Dale finally decided he should start with the bedroom he was sleeping in. If he got the majority of Aunt Mildred’s accumulated mess out of there, maybe he could begin to feel like the house was actually his. Those boxes Carol dropped off were a start. Dale began excavating the closet in the room he’d slept in. Eight pairs of shoes and eleven purses came out of the floor of the closet. He started on the upper shelf next, thinking he’d deal with the clothing hanging in the closet last. A totally ugly lamp with elephants on the bottom, and four hat boxes were the first things off the shelf. Then came a shoe box labeled black pumps with a tiny picture of a high heeled shoe. He didn’t remember his aunt ever wearing anything high heeled. The box was awfully light. Was it empty?
He lifted the li
