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“Mom has one sister, Doris. She lives in Florida. We have five cousins, and they have their own kids. I’m not married and don’t have any children. What about you guys?”
Kent cleared his throat. “We’ve been together for a while, but no kids yet.” The lie sounded perfect. “I’m a paramedic, and she manages a bank. That’s where we met.” He nudged Palmer with his elbow and smiled at her. She appreciated him so much.
While Kent and Courtney munched on the appetizers and made small talk, Palmer looked through the box her sister had given her. Aside from the photos, she now had the pink newborn bracelet hospitals gave babies. The writing had faded, and she assumed it read “Baby Girl Weaver,” like the others she’d seen. Her mother had saved a tuft of her hair, a pair of booties, and a certificate with Palmer’s footprints. She picked her birth certificate up and elbowed Kent to get his attention.
“Can you read this for me?” she asked him quietly.
“What part?” he asked in an equally hushed tone.
“Birthday.”
Kent stiffened next to her for a second and then read the document aloud. “It says April 24, 1986. When do you celebrate?”
“February second.”
Palmer worked to process the dates in her head, but her ability to think straight had long gone out the window when she met Courtney. She asked her sister, “Do you know when I was taken?”
“It was January of ’89.” She went through the papers again. “Mom filed the missing persons report on the tenth of January. Do you know when you went to the orphanage?”
Palmer shook her head. “Sometime in ’89. They don’t have any paperwork on me anymore.”
“They didn’t keep records?”
Palmer shrugged. “I think maybe they did, but their record keeping was shoddy at best. They didn’t even know my name.”
“Can you tell me how it happened? Like, did Sarah just drop you off?”
Palmer took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I don’t remember much. It was like I woke up at the playground where the orphanage is. No one knew who I was, and that was that.”
Courtney’s mouth dropped open. “I don’t understand why she would take you and then give you away like that. Why not just bring you back?”
Palmer wanted to know the same thing. She slumped against Kent out of pure mental exhaustion.
“I think that’s probably enough for today,” he said to the sisters. “What do you say we meet tomorrow?”
“I’d like that,” Courtney said. “I’d love to show you where I live. Would you like to come over for lunch?”
Palmer nodded, and Courtney gave Kent her address. Kent paid the tab and then helped Palmer gather her things. The three of them walked to the parking lot together, and Kent insisted on taking a picture of the sisters.
“Text that to me,” Courtney asked Kent.
The women hugged and went to their separate cars. As soon as Kent got behind the wheel, he pulled Palmer into his arms. He told her how sorry he was and wished he could do something to make things better for her.
“I want to leave,” she told him.
“Yep, I’ll find us a hotel, and we’ll go chill for the rest of the night. Maybe we’ll get lucky, and we’ll find a room with one of those tubs you like.”
Palmer sat up. “No, I want to leave here. I don’t want to see her tomorrow. I just want to go and forget today.”
Kent nodded and said nothing. He started the car, put in the address to his friend Raúl’s in New Mexico, and pulled out of the parking lot.
Before I’m Gone
Sit in the front seat of a roller coaster and feel the wind in my hair
Eat tacos or tortillas from a roadside stand in New Mexico
Shop at a large farmers market
Meet Lana Del Rey and see her in concert
Take a picture of the most-painted shed in the US
Sit in the sand and watch the sunrise in Cape Cod
Take the steps to the Lincoln Memorial
Do yoga in Sedona
Tour and feed animals in a wildlife sanctuary
Stand under a waterfall
See Elvis on the street corner in Las Vegas
Hug an elephant
Find my family
Step on grapes and make wine
Run through a wheat field
Drive Route 66
See the marquees on Broadway
Ring the Liberty Bell
Buy a quilt from an Amish stand
See the northern lights in Minnesota
Visit Plymouth Rock
Touch Babe Ruth’s bat
Travel the Loneliest Road
Visit the Muhammad Ali Center
Dance in the rain with someone I love
Take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty
Check out the Grand Canyon
Take every picture I can of Palmer
Make Palmer smile
Eat chowdah in Boston, per Palmer
Eat pizza in Chicago
Try frozen custard in New York City
Get coffee in each city
THIRTY-TWO
Kent exited the interstate after what felt like a half hour of driving. Palmer glanced at him, the GPS, and then out the window. She may have drifted into her thoughts, but she wasn’t that out of it. “Where are we going?” she asked.
