Looking for Answers

"What is that?" Anna asked. Both girls had decided it would be best to rest for awhile after the long walk home from campus. Ashling laid the thick organizer across her legs. Random colors of sticky notes popped from every side while each page was covered in black marks, yellow highlights, and colored papers.

"My organizer," Ashling flipped to the current date.

"Seriously?" Anna hopped onto Ashling's mattress, "That thing is huge! What all do you put in that?"

"Everything of importance that I need to remember," Ashling begun writing as her roommate attempted to read the colored ink that took over the page.

"Why?" Anna asked.

"Because, while I may be able to see things that will happen, I have often found that seeing the past can be quite the challenge. Part of the tradeoff i suppose," Ashling finished, closed her organizer, and tossed it on top of her cluttered desk.

"Yeah, I've noticed," Anna teased, "So, you don't remember anything from the past?"

"Well, I remember everything I learned before obtaining...well whatever you'd call what I have. Other than that...let's just say you'd be surprised what the power of observation can provide. For instance, I know you're my roommate despite the fact that I don't ever remember meeting you because the key attached to the strap of your backpack has the same numbers engraved in it as the key I carry," Ashling pointed to Anna's keys while pulling her own out of her pocket.

"I'm Anna. We've actually met...many times," Anna reminded Ashling.

"I will never remember that," Ashling smiled.

"This could get really interesting," Anna jumped from Ashling's bed and back onto her own.

"So, where do we go from here?" Ashling moved the silver metal slinky from her nightstand back and forth between her hands. She had no explanation for it, but ever since she was a child, this simple little toy had calmed her nerves.

"I think it's time we found out more about our pasts...our family...our parents," Anna began lightly bouncing a bright yellow tennis ball from the ceiling into the palms of her hands. All semester the neighbors above them had been driving Anna crazy with their heavy walking and loud unexpected thuds that shook the entire dorm room.

"How do we do that? I grew up in the system," Ashling reminded her roommate.

"I don't know. I don't know much either. I tried to ask my adoptive parents about my real parents once, but that didn't go so well," Anna trailed off as a quiet spell overcame the room, amplifying the sound from above, "They gotta have records and whatnot."

"Who?" Ashling questioned.

"The place where you grew up," Anna answered, "It's required right? Can't you ask to see those files?"

"They're locked and sealed. It was a closed adoption. I tried to get a peek once when I was younger, but the director, Mr. Watson, caught me. He said no one's allowed that kind of information," Ashling explained.

"Well...we could accept that, or..." Anna sat up turning her body towards Ashling.

"Or what?" Ashling was hesitant. The look on her roommate's face indicated that only trouble lie ahead.

"Or we could just get the information ourselves," Anna finished.

"You want to break into the orphanage?" Ashling clarified her roommate's request.

"I am tired of unanswered questions," Anna defended, "Up until I met you, I always thought I was alone...that I was some sort of freak or something. But now...seeing what you can do...maybe we're not the only ones. Maybe there's a whole group of people out there just like us. Don't you want to know where you came from? Why you are the way you are?"

The effects of her ability had never really bothered Ashling, probably because she was never able to remember them. Yet, now, sitting here with her roommate in their home, Ashling could see all those effects in her roommate's eyes. Somehow, for the first time since receiving her ability, Ashling was able to sense those feelings too.

"Well, we'll have to map quest it. Lord knows I don't remember how to get there," Ashling caved. Anna smiled and jumped from the bed to prepare for their road trip.