Aunt Annabeth

He shut his laptop as the message appeared, not bothering to close his tabs or shut down his computer, for he was going to get back to it as soon as he is finished with what his dad needed him to do. As he walked across the hall, he saw his dad near the exit to the outside. He was in a suit and holding a suitcase. This when Alex knew it was too late. He was going to his mother's straight away, but at least his dad was going with him since he was wearing a suit.

"Alex, you'll be staying with your Aunt while I go on a short business trip. I know it's after such short knowledge, but it's urgent. The company had just told me of it a few hours ago, but now I need to head to the nearest bus stop to go to the company building as quick as possible. It won't be that long, about a couple of days, a week at the longest." His hands weaved the symbols as Alex weaved back.

"Why so soon? We just had a conversation like an hour ago!" Alex responded, protesting at how abrupt it was for his dad to just leave at the moment's notice.

"I'm sorry buddy, I'll try to come back as soon as possible! Aunt Annabeth will take care of you for the meanwhile," he checked his watch. "I'm sorry, I have to leave."

The door slammed behind him as he hurried out into the streets, leaving the startled Alex behind. He stared out the window and watched as his father walked down the street until he disappeared from view. He stood there a while, watching in disbelief even after his father left for minutes then. He really just left with a minute's notice. It was after a little while that someone tapped on his shoulder, causing him to turn around in shock. There was Aunt Annabeth, who smiled weakly before saying something. Or at least attempted to say something. Her mouth looked as if an unsolvable puzzle, for it remained silent throughout her whole conversation. It was straining on him to even attempt to see what she was trying to say, before giving it up altogether.

He strained his mouth to try and say, "No hear!" Which surprisingly, she was caught by his Aunt as she nodded, motioning to move to the tables. She pointed to the chair and then pointed to him, telling him to sit down. It took him a long minute before he finally realized it. It was then that he finally occupied a chair and confronted Aunt Annabeth. She had a gentle smile on her face as she pulled out a chair and also occupied it. It was strange that she was setting him aside, for there was no real reason to do so, but he felt a slight sense that this was going to be an important meeting.

"Alex, how old are you now?" Her lips began to move to produce those words, but the dialect looked like moon runes to him. Throughout the whole summer, he has not spoken or listened to a bit of speech, so it wore off on him.

It was incredibly hard, for his mouth muscles had forgotten its memories on what to say when he couldn't understand something, but he was able to muster up three words. "I can't hear you." Then he pointed to his mouth, to which he then crossed his arms to symbolize the fact that he can barely speak. And then he pointed to his ears, and then repeated what he did earlier to symbolize the fact that he couldn't hear.

Aunt Annabeth instantly shook in understanding as she nodded her head and pulled out a piece of paper. He would've preferred to use sign language with her, but it was clear to him for a while now that she does not know it and will never learn it. It would have a more efficient way of communication, but she had too much on her plate already. And after searching for a pencil on the table, there seems to always be at least one due to her forgetting to put them away, was silent for a little bit before scrambling down a couple of phrases, "I know your dad leaving might seem sudden and unexpected to you, because he told you it last minute, but I've actually known about this for a few hours, so it's not anything major. He's just going out of town to a business meeting. On another note, how old are you now?"

He took a pencil and paper from her as he wrote down a response, "16". Despite it being opposite to her, she didn't even need to take a look at it correctly before comprehending it and responding. "You're old enough now. I should tell you more about myself and your dad."

Instantly after reading that, he nodded furiously. It was what he had always wanted to know about, more about his dad. It had always been a mystery, his dad's relationship with his mother, anything history from his dad, just anything in total. Noticing Alex's enthusiastic nodding, Aunt Annebth smiled as she took the paper from him and wrote down something longer. "When I turned 16, your dad was still just 7. It's adorable seeing him when he was so young compared to his grumpy and tired self now. He was a boy that used to like spaceships, dinosaurs, and whatever little boys liked. It's kind of interesting to see how major things both happened to you guys when you were seven. And I was kind of like that, except I wasn't into all of those things. I was into acting, always watching any movies that Papa and Mama had in storage. Back when I was younger, the Soviet Union was still despised and used in propaganda films, which was why I was surprised when your dad married Belle. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, do you want to know what happened to me when I was 16?"

Her fingers moved like motions of water, fluent and fast. It was amazing seeing how much space she filled with the pencil, and after reading it, he nodded. She wrote down a short sentence as she rushed off to find something. After turning it to see the rushed sentence, he saw that it read, "Let me get something."

After mere moments, she arrived with what looked like a book. Inside were pictures of a little girl and boy, along with two adults. The pictures ran a vast amount of sceneries, over many locations. But she pointed to the first picture on a random page and then pointed to herself. This left Alex a little confused, but he nodded. It was her. He thought. And then she pointed to a picture of a boy wearing an astronaut helmet. The boy's face looked strangely familiar before he finally understood. He mustered up the muscle memory within his mouth and said, "dad?"

She nodded, then proceeded to point in a picture with all 4 of the people that filled the book. Using basic context clues of what was already present to him, he nodded and said, "Family."

She smiled once more and pointed to the tall man in the picture. All of the pictures were in black and white and incredibly worn out, so it was hard to distinguish between what was worn out paper and what was meant to be there. The tall man wore what looked to be a vest, with a giant caterpillar on his upper lip, and beneath him was the boy. That's dad and grandpa. Beside them was a woman that was incredibly tall, taller than the man standing next to him, with a girl beneath her. That's Aunt Annabeth and grandma. And after pointing at Alex's grandpa, she grabbed the paper as she wrote down something.

"My dad went out to buy cigars on the day I turned 16, and we haven't heard from him since." After rereading what she wrote, Alex turned to his aunt in disbelief. He wanted her to laugh and tell him that it was a joke, but her face was dead serious. Without meaning to, or so that was what his mind thought afterward, he leaned in onto his aunt and gave a hug. It was a long lasting one as she patted his back. Finally, she let go of him as she wrote down something else. "Mama was in shock, so shocked that she couldn't help us. She was sent to the hospital, and we still go visit her there every Saturday. But of course, it's not for Dad leaving, it's because of her illness."

She turned to see if Alex was still paying attention, and he was reading what she wrote intensely, so she decided to do something wiser. She stood up from her seat and went to pick up something, and after a short amount of time, she returned with her computer to write more efficiently. "I had to take care of your dad alone, living in an apartment that I had to pay for myself. He was still too young to work, but he was still devastated from Dad leaving. In truth, we all were. He would always look outside the window every afternoon, waiting for papa while I cleaned up the place. I never would have pursued my dream of being an actress, so I stuck to cleaning and selling the newspaper on the streets. Your dad, Peter, was a good kid. He had no issues growing up, always having a lot of friends, while I had anxiety. I could never speak up in front of the class, so I never got full credits for anything. It's quite ironic how the tables have turned, for him and myself. I started speaking more to others, and slowly my anxiety decreased, while Peter started talking to others less. But his smarts are undeniable, the boy's a genius. But he's smart yet not wise. After getting a High School diploma, he toured the world. First, it was touring entire North America, then South America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and then Europe. In Europe, he met a girl named Belle. The boy thought that he had found true love, but the boy was truly blind. He accepted to marry her after they had known each other for a decent amount of time, and then had their first child there. Ludwig was born, not too long after, you were born, and then your sister Jenny, whose middle name is based on my name. Your dad kept me updated while he was still in Russia, about you guys, Russian politics, and then whatnot. I had already gotten in more of the political side as I started getting more interested in current events, so much so that I started to consider having a lawyer profession. It was not too long after that your dad said that your mom "snapped", saying that she was acting weird and having anger issues. I was worried about your sakes, so I demanded more and more information each day. And then, it just became too overwhelming for me. I started studying law, and eventually became a lawyer like I am now. I immediately told Peter to get you away from your mom, which is why you're here with me, and I wanted to get her arrested. Abuse! That woman dares to hurt my nephews! I begged him to allow me to sue her, get a restraining order, but Peter demanded that she can be fixed, saying how he wanted you guys to have a family. I'm this close to getting her sued… but I'm listening to your father's wishes. You can say that thanks to her, I have so many other acquaintances and friends, and a whole new profession. I'm sorry that I'm not here as often as you guys would like, working as a lawyer is quite busy. Speaking of not being here, I'm leaving again quite soon for another court case. But don't worry, when I leave, your dad will be back by then."

As she finished writing, she held up her fingers and winced. They were pink, due to the fast working pace they had to be at when she was writing. But despite the pain, she smiled at Alex and leaned in. Again, there was another hug between them. Then just as abrupt as his father, she picked up her laptop and disappeared into her room. It went like wind, silent. He was left staring at where she used to be, processing all of the information that she just delivered to him; he was dumbfounded. His head hurting as he went back to his room, with his eyes burning; it was strange, for it just happened for no apparent reasons. There was no reason for his eyes or his head to hurt, it just did. At the time of his dad asking him if he had finished packing, it was late evening, but it still wasn't that late. As he got on the bed to think and relax, he forgot about his suitcases on the sofa and his laptop. Before he could remember it, however, the sleep took him. While resting his eyes and head, he fell into a deep sleep.