Finding Faye

My heart is heavy as I drive.

Nothing in my life has ever made me this unsure of myself.

But I guess, until now, nothing wrong ever happened in my life.

I don't know who I am anymore.

"Mom!" I scream at the top of my lungs. "Dad!" I run down the stairs to where they are in the living room. They are watching TV. With alarm from my screams they turn to me.

"What's wrong Lyra?" My dad asks with concern. "Are you okay honey?"

I have the picture in my hand and I hold it up so they both can see it.

"Who are these people?!"

My moms eyes are wide. I watch her hesitate as she tries to find the words to say. "Well, those... those people are your... our best fri-"

"The back." I say. I turn the picture around. "The back says Williams. The picture says my last name is Williams. There can't be a reasonable explanation. My last name is supposed to be Franklin!"

I watch as my mother tries to speak again.

"And why do I look just like them!" I was pacing now. "I don't look like either of you. Blonde hair, blue eyes. I have brown hair and dark eyes. That doesn't even make sense."

"Honey. Please, just listen to us." my dad pleads.

I throw the picture at them. "Where is my birth certificate? The one I got from the hospital?! I want it...now."

My head was spinning and my heart was racing. I don't understand what is happening but my body is heavy with the feeling of betrayal.

I sit down in the chair furthest from my parents as my mom leaves the room with tears in her eyes.

My dad has shame on his face and he just sits still.

"Please, just be reasonable, Lyra. You have to understand why."

"Why you lied to me for seventeen years? I didn't deserve the truth? And don't say I was too young."

My mom comes back in the room with a box in her hands. Without saying anything she hands me the box and I open it. I realize why I had no baby pictures. They were all here. Meaning, there was never a house fire. These are pictures of me and those people again, a little boy who looks just like the man.

I move the pictures out of my way and I find my birth certificate and another article.

Lyra Grace Williams.

Born to Shawn James Williams and Faye Grace Williams.

Underneath is a adoption paper.

Lyra Grace Williams

Adopted by Olivia Jean Franklin and Reece Arthur Franklin.

"Awesome. I was adopted and nobody said a fucking thing."

My mom who was crying even more now says "Lyra, please, watch your mouth."

"My whole life has been a lie! Why should I watch my mouth? Give me a good reason."

My dad gets up and walks over to me. "Lyra, hear us out. We have an explanation. You'll understand if you listen. We raised you. You can trust us. This is just one little thing. We are your parents because we raised you. None of that matters."

I put everything back in the box carefully and stand up. "You raised me but you still lied.This matters. I have a family I never knew about and I have answers I need! I need to see them!"

"No, Lyra, you don't. You're seventeen. Why can't you except it, and leave it at that?" My mom asks.

"Because, now I don't know who I am anymore. I've been living a lie. Thinking I'm a Franklin. Thinking I belong here."

They try to speak again but I'm not having it. "Give me their address. Their state. I am going to find them."

My mom comes over to me and grabs my arm. "You're not going anywhere! You are too young!"

I shrug her off me. "I am going where I want."

"No, No!" She yells.

My dad moves to the coffee table and writes some stuff down on a piece of paper. He brings it to me.

My mom tries to snatch it from his hands but can't. I already have it in my back pocket. "Just let her go."

"I can't! She's going to get hurt!"

"Olivia. Please."

My dad also hands me something else. A credit card. "Please just take this and be careful, Lyra."

It surprises me that my dad is just letting me go. But I take it and stuff it in my back pocket. Before I leave I grab a few personal items and hurriedly leave before my mom is able to stop me. My mom screams out the door.

"You aren't going to like what you find. Please come back!" I hear her sob louder and I get into my car and turn up the radio so I don't hear her cries because they make my heart break.

I start driving and don't stop. I don't say goodbye to anyone. They owe me nothing.

I don't say goodbye to my boyfriend, best friend, or my siblings. It makes me feel awful but I don't feel any sympathy because I feel like they all knew.

I look down at the address on the paper my dad gave me. He scrawled an address down and some little directions. They live all the way in California while we live in little North Carolina. I have a long way to go.

I also start to cry as I see that he scribbled a little "I love you, be safe. -dad"



As I remember the previous day, my eyes start to tear up and I cry once again. I find a little hotel and use it to sleep for the night. It's going to be a long drive.