Year of Mistaken Discoveries (16 page)

chapter twenty-one

F
or the first time in my life I’d been glad my parents gave me the curfew of an elementary school kid. I’d tried telling them that the only seniors who had to be home by midnight on a weekend were either homeschooled religious types or those who needed special education, but they hadn’t gone for it. Last night I’d been happy to sigh dramatically and declare that I’d have to call it a night. I’d wanted to go home right after the game, but there was no way to skip out on the postgame pizza bash. The players were hyped up from the win, and a few of them were already talking about how this could be the year they went all the way to state finals. Given that we’d only played a handful of games so far, it seemed a bit of a stretch. I focused on smiling and acting like there was no place I’d rather be. Shannon sat on Colton’s lap, and I could feel everyone turn
slightly to see how I would react. That also meant I couldn’t leave early, because I didn’t want people thinking I was leaving because it bothered me. I checked my phone compulsively so I could see the time, and as soon as it seemed reasonable, I made my excuses and ducked out.

As soon as I got home, I shucked off my cheerleading uniform and fired up my laptop. It seemed like I should say a prayer or have some kind of ceremony to ensure that my idea worked out, but I didn’t think religion had a plan to cover this type of situation. I pulled out my bag and the list I’d made at Brody’s. I read through each name again and then started the search.

The secret to searching for something on the Internet, or in life in general, is to know what you’re looking for. That would have helped. All I had was a vague idea and hope. Around three a.m. I was ready to give up. In the morning I’d call Brody and see if he had any other ideas of where to look. I was just about ready to click off the computer when I saw her name. I rubbed my eyes to make sure it wasn’t an exhaustion-induced hallucination, but when I opened them again, her name was still there. I jumped up and danced around my bed. I wanted to let out a whoop, but I was pretty sure my parents wouldn’t be interested in sharing my celebration and certainly not at this hour. I pulled my phone out to text Brody. There was already a text from him.

Lunch tomorrow at El Az?

I texted back yes and then threw myself across the bed. This had to be it. I rolled back and forth on the bed, hugging myself. I eventually turned out the light, but I couldn’t sleep. It was like I’d drunk an entire case of Red Bull and tossed it back with a pot of coffee. My body was practically vibrating with energy. I’d found my mom. I was sure of it. I closed my eyes and pictured making the presentation with Brody, with the admissions people from Duke in the audience. Everyone would be moved to tears. The idea that I’d found my mom and kept my promise to Nora. There were made-for-TV movies that didn’t have this much drama. The admissions people would basically drop to their knees and plead for me to go to Duke.

I flipped my pillow over to get to the cool side. My parents wouldn’t be thrilled that I’d found her, but when they realized how what I’d done was going to get me into Duke, they’d understand. I wasn’t planning to move in with Lisa. Just sit down with her. Talk a bit. Maybe exchange Christmas cards every year or something.

I rolled onto my other side. What would Nora think if she were still around? Would she be happy for me, or would she feel like it wasn’t fair? She was the one who had been so sure if she could find her birth mom that somehow the universe would fall into place and her life would suddenly make sense.

I found my birth mom. I held my pillow to my face and smothered a small yell. It wasn’t just about Duke anymore.

• • •

It was a good thing I’d set an alarm, or I would have slept through lunch. The last time I could remember looking at the clock was five thirty, when I heard my mom get up for her run. I felt like my head was stuffed with wet cotton and my hands weren’t fully connected to my arms. No wonder sleep deprivation can be used as torture.

I walked into El Azteco and Brody raised a hand. My heart gave an extra thump when I saw him. He’d already snagged a table. I slid into the booth. Brody passed me one of the laminated menus. I didn’t have to look; I already knew I wanted the spicy
enchiladas de jocoque
, my favorite. El Az had been around in East Lansing forever. If you wanted great Mexican, there wasn’t a better place in town.

Brody dipped his chip into the hot salsa and then pushed the bowl over to me. “Do you want to try and catch a movie after? Since this sort of counts as our first official date, it seems we should do more than lunch.”

My stomach jumped. This was an official date, wasn’t it? This day kept getting better. “Doesn’t matter what we do after.” I leaned forward, excited. “Guess what I figured out last night?”

“That you find my charm irresistible?” He struck a pose.

I cocked an eyebrow. “I think we established yesterday when I kissed you that I found you charming. No, this is big news. Last night I had this flash of inspiration. I’m pretty sure I found my birth mom.”

Brody went from joking to serious. “Are you sure? Did someone contact you?”

“Nope. This was pure brilliance.” I yanked a paper out of my bag. “This form was in my adoption scrapbook. My birth mom was supposed to list any family health issues.”

“Having a medical history is one of the perks of an open adoption.” Brody looked over the sheet. “Looks pretty straightforward. I take it you’re happy there’s no history of mental illness?”

“It’s a bonus, but it’s not what caught my eye. See this?” I pointed at the page.

“Your grandmother had breast cancer.”

“You’ve heard that Ms. Harmen has breast cancer too, right?”

Brody paused his chip above the salsa bowl. “You think you’re related to the biology teacher? You know lots of people in Michigan get cancer, right?”

I tossed the napkin in my lap at him. “No, I don’t think I’m related to our biology teacher. Hearing about her is just what got me thinking about it. My grandma didn’t die of it,” I pointed out. “She’s listed as still alive when I was born, in her forties.”

Brody looked at me. “I guess that’s a good thing. Always nice to have an extra grandparent. She was only in her forties when she became a grandma, bet that freaked her out. Where are you going with this?”

“It would be important to my birth mom, wouldn’t it? If her mom, my grandma, fought breast cancer when she was a kid, that would have made a big impression on her.”

Brody nodded. “Sure. Makes sense.”

“So that got me thinking: What would I do if my mom had breast cancer?” I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. I couldn’t tell if I was happier with what I had figured out or the fact that my birth mom and I clearly thought the same way. “The Michigan Cancer Society keeps great records. The year after I was born they did one of those Race for the Cure–type things.”

“And?”

“Check out the youth-teams coordinator.” I pulled out another sheet I’d printed off the computer. I pointed at the name Lisa Moriarty. “She did it for her mom,” I whispered. I repeated her name in my head.
Lisa Moriarty.
“It has to be her, don’t you think? Otherwise it’s way too much of a coincidence. She was a competitive swimmer. And then this.”

Brody smiled at me across the table. “Nice going, Sherlock. You can’t say for sure it’s her, but it sounds likely to me. It’s a good start.”

“Start?” I felt my enthusiasm sink a notch.

“Assuming Lisa Moriarty is your birth mom, it doesn’t mean that’s her name anymore. She might be married and go by her husband’s name, or she might have moved to Arizona or Paris, France, for all we know. We haven’t found her yet.”

I felt a flush of annoyance. “I know, but I’m close. I can
tell. At least we don’t have to figure out how to squeeze in a tour of the entire state of Michigan. We can start with Southside, and if I’m right, we’re done. I still want to check out the yearbook, and I have an idea about getting her married name too.”

Brody reached over and touched my hand lightly. “I didn’t mean to tick you off. I know this is a big deal. I only want to make sure that you don’t get ahead of yourself. We’re still a long way from finding her. Things could go sideways.” He held up a hand. “Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying they will. What you found out is huge. But I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I could see the concern in his eyes, and the annoyance I’d felt melted away. “I don’t plan to get hurt.”

“No one plans on it.” He sat back as the waitress brought our food. The plates nearly bounced on the table as she dropped them. My nose twitched at the smell of peppers—I was suddenly starving. Brody motioned for me to grab a fork. “We can’t do anything else today because of the weekend. We can go to Southside next Thursday and make our plan from there.”

“I was thinking we could go on Monday. It won’t be a huge deal if we skip; most of the teachers are coasting next week. Who wants to get into anything before the holidays, anyway? That way we can finish up our project over the Christmas break.”

“Avery Scott skipping class? Isn’t that a sign of the end of times?” Brody teased me. “It’s only a few days. We can wait
until Thursday. We have until the end of February to finish the project.”

My foot bounced under the table. I couldn’t tell him that the Duke interview deadline was looming. I needed to get this done. I ate my enchiladas, burning my mouth on the molten cheese while I tried to figure out if I could come up with an excuse why we had to do it now.

“Since you’re on a roll with solving mysteries, what about if we rent a movie? You ever see
The Maltese Falcon
?” I shook my head. “It’s good. I have a bit of a TMC addiction. I get insomnia a lot, so it’s either old movies or infomercials. Netflix will have it.”

“I hate when I can’t sleep.” I slid the red plastic tumbler over to the edge of the table so the waitress would know I wanted more water. El Az might be an institution in town, but it wasn’t exactly five-star service. We were lucky our tabletop wasn’t sticky. “Last night I kept looking at the clock and calculating how much sleep I’d get if I fell asleep at exactly that moment. I’ll get five hours forty-three minutes of sleep, now only five hours and forty-two minutes, forty-one minutes. The whole thing makes me anxious, which makes it even harder to drift off.”

“The secret is, if you can’t sleep, get up. It’s less frustrating. It’s weird because you know you’re awake when so few are. It’s like a post-apocalyptic world filled with very few, and very odd, people. You get to belong to a secret club, the night people. Once last summer I got up and drove to Walmart because I
wanted to get out of the house, and it was the only place I could think of that was open. There were, like, four people in the store, and two of them were working. The other customer was this guy in his fifties who was wearing hot-pink leggings and a cowboy hat.” He raised his hand as if taking a vow. “I’m not even making that up. I have a picture somewhere.”

“Maybe I should start hanging out at the Walmart in the middle of the night.”

“I have this theory that artistic people are more likely to have insomnia. Something with the creative brain turning on when our day-to-day brain finally turns off.” Brody scooped some refried beans onto his taco.

“Have you thought more about art college?” I asked him.

“I don’t know. I’m hoping my time bumming around Europe and New York will help me sort it out. New York’s the city that never sleeps, after all.” He smiled. There was a small smear of salsa above his lip. “You know how I like the nonsleepers. Besides, you know I’m not a huge college fan. You’re not going to see me chasing after someone for their approval.”

I knew he wanted to change the subject, so I dropped it. “Well, then you’re going to love me—I haven’t slept in days. I should warn you I might nod off in the middle of the movie.”

“I won’t take it as a comment on how exciting it is to be with me.” He winked at me. “Maybe I’ll think of something to keep you awake. Keep you from getting bored during the movie.”

I blushed as an image of him kissing me came into my head. “Are you using the excuse of a movie to get me in a dark room?”

“Do I get points for honesty? Because, yep, pretty much.”

I laughed. “Well then, let’s go as soon as we finish lunch.”

Brody raised his hand to flag the waitress. “Can we get the rest of this to go?”

chapter twenty-two

F
or my first piece of fake ID, I thought it looked pretty good. I concentrated on giving the school secretary my best “future leader of tomorrow” smile.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. I still had plenty of time, but every second the clock ticked over sounded loud, like how bomb timers sounded in movies. Sunday night I’d decided I couldn’t wait until Thursday the way Brody wanted. I wandered around the house letting out a fake cough every so often and grumbling about feeling tired. This morning I’d given an Oscar-worthy performance of sickness. There was no way I could go to school. I was simply too ill. I’d warmed up my face with a heating pad before going to tell my mom. She’d pressed her cool hand to my forehead and wrinkled up her face in concern. The plan had almost gone south when she declared that
maybe she’d work from home that day so she could keep an eye on me. She was worried about my fever. Note to self: Next time stick to a fake cold or a stomachache. A little after ten her office called with some problem, and I announced that I was feeling well enough that she could go.

I waited for twenty minutes after she left in case she’d forgotten something and returned home. When I was sure she wasn’t coming back, I pounded up the stairs and jumped into the shower. As soon as I got out I pulled up the directions on my phone and sent my mom an e-mail saying that I was going to take a nap and I was going to turn off the phone. I thought about telling her that I knew sleep was what I needed to feel better, but I thought it might be laying it on too thick.

Even with directions I’d taken a wrong turn trying to find the school. I needed to get the information and get back on the road to make sure I left enough time to beat my parents home.