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Chapter 7 continued...

XL turned to Florence. "Maybe we can help you to find Fred and Susan. I have some ideas."

"Oh my, it would be nice if you could," she replied. "But I don't think you will find them, neither in this village nor in the city. Some time ago when I was thinking about what happened and feeling badly about it, I tried to find my son and daughter in the phone book. There was no listing for either of them. They have never tried to contact me, and nor have I seen them at any time when I was shopping in the city. No, I think I have lost them forever."

"Have you lived in this same house since they left?" asked Beeba. "Maybe they will find you someday."

"Oh, perhaps, but it has already been several years," answered Mrs. Rose.

XL pulled a camera out of his pocket that he kept with him whenever he travelled. "Is it O.K. if I take a few pictures of these photos of them?" he asked. "It might help us to find them."

"Certainly you may," she replied.

At that point Anna joined in the conversation. "XL, I think you should also copy that one, which shows Mrs. Rose with them." Then turning to Florence, she added, "Do you give us permission to put that picture where they might see it, or to show it to them if we find them?"

"You may put those pictures anywhere you want," Florence answered. "I want to see them so much that it wouldn't embarrass me if you plastered a giant photo on a billboard or put it on TV. However, I don't think it will help, and I don't want to put you to a lot of trouble."

"That's O.K." said XL as he bent over the album, snapping photos. "Maybe nothing will come of this, but there are a few things we can try."

XL soon finished. Then XL, Beeba, Anna, and Max said their good byes, walked out to the van, and departed.

Max drove Anna to take care of her errand, and then they all headed back for the city.

"I like mysteries," said Beeba Boeboo. "I'll bet the famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, could find Fred and Susan if he were still alive."

"He never was alive," said Anna. "He's just a fantasy."

"Seriously!" said Beeba. "The next thing you'll tell me is that there is no Tooth Fairy. And just when I have a loose tooth!"

"This isn't going to need a detective," said XL, ignoring the tooth fairy comment. "We will be our own detectives!"

"That's a good idea" said Max as he drove the car. "Why don't you start by doing a 411 search, XL? Take the cell phone from my coat pocket."

XL took the cell phone and turned on the data access. He did a "411" phone directory search of the entire country for "Susan Rose" and "Fred Rose". There were no hits for Susan Rose, but he found three hits in different cities for Fred Rose.

"Maybe Susan got married and uses her husband's surname now," said Beeba. "In that case it might be easiest to find Fred first."

"I feel kind of awkward to phone up three different Fred Roses to ask if his mom's name is Florence," said XL. "But I guess I'll do it if I have to."

"There may be another way," said Max. "Wait until we get home."

When they arrived at the home of Max, XL, and Anna, they all went into the study. Max turned on the computer. "We'll do a social media search," he said. "Sometimes people post their names and photos on sites like Facebook or LinkedIn. I have accounts on several popular sites. Let's have a look."

Max checked a variety of sites and within a few minutes he had a match. "Look here!"

Anna, XL, and Beeba all looked at the picture on the screen. "It's Fred!" they exclaimed.

XL pulled out his camera and flipped through the pictures on the back-panel screen. Sure enough, they had found a person who matched the photo from the album.

"It says here that he lives on Blarney Island," said Beeba. "Is that a real place?"

"Yes it is," said Anna. "There is a resort village on the island. It was named that as kind of a joke."

"You can get there and back in a day, if you take Saucer 1," said XL's dad.

"Wow, wouldn't it be cool if we could take Florence for a re-union with her son!" said XL.

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.