Here we are at Shawn's old family house where he, his parents and his brothers Michael and Nero used to live. He brings Phoenix for the first time in his life to show what his life was like to Phoenix. What will he reveal to her or what will he find? Let's find out…
"Come on Abby, can you say Mama again, please…" Phoenix begged a little.
Her young daughter only tilted her head a little slightly in confusion.
"Just give it time Phoenix she'll say mama again or maybe something else when she gets better used to it." Shawn was telling her softly while he was driving his pickup truck up on a straight road that lead to his old house he grew up in.
"So where are we heading honey?" Phoenix asks.
"My childhood home, were me, Michael, and Nero grew up in. There's some things there that were really, really deeply important to my dad that I think we should move to our home. True me and Nero own the house but nobody actually goes to it much more anymore. So nobody is around to look after it much. So I want to transport these items to our home to prevent the possible weather or crooks from ruining them."
"Okay honey. I'm here for you. I always will plus I've never seen your home till now." She said as she leaned on his shoulder.
"Don't worry I'm fine, for all I know we're just picking up and transporting a bunch of family albums, some stuff that belonged to my great, great grandfather, and a two hundred and something year old painting of an ancestor of mine."
"That's how old the painting is?" She asks curiously.
"Yeah it's the oldest and is the most prized possession that belong to the house. Dad always kept it locked in the attic and didn't bring it out that much over fear of it messing up. I think I've only seen it once when I was seven or eight on July 4th."
"Wow, that is something. Wish my family could interesting like yours." Phoenix looked down in disappointment.
"Actually out of all my family, the ancestor in the painting is such an enigmatic mystery that no one in my family can ever find information on him. My family had allot of secrets to them so it's okay sweetheart."
"Maybe once we get there we can figure it out together. Okay?" Phoenix asked as she pecked kissed him on the cheek.
Shawn smiled from the kiss as he was getting closer to his old neighborhood which was pretty much a cul-de-sac that appeared to have been in the early 1900's. He pulls into the neighborhood and sees the people he sort of remembers when he was a kid as he pulls to a nearby house which they all look pretty much the same. The difference was that his house was bigger but not as big as a mansion that had a standard house look but with a two door garage on the right side.
Upon parking his truck, he stepped out and opened Phoenix's door who stepped out while holding a sleeping Abby in her arms.
"Well, this is the place…"
"Wow, Shawn. It looks like a house we could live in. Just looking at it." Phoenix answers.
"Well in my parents will they did leave it to me, Nero, and Michael, so I was planing on useing it as a summer home and such. But before we do that gotta show you around the place and picks some old stuff just sitting in there collecting dust so they can collect dust somewhere a little safe like our home."
"Of course honey. Shall we?" Phoenix motions as carries Abby to the door.
"I'll lead the way…" he nodded.
Once inside, Shawn was showed Phoenix around his old house, showing her the dining room first.
"This is the old dining room. I remember me and my brothers used to have food fights around the table with our parents. Which is why we had one ourselves if you remember last Thanksgiving." Shawn mentions.
Phoenix giggled softly. "I remember you pissed Koda off so much he threw an actual grenade in the Turkey and blew it up."
Shawn chuckled. "Yeah I remember that too. Koda get's pissed off anyways."
"Well to be fair we were guests at his house and you did throw food around it."
"I know. I just wanted to spice things up was all." Shawn answered and nuzzled her beak.
Abby was twitching and twirling around Phoenix's arms as if something was bothering her and she was trying to tell her mother.
"What's wrong, Abby? You want mommie's love too?" Phoenix nuzzles Abby's belly.
That just made Abby twist a little more and squirm a little, it looked like she was desperately trying to hold something.
"I think she needs to use the bathroom. Come on I'll show you were the closest restroom is at."
They rush to the closes bathroom nearby the living room and closed the door behind them. Few minutes later Abby was happy once more and Phoenix nuzzled her nose.
"No more apple juice for you in the morning." Phoenix speaks baby like to Abby.
"Now the thing about my dad was that these heirlooms were so highly special and stuff that he took every and all cautions in extreme great lengths to preserve them and make sure no one can get to them. Now if I recall there he had a series of locks and combination numbers which he kept secretly hidden around the house. So Secret mom was never able to find them herself."
"Wow, what about you? Do you know them?" She asks.
"No but in my dad's will he drew a map where to find them. Using special invisible ink that can only be viewed with a certain amount of heat. Yeah they were that important for him to keep from anyone getting into."
"Okay then. Let's try it." Phoenix encouraged.
Shawn pulls out an old piece of paper and unfolds it. Showing it to be his parents will and the list of stuff and requests they had for Shawn, Michael, and Nero.
"As you've noticed at the bottom it says. If any of you boys are able to figure your old man's special secret to getting the family heirlooms. I request that you follow the long tradition of coming up with your own unique and special way to keep them hidden from the world. And no this isn't my request from me but it was a request from your ancestor who in his will requested that his children would do the same and continued with their children, then their children, than their children, and so on for as long as the family line exists." Shawn commented.
"What does that mean?" Phoenix asked curiously.
"It means the whole keeping the family heirlooms a secret was originally a request from my ancestor who wanted all his descendants to keep his stuff locked away from the world however way they can. My dad had his own way, so did all the other members of my family before him. So do I once I get them home and figure out how to honor the request of my two hundred something year old dead ancestor." Shawn shrugged.
"So are you going to do the same?" She asks curiously.
"Yep, if we can ever find the stuff my dad used to keep heirlooms locked away." Shawn turns the wheel around and motioned for Phoenix to make a small little fireball at the tip of her nail and hold it under the will. Around five minutes of letting the paper heat the apparently invisible ink written behind it showcase a map all around the house to everything they needed for them to access the heirlooms.
"So where do we start?" She asks.
"Well I guess the backyard buried somewhere there. Let's go."
Shawn rolled the map up and proceeded outside with his family and made their way to the backyard. What they see was the wooden porch with a table set, stone floor path leading a barbecue spot, a large tree to make a large shade and it was surrounded by a white picket fence. Shawn looks around regaining memories of when he used to be kid with brother Michael, Nero and his parents.
"Yeah sure had a lot of fun times here with Michael and Nero."
"What fun times you had with Nero and Michael?"
"Oh moments like looking over the fence and annoying our neighbors and we were teens we used to spy on another girl. We kept getting ground for that." He answered with a small chuckled.
"Really, may I know who this girl is?" Phoenix asked placing her hands on her hips sounding a little jealous.
"Relax Phoenix we were young and stupid. Now that I think back this girl was nowhere near as hot as you. Now where did he bury it." Shawn looked around the playground for a moment, taking light steps to feel around the ground.
While Shawn searches for his buried item Phoenix and Abby began exploring the backyard more. While carrying Abby in her arms, Phoenx then finds a carving in the tree of Shawn's, Michael's and Nero's initials on the bark of it. It had 'S+M & N. Brothers to the end.' Phoenix just smiled seeing how close they truly were when they lived together.
"Hey you found the old tree huh?" She heard her husband call as he approached his two favorite girls. "Yeah this was what used to call the old family. Man the thing we did to this poor sucker. We used to climb this tree and take turns peeping at girls with binoculars and stuff…" He laughed before he started checking around the tree, eventually stepping on something a little heavier than usual. "Yep, knew dad would bury it around the tree."
"Bury what, honey?" She asks curiously.
"A time box or whatever...stuff we used to cherish as kids and dad must've had that special key to the attic buried with our stuff when we weren't looking." He answered taking a shovel to start digging. "This is gonna take a little bit may want to check around the yard or relax." He mentioned while taking his shirt off with a white tank top under it and continues digging.
"My, my Shawn already showing off even with your adopted daughter in the area aren't you." Phoenix growled a little lustfully with a wink.
"Trust me baby. It's hard work. Something you're already familiar with." He smirked and chuckled.
"Oh well we'll be at the swings if you need us." she blew a kiss to him and walked over to the playground as Shawn continued digging.
For sometime, Phoenix swung gently on the old swing, Abby quickly falling asleep in her arms from the soft rocking. Softly she ran a finger across her head to move some of Abby's black bangs off her face so it wouldn't disrupt her. Eventually Shawn finished digging up his time capsule or for this case a box and brings it over to Phoenix.
"I found it." Shawn spoke softly, not wanting to wake Abby up from her soft nap.
"She just fell asleep." Phoeix whispered back.
"Well before I open this, let me do this real quick." Shawn pulled out his I-Phone and took a picture of Phoenix sitting on the swing with Abby asleep in her arms. Once finished she showed Phoenix the pic. "Well what do you think?"
"Looks great sweetie. She looks cute in her sleep." Phoenix answered.
"You both look cute in this photo." Shawn corrected.
Phoenix giggled and kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks honey. Now let's see what's in the time capsule." she encouraged.
"Alright." putting back on his shirt, he gently pulled the box crate open. Despite it being nailed shut, the nails apparently were old and rusted to come undone easily.
With the box open all there was left was to open the secondary box that was located inside that was meant to preserve the items within as if they would be forever new. "Alright, three, two, and one…" Shawn gripped the second lid box and opened it.
Much to his surprise the first thing they found was a huge book of Poke' Porn inside, playboy edition. Shawn quickly shut the lid realizing he forgot what was in this box this entire time. Phoenix didn't look pleased to see all of that.
"You're lucky Abby isn't awake to see that or that Zeya isn't here to see that." Phoenix mentioned.
He smiled nervously with a gulp. "Okay, so me and my brothers loved to look into that kind of stuff... We were guys what did you expect…"
"Says the man who scared Hyro because of his stash of porn?" Phoenix raised an eyebrow.
"Because he… ugh… nevermind…" Shawn confess as he gave in.
"Well I can forgive you but next time you see Hyro you apologise for scaring him. I mean Tera was telling me the other day he still so scared of you that he almost gets in the verge of panic attacks just being in the same room as you." she continued to lecture.
"I know, Phoenix. It wasn't my place to judge him like that. I was just scared for Zeya that's all. Even you know how I feel about that." Shawn answered.
"I know but I trust Hyro and you known him to be better than that. And besides Hyro is a very good boy and even though you told him you used to do that kind of stuff he still scared to death of you." Phoenix commented.
"I know. I just wish I didn't feel that way about being a father. I just wanted to be a good father is all." Shawn answered.
"Shawn you are a good father but you're also Hyro's godfather. He has flaws like everyone but I know he means well and cares very dearly for Zeya. You should read this little story he wrote for her…."
"Okay, okay I'll try to apologise to him later. So what else is in here." Shawn moved the large book of poke pron aside and saw a number of items in the box. He then finds old drawings he did when he was a child some were scribbled drawings then moving onto his improved drawings that he did when he went to highschool with sketches and drawings.
"Well I see now where you got your inspiration to draw." Phoenix giggled.
"Yeah, always had a thing for drawing, wanted to paint the picture that always appeared in my mind. What else is in he-" he pulled out an old star wars figure of Boba Fett. "Holy crap, this is old...must be worth a fortune by now. Forgot who this belong to though…"
"How about you keep that. I mean it is your memories of your childhood."
"Yeah but these were also Michael and Nero's memories of their childhood. I think it's only fair half of the contents in this box should go to Nero as well. But they know I love Boba Fett. So there's that." Shawn spoke as he continued digging through the box more.
Shawn then finds two old made believe police badges and two orange water guns as it brought back more memories. "What's all that?"
"This was me and Nero's badges and water guns. We made believe that we were detectives and Michael was the bad guy. We do switch roles once in awhile to make it more fun. Back then when our dad was a cop and we just wanted to be like him." Shawn smiled a little and sighed.
Setting them aside he continued to look through the book, eventually finding something that belonged to his late brother, Michael. He finds old computer pieces like motherboards, chips and other computer compartments which made nearly break into tears.
"Shawn?" Phoenix lays her hand on his shoulder in a worrying state.
"Sorry…" Shawn answered as he wiped his eyes a little. "This was Michaels. He always loved computers since the first home computer came out and got into it. Half the time we couldn't pull him away from his computer even to this day… when he was still around." Shawn sheds one tear remembering Michael before his passing.
"Shawn…?"
"I'm okay… just… need a moment…."
Softly setting the computer pieces aside he look into the rest of the box but couldn't find the key anywhere. "Huh, strange it's not in here…"
Shawn checked a little more, eventually giving up when he couldn't find anything. Yet when he looked back all the stuff he had taken out he looked back at the book of poke porn. "Dad you sneak son of a gun."
"What?"
"My dad actually left the key somewhere in that book." he started laughing at the irony of it all.
"So that means he knew about those…"
"Yes and what's more surprising is that he gave me one too and didn't tell mom about it either. Come on, let's go through it." Shawn requests, picking the book up and started looking through it.
Already they could see special pages marked by what was their favorites or not. Shawn's pages being marked in a red line, Michael's a yellow, and Nero's a blue line.
"So your dad gave you this?" Phoenix questioned.
"Yeah and get this. We all thought it just came in the mail by accident. So one night we're out camping just looking through the pages and marking our favorites. And then dad pops out of nowhere. At first we thought we were doom until he started marking pages of his own. Thus the brown lines you see. We later found out he got it for us." He joked.
"Wow, I'm surprised your dad was okay with you guys keeping stuff like that. I don't usually ask but what's your favorite in the magazine?" She asked curiously.
"Well if I recall it was this one." Shawn turned to one red line that featured a nude pic of a Blaziken that look exactly almost identical to Phoenix right down to the breast sizes. To their surprise, buried in that picture of the magazine was the key they were looking for.
"This looks almost exactly like you but were you in this…?" Shawn asks curiously.
"Can't be I was just a little kid during that time." she answered truthfully
"Yeah but you look exactly like her unless… nevermind" Shawn thought outloud.
Phoenixed reached over into the page with the Blaziken and pulled the key out. "Looks like your dad knew where you would find this."
"But he didn't know I liked Blazikens." Shawn says confusingly.
"Maybe he figured it out somehow." She shrugged handing Shawn the key they were looking for.
"Well however he knew now it's time to get that attic open. And quick we're suppose to be picking Zeya and her friends up from the mall soon. And Glukhov just texted me about something important he wanted to show me."
"Alright then. Let's get a move on." Phoenix answered as she and Shawn pack everything and made their way back in the house. Soon making their way upstairs to look for the attic.
"Alright if memory serves me correctly, it should be located right in this…" he opens a door leading to the bedroom Shawn's parents used to sleep in, above them the door that leads to the attic. "...Room."
"Your parent's bedroom is the attic?" Phoenix ask confusingly.
"Nope, but like I said my dad was very protective of the heirlooms. So much that he had the attic built above his bedroom." Shawn answered reaching for the string and pulling the attic stair down. The loud sound waking Abby up from her nap a little.
"Oh no." Phoenix says with a surprise but she looked and sees the Abby wasn't disturbed by it.
If anything Abby just rubbed her eyes and yawned a little before looking up to her mother. Phoenix sighed in relief seeing it didn't bother Abby and proceeded into the attic with Shawn. The attic was filled with basic old things back when he was only a child. The dust being so thick it even made Abby sneeze a little, making Phoenix and Shawn giggle a little. Shawn notices something in the back, approached it and see it was large and thick safe that looks almost near indestructible for all these years. It was enormously large for a safe of this type, appearing to be big enough to almost fit two or three people in there.
"My dad's safe…" Shawn kneeled and rubbed some of the dust off. "It's held up for so long like it's still brand new…" He spoke to himself.
"What are you talking about, Shawn?" She asked curiously.
"This is my dad's safe. All of his belongings and his stuff he kept during his days probably before I was born." He answered putting the key into the slot to open. "I only had a chance to look at it only once and even then never knew what was inside it."
"Well then it's time to find out." Phoenix answered as he turns the key that unlocks the safe. He then turns the large wheel to the right to release the lock of the safe then finally pulls the handle and opens the safe.
Inside the safe was a number of things that ranged from a number of old stuff dating back from WWII Photos to Civil War Gold. One set that was interesting was a set of WWI weapons close to an old letter still kept preserved. Pulling the the stuff out, the first thing they got out was a WWI battered Winchester Model 1897 Trench Gun etched with the Hellfighter insignia and "Men of Bronze" on the receiver and the unit number 369th on the barrel, along with the carving "Go Forward or Die France 1918" on the wooden stock.
The next weapon they pulled out was a WWI M1911 pistol etched with the Hellfighter insignia on the breech and "Men of Bronze" on the muzzle. With it was an old Bolo Knife etched with the Hellfighter regiment number 369th. Finally on top of the preserved letter was a patch showcasing the Emblem of the elite Hellfighter unit as well as a WWI era M2 gas mask.
Phoenix was a little nervous of the weapons with Abby so close. "They're not loaded are they?"
Shawn just chuckled looking at them. "No these things are almost a hundred years old and have since past their prime. Now they're just old relics of the past." he sighed feeling proud in a way holding them. "Did you know these belonged to my great grandfather Nathan Kaiser, who fought in World War I as a member of the elite Harlem Hellfighter Unit."
"No I didn't know that. I didn't even know you were related to someone from World War I."
"Yeah, The 369th Infantry Regiment also known as the Harlem Hellfighters, were an infantry regiment of the U.S. Army National Guard during World War I comprised of African Americans that were known for their toughness and the fact that they never lost a trench, foot of ground, or a man through capture to the enemy. Due to their feats, they were given their nickname by the Germans. And my great grandfather was one of them."
"Wow that's pretty amazing. I wish I had something like this." Phoenix smiled.
"Im sure you do and it's okay. Here's the letter he wrote in his experience in WWI." Shawn pulled the preserved letter out, opening it to see it was written in purely perfect cursive language. It read.
"We came from all over the world. So many of us thinking this would be our rite of passage, our great adventure. Let me tell you… it was no adventure… New killing machines, like the Tank, changed the shape of the war over night. Luckily they were mostly on our side. Mostly… Instead of adventure we found fear. And in war, the only true equalizer...is death… They push, We push, Every once in awhile, we push hard enough that the light breaks through the clouds. So the world beyond the war glimmers, just out of reach. The war is the world, and the world is the war. But behind every gunsight is a human being. We are those those people. We are the jaded and we are the naive. We are the honorable and the criminal. We are the bound for legend and we are the lost to history. We are the knights of the sky, the ghosts in the desert, and the rats in the mud. This war, it was our stories."
Attached to the letter was an old black and white photo of Nathan Kaiser. He looked almost identical to Shawn except his hair was shaved off into a short military style buzzcut. He wore a standard issue uniform of his unit with the same Hellfighter insignia Shawn was now holding in his hand stitched onto the left shoulder. On his head Nathan apparently wore a Brodie helmet as well as a thick scarf wrapped around his neck.
"That was pretty deep, Shawn. That's some life your great grandfather lived." Phoenix mentioned.
"Yeah, I remember my grandfather telling us stories about him. If there was ever was a such a man returning with proof that there is such a thing known as hell. It was him."
"Yeah I see. If I know a man who can come back from hell and again. It's you. You're just like him. You went through hell to save me and protect everyone around you. I guess it means it runs in the family." Phoenix smiled and giggled a little while rubbing his shoulder.
"Yeah...well let's see the next thing this had." placing the stuff down, Shawn reached into the safe to pull out the most priceless item in the safe.
The item, a painting from the late seventeen hundreds. The painting was of a muscular man of African Diaspora with brown eyes, a short bound beard, dreadlock hair tied in a short pony tail with a band, and posses a well built body with broad shoulders and has a lot of muscular definition. He had a scar over his left blind eye which was covered by a black three-strap leather eye patch. He was dressed white blue coat, waistcoat, leather gloves, and white breeches with leather gaiters and shoes.
Next to him was attractive young woman that had a refined, elegant, beautiful and even an upper-class appearance with a slender voluptuous and petite build. She had sandy brown skin, brown eyes and long brown hair that only reached to her upper chest in the front in the form of two braids and parts her bangs in the middle so that they frame her face on either side as they fall. She wore a red sashed gown a newly fashionable purple shawl.
With the two were their two children appeared to be of black hispanic ethnicity with empathises placed on having more hispanic traits than african. As evident of both the son and daughter haveing sandy brown skin, brown eyes, and soft smooth hair from their mother, but having the black hair color from their father. The son was dressed similar to his father while the daughter was dressed similar to her mother.
"Ahh yeah I know this guy. This is my ancestor Landon Rivas Henderson from my mother's side who lived during the seventeen eighties. Along with his Spanish wife Isabel Garcia Henderson, and their two kids Kendrich and Valeria Henderson."
"Shawn, I didn't know you had Spanish ancestry."
"Yeah I'm part Spanish."
Phoenix giggled a little. "Well that would explain your amazing charm you have on certain females like me for instance." she winked.
"Yep, it has worked on you and Blair." He chuckled.
She gave him a soft kiss in response.
"Well I guess that's everything. The other stuff in here consists of Civil War gold my ancestor at that time acquired fighting for the Union. To my grandfather's photos he took while off seas fighting in World War II."
"Well at least you have your family's possessions now. Now they'll always be with you."
"Yep and in the wills of my dad as well as my ancestor Landon here, got to keep them locked away from the world and pass on to our kids later down in the future."
"I second on that. Come on, let's go pick up Zeya and her friends before we head for Glukhov." Phoenix mentioned.
"Alright." Collecting everything they needed, Shawn closed the safe once it was emptied and brought everything downstairs to be wrapped up in several towels and such to keep everything preserved. Exiting outside, he loaded everything from the heirlooms to the items from the time capsule in the truck and took one last look at his old home. Just standing there staring at it for a long while.
"You okay Shawn?" Phoenix asked taking noticed Shawn looked sad in a way.
"Yeah just, I just loaded what was left of my old home… Kind of sad, just coming here only to move it's most valuable treasures away from it. Like taking only the stuff that made it special you know."
"Yeah but it's not the things that made it special. It's the memories it held that made it special." she smiled.
"I know, I know...we'll have to come here more often as a summer home you know." he offered.
"Of course, I would love that Shawn and so will the family. Maybe even our friends if possible."
"That'll be great. Our friends can spend time here with us. Backyards big enough for all of us and we can use this as a summer home away from the city."
Giving him one passionate kiss on the lips, the two loaded the rest of everything onto the truck.
"There's just one thing that's got me bothered. How on Earth does that Blaziken from the magazine look so much like you."
"I… I… don't know really. Maybe it's a coincidence." Phoenix answered nervously.
Shawn placed a hand on her's softly. "Don't worry about it, we'll look it up later, for now let's just enjoy the rest of the day. Thank you for coming with me."
"Of course sweetheart."
They both gave another passionate kiss, placed Abby in her baby seat and buckled her in, they jump in before driving off to go pick Zeya and her friends from the mall before going to see who Glukhov wanted them to meet.
And so here end another adventure with Shawn and his wife Phoenix as she learned more on Shawn's past. Which brought him closer to his ancestry and bringing them closer together. And who is the mysterious Blaziken in the magazine that looks like Phoenix? Stay tuned as the journey continues...