Silent Lives 4: How Strange it Seems by Maureen
*Today we're going to be starting a new project that we'll be working on all semester,* Jamie's history teacher said towards the end of class. *We're going to be making family trees and studying immigration and life in the colonial United States.*
Despite being deaf, the students groaned and slouched lower in their seats. Especially Jamie. He had no real 'family' and didn't want to do the project at all. As the lights flashed, he grabbed his backpack and headed towards his teacher's desk. *Excuse me,* he said, *But I don't think I'll be able to do this.*
*Why?* she asked. *Most of your semester grade is based on this project.*
Jamie blushed, not really wanting to discuss his family situation. *Um...my family life is complicated. I haven't seen anyone in my family for over a year. I live with a foster father. I don't know anything about either side of my family.*
*Oh,* his teacher replied, not expecting such a complicated home life. *Well, do what you know, or if you'd like, use a friend's family or your foster family. We'll discuss it more later.*
Jamie nodded, before running to his next class so he wouldn't be late.
***
A few nights later Jamie headed over to Faustus's house to see if he could possibly find something out. During his other classes his friends had been excited about the project and couldn't believe how easy it was. Jamie had sat there feeling jealous, wishing he had the perfect family like they did. "Hey Faust!" Jamie called, tromping up the stairs. He was still in his station uniform, but was wearing a long sleeved black T-shirt instead of the regulation shirt.
Faustus waved absentmindedly from where he was sitting at the computer terminal. On the black screen red letters were appearing rapidly, as if in a chatroom, but there was no conversation. Just short phrases that were repeated over and over.
"What're you doing?" Jamie asked, pulling out his notepad and a pencil. With a few quick motions, the computer screen changed to hotmail.com.
/MUDding/ Faustus wrote on the paper /it's a type of game./
Jamie nodded, not understanding. "Well, I want you to help me on a genealogy project."
/?/
"I have to make a family history for class. And I don't know anything. I don't even know where my family is," Jamie knew that if anyone would understand it would be Faustus. He had been bounced from foster home to foster home for most of his life and had only found solace in his electronics.
/You want me to hack into CPS?/ he wrote, puzzled. It was well known that child protective services, CPS, rarely had anything useful for finding parents of children whose parents did not want to be found. There were three types of foster children. Those that were going to be hopefully reunited with their parents, those that had parents but wouldn't be reunited, such as Jamie, and those like Faustus who had no clue about where they came from and probably never would.
"Idiot," Jamie replied, "They don't know jack shit. My mom's name is Mariko Waite. There has to be something on her." Two hours later they had sifted through parking tickets, the unpaid bills and nearly insurmountable debt that Pete Waite was in and had only gotten as far back as 1990, but nothing on Mariko.
/When were you born?/ Faustus asked, hoping that they would be able to jump farther back.
"I was born in October of '85." Jamie replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He was sick of looking at the computer screen.
Faustus quickly switched to the county hospital birth records, and with little effort found Jamie's birth certificate which listed Mariko and Peter Waite Sr. as the parents. He pointed it out on the screen, and then changed screens to show her credit. Nothing. Nothing showed for Mariko and Pete Waite past 1988.
"1988 is when she left," Jamie explained, not really sure what this meant.
Faustus nodded. /Go home, Jamie, I'll keep looking and will email you if I find anything/ it was nearly 10:00 and he knew that Jamie was tired. He should have been, but like most computer hackers that are intrigued by a problem, even if it is only a relatively simple hack, was still running on the adrenaline and wouldn't come down off his natural high for several more hours at least.
Knowing that Alex was going to worry, Jamie collected his book bag and headed out, wishing they had found more. About 2 a.m. the next morning, Faustus finally found what he was looking for. Mariko Waite had changed her name a weeks after abandoning her family. He quickly wrote an e-mail to Jamie and sent it, knowing that finding her should be fairly simple now. Leaving his thick glasses on the bedside table, he crashed into bed, fully clothed.
***
After school Jamie had to head into work, but, for the first time in several weeks, he didn't want to. Usually he enjoyed working at the station, having finally adapted to his new role there. Between Jamie and Brooke nothing was unknown and they took care of everything short of signing Alex's name to the documents. Now, this isn't to say that Alex didn't do any work, he did, but they took care of most of the 'grunt' work leaving him to the actual administration.
*Good day at school?* Brooke asked. She noticed how chipper Jamie was, especially for coming in from school.
*Yes!* Jamie signed, *Nothing could annoy me!*
*What about laundry and having to restock the ambulance?*
He paused, unsure. Neither were his favorite job, but they both beat inventory. *Why isn't the squad on duty restocking?*
*We got newbies today. Squad is giving orientation right now.* Brooke rolled her eyes. It seemed that every batch of new recruits was dumber than the lot preceding them.
Jamie rolled his eyes heavenward in agreement. "Well then," he said vocally, rubbing his hands together, his eyes glinting mischievously, "we should help 'orient' them."
***
"While you work here you will do many unpleasant jobs, such as cleaning, inventory, cleaning, inventory and more cleaning -" before Misha could continue, Brooke and Jamie came careening into the garage with small squirt guns, attacking the squad, but ignoring the newbies. They had wrapped duct tape around their torso's and written "Twisted Monkeys" on it in marker. Around their arms and heads was toilet paper that they were using as bandages.
"And occasionally you will be attacked by the Twisted Monkeys!" Jamie announced brandishing his gun wildly.
"Meet the Queen of Paperwork, Brooke, and our King of Maintenance, Jamie," Misha said, once he had stopped laughing. He had been half expecting some sort of hijinx and was surprised it had gone as smoothly as it had for so long. "If you ever need something to do or don't know how to do something, ask them. Brooke is the only person that can keep our computers working and admin duties manageable and Jamie keeps everything from breaking down, including the ambulances and equipment. He's also a trained EMT-basic, but doesn't serve on the squads except in extreme emergencies. One last thing, Jamie is deaf, so any questions you have need to be written down."
Introductions made, the Twisted Monkey's headed back inside to get more work done and maybe even figure out a way to squirt Alex later without being caught.
***
*Care to explain what that was outside?* Alex demanded.
The so-called "Twisted Monkeys" were taking their toilet paper accessories off in Alex's office, trying to look appropriately ashamed. *We scared the newbies?* Jamie signed, feeling pleased with himself. This was almost as fun as throwing bags of expired saline from the tops of buildings at midnight. He hadn't done that in a while, not since he had lost his partner in crime, Caitie.
*You made yourselves and this station look like idiots in front of new recruits is what you did!* Alex chastised. *I would maybe have expected this from Jamie, maybe, but from you Brooke! This is inexcusable!*
*But we just wanted to shake things up, maybe show them that this isn't the marines,* Brooke protested, *besides, I'm not super-Val.* She was understandably upset at being compared to her older sister, even only in insinuation. While the sisters remained close, even though Val was at school in New York City, Brooke was quickly stepping out of her sister's shadow and becoming her own person.
Alex sighed, realizing he wasn't going to win. *Don't do this again. Behave. And get to work!* he signed, giving up.
***
That night, Jamie logged onto the Internet to see what Faustus had found.
ProbEMT: got anything for me Faust? geekrok: yeah - get my email earlier? ProbEMT: the one saying my mom changed her name? yeah. geekrok: her new name was Mary Waite...but I went into the national databases, there are a lot of Mary Waites ProbEMT: so? did you find her? geekrok: I think so. she remarried in 1991. some guy named Joseph Stewart. lives in Florida. ProbEMT: anything else? geekrok: yeah. bills and the like. couple of birth certificates, 2 girls. ProbEMT: you have an address and phone number? geekrok: of course. in the email I just sent you. ttyl dude gtg ProbEMT: ttyl. I owe you man.
Jamie sat in front of the computer, not really sure what to think. His mother was in Florida. Remarried with kids. This meant he had half sisters. Sisters. This would take some getting used to.
*Today we're going to be starting a new project that we'll be working on all semester,* Jamie's history teacher said towards the end of class. *We're going to be making family trees and studying immigration and life in the colonial United States.*
Despite being deaf, the students groaned and slouched lower in their seats. Especially Jamie. He had no real 'family' and didn't want to do the project at all. As the lights flashed, he grabbed his backpack and headed towards his teacher's desk. *Excuse me,* he said, *But I don't think I'll be able to do this.*
*Why?* she asked. *Most of your semester grade is based on this project.*
Jamie blushed, not really wanting to discuss his family situation. *Um...my family life is complicated. I haven't seen anyone in my family for over a year. I live with a foster father. I don't know anything about either side of my family.*
*Oh,* his teacher replied, not expecting such a complicated home life. *Well, do what you know, or if you'd like, use a friend's family or your foster family. We'll discuss it more later.*
Jamie nodded, before running to his next class so he wouldn't be late.
***
A few nights later Jamie headed over to Faustus's house to see if he could possibly find something out. During his other classes his friends had been excited about the project and couldn't believe how easy it was. Jamie had sat there feeling jealous, wishing he had the perfect family like they did. "Hey Faust!" Jamie called, tromping up the stairs. He was still in his station uniform, but was wearing a long sleeved black T-shirt instead of the regulation shirt.
Faustus waved absentmindedly from where he was sitting at the computer terminal. On the black screen red letters were appearing rapidly, as if in a chatroom, but there was no conversation. Just short phrases that were repeated over and over.
"What're you doing?" Jamie asked, pulling out his notepad and a pencil. With a few quick motions, the computer screen changed to hotmail.com.
/MUDding/ Faustus wrote on the paper /it's a type of game./
Jamie nodded, not understanding. "Well, I want you to help me on a genealogy project."
/?/
"I have to make a family history for class. And I don't know anything. I don't even know where my family is," Jamie knew that if anyone would understand it would be Faustus. He had been bounced from foster home to foster home for most of his life and had only found solace in his electronics.
/You want me to hack into CPS?/ he wrote, puzzled. It was well known that child protective services, CPS, rarely had anything useful for finding parents of children whose parents did not want to be found. There were three types of foster children. Those that were going to be hopefully reunited with their parents, those that had parents but wouldn't be reunited, such as Jamie, and those like Faustus who had no clue about where they came from and probably never would.
"Idiot," Jamie replied, "They don't know jack shit. My mom's name is Mariko Waite. There has to be something on her." Two hours later they had sifted through parking tickets, the unpaid bills and nearly insurmountable debt that Pete Waite was in and had only gotten as far back as 1990, but nothing on Mariko.
/When were you born?/ Faustus asked, hoping that they would be able to jump farther back.
"I was born in October of '85." Jamie replied, rubbing his eyes tiredly. He was sick of looking at the computer screen.
Faustus quickly switched to the county hospital birth records, and with little effort found Jamie's birth certificate which listed Mariko and Peter Waite Sr. as the parents. He pointed it out on the screen, and then changed screens to show her credit. Nothing. Nothing showed for Mariko and Pete Waite past 1988.
"1988 is when she left," Jamie explained, not really sure what this meant.
Faustus nodded. /Go home, Jamie, I'll keep looking and will email you if I find anything/ it was nearly 10:00 and he knew that Jamie was tired. He should have been, but like most computer hackers that are intrigued by a problem, even if it is only a relatively simple hack, was still running on the adrenaline and wouldn't come down off his natural high for several more hours at least.
Knowing that Alex was going to worry, Jamie collected his book bag and headed out, wishing they had found more. About 2 a.m. the next morning, Faustus finally found what he was looking for. Mariko Waite had changed her name a weeks after abandoning her family. He quickly wrote an e-mail to Jamie and sent it, knowing that finding her should be fairly simple now. Leaving his thick glasses on the bedside table, he crashed into bed, fully clothed.
***
After school Jamie had to head into work, but, for the first time in several weeks, he didn't want to. Usually he enjoyed working at the station, having finally adapted to his new role there. Between Jamie and Brooke nothing was unknown and they took care of everything short of signing Alex's name to the documents. Now, this isn't to say that Alex didn't do any work, he did, but they took care of most of the 'grunt' work leaving him to the actual administration.
*Good day at school?* Brooke asked. She noticed how chipper Jamie was, especially for coming in from school.
*Yes!* Jamie signed, *Nothing could annoy me!*
*What about laundry and having to restock the ambulance?*
He paused, unsure. Neither were his favorite job, but they both beat inventory. *Why isn't the squad on duty restocking?*
*We got newbies today. Squad is giving orientation right now.* Brooke rolled her eyes. It seemed that every batch of new recruits was dumber than the lot preceding them.
Jamie rolled his eyes heavenward in agreement. "Well then," he said vocally, rubbing his hands together, his eyes glinting mischievously, "we should help 'orient' them."
***
"While you work here you will do many unpleasant jobs, such as cleaning, inventory, cleaning, inventory and more cleaning -" before Misha could continue, Brooke and Jamie came careening into the garage with small squirt guns, attacking the squad, but ignoring the newbies. They had wrapped duct tape around their torso's and written "Twisted Monkeys" on it in marker. Around their arms and heads was toilet paper that they were using as bandages.
"And occasionally you will be attacked by the Twisted Monkeys!" Jamie announced brandishing his gun wildly.
"Meet the Queen of Paperwork, Brooke, and our King of Maintenance, Jamie," Misha said, once he had stopped laughing. He had been half expecting some sort of hijinx and was surprised it had gone as smoothly as it had for so long. "If you ever need something to do or don't know how to do something, ask them. Brooke is the only person that can keep our computers working and admin duties manageable and Jamie keeps everything from breaking down, including the ambulances and equipment. He's also a trained EMT-basic, but doesn't serve on the squads except in extreme emergencies. One last thing, Jamie is deaf, so any questions you have need to be written down."
Introductions made, the Twisted Monkey's headed back inside to get more work done and maybe even figure out a way to squirt Alex later without being caught.
***
*Care to explain what that was outside?* Alex demanded.
The so-called "Twisted Monkeys" were taking their toilet paper accessories off in Alex's office, trying to look appropriately ashamed. *We scared the newbies?* Jamie signed, feeling pleased with himself. This was almost as fun as throwing bags of expired saline from the tops of buildings at midnight. He hadn't done that in a while, not since he had lost his partner in crime, Caitie.
*You made yourselves and this station look like idiots in front of new recruits is what you did!* Alex chastised. *I would maybe have expected this from Jamie, maybe, but from you Brooke! This is inexcusable!*
*But we just wanted to shake things up, maybe show them that this isn't the marines,* Brooke protested, *besides, I'm not super-Val.* She was understandably upset at being compared to her older sister, even only in insinuation. While the sisters remained close, even though Val was at school in New York City, Brooke was quickly stepping out of her sister's shadow and becoming her own person.
Alex sighed, realizing he wasn't going to win. *Don't do this again. Behave. And get to work!* he signed, giving up.
***
That night, Jamie logged onto the Internet to see what Faustus had found.
ProbEMT: got anything for me Faust? geekrok: yeah - get my email earlier? ProbEMT: the one saying my mom changed her name? yeah. geekrok: her new name was Mary Waite...but I went into the national databases, there are a lot of Mary Waites ProbEMT: so? did you find her? geekrok: I think so. she remarried in 1991. some guy named Joseph Stewart. lives in Florida. ProbEMT: anything else? geekrok: yeah. bills and the like. couple of birth certificates, 2 girls. ProbEMT: you have an address and phone number? geekrok: of course. in the email I just sent you. ttyl dude gtg ProbEMT: ttyl. I owe you man.
Jamie sat in front of the computer, not really sure what to think. His mother was in Florida. Remarried with kids. This meant he had half sisters. Sisters. This would take some getting used to.