Light as a Feather

Chapter Eighteen

        Not wanting to lose any precious time, Annabelle went straight into her bedroom and pulled out her laptop. She plugged it in, knowing the search was going to take a while. After entering her password, her bright wallpaper popped up. It was a picture of a rainbow that she had taken when she was about seven, and for some reason, that always calmed her. She clicked the Google Chrome button and entered www.facebook.com in the address bar. She logged in, and then searched for "Lionel James." A few responses came up, but none of them looked like Lionel, and she knew because her mother had shown her a picture of him. After clicking through about a hundred people, she sighed and put her head down on the table. Annabelle had known that this task would be difficult, but she didn't know what else to do. Then a thought occured to her. It was small, but after she thought about it, she ran out of her room to find her mother.

        She was sitting in the living room and watching TV. Annabelle knew that this was something she only did when she was very stressed, and she felt a pang of guilt. But she brushed it off, and bounced on the comfy couch. Her mom didn't look at her.

        "Mom, did Lionel ever have a girlfriend?"

        "Yes, now that you mention it. I think her name is... Grace? Yeah. That's right. Grace." Her tone had no emotion.

        "Last name?"

        "I'm not sure. Something that starts with an L." She said it as if she was reciting an order at Burger King.

        "Thank you!" Annabelle said. She ran back up the stairs and plopped onto her bed where her laptop was. Her thought was that if she searched for his girlfriend, maybe she would find out where he lived by seeing if her relationship status was updated. She searched for Grace and then put an L after the first name, and looked at the results. She saw a ton of Grace's with a last name starting with L, but they all lived in her area. She frowned and typed, "utah" in the search bar. It pulled up even more results. 

        She filtered through all of them. On about the fifteenth Grace L., she saw that she did, in fact, have a relationship status update. Feeling excited, she clicked on it. It said that she was in a relationship with a Lionel J., but he wasn't tagged, which made sense because he didn't have a Facebook that Annabelle could find. She grinned and looked at where she lived. Her account wasn't set to private, so she could see it. It said, "Lives in St. George, Utah."

        Annabelle bounded down the stairs again and said, "Mom, I think I found him!"

        Her mom didn't react much. "How?" she asked.

        "There's a Grace Langley who is in a relationship with a Lionel J., and she is currently living in St. George, Utah!"

        "Hmm. That does sound promising. But that's so weird. St. George gets really hot, and Lionel really hates the heat."

        "That's even better!" Annabelle exclaimed. "That means he's probably trying not to be found!"

        Her mom smiled. "I think you may be right." Even though she smiled, she still looked sullen.

        "I have to go get ready to go," Annabelle said. She turned to leave, but then she saw her mother's face. It was sad and lonely. She immediately fell into her arms as if she were a little girl who had gotten an "owie."

        "I wish I could do this for you, but I know I can't. You're getting older."

        Annabelle smiled. "Mommy, I do need your help with some things. Honestly, I'm nervous, too, but what am I supposed to do?"