This Totally Scary True Story About When My Aunt Died

By Theodore Kohan

In this short story, Sonia, 12 years old, travels by herself from the US, where she resides, to Chile to spend her summer vacation (it's winter in Chile, though) with her grandparents. She's looking forward to having a great time, but is confronted with the stark reality that one of her aunts is dying.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Theodore Kohan
• Release date: Dec 9, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458041258

Theodore Kohan

Born and raised in Santiago, Chile, Theodore Kohan undertook graduate studies in the United States. Following a brief residence back in Chile, he moved permanently to the United States, where he has lived most of his adult life. He and his wife currently reside in Sharon, Mass., and Boynton Beach, Fla.

Book preview

We go to the waiting area and I know Dad wants to say something, but he’s kind of unsure. Well, Sonia, he says and then he stops. It’s pretty crowded here, lots of people with lots of duffle bags and suitcases and winter jackets and overcoats, all piled up on the aisles, and I hear a lot more Spanish than English. Well, Dad says again, remember everything we’ve— Dad, stop worrying, I cut him off and then I feel bad about it, but we’ve gone over it a thousand times: be alert, don’t talk to strangers, ask the airline personnel for help if you have any problem… I’ll be okay, Dad, I’ll be so okay.

They stay with me until the last possible moment, and just before I get to the ticket person at the gate Dad gives me a quick, nervous hug. Mom is more relaxed about it, she’s always more relaxed than Dad, less of a worrier. She gives me a good, long hug and pulls my hair away from my eyes and kisses me on the cheek.

I have an aisle seat, which is a good thing in case I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. You have to climb over people when you have a window seat and I hate that, there is so little room between rows. A chubby but nice-looking woman sits next to me in the center seat. She’s wearing too much perfume and the smell of it grosses me out, but otherwise she’s nicely dressed and seems pretty friendly. Hi, she says and looks around, maybe to see who I’m traveling with, like wondering why I’m by myself in this row, then she takes the airline magazine out of the seat pocket and opens it sort of in the middle, so I do the same, although I brought The Diary of Anne Frank with me to read. The woman doesn’t really seem interested in the magazine, though, and flips pages back and forth and finally she closes it but she holds it in her hands. Are you traveling by yourself? she asks me, and I don’t know if I should answer or not, she is a stranger, after all, but what am I going to do, traveling all night next to her, just keep quiet and pretend she doesn’t exist? So I say, yes, I’m going to visit my grandparents, and we have a nice conversation. She tells me she has a son and a daughter, but older than me, she’s a grandmother, actually, which totally surprises me because she doesn’t look old enough to be a grandmother. Her daughter married a Chilean and they live in Chile now,