This Old Mansion

By: John Bowling
(© 2013-2014 by the author)

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...

Chapter 8
"What is JT's mystery?" 

Dateline: Monday, July 1, 2013, Early afternoon,
Manny narrating

We had taken time in the dining room to make use of the big table, and had the picnic style lunch they had put together at home and carried here in baskets. There was a selection of sandwiches, salads, and soup.

"OK, for all you adults who could not guess," JT said. "The two grooves are a narrow gauge, called 'G' for garden, railroad track embedded in the wood, and I'll bet anything that there is a small size railroad train in the kitchen that has trays or serving dishes put on it to bring the food into the diners. And it's probably a steam train given the time frame, and what Helen ad Dot have told us about the old railroad tycoon who built this place."

Helen got a big smile on her face. "You sure you're only twelve? You are much too smart for only being twelve!"

JT was grinning and blushing.

"OK, let's make the kitchen the next stop on our inspection tour."

The kitchen had several cast iron stoves along one side, with cook tops and ovens, all heated with wood. There were several tables for cutting and preparing food to go into pans which were moved manually to the stoves or ovens. As we were finished, the kitchen staff pulled China dishes and pans out; they arranged the meals and placed them on a long wood table which had two sets of tracks down its length near the center of the table, with the work area along the edge. There was a full train on each set of tracks so that the kitchen staff could prepare and load a train when the other delivered a course to the dining room. That allowed them to serve courses soon after each other. Each train car had two places for trays, on top for filled trays, and below for empties. The trains could shuffle back and forth, and a manual sliding switch could control which train was next to go into the dining room. Curves or grades were not needed, just moving out and back, for as many courses as the event called for. And, with numbered trays, each diner could have his or her own favorite variations or per-ordered meals.

On the track, each train was a scaled down steam engine, reminiscent of the 1870's, and ten cars that could hold four trays each. They were made of steel, somewhat rusty, and some still showed traces of oil from prior care. The locomotives were real steam engines, though much smaller than the ones used for real trains. There was a water tower standing above it and a bin beside it for small logs, which had some little logs in it. There was a larger bin for logs to heat the stoves.

The sinks drained down under the floor directly onto a floor with a gravity feed series of tiles channeling the water to an old style septic system. A water pipe had been added from a storage tank that was filled from rain on the roof, and an old manual pump handle from a well. It was all rusty, and the tank was filled with leaves and broken branches of trees. In order for the diners to have drinks, even when the water system worked, there was a bottle storage closet under the floor, and a swinging door leading to an alcove where staff could walk. They would deliver the drinks by hand rather than use the train. The walkway opened to both the kitchen and the dining room, and was designed to keep the kitchen noise down, unusual with the very loud trains. Dinner had to be a very strange affair.

In the alcove between the kitchen and dining room was a megaphone funnel that was connected to tubes leading up to the guest rooms, so they could order food delivered to them. A similar funnel was near the front desk.

Helen suggested that we send someone down to find out if anything was still in the storage space. Jason and Grant volunteered to go down, and Manny followed just in case. The 'case' he was expecting didn't happen.

"OK, Jason, grab Manny and hold him while I put some of the old bottles of booze in this bag and we can have a lot of fun tonight." Grant said. "No, not like you're going to have sex. You're going to get him a turned on that way, and that's all for me! Damn, there is nothing here. How did they have parties back then with no booze?"

"They probably took what was left home with them," Manny offered.

"Or maybe this is just the quick access storage. Perhaps they have a wine cellar elsewhere."

"OK, Jason, you muscle stud, hold me like that to make this trip worthwhile."

Thirty seconds later, Grant was struggling in the arms of Jason.

"Any tighter and my pants will be have a large wet spot."

Jason flexed a little harder, and Grant moaned. "Now you can keep yourself under control for a few more hours."

"No way with you so close."

"Grant, put this apron on so people won't see."

They heard a scrapping noise, and all of them looked up and around a shelf. Huddled behind it and shivering from freight was a little black boy about five. He looked near starvation.

Manny knelt down in front of him, and held his arms out, hands open, and spoke gently.

"Son, we have food and bottled water up in the kitchen. Would you like to have something to eat? Jason, please go get JT."

The little guy nodded his head, but still was very scared. JT arrived and walked carefully and slowly up to the boy and offered to help him. The little guy seemed to be calmer with JT there.

"Can I help you up to get some food? Would you like to be carried up the stairs?"

The boy nodded, and JT reached out and gently picked up the light, skinny little guy. Holding him close, he walked up the stairs with him, whispering reassuring things to him, followed by the others. They went back to the rest of the group, who were now preparing some of the warm soup for him. The boy cringed when he saw and heard all of them and JT keep gently hugging him. Dr. Chip came over and did a quick evaluation. He found nothing obviously wrong, other than the apparent malnutrition.

"We need to do some lab tests to confirm he is healthy. I'll take him in when we have completed today's meeting, if TJ wants to go along."

"Not that hospital! No way!" JT grinned.

"You don't want to visit your favorite nurse?"

"How can you expect the new boy to go if you keep talking bad about it. You can take him on the train into Cadillac, and we'll have a cab waiting to take you to the hospital." Dot volunteered.

Emergency apparently taken care of, they reverted back to their discussion of the old hotel, and the new complex, with JT 'protecting' the new boy. Darren and Jeremy quickly became friends as well.

The meeting continued.

"We will need lots of water for when there are lots of kids here. I suggest that we replace that tank so we can collect and save rain water, and also pump water from the ground into a large storage tank. To make sure it is safe, it must go through a good distillation system that is part of the climate control system, using solar and wind power as much as we can. There is a new technique for solar power that utilizes a thin belt which the wind vibrates and generates power. It is much cheaper, less repair required, and makes a lot less noise than turbines. And it can easily be placed in a wind tunnel. Solar is not as efficient here as in southern states but any help is useful. I will have people come out and measure just what we could expect."

"Wow," JT said, "This is all really great, like the genuine miniature steam train. I've been checking the Internet for trains, and this a super find. They look just like the pictures for mid-1800's steam engines, only smaller. Can I help restore it, please? I got'sta!"

Manny looked at Helen. She smiled and nodded. "Yes, when we get this settled out as to what we will do with the building. Manny, you have a great son there, that JT, and all ready wanting to be part of this project. He is a definite keeper, only I get surprised by the switching between an Ozark Mountain country boy and an intelligent adult!"

"Yes he is, and he surprises all of us, even we have only known him for a few weeks," Manny replied, while giving him a hug. JT was beaming with a huge grin, knowing he could do some manipulation of them, like most young people. He could not imagine doing anything really bad, though.

"The train would be a great museum piece," Daniel said. "JT, I'll have one of my men work with you. After temporary living spaces are built for employees and your first guests, I'll have the first new building be an emergency medical facility, and then a fully equipped maintenance shed will be erected where we can do restorations. Actually, I’ll have them working on all of them at the same time. Let's go check out the rest of this floor."

We found a huge ballroom, complete with an old grand piano, a series of early phonographs…

including an Edison cylinder and a gramophone ...  

Along with those was a recent [recent as in early 20th century] addition: a battery operated, AM radio in a large wood cabinet by Atwater Kent. Manny checked it, and the batteries it used were removed years ago to avoid acid damage. All were on a platform alongside an ancient foot-pumped pipe organ and a bandstand for other band members and instruments ...

The dance floor was huge. Obviously, items had been added over the years since the mansion was originally built, but nothing that required electricity other than batteries.

"I will have some experts come in and check out the instruments and arrange to get them restored. They are all antiques."

"Well, that is the extent of the ground floor, and the two upper floors are mostly bedrooms with a few common bathrooms. This was one of the first with running water restrooms, but only two per floor with multiple stalls, communal baths. If I recall correctly there were twelve rooms on the second floor, all along the outside walls, with windows for each room. The restrooms and a lounge area were in the center of each floor." Helen said.

"How about we go back to our place and get away from all this dust? We can have a snack and drinks for our dry throats," Manny offered. "Let's do some preliminary planning. Let's lock everything up again."

"Yeah; I want to see the depot and the train soon; I got'sta!"

We did so, and were back at the farm of Manny and Cliff, settled around the kitchen table again, with fresh coffee, tea, and sodas. Manny put a wide assortment of sandwich fixings on the table with JT adding place settings. JT put up a card table, and arranged his young friends around it, his own little family. To everyone, he said: "Help yourselves."

They got seated, each making a sandwich, and the discussion began with Daniel stating: "Currently it is not inhabitable, and the efforts to make it solid and up to codes as a residence probably are not worth the effort. I suggest that we build a new building, or multiple buildings, which would also be faster. The old mansion hotel would need to have rotten timbers replaced, roof replaced from the joists up, all new windows with most of the originals being isinglass, electricity added, gas items disconnected and pipes removed, all new and additional plumbing with a sprinkler system. Just updating them would cost more than half what it would take to build a new building, and then you still have the rooms just as they are in size and utility."

"What's icing-glass", JT asked.

"It's a semi-translucent material made from mica, a form of silica. It was used for windows before they had the ability to make real glass."

"Oh! Guess I got another thing to look up. I'm going to be checking out things for years. Good thing we got the Internet."

"A new building would have bedrooms made for kids and teens, all up to code from the start. We could remove surface finishing from the old mansion/hotel to make a new building look more like an older, restored building. Rather, I think this original building should be restored sufficient for a museum, primarily first floor, and eventually do the second floor for small, guided tours with Lucite enclosures where they can't touch the original, genuine antique items. You could get replicas for hands-on examinations."

"Could the upstairs be restored enough to work as a haunted house around Halloween?" JT wondered. "All of us kids would love that, and I heard that it really is haunted. Is there a basement?"

"If movements were restricted to areas we made safe with limiting the number of people, it could be done. We know there have been rumors about it being genuinely haunted, if someone wants to believe that. As a museum and/or haunted house, admissions could cover the costs. And there is a crawl space over most of it, not a full basement."

"With real haints?"

"How real can they be? Even for those who believe in spirits, they are still like smoke or fog. Or, for those from back then, 'vapors' was a term also used to describe an illness and strange occurrences or visions," Helen told JT. "And perhaps I'll come back and haunt you just to make sure you're treating all the kids right! I surmise that the reality behind a lot of sightings, especially the orbs they have in pictures, are smaller versions of the natural ball lighting of static electricity"

"So I can tell the other kids that my late Great-Aunt Helen is going to treat them like a really good haint! This is going to really be fun watching them get all scared."

"Kid, I won't scare anyone, except you. Besides, I don't intend on qualifying as a ghost for several years! I will, however pretend and let you make some videos of me while I'm still here!"

"Nah, I know you, and you could never do that to anyone even after you're gone." She hugged JT, and the rest of the boys.

"Now may we get down to the business at hand?" Daniel asked. "I will be doing more investigation of the building over the next week, and my architect has created some plans for buildings more suited to the tasks. Does anyone have any special requests?"

"My office has some minimum requirements on what constitutes a suitable home for kids. I can email you that document." Mrs. Lucille Smith said. "And we are going to check into this new boy."

"Good. I have the structure regulations from all the governments so it will pass inspections, and I will be sure to make it exceed the MDHS requirements."

"Everybody, after it's built and running, I want you all to visit on a regular basis. We will have some rooms that are spare for emergency care, and if they are not occupied, they will be available for anyone in this group at no cost, though donations will not be turned down."

While we were still discussing things, a delivery van pulled up and a man knocked on the door. JT went to open it, and the man wanted a signature for the box he had placed beside him. Manny had walked up behind JT and signed.

"Thank you!" JT said to the man. The box was like Christmas for JT, and it contained his Hogwarts Express model train. JT started jumping up and down. "Wow, it's here! May I put it together now?"

"Folks, do you mind taking a break while JT gets his excitement taken care of?"

"That is the one of primary reasons for what we are doing. By all means!"

"JT, let's clear the table and put it there for now." Everyone helped move the food and dishes to the kitchen and cleaned up everything. "If anyone wants more food or drinks, just go into the kitchen and help yourself."

"Everybody, may we call the new place the Maple Express Project?" JT requested. "And the new boy told me that his name is Germain Winslow, and I get to call him Germ, 'cause he infected me.

After a couple of hours with everybody helping or watching run the train, it was time for the Chicago people to head back to their motel room. They would be back tomorrow, continuing the train rides. They took the train and the the car took one group to the hospital and the other to the motel.

Arriving at the hospital, Doc Chip, JT, Germain, and Mrs. Marie Longfield, along with Jason, went to get the tests run, and then Jason drove the train back to the WLS depot. The test results would be emailed to Doc Chip.

To be continued...

Author's note: A big "Thank You" to Gerry Young for his excellent editing. He eliminates a lot of hiccups my addled mind and misguided fingers smudge onto the page.