Ell Sadem

SIX: DETECTIVES

AN/ you know what's annoying about copying this story onto here? I change things. This scene belonged in the last chapter, but I didn't want to add another paragraph break and figured it'd be better as a chapter itself and now it's not even the same scene. Good thing though cuz I was going to have to change it at some point anyway.

It feels strange not running to get ready, normally I only have enough time to roll out of bed, grab a quick shower, and a change of clothes before running out the door. It's oddly peaceful? No, just odd, like parallel universe-type odd. On my way downstairs I pass the guest room and take a quick look inside to check for my bookbag, but unsurprisingly only the duffle Uncle Nate left who knows how long ago sits anywhere in sight. Not sure why I even bothered, I don't think I came in here last night.

I stop at the bottom of the stairs, hand resting on the rail. Where could it be? The stupid thing has all this week's homework in it and if I don't get that stuff turned in... Did I have it when I came home? I think I did. Maybe. I trek the short entryway to the front door and turn facing in, but I didn't come in the front. I never use the front.

Man, I'm screwed.

The smell of coffee lures me back to the kitchen where I heard Mom working earlier and I go straight to the coffee pot. What are the chances it's in the alley behind Pop's?

Mom glances over her shoulder when I open the fridge for the cream, goes back to what she was chopping, and then whips her head around with wide eyes. "You're up?" her face goes from surprise to concern in little more than a second, rank orange.

"Yep," I set the cream on the counter and go for a spoon. "I didn't sleep too well last night and the smell of coffee woke me up."

"I'm sorry, Honey." She empties the vegetables into the frying pan moving to the fridge. "Do you want a little breakfast with that?"

Do I want breakfast? This is so weird. It feels wrong. "I guess, yeah." I straddle a kitchen chair and rest my chin on the backrest. "Have you seen my book bag? I put it down yesterday and I don't remember where."

"Weren't you reading in the guestroom last night?"

I definitely was not. I was getting shot at last night. "Um, no. I was doing homework... In my room."

"Must have been one of your dad's brothers then." Mom sort of laughs with a wave of the hand.

Except the only brother he's on speaking terms with is Uncle Nate and we've not seen him in years. He doesn't just drop in and not say anything to any of us anyway, he's not that rude. When was the last time he was around anyway?

Oh... Right... The threats. I shift; he hadn't known I was adopted until then, and the only reason he found out was because Dad thought maybe it was because of my birth parents. So many problems seem to go back to them and I don't even know why. "So, uh, Momma."

She hums softly, her back to me. "Yes?"

Hesitation keeps me quiet for a minute as I gather my thoughts, mustering whatever nerve I have. "Do you," I rub the back of my head, tangling my fingers in my hair. "Do you happen to know if Uncle Nate ever found anything about my birth parents?"

She stops dead in her tracks setting the spatula down and faces me, her delicate brows drawn together. "Honey, the Home didn't have your birth certificate, they just found you one day sitting on their stairs. And it was so long ago..." A frown pulls at her mouth, "There wasn't much of a trail for him to follow. There was something down south, but it didn't pan out."

Down south? Like with the Confederation or Aztecca? Am I even a citizen? There are pale Aztecs, right, like because of the Austrian colonies?

Mom laughs, and a fond smile lights her pale blue eyes. "Hon, relax. It didn't pan out, the Texans aren't going to come looking for you."