Natalia tucked a lock of chestnut hair behind her ear.
“But I was kind of thinking about getting a job for the summer to earn some spending money. A girl can never have enough clothes, you know. And there’s this Louis Vuitton bag that I’ve been drooling over.”
Natalia’s father, Dimitri, frowned in disapproval. “You have a mountain of clothes piled up in your closet because you have too many to hang up already! And you know how I feel about those ridiculously expensive designer handbags…”
“Oh, dad,” Natalia sassed. “I can’t help it, I’m a teenage girl. You know how these things are.”
Dimitri rolled his eyes. “Yes, I do… Yes, I most certainly do.”
“Your babushka and dedushka need your help this summer. They’re getting older and they’re ready to leave Illinois and move to Arizona. The heat is good for their joints. They have a ton of stuff in that old house, and they’re going to need help sorting through it, having garage sales, and cleaning. I can’t go all the way to Carbondale from Chicago every weekend. You know how busy I am at the firm. I really need you to do this for me, hun. For them.”
“Oh all right,” replied Natalia. “Guilt trip, much? It’s a good thing you’re paying my tuition, dad, or you would so owe me.”
Dimitri smiled and hugged his daughter.
***
That Saturday, the two drove down I-57 to Carbondale, Natalia bombarding her father with one Taylor Swift song after another for the entire journey. They arrived on Saturday afternoon.
Babushka and Dedushka greeted them warmly, catching up with each other before having a delicious dinner of beef stroganoff that Babushka prepared.
The following day, Natalia saw her father off, then went back inside to discuss what needed to be done with her grandparents.
Copyright 2000 - 2025 21 x 20 Media All rights reserved. This site is property of 21 x 20 Media
All Writing.Com images are copyrighted and may not be copied / modified in any way. All other brand names & trademarks are owned by their respective companies.
Generated in 0.08 seconds at 5:19am on Jan 07, 2025 via server WEBX1.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author