text: When I returned home from the funeral service for my wife, I took her ashes which were in a lovely urn and placed them on the mantel over the fireplace. My daughter Kelly and her husband were there, and various mourners dropped off food. I would not need to cook for several weeks. I started to recollect the life that my wife and I had together. I met Christine at college. I was a little older because I had been in the war and the GI bill allowed me to go to school. We fell in love instantly and were inseparable. She wanted to get married right away, but I didn’t have the money to start a family. Christine’s mother gave us some old Roman coins she found in a closet, and we sold them to raise the money for a small house and to start our marriage. At the reception, my father in law called me aside and said, “The women in our family always take care of their men. You're going to be very happy. However, there's one thing you'll have to get used too. They are clean freaks. They constantly put things away, and often you’ll never see those items again.” That’s how my marriage to Christine was. If I left anything out, it would disappear. If I asked if she had seen the missing item, she would say, “Oh I put it away.” If I stopped a project before finishing it, I had to put everything away, or it would disappear. Sometimes this worked in my favor. I had a favorite beer stein that I had brought home from Germany. One day I dropped it, and it broke. Christine quickly cleaned up the pieces and put them away. The next evening, she smiled and gave me a beer in the stein which was now miraculously fixed. She said, “There was a duplicate in my mother’s closet.” Christine loved the small Wisconsin town where she grew up. I got a job as a history teacher in the local high school. I was worried about making it on the small salary, but Christine found an old painting in her mother's attic. It was a missing Rembrandt, and it brought in more than enough for us to live on for the rest of our lives. When our daughter Kelly turned thirteen, my wife taught her how to put things away. Suddenly I was living with two women who could make things disappear. Now that Christine was gone, I went through a period of depression. I didn't want to care for a big old house. Soon I agreed with my daughter that She and her husband would take the home over, and I would move into a condo. However, first, there was one more thing on my bucket list. I wanted to find the secret spot where my wife had been putting things away for 55 years. I had a dumpster placed into the driveway and began filling it with old items that I cleaned out of the house. Kelly volunteered to help me, which was fortunate because at my age I tired quickly. One day I noticed that the urn with my wife’s ashes was gone, but Kelly said, “Don’t worry, I put it away.” Finally, I was in the basement going through things and deciding what to throw out. I had the aches and pains of old age, with pain shooting down my left arm. Feeling nauseated, I decided to sit down in an old chair. As I sat, I looked at the basement wall and noticed a door that I had never seen before. Saying to myself, “That’s it! That’s the closest!” Invigorated by the discovery, I stood up and opened the door. Stepping through the doorway, I saw an unbelievable sight. Diffuse white light came down from the ceiling illuminating the room. An aisleway stretched into the distance, with tall shelving units on both sides. About four blocks away, a boxcar sat. I started down the aisle, and to my right, I saw a slide rule sticking out of a box. It was my slide rule from college! Attracted to this shelving unit, I started to take in the scene of stacks of objects I hadn’t seen in thirty years. A noise behind me caused me to turn around. Christine was standing there. Not the old Christine, who had been ravaged by cancer, but a young Christine. She said, “I’ve been expecting you!” I replied, “Christine! You look sixteen! How is this possible?” Christine handed me a mirror, and in it, I could see myself in my old dress uniform. I hadn't been able to wear it for fifty years, but I was thin again, with thick brown hair. Christine spoke, "You were always a handsome, sexy soldier. Do you remember the four-poster bed from our honeymoon? It's here; I put it away." I blurted out, “Christine what is happening?” She took my hand and led me to one of the shelving units. There I saw the urn with my wife’s ashes. Another urn sat beside it. Startled, I turned to Christine. Christine spoke, "Kelly put my urn away here. The women of my family have been using this closet for generations. When a girl turns thirteen, we take her here and show her the family storage closet. When things are put away here, the closet restores like new! We don’t know how many generations this has been going on, but there’s a lady here who wears furs and is keeping shelves full of stone tools. She doesn’t speak English, so I can’t talk to her, but she did give me some stew. I think it was mastodon meat.” Looking at the shelf with the urns I pointed to the urn next to Christine’s. “Who is that?” Christine replied, “That’s you, dear. You had a massive heart attack while cleaning the basement of our home. After the funeral, Kelly put your ashes next to mine. With your interest in history, you’re going to very happy here. In the harbor, Blackbeard is restoring Queen Anne’s Revenge, and he has his treasure on board. Amelia Earhart gives rides on her Lockheed Electra at the airport. We have the original copy of the Gettysburg address and papyrus drawings to the lost pyramid.” Christine then embraced me, pressing her breasts into my chest. She said, “You have eternity to explore this closet. First, let’s check out that four-poster bed.