Personal Narrative

Melanie woke up with nothing other than research on her mind. She knew that her last name was Easton and so was her mother's. What she didn't know was if that was her mother’s married name, or for that matter, if her mother had ever been married.

Thinking aloud she told herself “I need to find my birth certificate.” Nodding in agreement with herself that the birth certificate would at least give her a place to start. She wanted to have at least a fragment of the information before she confronted her mother since at this point. She didn't know if she would believe anything her mother had to say. Her mother had never taken the time to earn trust or anything else from Melanie.

She rolled out of the bed and made it as was her habit and changed

into a shirt and jeans. Sat down and slipped on her tennis shoes. Looking at the clock beside the bed, she realized that she was up pretty early for a Sunday morning and decided to walk downstairs and see if they had anything she could cook for their breakfast. She owed this family her freedom and she wanted to repay them in kindnesses.

Finding all the material to make a nice breakfast in the pantry and the freezer, she started to make pancakes and bacon. The yummy smells drifted upstairs and greeted Rob's nose. He came downstairs knowing that it could be no one other than Mel down there cooking. He was not disappointed when he turned into the kitchen and saw her standing in front of the over-sized stove that had seen little use on a Sunday morning in almost a decade. He was reminded of his mother standing there when he was just a little boy of seven.

He shook off the sadness and longing that the picture evoked and walked over to her. “good morning,Sunshine. It smells baconly delicious in here.” He crossed the room and reached into the cabinets over the sink. “Let me get the plates for you.”

Rob began setting the table as Melanie filled the large serving platters and placed them in the center of the table. "I hope you and your dad are hungry and don't mind that I helped myself to the kitchen, I wanted to repay you both.”

Steve entered the kitchen sniffing and grinning at the wonderful smell of bacon that had pulled him from a deep sleep. “Good morning Miss Easton. I trust you slept well.” He studied her for signs that she was still upset. He didn't mention hearing her cry out in the night.

They all sat down to eat and she could tell that they did not eat home cooking too often. From the look of things, it seemed that they mainly survived on leftover pizza and pasta from Tribal.

The conversation was light and easy. Steve began by stating as a matter of fact, “You sure can cook, Melanie! Rob and I have been surviving on Pizza for years, my mouth was watering before I even arrived at the table. There’s absolutely nothing like the smell of bacon in the morning, unless, of course, it’s bacon in the evening.” Steve chuckled at his own lame joke.

Melanie could feel the red creeping up her face warming her cheeks along the way even as she snickered along with Mr. Reynolds. “Thank you, Mr.Reynolds, and thank you for allowing me to stay here a while.” Her eyes lit up with happiness as she continued speaking in a cheerful tone. “ I can’t tell you how much it means to me to have made friends with Robert.” Melanie looked over at Robert then back to his dad. Actually, to find that he has such a nice dad is not such a surprise. I mean he had to have learned to be this sweet from someone.”

Both Steve and Rob blurted out, “Sweet!” Rob continued, “You can’t call a man sweet. It takes away their manliness. Right, Dad?”

Steve had a grin on his face as he watched Rob get himself in deeper and deeper with his opinions. “Well Son, I wouldn’t say it makes us less of a man, it’s just usually called gentlemanly instead of sweet.” His laughter rolled out of him as he tried to control it.

“However, if Melanie wants to call us sweet,” he shrugged, “we will just accept it as a compliment. There are, in fact, worse things to be called.” He looked over to Melanie and winked. “Perhaps Melanie can only call us sweet here at home. Right Melanie?”

After the breakfast dishes were washed she pulled Rob to one side and asked "Did you mean what you said about helping me today?" He assured her he had and with that she hurriedly told him, “I need to return to the apartment and I need to you, to make sure that my mother isn’t around.” Her fingers were fidgeting as she confided in him, “I need to find a document in the apartment. I need to do it without getting caught.”

Her face looked so innocent to Robert he nearly laughed at her guilty expression. He kept his expression deadpan while she spoke. "Think we can do this?”

Rob nodded and assumed a look of a super stealthy sneak thief. “I’m at your service. No one will catch us." Laughing, they headed outside. She felt utter relief, today she knew the task at hand and planned on completing it with her best friend, Rob. Tightening her lips to prevent herself from giggling out loud, because she had never had a best friend, and admittedly, she knew how special it felt to have one.

Rob had become her Best Friend. She had always heard the girls in school saying they were each other’s BFF, now consequently, she knew what a wonderful thing it was to have. So she quoted the girls in school and told him “Rob we’re becoming BFF's! I can just feel it"

Again they snorted in laughter, and Rob replied, "That's hot Paris" in his best Nicole Ritchie voice.

They hopped into his car and once again started over to the edge of Southside where her apartment was located, and without conversation, as they were both lost in thought over what they were facing. Sooner than they imagined they were on her mother’s street and parked a few apartment buildings down. After checking for her mother on the street, they quickly slid out of the car, and rushed to the stoop.

Rob rang the doorbell while Melanie paced nervously next to him. She dreaded the prospect of confronting her mother again this soon. At least not until she had all the pieces together and a course of action planned out. When no one answered, she felt confident once again that on a Saturday night her mother had stayed out all night. Walking side by side they quickly entered the building, climbing the stairs to the third-floor apartment. Unlocking the door, they entered quietly in case she was there and just not yet awake. Sneaking to the bedroom door she peeked in and saw that the bed had not been slept in. She felt that she could relax a tad bit, inasmuch as it was obvious, her mother was definitely not home.

Entering her mother's bedroom, she walked quickly to the closet and began looking for the documents she sought.

Surely her mother would keep them here. “I have seen my mother put things into the closet on several occasions.”

She looked back over her shoulder at Rob then stuck the top half of her body into the dark closet. “You know, after enrolling in school, she would always come into her room. I saw her leaning into the closet last time. True, It has been a couple of years, I feel confident that birth certificates used to get me into school had been stored here.” Melanie felt that it was the only logical place to look in the small apartment.

On the top shelf of the closet was an accordion folder that when she pulled it down she realized that this was exactly what she was seeking. Looking through the papers one at a time, she saw her mother’s birth certificate first, a little black document with white writing on it and she realized that her mother had always been Katherine Easton. Interesting, that means there is no husband. "All this time, I figured she was married." Melanie said aloud , her voice

shaky.

Sitting on the bed with the papers starting to stack higher and higher, she still had not found her own birth certificate.

She had written down the city of birth for her mom and both grandparents’ name and her birth date, hoping that that was all of the important research material she needed. A brilliant idea was forming in her brain. She was hesitant to speak about this idea to Robert until they were safely out of this apartment.

She found her immunization record that was needed at the school and felt that she was getting closer. Again speaking to no one, in particular she announced “I see I received all my shots. It must have been mandatory."

Robert sat close to her and wasn't saying anything. He was watching her face as she read all these documents. She’s finding herself for the first time. She finally has a document with her full name and a state seal on the lower left-hand corner. I’m immensely proud of her. She’s brave, daring, and I’m awestruck by her strength. I want her with me. I want her to stay at my house and never be alone again. God, please let her never be alone again.

“This is it.” Her voice pulled him back to what she was doing. He watched her completely aware of what she was

doing.

"I’m taking this with me.” After all, it’s mine. I will leave her all her tax records.” Mel laughed and started packing up the papers into the accordion file, proud that she had found what she needed to start her search. She had not even taken a moment to read the document. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. She had a lot of work ahead of her.

Robert realized she had not even read the birth certificate. He wondered at her hurry but realized that she was probably afraid that her mom would be returning and she just did not want a confrontation of any kind. After the one, he had heard about yesterday, who could blame her. Looking quickly around for another moment, she found nothing that might tell her any facts about herself, and about who her mother genuinely was. She and Rob headed down to the car. Once they were seated, Melanie allowed herself to read the birth certificate. Father unknown, what the heck did this mean, she wondered to herself. What did that mean? Her mother was only seventeen when she had me and did not know who my father was? What did that say about Mom?

After a moment, she asked aloud what she had been silently thinking, "It says ‘father unknown.’ What can that possibly mean?” Lost in thought, she studied the paper reading all about her family that she did not know. “It says I was born at seven minutes after one in the morning. Mom was probably still out carousing when she began labor.” She laughed a harsh bitter laugh. “Hey, I weighed six pounds and fourteen ounces.” She smiled. “Have you ever seen a real baby before, Rob?”

He shook his head and muttered, “nope, that sounds itty bitty, if you ask me. I’ll bet you were a darling baby with that cute nose of yours and those bright blue eyes. I heard the Science teacher, Mrs. Dodson say that the eyes are overly large on a baby due to the fact that they never grow. They are adult sized eyes in a baby sized face. I know you had massive eyes, if that’s the truth. Do you have any baby and school picture you would like to snag while you’re here?” Rob stopped speaking,He saw Melanie shake her head, slowly from side to side animatedly. He had lost his words. He was a taken aback as it slowly, incredulously, dawned on him, her mother had told her nothing about her own birth. She did know her birthday, didn’t she? He cast side glances at her as she scanned the documents and her notes. No pictures taken of her? Never?