Inciting Investigations

Chapter 19

Birdy Anders

Birdy waited anxiously again for Sarah to pick up. She had only talked to her a handful of times, yet she still felt like she had to make a good impression on her. Maybe it was just because she didn’t want her to change her mind and not take Birdy with her for the next phase of the investigation. Sure, maybe it was a bit risky to call her while she was driving, but so what. Birdy really needed to confirm the details of what they would be doing.

“Hey kid. I’m about three hours away. Are you all packed and everything?” Birdy felt relief swell in her chest that she was still involved. She didn’t want to be cut out from this.

Birdy eyed her backpack that currently had nothing in it. “Oh, yeah. I’m just finishing up.” She still had three hours to get everything she needed in there. She would be fine.

“Great. The flight is gonna be a long one, so I recommend you bring a book or something, kid.” Sarah said.

“Okay…are you sure these plane tickets aren’t too much of a cost? This seems like it would cost a lot of money.” Birdy added.

“Kid, I’ve been saving up cash since the day that I started this investigation years ago, I can afford this. Don’t worry about that. Just worry about keeping yourself safe and getting back home.”

“Okay, yeah. I can do that.” Birdy tried not to let any worry slip into her voice, neither from what she was going to do in three hours nor from her own struggles in her personal life.

“Alright, what’s wrong, kid? Don’t deny it, I can hear it in how you’re speaking.” Apparently, she wasn’t as good as she thought in masking her emotions away from the woman.

“Nothing, really. It’s just some personal stuff.” Birdy tried to act nonchalant about it.

“Okay, do you wanna talk about it?” Sarah asked, “Because I’ll listen. My advice might not be the best, but I can listen, kid.”

‘Why not,’ Birdy thought to herself.

“It’s just, well, it’s kinda stupid, but, you know. Just teenage stuff. Like, all of my friends are going off and dating and researching colleges and all that stuff and…I don’t know. I guess that I just feel a bit left behind while they’re all figuring themselves out.” Birdy sighed.

“Kid, I hate to break to you, but that’s normal. I guarantee you that not a single one of your friends actually had their life together in the way that you probably think they do. They probably feel just as left behind as you do. Finding the right college, or whatever you wanna do after high school, is hard. Figuring yourself out, it’s hard. Okay? I mean, even for the whole dating and falling in love thing, do you genuinely think that any of the people that your friends are with right now are gonna be there forever? No, you’re teens. All of that is supposed to be messy and completely unserious. Besides, some people don’t even ever fall in love in general, kid. I’m twenty-two, and I still have yet to find any romantic partner that makes me as happy as sitting in a neatly made bed with a fresh coffee and my cat.” Sarah said and paused before continuing. “The point I’m trying to make with this whole stupid speech is that you shouldn’t take things too seriously. No one has their life fully together at any age. You just learn how to deal with it better as you get older.”

Birdy wasn’t sure what to say to that. She wasn’t sure how much she would actually do what Sarah had said, but it was still useful, she guessed. She just still wasn’t sure what to do.

“You know, for someone who says that she’s horrible at giving advice, that was pretty damn good.” Birdy waited for a response.

There came a laugh from the other side of the line before Sarah spoke again. “Yeah, thanks, kid.”