It was one of those rare days with perfect weather when Kitty pushed open the door to Eric's room and clapped her hands authoritatively.
"So! Kids, here we are!" She hustled them all into his room and looked around, gesturing for Hyde and Red to drop the empty boxes they were carrying. "Now, I want my sewing table by the window so we've got to clear out this half of the room."
She bustled her way over to the left of the room and started picking things up. Red followed her and stood over the heavy yellow armchair near the left of the bed. He motioned for Hyde to come over.
"Here, now, Steven. Lift." Hyde went and bent to lift the other end. They carried it between them and shuffled out of the room.
Jackie stood aside to let them pass, but was strangely reluctant to move in any further from where she was standing just by the bedroom door. It felt wrong somehow. A gross invasion of his privacy. She didn't want to be cleaning out his room. It felt like they were writing him out of their lives, and she most definitely wasn't. He was very real and vital to her.
"Donna. Jackie," Kitty called over her shoulder, "move these things into the boxes." She pulled the cord of Eric's old lava lamp out of the socket and wound it around the base. It went into a box with a clang. Dusting her hands on her skirt, she turned her head from side to side, deciding how to proceed.
"This one goes here," she muttered as she dropped random objects into their respective boxes, "and that one… there…" Clang clang. She straightened up and shook her hair back, a crease appearing between her brows as she registered their inactivity. "Now would be good time to start."
"'Kay, Mrs. Forman," Donna said and moved over to help.
Kitty abandoned the window area and walked distractedly over to the shelves above Eric's bed where all his action figures stood. She picked an empty box from the floor and settled it on his bed, looking up at the neatly lined figures above. The shelves were a little high and she had to tiptoe to take one down.
"Hmmm, I've always wondered," she said and turned it around in her hand. She took a surreptitious glance about her before she pulled G.I. Joe's camo-print cargo pants down in one quick jerk. "Oooh, ah-hahaha. Now I know!" she cackled.
"Mrs. Forman!" Donna said in shocked amusement from where she was standing by the window. She noticed Jackie looking at the shelves of the cupboard by the door and tilted her head towards her. "Jackie, come on."
Jackie nodded and walked over to her slowly. She saw Kitty putting Eric's figures neatly in the box and stopped when Kitty's fingers closed over the Luke Skywalker figurine. Jackie hesitated, then put her hand on Kitty's arm and reached to take Luke Skywalker from her.
"Mrs. Forman, wait," she said. "Maybe we should leave those."
Red chose that moment to walk in. He saw Kitty waver and stomped over loudly.
"No, no, Kitty. Put them away. I've wanted to get rid of Eric's dolls for years." He grabbed Luke Skywalker from Jackie's hand and threw it into the box. "And now's as good a time as any."
He picked the box up and brought it to the edge of the shelf, and with one arm, swept the entire row of Eric's figures into the box. "There now, see? You've more space for your other sewing… things."
He brightened as Randy walked into the room with a tool belt around his hips.
"Randy! Kitty, Randy's here. He'll be building you the sewing table with that little cup holder, just like you wanted."
He held onto his wife's shoulders and directed her attention towards the window. "Tell him where you want it, and hey! In a few days' time, you'll be sitting up here happily sewing."
Suitably distracted, Kitty forgot about Eric's toys and walked over to Donna and Randy instead, fluttering excitedly as she gave him exact instructions for her would-be sewing table.
Red turned to Jackie and shoved the box in her arms. "Here, go put it in the garage somewhere. We'll sell the lot the next time Kitty decides to have a garage sale."
She couldn't look away from the happy expression on his face as he thrust her the box, nor ignore how he seemed to glow as Randy stuck his stupid measuring tape this way and that in accordance to Mrs. Forman's enthusiastic directions.
She bowed her head and her heart was heavy as she bent to do what he instructed.
Night had fallen and the sky outside had turned dark before Jackie returned to the Forman household. She pushed the slider open to find the kitchen empty, then headed through the door to the living room.
Red and Kitty were watching television. Jackie froze, but they barely turned to acknowledge her greeting.
"Um, I left something in Eric's room this afternoon, can I go upstairs to get it?"
Red grunted and Kitty fluttered a hand at her in reply. Their gazes remained glued to the screen.
Jackie hid a relieved smile and made for the stairs. When she reached Eric's room, she shut his door and set her load down. Slowly, carefully, she reached into the box and took the items out one by one.
She began arranging his action figures on the shelf above his bed — exactly as he had left them.