Chapter 5

I woke up almost exactly at six which wasn't unusual for me since I use to wake up at six almost every weekend though try to wake myself up at that time for school was hard. For some reason I could easily wake myself up at a certain time with no alarm but when it got to school I needed an alarm. It never really made sense to me but I just ignored that and put my alarm on making sure I woke up on time.

I was debating whether I should go back to sleep or not because it was a while before I had to pick Cece up when I remembered that I promised that ghost as soon as I woke up. Which meant it was time to get up, I sat up in the bed and stretched my body. Then I got out of bed and grabbed the portable toothbrush I always had in my bag probably because I always forget to take it out and started my morning routine of brushing my hair and teeth.

Once I was done with that I sat cross legged in the middle of the bed and put my reading glasses on, I looked around to see if he was in the room yet and when I saw nothing I said.

" You can come back now ".

I waited for a minute or two and when he didn't show up I opened my mouth to say it again when he appeared sitting on the right end corner of my bed.

I nodded to him in greeting " So why don't you tell me your story maybe I can figure out what your looking for ".

He shook his head " I don't know ".

I raised my eyebrow at him before gesturing for him to continue but again he just shook his head and said.

" The only thing I remember about myself is my name Nalic Walker ".

I took my phone out and typed in his name crossing it with the name of the hotel and click at the first thing that popped up, it was a newspaper article.

Nalic Walker was a kid who was into hardcore drugs and ended up overdosing

in a hotel in Key West when he went on vacation with his buddies. He was taking

some hardcore drugs with his friends and ended up overdosing. If his friends

weren't to busy partying and had gotten him to a hospital he probably would have

lived. They didn't they actually left his body in the room after they checked out the

next morning. One of the cleaning staff had found him in the room laying on his

back with vomit covering his mouth. The doctors said that even if he didn't choke

on his own vomit he would of died from the overdose but to see him like that tells

you how his so called friends cared about him. When his body and his different

stuff was given to his family they found out that the father's dogtag was missing.

The father James Walker had died from a scrap metal bomb, he was in surgery

to get the metal out of his body when he flatlined. They tried to save him but one

of the metals they hadn't gotten to had pierced through his heart. James died

minutes later and the family was sent his dog tags. Nalic had worn the tags ever

since they had arrived home and for them not to be on his body was worrying.

The family called hotel again and again begging them to look around the room

for the dog tags but they were never found.

Nalic stared at the article on my phone trying to process what I told him before he let out a bitter laugh.

" I remember now I started doing drugs after my father died to deal with my fathers death ".

I nodded " do you remember when you last saw your father's dog tags I think that might be the object you need to find ".

He frowned " I'm not sure it's quite hazy because my friend Jack had gotten a new type of drug that let's people get high faster and since the other drugs weren't working as well I mixed them togeth- wait I think I know where it is you know that forgotten soldier statue of the black soldier I think I wrapped it around the base of his gun ".

I nodded " alright why don't we search in this room for it first and if we don't find it I'll go to the statue to see if it's there ".

We searched the room tearing it apart piece by piece trying to see if the necklace was in here but we could find nothing so I decided to put the room back together. When I was done I grabbed my phone to check what time it was and I saw that it was one thirty.

" Shoot I'm late Cece's going to kill me "!

I grabbed my purse and threw everything I thought I would need in there before running out the door though I did stop to make sure I locked my hotel room before sprinting in the direction of the airport. As I was running down the street my phone started to ring in my pocket and I had to a feeling so I answered and said.

" I'm so sorry that I'm late to the airport Cece I'm on my way there ".

An animatronic voice chuckled " I'm not Cece and I'm hurt that your Grandmothers life doesn't matter much to you because if it did you wouldn't be late ".

I stumble to a halt and stared down at my phone before taking it off speaker and placing it to my ear.

" Mind to tell me who the hell you are "?

They chuckled again " not really no but I will give you a hint for good sport if you answer my question, will you do it "?

" Depends what's your question "?

They hummed " your clever Bella, never agree to something unless you know exactly what it is your doing. I hope you remember ".

" Sure " I told them irritated that they haven't asked me there question yet.

They sighed " you might be a clever but you are quite impatient I should hang up and making you wait but I'll make you say please instead, say please and I will ask you the question ".

I wanted to curse him out but 1) I don't curse and 2) even if I did it wouldn't solve anything so I took a deep breath to calm myself.

" Can you please ask me the question " I asked in a sickly sweet voice.

They hummed again " well since you asked so nicely I will ask you the question. When you were about ten what was the doll you lost and spent days trying to find until one of your nannies Connie had to buy you a new one "?

I frowned " how the hell am I supposed to remember that, that happened sixteen years ago. Not only that but how do YOU even know about that "!

They chuckled for the third time which was really starting to irritate me " it was wasn't it well you better get to thinking then you have two hours, time is ticking ".

They hung up not even bothering to answer my second question, before I could put my phone away it started to ring again and when I saw the caller id I answered.

" Cece I got a call from the one that called Mimi "!

She gasped " what did they say "?

" Well I thought it was you calling me to yell at me for being late so when I answered I said sorry that I was running late and he said along the lines that I didn't care about Mimi's life because I was running late. The voice was animatronic so I couldn't tell if I met them before so I asked if they minded telling me who they were. They didn't want to but they said that they would give me a hint if I answered a question correctly. I told them it depends on what the question was and they started talking about how smart I was not agreeing with something until I knew what it was I would be doing and I got irritated that they weren't just asking me the question and they must have heard that in my responses. So they asked me to say please and only then would they ask me the question so I did and they asked me this. When you were about ten what was the doll you lost and spent days trying to find until one of your nannies Connie had to buy you a new one "?

Cece was silent for a moment before she said " how the hell do they even know that "?

Well that's not exactly what she said but her words are not ones I like to say so I left them out.

" I don't know Cece I asked them how they knew that but they didn't answer though they did say I should get to thinking, it was sixteen years ago though how would I remember something from so long ago "?

She sighed " I don't know but I do know that I'm now at Sloppy Joe's Bar so you should come here instead of going to the airport, that was why I was calling you ".

I nodded " alright I'll be there as soon as I can ".

I hung up and searched on my GPS where the Sloppy Joe's Bar was because I never heard of it and I noticed it was to the Forgotten Soldier Monument so I set off to the monument. Thankfully it was close by so it didn't take long to get to the monument it was a statue of an African American soldier and was built in honor of the black residents who were recruited or volunteered to fight for the Union. When the memorial to the forgotten soldiers was authorized seven years ago, the names of those who served from Key West were not known.

However, 126 names of those soldiers have since been discovered, Feb 16 was chosen as the dedication day because it was on that date in 1863 that the men were ordered to report for duty. At 11a.m. ceremony, local officials spoke, Civil War re-enactors stood in formation, a cannon was fired and a roll call of the recently discovered names was presented. The other Civil War memorials in Key West are an obelisk erected in 1866 by the Navy Club of Key West in memory of the officers, sailors and soldiers of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps who died during the war while stationed at Key West.

A white stone pavilion erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1924 that was dedicated to the soldiers and sailors of the Confederacy. A shaft of Indiana limestone dedicated in 1930 to honor soldiers from two New York regiments stationed in Key West who died in 1862 from yellow fever. The plaque on the base said,

"In January of 1863, Col. James Montgomery of Kansas was authorized to raise regiments of troops consisting entirely of free blacks and former refugee slaves. The following month, he arrived in Key West to recruit men for that regiment. All Africans between the ages of 15 and 50 not in the services were ordered to report for medical examination and, if capable of bearing arms, to embark on the US Steamer Cosmopolitan for transport to Hilton Head to serve in the 2nd South Carolina Regiment. Some of these men returned to Key West after the war and started families. Several more were injured. At least 18 of them paid the ultimate price. These men served with great distinction, but their names were lost to time. This monument honors their courage, their actions, and their sacrifice, but most importantly, stands to make sure these men are never forgotten again ".

At least that's what it said when I searched it kind of reminds me of my CO, LCDR Harold L. Johnson, I had joined Sea Cadets in my first year of high school and CO always told great stories. Like the one he told about how the Japanese or whoever wanted to capture his alive so he put the dead corpse around him on top of him to hide himself, they did end up finding him though and they stabbed him in the butt with a bayonet. Another story was when he was a kid every Halloween he would dress up as a soldier, he knew what he wanted to do even at that young.

I walked up to the statue and started to feel around the leg for any sort of chain but I could feel and see nothing that was until I felt the base of the statue. I could feel something right behind the soldiers foot and when I held it up to the light I could clearly see it was a dog tag. Though the tag looked to be completely fine the chain it was on had snapped and was lightly rusted, on the tag it read.

Walker

James

000-00-0000

A Positive

Christian

I pocketed the tags before taking off at a run in the direction of the restaurant she said she would be at and knowing her she would be irritated that I was late. I'll probably just tell her I made it as soon as I could, no need to tell her about stopping at the statue and get her more irritated than she already was. When I got to the restaurant I saw that it barely had anyone in it though the three doors it has is wide open. I'm guessing that at night it would full of all kinds of people but I only see one at this time.

It was my sister Cece who was sitting at the bar eating a burger and fries while enjoying some kind of alcohol beverage and it reminded me of the time Mimi tried to convince me to drink a strawberry margarita with alcohol in it. I of course told her no and she was fine with that but it does make me remember what I said to her. I told her I would never drink in my life and so far I have kept that so when I sat down and Cece offered me a sip I refused.

" Shouldn't we I don't know be sober for what we are about to do "?

She rolled her eyes " it's one drink Bella I don't think I can get drunk from it besides I think in the long run I'm gonna need one ".

I sighed and started eating her fries " alright what's the plan "?

She glared at me irritated I was eating her fries before she rolled her eyes again and let me eat them.

" Well as you said we should go and look through The Oldest House Museum so since you were late I went there and bought both of us a ticket which means you owe me five dollars " she said holding out her hand.

It was my turn to roll my eyes as I got out the money and placed it in her hands because I always pay people back even if Cece doesn't. Believe me when I say I learned to never let Cece borrow money from me when she didn't give it back the second time.

" Alright we should find a map of the house I tried to search for one online but got nothing ".

She frowned " why not "?

I shrugged " I don't know I searched up The Oldest House Museum and got this This conch cottage is known as the oldest house on the island and was built in 1829. It was home to the wrecker Captain Francis B. Watlington, his wife Emeline, and their nine daughters. The property has three buildings, the main house, the kitchen house, and the exhibit pavilion which face a garden with benches. On display – along with the maritime artifacts – are works of art by Mario Sanchez, Key West’s famous folk art wood carver. Originally built on Whitehead street in 1829, the house was moved to Duval Street approximately 7 years later, many buildings in Key West have been moved over the past 200 years ".

She groaned " well this just got a little bit harder ".

I looked at her amused as I said " I think we should look in the gardens first there's nothing that could be restricted there but a lot of places in the house could and then try the kitchen house, and the exhibit pavilion, it can't be anywhere to in the open or people would of seen her there at the time ".

She frowned " Why do I have a feeling that were going to end up doing something illegal, I don't want to break into something like you did ".

I winced and glared at her as I hissed out " say it louder I don't think the waiter heard you ".

I pointed to the waiter that was at the other end of the bar on his phone because we didn't need him and the bar was completely empty besides us at the moment ".

She rolled her eyes for the third time in the last fifteen minutes and mumbled " sorry ".

I wanted to strangle her but instead pulled out the piece of paper Robert the Doll gave me and my reading glasses before giving it to her.

" Put the glasses on and you should be able to read what it says ".

She did what I said but ended up pulling them off right after she put them on to rub her eyes.

" How the hell do you wear those I can't see a thing with them on ".

I frowned " really they always work while I wear them ".

She glared at me " that's probably because they are your glasses I don't need reading glasses to read remember "?

I glared right back " I know that but you need those glasses to read that note ".

She threw them both at me " then put the stupid glasses on and read the note to me ".

I glared at her again and picked the note up and was about to put my glasses on when I noticed something, for some reason when I squinted at the paper I could just barely see the words. Which I could of sweared didn't happen before but instead of dwelling on it I brushed it aside and put my glasses on to read my sister the note.