Chapter 2

Early the next morning, the nurse had only just removed the IV from the back of my hand when another of my cousins, Lana Carroll, arrived. She brought a carton of milk with her.

I glanced at the expiration date and saw that it was expiring in just eight days.

"How are you feeling, Aiden?" she asked.

"Not too bad," I replied.

She placed the milk on my bedside table, sat down, and exchanged a few pleasantries with me. She talked about the weather, her son's temper, and the hospital elevators being far too slow.

Then, she changed the subject. "Aiden, there's something I need to discuss with you."

Finally, she was getting to the main point of her visit today.

"About the 180 thousand dollars you lent to Larry…"

Larry was her younger brother, also the one who posted that RIP story about me yesterday.

"What about him?" I asked.

"He's having quite a tough time right now. He just welcomed his second child to the family, and his mortgage is a huge burden on his shoulders too.

"But looking at your situation now…"

She hesitated for a while.

"It's not like you have anywhere else to spend your money anyway, right? Maybe you should just forget about the debt."

I looked at her face. "Did he ask you to tell me this? Or are you the one speaking on his behalf?"

"It doesn't make a difference, does it?" she asked with a smile. "You're going to…"

She didn't finish her sentence, but she had already made herself very clear. She was trying to say that there was no point for me to be so stubborn about the money since I was going to die anyway.

I took out my phone and showed her a photo. It was an IOU slip that Larry had written in his own writing, and he'd also signed the paper and stamped his thumbprint on it to show his sincerity back then.

It was all recorded down in black and white.

"I, Larry Carroll, have borrowed 180 thousand dollars from Aiden Carroll on this date, and it is to be repaid in full within the next five years."

It was already the seventh year since the date on the IOU slip, and yet, I still never saw a single cent from him.

The smile froze on Lana's face.

"Lana, I might have been diligent in asking him for my money back, but what is owed is still there."

She got to her feet, her mouth twitching as she said, "Uh… I suddenly have something that I need to take care of…"

Then, she left the room, taking the carton of milk with her.

I opened my photo gallery and added a footnote to the photo of the milk.

"Lana Carroll tried to renege on Larry Carroll's 180-thousand-dollar debt on his behalf. Her reason was that I didn't have anywhere else to spend my money anyway. She brought a carton of near-expiry milk for me but took it back with her when she left."

I'd only just finished typing out my notes when my phone rang. It was a call from my uncle, James Davidson.

"Aiden? I heard that you were hospitalized."

"Yeah."

He didn't ask me what I was sick with. He also didn't ask if I was hurting anywhere. Instead, he asked, "About your Tesla… Has the loan been completely paid off?"

"I bought it with cash."

There were a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone. Then, he said, "That's good to hear. I'd have thought of a way to help you if the loans hadn't been paid off yet. I won't let the bank take it away."

I didn't speak and waited for him to continue. And just as I expected, he spoke again after a couple of seconds, saying, "By the way, Colin is graduating next year, and he's going to need a car to go to work after that. Since you're not going to… Your car…"

Colin Davidson was his son and another one of my cousins. Uncle James, too, was speaking to me using the same phrasing Lana used on me just moments earlier.

"The nurse is here, Uncle James. We'll talk later."

I then hung up on him, making sure to save the recording and even took a screenshot of the call log to save in my photo album. I wrote in the footnotes, "Uncle James inquired about my Tesla car loan and implied that I should leave the car for Colin."

Later that afternoon, Aunt Jessica arrived. She brought with her a thermos of chicken noodle soup that she made herself.

She opened the lid, and the entire room was filled with the delicious aroma at once. However, she didn't give it to me. Instead, she took out her phone and put it on my bedside table with the screen side up.

I glanced at the phone and saw that she was recording our conversation.

"I'm going to have to say some upsetting things to you, Aiden."

"Go ahead, Aunt Jessica."

"With your condition like this, you're going to have to make earlier arrangements for your funeral and asset divisions," she said in a low voice. "And that includes the stuff in your home office, the laptops and computers at home, and the something-coins—"

"Bitcoins?"

"Yes, Bitcoins. Those things that your parents and the rest of the villagers will never understand," Aunt Jessica said. "I'll help you settle them by liquidating them and selling them off. I'll then keep the money for you, and Austin can take them when he needs them later."

After saying that, she patted me on the back of my hand, as though she were the one telling me about making her posthumous arrangements.

"I'll think about it, Aunt Jessica," I said.

Her smile dropped.

"Fine. You can think about it. I won't force you into anything."

She left the chicken noodle soup for me.

I took a photo of her soup and wrote down in my footnotes once again.

"Aunt Jessica visited me with chicken noodle soup and recorded our entire conversation. Offered to liquidate my tech items and Bitcoins. The reason given was to hold on to the money until Austin needed them."

That night, I received a voice message from another aunt of mine, Sandy Carroll. I actually received three voice messages from her, and none of them were longer than five seconds each.

There was only one thing she was concerned about.

"Aiden, Ivan is going to college next year, and he's studying computer science.

"Since you won't be using your top-of-the-line Alienware laptop at the hospital, I'll be taking it for him instead.

"I'll drop by tomorrow to pick it up."

Ivan Sterling was her son. And she'd said it so matter-of-factly as though she were notifying me about her taking my laptop instead of asking me about it.

I replied, "We'll see."

I then unlocked my phone, went into the photo gallery, and saved the screenshot of the voice message tran into it.

There were four new photos and four new footnotes today—the 180 thousand dollars, the Tesla, the Bitcoins, and the Alienware laptop.

Everyone who came was coveting my things and had already arranged to take them all away from me. They were even more "thoughtful" than I could ever have thought for myself.

My phone lit up with a new text message once again. This time, it was from Ruth Snider, another one of my aunts.

"Aiden? I'll be coming to visit you at the hospital tomorrow. There's something I need to discuss with you."

I replied, "Okay."

It seemed like tomorrow was going to be another day full of new performances again.