HAUNTED MANSION

Chapter 11

"You ready?" Adam asks as he walks into the bedroom with Austin following closely behind him. The greenhorn was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.

Tim looks up from the book he was reading.

"Ready for what?" Tim asks with a raised brow.

"To go to town." Adam states with a smile.

"You were actually being serious?" Tim asks as he looks from Adam to the smiling idiot.

"Of course I was being serious." Adam says as he stoops down in front of the chair Tim was sitting in. "I want you to see how everything has progressed."

"Come on, old man, you'll love it." Austin says with a smirk on his lips. "I just wish I could be there to witness the look on your face."

"I'm not too sure about this, Adam." Tim says as he turns his eyes to meet those of his lover.

"Come on, Sweetie. I'll be right there beside you the whole time." Adam says with a pout. "And if you start feeling weak, we'll leave immediately."

Despite his protest, Tim soon found himself inside Adam's horseless carriage. They were driving down a weird path that had four roads (a freeway). Other horseless carriages were passing them on either side. All were strange looking. Different shapes, sizes and colors. Some were really big pulling large wagons behind them (semis). He saw what he thought might have been a modern-day stagecoach (an RV) but no horses were pulling it.

Adam couldn't help but smile at the strange look on his lover's face. It was a mixer of confusion, excitement, panic, and fear all balled up in one expression.

"What in the hell is that?" Tim asks as a motorcycle speeds by them. It looked to him like a horse with no head or legs.

"Honey, that's a motorcycle." Adam answers with a chuckle.

Tim's jaw drops as they head into the big city. He had never seen anything like it. The buildings almost reached the sky. The buildings he remembered were all made of wood. These were shiny with a lot of windows.

Adam pulls his horseless carriage into a corral with other horseless carriages (parking lot).

"Is this it? Can we go home now?" Tim asks as he looks around at Adam. His eyes wide with panic.

"Sweetie, we haven't even gotten out of the car yet." Adam laughs.

"I was afraid you were gonna say that." Tim sighs as he nervously runs a hand through his hair.

Adam gets out of the car and walks around to the passenger side. Opening the door, he smiles as he holds his hand out to Tim. Tim reluctantly takes his hand and gets out of the car.

Tim clutched tightly to his lover's hand as they begin to walk down the crowded sidewalk. Tim was constantly having to apologize to people that he would bump into as he tried to take in all the strange sights.

He just could not get over how tall the buildings were. As he is looking up at one of the tall shiny buildings, something catches his eye. He stops in his tracks as he watches the large silver object that seemed to be floating across the sky.

Adam turns around to see why his lover had stopped. Following his gaze, he sees the large airplane that had just taken off from a nearby airport.

He realizes then that some things that he sees every day and don't give a second thought about are going to be hard to explain to the cowboy.

"That's an airplane, Sweetie." Adam says, silently hoping that the cowboy wouldn't ask questions.

"Is it flying? How? It's not flapping its wings." Tim says as he watches the strange object disappear over one of the tall buildings.