Shipped to Alabama

Shipped to Alabama 9

By 9:45 the next morning, I had eaten breakfast, worked-out, and organized everything on my new kitchen table.

There was a knock on the door. Ty was standing on my porch.

"Hello," I said.

"Hey," he replied with a smile. "Are you busy?"

"Maybe," I answered. I wanted to work on my investigation, but if Ty has something fun to do, I don't mind waiting.

"Maybe?"

"Why? What's up?"

"Just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out," he answered.

I looked behind me and down the hallway. I could see part of one of my new chairs; and a paper had fallen onto the floor.

Before I could answer Ty, he said, "If you're busy, that's fine. We can hang out some other time."

"I do want to hang out. And do have something to work on," I replied.

"I could help, if you don't mind."

"Alright."

Ty came in the house. As I was locking the front door I heard Ty gasp. I turned around.

"Excuse the mess," I said.

"It's not the mess," he said, "you finally got a table, Sugar."

I pushed his shoulder playfully, "Oh shut up, Ty."

"Fine," he said. "What do you need help with?"

I pointed to the papers and boxes on my table, "I need help figuring out if my relatives owned this house. I want to know if the people labeled on those folders are my aunts and uncles. If so, why was I never told about them."

"Where'd you get all this stuff?" Ty asked.

"The attic."

"Wow," he said, "I guess we should start now."

We sat down. I set some papers in front of Ty and some in front of me.

"You can look through those, if you see something interesting then let me know," I said.

"Will do."

"When we first met you had said that this house hasn't been used in eight years; do you remember who lived here?" I asked.

"No, I don't remember; sorry."

I sighed.

"My mom probably knows. I'll ask her," he said. Ty sent his mom a text. It took a few minutes for her to reply. "George and Meredith Dean," Ty informed me. 

I searched through the folders and stopped at Meredith. Her name was listed as Meredith Cone before she married.

After staring at the phone number listed and debating if its an old number or not, I picked up my phone and called.

"Hello?" I heard a smooth female voice say.

"Uh....hey," I finally said. "Um, can I speak to Meredith Cone? Sorry, I meant Meredith Dean." I squeezed my eyes shut. I was nervous and you could tell.

I felt Ty grab my hand and I wrapped my fingers around his.

"This is she. May I ask who is calling?"

"Sugar Parker," I answered. "I-I was wanting to know if we were related. I'm living at 122 Novelty Lane now. I found folders in the attic that led me to believe that we're related."

"Wow," she said. Then it was quiet for a bit; I could hear background noise, so I know she was still there.

"Ma'am?"