Chapter 4

“Okay…” Joey nodded his head slowly after I had finished. We had moved from the bedroom to the kitchen during our conversation and now we were sitting at the table across from each other. I waited, knowing he was going to say something else.

“So… at this point in time, we are living in a historical house,” He paused, holding up a finger for each statement, reviewing the facts like you would for a test. “that happens to be connected to the Underground Railroad, and there are two ghosts that want our help to find information.” Joey stopped, and looked at me, to see if he had the facts right.

“Yeah, that about sums it up.” I said, sighing with relief. He understood what was going on.
Joey had a look on his face like he was contemplating if I was telling the truth. I bit my lip and reached across the table to grab his hand. I took it and linked our fingers only.

“So where are these ghosts?” Joey asked.

I sighed again and leaned hard against the table. “Thank god,” I said. “I thought you weren’t going to believe me.”

“Why wouldn’t I? You’ve never lied to me before. It’s just a little hard to comprehend, that’s all.” Joey shrugged and licked his lips. “Are they going to help restore the house?” He asked.

“Yeah, I already asked, and they said that we’ve done a great job so far.” I smiled. I knew that Joey wanted the house to be just like it was a century ago.

“Really?” Joey looked shocked. “Where are they now? I’d like to meet the ghosts that have been living in my house.” I laughed. Joey was possessive of the house, he’d fallen in love with it as soon as we had stepped out of the car.

“They’re downstairs.” I said simply. Nodding toward the pantry.

“Downstairs? This is a two story house, how can there be a basement? It wasn’t on the floor plans.” Joey pointed out. I nodded in understanding.

“Exactly why it was used for the Underground Railroad. There was no proof that it had ever been there.” I said and stood, unlinking our fingers. He stood also, pushing the chair under the table and following me. “The stairs are a little uneasy, I fell the first time, so, be careful.” I pounded on the floor above the door and stood back. The door flung open, falling beneath and soft candle light filtered up the stairs. It was basically a ladder, or maybe very narrow stairs. I don’t know how to describe them. I went first, knowing where to go. Joey followed, slowly but surely. I jumped to the ground and grabbed the candle that had been placed on the small shelf. Joey jumped down and stood beside me, linking out fingers again.

I walked over to the huge oak table and sat down where James had been sitting before. Joey sat beside me and looked around.

“Wow.” Was all he said as he stared into the shadows around the room. I nodded, agreeing with him. The place looked cleaner than the last time I had been down here, which had only been around 3 hours earlier. I saw movement near the double doors and squinted. Then I relaxed my eyes and tilted my head.

“I promise he won’t bite.” I said toward the doors with a grin on my face.

“But how do I know that? He’s bitten you before.” I heard James say in his deep bass voice. I blushed and turned my head, not commenting. Joey looked shocked and squeezed my hand a little harder, trying not to shake. If I had been thrown into a situation like this, I would have shook too. Joshua materialized in the chair in front of me, while James walked up to the chair and actually sat down.

I watched Joey’s face as he looked between the two of them. “Who are you now?” He asked.

“Joshua Scott Chasez, owner… or once the owner.” He stuck out his hand, then drew it back, as if remembering that he couldn’t shake hands. He nodded politely toward Joey and then looked at James.

“James Lance Bass, former slave.” He nodded, not following Joshua’s mistake.

“Slave? But you’re white.” Joey pointed out.


“True, but I’m gay.” James replied.

Joey nodded then looked at me. I smiled softly at him, knowing what he was thinking.

“And what is it you wanted us to do? I mean, Chris explained it, but he is known for leaving out details.” Joey grinned at that.

Joshua laughed and leaned on the table. “Sure, no problem, the more it’s said, the easier it is to say.” He cleared his throat and started.

“This house was a major stop on the Underground Railroad, and since I was gay, and they found me with James, they never made it known that it was a major stop, and we scared everyone away from the house if they were looking for us. Until you. You didn’t want us, you wanted the house, and we knew that because you had to litterally drag Chris from the car, while you were jumping ahead into the future, after the house was done. So congrats, you get to have people think you’re weird when you go downtown to look up files for us, since we can’t do it ourselves.”

Joey shook his head. “I still don’t completely understand,” He started, then looked at me. “But if Chris wants to do it, then I guess I will.”

“Yes!” I was excited. I mean, I get to go on a hunt through the past, something not many people get to do. I wrapped my arms around Joey’s neck and kissed his cheek. “You won’t regret it.” I said simply and smiled harder, laying my head on his shoulder. He looked heaven-ward and said “God I hope not.”

And that’s how it all began.

I sat in the passenger seat while Joey drove. We were headed into town to the court house, for old country records. We pulled into a parking space 10 minutes later and walked up the steps. It wasn’t a big building, considering the fact that it wasn’t a big town. Joey held open the door and I walked through, smiling as I walked up to the information desk. A woman, maybe in her 40’s sat behind the desk, typing on the computer.

“May I help you?” She said without looking up.

“Yes I was wondering if my partner and I could look through the public records for 1835-1840.” I said politely, still smiling. The lady looked up and gave me a questioning look.

“Why would you want to do that?” She asked.

“I heard my house has a historical reference, and I want to see if any pictures show up, because I’m restoring the house.” I said. It wasn’t a complete lie, I was looking up the house. She stood from her desk and asked us to follow her. We signed in to a desk in the back of the building and were given tags.

“All the information, public information, we have is in here. I hope you find what you are looking for.” She said and left, almost in a hurry, as if not to be caught near us. I looked at Joey and shrugged, “At least we’re back here.” I
said, and pushed open the door, turning on the dim light that would fill the room.

“Well, we’re here, let’s get this over with. I’ll start with 1835, and you start with 36 and we may by out of here by dinner.” Joey said and pulled the box for January 1835 off the shelf. I followed his moves and grabbed the January 1836 box off the shelf. And so began the process of sorting through all the information gathered from 1835-1840.

5 hours and many coffee breaks later, I stretched in my chair and yawned. “I wish we knew specifically what to look for. It would be a whole lot easier.” Joey nodded. He was up to 1837, and I was on 1838. I sighed. “Damn, I’m tired.”

“Do you have any clue what we are looking for?” Joey asked me. I shook my head. I truly didn’t know what we were looking for, I guess for something proving that Joshua was a good guy and that the house helped out in the Underground Railroad. But considering the time period, they wouldn’t have printed that if their lives had depended on it.

“I wish Joshua and James were here, that way they could at least give us a head start, we’re getting nowhere fast.” I responded and went back to looking through old newspapers, and old court dates.

“Do you think that Josh would have opened a savings account, you know, to store information in? Or would he have made a safe?” Joey asked. I looked up at him and thought about it.

“You know, I hadn’t thought about that, maybe we should ask him later when we get home.” I said. Home, wow, it had already become like home to me. Joshua said that had been the idea when he’d built the house. To make it feel as close to a home for anyone but himself. And it did, I slept sound, the town was nice, the furniture fit the house perfectly, and everything seemed right. During the week, Joshua had told us where all the correct pieces were to the dinning room set. Not to mention the dinner wear, the paintings, the curtains, the rug, everything. Right down to the polish that was used on the Oak table. So many artifacts that museums would die for, and I had them all in my house. It was pretty unbelievable. We’d also refinished the formal living room, across from the dinning room, and the foyer, but we kept covering on the floor to keep it protected. The front porch was done, rebuilt in some parts, but the identical color was found to the original paint color and restored to the house, along with the porch swings and rocking chairs.

We had started on the garden, planting new grass and flowers in the correct flowerbeds. Apple trees were fertilized and cut back, and should be sprouting in early spring next year. In return for all the help we had gotten, we spent hours upon hours looking on the internet, or in libraries, and finally the court house for information.

“Let’s come back tomorrow. My back is killing me.” Joey complained. I agreed and we put away all our materials. We walked out of the room, locking the door behind us and heading for the front entry. A group of people were gathered around the front desk, and they all stopped talking to watch us as we went by. We nodded politely and left.

“Wonder what’s going on.” I asked as we pulled out of our parking space and onto the road home.

<P>“I have no clue, but I don’t like it. Gives me an uneasy feeling.” Joey responded and looked in the rearview mirror.

“They seem to have someone following us. That’s not good. I’ll see if I can lead them away.” Joey took a few wrong turns, and ended up in front of a café, to have dinner, he suggested. Finally when we came out from having dinner, they were gone, and we went home without any problems.

We got home, and locked the car. I stepped onto the first step of the porch and stopped. Joey ran into me.

“What the hell, why did you stop?” He asked, cranky from a long day. He looked up and saw what I saw. The front door was wide open. I took another step toward the entry and then broke into a run.

“Joshua, James.” I yelled throughout the house. Joey was right behind me.

The house was a disaster. Nothing complete ruined, but it looked like someone had been looking for something. I went straight to the kitchen and checked the pantry. It was closed, and locked, which meant that they had protected the entry to the basement.

James materialized in front of the kitchen counter, arms crossed. I stopped in front of him.

“What the hell happened? Who was here?” I asked, out of breath from running.

“I don’t know specifically who was here, but I’d know them if I saw them. There were 3 of them, looking for something, and I have no clue what it was. It was horrible.” James shook his head sadly and continued. “I think they caught on to the fact that you know about the passageway, they’re going to try and stop you from getting information. Joshua was with you, in the court house. Probably still there since he hasn’t come around yet.

“Dammit, I was hoping that this would be easy.” I said and put my hands on my hips. I bit my lip, pondering what to do. “Well we can’t get a security system because the walls would have to be replaced to put it in.”

“Well just have to keep a closer watch on the house.” Joey said from behind me. I turned around and looked at him. He noticed my look, “What?” he said, “We can’t have anyone figuring out where the passageway is. Its to dangerous.”

JC materialized beside James. Arms also crossed. “There is talk in town,” He said, getting our attention. “This town must till be prejudice.” He stopped. “They are going to try and burn it down, to hide all the evidence.”

“They’re what?” I practically yelled. “They can’t do that, we’ll tell the sheriff, he’ll stop them.”

“He is involved. He is probably the one leading it.” Joshua said. Then something fell in the basement. James and Joshua looked at each other.

“What was that? There isn’t anyone down, is there?” I asked, pointing to the floor.

“There are only two ways in, one through the pantry, and one through the double doors.” Joshua said.

“That means we have a returner.” James said softly. “I wonder who it is.” I looked at James suspiciously.

“A returner?” I asked.

“It is a term I used to mean that a slave is retracing their path on the Underground Rail Road, to remember it, possibly to help someone else out, like we are doing to you. That door will always stand open to them, to you it may seem locked and closed, but to a slave, it is always open.” Joshua explained for James. He vanished from sight and seconds later, James did also. I looked at Joey and shrugged.

“Let’s go see.” I said and opened the pantry and lifted the floor. We went down the stairs and stopped to light the candle. We couldn’t see anything, but it was obvious that someone else was there. Joshua and James had a warm feeling about them, more of a happy flow. The basement was cold, and felt stark.

“Show yourself.” I said to the seemingly empty room. Joshua appeared with a smile on his face. James was still invisible. “Where’s James?” I asked.

“Trying to convince Justin to materialize. He’s scared to, doesn’t believe that won’t try and hurt him in some way.” Joshua said.

“The famous Justin? Justin Timberlake? The one that James speaks so highly of, god, I’d love to meet him.” I said happily. That did the trick, Justin appeared in a hug with James, with a smile on his face.

“Really? James talks about lil’ ole’ me?” Justin gushed with a deep southern accent.

“I’ve heard many a story.” I replied with a fake southern accent.

“But you’s alive, how come you ain’t runnin? Everyone else does.” Justin stated, letting go of his hug with James. I sat down at the oak table, yet again.

“Well, I don’t really need to run, because there is nothing to be afraid of, right?” I asked, lighting the candles on the table. Dim light filled the area as Joey sat down beside me.

“I hears through da’ grape vine that ya’ll lookin’ for help.” Justin said, sitting down at the table, directly in front of me, but still looking at James.

“That’s about it, Joshua wants some kind of recognition for the work he put in with us.” James said back and sat at the head of the table, while Josh sat on the other side of Justin.

“You mean like a reward? For helping us with the reading and writing and escaping, that stuff?” Justin added quick hand motions.

“Something like that, yes.” James said. “Chris and Joey have been kind enough to do as much physical searching as possible, but you can only get so far, people around here have already caught onto the fact that they are trying to dig into the past. Rumor is that they are going to light us up like a Christmas tree tonight.”

Justin squinted at James. “You for real?” he said and looked around the table. “They still doin’ that? I thought they quick around here after we were hung.” Joey’s head snapped up off its spot on my shoulder, his eyes grew wide.

“Hung? You guys never told us that.” Joey said, taking in the information that Josh and James left out. Joshua looked across the candle light at Joey.

“We’ll talk about it later, tonight we have to save this house.” Joshua said. “We have to find some way to keep it from the flames. It’s nearly impossible to find something that could protect it, I mean, our powers only go so far, and we can’t go and kill everyone who wants to torch the house.” He paused. “But I’ll fight for this house to the death!” Joshua declared and slammed his tightened fist on the table.

;James lay a hand on Josh’s shoulder. “Honey, you’re already dead.” He didn’t mean the phrase to be comical, but it was all I had not to break out in a fit of laughter.

“Oh, yeah, I forgot.” Josh instantly relaxed. He sunk into the chair and lay his head on his crossed arms on the table.

“But how?”

Justin was biting his lip, then he cracked his neck, which sounded like one consecutive popping noise. “How about if I track down some of the slaves that went through the house?” Justin said. His eyes were still off into space, and his finger was tapping lightly on the table, but his mind was working over time. “You said that our powers only go so far, but what if we all stick together? Like a huge force field of some kind?”

Josh’s head came off the table. The room was silent except for the creaking of the old wood floors, still settling with the house. I looked at Joey, who looked at me, and then we looked at James and Josh.

“It could work.” James said suddenly, excitement growing. “It could actually work. We’d need, well, a lot of people though.”

“My book is still somewhere, we could look through it, do you remember any of the slaves, Justin?” Josh asked.

“Some, but not many, I know that if they died anywhere near here, then they probably stuck around these parts because of the memories.” Justin said. His accent was slowly slipping and his voice became more dignified and clear from any accent. “I’ll get back to you on that, in around an hour.” Justin disappeared and James looked at Joshua.

It was kind of sweet to watch them. I mean, they had been together for over a century, and not many fights to no about happened. Their love was never ending, and to watch the expressions used between them made me smile. I wish for that between me and Joey.

“Wipe that smile off your face, we have work to do!” Joshua said and slapped each side of my face, jokingly. “I need to remember where I left my log book.” He scratched his head as he stood in the center of the room, looking around with one hand on his hip. James leaned across the back of a chair and smiled.

“This happened the last time, and you asked me to remember, do you remember that? It took you around 3 years to remember the last time. And even then, when you found it, you couldn’t bring it in to the house because you can’t carry virtual objects.” James said and grinned. Josh walked over to him, with a scowl expression. He stopped in front of him, their eyes meeting and he raised an eyebrow.

“So if you remember where it is, why don’t you tell them so we can get it?” Joshua asked, staring James straight in the eye. Staring at someone in the eye is uneasy for some people, only because you’re soul is said to be read by those who stare into your eyes. Minutes passed and finally James spoke out loud.

“I wanted to see if you memory was still slipping, which it is.” James said. “I distinctively remember that one of the first times we were together…” He paused, adding emphasis to the word. “you said you’d keep the book there, where’d you’d always remember it because it was a special place to you.”

Josh still stared at James, unmoving. My eyes played ping pong watching them both. Suddenly Joshua’s eyes got bright.

“I remember!” He screamed, clutching his head and bending his knees, forcing his body to bend backward, as if hit by a powerful force. “In the wall in the passageway, where any normal white person would never dare to go!” he disappeared and then reappeared. “And it’s still there. Now where did I put the key?” He paused again, scratching his head. “Give me a hint, James.”

“I got my tattoo there, and you put it there because you said I held the key to your heart.” James said softly, smiling as he remember a memory. Joshua stared at James again, and then another wave of inspiration hit him.

“When you got which tattoo? I remember a lot of them.” Josh said and smiled at James.

“Tattoos? What tattoos? I never saw any tattoos on James.” Joey brought up, his hand slowly rising on my thigh. Joshua blushed a bright rose red as did James and Josh coughed.

“They aren’t exactly ‘public’ tattoos.” Joshua said quietly, as if someone would hear him. Joey’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped. I put my finger under it and brought it back up to meet his upper lip. I think Joey got the meaning that Joshua meant. Josh though a wall and I turned to James.

“I thought this was the only room down here.” I said to James with a questioning look on my face.

“Well, it is, kinda. That’s Josh’s office, it’s one of those passageways, only it leads up to the bedroom. There’s a
button to push to get in there from here, come on, he can’t bring the key out to you.

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