THE SURFACE
Chapter Twelve
The next day, Lexi woke up early,
around five AM. She went to the kitchen to make herself breakfast when she
noticed the glow from the computer screen in the other room. Curious, she
walked in and saw Ashley reading something.
"Did you sleep at all last
night?" Lexi asked, yawning.
Ashley jolted at the sound of
Lexi’s voice. "Uh…no. Just about two hours. I couldn’t sleep, wondering
what was with this Hockley guy."
"So, you got up and spent
the entire night on the computer? Gosh, you are a nosy person." Lexi took
the other chair and sat next to Ashley. "What are you reading about?"
"Well, I was chatting with
Gabby, but she was going to Connecticut for break. While I was doing that, I
looked up Hockley and just randomly clicked this link. The rest is
history…literally! Apparently the heir was engaged to Rose. They broke up
briefly before Cal went by a different last name."
"What was it?"
Ashley looked at Lexi.
"Uh…this guy was our great-great-grandfather, Lex."
Lexi gave Ashley a confused look.
"What? No way!"
"Yeah. Calvert."
"Well, what was his first
name again?"
"Caledon." Ashley’s
eyes never left the computer screen.
"Oh, so this guy went by
Caledon Calvert for the rest of his days? Sheesh, how long could that have
lasted before she knew?" Lexi smirked.
"She never did, so we need
to keep figuring out this mystery, Sherlock!" Ashley exclaimed.
"That’s Nancy Drew to
you," Lexi corrected as Ashley rolled her eyes.
"So, from what Rose is
telling us, she had no idea that Calvert was actually Cal? Oh, that sounds so
messed up." Lexi rubbed her eyes tiredly, noticing that she was still in
her oversized pajama top and running shorts she wore to sleep last night.
"Well, I think she should
have taken the hint. Calvert. Calvert, hello?" Ashley waved her arms in
the air, proving her point and taking Lexi’s mind off of what she was wearing.
As for Ashley, she was still dressed in a Hello Kitty tank top and yellow
pajama bottoms. Her hair was also neatly in a ponytail, unlike Lexi, who had
not bothered to do damage control with her hair yet.
Lexi spelled something out on the
board and Ashley grabbed her pen and notebook. "What are you asking?"
"When Cal died. That she
will, without a doubt, know."
There was no answer. Lexi spelled
out the question again, thinking she didn’t understand. What she didn’t know
was that Rose was not sure when he died because she ran away to become an
actress.
I A M N O T S U R E S O M ET I M
E I N T H E 1 9 3 0 ‘ S.
"Aw…come on. How can she not
know when her husband died? I know when my dad died."
"Yes, well, that is a
national anniversary, Ash." Lexi sighed, spelling out another question.
"Now what?" Ashley
asked as she wrote down the letters spelling out the message.
"Asking how she cannot know
that her husband died. That’s ridiculous not to."
I R A N A W A Y A N D B E C A M E
A N A C T R E S S--W E N T B Y R O S E D A W S O N.
"Holy crap! Why didn’t we
ever think of that? I feel so blonde right now. Come on, Ash!"
"But you are red-haired, not
blonde," Ashley said.
"Ugh!" Lexi pulled her
cousin up. "Forget it. It was a stupid comment. Let’s go look up Rose
again!" They ran to the computer room and brought up the Internet, typed
Rose Dawson in the search engine, and randomly clicked a link, bringing up a whole
list of articles dating back to the mid-twenties and thirties. The links looked
as if they had been already clicked from Ashley’s computer.
"Oh, I forgot I was here
last night." Ashley was about to click the back button on the browser.
"Hang on. Click on that one
that’s unclicked." Lexi pointed to an article with the name January
1923 - March 1924. Ashley clicked it and it brought up even more articles.
Once again, Ashley randomly clicked one, and this one had a title of Actress
Rose Dawson Gives Birth to Baby Girl. It went on to tell about Isabella,
Lexi and Ashley’s great aunt.
"Well, that was kind of
stupid. She died a few years ago, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah. Let’s find
another article." Ashley was having a ball learning all about Rose.
"Don’t you think we should
try to find Jack? Come on, Ash. This will always be here," Lexi suggested,
having no idea where to even begin. Ashley bookmarked the page and went to the
yellow pages. Lexi knew that was a really stupid move. "Aw…come on, Ash.
You cannot be serious! How common a name is Jack Dawson?"
"Pretty common," Ashley
answered as she clicked out of the Internet. "So, now what?"
Lexi sat wondering. She had no
idea where to go from here.