March 28, 2004
"You what?"
Rose looked at Daffodil lazily, displaying the contents of her wallet. The band was on its way out of Arizona, heading northeast to a gig in Chicago, and Rose couldn’t wait to show Daffodil what she had done.
"I changed my name."
"Why? What’s wrong with Rose DeWitt-Bukater?"
"I’m trying to make a break with my past. I have a new ID, social security card, everything."
"How much of it is legal?"
Rose grinned. "Now, that would be telling. Suffice it to say, there’s still a Rose DeWitt-Bukater listed, but she isn’t doing much anymore."
"What did you do? Kill someone?"
Rose jerked, startled, but kept her calm façade. "No, I didn’t kill anyone. I know someone who killed someone else, though."
"Are you hiding from them?"
"I’ve been hiding from them and everyone associated with them for almost a year now."
"So why are you changing your name now?"
"It seemed like a good idea to keep myself hidden, and anyway, I didn’t know how before."
"Ah…yes, that usually makes a difference. So, your new name is…Rose Marie Dawson? Where did you get that? Did you steal someone’s identity?" Daffodil looked at her disapprovingly.
Rose gave her a dirty look. "I didn’t steal anyone’s identity! Rose Marie is my real name, and Dawson…is someone I used to know. I didn’t steal an identity…I just sort of borrowed a name." She had, on rare occasions, mentioned Jack to Daffodil, but never his last name.
"How can you be sure this person you used to know won’t take offense at your ‘borrowing’ their name?"
"I know. Trust me, I know. Nothing can offend them now."
"This wouldn’t happen to be the last name of your late boyfriend Jack, would it?"
Rose turned to glare at her. "Maybe. Maybe not."
"I knew I was right."
"Shut up!” Rose hissed. “Don’t tell anyone. Sometimes you’re too smart for your own good."
"I know." Daffodil smiled lazily, leaning back in her seat beside Rose. "That’s what makes me so special."
"I’m serious, Daffodil. Keep your mouth shut. I don’t want anyone to know."
"You really think the rest of them won’t noticed that you changed your last name?"
"Not if I say that it’s my new stage name."
Daffodil gave Rose an odd look, then patted her on the head.
"Don’t!" Rose quickly smoothed her hair, though it hadn’t been mussed in the first place.
"You really are weird."
Rose gave Daffodil an offended look. "Almost as weird as you."
"No way, Rose. No one comes close to being as weird as me." Daffodil let the insult pass.
"I have already left records of myself in California from after I left, in the county that I came from. I need to make sure that no one traces me."
"Has anyone tried to follow you before?"
"Not that I know of, but still…"
"Paranoia, delusions of being someone else…" Daffodil ticked off the symptoms, not bothering to hide her amusement.
"I’m not crazy!"
Everyone turned to look at her except Tim, who was driving again. "What’s wrong, Rose? Is Daffodil picking on you again?" Jim asked. "Daffodil, what did you do to her? I knew something was up when you two started whispering."
"Nothing at all." Rose stuffed her new IDs back into her wallet.
"Nothing to concern you." Daffodil grinned at Jim, then gave him a shove when he leaned closer to listen in on them.
"Knock it off back there. I’m trying to drive." Tim’s voice, hoarse from his latest episode of coughing, came back to them.
"Why don’t you let me drive, Tim? You sound like you could use a rest."
"I can do it myself, Rose." Tim’s voice was cool.
"Whatever." Rose sat back, stuffing her wallet into her purse. The band had grown more and more at odds with each other over the winter, each person having their own ideas about what music they should perform and how they should go about doing so, with the band splitting up into separate entities—Tim, who resented the fact that he no longer had the control he once had; Angel and Jim, who had threatened to go out on their own; and Rose and Daffodil, whose taste in music was far from popular, even if it did entertain people.
Rose was sorry to see the old camaraderie disappear, but the creative differences amongst the band members were proving divisive, though not as divisive as Tim’s resentment. Once, he had been the stabilizing force amongst the members of Hard Times, but as he grew weaker, the others were asserting themselves more, with their own conflicting ideas about what to do and where to go. Rose suspected that if they couldn’t reach some kind of consensus soon, Chicago would be the end, or near the end, of the band.