Adventures in Avyrith

"Uncovering the past"

     "You really need to get back to your old job." Said Skyler, twirling her medium length hair around her finger. Random, I know, but the color of her hair reminded me of dark chocolate. "I can tell when something's not right with you Alexandria." When Skyler uses my whole name, I know she's serious. "You miss it, I know. It's not going to do you any good to sit around feeling sorry for your self, and brooding over your loss. You need to prove yourself to Dr. Namsith, show him you can do your job." I pushed a string bean around my plate lazily with my fork, before spearing it, and feeding it into my mouth. "Come on." She nagged me. "Please?"
"I told you it wasn't happening." I said firmly. She held up my fedora hat. Man, she knew me all to well. I took the hat from her, and set it on my lap, I felt alive again, like nothing could stop me.
"Also, while your at it, do yourself a favor, and never wear that dress again." She said.
•••
Helping my mom clean her attic was not in my plans, but I made room for it. I always made room in my schedule for my mom because we became quite close after my father didn't return from an adventure. Also, attics were not my thing. I may have a tad bit of OCD, so that attic was a nightmare. It was dusty, there were cobwebs in every corner, and spiders. Spiders. I hated spiders. With their eight, long, hairy legs, and their eight beady eyes that seemed to stare into your soul. Also, the fact that they were venomous was enough to keep me away. Venturing into that creepy, spider infested attic was definitely not on my bucket list, but after we got the boxes down, I was good. I began by sifting through the usual attic goods. An old chest full of old clothes. Nothing that noteworthy, just clothes. Then I moved on to a more mysterious box, which my mom had no idea what was in there, but once she saw it was records, she knew. Having nothing left, I decided to grab the box labeled "photos" against my better judgement, because I knew that this would be painful. The first few on the top had been carefully preserved in frames, yet were covered in a thick layer of dust, like everything else. I dragged my fingers over the dusty surface to try to clear some of it off, but the dust stay firmly stuck to the frame. Only a fine layer adhered to my fingers. I wiped them off on my jeans, and set the frames aside. Underneath was a less dusty picture, depicting me, my dad, my mom, and a strange red haired boy. I starred at the photo, trying to make sense of who this person was. He looked extremely familiar, and looked more like my mom, whereas I looked more like my dad.
"Hey mom." I finally asked.
"Yes?" She answered.
"Who's this?" I held up the photograph and pointed at the kid.
"That's Nathaniel, your brother." She said, as if stating a common fact.