All Four Of Me

Chapter 36

"I don't understand."

"Well, when I typed in Brennan as the key word the only result that came up was a D.A Brennan. I thought it was pretty weird that their first initial was the same as Dominic's so I did a little bit of digging and it turns out that the initials D.A actually stand for Dominic Alexander, and his name only popped up in the library index because he is a published author."

"He wrote a book?" I ask dumbly, trying to make sense of the pile of information Ben just dumped in front of me.

"Several of them actually, or a series to be more precise." He answers, nodding his head in agreement so that I can be sure that I didn't hear him wrong.

"That's insane."

Never in a million years would I have thought that the man from my memories was a successful author. Not that I didn't think he was capable of achieving something so monumental, I'm just surprised that I don't remember something as significant as this about him. Then again, I was so young when he was a fixture in my life, maybe this is something that I just wouldn't have understood at the time. Either way, this tiny, but substantial piece of information has found a way to completely blow my mind.

"I know, but it gets more interesting." Ben agrees, diving straight into an explanation without giving me the chance to completely prepare myself.

"When I looked the books up on the internet it said that the last book in the series was published only four years ago, and when I tried to dig deeper into Dominic's profile to see if we could get some more information on him, the only result that popped up was a fan page dedicated to his books and a link to the different sites where you can purchase them. Apart from that it's like the guy doesn't even exist on the internet."

"Is that not normal?"

"No, it isn't normal and it's not exactly ideal for us. Generally, when someone's work generates the type of popularity that Dominic's has there is usually some sort of official website or media obsession surrounding the author so that the fans can interact and connect with the person who created their source of entertainment. At the very least there is usually a Wikipedia page providing their basic information, but Dominic doesn't seem to have any of that."

"Maybe he was precious about his privacy. Don't most authors publish their works using their name instead of their initials?"

"Yes, but there are usually still other avenues you can explore to find out more about them even if their initials are the only starting point you have. Wanting privacy is one thing, but having no media or digital footprint at all seems kind of suspicious, especially for someone as high profile as Dominic." He explains with a pensive frown.

"If you put it this way, the only way I was able to find his middle name was by searching for his name on the copyright register. Apart from that, the guy is practically a speck of dust in the outback."

Ben's concerns make sense when he explains them that way, and it does seem fairly odd that the all-knowing internet doesn't have anything to offer in the way of answers, but for now I will just have to accept the situation for what it is. Ben and I will have plenty of time over the next six weeks of school holidays to dig into this issue further, but there is no point in pulling our hair out over it tonight.

"I get it, we'll do some more research. Even if there is nothing on the internet, we still have EMU and maybe even his publisher to fall back on."

"You're absolutely right Kenz, which leads me to the main reason for coming here tonight." Ben advises while sitting up a little bit straighter.

"When I figured out that we weren't going to find anything on Dominic through the internet, I followed through with our back up plan and focused my attention on EMU instead.