The Voice

The Search

                                                       T h e   S e a r c h

I put the clothes I had in my arms back on the rack I'd grabbed them from and walked into the back room. Callum disappeared as I grabbed my coat and purse and headed back out into the store. Jayma was talking to a customer and she gave me a questioning look. 'Where are you going?' She mouthed to me. I waved her off and headed for the front door.

"Moira, where do you think you're going?" Mel's voice rang out. I turned back to glance at her. She looked mad. "Your shift is nowhere near over." She said.

"Sorry, family emergency!" I called to her, pushing the door open. The bell dinged and my feet met the sidewalk.

"What kind of emergency?" Mel yelled out the door.

"The cat died!" I shouted to her, not bothering to turn around. Callum reappeared beside me, laughing. "What?" I asked sharply.

"That was rash." He said. "You could have at least waited to come up with a better excuse than a dead cat." The laughter hadn't faded from his voice and I threw my head back with a groan. He was right. And Mel would probably fire me now.

"I have to go back." I said, turning around. Callum moved to stand in front of me, trying to block my path. I started to walk around him, but noticed that the other people on the sidewalk were looking at me like I was crazy. I probably looked crazy if Callum was right and I was the only one who could see him. I lowered my voice and looked up at him. "Mel's going to fire me unless I go back now and beg for her forgiveness."

"No, no, no." Callum said. "You're out of there now, let’s just go."

"Cal, I need my job." I said. He looked momentarily shocked by my calling him Cal, but recovered quickly.

"Plead temporary insanity." He said.

"People don't consider that a real problem, just a poor excuse." I said with a laugh.

"Please, Moira?" He asked. "Go with the dead cat thing. Say your favorite cat died and you just lost it for a bit." He looked so desperate; I didn't have the heart to say no. I threw my hands up in defeat.

"Fine." I said. "Let's find your daughter."

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I was happily surprised to find the local library to be practically empty. There were only a few people but they looked completely engrossed with what they were doing. I sat at a computer that was far away from them, and opened a web browser. As I typed 'Siobhan O'Brien' into Google, I looked over at Callum and grinned.

I'd explained on the way over that technology had advanced since his time, which he'd told me was 1982. I looked down at the first page of results and let out a sigh when I saw that there were 7,190,000 results. I stood and walked over to Callum, who was leaning against a bookshelf.

"Is there anything about her that you know?" I asked. Then I mentally scolded myself for asking such a stupid question. He was her father, of course he knew about her. "I mean anything, like, personal?" Callum shrugged.

"Her middle name is Rose, she was born in '76, she's brunette, has dark brown eyes." He said, letting out a quick chuckle. "She's only seven in my mind; I have no idea what she'd be doing with her life. She changes her dream job every day, but she could do anything she wants, you know?" His eyes grew misty and he clenched his jaw. "If they stayed here after I...” His voice trailed off and a few moments passed. "She probably still lives in this area." He said finally. I reached out to put my hand on his shoulder, before I remembered he wasn't really there. My arm fell through the air awkwardly and I smiled at him.