by Alex Silver
I got the tripod set up and framed the shot so it matched what we filmed on our first day. Then I tidied the bale of straw where we laid out the gear Daniel was reviewing and placed the box for him to open.
I had to help Daniel get comfortable seated on the other straw bale. He was trying to play the tough guy, but I could tell his leg bothered him after over an hour standing on it to film the interview with Leon. He’d popped an Advil and declared himself good to go.
At least Jane had been understanding about the timeline and agreed to carve out an hour for a quick review screening with us late Saturday afternoon. My oversight with not getting the review process arranged sooner and letting the filming for this week fall through the cracks felt like a huge failure.
I’d been so paranoid about making sure we stuck to our filming schedule, I’d almost made a botch of the whole job right out of the gate. My scheduling let us pack the key witness interviews into the first week, but left little wiggle room to correct my screwup.
Daniel didn’t seem upset at least. He trusted me to fix my mistake. And I had.
I rolled the camera and this time we got the unboxing video retakes done without a hitch. The biggest problem we hit was when Daniel got tongue tied listing out some tech specs. We did several takes of him opening the box while he thanked the company and plugged their other products.
I held the backup camera so I could get some zooms on his face and the product as we went through his lightly scripted spiel. Daniel needed to hit a few points from the company’s ad copy as part of their arrangement. I’d prepared a checklist to make sure we got multiples takes for each of them.
It took the better part of two hours to get through everything to Dan’s satisfaction. We didn’t pick up any ghost activity. That was more of a relief than I expected considering I didn’t believe in ghosts. The barn still gave me the creeps though, I felt like the spiders from all the cobwebs in the rafters might drop onto me at any moment.
A hot shower to scrub away the grime and sense of impending doom would have been nice. Instead, we had to rush as soon as we wrapped. We had to drive into town to meet the amateur historian at the library.
I called ahead to confirm we were still on to meet her around closing. She agreed to wait for us to arrive, even though we were running late.
We filmed our last scheduled interview for the day to a backdrop of bookshelves in the library. Dan enthused over the authenticity of the head librarian’s office and how official it would look in the final cut of the film. We got some stills of relevant articles.
The old headlines with the faded pictures of era farmers would add some ghostly touches. I’d seen what a whiz Daniel was at video editing and I was sure he’d turn out something cohesive from everything we were gathering.
Leon brought an old family photo to his interview. In it, Martha and Elmer Goodman stood in front of the original home and barn with their children. The image would add interest.
That and the newspaper picture of the burned out farm house after fire destroyed the original building leant the weight of reality to the story we were spinning here. I enjoyed working with Daniel to bring all the pieces together. I couldn’t wait to see what our collaboration looked like when it was complete.
TWENTY-NINE
Dan
“Hey, gang,” I waved into the camera. “I’m doing another live feed to let you all, my most loyal fans, get the first official introduction to my new PA. So, here’s the man himself, Chad,” I panned the camera over to him. “Say hey to the fans.”
“Hey, fans,” Chad said, ever dutiful.
I knew he was nervous about the spotlight, but the crew would love him. He raised a hand in an awkward little wave and his cheeks flushed at being the center of attention as comments rolled in. I chuckled at Drew’s heart reaction to Chad.
BriBri: Aw, he’s adorable. Camera shy, Chad?
I nudged Chad and pointed to the comment off screen.
“How could you tell BriBri?” Chad’s chuckle had a nervous edge.
RadRaf: Don’t be nervous, I’m sure our Dan won’t bite.
Drew: Unless you ask real nice.
A string of laugh reacts followed.
RadRaf: Come on kids, keep it PG.
“Yeah, what Raf said. Come on people, keep it classy. I like this one, don’t scare him away!” I protested, zooming out the shot, so we were both in the frame.
BriBri: Oooh, like, as in like-like?
Drew: Dan has a crush.
I only just managed not to roll my eyes at their obsession with my nonexistent personal life.
“Like as an employee. Let’s steer this conversation away from skirting the line with workplace harassment on the guy’s first live appearance people. Sorry, Chad, you can see they’re a little enthusiastic. As soon as we’re done here this month’s unboxing vid will drop.”
A handful of excited exclamations scrolled through the chat.
“I know, I can’t wait to share this month’s haunting with you all either. The suspense is killing us, right, Chad?”
“Right.”
“So I’ll get right into the big announcement I teased earlier. In honor of this being Chad’s first paranormal investigation, we started a series of short gear tutorials. I plan on making it a mini-series titled Ghost Hunter 101. Those videos will supplement each of our films on location this month. Sort of like training videos for Chad here to pop his filming cherry.”
“Hey! I’ve been on camera before.”
“Home videos don’t count,” I teased.
“Fine. Doesn’t this count though?”
“Oh, my darling sweet summer child—no. This is a select audience of our most devoted fans. When our next video hits the net, it throws us to the wolves of public opinion. Considering the viral video of me falling, we’re likely to face unprecedented trolling. Brace yourself, it will be a bumpy ride.”
I slung an arm around his shoulders, giving him a quick side hug to soften the prediction. The fans met my words with a spate of support in the comments.
“Aw, I love you all too,” I replied. “Chad, since this is your intro, care to tell everyone a little about yourself?”
“Um, sure, like what?”
“Anything at all. Fun facts, hobbies, hopes and dreams, deep dark secrets… it’s all fair game, right crew?”
A few affirmatives and a bunch of likes floated past.
“Well, I don’t have deep dark secrets. Sorry to disappoint. I have tattoos, I guess that’s a fun fact?”
Drew: What are they of?
BriBri: Where? Pics or it didn’t happen.
Chad flushed, “On my chest. Can we do partial nudity?”
I suppressed a smirk at his wide-eyed innocence.
“You can take off your shirt, dude, that hardly counts as nudity. No pressure though.”
Drew: Do it!
BriBri: Show us your ink.
A few more comments egged him on.
“You really want to see?” Chad gave a nervous laugh.
A cloud of likes followed.
“Guess they want to see your ink,” I said when he glanced to me for confirmation.
“Better give the people what they want. Now I’m afraid I won’t live up to the hype.”
Laughter responses appeared.
Chad hesitated with his fingers on the hem of his shirt.
“You don’t have to. Or if you’d feel less shy about it, we can take a pic after the live stream and post it on the private site.”
“Let’s do that. I feel weird stripping on camera.”
“Good thing we aren’t making those kinds of videos then,” I teased. There were a few wheedling comments complaining about it, but no way was I letting anyone make my assistant uncomfortable.
“Come on people, you’ll get to see his badass ink later. Don’t harass the guy while he’s working.”
“Sorry, folks, no under the shirt action on our first date,” Chad teased. More laughter.
I was glad to see him loosening up and interacting well with my fans. That was important. The fans needed to embrace him for me to keep him on the show.
BriBri: Oooh does that mean you’ve seen his mystery ink, Dan? Are you getting personal with your PA?
“Bri, how many times do I have to explain workplace harassment to you?”
BriBri: Come on, he’s adorable.
“He’s my employee. Moving on. Let’s get back to Chad. So we know you have some sweet tats, your dream job is chasing ghosts around the country with me, obviously. So that only leaves two questions, what do you do for fun and what’s your biggest fear?”
“I have a bit of a weakness for watching vloggers.”
“Oh, do tell, who’s your favorite?”
“You, obviously,” Chad teased.
“Other than me,” I pressed.
“Hmm, should I admit to watching the competition?”
“I prefer to think of them as our colleagues.”
“Cool, well I enjoy watching them too. But Hauntastic Haunts is my number one fave.”
“Of course it is.”
I wondered if he watched the show for real, if he’d been a fan before I hired him. Was it possible Chad wasn’t playing up his fandom for the camera?
It didn’t matter either way. As I’d told BriBri, I was still his boss. Even if he liked me as much as I was coming to like him.
“For greatest fear, can I say I used to fear needles?”
“You did?” I asked, surprised considering how expertly he’d handled his injection the other day.
“Sure. I mean, I had to get over it when I started on T. As a kid I once locked myself in my pediatrician’s bathroom to get out of shots.”
“You didn’t!”
“I did, my mom didn’t know whether to be furious or laugh at my determination.”
“So, did it work?”
“No, I still got the shots. I only bought myself fifteen minutes to get worked up about it while they figured out I wasn’t coming back and tracked down the spare key.”
We both laughed and then Chad glanced at the comments, eyes going a little wide.
“Oh, yeah no worries asking, Raf, I’m trans, he/him pronouns. That’s the reason behind the testosterone injections.”
Questions scrolled in. We had discussed whether Chad wanted to come out to the patrons tonight before filming. He said he’d play it by ear, but he was comfortable with people knowing as long as we didn’t make a huge deal out of it.
He’d agreed to field some questions for the fans so I made no effort to redirect them away from the topic. This part was Chad’s show to run as he saw fit. I would step in if they pushed his boundaries, but otherwise he was in control of the stream for now.
“Um, so, I will not tell you my deadname, BriBri. My real name is Chad. I’m sure you didn’t mean to be rude, but that’s a question that a lot of trans people hate hearing. It’s personal and I prefer to focus on who I am, not my past.
“I am Chad. I don’t want to be the guy who used to be a girl, or used to be my deadname. I can’t speak for everyone, but that’s my experience.
“And before anybody asks, I will not discuss my sex life here, or anywhere else in public. That includes questions about my genitals and surgery. If you have general questions about surgical procedures I can point you to resources though. You’ll see when I post the tattoo pics, I’ve had top surgery, that I don’t mind talking about.”
“Are you cool with fielding questions about being trans that don’t relate to surgery?” I clarified.
“Yeah, I get that a lot of our viewers might have questions. I might be the first openly trans person they’ve met, so I’m fine answering some questions, within reason.”
“Awesome, I’m sure everyone appreciates that. Here’s what I’m thinking, I will open up a new ‘ask me anything’ thread behind the privacy filter for Chad to respond to your burning questions about what it’s like to work with yours truly. Behind the scenes exclusives on Hauntastic Haunts, getting to meet the famous Vannessa in person, and any transition related questions.”
“Sounds good,” Chad shot me a grateful look for cutting off the barrage of questions. We had discussed the AMA before filming, it wasn’t a surprise. But I knew he’d been nervous about the response to his coming out.
“Chad reserves the right not to answer anything he deems too personal. He’ll try to get back to you this week. We’ve got a busy week of filming coming up though, so be patient waiting for a reply if you take part.”
“I’ll be looking forward to your questions. And we’ll get the tat pics posted later tonight, promise. I will also include my artist’s deets, I think she did an incredible job.”
“It’s almost time for the new episode to drop, my upload bar looks like it’s about to go live,” I cut in smoothly. That was an exaggeration. I’d preloaded the video as soon as the Goodman’s gave their approval, but I was about to change the privacy settings to release it to the world.
“So we will wrap up here. Be sure to drop a like and a comment on the video. Tell all your friends, and post your thoughts in this week’s spoiler thread in our Hauntastic Haunts forum. See you next time, people.”
“Bye!” Chad waved for the camera, I grinned and nudged his foot with my toe, hoping he remembered my instructions about our catchphrase.
“And as always,” I said, Chad bumped my ankle back and joined me for the last line, “have a hauntastic day!”
I ended the livestream with us both smiling and waving at the camera.
“That went well,” I said.
“Yeah? You don’t think they hated me?”
I snorted, “They responded well to you. Trust me, if they didn’t like you they wouldn’t be trying to set us up.”
He flushed, “That was awkward.”
“BriBri and some others get a tad overenthusiastic, but they mean well. Are you still okay with doing the ask me anything? I know we talked about the possibility before going live, but you can back out.”
“No, it’s fine. We promised the fans, and I’d rather they ask. How are they supposed to learn otherwise?”
“If you’re sure. It’s not your responsibility to be the ambassador of trans-ness. Just like it’s not my job to explain being gay to them. A good number of my patrons are LGBT+ anyway. So, most of them probably won’t ask anything too terrible or invasive. You did a good job handling Bri, so I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but only answer questions you feel comfortable answering.”
“Yeah, I’ve gotten decent at that over the years. As coming outs go, that one wasn’t too bad.”
I chuckled, “Yeah, they’re a good group. I come out to new subs every few months it seems. We lose some over it now and then, but the core group is solid. I’m surprised Red wasn’t online, they almost never miss the release day livestreams.”
“Red?”
“RedHerring99, one of my most devoted patrons. They and RadRaf are our top supporters.”
“Oh, um, cool. Must have been working or something.”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen them on the forums much lately either though. I hope everything is okay in their IRL life.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“If they aren’t around in the next little while I’ll send them a DM.”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan,” Chad said. He sounded a bit off, but the guy had just done his first live segment, so he was probably still nerved up about it. I brushed it off and reached for the good camera.
“Ready for your closeup?”
Chad chuckled as he shucked off his shirt without hesitation now that it was just us with no live audience.
“Hit me with your best shot,” he spread his arms wide to expose the pair of tattoos. I gestured for him to step back, toward the front of the van. He took two steps away and arched a brow.
“Perfect,” I said as I took the shot, “Should I stick to closeups of the ink or are you cool with baring your entire torso to the adoring pu
blic?”
Chad brushed his fingers over his abs self-consciously.
“Maybe just stick with the tats?”
“No problem,” I zoomed in to capture some closeups while Chad flexed for me. I was glad to be hiding behind the camera so he wouldn’t notice how much I enjoyed looking at him. I should feel more guilty about that than I did.
“Perfect,” I said, “I’ll get these uploaded.”
I turned to fiddle with the dongle to connect the camera to my computer. I could have done it through wireless, but that wouldn’t require as much focus and attention. The wires gave me an excuse to turn away before I embarrassed myself or made Chad feel uncomfortable with my staring.
I selected two images, a single shot of each ink animal on Chad’s chest and cropped them to show minimal bare skin. It was easy to manufacture tasks to occupy myself while Chad pulled his shirt back on a few feet away. I messed with the color balance, screwed around with some filters and then removed them.
I flinched as Chad plopped into the chair at my side, his knee bumping against mine.
“Good to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, you approve of these?” I pulled up the two images I’d selected.
Chad whistled through his teeth, “Still can’t get over how good they came out. Janice is the best. Here, let me pull up her website so the patrons can check out her other work if they like what they see.”
I bit back an inappropriate comment that I liked what I saw. We got the pics uploaded along with the link to Janice’s shop and the AMA post. Chad sat back and smiled at me.
Notifications had already started to roll in on the ‘Goodman Dairy Unboxing’ video we’d uploaded, making my phone buzz.
“Your phone is blowing up,” Chad commented.
“Yeah, new vids do that.”
“You don’t turn off the notifications?”
“No, I kind of like the confirmation that it’s live.”
“Are you going to check out the comments and stuff?”
“Oh, hell no. Here’s the most important rule for doing this stuff, Chad, never read the comments on the internet.”
“Never?”