pictures and accolades.
“Well.” He glanced at me. “Looks like you’ve already started in here.”
“Yeah,” I said dryly. “I could use a hand with the furniture, though.”
“You’re not keeping any of this?”
“Do you want it?”
He eyed it. “Maryann or Lisa might.”
I fought back my frustration. Great. So now I had to live with that furniture until my sisters were here in a few weeks. Awesome. “Okay. Well. There isn’t much else to do in here. Let’s go upstairs.”
He nodded, and as we headed out of the room, he glanced again at the wall. He didn’t say anything, but he shook his head, and I gritted my teeth. He probably hated the color. Too bad, dude.
Then and there, as I followed him upstairs, I promised myself that as soon as he was gone, my paintings were going back up, and they were staying there. They were never going to take up space in a gallery, but they were nice enough to go on a wall. On my wall. Because this was my house, and I made the rules now.
Or, well, I would after this weekend. When my brother was gone. And I’d probably pull them all down again before my sisters came because cowardice, thy name was Kelly.
Upstairs, we went into the master bedroom. Gesturing at Dad’s walk-in closet, Daniel asked, “What should we do with Dad’s clothes?” He looked me up and down. “They’re probably closer to your size than anyone else’s.”
“Hmm, no. Not my style.”
Daniel scowled. “Have you even looked?”
“Did Dad ever change his aesthetic in the years since he and I stopped speaking?”
My brother broke eye contact.
“That’s what I thought.” I gestured at the closet and dresser. “Take whatever you want or you think your kids might like. Anything that’s unclaimed, I’m just going to donate it.”
“Donate it?” he spat. “Really? You’re just going to…” He flailed a hand. “Dump Dad’s things outside a Goodwill or something?”
“Ugh, for fuck’s sake. You make it sound so crass.” I thought about how our dad had dressed. “Maybe I’ll give it to one of the schools to use for their theatre program.”
My brother made a face, but he didn’t say anything.
“What do you want me to do with it?” I demanded, letting some impatience slip in. “I’m not going to just hold on to everything Dad owned so this house can be a museum. If anyone wants anything, say so, but if you don’t want something, don’t get pissy with me if I don’t want it either.”
His jaw worked. “Fine. I’ll go see if there’s anything I can use.”
As he walked into the closet, I rolled my eyes again and suppressed a huff of annoyance. Though I wouldn’t say it out loud, I was seriously tempted to just sort all my dad’s shit into three even piles, then ship each pile to one of my siblings. Whatever they got, they could keep it or do whatever with it. They could trade it amongst themselves. I didn’t care what they did with it as long as it was all out of my hair and out of my house.
When he’d finished in the closet, he came back out, and he halted abruptly. I’d been in the middle of boxing up some photos that Maryann had asked me to put aside for her, and I watched Daniel, trying to figure out what had caught his eye.
But then I realized what he was looking at: the handful of Dad’s climbing gear that had been shipped back to us.
He stepped closer to where I’d carefully arranged it on the chest in front of the footboard. He ran his hand over the weathered stickers on the helmet, touching it almost reverently.
Voice soft, I asked, “What do we do with it?”
Daniel shook his head, suddenly looking ten years older and a hell of a lot more exhausted. “I have no idea. I think if he’d—if he’d gone any other way, it wouldn’t bother me, but…” He shifted his gaze away from Dad’s gear as he trailed off.
I kept my voice soft. “What, um… What actually happened to him?”
Daniel turned to me, brow furrowed. “You don’t know?”
“No. Maryann told me it was on the Everest climb, but I…” Shame made me break eye contact. “I couldn’t handle the details. She might’ve even told me, but it didn’t register. I just know he died up there.”
“Yeah. He did.” Daniel went quiet for a moment. He picked up one of Dad’s crampons and stared at it, idly playing with one of the