This chapter is relatively long. It rained in Texas. This author's not also serves no point. The pope believes in evolution.Weee and such.

I don't know anyting about St. Ives, just that it's supposedly on the coast.

George walked into his living room and frowned. There Alicia was, slumped on the couch, reading a book again, looking bored. For some reason, that he was yet to figure out, her fun day at the store just a few days ago had caused her to be even more unhappy than before.

"You wanna go to the park?" he asked, his best puppy dog eyes at work.

"No," Alicia answered, not looking up from her book. Her voice sounded tired.

"You wanna go on a walk?"

"No."

"What do you want to do?"

"No."

"You're not listening!" George's voice went desperate. He wasn't used to Alicia being like this. Before she had been happy, and smiley, and all around fun. But now? Now she was depressed.

"Maybe we should go away for the weekend?" George suggested, attempting to be coy.

"Where?" Alicia still didn't look up from her book.

"Well, your granmum left you the keys to her place on the coast. Where is it exactly...?"

"St. Ives. It's at St. Ives." Alicia rememberd, her eyes going big as she looked up from the book. "I can't believe I didn't remember that!"

"You really need a break, don't you?" George asked, surprised at her sudden interest.

Alicia nodded, trying to remember how big St. Ive's actually is. How easy would it be to find a person determined to be gone forever in a town Alicia didn't know at all?

"Oh, crap. We're getting a new shimpment of bubble bees this week, there's no way that I can leave Fred alone..."

"Oh." Alicia didn't even try to hide the disappointment in her voice. On a fluke, she was sure she would find Katie, but stupid Fred and his stupid habit of not always shutting cages all the way...Then again, bubble bees could be quite dangerous when left alone, so, it was really inevitable that George had to be there.

"Why don't you go alone?" he suggested, his voice even sounded sure, like he really did mean it.
"Are you sure?"

"O'course. Just promise me one thing,"

"Anything." Alicia's unhappiness was out the window. Her face had brightened, and her messy hair went from hobo like, to messy chic, just with the change of her face.

"No cheating."

"That's outrageous!" George gave a lopsided grin at her response, but trusted her despite. After all, Alicia was a pretty girl, she could probably seduce any drunk she might stumble across.

Friday afternoon, Alicia kissed George goodbye and stepped on the Knight Bus, bag in tow, and gave the driver a nice smile as she got ready to try and make sense of everything she had ever known about Katie Bell.

She sat down on a bench, holding the arm rest as tightly as she could. She could have apparated, but no, that would have been too easy. Well, that and she wasn't positive of the location. She didn't feel like splinching at the moment, thank you very much.

The ride was a short one, the driver had obviously noticed the tip Alicia had slipped in as she paid, just like she had intended. He winked at her as she got off the bus. She then found herself quite happy to be leaving that bus.

She stepped off and looked around. This was a rather muggle filled little town, but it wasn't too terrible. Quite a few older people, those muggles who, even if they do see something, don't really seem to care.

Alicia could smell the ocean from where she was standing. A cool wind carried the salty wind to where she was standing, looking for third street so that she could find her way to Orchid Lane, where her little cottage would be. She didn't mind walking. Her luggage was now tiny and comftorably stored in her pocket, along with old receipts and a gum wrapper.

The small town was a pleasant little postcard town. There was a well groomed park with a general store that just radiated family business painted red. Each little business seemed to be owned by some family or another. It truly did look like the perfect place to raise a family, but as Alicia walked, the less homey it would feel.

The buildings got taller, dingier. The windows went from neatly groomed with homemade curtains to broken or written on. Liquor stores replaced family owned general stores. The more she walked, the more aware Alicia became that she was far from Orchid Lane, but at the same time, the more likely it felt that she was getting closer to finding Katie. That last feeling sent a shudder down her back.

Eventually, as the night came closer, Alicia headed back towards the coast, and found her way to Orchid Lane. The cottage sat on a row of cottages just like it. So sickly cute and obviously vacation houses. Alicia felt a pang of guilt as she unpacked her things into a dresser that was painted a pale pink and it's cutesy looked matched the rest of the house. Everything was nice and neat and matching. No drug addicts would sleep in the bed Alicia slept in, and no one who became a mother at fourteen would bathe in the claw foot tub she had in the morning. Everything was so fake perfect that reality seemed to be tinted with rose tinted glasses that every person born into an easy life wears.

Breakfast was spent a small diner that was obviously built to get all the money the people in the cabins were willing to throw around. Luckily for Alicia, the summer was far away, so the prices were brought down to reasonable. Overcooked eggs and blackened toast. Alicia only threw up a little after that meal. The orange juice was good, at least.

Another walk consumed Alicia's afternoon. The picture of Katie with Celia that Alicia had stolen from the empty flat was shown to countless faces. A few people said she seemed familiar, but no one knew for sure. Several names were possibitlies for the girl in the photo. Katie was also Krystal, Trinity, Sheila and Colette just to name a few.

Liquor store cashiers were the most useless, which made sense. They had seen countless girls like her, no doubt. Still, Alicia's frustration kept building. The afternoon was wasted on muggles who couldn't tell each other apart.

After dinner, at a different, better diner, Alicia sucked in her fears and decided it was time to look elsewhere for Katie. This time, taking the muggle bus, she went to the local hospital.

The bus was filled with people who seemed so wrapped up in their own destinations that Alicia didn't have to worry about her occasional looks of fascination at the muggle contraption. The first hospital she stopped at, St. Michaels, was large and white and clean.

The workers in the hospital all wore scrubs or doctors clothes, and were constantly on the move. It was like going inside a sanitized ant hill. A man working at the front desk in plain dark blue scrubs looked at the picture Alicia had and ran the names "Katie Bell" and "Katerina Nochiviscoff" but nothing came up. He asked a few a nurses, but no one recognized the girl. Neither did that patients. Alicia deemed this place as wrong and got back on a muggle bus.

The next hospital was smaller, on the border line between the good side of St. Ive's and the...not so good. It was a brownstone building, less busy and anthill like than the one before. It was just called St. Ives General. The people still wore scrubs, but seemed less strict. This time a woman sat behind the official desk, not wearing scrubs but a normal regular sweater set.

"Hello, dear! What ails ya?" the older receptionist eagerly asked as Alicia walked up.

"Have you seen this girl? Has she been a patient?" Alicia asked, showing the picture.

"Hmmm...have a name?"

The pair went through all the formalities, the name exchange and the asking around. Again, nothing came of the formalities.

Alicia wearily climbed on yet another muggle bus.

The bus ventured farther and farther into the bad side of town. This time, when the bus stopped in front of a building claiming to be a hospital. The only indicater besides the name of "South St. Ives Medical Center" was an ambulance entrance and a sign that read "Medical insurance not necessary for treatment."

Alicia walked in and wasn't sure if she was actually in a hospital. It wasn't nearly as clean as the first two, and there were more patients waiting than ever before. The doctors were more casually dressed, more running shoes and jeans than ever before.

She made her way over to the recpetionist desk, where, instead of a receptionist stood, a very busy looking Asian doctor was searching through files. He looked up when Alicia came up to him.

"Can I help you?" he asked, stopping his search completely.

"I'm looking for this girl," she answered, showing him the picture.

The doctor frowned, and requested that Alicia follow him.