Story Time || The Headboard
Written by Catherine Medina
This is an original work subject to all copyright laws.
She met the clerk on Tuesday to downsize the storage unit. They filled it together, but she was the one who kept it. The larger one still held their bed frame, the one they’d assembled on the apartment floor, laughing over missing screws.
Piece by piece, she carried the bed into the smaller unit. The metal felt heavier alone. By the third trip, sweat blurred her mascara. Her sky-blue T-shirt clung to her back. She left the headboard leaning against the wall.
The clerk asked if she wanted to keep the old unit open for another month. It was half full-- bins of keepsakes and a sealed wedding dress.
A heavy sigh escaped her lungs, “Can you toss the rest of that stuff?”
“Yes ma’am. Are you sure?” the man asked.
She pictured the empty space. “Yes. Please.”
Outside, she dropped the Allen wrench into the trash.