Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 15:19:32 -0500 From: Lee McDougal Subject: "Through the Time Warp" Chapter 4 Welcome back for more of my story. I hope you guys are enjoying it, and I would hope so if you got this far. :-) There may be a slight chance of a second posting later this week, if there's enough response... and I think you'll know why when you read this chapter. So if you want to get a second posting this week, email me at leo1980@gay.com Or just wait till next Wednesday...it's up to you. Check out the website too. http://home.gay.com/leo1980 Disclaimer: I don't know Nsync, and Lance if your reading this, please stop calling me in the middle of the night...(as if!). Seriously, I hope they have lots of success with their next cd, but that they stay at number 2 on TRL, more often than they are # one at least...I HOPE!!! Backstreet Boys are the best. Through the Time Warp (My adventure with Nsync) Chapter 4 "So where exactly is this train taking us to man?" Joey asked the hobo. "It's headed towards Tennessee, but you better get off before we get that far. You don't want to get caught by the train conductor." "Okay, we'll keep that in mind." Joey concluded the conversation. "I think we should get off the next time it slows down." I suggested. "Good idea, that guy is giving me the willies." Lance whispered in my ear. It wasn't much longer before the train started to slow down, and we jumped out of the stall. I guess I wasn't very graceful, because my bad ankle gave out, and I started rolling down a hill. ********** "Hey look at this guys. There's a computer looking thing over here, and on top of it is written Transporter 3000." Justin read. "You're kidding me?" Josh asked. "No, he's right." Jerry said reading the top of the computer. "Let's see if this thing works!" Justin said excitedly. "And how are we supposed to do that?" Josh asked. "Well, from the looks of it all I have to do is type in an address and hit send." Justin answered. "Make sure to write down the home address man! I don't want to get lost." Josh suggested. "What's the sense in that? We are in the middle of nowhere anyway." Jerry stated. "That's a good point. I guess anyplace would be better than this. How about we enter the address for my house. Let's see if it's still there." Josh suggested. "Okay, it's worth a shot." Justin said as he typed in the address and hit send. Soon like a flash of light they started traveling towards their destination. To all their surprise the house was still there. And according to the plaque on the front, it had been converted to a Nsync museum shortly after Josh had died. It was strange for Josh to see his house, and the fact that he was now dead...or at least in this time period. "I knew we would be dead, but there's something humbling about actually seeing it written out." Josh said as he looked at Jerry sadly. "It's okay Josh, you aren't really dead. Just look, your memory lives on even now." Jerry told him then took him by the hand. "Come on you guys lets see if this joint is open for business." Justin said grabbing Jerry's other hand and dragging them along. ****** "Lee! Are you okay?" Lance asked. "Yeah, I'm fine. I didn't hurt anything but my pride." I said, though I must say I was more than a little sore. "Are you sure you didn't hurt anything?" Lance asked. "I just twisted my ankle." I told him. "Can you walk on it?" Chris asked me. "I don't know. I'll try." I tried getting up but the pain was pretty sharp. I started to fall forward, but Lance caught me. "Don't worry I'll help you make it." Lance said smiling at me. "Reminds me of an Allison Kraus song." I said trying to return the smile. "Oh I love that one! You say it best...when you say nothing at all." Lance sang to me. He has a nice voice too. Too bad he doesn't have any solos in their songs. "You guys need to be more careful. I doubt people in the early 20th century are very gay friendly." Chris warned us. "Yeah, I'm kind of surprised the guy back in the train didn't say something when you kissed." Joey said. "That guy wouldn't notice much of anything! He was drunk off his ass. He probably won't even remember us." I stated. "Probably not. Come on let's see if we can find a place to stay, it's starting to get dark." Lance pointed out. And it was getting dark pretty fast. Do you know how crazy it makes me when my watch does me no good at all? Well this is it! I mean when I'm traveling from time to time, how can I possibly hope to keep good time? Okay, so I had more things to worry about, but still! "I wonder what month it is?" Joey said walking slowly beside us. "I don't know, it looks pretty nice, and it's still a little cool. Probably March... Just guessing though." Chris said. "Well, if it's March the 5th it's my negative 80th birthday." I joked. "Wow! You're so...not born yet!" Chris laughed with me. "I guess it doesn't matter what month it is. It doesn't look like we are going to make it home anytime soon. Last time we showed up back in the van, but was it in the same second we left?" Lance asked. "I don't know. What's going to be weird is...if we do go back to the exact time we left, we are actually going to be like a few days older than we really are or something like that." I told them. "I guess so. But I guess a few days won't matter." Joey said. "I just hope it is only a couple days. It might be longer." Lance sighed. That sent us all into a silence. The only sounds were our feet moving along, and an occasional groan out of me. My ankle was starting to pound. I'd be okay if I got to rest for a while, but there didn't seem to be any opportunities for that. We walked about a half-mile before we found a small house. It did not look very inviting, but we all agreed that it was worth trying. "Who is it?" An older man asked as Joey knocked on the door. "Excuse me sir, we are a group of lost college students that need a place to stay for the night, you see our friend hurt his ankle." Joey said. "Do they even have college in this time period?" Lance asked. "I think so. But I know we don't look like anyone from this area!" I said pointing to their stylish clothes and Chris's cap. "Nice observation." Lance said back. "College students. Well you must be lost bad! The nearest college is hundreds of miles from here." The old man stated. "Well, that's all the more reason for us to stay over for the night." Joey pleaded. "You boys sure are dressed funny, but okay whatever. You can stay in my barn. It's right behind the house." He told us. "Thanks sir." We started out for the barn. I hadn't even noticed it till he mentioned it. I really was tired. "Geez, you really look beat babe." Lance said. "What do you expect I haven't slept in centuries." I said. "Yup. Well let's rest then. Do you think it would be safe for me to hold you tonight?" Lance asked. "I'm pretty sure I can take the old man." I said smiling. After that, we found a hay-covered spot to lay down. I had a feeling the next morning would be hell with my allergies, but right then I was just too tired to care. My ankle hurt too, but there wasn't anything to take for it. I was pretty sure Tylenol wasn't around yet. ******* "The door won't open!" Justin complained. "Look there's a sign." Jerry pointed out. It stated that the place would be closed till the summer. "Guess we won't be seeing my house today." Josh said. "Well, there is more than one way to skin a cat." Jerry said looking at the door. With a little work the door made a sound. "Try it now guys." Josh twisted the handle and it opened with ease. "How did you do that man?" Josh asked amazed. "It's magic." Jerry said. "Whatever, come on you guys!" Justin said charging forward. Justin just figured Jerry had picked the lock. But Josh wasn't so sure. When they got in they started looking at the platinum albums that were on the walls of the house. Nsync had some more hits too come by the looks of it. Not that either of the three were surprised. "Let's go find my bedroom." Josh suggested. "You guys do that, I think I want to find a bathroom!" Justin said taking off in another direction from Jerry and Josh. "So how did you get that door to open?" Josh asked again when they were alone. "I told you it was magic Josh. Don't you believe in magic?" Jerry asked. "I guess, but I never saw any before this." Josh stated. "What you've never seen the sun rise, or a rainbow after a storm?" Jerry asked. "Yeah, but that's just nature. That's not magic." Josh argued. "But that's what magic is dear. It's nature working for us, instead of against us. Come on; let's find that room of yours." Jerry said taking him by the hand again. They ran up some stairs, and took a couple turns and then stopped in front of a door. Josh looked a little nervous to Jerry. "Is this it?" Jerry asked. "Last time I was here this was it. But who knows what it is now." Josh said pushing the door open. To Josh's relief it was still a bedroom, and a lot like he left it. Except the bed was different, and his posters were gone. He wondered if he had made these changes himself, or was it whoever inherited his home. "This place looks a lot like my bedroom did when I left it. It's almost like being home. And it's been a while. We were on tour remember?" Josh said. "Yeah I know. I miss being home too." Jerry said turning to face Josh. "I want to thank you for coming to see us the other evening. I never thought I'd make a friend on this tour, but you are so nice. And real! It's so refreshing to see someone that isn't working for me, or a boss, or manager!" Josh said and then hugged Jerry. "It was my pleasure, except for the whole time traveling stuff that is. I mean it is interesting, but I'd much rather stay in my own century at least." Jerry joked. "I know how you feel." Josh kissed him softly on the lips. "Thanks Josh." Jerry said. "For what?" Josh asked. "For liking me, despite my magic stuff." Jerry said. "Don't sweat it, with all the weird things happening to us, you having magic abilities is a comfort. Maybe we stand a chance after all!" Josh joked. "So what do you want to do now?" Jerry asked looking at the bed. "Not what you're thinking Jerry. I don't think I'm ready for that yet." Josh said. "Oh, but you do admit that you'd want to someday?" Jerry asked since Josh left it so open. "Does this answer your question?" Josh said as he started kissing him again, this time more passionately. "Excuse me guys, I didn`t mean to interrupt you. But don`t you think we should be looking for some way out of this time period. Last time it seemed like we got to leave as soon as we made Gertrude feel better about her life." Justin said. "Yeah, it seems like it." Josh agreed. "Why don't we search this room and see what stuff of yours is still here." Jerry suggested out of the blue. "Why what good would that do?" Justin asked. "I don't know; I just got a feeling there's something here we need." Jerry told him. "Whatever man. I'm going to go take a nap in one of the guestrooms." Justin said flying off. "What's his problem?" Jerry asked. "We didn't do exactly what he wanted." Josh stated plainly. "Okay...I won't ask. Come on let's start looking." Jerry suggested. After pulling out drawers, and looking under the bed...they found nothing of interest. They were about to give up when Jerry thought of one more idea. "I know this sounds crazy, but let's move this mirror table over." Jerry said. "Okay, but it's heavy. I am pretty sure it's the same one I had. And it weighs a ton!" Josh warned. "Do you think we'll need help?" Jerry asked. "No, but be careful. I don't want you to get hurt." He said. With a little work they managed to move it over, but the drawer fell out of the table and crashed the ground. Justin came running back into the room. "Are you guys okay?" Justin asked. "Yeah we are fine, this drawer just fell." Josh said. "The crash scared the hell out of me. I was almost asleep." Justin told us. "Sorry about that man." Jerry said. "But look what I found!" Josh said holding up an orange jewel. "Wow, was that yours?" Justin asked. "No, I have no idea where it came from." Josh said. Something about the jewel drew them in, and they soon all put their hands on it, and started to fade away again. ******* The next morning I awoke to a lot of shouting. It was scary. I opened my eyes and saw Lance holding me tight and crying. Joey was shouting something in the background. "You shot him!" Joey said. "Damn it I saw you boys hugged up like that. It's not natural! I'm going to kill them both!" That was all I heard. I looked down to see the blood flowing out of me, and then everything went black. ****************** "I'll kill you, you bastard!" Joey said as he grabbed the gun from the man. "Killing him won't do any good man." Chris yelled as he held Joey back from shooting the man. "No, but kicking his ass will help me." Joey said as he broke free and punched the guy out. He was out cold much like Lee was. Me, I couldn't do anything but hold him. I applied pressure to the gun wound hoping it would help to stop the bleeding, but it didn't seem to be helping much. "You guys we have got to get back to the future! Maybe they can help him." I screamed out. "Good idea, but how do we do that?" Chris asked. "This!" I said pulling the red jewel out of Lee's pocket. I knew it was our only chance of saving him. When we all touched the jewel we started to fade away again...but would we go to a place where we could help Lee? I could only pray! To be continued. Remember...since it's such a cliffhanger, I'll give you the chance to get a double posting! Just email me and ask for it. leo1980@gay.com