Searching

Leaving wasn’t as hard as we had originally thought it would be. Mom left early that morning to run some errands, leaving Cecilia and me at home. The original plan was to sneak out that night after we had everything together, but since we were presented the perfect opportunity to leave, we did.

After packing everything that I could possibly need, while also packing lightly, I threw my one backpack over my shoulder and turned to look at Cecilia, who had been ready for a while. “I’m ready!” I said, enthused. I was more than pumped for what was getting ready to happen. I loved the feeling of adrenaline pumping through my veins.

“Finally, it took you all of an hour. How could packing one backpack possibly take you that long?” She said, standing from her seated position.

My cheeks puffed up in defense, “I had to make sure I had everything! What if I forgot something that we really needed? I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one anyway!” I said, crossing my arms in a childlike fashion.

Cecilia let out a short laugh before shaking her head slightly. “Sometimes I wonder how we’re related.” She muttered. I smiled, throwing my arm around her shoulders and directing her towards the door. “That is exactly why we’re running away!” I said happily, guiding her out into the hall and down the stairs.

“We are not running away.” Cecilia insisted, “We’re simply going on a road trip.” She said.

I rolled my eyes, “Whatever you say Cece, way to take the fun out of it.” I said. She had insisted on calling it a road trip, even though we both knew that definitely wasn’t it.

“Oh hush,” she said with a casual eye roll, “Let’s just get out of here before Mom gets home.” She said, “You got the keys?”

“Yep!” I said, holding them up for her eyes to see, “Right here! Let’s go.” I smiled, practically skipping to the door with Cecilia on my heels. She pulled a small piece of folded paper out of her pocket and laid it on the key table before following me out.

After much debating between the two of us, we decided that leaving Mom a note was the best. That way she would know that we weren’t dead and that we would be back after we had completed our ‘mission’, as I liked to call it.

We left the small house we called our home, locking the door behind us, and practically ran to the beat up Honda sitting in the driveway. This was the car that Cecilia and I shared, yes shared. Mom didn’t have enough for two cars, she barely had enough for just one. Plus, we had the subway, so we didn’t even really drive much.

I climbed in the drivers seat, since I was surprisingly the better driver. Cecilia got nervous in the New York traffic, but I loved it. We threw our things in the back, and I started the car before backing up and setting off. Cecilia and I weren’t the smartest of people, well, at least I wasn’t. We were too focused on actually getting out of the house without being seen that we hadn’t planned ahead. Meaning, that I had no idea where we were going or what we were doing.

I drove aimlessly through the complicated New York streets for a few minutes before I decided to speak up. “So, uh, any idea on what to do next?” I asked, looking at Cecilia with questioning eyes.

“I’ve got nothing.” She answered immediately while shrugging her shoulders.

I nodded once, “That’s what I thought,” I muttered with a sigh.

I pulled over, parking on some random street before turning the car off and turning in my seat to face my twin.

“I think that maybe we should think this through a little more before continuing.” I said, earning a nod from Cecilia.

“I think that’s the best idea,” She agreed. “So, where’s the place that we will most likely get the answers we want?” She pondered, before we were both surrounded by complete silence. We were both thinking, hard, well at least I was. But, that doesn’t matter. I was drawing a blank, as always.

“I have an idea!” Cecilia suddenly yelled into the silence, causing me to jump up and almost smack my head against the roof. “What? What is it?!” I exclaimed, looking at her with wide eyes.

Cecilia ignored me and proceeded to dig into her bag until she pulled out her wallet. She then climbed out of the car and jogged over to the gas station across the street. I watched her carefully, wondering if she had lost her mind in the excitement. I watched as she walked straight to the nearest payphone and proceeded to dig into her wallet until she found what she was looking for.

By this point, I was completely confused. Who could she possibly be calling? There was no one in this world that I could possibly think of that would know who our father was. Or even know where to start looking. So, who was she calling?

I watched as my sister’s face contorted into many different emotions. Some of those being; confusion, irritancy, hopeless, and my favorite hopeful. The look on her face when she placed the phone back on it’ s hook told me that she had gotten something. Though, that something may have been nothing. Let’s just say that my sister and I have very different definitions on what helpful information is.

Cecilia hopped back into the cat and I didn’t hesitate to bomb her with questions. “What was that about? Who’d you call? What’d they say? Was it anything important? Anything we can use? Please tell me it is.” I blurted out.

Cecilia gave me a slightly odd look before answering all of my questions in order. Only her and mom were able to do that. Everyone else paused and always asked me to repeat every question slowly. It was infuriating.

“I called Dominique,”

I didn’t let her finish before screaming out “What?!” Her body jumped before saying “What? What’s wrong with that?”

Dominque was our 15 year old cousin who lived in the town my mother grew up in Germany with our Aunt Mira. I didn’t take me long to figure out that Cecelia had used our emergency phone card to call them.

“You think that our cousin, who is younger than us by two years, is going to have info on our mystery dad? Are you insane?”

She rolled her eyes, “My intention was to talk to Aunt Mira, but Dom answered the phone and Mira wasn’t there. So, I gave it a shot.” She explained.

“Well?” I asked.

“He’s in LA.” She said calmly.

“LA?! How could she possibly know that?!” I yelled. How could we trust the word of a 15 year old. Not only that, but how are we going to get there?

“How are we even going to get there?” I asked.

Cecilia sighed, “Well, to answer your first question,” she began, “Mom called Aunt Mira to talk about the fight we had the other night.” I winced at the thought. “And Dom just happened to overhear them talking about a man named Tom and that he was now living in LA.” She said.

I opened my mouth, but Cecilia quickly shut it. “To answer your second question, “ She said giving me a look that dared me to talk, “we have enough money for both of us to get a one way ticket to LA. But, only one way if we want to eat.”

“But, what if it’s a dead end?” I said, dreading the answer.

Cecilia gave me a reassuring smile, “Then we’ll just have to find a way to get money and start from scratch. We’re in this together, Lee. We’ll find him, I just know it.” She said.

I smiled, seeing my sister so confident caused my emotions to go from negative to positive in less than a few seconds. “Then let’s get to that airport!” I whooped happily, putting the car into drive, and raced off to JFK.

The pit in my stomach told me this was a bad idea, but my heart told me that I was doing the right thing. Somehow, I just knew things would turn out better in the end. I just knew.