𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙀𝙙𝙜𝙚 // 𝑺𝒊𝒅 𝑽𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝟒

"Well, this past two weeks has gone to shit" Althea said obviously frustrated as she stood up and stretched.

"Ah I'm sorry. I just can't believe you lost both of them??" Patricia popped her head out of the pile of tuff and boxes in the cramped room.

"Yeah, seriously, what the hell are the chances that my grand uncle dies from a car accident one week" she shook her head.

Patricia held up her hand. "Wait which grand uncle?? First or second?"

"Third I believe" Althea says, Patricia was only aware of the first or second as she remembered a couple of pictures of family members were hung around Althea's house.

"But my grand aunt dies eating some food at some restaurant, goes into severe allergic reaction, later the shrimp is lodged in her trachea"

"She was allergic? and she ate it? still?"

"well, she apparently didn't know it had that piece in it probably came from another dish" she shrugged, still in disbelief.

"was she nice? Never really heard you talk about her?" Patricia asked curious about one of the many, many family members of Althea's she hadn't met.

She rested her index finger on her chin as she tried to remember memories of her.

There was silence as althea was looking back in her head as she hadn't seen her grand aunt for a long time. "Not too much. you know how big my family is, she use to babysit me when I was a baby with my cousin Adia, but I don't remember a clear memory" Althea said honestly.

"Adia's seen her more than me" she said as she remembered how close Adia lived to their grand aunt.

"so what's happening now?"patricia asked peaking her head above the stacked boxes she was organizing out of.

"my uncle Herman and aunt Henrietta are executors of my grand aunt and uncles estate. apparently, they left the property for us, me and my cousin Adia."

"Adia's been there too many times growing up and she said she recently visited but she's in school now so it's just you and me going on a road trip girlie" She bounced up on her feet to stick small bows on Patricia's ponytail before heading back to her side.

"how long is the trip anyways?"

"i believe an hour or so. And don't worry I took it up with Adia and she said it's fine if we can both stay there for the summer. She might visit but don't know yet"

"oh ok" a thumbs up peeked over the stacked boxes. "How old is she by the way?"

"oh she's 18 no wait 19. She's trying to become a vet tech and I believe she mentioned there are more opportunities at her hometown a bit far from the house, so she said she won't be able to stay at there too often" althea said as Patricia tried to listen in on the other side.

Patricia nodded as she tried to remember if Althea had mentioned her before, maybe?. Althea looked at her friend and held back a small laugh as Patricia had her hand on her chin spacing out with a strand of hair stuck in her face held by the tiny bows.

"but you said she's at New Jersey? Right? So where's the house?"

"yeah she is, but the house is in Pennsylvania, but they live somewhere in Newark..." "oh wait no they may have moved to Irvington..." Althea began mumbling as her memory was doing too well this morning,

"eh somewhere over there." She waved her hand dismissing the effort to try to remember.

"Ya know, your family really travels, don't they?"

"why do you think that?" Althea asked slightly confused

"because your family seems to be on the east coast, all scattered about in small towns or you guys travel to the west coast, like you and your mom and dad did. no one is in the middle like in Kansas or Iowa" Patricia gestured her hands left and right as she spoke while she tossed her clothes in a bag without folding it.