Noreen Grimes

But she cleaned them, reused them, and we saw another big old box go out the front door.

We Virginia siblings, we made a pile for the California brother, and we made a pile for the Texas brother.

And we said, get on back here and get your disbursements.

And take them back to your own homes.

But the Texas brother, he says, he only wants one thing.

When he was a kid, he found a rock shaped like an egg.

And at Easter, he'd painted it blue and given it to Mom.

By the time his big old truck rolled on out of here, he had three twin beds.

a box full of every card or photo he had ever sent mom because of course she had saved them all, a wooden clock cut in the shape of the state of Texas, and a tiny blue egg rock.

The day that we had to take our six senior high school pictures down off the wall and we saw the faded paint, the shadows of the frames left behind,

That was a tough day.

But then the rooms began to echo, and we knew if we didn't dig our heels in, we would never get this job done.

So that's when my sister decided to make it fun.

She got it into her head that Mama had hidden money somewhere in the house.

My mom had a ton of nice, tiny shoes.

We were donating them to the senior center.

Was there money tucked inside those shoes?

No.

We finally finished and we walked outside around the empty house now and that's when we saw the tire swing hanging back there by the creek and we were exhausted.

Forget it.