After a hurried phone conference with Theodore ‘s aunt, the china and silver service, along with the bulk of the dead woman’s jewelry were boxed in shipping cartons and sent to his aunt.

An estate sale was held and the furnishings were auctioned.

His parent’s clothes were given to charity and the detritus of suburban life was put out for the garbage collectors.

As executor of the estate, Mr Field hired a small contractor to make repairs and repaint the house, then had a cleaning crew come in when the contractor was finished.

Theodore watched the proceedings with dismay as his house was gradually emptied of personality.

He went over and looked in the curtainless windows after the cleaning crew had finished and saw that the house had been stripped of everything that made it his.

It was only a vacant building that had been his home in another existence.

Theodore felt like the house was like his life, just another empty shell where he had once lived.

Mr Field had the house listed with a Realtor and signs were put on the lawn announcing to the world that the house was no longer a home, only a piece of property to be sold.

Theodore’s mood fell deeper into depression as he saw the last vestige of his old life slip away from him.

The world went on with its business despite Theodore’s pain; school let out for the summer, large corporations continued to merge, causing stock prices to go up, making the Federal Reserve nervous.

They raised the Prime Interest Rate steeply, which caused the mortgage rate to skyrocket.

Buyers for Theodore’s old house vanished.

It sat vacantly, waiting for the cost of money to be affordable again.

Mr Field’s company was acquired in a complex stock transaction that caused him to be temporarily transferred to the home office of the parent company in Chicago for retraining.

Mr and Mrs Field discussed his transfer and decided that Rose would stay in their house with Baby John John and Theodore while Mr Field was in Chicago.

Selling their house was out of the question with the housing market in the downturn it was in.

 He would be gone six months, with a possible two-month extension.

The good news was that he would be promoted upon his return to division sales manager of his old company with perks and a raise to match his new position.

He spent a week getting ready for the trip, giving Rose a full-power-of-attorney so that she could deal with any emergencies that came up.

On the day of his departure, he told Theodore he was the man of the house now and he had every confidence that Theodore would take care of his wife and son.

He shook Theodore’s hand and kissed Baby John John before he embraced Rose and told her goodbye.

He gave Rose a final kiss and he walked to the waiting taxi with the last of his bags.

Everyone waved goodbye at Mr Field as the taxi drove away.

Theodore awoke in the morning with the covers wrapped around him like a mummy.

He rolled over to get out of bed and found himself lying in a cold spot in the bed.

He put his hand down to feel the spot and discovered that it was wet.

He had wet the bed!