Chapter 29

 

Lauren sat on a box in the storage area of her house. Packing was not going well. She started two days ago but has made little progress. There were too many memories attached to the items she picked up. At this rate it’ll take me a week to pack. I’ve got to stop reminiscing about everything I touch. Hell, half of this crap should go in the trash can. I think I’m going to have to go by the rule that if I haven’t used it in the past three months, or plan to use it in the next three, it goes to the poor or out in the trash. That should help move things along.

With her new resolve she emptied the storage room within two hours and returned to the kitchen for a glass of wine. Daniel walked into the kitchen just as Lauren was ready to uncork the bottle.

“When did you get back?”

“Just a few minutes ago. I was at my lawyer’s office signing the last of the contracts. Everything is on schedule. We’re free to go. That is if I can get you to finish up here. Hell I had all my stuff packed two days ago. You’re still days away.”

“I’m sorry it’s taking so long, Daniel, but I am making progress. I just finished going through the storage room.”

 “That’s great. How can I help?”

“Actually, I think you can help. I made a decision that will help me weed through everything faster. I’m going to build a big pile of things I’m not going to take. You could go through it and separate what is good enough for Goodwill and what has to be trashed. That will help me a lot.”

“At your service, ma’am. I’ll get a box of large trash bags and build some cartons. I’ll be ready to go in about five minutes.”

Lauren uncorked the bottle and poured him a glass. “Sit and have a glass of wine with me, first.”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he said as he pulled up a chair. “You know, if you wanted to, I could get someone in to pack everything up and you can go through the boxes at your leisure up in Westfield. They’d mark what is in each box so if you really needed something, you’d be able to locate it quickly. It would relieve a lot of pressure on you. We have lots of space up there to store the boxes until you can get around to unpacking them.”

“That’s a very tempting offer, Daniel, but I wouldn’t want to have a stack of boxes piled up reminding me that I had to go through them. I only want to take the things that can be used when we get there. We’ll probably have to move only twenty or thirty percent of this stuff. I just have to concentrate on the job at hand.”

 “Okay, but the offer is open in case you change your mind. It would allow us to move sooner and that ain’t all bad.”

Lauren sat back in her chair and gazed up at the ceiling. A pensive expression appeared on her face as her mind abandoned the mundane chores at hand and traveled to a deeper place.

“You look like you have something on your mind besides moving. Am I right?”

“Yes, but it’s nothing I can talk about.” There’s no way I can tell him what I‘m planning. I can‘t believe that I‘ve stooped so low as to play by Adam Hampton‘s rules, but I don’t feel that I have any alternative. She answered, “You know how sometimes you have to do something even though it goes against everything in your nature. It’s like that.”

Daniel thought for a moment about what she said. Man, if she knew what I did, she’d be very disappointed in me. This is one secret that I best take to the grave. I led her to believe that I was taking everything in stride, but I couldn’t sit idly by while that man undermines my livelihood. “I think I understand what you’re talking about. I’ve had to do some things in my life that I’m not very proud of, but, as you said, sometimes there is no way out. The decision is often taken out of our hands.”

“I’m glad you understand. I don’t ever want to have this discussion with you again. I just want us to get on with our lives.”

He raised his glass in a solemn toast, “Here’s to secrets, best left untold.”