16,900 ~ 19,400

Sam thought for a moment. What leads did she have? Was she any closer to finding this woman for her mother? Yes, she knew what high school she went to and that she might have gone to the University of Kentucky, but that was it. It wasn’t a lot to go on. Still, though, it was kind of exciting. Sam had started with just a name and now, barely twenty-four hours later, she’d created a couple pretty solid leads. She contemplated what the next twenty-four hours might bring.
 

“I don’t think calling the high school would help. What information would they give me over the phone? In this day and age? God, I hope they wouldn’t give out much. It’s a scary idea, isn’t it?” Sam mused.

“You could always go to Cincinnati and see what you could find out face-to-face. It’s what? A six hour drive?”

“Christ, Scott, I’m killing my vacation running about the Midwest looking for this lady. It’s been nice seeing you guys and all, but I was hoping to be back home in Austin by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. Tomorrow’s already Tuesday. And really, what am I supposed to do? March into the school district office and demand information?” Sam’s voice showed her fatigue. She’d been up since before 5:00am and the day was wearing on her.

“Actually that’s exactly what I think you should do. You might even consider playing the ‘Samantha J. Stephens, Famous Author’ card,” Scott said.

“Fuck me. That’s not who I am. I didn’t become a writer to get special privileges.”

“Look, Sam,” Chris said re-entering the conversation, “it’s worth a shot. What do you have to lose? Make the drive and see what you can see. If the trail runs cold, bag it. Tell your mom that you tried your best and you couldn’t find her. You could even drive straight home to Austin from Cinci”.

“Come on. You’ve got a lead. It may not seem like much, but it’s something,” said Scott reassuringly.

“I do have a lead, don’t I?” Sam asked. Chris and Scott’s energy was contagious. Sam remembered her days at the newspaper following up on leads. Some of them turned into great stories and others were dead-ends. Still, though, a lead was a lead.

Sam smiled. “Ok, somebody pull up Mapquest and see exactly how long it’s going to take me to drive to Cincinnati from here. I can’t believe I’ve let y’all talk me into this.”

 

~

 

“Six hours, fourteen minutes from Muskegon to Hamilton, Ohio. Give or take. I’ve seen you drive. You might be able to do it in five flat,” Chris laughed.

“Whatever. I’ll plan for six. That means I had better get some sleep.”

“Ok, one more shot and we’ll call it a night,” Scott said. “Oh, crap. Chris, remember that box we found when we organized the basement? The one with your Aunt Jean’s name on it?”

“Oh yeah. Right on. I remember,” Chris turned to Sam. “I think it was a box my mom stored away when Grandma died. From the looks of it, it’s just a bunch of old school papers and stuff. Probably something Grandma intended to give your mom ages ago but never did. You want to take it to her?”

“Sure,” Sam said. “I’ll just throw in the back of the Xterra. As sentimental as she’s being at the moment, she might want to see all that old crap.”

“Cool. I’ll dig it out and leave it by the front door. You can grab it on your way out tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Scott. It’s been so nice seeing y’all. Thank you for letting me crash here on the spur of the moment.”

“Not at all,” said Chris as he got up to give his cousin a hug. “We should do this more often.”

Sam retreated to the guest room and sat down on the bed. Kate had followed her instinctively. She looked at her phone. She hadn’t received anything from Malin all day. Sam had hoped for a call or a text message. She didn’t need an hours long conversation, but an an inquiry or a ‘how’s it going’ would have been nice. She just wanted Something, anything, to let her know that Malin was thinking of her.

“Yes, I know the phone works both ways,” Sam said to Kate. “Fuck. We’re going to Ohio tomorrow.”

Sam wanted to talk to Malin. She rationalized that she just wanted to give her an update, but when Sam thought a moment she knew that wasn’t the entire truth. Seeing Malin again after all those months had sparked something in her. Sam missed her and desperately wanted to hear her voice.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Kate, tell me not to call her.” The dog just peered at her and cocked her head to one side.

Sam decided that a text was safer, far more non-committal. If Samantha Stephens was anything it was non-committal. Perfect, she thought. I’ll text her and see what happens. Five minutes and several rough drafts, and one loud ‘fuck me’ later, Sam hit send. She laid back on the bed and shut her eyes. She was exhausted. Sam had started the day in Lindstrom, Minnesota, driven across the entire state of Wisconsin, ridden a ferry across Lake Michigan, visited her crazy Aunt (who thought she was her mother), dug around in her cousin’s basement, and drank a few too many margaritas. That, Sam thought, was a full day.

Just as she was about to drift off to sleep, Sam heard her phone buzzing and vibrating on the night stand. Her heart leapt into her throat. She swallowed hard and picked up her iPhone. The screen showed a picture of a pretty blond woman smiling with her eyes averted from the camera. She never knew that Sam had taken the picture. The caller ID read ‘Malin Jonassen’.

“She called! She called!” Sam thought trying to calm the beating of her heart. How many times had she and Malin spoken over the years? Zillions by Sam’s count. When she was in the process of creating Annika and writing about Nic’s adventures in Stockholm, they had talked daily, sometimes several times a day. In Sam’s mind, it was different now. They’d had New York. They’d slept together. Malin was no longer just a crush or a figment of her imaginings. She was real. Really real. Beautifully real. Amazingly real. She hit ‘accept’ and immediately heard Malin’s voice.

“Ohio!?! You’re going to Ohio?!? No way!”

“Yeah, the guys talked me into it. I guess I’m going to keep following the trail until it goes cold.”

“That’s awesome, Sam. It really is. When I got your text, Jackie insisted that I call to get the details.”

Jackie. Why did she have to bring her up? Oh, that’s right. Jackie’s her girlfriend and that’s what girlfriends do. Sam willed herself to focus.

Sam quickly updated Malin on what they had found in the basement and on the yearbook website.

“You’ve been lucky so far. Chris and Scott are right. You need to keep going. Who knows? You might get lucky again.”

“I know. This isn’t how I planned to spend my vacation...” Sam’s voice trailed off. She felt whiny.

“I think what you’re doing is great, Samantha. Jackie does, too. I know your relationship with your mother isn’t the best, but that’s what makes this so great. Not many people would be able to look beyond their immediate feelings and do what you’re doing.”

“Thanks,” Sam said softly. She smiled slightly.

“And now you’re going to Ohio! Super cool. I wish I was there with you. It sounds like a fun road trip!”

“I wish you were, too. Really.” She contemplated telling Malin that she missed her, but quickly decided against it. Malin had a girlfriend. Sam had to respect that.

“Call me tomorrow and let me know what you find out?” Malin asked.

“Absolutely. Thanks for calling tonight,” Sam said signing off. “It was so great to hear your voice…” Sam added quietly after she’d hung up.

 

 

~

 

Sam shut off her alarm and shook off yet another weird dream. Sam assumed that hunting down Ruth Goldman had entered her subconscious. Similar to her last dream, Sam had been chasing a brown haired woman who remained faceless. This time Sam had pursued her through a high rise building until she burst through a door onto the roof just as her alarm went off. Knowing that she didn’t have time to linger in bed, Sam jumped out and quietly padded to the guest bathroom for a shower. When she emerged, she could smell coffee brewing. One of the guys must be up, she thought. Sam wore the same jeans as the day before and pulled on a dark blue t-shirt.

 

Scott handed her a cup of coffee as she entered the kitchen.

“You do know I went to Michigan State, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yep,” Sam said, smiling. She knew the dark blue shirt with MICHIGAN written on it in bold yellow letters would get his attention.

“Hey, look… I gotta run. Drink the rest of the coffee. Chris is out for his morning run and won’t be back for at least a half hour. He can make more when he gets home. Help yourself to breakfast.”

“Thanks, Scott. I appreciate it.”

“Oh, and don’t forget your mom’s box. It’s right by the front door. It’s not heavy”, Scott called over his shoulder as he went out the door.

Sam searched the kitchen for breakfast food. She found three different kinds of cereal, all healthy, whole grain bread, almond butter, eggs, and pancake mix. Then she happened to remember that Chris used to love frozen waffles. Bingo. She pulled two waffles out the package and put them in the toaster.

“Aw, fuck. What about you, Kate?” While the waffles were toasting, Sam decided to make a run to the Xterra for Kate’s food. When she came back in the door, she grabbed her mom’s box and carried to the kitchen. She grabbed a knife and cut open the tape just as the waffles popped in the toaster. Sam knew she needed to get on the road but why not look in the box while she ate? She set her plate of waffles on the counter along with another cup of coffee and lifted open the box flaps.

Chris and Scott were right. It looked like things their Grandmother had saved from Jean’s school years. Sam pulled out a hand-drawn map of the United States and what looked to be a book report and a short story. There were also couple early elementary school art projects folded up. In the bottom of the box Sam found an old shoe box. She shrugged as if to say, “Why not?” and lifted the lid. She found an assortment of blue ribbons and one tarnished gold medal. Beneath the old awards were some school pictures. Sam looked at them one by one. They all looked relatively the same, except the kids appeared to be a little older in each one. She tried to find her mother in each picture. It was easy. All Sam had to do was look for a little girl who looked like her when she was in elementary school. At that age, Sam and Jean were nearly identical. There she was. There she was. There she was. Sam studied the pictures closely. In every one, her mother was seated next to the same little girl. In their fifth grade picture, they held hands.

“Sweet,” Sam thought. “I wonder if that’s Ruthie”. Sam set the school pictures aside and pulled out a couple of candid photos. In the first, she recognized her mother and Aunt Jane posing with another young girl. It was the same little girl from the school pictures. Her mother couldn’t have been more than seven or eight. She and the little girl were both holding tennis rackets. Sam shook her head and laughed. She always knew her mother had played tennis when she was young. Sam shuffled through the pictures until she came to one of her mother and the same young girl. In this picture, they must have been about twelve or thirteen. They sat on the stoop of an old house. Her mother was in the front and the other girl sat beside but one step up. Jean’s arm rested on the girl’s leg and Sam could see the girl’s arm resting on Jean’s shoulder. They smiled wistfully. Clearly they weren’t as happy as they had been in the other pictures. Sam turned the picture over to see if there was anything written anything on the back. In a child-like version of her mother’s handwriting, the note on the back of the picture read “Ruthie and me. July 1959.” She turned the picture back over and studied the faces a moment before putting it down.

“Hmm…”, thought Sam. “Mom moved to Michigan in the summer of ‘59”

Sam reached in the box once more and found a medium sized manila envelop. It wasn’t sealed or taped shut so Sam pulled out the contents. She looked and looked again. There were three small letter sized envelopes inside. Two had the same writing as the back of the picture and the other was written in a different child-like girl’s handwriting. Sam stopped. These were the letters Aunt Jane had told her about, the one’s her grandmother hadn’t sent or delivered. The first one Sam looked at was postmarked and addressed to Jeanie Taylor, 1050 Summit Avenue, Muskegon, Michigan 49441. It was her grandparents’ address and the house her mother had lived in after they moved to Muskegon. The other two, the ones in what Sam supposed was Jean’s handwriting, were addressed and stamped but they had apparently never been sent.

Sam held one of the letters in her hand and whispered, “Holy fuck me”. The letter was addressed to Ruthie Goldman in Hamilton, Ohio. Sam had an address. She knew that chances were slim that Ruth would still live there, but it was another lead. Sam packed up the box, grabbed her things, and called to Kate.

“Places to go, Kate. Places to go. We’ve got another lead!”

Malin was right, thought Sam. She had gotten lucky again.