The Search Is On
Sarah Jose Reid sat on the window seat in the living room, her nose in a book about the laws of the United States of America. She often visited her grandmother at the old folk's home and when she was a child, her grandmother told her about a man named Spencer Reid. Spencer was her father. Her mother was a famous actress.
Grandma Reid had passed away one year ago at ninety years old. Mrs. Reid had died in a car accident two months ago. Sarah worked a part time job at Starbucks and tended to her online classes at night. She barely slept, but she knew she had to do whatever it took to keep the house she was raised in by her grandmother and grandfather. Despite some awful memories of when her grandfather verbally and physically abused her and the memory of witnessing him being arrested, she couldn't let go of the home.
Sarah was the name her mother and father had given her. They thought it up together. Sarah was a lovely name for a girl and Peter was a lovely name for a boy. Her mother read the Bible and loved the names Sarah and Peter. Her father never even so much as opened a Bible until he had met her mother.
Jose was a neat middle name and her mother had sweetly begged for that to be her middle name. Reid wanted her middle name to be Jo. He had thought it to be a cooler middle name.
Her mother and father were very busy. They had wanted to spend time with her, but no matter how hard they had tried or how many times they had tried, it was useless to take time off. Grandma Reid had graciously offered to take care of her. It was either that or adoption and her mother and father and grandmother had wanted to keep her. Her grandfather had wanted her to be adopted.
Sarah lived alone. It would often be too quiet and lonely and she would have to go for a walk, get out and talk to some people.
Sarah's goal was to find her father and join the Behavioral Analysis Unit. All she really knew so far was that he may be working within the city of Washington D.C. The city was huge and she didn't know where to begin.
Sarah shut the book, placed it neatly in her lap and stared outside the window, piercing blue eyes meeting the sky. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, clasped her hands together and whispered, "Please, God, allow me to come to know my father better and grow closer to him."
As if answering her prayer, the wind stirred the blades of grass, the lovely garden of flowers and the leaves in the trees. She opened her eyes and gasped as a smile spread along her lips and her cheeks flushed with excitement and awe. "Oh, wow!" This is such a wonderful sight!
She placed the book aside, stood and adjusted her white skirt and long-sleeved white shirt. She approached the door, sitting down on the small rug and pulling on her black boots. She zipped up her boots, stood, reached for the doorknob, turned it and pulled the door open. She exited the house and shut the door behind her.
She reached inside her right skirt pocket and pulled out a fully charged cell phone. Within five minutes of turning on her cell phone, it buzzed and four text messages popped up on the screen.
The first text message said: 'Hello. How are you, baby girl?' The second text message said: 'I miss you, baby girl. I love you.' The third text message said: 'I'll talk to you later.' The fourth text message said: 'I love you.'
Sarah recognized the phone number as her ex-boyfriend's cell phone and she squeezed the phone in her hands and clenched her teeth. "I swear this guy must be talking to himself." He's trying to make me jealous.
She replied to the first text message with: 'Jeez, you're so immature.' With that, she turned off her cell phone with the urge to toss it to the ground and leave it there. That's just how aggravated she felt towards her ex-boyfriend. It wasn't out of jealously. It was because he refused to leave her alone. All he ever did was talk tough guy talk if she would even so much as ask a simple question about his current girlfriend. It's as if he protects whichever girl he's with and gets all tough guy on whichever girl he's not with. She sighed and rolled her eyes, mocking her ex-boyfriend. "Oh look, Sarah! I've got a new girlfriend and she's not you!" She was so fed up with him that she didn't realize until afterwards that she had raised her voice in public. "GRRRARRR! Alright already! I get it! Enough is enough!"
When she realized she had raised her voice in public, she moved her head to her right and then to her left, her eyes darting about. Her nose and cheeks blushed crimson with embarrassment.
Slowly blinking, she sighed. Okay, whatever. Just keep walking.