Miya shrieked as a cockroach scrambled over her foot. With all the screaming she was doing, she hoped her neighbors didn't think she was being murdered and called her dad.
Not when she was finally trusted enough to stay home alone. Her birthday had been yesterday. Now that she was officially twelve, Miya had managed to convince her dad to leave her alone for a couple of hours at last. Of course, it took a lot of convincing, buying even more locks for the doors, and a few bribes.
Which was why Miya was in the attic, screaming at cockroaches.
She'd struck a deal with her dad. She would clean up the attic, and, in return, she wouldn't have to go with her dad to whatever work he was doing.
Miya's dad was a translator. Living in a relatively empty area, Miya didn't understand how he managed to find so much work, but he went to work every day. He would sometimes find some random jobs, like working with a company to translate interviews, work like that. Sometimes he went on a few business trips, translating some Hindi or Spanish or something like that. When he went on those trips, he actually hired a whole crew of people to take "shifts" watching Miya. Full-time babysitters.
Miya sort of understood why her dad was so protective. Her mom had died four years ago. They had no other family. Miya was all he had left.
Still, she shouldn't have to suffer through this in order to be alone for a few hours.
Honestly, why were there so many bugs in their attic? Spiders, cockroaches, stink bugs, and who knows what else! All that was in their attic was a bunch of old dishes, rags, textbooks, and stuff like that. So why did Miya have to clean up? Because she made the deal! She thought the attic was a space to store things you didn't want to see for the rest of your life but didn't want to throw away either.
Miya's dad hadn't specified how he wanted the attic to be arranged. But everything looked sort of scattered around and jumbled together, so Miya thought separating the items into piles would be a good start.
It was going to be a long day.
YOU ARE READING
Dead and Departed
Historical FictionBrought together by mysterious circumstances, a widow named Charlotte Thatcher and a teen named Miya fight to uncover the truth. Charlotte Thatcher had been happy, until her husband and daughter died. Miya was a regular 12 year old who struggled in...
