The Journal

Andrew and I were able to keep our relationship to ourselves for the remainder of the school year. It wasn’t like we were ashamed of it, but in 1978 it was better for us to not have to put up with all prejudiced people judging us. Not only did we have the gay thing to deal with, but the whole racial issue was another can of worms we didn’t want to open. I just kept thinking about Walter and Ellis, while these issues were difficult for us, they would have been much worse for them. Andrew and I didn’t worry too much about what anyone else thought, we knew how we felt about each other, and I for one was the happiest I had ever been.

I continued to look for any more information on Walter or Ellis, Andrew would help me whenever he had the time. So far, we had found out that Walter’s dad did indeed die in the house fire on the day of Walter’s last journal entry. One paper even reported that there may have been two bodies in the house fire, so we were unsure if Walter was still alive. The sheriff’s son had drowned in the pond on the following day, and about a year later the sheriff resigned after some sort of scandal, we were still looking for any details on that. I wasn’t sure if this had anything to do with Walter, but it seemed too much of a coincidence to just disregard. I still had found absolutely nothing on Ellis Jackson or any of his family.

As the first year of classes were winding up, I decided I was going to stay in Memphis for the summer, so I was going to need to find a place to live and a job to pay for it. I headed downtown to the Memphis Press, the local daily newspaper. I walked into the lobby of the paper and found the reception desk empty, I waited for someone to come back, but after about ten minutes I was still waiting. I walked over to a set of doors and opened them to find a large room with about 20 desks scattered around and people on phone and typing on typewriters. I caught the eye of a large gruff looking guy at the end of one the rows as he hung up his phone.

“Hey kid, what are you looking for?”

I stepped in, “sorry to bother you sir, I was looking to apply for a job, I was wondering if there were any openings?”

“What kind of job do you want?”

“Well sir, I am a journalism student at the University, I would be willing to do whatever was needed just to get a start in the business.”

“I am not a sir kid, I’m Chuck. You ever work at a paper before?”

“Yes sir, er I mean Chuck, I worked on my hometown paper back in Westburg when I was in high school and on both my high school and college papers. I have brought a copy of each paper to show you some of my writing.”

“Came in prepared kid, well that is a refreshing change.” He turned and yelled into an office behind him, “hey Fred, do you still have money to hire a copy boy in the budget?”

I heard a voice from the office, “I guess so, everyone that I interviewed wasn’t worth a damn, if you can find someone just remember you are the one that has to deal with them, not me. You’re stuck with them.”

Chuck said, “let me see those papers.”

I handled them to him and waited while he read, “this you Mike Jenkins?”

“Yes sir.. Chuck.”

He handed the papers back, “what year are you in college?”

“Just my first year, I was hoping to stay in Memphis and work through the summer, if it works out, I could work parttime when school starts back up in the fall.”

“Do you know how to type?”

“Yes.”

“File, make copies?”

“Yes sir.”

“Work on the sir thing, do you know how to take pictures?”

“Yes sir, sorry I mean Chuck, I took a lot of photos for Mr. Johnson back home.”

“Don’t tell me you’re sorry, it’s a sign of weakness. Be here Monday morning at 8, I will give you one week, if you don’t piss me off you can stay.”

“I will be here.”

I went right to the library, I knew Andrew was working and I told him my news, He congratulated me, and we made plans to go out for supper to celebrate.

We sat at our table waiting for the waiter to bring our food, I was telling him all about my brief interview, such as it was.

I said, “now that I have a job, I am going to need a place to stay, I have to be out of the dorm in a week.”

Andrew was going to stay for the summer as well, he was going to work at the library full time and take a couple summer classes. There would be other students taking classes as well, so the library was still open, and most of the others that worked during the school year were going home for the summer.

I asked, “So would you like to move in with me if I find a place?”

He smiled, “of course I would.”

I smiled back, “that makes me so happy.”

The waiter sat our plates down and with a smile, “here you go guys, enjoy, if you need anything else just holler.”

The next morning, I read through the classified ads and found a couple apartments for rent, I made appointments and headed out to the first one. I arrived and was greeted by the building manager, the building was three stories and contained twelve units. It was a newer building and just a little more expensive than I was comfortable with, but I took the tour. The manager told me that she lived in one of the apartments, no pets, or parties and in the single bedroom units only one person was allowed unless it was a married couple. I finished the tour and thanked her, I said that I had a couple more places to look at and I would let her know. She told me that she had another appointment this afternoon and the first to pay the deposit gets the apartment. I thanked her again and left for my next appointment, it was in a more run-down area of town, but I decided to look anyway. The rent was more affordable, it was a basement of a large house with the owner living on the main floor. When he gave me the tour, he never even put out his cigarette and it wasn’t very clean, again I thanked him for his time, and I would let him know if I wanted to take it.

The last appointment was with a property management company, the owner lived in another state and hired the company to keep it rented. I was greeted by Ann, a nice lady that gave me a quick tour, the apartment was in a converted house that had three units, two were two bedrooms and one that was a single. The rent was affordable, and she told me the same rules that I had heard on the first appointment. However, she said the management company is supposed to check on things every month or so, but she admitted that due to the large number of properties that they manage, they usually only check once a year, unless they get complaints from the neighbors or other tenants. I gave her a check for the deposit, and we went back to office and signed the lease.

Andrew and I moved in the next weekend, and when we met the other tenants, I knew that we wouldn’t have any issues with them, as they weren’t necessarily following all the rules either.

We finished unpacking and were both beat, so we went to get some take out pizza and settled in for the night. We watched a little tv and sat on the couch with Andrew laying his head on my chest as I had my arm around his shoulder.

I kiss the top of his head, “God Andrew, this feels so right, I love being with you.”

He looked up at me, “me too Mike, I feel so safe with your arm around me.”

“I imagine this is what Walter and Ellis were taking about in the journal.”

Andrew kissed me, “I need a shower would you like to join me?”

“Like you have to ask.”

We showered and got each other worked up and headed to bed, we made love like it was the first time. We slept in each other’s arms, it was the best nights sleep that I have ever had, I never wanted to sleep without Andrew ever again.

I arrived at the paper about ten minutes before 8 on Monday morning, I told the lady at the reception desk that I was reporting for work, Chuck had told me to ask for him. She looked me over and picked up her phone and started to dial, just then the door to the office flew open.

Chuck walked out, “Good you’re here, come on kid, we got a fire.” He handed me a camera as we walked out the front door. We got in his car and sped down the street, we arrived as the fire department was pulling hoses across the front lawn of a house in a rough part of town.

Chuck walked over to start talking to the neighbors that were gathering on the next lawn, “take a lot of pictures and stay out of the way of the firemen.”

I started snapping pictures from every angle I could think of, being careful to stay behind the caution tape that had just been put up. The camera was fairly new and had a nice telephoto lens, so I was able to get some good shots. I saw some charred marks out in the driveway and made sure to get close ups, the firemen had gotten the fire under control and were starting to sift through the ashes for any clues to the origin of the fire. The police and fire marshal were also asking the neighbors and any other witnesses questions.

Chuck waved me over to the car, “Come on kid, the fire marshal is going to send me the report when he finishes it. We need to get back to office and get the pictures developed so I can get the story in this afternoon’s edition.”

We drove back to office, he asked, “so what did you see kid, what stood out to you?”

I said, “I got few pictures of what I thought were burn marks on the driveway that lead to the house, kind of like there was gas on the pavement that was lit to burn the house.”

“Damn kid, my instinct about you was right, I saw those too, I think it was arson. You know I usually don’t report on simple house fires, that is for first year reporters. I am doing a series of stories on drug gangs, and this house is one their hangouts, the fire was probably set by the other gang.”

We got back to office, Chuck showed me where the film lab was and, we went back to his desk, there was a small table set up behind him. He said, “that is yours kid, here take my notes over to copy machine and make a copy of them. I need to make a phone call.”

I copied the pages and handed them to Chuck as he was hanging up the phone. He handed me back the copies that I had made, “here kid, use my notes to write your story, I am going to write mine and we will see how you do. The lab should have the pictures back to us in an hour. Watch that machine over, pointing to a fax machine, it's a new gadget that we just got, the fire marshal's report will print out there.”

There was a notepad and pencils on my table, I sat and wrote out my article, Chuck started to type his.

Just as Chuck had said, a young guy delivered our pictures about an hour later, I was putting the finishing touches on my article. Chuck had finished typing ten minutes earlier and was in Fred’s office, I learned Fred was the editor. I heard him say, “looks good as soon as the photos get here find the best one and go ahead and run the story.”

We looked through the pictures, Chuck picked the one he liked best, and he showed me how to file a story. We went back to his desk, and I handed him my story, he nodded his head as he read it.

“Not bad kid, better than I was expecting from a first-year journalism student. The pictures were very good, and good job picking up on the signs of arson too.”

I spent the rest of my day making copies and running papers to other reporters and learning how file things so Chuck could find them later. I went home at end of day feeling very good about my first day, I couldn't wait to get home and tell Andrew all about it. Damn that was a good feeling, having someone that I could talk to about my day, and I wanted to hear about his too.

Andrew was making supper as I walked in the door, he rushed to me and gave me a big kiss, “so tell me, how was your day?”

“God Andrew, it was great.” I filled him in on all the details, he sat smiling at me the whole time.

After I finished, “so how about your day, you started that class that you have been dying to take, how was it?”

It was my turn to smile as he told me all about the teacher and how great he was and how he knew he was going to love the class.

We ate our supper and after we cleaned up, Andrew said, “we both had such a great day, I think we both deserve a little reward.” He reached down and unzipped my pants, we were both naked before we made it to our bedroom. Yes “our” bedroom, I will never get tired of saying that.

The rest of the summer went by very fast, I was still loving my job and Chuck was teaching me a lot, as gruff as he was, I think he enjoyed having me around and I was doing my best not to “piss him off”.

Andrew and I had settled into our life together and it was going great, I still can’t remember a time that either of us were mad or even upset with each other. School was going to be starting in two weeks and I had worked out my schedule with Chuck so I could get the most hours as possible at the paper. I walked into the apartment after work one night to a ringing telephone, I set my bag down.

“Hello”

“Hi Mike, it’s mom.”

“Hi mom, how are you?’

I just heard her crying.

“Mom, what is wrong?”