what made tom visit the ewells house in the first place

Tom often did odd jobs for the Ewell family. On this day Mayella asked him to look at a broken door (which was not broken) and then to get something from the top of a closet (a chiffarobe). She says, in court, that she asked him to break up the chiffarobe. She actually "came on" to Tom, but she says he raped her.