Unseen

-23-

"Paige Samuels, Paige Samuels..." James mumbles, reading the results. "I don't think this is you. Do you have Facebook?" he asks.

"What's Facebook?" I ask back and he just mumbles some gibberish.

"LinkedIn?" I just stare at him with blank eyes and he chuckles. "Thought so. Twitter?"

"Is that like a virtual pet? Like Tamagotchi?" I ask and he laughs louder this time.

"No, it's a social network. But I think you... passed away... before all these were created so it clearly isn't you. Why do you have such common name, Paige? You're not making this easy."

"What? Would you prefer if I were named Petronila Leopolda Eustanaquia de las Mercedes?" Now it's James watching me with a blank expression. He doesn't even know how to react to my suggestion. "Mum watches Latin-American soap operas," I explain and this time he laughs out loud, almost losing it and I just smile sheepishly.

"I don't think that name suits you, but oh well, we need to keep doing this," he remembers and types again, this time adding my middle name but the results are basically the same. Other people's social accounts, even if I have no clue what these are and how they work. Furthermore, these are all recent results, people that are still alive.

"What if you add like the year I died?" I suggest and he tries that but the results aren't much different.

James tries other words, like 'Paige Samuel's death', or 'Paige Samuels bullying' and even 'Paige Samuels Strode College' but nothing shows up.

"In films it always looks so easy. They type what they are curious about and the first result is exactly what they need. What a scam," I pout, folding arms and everything because we've been more than twenty minutes at this with no results whatsoever. I have seen, however, many other girls with my name, and they all look so happy and young. Some others have lives and families and jobs, and here I am, a ghost. "Google isn't magic."

"I think we need something more specific to find an article that might or might not exist. I'm not sure if an article written fifteen years ago will be online, specially if it was covered by a local newspaper."

"I feel cheated. I will not believe what I see in films anymore," I continue and James chuckles again. I try to think how we can narrow down our research considering my name won't give us anything. And then I remember something. "I died at seventeen. I was still a minor, which means an article can't even use my name, right? They have to use my initials."

"Well, that certainly narrows it down, Paige," James says with a derisive tone and my head snaps to glare at him.

"Are you being sarcastic, James Black?" I ask, my voice dangerously dark and his expression changes completely to a more concerned, even embarrassed one, I daresay.

"No?" I can't help it, I laugh at his hesitant and careful tone, and for a moment I feel this urge just to bump shoulders with him, let him know I was just teasing him somehow, but I stop myself before I can make contact. "Anyways, if that's the case then we won't find anything using your name. Maybe focusing on college instead of you. Maybe we can't find exactly an article about your accident but another more recent that will connect with your case."

"Can you actually find that?" I ask because he's said many times his searching skills are very lacking.

"I can try," he replies with a shrug and I sigh.

And there he goes again, trying to find anything that can tell us what exactly happened to me. The best way would be to ask someone who was alive back then, like Mum or maybe the principal, if he's the one still in charge. But I'm too scared what might happen to Mum if someone suddenly came asking about me. So we have to try this, even if it's more futile than all the other things we've tried before.