In mid-November, the week before the musical, the Berry house was nearly complete. They just had a few finishing touches to put on it, and then, they were hoping to host Thanksgiving there. Burt was excited for Kurt to move in. The doctors had finally found a medicine they thought would help his heart, and they were hopeful he could be back to his old habits after Christmas. He was ready for Kurt to have some freedom. And maybe to write again now that he was finally happy.
Blaine had moved out of his parents' house into an apartment and was proud to be living by himself for the first time ever. It was thrilling to be able to go home and not fear that someone would be there, preventing himself and Kurt from doing whatever they wanted after dates.
On this particular day, they were nailing on trim and baseboards. Kurt had shown Blaine how to use a nail gun, and he was excited to finally help his boyfriend with a DIY project.
His face didn't reflect his excitement when he walked in the front door. Instead, he was guarded.
Kurt immediately caught on. "What's wrong?"
"Can we sit down? I have a few things to tell you."
"Um...sure."
They sank to the floor in the middle of the living room sitting criss-cross applesauce, holding hands between them.
Blaine sucked in a lungful of air before beginning. "You know how I promised you to get you a copy of Tina's article on the house before she published it?"
"Yeah…?"
"Well, she gave it to me today, and I don't know if you want all of this to be printed."
"What does it say? Can I read it? Where is it?"
"You can read it, but I have to know something first. How much do you know about your mom? You never talk about her, and I didn't know i—"
"Nothing. I know nothing. My dad doesn't like to talk about her, and I didn't care to know. She wasn't ever a part of my life, and that was fine. Why?"
"Well, do you still want to not know? Because Tina uncovered it. And it's in here." He tapped his pocket where he'd folded the pieces of paper.
Kurt's mouth just hung open for a moment. He was completely shocked and surprised, beside himself, unsure what to do. "She what?" he finally managed.
"In looking up info about you and the Berry house, she figured it out."
"I-is it bad? I-I don't think I can handle it if it's bad." He wasn't entirely convinced he could handle it at all. With Blaine there with him, though, he felt a strange sense of peace about it."
"It's not bad. Sad is what I'd call it but also sorta hopeful." Blaine paused, studying his boyfriend's face. "Do you want me to read it to you?"
"I—Yeah. I think you have to… Blaine, I—If it gets to be too much, can I tell you to stop? You'll put it away, an-and you'll tell Tina not to run it?"
"Of course," Blaine replied, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. "I'd never do anything to hurt you, Kurt. I love you so much." He squeezed his hand in comfort.
"I love you, too." Kurt took a deep breath, closing his eyes and concentrating on letting air in and out of his lungs for a moment before he opened them. "Okay. I-I… Well, I'm as ready as I'll ever be."
Blaine nodded once, cleared his throat, and began.
"There was a time, a decade or more ago, when Hiram Berry was the talk of the town. He lived in a small lake house on Schoonover Lake with his husband, LeRoy Berry, and a woman named Elizabeth Smith. At least, that's how she was known around here.
For a long time, no one knew the real reason Elizabeth lived with the two men. She was friendly and kind to everyone, however, and she never caused any trouble. So, no one asked any questions.
It was a well-known fact around town that Hiram Berry came from old Southern money. Before you think it, no. It wasn't slaves. It was the direct result of a lawsuit involving his great grandmother, Myra Clark, and whether or not she could be the direct heir of her father's estate as the only living relative at the time of his death. She fought long and hard and eventually won nearly a million dollars in 1891.
So, Hiram was well-off, and he and LeRoy enjoyed throwing luxurious parties and inviting their daughter's friends over for music and dance lessons as well as to have tea parties and sleepovers. However, life for Hiram wasn't as beautiful as it seemed.
Apparently, his family back in New Orleans—his cousins, aunts, and uncles—would not have approved of his lifestyle. Had they found out Hiram was gay, a choice that has been widely accepted here for several decades now, he would have been disowned and stripped of his fortune by his extended family who were also heirs of Myra Clark's estate. Unfortunately for Hiram, one night in mid-November, this nightmare became a reality.
All of us are likely to remember Miss Rachel Berry, the queen of McKinley High's stage. She had a brilliant voice and commendable acting chops, and she was headed for Broadway before she was even out of diapers as she was fond of telling her classmates. When she was an infant, Hiram and LeRoy adopted Miss Berry, and they raised her up to be a lady who knows what she wants and goes after it, no matter the cost. During an interview for a show she was about to star in on Broadway, Miss Berry let slip that she had two gay dads. That was the night that Hiram and LeRoy's life changed forever.
Hiram was, within the week, stripped of his rights to Myra Clark's fortune, and with no money, he and LeRoy could no longer afford their lake house. They tried to sell it for years, but no one would purchase it; it was too much house. Eventually, they were forced to abandon it, and no one is quite sure where they ran off to after leaving Lima. Everyone hopes that their daughter is taking very good care of them however.
You might be asking yourself now, of course, what about this Elizabeth you talked about earlier? What happened to her? First, you need to know why she lived with the Berrys. She wasn't a maid or a long lost cousin who didn't care about Hiram's choices. Elizabeth Smith was Hiram's beard. She covered for him when he would go on family outings, preserving his image and name. She was his protection, and they paid her to live with them and take care of Rachel.
While she was with us in Lima, Elizabeth found a love of her own, a romance that couldn't be due to her role in the Berry family. One early June morning, Elizabeth gave birth to a baby boy, a boy we all know and love well, Kurt. Yes, Elizabeth fell in love with our very own Burt Hummel.
Kurt was raised by his father with very little contact with his mother except for the times he visited the Berry house. When Rachel let their secret out, Hiram used what little time he had left to pay Elizabeth a pretty penny in thanks for her help all those years and as an apology for what was about to happen. Elizabeth feared staying in Lima, feared Hiram's family finding her, so she left, leaving her son with his father in one of the hardest decisions any mother would ever have to face.
In another strange turn of events, Kurt Hummel, on a day very near his birthday, purchased the old Berry house and has fixed it up. You can see from the pictures that he has restored it to the glory it once saw when Hiram and LeRoy lived there: grand and majestic, warm and inviting. He has declined to do an interview with us to confirm the details of this story, and he wishes that no one disturb him at the old Berry house. When he's ready to let people in, he promised to tell us.
One final tidbit to leave you with, as if this story isn't strange enough. It is rumored that, on their final night in the lake house, Hiram and LeRoy begged the Fates to guard the house, letting it only fall into the hands of someone worthy, someone who would know and find true love inside its walls. Do you think the Fates followed through? Can something like that even happen? Will Kurt Hummel find worth and true love in the old Berry lake house on Schoonover Lake?"
Blaine chanced a glance at Kurt's face. His boyfriend hadn't made a peep the entire time he'd been reading, and when he looked up, Kurt's face was splotchy and red from the crying he'd obviously been doing. "Hey," Blaine said softly, scooting closer so he could pull him into his arms. "Are you okay?"
Kurt nodded into his shoulder. "Yeah… I am, actually."
Not answering for a moment, Blaine rubbed his back. "I'm glad. Do you want to talk about it?"
"Can I stay here?"
"Of course, you can," Blaine reassured, squeezing him tighter.
"I'm actually really glad I found out," Kurt admitted. "All this time, I've been afraid that my mom left because she didn't love me, but the fact of the matter is that she loved me more than I could ever know. I can't imagine having to leave a child to save their life, and I—I respect her for her sacrifice. I also understand why Dad doesn't talk about it. It must hurt to have lost the love of his life like that, and I can't imagine the pain he went through, probably still goes through." Kurt hugged Blaine tighter. "I can't imagine losing you like that. That would be horrible."
Blaine hummed in agreement. "I couldn't lose you like that either. Not after all we fought through to find each other."
"I think," Kurt said, swallowing thickly as he pulled back, looking Blaine in the eyes. "I think I want to find her. Will-will you help me?"
"Kurt, that's wonderful! Of course, I'll help you. Will you do something for me, though?"
"What?"
"Give yourself a little time to process everything before we try. Please. I want you to be absolutely sure this is what you want. You just learned a lot of information, and you're emotional. You should take time to be sure you're not making a rash decision."
"Yeah… You're right. Thank you for asking me to wait. That feels right."
"Good."
The two of them chatted for a while more, both doing their best to get back to a solid place emotionally. They whispered to one another, kissed, and made heart eyes that melted into the other's soul until they were both feeling better."
"Well, should we get started?" Kurt asked finally, standing and brushing his pants off before offering a hand to pull Blaine to his feet.
"Sure. Where do you want me to start?"
"Put the door trim on the doorway between the living room and the dining room, please?"
"Of course." Blaine gave him one last smooch before heading off in search of the nail gun and trim pieces. He was just getting set to nail up the first board when something soft and red caught his eye. He gasped. The red yarn. Is this the other end? How did no one notice this before?
Gingerly, he reached out a hand to tug on the scrap of yarn, expecting it to stay stationary. It moved. Slowly but surely, he pulled it out of the wall, uncovering it inch by inch until he had a string nearly three feet long in his hands.
He couldn't believe his eyes, and for a moment, he stood in the doorway to the dining room just staring at the yarn, his hands trembling as his mind scurried to process it all. Finally, he called out, "Kurt!" as loudly as he could and dashed up the stairs.
Kurt was standing in the middle of the master bedroom, and he turned to look at Blaine with wide, worried eyes when he scrambled into the bedroom. "What's the matter? Are you okay?"
"Look!" He held out the red yarn in his hands to Kurt, watching his face as he looked at it. "It-it's the yarn. See? It's missing from the floor in here. I saw the other end of it sticking out of the wall where I was about to hang trim around the door, and when I tugged on it, it moved! Here it is!"
He extended it toward Kurt, and as his boyfriend moved a step closer, Blaine felt drawn to him. Everything in his body screamed at him to kiss him, to hold his hands and kiss him as he'd never kissed him before. He didn't try to ignore the compulsion, leaning up and claiming Kurt's lips with his own as he clasped their hands together, the yarn tangled in their fingers between them.
They kissed for several long moments, and it felt as if the universe was pouring itself into that one kiss. They felt every emotion all at once, felt a deeper love, desire, and need for each other than they'd ever known. They felt like they could see the entire galaxy behind their eyelids as they explored one another's mouths, moving together as one unit, perfectly in sync and balance.
When the kiss broke and their lips parted, the two of them looked down at their hands. The yarn was gone, but something else had changed.
On Blaine's right pinky and Kurt's left, they each had what looked like a tattoo of a red yarn bow at the base, between the second and third knuckle. Turning their hands a bit, they could see that, on the inside of their pinkies, the word "Soulmates" was tattooed.
They looked at one another in awe, dropping their hands to study their pinkies more closely. As soon as they did, the marks faded. Confused and disappointed, they joined hands again, and their tattoos immediately returned.
Neither of them understood what was happening, and they honestly didn't mind. Something in them told them they didn't need to understand. All they needed was each other. So, they leaned in to one another again, kissing deeply. It felt right. Their souls felt complete, full, and connected in a way they'd never before experienced.
Their pasts, in that kiss, felt like a distant memory. They didn't matter for those seconds. They'd just uncovered something they'd never dreamed possible, and it negated every heartbreak and pain they'd experienced at the hands of others. They knew, deep down, that they still had a long way to go to heal and be content in themselves and their relationship, but at that moment, their world was whole. They were together. Connected. Eternally.
Eventually, they had to pull back for air, and they both breathed one word into each other's mouths: "Soulmates."