Searching for Yesterday Read Online Free

through every day not knowing whether she ever even gives me a thought. That’s the hardest part — wondering if she might have just put me out of her mind completely. And, sometimes ...”
    As her voice trailed off I stayed silent, not wantingto push it, even though I was curious. And then she coughed, clearing her throat, and went on.
    â€œSometimes I wonder if she might have other children. For all I know, she could have met someone after she and Lenny broke up, and got married and had a whole new family.”
    â€œWere your parents married?”
    â€œNo. I don’t even know who my father is. I asked a few times when I was a little kid, but my mom always said she’d tell me about him when I got older.”
    â€œYour grandmother didn’t know?”
    â€œI asked her once, when she was still having some good days, but Nanny said my mother never told her, either. I’ll probably never know who he is.”
    â€œThat must be hard.”
    â€œIt’s weird, really. I look at guys sometimes, guys who are probably around my mom’s age, and try to see if there’s any resemblance. But it’s not like I could just walk up to someone and say, “Hey, Mister. I can’t help noticing that we have the same hair and eyes. Think you might be my father?’”
    â€œYeah, I can see that there’d be problems with that.”
    She smiled — just a little at first, but it spread and grew and then she began to laugh. “Can you imagine, some poor guy walking along minding his own business, suddenly getting called “Daddy’ by some crazy teenage girl?”
    â€œI’m thinking a little research might be a betterapproach,” I said, laughing with her.
    â€œYou think research could actually help me find my, uh ... one of my parents?”
    I wondered which parent she’d been about to say. Probably her mother, since she was the one Annie knew. On the other hand, we had just been talking about her father. Either way, I told her it was certainly possible.
    â€œEven after all this time?”
    â€œThere’s always information out there somewhere,” I told her, feeling my pulse quicken with excitement at the thought of a new mystery to look into. “It’s just a matter of figuring out how to find it.
    â€œJust one thing, though. If you decide that you want to go ahead with this, I’d like your permission to talk to Greg about it. I promise it wouldn’t go any further. See, I don’t want to have to hide things from him — it’s been a problem for us in the past.”
    â€œI guess that would be okay,” she said after a slight pause. “Are you sure he won’t say anything to anyone?”
    â€œYou can trust Greg one hundred percent,” I said.
    â€œOkay,” Annie said. “I wouldn’t want you to have to sneak around and hide things from him.”
    â€œAwesome!” I told her. “So, let’s do it!”
    Annie nodded. Then she jumped up from the edge of her bed and crossed the room to the chair I was occupying. She leaned down and gave me a quick hug. Her face was flushed and her eyes shining.
    â€œLet’s do it!” she echoed.

C HAPTER F IVE
    Annie stared at the list I’d made for a moment before saying anything. When she did speak, her only comment was, “It’s kinda short, isn’t it?”
    â€œThat’s true,” I admitted. “But this is just a beginning. It will grow — honest.”
    I hoped I sounded a lot more confident than I felt. Looking down at the page in my notebook, I could see why Annie hadn’t exactly been impressed. Following a cold trail was new to me, and all I’d been able to come up with were a few weak ideas. The list read:
    1) Talk to Lenny
    2) Talk to Gina Berkley’s old friends (Annie had told me that her mom’s name was Gina.)
    3) Find out where Gina worked and talk to her former co-workers, if