Lost

13

The Chase home was less than an hour drive from New Rome, so Grover and I left New Rome around noon.

Our rental car had been miraculously fixed by Tyson, who made sure to give me another bone crushing hug before I left.

We were silent most of the drive there, the only noise came from the car.

"Are you sure you know the address?" Grover asked as we pulled into the city. "You don't want me to, uh, look it up or something?"

I shook my head as I turned towards her street. "Even if there was a way you could, there's no need to. I know her address, Grover."

Grover shut up after that and allowed me to drive to the little neighborhood on the outskirts of San Francisco where all the houses were huge and had giant, green lawns.

"Which one is hers? They all look so similar..." Grover murmured as I pulled into a driveway. "Are you sure this is the one?"

I nodded. "Just look at that model plane on the porch. It's gotta be."

We unbuckled our seat belts and headed to the porch. After several knocks a young woman appeared at the door and told us we had the wrong house and that the plane belonged to her son.

"Do you, uh, know where the Chase's live?" I asked, clearly defeated.

She shook her head as she scooped the plane off of the porch. "No, but I don't know anyone around here with that last name. Maybe you have the wrong neighborhood."

Grover glared at me as if he was telling me I told you so. "Sorry for wasting your time, ma'am."

"You sure you don't know them?" I asked. She shook her head. "Helen, Fredrick, they have twins. Bobby and Matthew, I think....and a teenage daughter named Annabeth."

She shook her head. "I'm really sorry, but no."

After questioning her several more times Grover apologized to the woman and pulled me back to the car, where he forced me into the passenger seat.

"I told you this is not it," he gloated as he drove us out of the neighborhood. "They live more near the city...."

After driving around several more neighborhoods and knocking on several more random doors, we had wasted several hours and it was nearing sundown.

"I'm pretty sure this is it," I told Grover as he pulled in the driveway of some suburban house that seemed familiar.

Grover rolled his eyes. "You were pretty sure about the last few houses, too."

I shook my head and climbed out of the car. Grover followed my example. "No, I'm for real. This is it, I'm pretty sure."

"Yeah, okay," Grover murmured as he swallowed his complaints. We neared the door and I knocked on it a couple times.

All the lights downstairs were out, so we had little hope after the fourth knock.

Then the door swung open to reveal Mr.Chase, who instantly pointed at me, his eyes wide in anger.

"There you are! I've been looking for you...!"