Kandace
It seems that my heart stops beating when I get to the bottom of the basement stairs. The room that was once covered in wood paneling is now drywalled. The suspended ceiling is gone, the rafters and pipes now painted black. The change makes the room seem larger and more modern. My anxiety rises at the absence of a large pool table, one that had not been used in decades. The problem with this situation is that the pool table held the boxes and containers of merchandise. I carried them down here myself as Ruth didn't often go down into the basement. In reality, this house became too large for one person.
Flipping switches, I move to the other rooms. They are all connected one to the other, separated only by doors. The second room is smaller. In her younger years, Ruth used this ro
