Thank you Wayne Gallant for posting this challenge:

The majority of contents in the locker had been untouched for too many years. The door only unlocked to add and remove life’s seasonal accoutrements. Almost empty paint cans sat perched near the door in easy reach should a touch up be required. A jumble of worn brushes in a torn plastic bag lay on the floor each bearing small remnants of colour choices that had graced the walls of too many rooms in too many places.

Finally extracted from the jumble of belongings, the bigger box took up space in the middle of a room filled with freshly packed boxes each labeled and arranged by price and category and waiting for pick up. The contents sale would be held elsewhere.

Multiple colours and layers of packing tape and moving stickers graced the rough-worn exterior. Inside, there was an obvious hierarchy of the contents determined both by age and importance. On top, a couple of yellowing newspapers with headlines depicting triumph and sorrow. In the middle, a jumble of term papers and photographs. And near the bottom, lined notebooks filled with awkward printing and a few curled drawings still tenuously attached to faded construction paper.

The cigar box was tucked down the side of the box with the other contents roughly pushed aside to make room.

The tarnished brass latch and hinges all worked together to maintain the integrity of the contents. Opening it let escape the last slight whiff of old tobacco leaves. The contents were an odd mix of things: a small doll in a faded dress; red and blue ribbons pinned together with the coarse hair of a horse’s tail; a Guide badge awarded for reading. Memories and meaning meant for someone else to cherish.

Finally, at the bottom sat a tiny pair of booties--the pink ribbons tied together and pinned to a never-opened envelope. The glue no longer held the flap closed, and the contents easily slipped out. A receipt, an invoice, a prescription never filled, and printed on the top corner, the name of an infamous clinic.

A choice not chosen, a niece never known and long simmering mysteries now solved.

Case closed.

No more items for the sale.