15 X Marks the Spot

Chapter 15 X MARKS THE SPOT If you recall from the first Genius Files book, Coke and Pep received a bunch of mysterious messages that appeared to have no common connection. But actually those messages led them to their climactic confrontation with Dr. Warsaw at The House on the Rock in Wisconsin. In the second book, it also seemed as though the ciphers had nothing in common, but in the end they all referred to items inside the National Museum of American History, where the twins encountered the deranged teenager Archie Clone. Once again, in the third book, the ciphers seemed to be completely incomprehensible, until the twins finally realized that they all had

something to do with Graceland, Elvis Presley's mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. That's where Evil Elvis/Aunt Judy was waiting to ambush them. But what could these two new messages possibly mean? Pep turned to a blank page in her notepad and wrote them out in her neat handwriting: 1. I WILL MEET YOU IN LLANO ESTACADO 2. A PIECE OF THE BLARNEY STONE Dr. and Mrs. McDonald came back from the Lamar County Chamber of Commerce, where they had lodged a formal complaint about the dangerous conditions at the fake Eiffel Tower. "What did you say?" Pep asked. "I told them a dead cow fell out of the Eiffel Tower and almost landed on my son," said Dr. McDonald. "And what did they say?" asked Pep. "They just laughed," said Mrs. McDonald.

"They thought it was funny." It was, in an odd sort of way. After the family had gotten over the initial shock of what had happened, they were even able to joke about it. "Hey, what has four legs and goes 'moo— thud'?" asked Pep. "What?" "A cow falling on Coke's head." Back in the car, the McDonalds were heading south and west. It would be almost two hours to Dallas, mainly along I-30. They stopped for lunch at a little diner in Greenville, but the parents spent most of the time arguing over what they were going to do for the rest of the day. "It says here that the first 7-Eleven opened in Dallas in 1927," said Mrs. McDonald. "But the Slurpee wasn't invented until fifty years later." "Please don't tell me they have a Slurpee museum in Dallas," Dr. McDonald said, groaning. "I will have lost all faith in humanity."

"They don't, but at the Baylor University Medical Center, they have bronze-coated replicas of the hands of famous people like Louis Armstrong, Winston Churchill, Joe DiMaggio, and Walt Disney," Mrs. McDonald said. "That could be pretty interesting to see, don't you think?" "Those could be anybody's hands in bronze," scoffed Dr. McDonald. "I don't need to see that." "Hey, the world's largest patio chair is in Dallas!" Mrs. McDonald said more excitedly. "It's in front of a furniture store." "I'm not driving to Dallas to look at a chair," Dr. McDonald said, "and that's final." Listening to the two of them go at it was like watching two great tennis players whack a ball back and forth. Coke and Pep's parents hardly ever fought back home, but they seemed to bicker a lot in the car. Maybe it had something to do with being so close together in a confined space, and

having to make important decisions quickly. In any case, Dr. and Mrs. McDonald finally hit on something they both wanted to see in Dallas—the Sixth Floor Museum. "What's that?" asked Pep. "The Sixth Floor Museum chronicles the assassination and legacy of John F. Kennedy," said her all-knowing brother. You're probably aware that President Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas on November 22, 1963—a tragedy that shook the nation to its core. People who were alive that day remember exactly where they were when they heard the news that the president had been shot. When they reached Dallas, Dr. McDonald drove up Elm Street on the western edge of the historic district downtown and parked the car behind an early 20th-century warehouse that used to be known as the Texas School Book Depository. Shots rang out from the sixth floor of the building on that day in 1963. Today, the

sixth and seventh floors are a museum jammed with exhibits about the assassination, and about Kennedy himself. Photography was not permitted in the museum, but Mrs. McDonald took notes for Amazing but True. What the twins found most interesting was the window where the sniper's nest and rifle were found after the assassination. They could look out and see Dealey Plaza, where the president's motorcade passed. As Coke and Pep peered out that window, a guard informed them that there's an X painted on the street at the exact spot where the president was hit. "I can't see the X," Coke said. "That's because that tree is in the way," the guard told him. "Well, if the tree is in the way, how could Lee Harvey Oswald possibly have shot the president from this window?" asked Coke, quite proud of himself for personally debunking the notion that Oswald was the lone gunman. "The tree was a lot shorter in 1963," the