On the road again

The four girls piled into Alexia's car again, and started on their way to Columbia.
"Where in Columbia do you think we should start?" Ela asked the other three. "I'm not very familiar with...well, anything there. Maybe if there's a cemetery from that time period, we could try to get a full name."
Alexia and Allie started discussing various locations in Columbia, with the occasional input from Kayralynn. Ela stared out the window and eventually drifted off into sleep.
"There are so many places. Like Longstreet," Allie claimed, slightly exasperated. "If we had a little more to go on, we might be able to narrow it down to a place."
"I wish I had some way of finding out more about this C.A.O. person," Kayralynn agreed. "You know, the 'O' might be for O'Shaunessy. I think that was a family name, way back when."
"Hmmm...Looking at all the head stones in a cemetery would take forever," Allie thought. "But now that we have a potential last name, we could try to dig up some obituaries or something. What do you think, dork? You're never this quiet." Allie waited for Ela to respond but got not answer.
Kayralynn, who was sitting in the back next to Ela, snickered and poked her in the side.
"Ehhhmmm?" Ela mumbled.
"We were thinking of looking up some obituaries. Kayralynn thinks she remembers a potential last name!" Allie exclaimed.
"Yeah," Ela yawned. "That sounds," yawn, "...good."
"Okay, kiddies. We're here!" Alexia claimed.

...

Sorry guys, I couldn't really think of much. Like I said, I know nothing about Columbia. I even tried to research some place that we could go to - but to no avail. I dunno. I tried. I can delete it if no one likes it.

Kay - I'm not sure if you ever decided what you wanted your name to be! I think you said something about changing it back to Kayralynn, so that's what I wrote it as - I can change it if you want. Also, apparently your current last name is not O'Shaunessy, seeing as that's your ancestor's name :-P That can be changed too.

"Wow. It's old." Micah replied picking up the locket from the counter top.

"No shit sherlock" Allie teased smiling at him but ready for him to do something useful.

Micah just looked up at Allie as if he was taking her in (which was a bit unnerving to say the least), blinked once and returned his gaze to the locket, turning it over and over in his hands. After that. he carefully tried to open the locket with the nail of his thumb, pressing his other three fingers against the body of the locket.

"That's not going to work. We tried that." Kay interrupted the silence almost timidly.

"A guy had to try," Micah looked up and smiled at the all. "I can open it," he smiled wider. "Just give me 15 minutes."

"How are you..." Eli trailed off as Micah disappeared into the back of the store, leaving the girls along with Bob the cat.

"Well Bob, would you like to show us around the place?" Allie petted the cat. "You're a gentleman right, Bob?"

"Hey guys! Over here!" Alexia called from across the store.

"What's up?" Kay asked as the ladies ventured over too the glass case that Alexia was looking into.

"Wow. They're so pretty." Eli said glancing down at the lockets.

Allie giggled at her friend, "Too bad they are too old to be shiny too El."

Eli narrowed her eyes and her friend and then smiled.

"I thought these looked like yours, Kay," Alexia noted.

"They certainly have the same look to them don't they? And look where they are from..." Kay pointed to the place card in the glass that read Civil War Era Lockets. Collectibles of the Old South. "That's older than I thought it'd be," Kay breathed.

"But that means it probably has a history!" Allie exclaimed excited

"And maybe even a mystery!" Eli chimed in.

"Wow, aren't you both poets who don't know it?" Alexia smirked

"Who wants to come see what I found?" Micah called emerging from the back

The ladies rushed over to where Micah stood.

"So?" Kay asked impatiently.

Dangling the open locket in the air, Micah handed it to Alexia, "Here you are Madam." "At your service," he mock bowed.

Alexia smiled at this, and her twin nudged her and gave her a knowing glance.

"And this is for you," Micah said placing a small browned piece of paper in Kay's hand. "Be careful. It's old." Micah winked before Kay could answer that she knew.

Kay carefully unfolded the paper to reveal a small curl of red hair (much like her own) and an inscription that read C.A.O Feb. 17, 1865.

"I know that date," Allie exclaimed.

"You do?" Eli asked.

"Sure," Allie smirked. "It's the day Sherman captured and burned most of Columbia."

"Looks like you do have a historical locket." Alexia patted Kay on the shoulder.

"And maybe they'll be a mystery too!" Eli exclaimed.

"You know what this means..." Kay said refolding the piece of paper and slipped it into a small plastic bag that Micah had proved.

"ROAD TRIP!!!!!!"

So um. If I change my name from Kay, y'all would have to go and edit your parts and replace every occurrence of "Kay." And I guess it'd just be to Kayralynn, since that's what I used before. Though I really think I had some other "normal" name at some point that just none of us can remember. :-P

So... Thoughts? Just stay Kay for easiness, or switch to Kayralynn, or what?



ALSO... Vix, I just picked a car for you, something that I thought we probably thought was cool back in the day... I can't remember what cars we really picked for ourselves except I'm pretty sure Puja had a Jetta! Anyway, I can change it if you want. I just was throwing out a reference to our magical ability to acquire the coolest cars. ;-)

Kay is fine, unless you really love Kayralynn (Which is longer to type ;))

WE need to update this bad boy... like woah.

It wasn't long before a mixed cd of music from their middle school days was blasting through the speakers of Alexia's shiny blue Miata. "You're the one for me, you're my ecstasy, you're the one I need!" The girls all sang at the top of their lungs. As the song ended, the girls all giggled and Allie turned the music down to a level where they could hear each other talking.

"Man, that was a long time ago. I can't believe I still remember almost every word!" Kay exclaimed, bopping to the beat of the Britney Spears song that was beginning to play.

"I know, right? Hey, did you guys know the BackStreet Boys are putting out another album?" Allie responded, flipping through Alexia's cd case.

"What? They're like, old farts now," Ela giggled. "I'll probably give it a listen anyway, for old times' sake."

"Isn't anyone curious as to where I'm taking you guys?" Alexia interrupted the reminiscing.

"I did ask where we were going. You gave me a noncommittal answer about starting an adventure. So, oh great and wonderful driver of this adventure we have apparently started: Where the heck ARE we going?" Kay asked, a hint of teasing in her voice.

Before Alexia could open her mouth to answer, her twin jumped in first. "I bet I know! To some jeweler or something. Isn't that what you were talking about before?

Alexia grinned and nodded, taking the next exit. "Yeah, I met him when I took a necklace in for a new clasp the other day, and we hit it off pretty well. I figured at the very least, he could get it open for us. And if we're lucky, he might even have more information about the locket itself, such as how old it is, how much it's worth, that sort of thing."

Alexia pulled into a small shopping strip and parked. Alexia led the way to a small but quaint little shop, with a sign that read in elegant script, "Jade's Jewelry."

"I thought you said it was a dude we were going to talk to?" wondered Ela as they walked through the door, jangling the little bell that alerted employees to customers.

"Well, I was referring to the son of the owner, Jade. Micah is the one I'm friends with. He's usually the one watching the store on weekends."

Kay chuckled. "Is his sister's name Ruby? They have a dog named Jasper?"

"Actually, my sister's name is Amber, my brother's name is Shale, I don't have a dog, but my cat's name is Onyx." A young man about their age had just emerged from the back room just in time to hear Kay's oh-so-clever geology joke.

The girls all stared. Ela was the first to break the brief silence. "REALLY??" she asked incredulously, in typical Ela fashion.

"Nawww, the cat's named Bob. Now how can I help you ladies?" Micah leaned on the glass display counter and smiled warmly at the girls. Alexia, noticing Kay's still beet-red face, took the locket from her and stepped past her to the counter.

"Hey Micah. We're wondering if there's anything you can tell us about this locket, or if you could just get it open without damaging it for us," Alexia explained, placing the locket on the glass for Micah to inspect.

"Well?! What are we waiting for?" exclaimed Allie, jumping off the couch while finishing up for iced coffee and tossing it in the trash can.

"How about waiting for the rest of us roadrunner?" teased Alexia.

"Does that make you Wiley Coyote?" teased Allie back

"Well, I do have that anvil in my trunk...with your name on it" Alexia continued while playfully pushing her twin and walking past her out the door. "I'm driving!"

"Chewie!" yelled Allie.

"What?" questioned Ela approaching the car

"You know, like Chewbacca from Star Wars. Sits up front with Han Solo..." explained Kay. "It just proves how big of dork THEY are" winked Kay to her friend as they got in the car.

Allie turned around while buckling her seat belt and glared.

"What no tongue?" Ela provoked her

Allie's eyes flared and her tongue popped out as she turned back up front (flipping her hair to emphasize her anger).

"Ok guys. I love you both, but seriously, truce? Please." Kay looked from one best friend to another.

"Fine." Allie said holding her hands up.

"Fine." Ela mumbled in return.

"Great." gloated Kay sitting back into her seat. "So, where are we going?"

"We're beginning the adventure" Alexia said pushing her sunglasses into place and starting the car. She shifted it into gear and pulled out of the parking lot, merging in with the traffic and picking up speed.

They were off again.

Kay eased open the locket. She managed to open it halfway when she stopped.

"It seems stuck...Like it's maybe rusted or tarnished. I'm afraid I might break it if try any more," Kay sighed.

"But look, there looks like there's a piece of paper in there!" Alexia pointed out as she squinted into the locket.

"Here," Ela procured a pencil and gently pulled the piece of paper free.

As the folded paper fell to the table, Allie retrieved it, carefully unfolded it, and attempted to read it. "It looks like a letter. Not a love letter though. Maybe a letter from a parent to a child? It's so hard to read this aged writing. And this paper looks like it's going to fall apart any second!"

The girls leaned closer to get a better look at what Allie was reading. Yellowed with age, tiny folds crisscrossed the paper, wearing through the ink and making it nearly impossible to read. From what they could read, it did seem that it was a letter from an older person to someone much younger. Near the bottom of the letter, there was a post script. Kay pointed to the bottom, "Look, it's talking about some inheritance, something hidden. And it's signed 'Rose.'"

"I wonder who Rose is...Kay is it some relative of yours?" Ela asked.

"Not that I know of. I could be someone from more than two or three generations back. I'm not really all that sure about my family further back than that. I can ask my grandmother."

Allie had moved back to examining the locket. "I wonder if there's a way to loosen the hinge on this, like when you oil a door. Maybe there's a picture of Rose in here!"

Alexia thought for a minute. "Possibly. I can ask around. I know a few people who work with jewelry."

Ela squealed, "This is so exciting! It's like an age old mystery. Like in a book!"

Allie stuck her tongue out at her and hip-bumped her. "Dork."

Kay grinned, "It's okay. We're all dorks."

Hopefully that's good. I haven't written in a while :-P So I have a quick question: do you spell it "canceled" or "cancelled"? No looking it up! I want to know how you learned it - think of it more as a poll than a right and wrong thing.

Giving her friends a mischievous look, Kay rummaged around her felted bag (an Allie Kerrington original, of course) and pulled out a small pouch. Her friends watched with looks of piqued curiousity as she swung the little pouch around on its strings.
Finally, Alexia spoke up by exclaiming, "Are you waiting for an engraved invitation or something?"
Kay looked sufficiently pleased at torturing her ever-curious friends and opened the pouch carefully. She pulled out a locket, simple yet elegant, oval in shape and gold in hue. The front was graced with a single diamond in the center and the back appeared to have engravings that were almost completely worn away and impossible to read.
A simultaneous, "Ooooooh," erupted from the three young women as they took in the locket and began to pass it around.
And then the questions began.
"Where did you get it?"
"Is it yours to keep?"
"How old is it?"
"Do you know what the inscription said?"
"Who did it belong to originally?"
"Have you opened it yet?"
"What do you think is inside?"
Kay raised her hands for silence and admitted that she only knew the answer to two questions- she received it from her grandmother and it was hers to keep. The rest of the questions were still a mystery.
"I wonder if we might find a clue about who owned it originally if we look inside. There might be a picture or another inscription or something," Ela pondered aloud.
"Now we're talking," Alexia chimed in and offered the locket back to Kay, "Open it!"
Kay leaned down to carefully open the locket as her three closest friends huddled in to see what she revealed.