America is full of famous cities. LA and its palm trees. Vegas and its slots and half-naked women. Chicago, Atlanta, and San Fransisco. At the very top of them all is New York City.
         Bright lights and sky scrapers. Subways and taxi cabs. Pizza and bagels. The Empire State Building and Lady Liberty. New York City is an iconic landmark in the past, the present, and the future. And we are here.
         All Savannah could talk about was awesome gay bars and cute little studio apartments. All I could think about was this killer traffic. I decided mentally that we were gonna take the train to most places.
          "Okay, super psyched that we're in NYC, but where the hell are we going, Serena?", Savvy asked me after a bit.
"Oh, I was just driving around," I replied, "I thought maybe after a while you'd figure out someplace to go." She laughed.
"Maybe we should call your mom. She said to call her when we get where ever we're going."
I thought it over for a little while and then replied, "Hmm. I guess that's not such a bad idea."
I turned into the parking lot of a music shop. I pulled out my phone and called my mother. I put the phone to my ear and waited for her to pick up.
"Hello?", my mother's voice said. She sounded tired. Worn out.
          "Mom?"
          "Serena?"
          "Mom! Hey!"
           "Hi, baby. How are you?"
           "I'm fine, mom, but what about you?"
         "I could be better, but that doesn't matter right now. Where are you guys?"
          "New York, New York!"
          "Seriously, 'Rena?!"
"Yeah!"
"How is Savannah doing?"
"She really excited to be in New York."
"And how about my little baby girl?"
"Oh I'm doing great, mom."
There was a period of silence on the line.
"I was talking about Ria.", mom said. Now it was my turn to be silent for a bit.
"Oh. Well she's doing fine."
"Well that's good. Have you guys found a place to stay yet?"
"Mom, we got here forty-five minutes ago."
"Oh then you could just stay with my sister. Sure she has work in the day, but I could call her and ask and I'm sure she'd be thrilled to have some company an-" I cut her off.
"You have a sister?"
"Yes."
Mom has a sister? And she lives in New York? I had only met my dad's side of the family. They all live in Georgia. I had known that my mother moved to Georgia to be with my father, but I never knew where from.
"Does she even know I exist? Cause I sure as hell didn't know she existed.", I said, snapping a little.
          "I did not raise you to speak like that, young lady!"
          "I know, and I'm sorry. But why have I never known any of your family members?"
          "We can talk about that later.", she said, "I'll text you Andrea's address an-" she was going to say something else when someone on that side of the line interrupted.
          "Who the hell is on the phone, Diane?" My father.
           "No one, honey." My mother replied. She hung up. I exhaled and leaned back against my seat.
         "What's up?", Savannah asked, concerned. I closed my eyes.
          "Well, apparently I have an aunt I never knew about, and we are to be staying with her until we get a place."
"Well then.", she responded.
"Yeah."
"And how does Mrs. Thomas propose we fine this aunt that we've never seen, talked to, or even heard of in a city of like one million people?", Savvy asked. It was a valid question.
"She said she'd text me the address, but now I'm not so sure." Savannah raised one eyebrow.
"My father came in when we were talking and asked who was on the phone. She told him was no one, but that won't float my father's boat. Maybe he confiscated her phone or something.", I said. 
         "I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He seems to think of his family as his property. As his pets. Animals that he can just-" she stops herself there. She has started to cry. I take of my seatbelt so that I can wrap my arms around her.
          "Listen to me, Savvy, we're away from him now. He can't hurt me anymore. And he wouldn't hurt mom.", I tried my best to sound certain on the last part, but miserably failed. Savannah picked up on it and just looked at me. I looked at her. It was kind of like telepathic communication. I knew what Savvy was thinking,
'Are you sure he won't hurt her?'
And I could tell she knew my answer.
'I'm not really sure of anything right now, but I'm praying he won't.'
We continued looking at each other and having our mental conversation until my phone pinged, telling me that I had received a text. Mom.
          I broke eye contact with Savvy and clicked the messages icon. The text read.
The address for her apartment building is 128 7th Ave. To be frank, she doesn't know you exist so be gentle. And from now on, contact me from this number: 912-348-5670. And be careful out there in the big city. Believe me, I would know.
She would know? What the hell? Mom's been to New York? So, I guess there's a lot of things I don't know about my mother.
"We have a head.", I said.
"Um, what?", Savannah responded.
"Isn't that what like, sailors or pirates say when they have a course or a specific place they're headed for?" At least I thought it was.
"Uh, I don't know. I don't think so......stop being a weirdo and put the address in the google maps thingy.", she replies jokingly.
"Shut up, loser.", I smile at her. She smiles back. I look back down at my phone and type the address into the navigator. The lady starts talking, and I exit the parking lot.
When I was young, I used to protest my parents using the GPS because it was cruel to trap a lady or man inside of a box just so you can get where you're going. It is 2018 now, and I still feel a pang of guilt when I use Google maps.
So, I followed the lady threw the urban scenery. Making small talk with Savvy. Ria had fallen asleep before we even got to NYC, and she still had not woken so Savannah had to reach back and make sure she was still alive. She was. I guess a playpen doesn't make for the best night sleep. I kind of felt bad. Savvy and I had this gigantic, amazingly comfortable hotel bed, while little Ria slept in a playpen.
It was five-o-seven when we finally arrived at 128 7th Ave. Savannah looked at the classy building.
"Looks like your aunt's got cash.", she said. We parked in a parking garage nearby and got out. We walked back to the building. When we were standing right in front of it, I could see that Savannah was probably right.
This was one of those buildings where you press the button to call them down. I looked at the millions of buttons. I don't know the room number, but luckily I picked up mom's maiden name in my early years. She always used it when she was doing or buying something she didn't want dad to know about. There were last names as well as room numbers on the button, but what if she's married? That poses more problems than one. I decided to take a stab at mom's maiden name. Unfortunately, they were in numerical order by their room number and not in alphabetical order. Sigh.
I looked through the the rows for Murphy. And now another problem. There were several Murphys on the list. I pulled my phone back out and called mom on the new number. She picked up on the fourth ring.
"Hi, Serena. What's up?"
"What on earth is her apartment number."
"Just look for J. Murphy."
Oh. I had not previously realized that there were the initials of their first name as well.
"Okay," I replied, "What exactly is her name?"
"Julia. Julia Murphy."
"Okay, bu-", I started, but mom interrupted me.
"I know you have questions, 'Rena, but I have to go now. Call me later tonight. Try ten thirty, and if I don't answer, try again at twelve. Okay, bye sweetie, love you." Then she hung up. She sounded rushed. I guess dad got home.
"Alright. We are looking for a J. Murphy. Julia Murphy.", I informed Savannah. I scrolled down the list until I found J. Murphy. I placed my finger on the button but hesitated.
"What's wrong?", Savvy asked when she noticed I wasn't pressing the button.
"What if we did all this work, and she doesn't let us up? What if she doesn't want us to stay with her?", I ask her.
"This is The Big Apple, Peaches. There's no room for doubt."