"You're selling the inn?!"

"I have to! I can't run this place myself."

"Well that's what you have staff for!"

"Oh son…(sniff) I don't think you know the entire situation. You haven't been around as much over the years."

"Mom, I always meant to visit more, but…"

"No, it's not that. In fact I'm glad you had fun at college. You at least had some enjoyment. I'm just sorry you won't get to have any more."

"Mom, I don't like where this is going."



You mom at this point begins cry again until you eventually get her to calm down. What comes next almost makes you cry though.



While your father did indeed save for you, it wasn't enough to put you through college completely. Costs were higher than he thought and even though business was okay, he had unexpected expenses such as making fixes to the inn and price hikes in his alcohol supplier.



Your father was determined to not pull you out of college though, so he found another way. He borrowed money from a moneylender.



"WHAT?! Why didn't you tell me? I could've taken less classes or gotten a part time job at the university!"

"No, he didn't want you to worry or get distracted."

"Well I guess that's good since all that worry can go to this now! By the gods, why didn't he at least go to a bank to get the loan!?"

"He tried, but didn't get approved. They wouldn't even take the inn as collateral. I pleaded with him not to borrow money from criminals, but he claimed it would be fine as long as he opened the tavern earlier, found a cheaper supplier and made a few cuts here and there. And for a while things were running a little smoother, but I could see the stress taking a toll on him. It's what ultimately killed him. I'm just so sorry that we failed you. We wanted so much better for you. Now I'll have to sell the inn off to pay off the moneylender and hopefully I'll be able to find a job as a cook elsewhere."



You just sit in silence and try to wrap your head around all of this. Your bright future in medicine as you know is gone. You still have quite a bit of education, and you're fairly certain you could still find a job to support yourself, but it's going to be hard initially and you probably won't be satisfied with it. You're also worried about your mom, what if she can't find a job? You won't be able to help her much.



You can only think of one solution.



"Would it help if I ran the inn?" you ask.

"What?" your mother replies.

"Would it help if I helped you run this place. I mean granted I don't have excessive experience, I have watched you guys do it while I grew up here. I think I can manage the basics. If we managed to keep this place running at least long enough to pay off the loan, maybe then I can save enough to finish my education."

"I don't know son, I mean…I would love to see you finish your education, but it's a lot to take on. Would you have time? I don't want you getting burned out and suffering a pre-mature heart attack like your father because of the stress!"

"Well, I'm going to have nothing but time now, if I drop out and focus on this place. I think the main concern is getting us out of debt…just how much do you owe?"

"Uh…about ten thousand gold coins."



You really hoped it would be significantly less than that.



"Okay, well I'm guessing he takes smaller payments to buy you time but then charges more interest with each passage of time. We'll have to get this place whipped into shape so it's making enough profit that we'll be able to pay the entire sum as soon as possible. After that, we'll have some breathing room."



Your mom looks apprehensive about all this and then shakes her head claiming she can't let you shoulder this responsibility especially with the risk of physical danger involved if you anger the moneylender in some way.



She says that you should go on with your life and forget about the inn, she'll be able to sell it and pay off the debt with no problem. And as for her, she also tells you not to worry about her either, but she hopes that you'll forgive her and your father for failing in giving you the life you deserve.



It is true you could walk away from all this. You don't really have any great desire to run the inn. It was just a solution you came up with to help your mom and possibly help yourself. But there's no guarantee it's going to work, just like there's no guarantee that you can't still achieve your goals on your own.

You go on your own

You think about it and realize your mom is right. Taking on this responsibility isn't for you. All you're mainly concerned about is getting the loan repaid and you'll probably be able to do that by selling the inn to the city.



The pair of you keep the inn open one last week to make some extra money before closing it down for good. It's another sad time for the miners who frequent there, because while granted they'll either find another place to drink or continue to drink at this one under new management, your family has been a familiar sight here. When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least your mother isn't in any immediate danger now.



Your mother does find work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can't really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt in one of the small villages to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom.



After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it's broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire.



At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn't worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes.



As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn't anywhere in the field that you would've liked. You're a clerk in a tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either.



You don't really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life.



Sometimes you wonder back, what if you had taken that chance and ran the inn? Would you have had a chance at a better life, or would you have made things worse?



You'll never know.