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“No,” she says in horror. “I’m happy to do it. Please don’t hire a stranger.” She opens the closet and takes out a handful of items I can’t even see. Because all I see is her determination floating around this house in infinite waves.
I give her a small nod of a promise and she gives me a quick wave before disappearing down the hall, returning with a spray bottle and cloth. Sitting cross-legged on the floor, she picks up a small shadow box, handling it delicately, taking the time to inspect it before giving it a gentle spray and dusting it clean.
I run a hand down my face. “Why?”
Pepper jumps. “Jesus, you scared me. I thought you’d left.”
I step toward her, watching her. “Why are you happy to do it. Why did you agree to this? It’s the last thing anyone wants to do.”
She drops her head, running a thumb gently over a gold medal—not Elliot’s, probably Levi’s or Dad’s. “When I had to do this…eight years ago…I would have given anything for someone else to do this for me—or even with me.” She looks around with mist filling her eyes. “Not all of it. Just some, you know? But we didn’t have anyone. And everything needed to be out by the end of the week and…” She shrugs with a smile. “I was alone.”
I picture Pepper at seventeen. Confused, in a cold empty home, stuffing boxes senselessly, bravely. Probably refusing to shed a tear if she was anything like the woman she is today.
It’s not fair.
It wasn’t fair.
“What kind of pizza did you order?” I ask.
She scrunches her nose. “Anchovies.”
I exhale a laugh. “Great.” I bend my knees and settle next to her on the floor.
“Chase, what are you doing?”
“Pepper, remember when I asked you all those years ago if there’s anything I could do, let me know?”
She nods, pursing her lips.
I point down. “This is what I meant.” I nudge her. “Give me that rag.”
Three hours later, Pepper and I have packed up four boxes. And I’m about to lose my shit. She keeps moving the ‘toss pile’ to the ‘keep pile’.
“Will you stop that?” I finally snap. “What am I going to do with all this crap?”
“It’s important stuff,” she insists.
“Yeah?” I pick up the last item she moved back into keep. “What’s this?”
She blinks at the object. “It’s… probably his piggie bank from when he was little. Can’t throw that out.”
“It’s a can of fish bait, Pepper.”
She jumps back, her palms hitting the floor behind her. “Ew. It’s been here all along? Oh my God, take it outside. Throw it out! Throw it out!”
I laugh. “It’s been empty for years, but it sure smells like Elliot and Dad just used it the other day.”
“Aww. Maybe your dad would want it.”
“Garbage!” I toss it back in the trash pile.
“Fine,” she grumbles.
I push off the floor. “Jesus, are we going to have to go through all these boxes again just to make sure we’re not keeping old fish bait?” I ask, only half joking. I stride over to the open box and pull on the flaps.
“No.” She jumps in front of me, closing them back up. “Promise, everything in there is…keep-worthy.”
I frown down at her. “Like what?”
