Simple Writes discussion

It took much longer than Amarantha had been expecting to get ahold of someone to help them with records.

For one thing, they wanted some form of identification, which was impossible since she never left the cabin. She had no form of identification. As far as the law was concerned, she didn't even exist. There was all sorts of what Adrian called red tape for them to wade through after they managed to convince the officials that Amarantha was who she said she was, and by then both teenagers were hungry. But they soldiered on (another of Adrian's phrases) and eventually had a crisp birth certificate and Social Security card planted in front of them.

"Your mother didn't want them," said the official, a tall man who had introduced himself as Christian Blakely. "So we kept ahold of them. You can keep them now, I guess." He shrugged; apparently Adrian and Amarantha had gotten lucky that he was the one helping them.

Amarantha nodded, giving the man an even, slightly demanding, look until he gulped and said, "All right, well... I'll leave you to it." He backed out of the room, leaving Amarantha and Adrian alone.

Amarantha stared at the birth certificate, placed face-down on a table in front of her. The Social Security card in her hand read Amarantha Lee Coleman in neat, if faded, letters. The numbers printed underneath meant nothing to her, but she put the card in her pocket anyway, thinking it might be important.

Adrian nudged her in the side. "You gonna look at it?" he asked, motioning towards the birth certificate. Amarantha looked up at him, then back at the certificate. Now or never, she supposed.

She flipped it over. It was nothing fancy, but it did feature her whole name again, Amarantha Lee Coleman, and the name of Mother: Arabelle Lee Coleman. So her middle name was after Mother. And there, printed neatly on a line labelled father's name, was the name David Lucian Coleman.

Amarantha heaved a sigh of relief, and she didn't know why. There was no reason for her to be so relieved; it wasn't like she knew anything about him besides his name. But at least she had that. At least she had a name.

It was better than the nothing she had before.

-/-/-/

Adrian insisted on taking Amarantha to what he called a "fast-food place" for dinner. Amarantha protested, saying that just that phrase made it sound disgusting, to which he had said, "It is, Ames! That's the best part!"

Amarantha did not understand him.

But she hadn't argued after that, as it seemed Adrian was determined to do what he wanted anyway, and allowed him to drive them to a place called McDonald's - which was a stupid name, if you asked her. The place wasn't very crowded, as it was early in the evening, which Adrian said she should be glad for. "The food isn't great, unless you're getting the fries," he said, "but it's cheap, and people love cheap food."

People could be rather stupid, Amarantha decided, as she stared up at the glowing menu above the heads of the workers, trying to decipher what on earth a "Big Mac" was amongst the pictures and lights, which were giving her a headache.

Adrian seemed to sense her problem, and said as they stepped up to order, "Hey, I'll just get you something small, okay? Don't want to overwhelm you."

Overwhelm me with what? Amarantha wanted to ask, but didn't dare. Adrian was already speaking to the employee, a grin on his thin face, which was bathed in the garish glow of the overhead lights. Amarantha lost track of what he had ordered quickly, not able to understand just what he was saying besides "and french fries, yeah", and stopped trying, waiting until he had paid and handed her a cup to question what on earth was going on.

"Come on, Ames, we have to get drinks." Adrian waved his own cup from side to side, leading her towards a strange-looking machine. Amarantha hung back, watching as Adrian pressed his cup - which was some odd paper material - against a sort of lever, causing ice and then a drink to come crashing into the cup.

"What do you want?" Adrian asked her, taking the cup from her when he saw that she wasn't willing to go do it herself. "Water? That's probably safest." He performed the process again, and this time perfectly clear water poured into the cup, instead of the odd brown liquid in his own. He handed the cup back to her, and led her to a barely-clean-looking table tucked into a corner. "Food'll be here in a minute," he said, leaning down to sip at his drink through a long plastic straw. Amarantha was familiar with those, at least, she had had lunch with Mother at a restaurant where those were used back in Coal Ridge.

Conversation was silent for a while, as Amarantha took sips of her drink and looked around the restaurant curiously. She knew her father's name now. She knew her own name now. It was...exhilarating. And terrifying, of course. She was one step closer to answers. But she still didn't know what to do next.

She opened her mouth, meaning to ask Adrian about what came next, when the food arrived, plunked down by a tired-looking blonde girl. "That's one Big Mac and a small chicken nuggets," she said, "Have a nice night." And she was gone as quickly as she had come.

Amarantha looked at the tray in front of her with what she knew was a confused look, before glancing up at Adrian, who had grabbed a small box off the tray, as well as a paper bag of what she guessed were fries, considering there was another for her. "Go on, take it." he said, motioning to the other small package. "I assume you're not vegetarian?"

Amarantha shook her head, mostly because she wasn't certain what a vegetarian was in the first place. It took her only a moment to open the box, revealing several small, brown, and grainy-looking...things that she supposed were meat. She glanced back up at Adrian, who by now was laughing at her. "Come on, Ames, don't you trust me."

Maybe, Amarantha thought, and picked up one of the...things. She was surprised by the taste of it. She had expected something...other. This was startling and also sort of...good. She liked it, though she would be the first to admit that it wasn't very good at all. But she ate the rest of the box quickly, and had some of the fries too, though she was soon full.

She didn't get a chance to talk to Adrian about their next move until they were in the car again. The sky was just beginning to darken, and she was rather tired, after her later-than-usual night last night. "What are we doing now?" she asked.

Adrian hummed, pulling the car to a stop at a red light. "I was thinking we could get a hotel here for the night, and then head to Florida? I mean, unless you wanna do your thing first. I just thought you might want time to think."

Amarantha nodded. That made sense to her, at least. "Do you know where to find your sister?" she asked, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.

"Yep," Adrian said, "At least, I'm pretty sure I do. Mom had the address of the people who adopted her. If they haven't moved, I'll be able to get there pretty quick."

"Shouldn't you warn them?" Amarantha shifted in her seat. Thinking about it, she would not be very pleased if a strange boy appeared at her door saying he was her daughter's twin brother. In fact, that would be kind of odd.

By Adrian's silence, he hadn't thought much about that. "I guess I should..." he mumbled. A turn of the car's steering wheel brought them into a parking lot. A sign ten feet above read Inn & Suites in big yellow letters. "I'll call once we get to their town, then. But for now," he stretched his arms behind his head before taking the key out of the ignition, "we need to get some sleep."

-/-/-/

The night passed quickly, and before she knew it, they were back on the road again. This time, Adrian was blaring what he called "road-trip music", which had a very different sound from yesterday's. When she asked, Adrian said that what he had played yesterday was usually just called rock music. This, he said, was a "whole 'nother genre altogether." Amarantha didn't like this one as much, but she could appreciate the quality of it, and took pleasure in watching Adrian belt out the lyrics off-key and far too loudly. She almost wished she had a camera of sorts so she could preserve this.

It amazed her how quickly she had become friends with Adrian. By all rights, she should have avoided him at all costs. But here she was, sitting in a car, laughing at his antics. She'd never had friends before, and decided she liked it. It was nice, having someone besides Mother, who didn't really take what Amarantha said seriously anyway. Adrian did. Adrian liked her, or at least, he didn't show signs of disliking her. And that was enough for her.

They breezed through states like they were the pages of one of Amarantha's books. She spent most of the time looking out the window and watching the scenery pass by. They were still in the mountains, stretching up to the sky like hands reaching for gifts from heaven. Later, though, it turned to forest, trees lining the road in narrow lines. They stopped for lunch at another fast-food restaurant, then were back on the road again. According to Adrian, they would stop for the night in South Carolina, then get to Florida the next day.

Amarantha liked this, even though the seat became uncomfortable after only an hour. Just driving, with music blaring through the speakers, having a destination but able to take their time getting there - it was nice. She felt at peace.

-/-/-/

Adrian chose a hotel for the night based on one thing: "They have a business center, which means computers, which means we can Google your dad." Amarantha understood none of it.

But, when he dragged her downstairs after they'd dropped their things in the room, she saw part of what he meant. There was a small space set aside in the lobby with a couple of outdated-looking computers set up. Adrian led the way to one, plopping himself down in the chair before it and quickly beginning to press buttons. Amarantha was really glad she didn't have to figure that out on her own.

"What was his name again?" Adrian asked. The screen was mostly white, except for the word Google printed in big letters over a small box.

Amarantha closed her eyes, blinded by the brightness of the screen. "Um, David Coleman." she said, and didn't open her eyes when she heard the clicking of the keys.

"Wow." Adrian said after a second.

Amarantha cracked open one eye. "What is it?"

Adrian turned to look up at her. "Apparently, David Coleman is a very common name." Amarantha groaned. It would not be easy to figure out which one they needed, if it was common. Adrian was quick to reassure her. "But, but, we can take out the ones who are obviously too young, and the ones who don't look like you. And the ones that aren't American. That leaves a way smaller number."

Amarantha glared at him. "Still a large one, though. Why don't you try Mother's name, too, and see what happens?"

"Why didn't I think of that?" Adrian mumbled, quickly typing Mother's name into the search box. "Aha!" he said after a moment. He clicked on a page, and a picture of Mother standing next to a blond man, both looking happy, appeared on the screen. "Here we go. A marriage announcement."

The document told them nothing really important, but it did provide them with a picture of her father to look for. With that in mind, they returned to the search, though most of the actual looking was done by Adrian. Amarantha couldn't stand to look at the screen for long.

It took a long time — two hours, five minutes, to be exact — but finally the got something. "Ames, look." Adrian said, pointing. "He's in Washington. State, not D.C. That's across the country." He looked up at Amarantha. "That's a lot of driving."

Amarantha nodded absently, still reading the page he had found. Apparently, her father was an artist, and his paintings were fairly popular.

Adrian turned in the seat to look Amarantha, hovering over him, in the eye. "So, Florida then Washington?" he asked, his voice still cheerful. Amarantha nodded, not knowing how much of a choice she had with this. If Adrian's sister was the sort of person he thought she was, hopefully she wouldn't mind helping.

"Florida then Washington," she agreed as Adrian copied the address of her father's gallery onto a napkin from dinner. She was getting more tired by the second. "But now, we need to sleep."