Brian felt an almost physical jolt to his stomach when he first stepped into the Kinney house he had grown up in. He still felt the effects of the hangover as his reward for drinking himself into oblivion the night before. But that was nothing compared to the uncomfortable feelings he was experiencing when he walked into the house for the first time since his father passed years earlier. The only thing that helped steady his nerves was having Justin by his side this time.
The couple were not alone. Brian had hired an appraiser, who also handled estate sales, to help them catalog what was in the house so they could determine what to do with everything. Hours passed as they visited each room one by one. They discovered a number of items of some value. Joan Kinney loved collecting pieces of crystal and porcelain, which the appraiser assured them was worth selling. Even the furniture, although not very new, was in very good condition and of good quality. It was sellable. Brian was surprised to find that both his mother and sister had some decent pieces of jewelry, along with a lot of costume jewelry. Once they had explored every room, they determined that about a third of the contents of the home were worthy of an estate sale, and the rest would make a decent donation to some charity. Justin suggested that their donation could go to The Vic Grassi House. Brian felt the first moment of levity from the entire day.
“How fitting that will be. Of course, she just might decide to haunt us for doing such a thing with her possessions if we do,” Justin joked.
“A chance worth taking,” Brian laughed, kissing Justin on the cheek as he wrapped his arms around him from behind.
For a brief moment, Brian thought to himself that it would be even more ironic to take Justin into his old room, and then fuck the living daylights out of him once the appraiser had left, but decided that donating her things to a hospice for the LGBTQ community was enough of a ‘fuck you’ for one day. Besides, this old house didn’t exactly put him in the mood for pleasurable pursuits. After the appraiser left with his notepad in hand, Justin thought of something that hadn’t occurred to Brian.
“We’ve checked the whole house, but we forgot the attic. That will need to be cleaned out too before selling the house. And who knows, there may be some treasure stashed away up there.”
Brian groaned. He was more than ready to get back to the hotel and find that bottle of Jim Beam left over from the night before. But Justin was right. They decided to get it over with now, because the sooner the house was cleared away, the sooner they could have their realtor start showing it to prospective buyers. At least they knew they could go back home to New York without waiting for it to be bought. So, gritting their teeth, Brian pulled down the stairs leading to the attic, and they made their way up into the darkened space that Brian hadn’t seen since before he graduated from high school.
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More than an hour passed as the couple browsed through all the nooks and crannies of the large attic space. Luckily for them, the darkened corners were lit up quite nicely by several overhead lights, which Jack had installed the day he nearly broke his neck tripping over unseen things in such a large area only lit by a single bulb. The attic ran the entire length of the house and had one window at each end of the room, but it was nearing sunset outside, so no light penetrated the attic. The place was dusty, as expected, and showed signs of being neglected for some time. They wondered if the women had even gone up into the attic since Jack’s passing.
The room was filled with boxes of discarded memories from more than thirty years of marriage and family life. There were also a number of pieces of furniture, such as a dilapidated crib that hadn’t seen a baby tucked inside for decades, and an old rocker. Brian found it hard to imagine either of his parents ever rocking their babies to sleep in the rocker. Brian recognized some of the old toys he and his sister had as children. He was surprised that his parents kept any of them. He found it hard to remember any happy playtimes at home as a child, although he probably did have some.
As Brian was dusting off some of the furniture to determine if any of it was worth selling, or should be scrapped, Justin wandered off to the far end of the attic. He had noticed an old cedar chest… the kind that brides once called their ‘hope chest’, in which many once used to keep their wedding gowns and other memorabilia after being married. He was curious as to whether there would be some items inside that might be of interest to Brian, despite his cavalier attitude about his family. Justin checked to see if the chest was locked. He wasn’t surprised to find that it was. However, the chest was not in the best of conditions, so he decided to see if he could somehow pry it open.
Earlier, he had noticed an old half-rusted crowbar in one corner of the attic, along with some old tools. He found it again and brought it back to the chest. He could hear Brian mumbling to himself on the other side of the attic as he rummaged through box after box looking for anything worth keeping or selling. Justin worked the crowbar into the edges of the lid. At first it looked like the task would be hopeless. Just as he was about to admit defeat, he heard the sound of cracking wood. As if by a miracle, the lock gave way. Justin gripped the lid and opened it up. Dust flew up into his face as it swung open. He coughed and brushed the air to scatter the dust. He looked down into the chest. Sure enough, there was an old-fashioned white wedding gown tucked neatly inside a clear plastic bag.
Justin also spotted a handful of photo albums and a couple of handmade quilts. There were some baby clothes too, that appeared to be hand-made, but the thing that interested Justin the most was a shoe box with the cover on and a rubber band securing it. He took it out and removed the cover. Inside, sat a small bundle of envelopes, which he presumed had letters inside. Justin’s curiosity was piqued.
He called over to Brian to tell him about the letters, but only received a derisive response telling him to trash them for his efforts. Without thinking about why he did it, Justin sat down on the floor of the attic and removed the ribbon that held the letters together. He was surprised to see that none of the half dozen or so envelopes had a stamp attached, although each did have a name and address neatly written on them. They were supposed to be mailed to someone named Virginia Kelly. The name and address of the sender was also clearly visible. It was Joan Kinney. There were dates scrawled on the back of the envelopes. The first date was when Brian was still a baby. Justin couldn’t stop himself. He pulled out the letter with the earliest date and began to read.
To be continued…………