“I’m not talking about things I’ve learned in the program,” Merletta cut her friend off. “I’m talking about things I’ve discovered for myself.”
“What kind of things?”
Merletta hesitated again. “What if…what if, for example, land wasn’t as dangerous as we’ve been told? What if it could actually help us?”
Tish’s eyes flicked past Merletta’s shoulder, and Merletta broke off, following her friend’s gaze to the window.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know,” said Tish, sounding nervous. “I thought I saw movement, but no one swims past this high up. It would be incredibly rude.”
“I should go,” said Merletta, her heart speeding up. She cast her mind back over all she’d said. What would the consequences be for Tish if someone had overheard them? For her?
“It was good to see you,” said Tish, touching her arm gently. “And don’t let it worry you if you haven’t learned everything yet. You haven’t even finished your first year.” She gave a wry smile. “It’s hardly surprising they don’t keep written accounts of their most important information. They would hardly want their precious records being read by any old orphan.”
She spoke jokingly, but the words sparked something in Merletta’s memory. She had forgotten about Jacobi’s comments in the records hall, distracted first by the excitement of Sage’s news, and then by her alarm over her lost satchel. But they came back to her now.
“Hey, speaking of orphans, have you ever heard anything about something called ‘orphan records’?”
Tish shook her head. “I doubt there’d be records about us, Mer. We’re not nearly important enough.”
“You might be surprised,” said Merletta vaguely. “They keep records about all kinds of mundane things in the Center, like harvest reports on the kelp farms, that kind of thing.”
Tish shrugged. “Well, I’ve never heard of something like that, but then I wouldn’t have, would I?”
Merletta nodded thoughtfully. “I guess not. Thanks, Tish. Don’t work too hard.”
Her friend smiled noncommittally. “If you say so.”
* * *
Despite her curiosity, it was another week before Merletta remembered to actually chase down the so-called orphan records.
But when she found herself studying alone late one night, her attention wandered away from her work for long enough to remember the unexamined corner of the records hall that Jacobi had pointed to. She drifted across the room, sorting methodically through the records until she found what she was looking for.
“Huh,” she muttered, running her eyes over the words Orphan Records. “He was actually telling the truth.”
She leafed through a stack, looking for the familiar name of her own charity home. It had been around longer than she’d realized. The list of names covered many leaves. She sighed as she saw recent scratches on the bottom. New children being abandoned to an experience like hers. It was a depressing thought.
Her eyes caught on a familiar name, and she read Letitia’s details with interest. Her mother’s name was there, and her date of birth. Merletta remembered Tish telling her that no one had even known who her father was. Not an uncommon story at the home, sadly. There were symbols alongside, and a quick check of the covering leaf for that particular bundle showed that they were used as a code, giving a brief summary of the circumstances surrounding her adoption into the home.
Looking up and down the page, Merletta saw that some names were underlined, and those names usually had few or no symbols next to them. Referring back to the cover leaf, she realized those were the children who’d been abandoned at the doorstep of the home. Also not that uncommon. That was her own story.
She was younger than Tish, and she ran her finger down the leaf, looking for her own entry.
Merletta. There it was, with her date of birth alongside. It was strange to see herself recorded, like her whole existence came down to that one line on a page.
She looked again, her forehead creasing. That couldn’t be right. Her name wasn’t underlined like it should be. Her eyes widened as they passed along the line. There were no parents named, but the leaf looked damaged. In fact, there was a whole section that was bruised and blotted, as though someone had dropped a chisel on it or something. The part where parents should be listed wasn’t legible, on her entry, or several either side. But she could see that something had been there.
Her heart raced, this latest revelation robbing her of breath. Was it possible this was another lie the home had told her? That she hadn’t been abandoned after all? But why? The answer to that came easily enough. The head had hated her so much she wouldn’t have needed a reason to lie to her about something like this.
Merletta dropped the record like it had stung her. Her thoughts were in such a whirl that she barely saw where she was going as she swam from the records hall. She wouldn’t be getting any more study done tonight.
* * *
Merletta floated absently toward the round table in the dining hall. It had been days, but her thoughts were still caught up on her discovery in the orphan records.
It took her a moment to notice the tense edge to the buzz of conversation before her. But suddenly she realized the reason. Everyone was always very distracted on a test day, and today had been Jacobi’s.