A Tribe United

Chapter 7

Marc and Mercedes took a break.

Marcy walked up the steps and surveyed the attic. "We need to push all this junk downstairs."

"Marce." Mercedes groaned. "I'm tired."

"You don't think I'm tired?" Marcy raised a brow.

"That's-! That's not what I'm saying. I know you've been busy all day today and you made dinner but we only have one day to do all this. And not even a full day."

Marcy lifted her hand and moved her fingers as she thought. "We can move moving to Saturday and take Friday to go over everything. You can go to bed."

"Yes!" Mercedes fell back.

Marc smirked. "Alright, I need a shower. I'll see you in the morning."

"I made your lunch. I might be gone when you guys get ready so just check the fridge for all your lunches." Marcy told him as he stood.

Marc nodded as he stretched and yawned. "See ya tomorrow."

"Night." His sisters said as he left.

Mercedes rolled onto her stomach and eyed her little sister. "You would have made an amazing mother."

Marcy looked away. "You should go shower, too. Mikey and Q already went to bed."

Mercedes sat up. "Are we never going to talk about it?"

"No." Marcy said immediately.

"But you were going to be a mommy."

"And now I'm not."

Mercedes looked at her, wounded.

"Stop soft-eyeing me."

"You can't hold everything in."

"Have we met?!"

"It's going to kill you." Mercedes didn't take the bait.

"I've seen death."

Mercedes' eyes widened. "When?"

Marcy almost answered before she shook her head. "Go shower."

Mercedes watched her leave, thinking about how her family was so broken. But they had to stick together. It was only them now.

ATU

Marcy went around Mal's room much like her own. She boxed up all his media and clothes, put his shoes in tubs and threw away junk.

They were keeping his lamps and his chairs with her sofa and tables so she dragged the rest of his furniture to the hallway. She broke down his bed, left his desk (there was room for both of their desks in their new room) and chair and stacked his bookcases atop each other.

She put away his sports equipment and musical instruments, she put away all of his wall decorations and his photography gear, she cleared his surfaces per his instructions and she picked up all the satchels and mothballs.

When she was finished, she went to the kitchen to repeat her steps from the day before. She kept all the freezer bags and called for a pantry or church to come pick up the food like she'd done yesterday afternoon.

When she finished, she gathered all of the pictures and put them in boxes with home movies. Other media went in boxes along with a TV. She'd had everything turned off so after she finished here, she would be going to the Fabrays to clean that kitchen before the food spoiled.

She cleaned out the living and dining rooms before tackling the den. Then she did the garage. It was a lot of tools in there because Michael had been a workman.