A Butterfly's Dream

Sitting back with his foot propped up on his ottoman, a cup of tea near his keyboard, Clary stares at the screen for a few minutes before lifting his hands to type something. The clacks of the keys are lost under the sound of the music that was pumping through his speaker system. Finishing his typing rather quickly, he moves his mouse and clicks a few times before sitting back and grabbing a leather-bound book. Opening it to a new page, he picks up a pen and starts to write.

A week. It’s been a frikin’ week since I started to hunt down the information for David, and yet, I’m coming up dry when I go through the usual channels. Oh, I’ve found a few pieces on the attack of Catrina Lewis, including the two that he already has. I’ve saved those articles on the flash drive that he gave me.

I’ve moved onto using my own search engine. I’m rather lucky that father lets me use it, since it scours all search engines, data bases and sites that are connected to the net and open for all. I just hope that I can bring up more than what I have found out.

I’ve found out that CL had a sister named Maria Lewis, a mother named Leandra Lewis and father named Michael Lewis. Leandra Lewis was a woman of high standing, who married Michael when he was working his way through school. She was very accepting of everything, including homosexuality, which seems to be the main focus of these articles.

The father wasn’t as accepting, though. He was positively homophobic, going so far as to speak out against a bill for equal homosexual rights. He went from a struggling student trying to get through law school to a very good prosecutor for the state. He seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth.

I’ve done searches for these two also, but besides a few mentions in some articles scattered through the years, they too seem to have disappeared.

His computer beeps gently at him, drawing him away from his diary. Moving forward, he moves his mouse and pulls up the screen that he needs and blinks a few times, surprised at the amount of links and sites. Setting it up so that the links and sites are separated into the categories of which they are mentioned, he sits back and starts writing again.

Well, it seems that using my search engine has produced more links than the regular sites. Yay-ness! Anyways, I have a feeling that this is bigger than what I first thought it would be, and bigger than what David is expecting it to be. I might have to call Mitchell over to help me with the reading.

Ya know, I’m going to do that anyways.

Putting his book aside again, Clary moves his foot off his ottoman before pushing his chair over to another computer and wakes it up. Opening his phone line quickly, he pops a head set on before dialing Mitchell’s phone number. Tapping his fingers while he listens to the ringing, he sits back and hopes that the other is there and answers the phone. He smiles as he hears the click of a connection.

“‘Ello?” comes out of his ear piece.

“Hey, Mitchell, I have a favor to ask of you,” Clary says, turning to look at his other computer again when it beeped three times. Smiling at the grumbling coming from the other line, Clary waits and relaxes, knowing that Mitchell was getting dressed. Or at least that’s what he gathered when the other cursed at his pants ‘that didn’t know how to get on his body.’ Shaking his head, he shifts back to his other computer where, opening the newest screens to his view, he raises an eye brow at the way Catrina Lewis and Pastor Alex MacNash had the most search results.

Wondering something, he taps in a few commands to separate out any articles that contain the three of them all, while leaving the others separated into the other searches. Sighing softly, he leans back as he continues to listen to Mitchell curse and crash into things. Once or twice, he hears the phone being dropped which makes him laugh softly.

“Alright, Clary, I’ll be there soon,” Mitchell finally says, not giving Clary any time to say anything in return. Smiling, he moves over to his phone computer and disconnects for the time being, not wanting to be bothered. His other computer beeps at him again and he slides over to it. He sighs softly the number of articles mention all three of them. Shaking his head, he starts to link a laptop for Mitchell to use, to the one he was on.

A while later, he is playing a game, having decided to relax before Mitchell arrived. A plate of half eaten sandwich sat near his arm and a new cup of tea sat next to it. His eyes follow the woman on his screen as he manipulates her into doing what he wants. Smirking as he finishes another level, he looks up as someone knocks on his door before it opens up. He smiles as he sees the shaggy black head of his friend, Mitchell, appear in the doorway. His eyes were a deep blue, telling Clary that he was feeling flirtatious.

“Hey,” Clary greets, saving his game and putting the controller aside. “You made good time. Who did you bribe to bring you?”

“No one, pain,” Mitchell replies, plopping down onto the bed with a huff. Clary just raises an eyebrow and walks over to him. Standing in front of the prone Mitchell, he leans over, placing his hand on either side of Mitchell to help keep his balance, and smirks.

”I don’t believe you,” he teases softly, his eyes dancing lightly with a mischievous glint. Mitchell just looks at him and pouts. Sighing softly, he shakes his head and leans up.

“My mom was on the way to the store. She dropped me off on the corner,” he says before flopping down. Clary rolls his eyes before standing up and walking over to his chair again. Sitting down he looks over his friend’s lean body, wishing again for the other male’s body type instead of the body of a swimmer.

“So, you gonna tell me what you dragged me over here for?” Mitchell asks, sitting up on the bed as he kicks off his shoes. Getting up, he moves around Clary to the other chair and sits down, turning it so as to look at him. Turning to Mitchell in return, Clary settles back and starts to tell him what he was doing.

“You know my computer graphics partner?” he asks, getting a nod in return. “Well, someone has hacked into his computer a few times and pulled up articles about the attack of these two women back in the 80’s. He wants to know who these two are, along with someone else, but doesn’t have the time to hunt for the information, much less the computer database or ease of access needed for such a research. So, he asked me and I told him that I would do it for him. I just need help going through the scores of articles and videos.”

Mitchell sits back and looks over at Clary slowly before blowing out a bit of air and nodding, his hair shifting with the movement.

“Alright, I can help. But, I think I should crash here if it’s going to take too much time,” he says, holding up a finger. “Now, who are we reading about and what are the basic details?”

“The two attack victims, Maryann Nobel and her girlfriend Catrina Lewis, are, right now, top priorities. We’ll go through their searches first,” Clary says, shifting through the note books on his desk. Finding the one he wants, he flips it open and starts to read. “Pastor Alex MacNash is next on our list. I also found some articles and vids where all three are mentioned. We’ll go through them. We are looking for interviews, biographies and articles on them. If they are just mentioned in one, just make a note of the article and where it can be found. The others just save to the flash drive.”

Mitchell sighs and stretches before getting comfortable in his chair. Opening the search screen, he blinks a few times before groaning softly.

“Can I cut the search down?” he asks, turning to Clary who shakes his head. “Why not?”

“Because I’ve already cut it by quite a bit already,” Clary says, shrugging his shoulders. “Do you want something to drink or eat?” he asks, reaching for his cell phone.

“Can I get some snack food and a cooler of drinks?” Mitchell asks, grabbing two note books and a couple of pens to use. Clary nods and calls his father, asking for the stuff, telling him that they were going to be seriously busy. After getting the confirmation of drinks and food to come, he flips his phone closed and moves to his computer, pulling up his own search screen.

They pause only long enough to take the cooler and bags of food from Clary’s father before going back to what they were doing. Two hours later and Mitchell was using the bathroom while Clary was once more scribbling out his thoughts onto his journal.

It seems there is more to this so-called mystery than we had first thought. We’ve discovered that Lewis and Nobel were not only dating, but were also helping put forward a bill that helped push gay rights into the forefront of the public eye.

Not much is said on what the bill is yet, but Mitchell and I are planning on looking for the bill as soon as we finish with the other searches. So far, we have Catrina done and are about half way through Maryann.

Even when the focus is on one, the other is always mentioned in these things. It’s interesting the various ways they are described, ranging from loving sisters to dykes in pants. Though, the latter came from some of the seedier newspapers that didn’t have a good reputation one way or the other. It makes me wonder just why these two teenage girls were so important to the bill.

Why were they the forefront of it? Why were they the poster children? Why them and not someone else? Was it because of Catrina’s mother and father? Or was it something more?

Some of the articles hinted at problems that they were experiencing. One article did discuss the fact that the two were attacked once as they came out of the city hall. They were there for permits of a peaceful protest against something. The article didn’t get into a lot of details, but the people who attacked were apparently connected to Pastor Alex’s church.

But that just raises a whole ‘nother bag of questions. Like, if they were part of Pastor Alex’s church, which at the time preached the importance of showing those who had ‘wandered from God’s light and love’ back in a ‘peaceful and loving manner’, then why were the two girls attacked? Why do that and then turn around and try to say that they attacked them as they tried to talk to them?

It seems that the three are seriously connected to each other, but we can’t figure out exactly why, beyond the fact that one side was pro-gay and the other was anti-gay.

I have a feeling that once we find out about that bill and what it was, we may find the key that will put all the pieces into place.

Of course I can always be wrong and we could all end up in a cluster fuck.

Groaning softly and banging his head onto the desk in front of him, Clary mutters under his breath. Mitchell just laughs at his friend’s choice of words and closes the door behind him. Walking over to him, he pats Clary’s shoulder and settles back into his seat.

“No, I don’t think that everything is just some sick joke to fuck with your mind, and I doubt they want a pineapple there,” he teases. Clary lifts his head up slightly and glares at Mitchell. “Hey, it’s not my fault nothing fits together and you taught me your family’s language.”

“Yes it is, at least the language part. You had to bug me to teach you, right?” Clary growls at the laughing male, tossing a balled-up paper at him.

“I was tired of trying to figure out what you guys were saying,” Mitchell says, shrugging, a smirk on his lips. “So, what do we do now? Do we continue to read and take notes? Save articles and what?” he asks, looking at Clary seriously. Clary nods in return and sits back up.

“Yeah, we do. I’ll start a search on the various bills that were happening between 1979 and 1990,” Clary says, shifting forward and opening a new search screen.

“Isn’t that a bit broad?” Mitchell asks, going back to the articles he had been reading.

“Nope. Not many bills are actually presented. I can also narrow them down to the ones that focus on gay rights in any way,” Clary says, his fingers already flying over the keyboard, the clacking of keys lost under the music that had started to float out of his speakers. Looking up in surprise, he sees that Mitchell had flipped the radio on.

“I’m tired of the quiet,” Mitchell dead pans as he sits back down and goes back to his reading.

“Could have asked me,” Clary says, rolling his eyes. “I have the stereo’s remote over here.”

“Yeah? Where then?” Mitchell asks, looking away from his computer screen once.

“Somewhere,” Clary says after a few moments of thinking. Mitchell just smirks and raises an eyebrow at his screen, not saying a thing. “Shove it, gringo.”

Mitchell’s laughter floats down the stairs to Clary’s parents who raise their heads and smile softly, knowing that the two boys would need all the laughter they could get in the coming weeks. Looking back down over the cards in front of them, Clary’s mother sighs softly and taps on two of the cards.

“We should prepare for our loose,” she says quietly, her heart already hurting.

Next chapter update is in 2 to 3 weeks. Look for it. ^_^