42: Dog

                                    

                                          
Eli POV.

"Maria left most of her assets to you," The lawyer, Benjamin said, as we sat down in his office. Me and Alessandro.
"However, she left them to Elia Kohonen, who doesn't legally exist, so I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it happen," he continued with a sorry look on his face.
"I'm sure we can arrange something," Alessandro stated with a firm gaze. One thing I learned from my brothers was that money can pretty much buy you anything.
"What did she leave me?" I asked wanting to know if it was something personal.
"Well, if we were able to sort this situation out, she would leave you her cash assets, house, summer cabin, and of course her dog Jasper the border collie," Benjamin listed.
I can't believe I had forgotten about Jasper. I had advised Maria to get a dog after Juho's death and after a while, she found Jasper in a pound. he was just s little puppy, who was born on the streets, so we took him as a project to take our minds off Juho. I say we since Maria always wanted my help with the training. I ended up working for an animal training company for a while after training Jasper. 
"You can donate the money to a charity as long as I can take something from her house. I just want Jasper," I quickly said.
After a look from Alessandro Benjamin nodded and said:
"I think we can arrange that."

Later that day, Alessandro had made a few phone calls, and so I was entering Maria's house with Jesper by my side. He was almost two years old and very well trained since he was Maria's best friend.
The house had one floor since Juho didn't like stairs, but it was really spacious. I looked around for a while, remembering all the meals we had around the table, and the times, I lifted the heavy furniture around for them. I ran my fingers over the spot, where I fell and hit my head on the kitchen counter. I had to beg Maria to not call an ambulance and in the end, I tended to her, as I tried to calm her down and tell her, that I was fine. A small smile crept up to my lips as I remembered how concerned they always were for me.
Jasper jumped onto the bed, and laid down, looking sad. I think, that on some level, he knew, that his best friend wasn't coming back. I chuckled seeing how comfortable Jasper was on the bed. I always told Maria to train him off the bed, but I guess she never had the heart to do so.
As I walked into the study, I began weeping once more. On her desk, Maria had a framed picture of her husband next to one of me. I lifted them both up and pressed them against my chest as I tried to calm down. Lorenzo placed his hand on my shoulder waking me up from my trance with a sad smile.
I took from the house two CDs. The one, that was in the player, when I walked in and the one, that played, when Juho died. He always did have a liking for Tšaikovski. 
I also grabbed a silver figurine of a fox. Maria and Juho had collected those figurines for decades before I met them. They had dozens of different animals. Some bigger, some smaller, some standing up and some sitting. I remember, when I moved away, every time I got back to visit Maria, I'd get her another figurine. They told me how the fox was the first one they ever got.

After saying my last goodbye to the house, I grabbed Jasper's leash and led him to the car before driving off.

Jasper had never been in an airplane before, so I was a bit nervous about it. he didn't seem to mind it a bit, as long as he could sit next to me or lie between my feet. Gabriele insisted on holding him up to the window for all the best views. He said, that Jasper's first flight should be special. Jasper didn't mind, and it almost looked like he was intensely looking out the window. I could already tell, my brothers were going to love Jasper, but none more, than Diego.