"Yeah, we came as soon as we heard," said Mom, here eyes starting to tear up. She wiped them away with some tissue. "Al and Anila were a great help with the funeral. He was taken so young."

"He had to have been up to one of his schemes again before he passed though," said Anila.

"What do you mean  by that?" I asked.

"Well… he left a large inheritance," answered Dad.

"What? How?"

"We don't know how but he's left us 5 million dollars. I've already split it amongst us in each of our bank accounts. Although we'd all rather have him here than the money."

I was super confused at that statement. "What? Where'd he get that kind of money from? What was he up to? The last I saw him he was lying to me that he still had  the job at the fast-food joint. He got shifty when I asked about work so I knew he lost it."

"His documents showed he made the money through NFTs or that crypto junk."

I looked around the room, still confused. "I get out of prison scott-free, learn that Rumey passed away around the same time, and then now we're millionaires? What's going on?" I placed my hand on my chin in thought and knit my eyebrows together.

"Don't say it," warned Anila, recognizing the familiar look on my face.

"Somethings up!"