Incredible Journey Chapter 26

The Incredible Journey of Thomas Johnson

Chapter Twenty-Six

"For a moment of night we have a glimpse of ourselves and of our world

islanded in its stream of stars-

pilgrims of mortality, voyaging between horizons

across the eternal seas of space and time."

(Henry Beston)

Kindred Souls

I left Celeste in the kitchen, walking slowly through the breezeway connecting the Doucet wing from the main house, and entered what I now called "home." My mind was racing, my breathing labored, and my hands damp with nervous perspiration; all as a result of my confrontation with Celeste, her response, and my fear she'd now reveal my secret and give me up to Chapman and the boys! Just about the time I came to the stairs leading upstairs to the bedrooms, it suddenly hit me; an epiphany so to speak, although not original in any way!

Remembering something General Grant said during the Battle of the Wilderness; something to the effect, "I realized my enemy was just as fearful of me as I was of him" and took the battle to the Confederate soldiers he faced in that terrible, destructive, life-taking battle. Celeste Doucet (or whatever her name really was) had the same secret as I did; she too was a traveler and had just as much to protect and conceal as did I!

I needed to know when, where, and how she made the journey back through time in order to compare it with my own metamorphous and, perhaps through the sharing of information, discover a way to return, if I so desired. Apparently, Celeste had no desire to return to her time. She had good life here, I thought, and, more importantly, a son – beautiful, desirable Henri! I didn't think she would want to abandon him, although stranger things have happened. Aren't I a prime example of that?

My steps lightened, my anxiety decreased, and I was in a much better mood when I entered our bedroom. The room was darkened, lightened only by the faint white light of the half-moon shining in through the window. From what I could discern, scanning the bed in front of me, there were already three occupants in it – all boy sized!

"This could be interesting," I mused to myself.

Quickly disrobing, I hung my clothes on the clothes tree, and prepared to climb into bed to join my bed partners. I thought the boys were asleep until I heard Benjie giggle, "See, I told you he did too!"

No sooner had I joined them under the covers when Benjie clambered over onto my naked body, his warm, smooth nakedness in contact with mine, his hard little pecker –"wait a minute," I thought, "it doesn't feel as small as a year ago." I reached down, clasped his cock and balls in my hand, and concluded they were indeed developing!

"That feels good," he giggled and kissed me.

"So do you, sweet Benjie," I responded, wrapping my arms around him and slipping a finger down in between his soft butt cheeks and tweaked his rosebud. Before I could pursue anything, he slid to my side and Henri scooted up in his place, kissed me, wiggled against me, and left me wondering which of the two I'd fuck first this night, but thwarted in my desires remembering we had a company in bed with us!

"Davey's never slept naked before," Henri informed me almost conspiratorially, "he really likes it though, especially when he feels his cock rub up against Benjie or me. Benjie told him you sleep naked too, but he didn't believe him, at first," and slid off of me.

I heard another boy snicker so I asked, "Do you need a hug and a kiss goodnight, Davey?"

"Yes," came his soft voice and he slowly crawled over Henri to me. He leaned over, I slipped my arms around him, and pulled him over and onto my stomach and chest, letting him rest where Benjie spent the night.

"You're cold!" I said softly and felt him nod his head.

"I told him he could have my place tonight and any night he's cold if he doesn't want to sleep cuddled between us or between Henri and me," announced Benjie proudly. Clearly, my two young lovers were quickly bonding with Davey!

As Davey settled his smaller frame on top of me, I couldn't help but be reminded of his pale, white, anemic looking pallor as he lay on Celeste's examination table and how it contrasted with Benjie and Henri's rich, tanned color of their mixed races; how healthy they looked, due to good food, exercise, play, and work in the form of chores! They looked healthy; he did not and I vowed to do everything I could while he was here to remedy that, with Celeste's help!

Davey squirmed and I could feel his not-so-little boy cock swelling and stiffening just above my own currently flaccid man-dick. One of his hands slowly slid down between us as he raised his butt for better access. I thought he was only maneuvering to straighten out his own growing tumescence, but was surprised when he moved further down and began a delicate and careful investigation of mine!

"You're big," he announced, "but not as big as Jefferson!"

I reached under his naked torso, cupped his small, but growing testicles, rolled them gently about in my hand, fondling, manipulating them in the sack enclosing them, moved my hand from those sweet baby-makers, up to feel his length, flicked the exposed head gently with my forefinger, and let what I thought was about four inches of stiff boy-cock rest in the palm of my hand. Davey gave a couple of thrusts, relaxed, settled down on top of me, my hand still holding his cock, and fell asleep! He was one tired boy!

During the night I felt him shift around; when morning came a more familiar naked body, with a stiff cock I was much more acquainted with, pressing up against my own turgid rod, rested on my own naked body, face snuggled up to mine. Opening my eyes I saw my own heartfelt Benjie sleeping peacefully where he always felt most comfortable.

Davey, resting under Henri's warm body, their arms wrapped around each other for comfort and security, seemed comfortable, nakedness to nakedness, stiff prod against stiff prod! Henri, a contented look on his face seemed to enjoy his role as not only a heater for his new friend, but now knight-protector!

Benjie moved a bit, raised his head, looked at me, and greeted me softly; "Good morning!" reaching down, encased my stiff cock in his small, warm, welcome hand, continued, "You're hard!" and before you could say, "No shit, Sherlock," swapped ends, engulfed the head of my hard pole in his mouth, swept his tongue into and out of that little, sensitive valley where the head of the cock seems to almost join just below the piss slit, licked up to that exit portal, again wrapped his lips around my throbbing dick and began bobbing up and down like a cork on a windy sea!

Just as I unloaded a mouthful into Benjie, I heard Davey ask, "What are they doing?"

"I'll show you," announced Henri and soon after his naked butt popped into view, Davey squealed, "Oh my God!" and he began whimpering in delight. Not thirty seconds later, he groaned, "I'm going to squirt," and Henri, true to his self, kept his mouth engaged and with each thrust of Davey's hips as he commenced his orgasm, swallowed it all!

After the last dollop of young cum disappeared, Henri announced, "That's what they were doing!"

And so it was, Davey was introduced to our world; a new experience for him, evidently! Anxious to reciprocate, with careful instruction from a now observant and teacher Benjie on how to cover his teeth with his lips and apply the just right amount of suction and movement, David Andrews learned how to suck cock and swallow the light load Henri now seemed delighted in producing and announcing to the rest of us! Of course, while Davey was busy sucking, Benjie just couldn't resist playing with Davey's balls, pecker, and fingering his twitching rosebud.

The way things were proceeding, I didn't think it'd be long before Henri had that sweet pecker of David's buried balls deep in his butt, humping and seeding him. If I knew Henri, which I do, now that he's balls are producing the needed juice, he'd just have to have a turn at fucking and seeding David's sweet looking ass as well!

At breakfast, Celeste had a listing of foods David needed to be eating, including his daily dose of cod liver oil. She included liver (beef and poultry), rare or medium rare meats, green and leafy vegetables including spinach, a handful of raisins (we had plenty since we dried our own grapes) several times per week and many other foods rich in iron or at least contributing some including potatoes. She also included other vegetables (including beans), grains, and fruits she said would help him absorb the iron needed to bring "balance" to his system. She spent a great deal of time with him, with Henri paying special attention as well, on the importance of plenty of exercise, sunshine, proper eating habits, including protein for the "building blocks" his body needed (to which Henri whispered to Davey he knew a great source)!

Finished with David, she then spent some time with his mother explaining the same things and the importance of a healthy diet for him. Elizabeth didn't seem bothered a female, black "healer lady" was prescribing a diet for her boy. Evidently, she'd witnessed enough or heard from her oldest son, Andrew, of the special skills Celeste had. Celeste then visited with her concerning Chapman's desire to open the dining room at the main house, especially during the summer. She explained most of the summer cooking was done in the summer kitchen located in the breezeway connecting the Doucet wing to the main house and opening the other dining room wouldn't be too difficult.

"We've grown so fast in such a short time, Mr. Chapman, always eager to do better for us all, has added more land and more help to the point we're running out of room. You can see the new addition he's putting on the other end of the main house; James, Caleb, and their sons will live there. It's important our workers are fed first, he believes, and fed well. If we could use my kitchen and dining area for our workers, our growing family could use the main house dining room. Mr. Chapman wants his `family' together!"

Her business completed in the kitchen, Celeste gave a nod of her head, motioning for me to accompany her to her office. She bade me sit, latched the door, "Just to ensure our privacy; I really don't think the others are quite ready to hear and believe what we are going to discuss."

There was no doubt in my mind she was exactly correct! If others did hear it, at this point in time, we'd both be locked up, stoned, or driven from the community as "witches," "conju people," or witches – maybe!

Celeste, not wasting time or words, cut to the chase; "What gave me away?"

I answered hesitantly, not certain where this was going or how I should answer her; "Last Christmas, when I heard you humming `White Christmas.' After that, I began watching what you did or said such as freezing ice from the spring for summer drinks rather than river or pond water; watching you measure out draughts of a mixture of the plant Digitalis for Mr. Chapman when he suffered from one of his spells. Digitalis wasn't a heart medicine in 1866. There were many other things, such as having me order the new home-canning equipment last spring so you could can fruits and vegetables."

"But," I confessed, "the real clincher came when you dosed David Andrews with cod-liver oil for what you described as `iron deficiency anemia.' Cod liver oil was used in the Scandinavian countries, but not here until after the Civil War. It was way too modern for this time and place!"

Celeste laughed, responding, "Only someone from your time and place with your education would notice it. I wondered, from the day you arrived here, how long it would take you!"

Now it was my time to express surprise!

"How did you know?"

"You forget," she mused, "when you woke, you were naked!"

I nodded, somewhat embarrassed.

"Not only was I surprised by the sight of a rather large penis on a white boy, but a penis which had been circumcised; circumcised, I might add, with the skill of a surgeon, not a quick cut as I might expect in this time. The scar on your penis from the surgery is slight; way too modern for this time and place," she said jokingly.

"So while you snoozed, I snooped, found your driver's license, noticed the birthdate on it, checked some more of your things, and knew you were a traveler, just like me!"

"I'm curious," she added, "what happened?"

I spent some time giving her a small portion of my history, my degree work, and finally the storm near the creek, the geode I picked up, my ducking into the cave, and ending up in the sick bed in her home.

Celeste thought a moment and finally concluded, "It had to be at least two things coming together; the geode since it is full of crystals and is a semi-precious stone and at least the rocks on either side of the entrance to the cave. I can remember, from my other life, "conju" ladies talking about time travelers and it always included a precious or semi-precious stone, a cleft in a rock or rocks, some sort of circle of stones which would put all of the forces of time and energy into play transporting you back to a time and place, using one you were thinking of a the instant it occurred."

Puzzled, I strained my memory to the day and time I was transported back in time and suddenly, it hit me! I'd been thinking, at the time of Annie Wittenmyer and her orphan home in Farmington and how close I was to it. It was my intention to make a side trip and visit the site of that original home when the storm hit and I sought shelter. Now it made sense, somewhat!

"How about you?" I asked, curious about her story as well.

Celeste smiled, responding, "My father really was a doctor in New Orleans, in 1971. My maiden name was Celeste Corbiere and was born in 1948. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Nursing and an intense interest in herbal medicine as a hobby or avocation, which I found more than just interesting when I was transported back in time."

Celeste assisted her father in his practice since she was fourteen years of age, the year her mother died. Accompanying him on his house calls, learning as she did, while he treated the poor, the uneducated, and the black community the racists refused to acknowledge or care for. Although the various Civil Rights laws had been passed, there was still a great deal of prejudice toward blacks in the south and neglect of them in their health care and education!

Getting medical care to the poor in the Wards of New Orleans and the bayous and swamps of the surrounding area and Parish's was difficult, but not impossible. After Celeste received her nursing degree, her Daddy used to fill her big medical bag and waist pouches on a belt with medical supplies and medicines which she would administer to the sick, holding clinics at various churches or making house calls as needed. The heavy medicine bag, containing supplies, medicines, and equipment needed for her work including stethoscopes, was secured by a heavy canvas strap looped over her head and shoulder.

Celeste would take off from her father's clinic, usually on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and make her rounds of bayou country. She loved the people and they trusted her to make them well or at least tell them the truth concerning their illnesses. The "juju" women began permitting her to examine those under their care and, if they were cured, took credit for it, of course!

One evening, after spending the afternoon working in a small church, she was summoned to a home back in the swamps where a woman was having difficulty birthing a child. Before she left the church, one of the "juju" women waiting near her pickup truck cautioned her to stay on the well-worn path at the end of the road and it was but a short distance to the house where the expectant mother waited.

"I remember very clearly her advice," she said. "Don't go taking any short cuts through the woods, `cause they's dark princesses out there what makes folks disappear!"

"I failed to take their advice and when I came to the end of the road and started down the path, I spotted another trail and thought I could see the lights of the cabin just down a ways. Foolishly, I took the path! After just a short distance, I came upon a small opening, and within it a strange circle of large upright stones. I remember thinking as I started across the circle, how much this area probably hadn't changed much since before the Civil War. It was then, it happened!"

When Celeste awoke, she was being tended to by a black lady, dressed in a long dress, a bandana around her head, and speaking French. It was a French Celeste was familiar with since, being raised in New Orleans, learned it at an early age. The woman claimed Celeste just "showed up, on the ground, just near the edge of the trail leading into New Orleans from the bayous."

She still had possession of her medicine bag and pouches, but once the old woman helped her to her feet and assisted her to the shack she lived in, Celeste was beginning to believe this was not the same century she was in previously. The old women's dwelling had no electricity (not unusual even in 1971), no running water or indoor plumbing (again, not unusual in this part of Louisiana in 1971), but it was the way the home was furnished, the women's clothing, the various food products and the manner in which they were stored, that added more concern in her mind!

She was almost certain of the shift in time when the old women informed her she was gens de couleur libre "a free person of color" and not a slave. Celeste bided her time, contemplating what she thought happened and her present circumstances. When the old women asked if she was a "healer lady" she acknowledged it and informed the women she'd lost her way and needed to get back to New Orleans.

The old women contemplated her request and, after considerable thought, agreed to take her there to a "friend." The women gave Celeste an old dress to wear and a head scarf and they set off. Her worst fears were confirmed when they arrived at the city, much smaller, absent of the several story buildings and paved streets of the Twentieth Century and all of the accoutrements of the times. Winding through the dirty back streets, she was finally brought to an apothecary shop, where the old women introduced her to the proprietor, who, after looking her over, decided he would give her a try.

She was still standing in front of the shop, waiting to enter, when Mr. Chapman drove up in a buggy seeking some medical help and asked if she was a "healer lady." Celeste figured it worked before, so she tried it again, and succeeded. Within a couple of days she was taking care of the four boys Chapman rescued and fairly well ensconced at High Oaks!

"So," I asked, "your medical bag contained the stethoscope and other items you now use in your practice?"

She nodded, "Once I found out what the boys were used for, I ground up some of the penicillin tablets in my kit, concocted a injectable serum and gave them, as well as Mr. Chapman enough to kill any syphilis or gonorrhea they may have been infected with."

All of the medical supplies she arrived with was soon used up, but the equipment, as well as the syringes, needles, and other items she maintained meticulously.

But I continued, once she finished, my curiosity just peaking; "Did you have any type of gemstone with you as well?"

"I was wearing a blue sapphire pendant of my mother's around my neck," she answered. "I remember, very distinctly, the feeling of warmth and then heat emanating from it as I entered the circle of stones and just before I passed out."

"Do you ever want to go back to our time?" I asked.

"At first I did, but the longer I worked with Chapman and his people the more they became family to me. When I had Henri, I knew then there was no going back for me. I was needed and I had a son to care for!"

She hesitated, adding, "As you are probably aware, he is Chapman's son so Benjie is his half-brother."

I nodded, letting her know I was quite aware of the relationship, even if the boys were not. I thanked her for her trust in me and acknowledged the need to keep our secret between us as I prepared to leave.

"Someday, Dr. Thomas R. Johnson," Celeste said with some eagerness, "even knowing you prefer boys and men over women, I'd still like to try that circumcised, fat cock of yours on for size and see how it fits!"

I smiled, shrugged my shoulders, and left knowing it'd never happen!

To be continued.

***

Thank you for reading "The Incredible Journey of Thomas Johnson" – Chapter Twenty-Six.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or locales is entirely coincidental.

If you enjoy my stories and the many others found on this free site, please consider a donation. It is your donations which make all of our stories free and available for you to read and enjoy. Thank you.

Nick Hall

The Literary works of Nicholas Hall are protected by the copyright laws of the United States of America and are the property of the author.

Positive comments are welcome and appreciated at: nick.hall8440@gmail.com