Two days later, we visited the graveyard. I was sitting under a tree with Alice while Jasper and Edward eagerly searched for Joseph Robert Davis's grave. Apparently, he was the Confederate President's general nephew, and Jasper was exited to have a chance to see where he was buried.

Alice was talking to me about her plans for Texas when Jasper and Edward started jumping up and down, distracting us.

Jasper laughed, "Look at that, Edward! It's got an embroidered border!"

Edward admired, "I think it's made from marble, too!"

Alice snorted, "Only those boys could get so excited over a headstone."

Edward defended them, "This is a special occasion! It's not every day you get to visit the resting place of such an important general in our country's history."

Jasper asked suddenly, "Alice, what date were you admitted into that hospital?"

Alice tilted her head in confusion but answered, "December 3rd, 1910, why?"

He turned his head, pointing at a small headstone not too many meters away from where he and

Edward stood.

Alice stood up and floated over to it, looking down. I limped along after her, peeking over her shoulder. My face instantly fell when I read it.

Mary Alice Brandon. Born August 12th, 1901. Died of a fever December 3rd, 1910.

I was too stunned to speak for a moment. After the shock wore off I whispered, "That's horrible!"

What kind of parents did something like that to their young daughter?

After a while Alice took Edward's hand. "Come with me, Edward."

Jasper asked, "Where are you off to?"

She glanced back at the little rose-brick headstone, "I want to go to the City Hall and look for some information. We'll be back at the hotel later."

Over the next three days, Alice and Edward were very scarce. She was learning information about her family. Her mother died four years after her father, at the age of seventy-nine. Her sister Cynthia had one daughter who was in Biloxi. Her name was Shannon. Via-Edward, we know that she has two children off in college, and she's divorced.

Alice also did some research on her caretaker. As we know, he's the one who changed her to save her form James.

His name was William Porter, and he had been registered, upon the date he 'disappeared', as a man of 55 in age.

Even though her history was sad, I was glad Alice found all this information about herself. She's been interested for a long time, apparently.

Today was the twenty-fourth of July, and we just arrived in Houston.

Jasper got us into a hotel, again, and we had just settled down into the new environment. This time he got one room that had two bedrooms. None of us asked why the sudden change, but I had a theory.

He was nervous about being back here, so close to his past, for the very first time in nearly two hundred years. I think he wanted us all around him, for some emotional support just in case he needed it.

We were all gathered in the lobby of the hotel now, looking at a very detailed map of this part of the city. Jasper claims he's positive this is the area his house used to be in. I don't see how he can tell! There are so many houses here!

He announced, sounding triumphant, "I know where it is. It's near the eastern edge of this." He pointed to the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center.

Edward asked, "How do you know."

Jasper explained simply, "Because this," he traced a portion of the city, "Is how big Houston used to be. I can't remember what our maps looked like, but I'm positive I lived somewhere in this quadrant."

Alice beamed, "Great, let's go then!"

After a while we were there, wandering deeper and deeper into the rugged terrain of the wildlife center. I thought we were stumbling along blindly when suddenly Jasper froze, and his hand tightened around mine a little bit.

He was staring out into the marsh that lay ahead. It was rather small, but had a big prairie-area behind it. Scattered breeds of trees thickly surrounded the whole enclosure.

I realized after a few seconds that it would have been the perfect place for a secluded house. I asked, "This is it, isn't it?"

Jasper's eyes were wide, "Yeah, this is it. I'm sure of it."

He hesitantly walked over to the edge of the pond, tugging me along with him. "The house was right over there, on the highest part of the fields, because it never flooded during the rainy times."

Alice admired, "It's a beautiful area."

His smile broadened, "Yes, it is. Mama always liked the colors in the spring. The Texas Mountain.

Laurel's and the Two-wing Silverbell's made the prettiest combination of white and purple in the town."

He let go of my hand and shot forward into the water. He was standing waist deep and he bent down. I felt my eyes bug as I watched him lift his arm, he was holding a snake. It was wrapping angrily around his arm as he held it behind the head.

He chuckled, "A copperhead, the only poisonous breed in the city. My brothers and I liked to take rat snakes to the barn, because we didn't have a cat. One time I brought one of these home, because it's color was so much prettier then I've ever seen before."

Alice smirked, "I can bet your parents weren't to happy about that one."

Jasper laughed, tossing the defenseless animal back into the water before coming back onto the bank with us. He answered discreetly, "After dad got the thing away from us without someone being bitten, he was angrier then I've ever seen him before."

His eyes twinkled with mischief and he added, "Believe me, I'd seen him unhappy enough times to tell."

Edward pointed to a ripple in the water and suddenly identified, "A Common Musk Turtle. I had one when I was a little boy. Mother was very allergic to anything with fur. I wanted a Red-eared Slider because my friend had a baby one, and it was the cutest thing I ever saw. But we didn't have room for a really huge aquarium, so we needed a smaller breed that didn't need a heating lamp."

Jasper chuckled, "I tried to feed a Green Anole to a wild snapping turtle once. I only remember that because it bit me so hard I swore it was going to take my finger off. My sister had to detach the thing from me. She scared the life out of me when she said I'd probably loose the finger. Mama couldn't get me to stop crying for almost an hour, even though she said it didn't even need stitches."

Alice and I patiently listened to them.

Soon Jasper asked, "Bella, did you ever have a pet?"

I laughed, "No, my mom was hard enough to look after sometimes. The closest thing I have to a pet is Kermit."

Kermit is my cactus, the little one that I used to water in my backyard. I uprooted it and replanted it when I moved to Forks, so I could keep a little bit of Arizona with me.

We spend the rest of the afternoon in that one spot. It was hell for me. I was too occupied freaking out over every snake, lizard, and frog that got too close to do much else.

Edward and Alice went off to do something while Jasper took me out to dinner. When I was finished, we returned to the hotel, and I was asleep within an hour.