Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 20:27:56 -0700
From: Joseph Farrin <bigblaise@hotmail.com>
Subject: A BOY IN THE WINDOW

Kent and CJ were both friends and neighbors ever since childhood in New
York.

Now Kent was 25 years old and CJ was 24, both beyond the age that they
should have graduated from college but that had never been their intent nor
their style and certainly nothing they ever worried about.  They had been
childhood terrorists, poor students in school and parentless, by reason of
death.  Kent's parents had died in an automobile accident a month after his
graduation from high school.  C J was a victim of divorce, raised by
grandparents both of whom had died within the past three years, one of
cancer and the other of cardiac arrest.

Kent is of Swedish parentage and has the tall, blonde, blue eyed good looks
of an idealized Nordic male.  The most accurate way to describe CJ is to
tell you he looks like a young Jude Law.  CJ is a nickname that springs
from the fact that his full name is Carol Joseph Manning and he hates the
Carol part.  Their only salvation is that, through inheritance, they are
fucking, filthy rich.  Salvation has yet to address their both being
immature -- they were overgrown teenagers but still very likable.

FYI, Kent's full name is Kenneth Andrew Swanson.

The two of them spend more time in gay bars or the other's apartment than
they do in their own apartment.  They celebrated New Years Eve, 2003 in a
gay bar and they were damn near killed before the year 2004 was half an
hour old by staggering out the bar and jaywalking across the street to hail
a taxi.

Despite being inebriated, the accident scared a sufficient amount of shit
out of both of them to make them realize changes were mandatory in both the
way they were squandering their inheritances and wasting their lives.

They were both disease free, both were wealthy and, most importantly, they
were sexual partners and very much in love with each other.  They had every
reason to change their lives around.  They were also bombed out with New
York and decided now was the time to get the hell out of it, kick their bad
habits and start making something of themselves.

It is a monumental undertaking to pull up all your roots and commence again
from square one in an unknown world.  At least they had each other.  After
a month of investigating a number of choices, and still undecided, CJ was
intrigued by a classified advertisement in a Sunday "New York Times" for
the sale of an antique store in Carlton, Vermont. They didn't know where
Carlton was and had to look it up via the Internet.  They didn't know
anything about managing an antique store but figured they could learn that
business as quick as they could a lot of others they could think of.

They called the listed phone number and made an appointment for Tuesday at
10 AM and left Monday in CJ's BMW coupe.  Kent, like many Manhattan
dwellers, had never owned a car - a case of why bother when you have the
subway.

Carlton turned out to be a small, picturesque village.  The antique store
was located at 96 Kelly Street, the main drag, in an area of shops that
attracted tourists year-round.  Tourists were one of the town's main
sources of income, along with a small college.  The store was located a
half block from a free, public parking lot. The husband and wife owners,
Bill and Anne Smith, agreed to say on two months to acquaint CJ and Kent
with the business, if they so desired.  The stock included everything from
large pieces of furniture, through rugs, lamps, china and silverware down
to small items that you could hold between your thumb and forefinger.

Instinct told Kent and CJ that there hadn't been too much interest in
buying the business but the asking price was reasonable and gave the seller
a $1,000, non- refundable, deposit to hold the store for the for a period
of one week.  There was no realtor involved.  An attorney would handle the
sales contract.

The reason for the week delay was to look at local housing and they phoned
a realtor listed in the yellow pages that turned out to be a woman, who
they guessed to be in her late forties.  Her name was Adele and she had
been born and raised in Carlton.

Housing proved to be unbelievably cheap compared to NYC.  CJ reasoned that
February was not the ideal time to sell a house in Vermont and probably an
antique shop, too, as far as that went.

After looking at five or six listings Adele showed them a vacant house on
Hill Cut Road, just outside town but still in the city limits.  They hadn't
even gotten out of Adele's car before they were in love with the house.  It
was an old house, in need of a lot of TLC but held a certain fascination,
more so for CJ than Kent.  It consisted of a large central hall that ran
clear through the house from front to back with a 5 ft. wide stair to the
second story and under it a stair to the basement.  To the left was a large
living room with a masonry fireplace, and to the right a dining room with a
kitchen and butler's pantry behind.  The upstairs consisted of four
bedrooms and a bathroom at the rear of the house accessed from the hall.
At the rear was a large patio overlooking the property, which slowed down
toward the college, partially orchard, as, noted on the data sheet for the
house.  Beyond was the Carlton College campus.

Standing in the upstairs hall, Adele said that County building permits show
the house was built in 1923, the electrical system was complexly rewired in
1965, plumbing and heating were both renewed in 1978 and air conditioning
was added a year before the house was listed for sale

She added: I don't know if it falls into the category of the Full
Disclosure Law, but to be on the safe side, I think I should tell you that
local gossip says the house is haunted.  CJ seemed as though he hadn't even
heard what she said.  He replied, "We'll take it."  He wrote a check for
half the amount and Kent wrote a check for the other half."

On the way back to her car, Adele explained that the name Hill Cut Road was
graded and named after the Vermont Central Railroad made a cut through the
hill for it's right-of-way about 200 feet West of here and that there were
only two other houses on the road, a little north of here.  As they backed
out and headed toward Carlton, CJ turned to look out the rear window for
one last look and could have sworn he saw a young, thin, blonde haired boy
looking out the front window of the northwest bedroom.  CJ guessed the boy
to be around 10 years old.

After a nap at the motel, a few drinks at a close-by bar and while eating
dinner at a restaurant, CJ told Kent what he'd seen, or at least what he
thought he'd seen.

Kent replied, "Maybe you're getting too much fresh out here in the
boonies?"

"I'm just saying that's what I thought I saw."

"CJ, come down to earth.  We went through every room including the
basement, looked in every closet and opened every cabinet.  The place isn't
trashed; it's just dusty, dirty, neglected and needs a lot cleaning and
repair.  But, did you see any blankets, pillows, food wrappers or other
signs that someone was trespassing and occupying the house?  Shit, the
water has been turned off, there's no heat."

"No."

That settled, they went back to the bar and had an after dinner Brandy and
walked back to the motel; they'd left CJ's BMW at the motel.  Kent settled
down to TV.  CJ said he had a headache and didn't want to take Tylenol
because they'd been drinking so he was going for a walk.

"Well, take a room key, I'm ready to turn in.  Where are you going to
walk?"

"I'll take the BMW up to the parking lot on Kelly and walk around the
business area for a while."

Imitating a young girl's voice, Kent said, "Be careful, don't let some cop
pick you up, he might want to bring you back to the room and fuck us both."

"Don't you wish!"

CJ drove slowly up Hill Cut Road.  The thickness of the wooded area was
more apparent to him than it had been in daylight; maybe he hadn't paid
attention.  He didn't know just where he was so he deliberately passed the
house before pulling off to the side of the road, dousing his headlights
and walking back toward the house.  Because of the boy in the window, he
just had to look at the house again or he'd never go to sleep.  It was
totally dark but he hung out for five or ten minutes and was just about to
go back to the car when he saw a dim light moving around in the upstairs
hall and then appearing in the northwest bedroom window.  It was the same,
boy -- blonde and as skinny as a prison camp detainee yet so beautiful, so
angelic looking.  It was strange.  He felt a strong, caring attachment
toward the boy, the ghost, whatever he was.  The light in the window went
out.  CJ walked back to the car.  He didn't want to be gone too long.  He
decided to say nothing to Kent and he didn't sleep a wink all night.  In
the morning Kent told him he looked like shit and CJ replied he could never
sleep in a strange bed.

To that Kent replied, "You should have moved over into my bed.  I hate
these two-bed motel rooms anyway.  I missed you."

"You were asleep when I came back and I didn't want to disturb you."

Kent decided that maybe they should check out the house a little deeper.
They had just given the realtor their checks; nothing had been signed as
yet.

Consequently they spent the morning in the local newspaper's computerized
archives, with the help of a newspaper employee, and found that an
unaccounted for death had taken place in the house in the spring of 1997 or
7 years ago.
  The death was of a ten-year-old boy named Nicholas, born in 1987.  At the
time, Nicholas' parents owned and occupied the house and when Nicholas died
Mrs.  Burton's 30-year-old cousin, a David Allision from Boston, was
visiting Mrs.  Burton. The Burtons were awakened around 2AM in the morning
by noises and screaming and found Nicholas dead at the foot of the stairs
with a broken neck.

The police interrogated all of them particularly David as he was kneeling
beside Nicholas at the bottom of the stairs when the Burtons ran from their
bedroom and turned on a light in the upstairs hall.  The police, however,
could not build a sufficient case against him to charge him with a crime
and accepted that he had heard Nicholas using the bathroom and then scream
as he fell down the stairs.  It was possible as David's bedroom was at the
back of the house adjacent to the bathroom.  Consequently they gave up and
the death was recorded as an accident'

They also found two other disturbing items:

The 18-year old son of one occupant had fallen from the 30-foot high edge
of the railroad cut onto the railroad line and had been ran over by a
train, in the era before passenger service had been discontinued between
Montreal, Boston and New York.

The other was an out and out, cold blooded, multiple murder. A man had
taken his wife and two teenage daughters into the tool shed at the end of
the orchard, about a hundred yards to the rear of the house, and shot them,
then killed himself in the garage; he'd closed the garage doors, got into
the car, started the engine, closed his eyes and waited to die.  It had
happened in 1929, the year of the stock market crash on Wall Street.

By this time, the newspaper employee in charge of the archives was almost
like a friend to CJ and Kent and he said, "Three deaths, two on the
property one of which was unexplained, seems like a lot for one house but,
after all, they were over a span of about 75years and I can testify that
quite a few other happy families have lived in that house too.  There's a
pretty good turn over here, what with teachers coming and going from the
college."

He had a point and we liked the house.

Kent said, "What the hell, were grown men, we can handle a ghost. I guess
his name is Nicholas.  We can even call him by name and tell him to behave
if he gets overbearing."

After closing the purchase on the store, they returned to New York and
filled the BMW with clothing and CJ's computer.  Kent was as interested in
computers as he was putting the make on a girl, even one with model, good
looks and big boobs. Next they met with an interior decorator in Montpelier
but decided to go on their own as regards refurbishing the house.

Escrow on the house didn't take long as there was no loan involved.  The
main, upstairs undertaking was knocking out a wall between the two south
bedrooms and adding a bath adjacent to the one in the middle, rear of the
house behind the hallway.  This would give them a larger master bedroom
with a private bath and more closet space.  They wanted to concentrate on
the upstairs, so they could check out of the motel, get some of their
bedroom furniture out of storage and then deal with the first floor
afterwards.

********** By mid April they had hired a young, local woman, named Connie
as a clerk and after lunch one Saturday took off to look at the house. The
upstairs was about finished including painting, wallpapering and new
carpeting.  Jim, one of the contractor's men told them he had a funny
experience to tell them.

After he'd finished lunch, he'd wadded up his denim jacket for a pillow and
was taking a nap on the carpet in the new, master bedroom.  He woke up; his
dick was out of his pants, hard and aroused close to the maximum. Jim swore
that, if he were not alone in the house, someone had been jacking him off
in his sleep.

Kent laughed, so did CJ, but CJ had to force his laughter.  While Jim was
telling his story, dragging it out for maximum effect, CJ saw Nicholas come
into the room, walk over and take a hold of his hand and actually felt him
holding it.  In that instant CJ thought he knew what might have happened on
that night in the Burton house in 1993 -- Nicholas had not fallen down the
stairs, his cousin, David Allison had pushed him.  Why?  David was a
homophobic.  He, like Jim, had awoken from sleep but David had caught
Nicholas sucking his cock, he cursed him, Nichols ran and David caught up
him at the head of the stairs and pushed him. CJ tried to squeeze
Nicholas's hand but it was no longer there.

Of course, it was obvious to CJ that the reason Nicholas had entered the
room was to communicate to him that it was he who had unzipped Jim's fly
and sucked his cock as well as to reveal he had been murdered.

Sleeping in the house nights was an improvement over the motel even though
the first floor was still being updated and they were still eating at
restaurants.  CJ began having wet dreams, especially when he was sleeping
facing the edge of the bed.  Each time he reached climax and wished he
could have woken up because he just knew that Nicholas was sucking his
cock.

A few weeks after moving in, CJ put a note on the bureau while emptying his
pockets getting ready for bed.  It was something he'd brought home by
mistake and had to take back to the office -- a note about an appointment,
actually.  The next morning he started to pick it up and thought that it
was not in the same place as he had placed it.  He wondered why and
wondered if Nicholas could read.

The next night he left another note but he carefully measured the distance
of the upper two corners from both the right edge and bottom edge of the
bureau.

In the morning he measured again and the note was close but not exactly in
the same position.  Obviously it had been picked up and put back down.

So, on the second night, a note was placed it in the approximately same
place and read:

"Nicholas, if you are able to leave the house during daylight hours, please
come to 96 Perry Street, next door to the Bank of New England between noon
and 1'oclock.  I am trying to find out if you and I can communicate with
each other.  I want to know because I am very fond of you."  He signed it -
Love CJ.

It was 12:15 PM, CJ was minding the store until Kent and Connie came back
from lunch and then he'd go.  No one was in the store, and CJ would have
been aware if the door had opened as it had a small bell at the top that
rang when it did.  He was actually a little startled when a ballpoint
started rolling back and forth across his desk but looked up and said,
"Nicholas?"

The ballpoint began to spin instead of rolling back and forth.

"Nicholas, are you comfortable at the house?  Do you need anything? I'm
worried and concerned about you. There was no evident reply and CJ guessed
he's screwed up. He'd asked two questions at the same time, so he tried
again, realizing Nicholas could only respond with a yes or no type answer.

"I'm concerned about you.  Do you need anything? If yes, put the pen on the
blotter; if no, put it in the jar here with the other pens and pencils."
The pen rose and was placed on the blotter.

"This is awkward.  Do you have anyway to tell me what you want?"

CJ became aware that his pants were being unzipped.

He had to give Nicholas credit; he didn't need speech to communicate.

CJ knew that Nicholas had spoken to him, in his own way.  However CJ
misjudged Nicholas' full intent, he had not only shown him what he needed
but preceded to get it.  CJ didn't catch on until he looked down and saw
his cock was being taken out of his shorts and the fly of his pants and
beginning to erect.  He knew why, he was getting a blowjob.

"Oh shit, Nicholas that feels so good.  God I wish I could see you working
on my dick!"  He no sooner had the words out of his mouth when he saw
Nicolas, a gaunt, but unbelievably pretty little boy holding his cock up
with one tiny hand and sucking on it like there was no tomorrow.  He
reached out and touched the side of Nicholas' head and his long, soft,
silken, blonde hair.  Nicholas remained visible until CJ had his cum and
then he could no longer see him.

"Nicholas, that was wonderful!  Could we talk a little about your death?
Was it an accident or were you murdered?"

"Nicholas moved the pen into the now recognized "NO" position.

"Why?"

Damn, another question that could not be answered with Yes or No.  Nicholas
became visible just long enough so that CJ could see his hands folded next
to his cheek and his eyes closed.  CJ knew he was tired.

"Can we meet again?"

The pen lifted off the blotter and was gently replaced.  CJ interpreted it
as a yes answer.

"Do you know when?"

The pen switched back and forth, rapidly from the blotter to the jar.  CJ
wasn't certain what it meant but guessed that Nicholas didn't know.  With
that he felt a kiss on his cheek and he knew he'd see Nicholas again even
if he didn't know when.

"Wait! Can I leave notes?" to which he left a yes and no response."

"A new place?"

Nicholas gave a yes response.

"Let me think".  He picked up a stick-up note pad, and stuck it on the
lampshade on the desk so Nicholas could see.  "I'll reach in your closet
and stick in on the wall so nobody can see it unless they step inside and
turn around.  OK?"

Nicholas picked up the pen and, in their code, answered in the affirmative.

CJ had another sleepless night.  He mulled over everything that had
happened and decided he'd been wrong.  A homophobic might or might not have
pushed Nicholas down the stair just because Nicholas tried to suck his
cock. It just seemed too much.  Had David had another reason?

Mornings right after opening the store were quiet and CJ used the situation
to tell Kent everything that had happened up through yesterday. He was
afraid Kent would think him crazy but, luckily he was sympathetic to CJ
because he sensed he was upset and was trying to help Nicholas.

"How do you think you can help?"

"I no longer believe Nicholas fell down the stairs, I think he was pushed.
I think he was murdered.  If I can prove it and the murder is punished, I
think Nicholas will be able to leave the house and find peace after all
these years."

"How long will it take you?  What will you be doing and can I help?"

"Kent, I haven't the foggiest, but I'll give you a daily update."

"You'll still be staying at the house? I don't need to be jealous?"

"Of course, silly, we're an item and have been for a long time.  Where else
would I stay?"

Kent pulled CJ over, kissed him and said, "That's all I need to know,
sweetheart; get your ass out the door and get started.  See you this
evening."

CJ didn't know where to start, so he made lists of things he thought needed
confirming.  He titled the first list ASSUMPTIONS and listed:

1. Nicholas can't write.  2. Nicholas' parents and David Allison are no
longer alive.  3. Nicholas' death is somehow connected with sex between him
and David.  4. Nicholas can make himself visible only to me.

The next list was titled NEED TO KNOW and listed:

1. Was Nicholas murdered?  2. Does Nicholas usually confine his actives to
night and rest days?  3. Is becoming visible exhausting for him?  4. Is
there any record of child molestations by David?  5. Would meetings in the
house, at night, be easier for Nicholas?

The last was HOW TO PROCEED:

1. Again research newspaper archives.  2. Use an Internet search engine --
attempt to find parents and David.  3. Use library for other Vermont
newspapers.  4. Make a hell of a lot of phone calls.

In time, CJ found that Nicholas could write.

David Allison could not be found in Boston, so his current status was
indeterminable.

David's father was deceased and he was buried in the cemetery at St. John's
Episcopal Church next to Nicholas.

His mother could not be traced; she'd possibly remarried.

Nicholas could make himself visible to others, but it was easier with CJ
because even before he had looked at the house that cold day in February
Nicholas knew someone who loved him was coming and he was waiting.  The
reason he looked out the window that same night was because he couldn't
understand why, after CJ had arrived he hadn't stayed.

Things are easier for Nicholas at night.  He needs to sleep during the day.

David Allison had no record of child molestation, at least that CJ could
find.

David Allison had murdered Nicholas.  The reason was not what CJ had
envisioned but similar.  David had been visiting the Burtons for a week and
every chance they had during the day and always at night after his parents
had gone to bed, Nicholas had sucked or masturbated David and David had
done the same to Nicholas.  On the last night of his visit, David became
aggressive and told Nicholas he wanted to fuck him.  Nicholas was smart
enough to realize that getting fucked would hurt, especially by someone as
worked up over the idea as David was.  Nicholas told him "No".  David began
to get rough and when he moved to pin Nicholas down on the bed, Nicholas
rolled to the other side, jumped out of the bed, ran and made it only as
far as the head of the stairs.  Falling was the last thing he remembered.

The nighttime meetings turned out better for Nicholas but were still
exhausting if they lasted too long, especially the one where Nicholas
relived his last few minutes alive.

CJ had learned a lot but continued his search in trying to locate David.
However he took time out more often to have sex with Nicholas as his
recounting of his experiences with David led them into different
directions.  For one thing, CJ had never thought of sucking Nicholas
before.  Then, one night Nicholas wrote a note asking CJ to take off all
his clothes.  When he stood up naked, he saw Nicholas out of his pajamas,
which was the usual way he appeared.  His skinny, pale, 10- year-old body
was the perfect specimen of a male child, his little 4-inch, circumcised
boner with it's rose bud cockhead pointing straight out from his hairless
torso, above his small, marble sized testicles.  Nicholas took CJ's hand
and pulled down on it.  The message was clear.  He wanted CJ to suck him
off.

Things quieted down somewhat until August when the most important discovery
to date came totally unexpected.  CJ, along with Kent and Nicholas
(invisible) were watching CNN on TV one evening while having a cocktail
before dinner.  The first item on the National News was an announcement
that Vermont's junior Senator David Allison of Burlington, Vermont
announced he would seek a second term and the local "Republicans for
Allison Committee" were sponsoring a fund raising dinner on September 5th
in the ball room of the Encore Motel in Burlington, a $5,000 dollar per
plate affair. The most current poll shows the Senator to have a strong lead
over his Democratic opponent, James Bryant of Rutland.

The announcer continued, "This has been a big day for Senator Allison, as
Vermont's popular Governor Daniel Reynolds and his wife announced the
engagement of their daughter Cynthia to the Senator."

Pandemonium broke loose at the "haunted house".

CJ hollered, "The fucking bastard moved.  No wonder I couldn't find him in
Boston."

Kent screamed, "Shit, we've got to become more involved in politics.  I
never pay any attention to what those fucking politicians are doing."

Nicholas was so excited that he became visible.  He was sitting on CJ's lap
and made him made him spill his highball.  He kissed CJ then looked at
Kent, whose eyes were about to pop out of their sockets, as it was the
first time he'd seen Nicholas.  He stared, open-mouthed until Nicholas
reached over and kissed him too.

**********

CJ immediately began making reservations for the Republican dinner and a
hotel room at the Encore so he and Nicholas could fuck up David' plan for a
second term but Kent nixed it; he insisted that the three of them would go
together.  It could be dangerous; they were fucking around in national
politics.

As planned, they arrived a day early, so Nicholas could sleep all day
before the dinner.  CJ also went to the ball room where the dinner was to
be held and looked at it closely as it was being set up for the big event.
It wasn't until then that he was able to focus on an exact plan.  David
would be addressing the group from a small platform, with stairs on each
side and flanked along the back wall with American Flags.

When he began his speech, Nicholas would become visible to him, standing on
the floor in front of the podium, and expose himself. If all hell broke
loose, he could become invisible, move and stand at the back of the stage
until CJ or Kent were able to go to him and lead him out of the ballroom.

Luck prevailed.  Because they were first time contributors, they were
seated at the second table back from the podium and adjacent to a wide
aisle that led to the Encore's lobby.

The show was on!  David kept raising his hands trying to quiet the
applause.  Luckily the audience was not large -- between 200 and 300 people.

As the applause diminished, David began his line of bullshit -- how honored
he was to again be their candidate, etc.

He was a few sentences into his goals for his second term when to CJ and
Kent it was obvious that Nicholas had become visible only to David as he
stood in front of the podium, naked and masturbating his little penis.

David stopped speaking in the middle of a sentence, stared into space and
then started shouting:

"Guards, guards, where's my security?  Plainclothes men from the sides of
the stage jumped up to the platform, one on each side of David, more ran
toward the platform from exits at the back and sides of the ballroom.

"Get him, get him, arrest him!"

CJ heard one guard shout, "Where is he?"

Pointing to the floor in front of the podium, David kept shouting, "Right
there!  He's a boy, he's naked, he's trying to push me down the stairs!"

The voices of David and the plainclothes security men were the only ones to
be heard.  Everyone else was silent, looking at the spectacle in total
disbelief.

"He's going to push me down the stairs, he's going to kill me!"

Kent was wearing an ear to ear smile, bent over and whispered into CJ's
ear: "Boy ghosts posses a lot of clout,"

The party ended when the two guards on the platform took David by each arm,
led him down the stairs, off the podium and out the wide aisle to the lobby
doors, passing right by CJ and Kent.

There was no panic involved. People just gossiped as they filed out. They
all knew that David Allison had, right before their eyes, gone off his
rocker.

The papers were full of the fund raising dinner.  A week later one article
said that authorities had located a cousin in Burlington, the only living
relative and with the help of the State Attorney General, had David placed
in a private sanatorium.  The Governor then appointed a prominent Rutland
attorney to fill the remainder of David's first term.

The article had a picture of the relative; Nicholas said it was his mother.
Through the phone company information CJ located and talked to her, telling
her the story.

>From the details CJ told her, she drove down the following day.  She had a
photograph of Nicholas and promised CJ she'd have it copied for him.

The sad part of the story is that Nicholas had finally worn himself out; he
didn't leave any more notes for CJ.  It broke CJ up that he had not made it
long enough to see his mother again.  But his mother, CJ and Kent all went,
together, to his gravesite in St. John's cemetery, knelt, said a prayer for
Nicholas and cried.

When the snap shot arrived, CJ gathered up all of Nicholas' notes and put
them in his top bureau drawer and had thee snap shot framed and he placed
it on top of his bureau where Nicholas had read the notes he'd left.

More importantly, he placed Nicholas in a very special place deep in his
heart.

THE END

THIS IS NOT MY USUAL TYPE OF ADULT-YOUTH STORY.  IT IS ONE THAT JUST CAME
TO ME AND I HAD TO WRITE IT.  IT DOESN'T HAVE A LOT OF SEX IN IT, BUT I'M
HOPING SOME ONE ENOYED IT ANYWAY.