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side. I sat back and settled in the seat. It
was comfortable. I pulled the recliner back down and sat on the
middle section before I moved to the chaise part. I could envision
Midnight on the chaise, enjoying an afternoon nap. The fabric was
micro fiber, so it would be very durable and stain resistant.
    “ Someone ordered that and then
backed out,” the saleswoman said. “I can give you a good deal on
it.”
    “ How much?” I asked, though I
already knew I’d be buying it.
    “ Eighteen hundred dollars,”
she said.
    “ Can you deliver it Saturday
afternoon around four?”
    “ I’m sure we can arrange
that,” she said.
    “ I need something to put my
television on,” I told her. “Do you have something you can show
me?”
    The saleswoman, Ruth, I had
learned by that point, showed me several pieces, all made in Hickory.
I chose a large cherry wood cabinet that had sliding doors to hide
the television—not something I envisioned doing much—with
cabinets below it and shelves on either side. It looked like it would
fit in the space where the TV currently stood in its primitive
cupboard.
    I had to remove everything from
dressers and other pieces of furniture that would be in the estate
sale. That took a lot of effort. By the end of the week, my foot was
aching. I took a painkiller leftover from the early days of my injury
and fell asleep.
    When Rudolf arrived with an
assistant, Nancy, on Saturday morning, I was ready.
    “ I’m not selling the
television,” I said. “Can you help me move it to the spare room?”
    With some effort, Rudolf moved
the flat screen up the stairs and into the room. He was sweating and
huffing when he came back downstairs.
    Then it was time for me to leave.
I grabbed my jewelry box and put it in my trunk. I wasn’t sure
where I was going to go for four hours, but I couldn’t hang around
and watch people paw through my belongings. I went to the library and
thumbed through magazines for a while. Then I browsed the shelves and
chose a few novels, which I doubted I would ever read. Only two hours
had passed. It was time to see The Lone Ranger.
    I thought the movie was good,
though it was hard to see Johnny Depp’s incredible looks through
all the make-up and with a dead crow on his head. But it was an
exciting movie and a good distraction for me, though my mind did
wander sometimes, envisioning people in my house, buying my precious
belongings.
    I returned to my house at
two-thirty. The buyers were gone and Rudolf and Nancy were
straightening up inside. The house was practically empty, like
someone had moved in the middle of the night. Tears sprang to my eyes
when I walked into the empty dining room with the silver tea set
sitting on the hardwood floors, no longer with a home in the china
cabinet. In the den, the mantle had been removed and the fireplace
looked naked without it. A table in the corner still had a few pieces
on top—ceramic bowls and vases mostly that Jim and I had found at
flea markets. My wedding china had been sold along with the crystal.
    I burst into tears. My former
life didn’t exist anymore and it hit me harder than I thought it
would.
    “ Are you all right, Mrs.
Sullivan,” Rudolf asked. The concern in his voice was genuine.
    “ I just didn’t think it would
hit me like this,” I said.
    “ I know,” he said soothingly.
“I’ve seen this lots of times. It might make you feel better to
know we made nearly twenty-five thousand today. After our twenty
percent commission, you’ll be getting nearly twenty-one thousand
dollars.”
    My tears started to dry. That did
make me feel better.
    Rudolf handed me a check and I
said goodbye. It wouldn’t be long before my new furniture, the
beginning of my new life, would arrive. I got Midnight out of the cat
carrier in the spare room, where she had been since I left the house.
She followed me through the rooms, meowing her displeasure. There
wasn’t anywhere to sit but the floor!
    The couch and console arrived at
four