Chapter 6

6

MERRITT

“ I s this really the right thing to do?” I asked Lucia. “It feels gross.”

“What’s gross about it?” Lucia asked as she placed a sticker on an ugly vase.

Fifty cents seemed like it was too much, but they kept telling me one man’s trash was another man’s treasure.

I looked around the living room filled with my father’s things. The driveway and front yard were cluttered with more. We had blocked off all the rooms, wanting to keep the bargain hunters in the main area. Lucia said it was to keep out the thieves. I honestly couldn’t imagine anyone trying to steal anything.

“Am I profiting off my father’s death?” I asked. “An estate sale? I should have just donated all of it.”

“Then we would have to rent a truck and haul it all somewhere and there was no guarantee the thrift stores would accept it,” Lucia said. She straightened a stack of dinner plates that were on the dining table. All of it was for sale. “Besides, it’s not like you’re asking for a million dollars. My mom would be all over bargains like this. A dollar for six plates is basically giving it away. You’re selling this stuff cheaper than what a secondhand store would sell it for. So basically, you’re doing something good for the community.”

I wasn’t sure I believed that, but the stuff did need to go.

I walked outside and spotted Dominique sitting in a folding chair at a table with the cash box. She looked so out of place in her fluffy pink beanie cap, designer jeans, and dark Chanel sunglasses. She wasn’t wealthy, but she dressed like she was. In reality, she was a bargain hunter herself and knew how to buy pieces that exuded luxury and paired them with secondhand jeans.

It felt surreal to watch strangers paw through the remnants of my father’s life. Lamps, rugs, old cookware—all things I didn’t need, but they felt like pieces of him nonetheless. My stomach tightened every time someone carted something off, but I kept my face neutral. These weren’t memories—they were just things.

The items with sentimental value were already boxed up and stored in my old bedroom. I would be taking that stuff back to Miami with me. I packed every photo I could find, no matter how faded or grainy. My dad’s old housecoat, still faintly smelling of his aftershave, was folded neatly on top of the boxes. His glasses as well. I probably should have donated them, but I just couldn’t picture anyone else wearing them. It was a silly memento, but I couldn’t bring myself to put them in the estate sale.

I kept the many treasures from my mom that my father had stashed away. Her jewelry was in a velvet bag that I tucked into my purse. Digging through the house was cathartic and sad. I found craft projects I made for my parents when I was in elementary school, all still carefully saved. Even the ancient Christmas wrapping paper Mom bought in the nineties at a Black Friday sale found its way into my pile. These were the things that mattered, the things that carried weight.

Everything else? It had to go. The house needed to be empty and ready for repairs by tomorrow. The estate sale was Lucia’s idea. As much as I hated it, I knew it was the smart thing to do.

As the morning progressed, the stream of people grew thicker. I noticed an elderly couple pausing by a set of rusted garden tools. The man picked up a shovel and weighed it in his hand. His wife rubbed her fingers across the aged wooden handle. I could almost see my father there, standing in his overalls, ready for another day in the garden. My throat tightened with the memory.

Lucia nudged me gently. “You okay?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah,” I lied, forcing a smile. “Just thinking about Dad.”

I turned away to hide the moisture brimming in my eyes and found myself staring at a young family examining my father’s old armchair. The little boy, no more than five, was bouncing slightly on the cushioned seat. His laughter sounded too loud for the somber occasion. The mother watched with a tired but tender smile while the father checked the sturdiness of the chair, flipping it to inspect its legs.

The scene made me warm inside. Maybe my father’s things could bring joy to another family.

I walked over to them, watching as the little boy played. “It’s sturdy,” I reassured the father, who looked up at me.

“We’ll take it,” he said. “If we buy that side table, too, will you give us a deal?”

Before I could answer, Lucia stepped up. She handled the wheeling and dealing. I wasn’t good at it. I drifted away to fix the TV trays that had fallen over. Even the stupid TV trays brought back memories. Whenever I was sick, my mom would set up a glass of 7-Up, crackers, and give me the TV remote while I lounged on the couch. Whenever the TV tray was busted out, it was because I was sick.

“Excuse me, is this chair solid wood?” an older woman asked, pulling me back to reality. She tapped the arm of an old rocker.

I forced a polite smile. “Yes, it is. It’s solid.”

“How much?”

“Forty dollars.”

She pursed her lips, considering, before finally nodding. “I’ll take it.”

“Great. I’ll help you load it,” I offered.

I lifted the heavy rocking chair into the bed of her old Chevy pickup. The woman thanked me and handed me the cash. “This will be perfect for my reading nook. I’ve been looking for something like this for ages.”

I nodded, returning her smile with one that felt a little more genuine. As I watched her drive away with a piece of my father’s life—a piece that brought comfort and was still able to serve a purpose—I felt a strange liberation. The pain of parting with these objects was tempered by the knowledge that they were finding new homes where they could continue to be cherished.

We spent the next several hours bargaining with people and watching item after item walk away with new owners. About an hour before we were declaring the sale over, Lucia grabbed the big black marker and crossed out the word “SALE” and in massive letters wrote “FREE.”

“Now it’s time to get serious,” she said. “Let everyone haul this stuff away. You won’t have to fill up a big dumpster.”

People swarmed in once the signs changed, picking through what remained with a renewed frenzy. A young woman gingerly lifted a stack of old records, her eyes lighting up as she flipped through them. She hugged them close to her chest as if she had found treasure. I watched her for a moment, wondering if my parents ever imagined their collections would bring joy to someone else decades later.

A middle-aged man came over, dragging a little red wagon behind him. He loaded it with assorted kitchen items—pots, pans, and an old cookie jar that had seen better days. “I run a shelter,” he explained. “These will help out a lot.”

“Take everything you need,” I said, happy to know the stuff was going to people who really needed it.

By the time the sale wound down, I felt like I’d run a marathon. The driveway was mostly cleared except for a few unsold odds and ends. My friends and I sat on the porch, the cold biting through my sweater, but I was too spent to care.

Lucia stretched her arms overhead and yawned. “That was brutal.”

“You think?” Dominique said, side-eyeing her. She sipped from a thermos of coffee. “I’m pretty sure I’ve been on my feet since dawn.”

“We all have,” I pointed out, giving Dominique a playful nudge with my elbow. “And we made good progress. The house is empty.”

“And you made close to a thousand dollars,” Lucia said.

Dominique frowned. “Yeah, but what now? Are you really going to try and fix this place up yourself? Now that all the stuff is out, it shows the total picture.”

I sighed, staring at the house. The peeling paint, the sagging gutters—it all screamed overwhelming . “I don’t know where to start,” I admitted. “Dad didn’t have much in savings, but what he did have is in my name already. At least I don’t have to deal with probate. That’s one blessing.”

“Lucky break,” Lucia said. “But even with that, can you afford to fix it up? This house needs a lot of work.”

“I don’t want to sell it,” I said firmly. “I’d rather fix it up and rent it out. It could be a nice home for a family. One day, I might want to come back here.”

Lucia and Dominique exchanged a look. “You know it’s a lot of work to manage a property, especially when you live in Miami, right?” Lucia asked carefully. “Rentals are a pain in the ass.”

“I know,” I said, running a hand through my hair. “But selling it would crush me. This house is all I have left of him.”

They didn’t argue, though I could see the doubt in their eyes. “When does your boss expect you back?”

“Valentine’s Day,” I replied. “He gave me a month off. No questions asked. I got lucky.”

Dominique sighed. “I wish I could stay longer, but I have to fly out tomorrow. Work is calling.”

“Same here,” Lucia added. “I’ve got a couple more days, but then I’m out. I’ll come back next weekend if you need me.”

“You don’t have to do that,” I said quickly. “I can’t disrupt your lives. I am so grateful you came at all. I don’t think I could have gotten through the funeral without you. I thought I was ready. I thought I was done crying. Thank you so much for being there for me.”

Lucia raised an eyebrow. “Who are you going to depend on if not us?”

I couldn’t help but laugh, shaking my head. “I’ll be fine. I have people here. My dad has friends. I’m sure they’ll want to help.”

“Like who?” Dominique pressed, her tone teasing but laced with curiosity.

“Just… people,” I said vaguely, trying to sound convincing. Their skepticism was obvious, but they let me off the hook. “If I need you, I’ll call. Deal?”

“Deal,” they said reluctantly, though Dominique still looked like she wanted to argue.

Later, we ordered takeout and sat on the living room floor—with no furniture left in the house—eating and chatting like we used to in college. The house felt eerily empty, the walls bare, but their company made it bearable.

“Where are you staying?” Lucia asked between bites of her burger. “Are you going to keep staying in the hotel? That’s going to get expensive.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Tomorrow, I’m going to buy a blowup mattress and a few essentials. I’ll stay here while I work on the house.”

Dominique shuddered visibly. “Alone?”

“It’s not that bad,” Lucia said pointedly.

“I didn’t say anything!” Dominique protested.

“You might as well have,” Lucia shot back.

Dominique rolled her eyes. “You’re telling me you’d stay here alone for a month?”

Lucia scrunched her nose. “I didn’t say that.”

They made me laugh. “Guys, I’m trying not to be insulted. I grew up in the house you two are horrified by.”

They grinned at me. For a moment, everything felt normal again. But the moment passed too quickly, and reality crept back in as the evening wound down.

We all headed back to the hotel. It would be my last night in a clean, comfy bed. I couldn’t justify spending two hundred dollars a night on a room when I was going to be putting every penny I had toward fixing the house up. Tomorrow, I would give it a good scrubbing and it wouldn’t be so bad. It would be weird sleeping in the place, but maybe it was time I faced the ghosts of my past.