I wake up to Nancy’s enthusiastic knocking on my guest room door. I open one eye and check the time on the clock. Six-fifteen in the morning. Fuck, is this the time people in the burbs get out of bed?

“Alexander,” Nancy calls through the closed door. “We need to get going. Kade says the two of you need the afternoon to get some things done.”

“Coming,” I groan. “Give me ten minutes.”

Rolling to Angel’s side, I press a kiss on her forehead and get moving. I’m showered, dressed and in the hallway in eight, just in time to see Nancy take the stairs down to the main floor, dressed as though we’re about to join an executive board meeting.

“Morning,” I greet her from the bottom of the stairs. “What’s with the power suit?”

Nancy looks down her body. “Oh, this old thing?”

I grin from my spot next to the stairs. “It’ll be an old thing when we’re done sorting through a gazillion boxes and pieces of furniture. Seriously, throw on some jeans and a t-shirt. Oh, and grab some work gloves for that manicure you just got.”

“Oh no. We’re not organizing a gazillion boxes today,” she says, pointing her finger back and forth between us. “You’re organizing a gazillion boxes today. Do you want to know why?”

I fold my arms across my chest. “Let me guess. Does it have anything to do with the fact that you just got your nails done?”

Nancy stares at me for a long beat. “You’re doing it all because I’ve had to visit that depressing place once a year every year to renew the lease. You think your nightmares are bad? Try physically walking into them once a year and being reminded of every little detail.”

“Hang on, who told you I was having nightmares?”

“Like you have to ask,” she huffs, turning to leave through the front door. “Let’s get this over with.”

I follow her outside. “I don’t even know why you hung on to Mom and Dad’s stuff for all this time. You should’ve just gotten rid of it. We don’t need the reminder. I sure don’t. And you’re not hard up for money.”

She stops in the middle of the driveway and spins around. Tears are in her eyes. “They’re still our parents, Alexander,” she cries. “They may be gone, but that’s all we have left of them. You can’t just fixate on the night we lost them, you know? What about all the years before that?”

I’m beside her and have my arms around her shoulders that very instant. “Come on, don’t cry,” I beg, rubbing down the side of her arm to console her. I lean Nancy’s head on my side. “You know I can’t take it when you make that little whimpering sound…or that choking noise…oh God, the sputtering too,” I half-joke. “Awww crap, now you’re humming like a beached whale.”

“Stop that, you little shit,” she whines. My comment gets me a punch in the chest, but at least her crying has turned into a gurgle-like laugh. “Okay, let’s go.”

“No. You stay here,” I tell her. “You’re right. You’ve had to deal with this on your own for far too long. Just give me the address and locker key. I’ll take care of it.”

“I don’t think so, brother dearest. Let’s do something together for a change.” She walks around to her Ferrari California T convertible. “Get in.”

“One sec.” I unlock my bullet-riddled truck and drag out a wad of napkins from the glove compartment. “Here,” I offer as I jump into the passenger side of her car. “Your mascara’s running, and there’s a bit of snot smeared on your cheek. Not pretty at all.”

Nancy smiles, but snatches the napkins from my fingers. “Awww, how sweet and tactless all at the same time.” She flips the sunshade down and checks her facial cleanup effort in the mirror before starting the car. “I’m glad to see you haven’t changed a bit, big brother.”

“Where’s the locker?” I ask as she reverses into the street.

“About twenty miles up the highway.”

I stare out the window. “Any chance we can open this baby up?”

Nancy turns onto the main street and fish-tails the sports car as she speeds up. “You mean like that?”

I smile. “Uh huh.”

We’re on the highway within minute. During the short drive, we sit in silence. I can just sense the questions forming in Nancy’s head. I know that familiar expression that flits across her face and quickly disappears. After a while, she glances over at me. “So... you and Angel, huh?”

“Sorry, what?” I wasn’t expecting that question. “Oh. Yeah well, we’re getting to know each other.”

“Bullshit.”

“Really, we’re not serious.”

“I was born at night, Alexander. Not last night. I know you. Anyone with eyes can see the two of you belong together.”

I laugh.

“What?” she asks.

“I’ve barely been under your roof for a day and you’re playing matchmaker,” I point out with a smirk. Nancy stares over at me. “Keep those eyes on the road, sis.”

She shakes her head and turns her head to face forward again. “Well I hope you don’t let her slip away just because I like her.”

“There it is. You approve. Bring out the bubbly then. Big brother’s getting hitched!” I announce, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“You’re a cynical assclown sometimes.”

“Thanks, Mom,” I answer, just to provoke her. “This is exactly what I needed this morning. A hefty dose of sibling bickering.”

My sister is miffed now, and taking it out on her stick shift. She accelerates, pulls out on the one-lane stretch of highway into oncoming traffic to get out from behind a slow as fuck minivan driver, and merges back into the right lane. She flips on her indicator light and turns off the highway less than a minute later. “The building’s a few blocks from here.”

After parking in a nearby lot, me and Nancy head up the street to the large warehouse. She nods to the middle-aged man working at the front desk, and he buzzes us into the long, wide, fluorescent-lit hallway lined with metal doors large enough to drive a moving truck inside. She leads me to the end of the corridor and steps into a waiting warehouse-style elevator.

“It’s on the second floor,” she chokes out, already upset again.

I reach my hand out and find hers. “Are you sure you want to do this right now?”

“Yes. We need this.” She takes a breath and straightens up to get off the elevator. “The best way to get this done quickly is for you to go in and decide what you want. Once you figure that out, I’ll help you clear a bit of space upfront. That way, once everything has settled down, you can come back to haul them away.”

“I can pretty much guarantee you there’s nothing in there that’ll leap out at me,” I say as I follow her. Nancy opens her mouth to speak at the storage room door, but I beat her to it. “Don’t stress out, all right? I’ll check through everything before I decide.”

“Fine.” She finds the key, places it into the locking mechanism, then she stops. “Are you ready?” she asks looking up into my face.

“Nope, but let’s do this. One and done.”

Three hours later, I’m still sorting. Fuck. No wonder Nancy hasn’t gotten rid of a thing. How could anyone let these thing go? I sure can’t. All I’ve managed to do is move things around. The massive locker contains furniture, photos, clothes, keepsakes, trinkets, and even trophies from grade school sports.

“I am not helping, am I?” I huff out, wiping the sweat from my brow with the back of my hand. I sit on the piece of sectional sofa I’ve just moved and slump back to rest my head.

Nancy smiles and sits beside me. We both stare at the semi-transparent plastic containers stacked on the dusty shelving unit against one wall. “I don’t know. I kind of like the sofa here in the center of everything.”

“How about I pay for the next, I don’t know, say fifteen years of the storage lease, and call it even?”

“Nice try.”

A blue and white porcelain oriental vase in one of the containers catches my eye. “Wait. Is that Mom’s prized flower vase?” I ask, getting up to check the box. “It is. Remember how Dad used to hate that thing?”

Nancy nods. “Yes. He’d bring her flowers, and she would only use this particular one, which would get them bickering every time.”

I snap open the box lid and lift out the vase. “For some reason, Dad hated it.”

“And they’d go all quiet and cuddly after their little tiffs,” Nancy adds.

“Maybe I’ll take this home with me when this is all over. It’s strange…”

“What?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t remind me of that night, I guess. You know, for porcelain, this thing is damn heavy.” I turn the vase upside down to check whether the manufacturing stamp looks mass produced or more like a one-of-a-kind. Something clinks around inside, but doesn’t fall out. “Hey, listen to this.” I shake it around. Something metal is definitely inside. “I think this thing has a trick bottom. Here. You try.”

Nancy comes to my side and takes the vase in two hands. She shakes it around, then she looks inside, turns it upside down, and shakes it again. “You’re right.” She passes it back to me. “Weird.”

I run my hand along the edges, feeling for a groove or some sign of another opening. “I don’t know how they did this.”

“Wait, let me try something.” She takes the vase again. “My hands are smaller,” she says, hugging it with one arm and slipping the other hand inside. “I’m totally gonna break this if my hand gets stuck.”

“No you won’t. I’ve got WD-40 in my truck if that happens.”

Her eyes light up. “I feel something.”

Nancy lifts out the false bottom. She passes it to me, then lifts out a key. “What the hell?” she exclaims, dangling it on the keyring that holds it.

“That looks like it’s for a safety deposit box.” I take it and check the tiny emblem etched at the top. “I know this bank. It’s the Costa Verde Savings and Loan. Do you remember that bank in town?”

“I think so. Do you think the box is still in Dad’s name?”

“Only one way to find out. He or Mom went to a lot a trouble to hide this key. Do you feel like taking a drive? But we’ve gotta stop for some coffee.”

She grabs her purse near the front and pulls out the locker key. “You lock up and I’ll bring the car around.”