[ WP ] Raised by a single parent , you find your other parent after several years of searching .


 I work as a cashier at a small grocery store in rural Iowa. It's not the most glamorous of jobs, but that and some state aid meant my bills were covered. It was n't the future I always dreamed of, but it was survival. 
 
 My mother ran off when I was only three. She'd gone out for groceries and never came back. There'd been a massive search for her, and many thought she'd been kidnapped or murdered. Her story was once featured on tv as an unsolved mystery. 
 
 My father died last year. Heart attack. I'd call it more of a broken heart than anything. He always had this air about him that he was waiting for something, maybe waiting for her to come back, just walk through the door. It did n't happen. 
 
 I turned 18 a few months after he passed. My dad's habit sitting in the kitchen every night, waiting for someone to knock at the door passed to me. 
 
 Sometimes I'd do google searches. I'd make my rounds to Spokeo, Intelius, Peoplesmart.... the list goes on and on. You could literally find anyone there, but not my mom. Not under her birthday, her places of residence... nothing. These places would even sell supposedly private social media information. You could find anything out about anyone with them. All the popular goldmines of information for stalkers, creeps, businesses who had no ethics -and people like me. 
 
 I would have hired an investigator, but the ones I could afford were unlicensed and extremely iffy on the morality scale. I wanted to find her, but not enough to deal with that kind of lowlife, even if they were a dime a dozen. Half of them had no problem not looking for anyone and charging you anyway. The other half had no problem breaking into people's homes. If they'd do that for a client, what's to stop them from doing it to a client? 
 
 Did my birth leave me with the right to hunt her down? But what if she really was hurt? Or what if she was suffering from amnesia? Deep down, though, I just wanted to know why. I was sure she'd left, and it hurt. 
 
 Tonight was the anniversary of the day dad died, and I hurt for him, too. I missed him. I'd even scraped together enough money to leave flowers on his grave. He might not still be there, but it was my way of showing respect. The people of the town were still there, and I wanted them to know how much I loved him. His wife may have abandoned him, but even after his death, I never would. He deserved so much more. 
 
 I grabbed the flowers and headed out the door. It would take a half hour to walk to the cemetery, and it was near closing time. I was sure I could make it, but I would n't have a long time. 
 The half hour flew by and I found myself at dad's headstone in no time. I carefully laid the orchids down and sat on the grass in front of it. It was as close as I could get to him, but it still felt a million miles away. I leaned forward and put both hands on the stone and thought about him, in silence. 
 
 “ Hello dear, ” a female voice said from behind the stone. I looked up in shock. It was her. Memories came flooding back. She did n't look a day older than she had when she left. My hand went over my mouth and I choked on my feelings. There were too many. It was like being drowned in a hurricane. 
 
 Before I could even start to get a grip on things, she reached out and grabbed my arm. We were surrounded with a flash of light. I had n't had the sense to close my eyes, so it took a few minutes before I could see. 
 
 My mother guided me to a chair and had me sit down and said, “ I know this is a lot to take in, Katelyn, but you are on a ship right now. Please just listen. I did n't leave your dad, and I did n't leave you. I was taken. Where I come from, it's not acceptable to have relationships with humans, even if we do heavily resemble them. It did n't matter how incredible your father was, they just would n't allow it. I served my time. I never told them about you, because they would have taken you, too. You would have been considered an abomination – a half breed there, but not on Earth. ” 
 
 My vision started to come back and I looked up at her violet eyes. They really were real. I'd always thought I'd imagined them being that color. My own eyes were like my father's, brown. 
 
 “ Things have changed a lot since then. Our home planet was destroyed and we've found ourselves wanderers. It was only after that the scientists discovered we are one and the same race, just separated by thousands of years. After the Great Disaster, many fled to Earth and have done as I have. Sentience has become more important than race. You can now be accepted as one of us. ” 
 
 I was still dumbfounded and wondering if this was some sort of dream, so I just listened and soaked it all in. 
 
 “ I'm sorry I was n't there for your father, ” she said, tears welling up in her eyes, “ and I'm sorry I was n't there to see you grow, but I'd like to be here now if you'll have me. ” 
 
 She leaned in and cupped my face in her hand, “ Katelyn, would you join me in the stars? I used to be an explorer, and due to our new circumstances, they've given me the opportunity to train you, myself. Earth is beautiful, but there is so much more to see. ” 
 
 -- - 
 I ca n't help but feel like someone else could have done it better, and hopefully they will, but it was my best try at what you were hoping for. 
 
 ( Edit: Sorry, copied your writing prompt note and wrote this in Open Office before copying and pasting it back on the site. Just realized and deleted it ). 
 
 
 

