“You’re not talking about…” said Jenny. “What exactly are you talking about?”
“The whole thing!” Cheryl said. She had one mode, I decided. Bouncy. “Especially facing off with those two people. They were armed, and how in the world did you manage to survive that?”
I was still chewing, and I could keep chewing until my next class if I had to! I pointed at my mouth and shrugged.
“Only by a miracle,” Miles answered for me.
“They really don’t like talking about it,” said Annette.
“I’m sure you can imagine,” said John, and Miles and I nodded.
“Oh…” said Cheryl. The bounce went down a notch, but it was still there.
“They’ve got PTSD after what happened last year,” said Xander.
“Oh,” she said again, and gave us a sympathetic, yet highly curious look.
Miles and I nodded, and sent grateful looks to our friends. We both appreciated their help in fielding questions.
“Did the other team find a third player?” Annette asked the table in general. I was thankful for the change of subject.
“Yes, they did,” said Xander. “So we’re on for tonight. Miles, John, you ready?”
“Absolutely,” Miles smiled, and John, still in the process of eating, nodded.
“Thank goodness you play in a gym and not on an outdoor court,” I said, dipping a fry in ketchup. “Imagine trying to play in this heat!”
“I like to play, but not enough to do that,” agreed Jenny.
“Basketball looks fun,” said Cheryl, “but I’m too short to play.”
“That doesn’t have to stop you,” I said. “I play. It can be fun.”
“Yeah, now if only we can ever have a real game!” said Jenny, giving me and Miles a teasing look.
“Somehow I don’t see that happening,” said Xander, shaking his head sadly and ever so dramatically.
“Oh, we’re not that bad,” I said, waving away their claims. I looked up at Miles, expecting some support.
“Yeah, dear… we kind of are,” he said, giving me one of his melting looks. I started to melt and quickly kissed him, then laughed.
“There, you just proved my point,” said Xander.
“Well… maybe we’ll do better at our next game,” I said.
“I still say we need another couple,” John said. “Guy vs. Girl isn’t going to work anymore. Put those two on the same team, or there’s no chance we’ll finish a game.”
Cheryl looked like she was watching a ping pong match. She didn’t appear to quite understand what we were talking about.
“Did you talk to Paul?” Xander asked Miles.
“I did. He and his girlfriend aren’t together anymore, so that’s not an option.”
“I almost hate to say this…” said Annette. “But I do like the idea of being on the same team as John. I’d prefer that over being on opposite teams.”
“Me too,” Jenny admitted.
“Me too,” said Xander. “Because Jenny’s really good!”
We all laughed. She was. The rest of us didn’t play on our high school basketball team, like she did.
“Okay, but you do realize you’ll be losing Miles, or John, or both,” pointed out Jenny.
“Hey!” Annette and I said at the same time, then laughed.
“Are you saying we’re not assets to any team we’re on?” I asked indignantly.
We’re not, but I still acted indignant.
“I wouldn’t say that,” said Jenny slowly. “You do a great job of distracting Miles.”
I laughed again.
Miles looked at his watch, and so did I.
“We better go so we make it to class on time,” he said, and I put away my notebook and gathered the rest of my belongings.
“Let’s all meet up before the game,” suggested John.
“Sure, we’ll do that,” I said. Everyone had to be dying to know what I learned. If Annette was able to see what I wrote, maybe she’d have a chance to fill them in.
“It was nice meeting you Cheryl,” I said, as Miles stood up and I scooted out of the booth after him.
“You too, Anika!” she said.
Miles and I said goodbye to everyone, and left the restaurant behind.
“Oh, agony!” I said as we exited into the sweltering oven that was the outdoors. “Who knew this kind of weather could exist in the mountains!”
“Imagine not having air conditioning,” said Miles. “Living in the castle it wasn’t so bad, the ceilings being high, and it’s so big it never did heat up like the outdoors, before the weather changed to something more pleasant. Winters, though! Those could get painfully cold.”
“What did you all do?” I asked. I loved the fireplaces at the estate. It felt very cozy to have a fire burning in whatever room we were hanging out in during the fall and winter. But I couldn’t imagine trying to heat the estate that way!
“The tapestries on the walls served more than a decorative purpose, they also acted as insulation to some extent. We had the fireplaces too, and everyone bundled up. It’s all we could do, really.”
“Oh my goodness, well I’m glad it’s now and not then!”
“Me too. Mostly because I didn’t know you then.”
Miles looked around. We were walking across one of the large grassy areas. There was no one nearby, so we could talk without being overheard.
“So tell me,” Miles said.
“Okay. His name is Rob Westin. His family was dysfunctional, a combination of drugs and alcohol contributed to that. He left them behind when he stole Ryan’s identity. He lived in the same town as Ryan. They were in high school at the same time, and probably the same grade, because Westin’s best friend was Ryan Mead. So he murdered his best friend. His only friend, he didn’t have any others.”
“And I thought the friends I had in 1870 were bad! I can’t even imagine…”
“I can’t either. I don’t know if he’s killed anyone else. I don’t know of the existence of evidence to prove what he’s done. But we have a name.”
“We know who, and we know what,” Miles thought out loud. “We know that when was between the grandmother’s death and college starting. Money, as we talked about earlier, is probably why. We’re missing how and where. And, of course, the way to prove it. But we’re so much further along than we were just yesterday!”
“Yeah, we are,” I agreed, as we reached the edge of the grassy area, and shade. There were more students here, so we had to be careful what we said.
“I’m texting this guy’s real name to Jackson,” said Miles quietly, doing that as we walked. “Let’s see what he can find out.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “Do you think we convinced Cheryl to back off and stay away from you-know-who?”
“No. She reminds me a little of how you were last year,” said Miles. “Although for her, it’s an exciting game. For you, it was about trying to keep me from harm.”
“After losing you once and thinking that I’d never see you again, I was terrified of losing you a second time,” I said. “I couldn’t have stood it.”
I shuddered, remembering. Miles put his arm around me as we walked, and kissed the side of my face.
“I know, honey. I’m so sorry you went through that. I’m glad you realize now that I can take care of myself, and aren’t taking risks anymore.”
“Me too,” I said.
We walked up the steps of the building where our next class was being held, and merged with all of the other students filing in through the doors.
It was extremely crowded, but I didn’t get bumped once. How polite everyone is today, I thought. Then I realized, I had a force field around me! It wasn’t the kind I was familiar with, though. I was encased in it, as nearly as I could tell. I was able to move, but nothing was able to touch me except Miles, who still had his arm around me. I had no idea he could do this. I wondered how many times he’d practiced, and I didn’t even notice. If I practiced my abilities as mu
ch as Miles, what might I be able to do?
We followed the rest of the sea of students to the lecture room. I looked around and saw several familiar faces from last year. Including Delia.
“Hi! Anika, Miles, how are you?” she smiled. “There’s room here, if you want to sit with us.”
“Sure, that sounds great,” I said, and Miles agreed.
“Hi, Pete, how are you?” said Miles, as they shook hands.
“Doing well, how about you?” Pete said.
“Very well, thanks,” Miles replied.
We took the two seats next to Delia.
“I didn’t get a chance to talk to you after class yesterday,” she said to me. “I have another right after, and have to run to make it. But what was going on between you and the Soc professor?”
“What, specifically, do you mean?” I asked. She was sitting right next to me, she couldn’t have seen what Xander did… could she?
“Something was going on,” said Delia. “There was definite friction there.”
“Yeah, you’re right. There was,” I said. Sensing friction is so much better than anything else she could have noticed! “He doesn’t respect the fact that I’m married and want nothing to do with him.”
“What! Are you serious?” Delia looked alarmed. “How long have you known him?”
“I don’t know him,” I said. “He approached me three times in the week before school started, and each time I made it clear his interest wasn’t appreciated.”
“I don’t understand,” said Delia, shaking her head as if trying to arrange puzzle pieces so that they’d fit into a recognizable pattern. “I saw you and him, and then Miles, sitting outside the coffee shop at the outlet mall just last week.”
“What you saw,” said Miles, “was the professor joining Anika at her table, uninvited.”
“I texted Miles and he came right away and made it clear that I’m his wife, and off-limits.”
“Good grief, I had no idea,” said Delia. She looked stunned, and pale. I didn’t understand, until she started talking again. “He was in the coffee shop when you ordered. Maybe… he heard us talking. Anyway, after you and Miles left he came back in and wanted to know your names. He said you’d met before and were friends, but he couldn’t remember your names and was too embarrassed to ask you to repeat yourselves.”
“I wondered how he knew,” I said. “I never gave him my name.”
“I’m sorry,” said Delia.
“It’s okay, you didn’t know,” I said.
“He just seemed so sincere… but he mentioned how terrible it was what happened last summer, and how great it was that you were okay. I thought he knew everything already, I mean it was all over the news, and I am so sorry but we ended up talking for almost thirty minutes about all of the crazy things that have happened to you guys…”
I closed my eyes. It did not feel good to know that Westin knew anything about us. But. It was all public information… Delia didn’t know anything that wasn’t.
“You didn’t know,” said Miles. “I’d rather he knew nothing about Anika and our life, but… you didn’t know, and after connecting Anika with her name in class yesterday, he could do an internet search and find all of the information you shared with him, easily enough.”
“We know how smooth he can be,” I said. “You had no reason to be suspicious.”
“I feel just sick about it,” said Delia. She was still pale. I leaned over and hugged her.
“It’s okay. We’re not upset.”
“We aren’t,” agreed Miles. “So don’t be upset with yourself. You didn’t share anything with him that was private.”
“It makes so much sense now,” she said, agitated. “The way he bashed marriage, and gave you a hard time… what a creep!”
“No kidding,” I said. If only she knew.
“Man, the guy sounds like a real piece of work,” said Pete, who’d been listening as we talked.
“Yeah. He is,” I agreed.
The professor teaching our class arrived, bringing our conversation to a halt.
Chapter 11
The gym echoed with the sound of dribbling basketballs, the squeaking of shoes, and calls from one player to another. The two teams were warming up, and soon the game would start.
“I’m exhausted,” said Annette. “Sure, I’ll have three day weekends all semester. But I’ll need them, to recover from the Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
“It’ll get easier. At least I think so, anyway,” I said semi-optimistically.
“It will,” said Jenny. “We’ll get used to it. Do either of you have Wednesday morning classes?”
“No, thank goodness,” said Annette.
“I do. The same one your fiancé has,” I said, and laughed.
“Good grief! How could I forget?” said Jenny.
“I have no idea!” I said. “Speaking of that particular class, brings to mind the professor, which brings to mind Xander’s cousin. Did you get a chance to talk to her any more after we left?”
“Yes, we did,” said Jenny.
“And? How did it go, is she going to quit her job, sub-let her apartment, and move to another state?”
“Uh, no,” Jenny said, and Annette laughed. “Xander and I are both frustrated with her. We’re hoping maybe you can have an influence on her.”
“Okay, sure, but if I was much of an influence she would have listened when I said to stay away from Westin,” I said.
“She looks at you like you’re a rock star,” commented Annette.
“That’s a good way to put it,” said Jenny.
“She was looking at Miles and me kind of funny,” I said. “Why is that?”
“Because you solved a mystery when you were nineteen, for one thing. A very old, cold case, too.”
“About that,” I said. “Actually, I didn’t. Miles told me what happened, so there was no mystery for us. We just had to find a way to prove it.”
“That must have been so… I don’t know,” said Annette. “I can’t even begin to imagine what that was like when you first met him.”
I looked around. We were alone on the bleachers. The only other people in the gym were our guys, and the other team.
“I thought he was a statue at first, sitting on the banister in the entryway. You know how it curves, and there’s that pedestal at the base of the stairs? He was sitting on that, watching what I was doing. Trixie walked in the room, and he said something to her. I nearly had a heart attack! But then I thought he was Second-Miles, and I asked ‘are you Miles.’ It startled him. No one else had seen or heard him the whole time he’d been semi-transparent. So he fell off the banister, then sat on the floor just staring at me.” How fun was this, to actually be able to tell my friends how we really met! “I was getting more irritable by the second, because he wasn’t saying anything, he just sat on the floor and stared. Finally, he asked if I was talking to him. I was ready to throw something at him!”
Jenny and Annette laughed.
“So you had no idea at all then?” asked Jenny.
“No, not until he stood up and moved into the parlor and into the light. About the same time that I saw he wasn’t solid, he said his name was Miles, but that he wasn’t Polly’s grandson.”
“I just can’t even imagine,” said Annette.
“Me either,” said Jenny.
“Well, I nearly passed out. He said later he was afraid I would run away, but I couldn’t have!”
The game started, so we turned part of our attention in that direction. I glanced around again to be sure we were still alone on the bleachers, too.
“So what happened then?” asked Jenny.
“He felt bad. He thought I believed he was guilty just like everyone else, but I told him I didn’t believe that. It meant a lot to him, because no one outside of family had believed in him, even his friends turned against him after he was accused.”
“How horrible to be alone all that time and to have everyone thinking the worst of him,”
said Annette.
“He’s such a nice guy, too, that must have been torture,” said Jenny.
“It was,” I said. “It bothered him the most that everyone believed he fought his brother over his brother’s fiancé. My great-great-great grandmother Sarah. You know Miles, he’s so honorable he would never even think that way, much less act on it. He puts others before himself. He could have communicated with his family and told them what happened, so that they could use what he knew to find a way to prove him innocent. But he knew they’d be grieved that he was stuck in semi-transparent mode, so he chose to be alone forever, instead.”
“I… just can’t even imagine,” said Annette.
“I’m amazed at how completely normal he is, considering everything he went through, and then all of the isolation,” said Jenny.
“Yeah, he isn’t though,” I said. “It’s not normal for someone to be as selfless as he is. Or as patient. I’ve never seen him in a bad mood. He doesn’t get upset at little things. Even big things, he doesn’t lose his temper. Can you imagine anyone else with the abilities he has? That kind of power would be dangerous in anyone’s hands but his.”
“That’s true,” said Jenny.
“He could squash the professor like a bug,” said Annette.
“Yeah, he could,” I confirmed.
“I wonder why he has these powers?” said Jenny.
“I’d be dead if he didn’t. George Frank was aiming right at my chest when he fired, and he was only three or four feet away from me on the other side of my twin bed.”
Jenny and Annette both shuddered.
“Trixie says Miles was waiting for me, that we were supposed to meet, that one of Miles’ responsibilities is to keep me safe.”
“So that you can use your abilities?” wondered Jenny.
“How crazy that is about her, too!” said Annette. “I always wondered what was going on, the looks those two give each other. I never guessed they were communicating.”
“It’s pretty cool, isn’t it,” I said. “I wish she was able to communicate with me that way, but Miles always has to interpret. And yes Jenny, maybe he’s to protect me so I can do whatever it is I’m able to do. Trixie said to practice like he does, I can do more than I know.”
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