Where Is Araminta Green? (ONC 2024)

Chapter 6: In Between

The landscape whooshed by outside the train window, steeped in pale yellow morning light. Jordan yawned as low sun rays hit his still-sleepy eyes. He'd been up since five a.m. this morning to catch the early train, allowing him to arrive at the university before 9 a.m. to attend the planned seminar. Since all students had started their projects now, Professor Carrigan wanted them all to gather to discuss their experiences so far and guide them on how to proceed.

His parents had offered him to use their car to travel but Jordan preferred the comfortable limbo state of rail travel. In between where he had been and where he wanted to be, he felt surprisingly at ease, freed from the pressure of needing to do anything. Surmising that there was still an hour left of the train ride, Jordan figured he could use the in-between time for something more useful than gazing out the window while listening to the soothing voice of Ira Glass in his earphones.

The mysterious grave in the cemetery was still on his mind. Among all the things he couldn't make sense of—the cottage in the woods, Esme's magical wisdom, Kiki's uncanny ability to guide him in his quest, the crow that kept appearing—the grave made the least sense out of them all. Who was the woman buried there? What was her connection to Araminta? And who had left the flower on her grave?

Jordan pulled up his phone, browsing to the picture he'd taken of the grave. He'd looked at it many times by now, needing to repeatedly confirm that what he'd seen had been real. It hadn't just been a warped dream. But this time, his reason for finding the image was different. This time, it was about research. Because a grave was data and data could be investigated. This was the part of journalism that Jordan excelled at, even his self-critical mind could admit his strength there. He loved digging through knee-deep archives to find that one piece of information that made everything fall into place.

Having a name and a date of death should be enough for him to find an obituary. And an obituary may contain further clues. So Jordan browsed to the website of his town's local newspaper. He was relieved to not be stopped by a paywall when he entered the archive of previous issues.

There was no search function, which meant that Jordan was forced to manually browse page after page of tomes to honor the dead. He started on the date listed to be the day Araminta Lee passed away, figuring the obituary should be listed sometime in the following weeks.

So many fates blinked past his screen. People who had been blessed with lived long lives and people who were taken in their prime. Jordan tried not to get lost in emotion when faced with the tragedy of those who left way too soon, some even younger than him. He couldn't help but wonder if Araminta Green was among them, even though her passing had never been declared. But deep down, he didn't believe that to be true. He believed in Esme. He believed Araminta's flame still flickered. Somewhere. It was probably just his imagination playing tricks on him, but Jordan could even sense the flicker himself when he thought of Araminta.

Esme had after all said powers, akin to magic, were in everyone. But was anything she had said true, or did Jordan just want to believe in her ramblings because it ignited hope in him that Araminta could still be found in the mortal world?

Lost in conundrums, Jordan almost missed what he was looking for. His cursor hovered right over the name, about to browse to the next page, when he realized what was right in front of him.

"Araminta Virginia Lee. Born in 1928. Died in 2020. Grieved by her sister Esmeralda Georgia Lee."

The pieces came together. Esmeralda must be Esme's full name. The grave was risen in remembrance of the sister that the old woman had spoken of, whom Araminta had helped when she was unwell.

But new pieces remained to place in the puzzle that was Araminta's life and disappearance, because why had she and the old woman shared a first name? Surely it couldn't just be a coincidence. And who had left the recently picked flower on the grave? Perhaps it could be Esme, even if she didn't seem to leave her cottage very often, but that certainly didn't explain why the same flower had been brought to Jordan by a crow.

Jordan wished he had someone to share his findings with, someone who would care as much as him.

Someone like Derek. But Jordan didn't want to bother his classmate, who understandably hadn't commented on the last episode yet, since it had only been released the night before. It was too much to expect someone Jordan barely knew to drop everything the moment he dropped new content. However, that notion hadn't stopped Jordan from checking if Derek had left a comment in his channel about a dozen times already. Which was ridiculous, since he would get a notification if that happened. But what if the notifications were broken?

Jordan leaned his forehead against the train window, trying to focus on anything but his phone while cursing himself for being so damn needy. He was no one to Derek, just a classmate whom he had decided to humor with kind comments. Jordan was no one to anyone. And if he ever was someone to anyone, surely his desperate neediness would scare them away.

But he still couldn't help almost jolting out of his seat when his phone buzzed, alerting him of a notification. Quickly, he checked the screen, preparing himself that it would just be information about subscription bundles from his favorite mind-numbing zombie game or perhaps a spam email trying to lure him into the arms of foreign women. Considering that he had already cleared every level of the zombie game and had little to offer even local women, he was not interested in either of these things.

Luckily, it wasn't a subscription alert or spam. Neither was it a message from Derek. It was something Jordan hadn't expected.

A message from Christine Green. The woman he'd contacted on Facebook, hoping she was a relative of Araminta.

"Hi Jordan," she wrote. "I am actually a sister of Araminta's, so it's heartwarming to hear that she is still on your mind. Not knowing what happened to her has broken my family in many ways, but we all try to cope the best we can. I will be in the area next weekend and I would be willing to talk to you for your podcast if you like. Get back to me and we can decide on a time and place."

This was a breakthrough Jordan hadn't expected. A sister. Jordan hadn't even known Araminta had siblings. Although judging from Christine's profile picture she was at least ten years older than her sister, so her having already left the nest when Jordan and his family moved in wasn't that odd.

If there was anyone who could tell Jordan what may have led Araminta to be walking alone through the cemetery that morning, it was Christine. She would know where Araminta came from, even if she didn't know where her sister was heading.