by Alexie Aaron
“Understandable,” Tonia said. “We need to talk. I’ll contact a mutual friend of ours and have him give me an introduction. I’m in no way offended that you’re being so careful, Mia. Let’s just call this a friendly visit. I’ll return with Lorna, and we’ll have a longer conversation, hopefully with you seeing the inevitable.”
“And what will that be?” Mia asked.
Tonia took a deep breath and said, “That the hag you fought is Miss Mary Sunshine compared to what just moved into your neighborhood.”
Mia watched in silence as the woman turned and strode purposefully down the drive. She stopped and hugged Maggie and pointed to Mia. The dog ran to Mia’s side. When Mia looked up again, the woman was gone.
Chapter Two
Mia walked into the Cold Creek Hollow graveyard. She brought tools with which to clear away the detritus the long winter of snow, ice and wind had left. She tenderly examined the old markers and worried over the cracks that had appeared on some of the old stones. Daisy Sprigs was gone. She had ascended with Captain William Shelby. Mia still tended her grave, pressing young geraniums into the soil. Murphy stood watch as she worked. The ever present danger of the occupants of the middle house normally was enough to give Mia caution, but Tonia Toh’s story made her extra wary of not letting anything sneak up on her.
It was more than the maintenance of the small cemetery that brought Mia here. She wanted to see for herself whether or not something had changed in the hollow. Daisy Sprigs was a dependable spirit and would have told Mia of the arrival of the other spirits, but she was gone. She looked over at the empty place where the body of the carpenter Giuseppe Basso had been removed. His family facilitated the removal and had him entombed with the recently found bones of his daughter in the family mausoleum in Chicago.
She concentrated on the graveyard a moment and breathed a sigh of relief, sensing that no one else buried under the moss-covered ground seemed active.
The sound of a car approaching encouraged Mia to finish quickly. She got up and brushed off her knees in time to see a Sheriff’s Department cruiser slow to a stop. She recognized the deputy and lifted her hand in a greeting.
Tom Braverman looked over to where Mia was standing in the small private graveyard. He caught a movement to his right and saw the axe-wielding Stephen Murphy walking towards him. Tom shut off the vehicle and opened the door.
Murphy nodded to the deputy and pointed to where Mia was and back to himself.
“He’s trying to tell you that he’s guarding me, that he has my back, Tom. To communicate with Murphy, you have to be good at charades,” she explained, climbing over the iron gate. “I need to bring back some tools. The gate is frozen in place,” she said, jumping down. “What brings you out here?”
“Two things really. I wanted to see if I still had the sight. Second, Sheriff Ryan has one of us, preferably someone who was involved in the battle out here, check on the place. Since Whit left, it leaves three of us. We rotate.”
“About the sight,” Mia hedged, “it really should have passed by now. Is it just Murphy you can see or…”
“I could see the young lady that Murphy escorted to your wedding, and sometimes I catch glimpses of things in my peripheral vision.” Tom took a deep breath before asking, “What happened to me? Am I always going to be this way?”
Mia took a moment to let his emotions settle before she explained, “I’m not sure if you have the ability to see Murphy because he saved your life or because you died and were brought back. Perhaps you’ve always been perceptive, and the incident enhanced your natural abilities. How are you handling it?”
“If you are talking about dying, I’m still having nightmares,” he admitted. “I wake up with the feeling I’ve swallowed a bucket of sand.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I know someone that could pull that memory from you…”
“No, I’m a big boy. I’ll handle it,” Tom said stubbornly. “Mia, why are you here today?”
“Cleanup, flowers…”
“You’re a bit early for that,” Tom challenged.
“K. We had a visitor yesterday,” Mia started and took her time explaining in order to give Tom a complete picture of what happened when Tonia Toh walked up the drive.
“She could see, Murphy?”
“Seemed quite comfortable with the old reprobate too.”
CRACK! Murphy hit the ground with his axe, objecting to being called an old anything. The sound of his axe echoed through the countryside.
Mia tried to look guilty, but the twinkle in her moss-green eyes gave her away.
“So you’re here spying on the middle house,” Tom said. “I approve, but isn’t it dangerous, considering the warning this Ms. Toh gave you?”
“I took that into consideration, but I needed to see for myself. I promised Father Santos not to mess with the hollow. He promised me his team would take care of it. But here we are two years later…”
“I see your point.”
Tom took off his hat and ran his fingers through his brown hair before returning it to his head. Mia appreciated his boy-next-door looks. She was one of the few that considered him a good-looking man. Because Tom had spent his youth and young adult years in the shadow of Whitney Martin’s Ken-doll looks, he wasn’t thought to be handsome by his peers. She knew he was a bit of a momma’s boy but not in a creepy way. He just admired his mother and loved to be catered to at home. He had no ambition to leave the nest. Mia didn’t understand this, not having had nurturing parents like he did, but she didn’t feel it was her place to comment.
“We could go in there,” Tom suggested. “I have the keys.”
Mia swallowed hard. “I wouldn’t go in there in broad daylight with Angelo’s whole flock to back me up,” she admitted. “If Tonia Toh says the entity she tracked is worse than the hag I battled in Rose’s garden, then I suggest we all stay out of there until we understand more what we are dealing with.”
Tom looked at Mia and saw how her gloved hands shook.
“You’re trembling,” he said. He took her hands in his, hoping this alone would drive away the memories of those fateful days when they went to war with the spirit world. “Whatever is in there, you’re not going to be dealing with it alone. You have a network of skilled individuals, not to mention me and the Sheriff’s Department to aid you.”
Mia looked up at the young man, studied his earnest face and said, “Thank you, Tom, sometimes I need someone to pull me off the carousel of worries when I’ve ridden it too long. You’ve always been there for me. I hope you know that it is a two-way street.”
“I do, Mia. I guess I understand more than ever the torment you went through when we were young. But I also see the advantage of having an axe-carrying friend who has your back. How do you start to thank someone who has brought you back to life? A life that he no doubt misses,” Tom said softly.
“Murph doesn’t like sentiment much, or conversation about emotional things for that matter. I’d just nod your head, tip your cap, and be there when he needs you. I think one of the reasons you can see him clearly is because he’s allowing it. It means he considers you his friend. It’s a trust that he allows only one other person aside from me.”
“Ted.”
“Yup,” Mia said simply. “You’re in good company. Now, if I could borrow your muscles for a minute, could you help me to break this gate free of whatever is holding it?”
Tom walked over and gave it a resounding kick. The rust fell away from it. He then lifted the latch, and the gate protested a bit, its hinges screaming, but it opened.
Mia looked at Murphy and shook her head. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
~
“You’ve been standing there for twenty minutes,” Burt said, his eyes still on the footage he was editing. “You might as well come out with it. What have I done now?” he asked Ted.
“Oh, nothing I know about. I’m just trying to work up the courage to ask you something sensitive.”
Bu
rt spun around to face Ted. “I’ve tried to lose weight, but it’s just not…” he stopped, seeing that Ted wasn’t going to lecture him about the forty pounds he put on over the winter.
Ted walked over, pulled a desk chair closer to Burt and sat down. “I want to know what happened at Rose’s house. You sent the crew home. We only know snatches of what happened with the hag,” he explained.
“Can I ask why you want to know about this now? I assume you and Mia have talked about it at length.”
“Actually, I never asked her, and she’s never volunteered the information. It’s like she doesn’t want to remember.”
“Let me repeat. Why do you want to know about it now?” Burt pressed.
Ted told him about the visit from Tonia Toh, and that Mia was quiet the rest of the day and left early this morning to tend to the graveyard in Cold Creek Hollow with Murphy. “She didn’t want me there,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s true. Probably she needed to open the doors to her memory castle by herself. With memories come feelings and…”
Ted realized what Burt was getting at and raised his hand to stop him. “I know you two were bound at the hip at that time. I know you both still share feelings, and I’m not jealous of this,” he assured him. “I just worry that, in trying to save my feelings from being hurt, Mia may inadvertently put herself in danger. Knowledge is power. I don’t like being kept in the dark,” he admitted.
“Tell you what. Why don’t we discuss this with all of the PEEPs members at our meeting tomorrow. This way everyone will have all the information they may need if we’re called into action in the hollow,” Burt said reasonably. “I’ll talk to Mia about it.”
“I know it’s asking a lot. I know it was a very dark time for you, boss,” Ted acknowledged.
“Dark doesn’t begin to cover it. But I think enough time has passed,” Burt said, more to convince himself than anything else.
Mia pulled her truck into the lot and began unloading her gardening equipment. She saw Burt exit the PEEPs office and walk purposefully towards her.
“Shit, what did I do now?” she asked herself. “Hello, Burt, good to see you on such a nice morning…” she started.
“Mia, we need to talk.”
Mia’s stomach turned. She was going to get yelled at. Her mind raced through the myriad rules she’d broken in the last few investigations and wondered which he had cottoned on to. “Sure, let me unload and…”
Burt put his hand on her arm and said, “Save it. Come on, let’s take a walk.”
Mia looked around her, and Murphy was nowhere to been seen. She nodded and pointed to the rise and said, “The hillside is in sun. That might be a nice stroll.” And she thought, we would be in plain sight, just in case Burt has murder in mind for this wayward investigator.
Burt waited until his wind came back from the climb before he began speaking, “I understand you had a visitor yesterday.”
“A spirit tracker,” Mia said, feeling a wave of relief wash over her. “She wants our help with the hollow.”
“So Ted informs me. Ted also is concerned about your safety. He was a bit put out that you went to Cold Creek Hollow by yourself this morning.”
“Murphy went with me. I didn’t go near the houses. Ted Braverman showed up… I guess the Sheriff’s Department still makes regular rounds there.”
“I seem to remember John Ryan telling me they would continue to watch the hollow until Gerald Shem had it declared a wilderness and had the houses torn down.”
“Yeah, about that, I’ve heard nothing. Seems to me, Father Santos gave me the same song and dance. I was worried when Daisy left, but it would have been unreasonable to ask her to stay considering…”
Burt laughed goodheartedly. “Daisy Sprigs, how I remember her and her part in saving my life.” He walked over and put his hands on Mia’s shoulders. “It’s time. It’s time we told the whole story to the rest of the PEEPs. Mike and Ted know about Cold Creek Hollow, but they don’t know what happened at Rose’s. We witnessed it all, us and Murphy.”
“We could be dredging up stuff unnecessarily, Mia warned.
“Perhaps, but as Ted reminded me earlier, knowledge is power. If Cid and Audrey are kept in the dark, what good will it do them if we are pulled into the hollow again?”
“It may scare Audrey off,” Mia warned. “Nothing she’s been up against so far compares to what going up against an entity as powerful as the hag was like. That witch used her influence to nurture evil for centuries. And Tonia Toh says the entity she has been tracking is worse than the hag.”
Burt involuntarily shuddered. He instinctively drew Mia to him to protect her. Or was it to protect himself?
Mia pushed against the strong man gently to disengage herself, and with the distance, the memories of their being together. She took a step backwards and looked up into his face and said, “You’re right. It’s time to tell them. If Audrey wants out, now’s the time. Cid will stay because he’s Superman. Ted needs to face a few demons of his own. Don’t forget Beth was part of all of this. Mike, well, Mike knows more than he’ll admit to. How are you going to deal with it? Don’t forget the hag was ready to consume you.”
“Well I am mighty tasty,” Burt teased to break the seriousness of the mood. “Do you think we should call any of Santos’s group in?”
“Not for this conversation, but they will have to be notified if there is a problem. Don’t forget Shem owns the property, at least that was the plan,” Mia said with a small amount of worry in her voice. “I don’t know who owns it, actually. I just assumed.”
“Assuming makes and ass out of you and you,” Burt said.
“That’s not how it goes,” Mia argued. “Assuming makes and an ass out of you, not me.”
Burt laughed. “Ass before tit, but after C is how it will be…”
“Now you’re just talking nonsense,” Mia said, trying to stop herself. “It’s tit over ass before C over…”
Murphy, who had been eavesdropping, was totally baffled by what the two former lovers were talking about. He had told himself that he was listening in for the benefit of saving Mia from saying or doing something stupid, but this jibber jabber was beyond him. He stalked off, leaving the two to walk back down the hill talking about things that made no sense whatsoever.
~
Ted lifted his head off of the kitchen table when he heard Mia come in. He felt guilty going to Burt behind her back. Why he didn’t just ask her outright bothered him. He knew her. He knew she wouldn’t be upset, but still he took the coward’s way out. Could it be he feared that she’d say no?
She and Burt had been gone for some time, and when they came back, Mia went back to emptying the truck of the gardening equipment. Ted watched her from the bedroom window. She didn’t seem mad, but she was preoccupied. She looked at her watch and then over at the house. She closed the tailgate and walked over and got in the truck. She started it and drove off.
Ted felt his phone vibrate. He looked at the message she left.
Going to the library
Mia wasn’t a big reader. She was raised on academic journals and essays which she admitted didn’t inspire any love of reading. If Mia was going to the library, it was for research.
That had been an hour ago. Ted had given up trying to pass the time doing something productive. Instead he came down to the kitchen, sat at the table and laid his head down. Maggie, who found him there, sensed he was upset and put her head in his lap. Ted stroked the mixed breed’s coat and smiled. Dogs gave their love so freely. They didn’t judge you. Although, he suspected Maggie liked Cid better because he was always cooking. Maggie must have figured out that Ted wasn’t going to feed her anything. She moved and settled under the table at his feet.
“What are you doing in here, Teddy Bear,” Mia said as she set what she had been carrying down on the table. “Are you feeling okay?” she asked, taking off her gloves and putting a cool hand on his forehead.
“Guilt,” Ted sai
d simply. “I’m feeling guilt.”
Mia pulled off his ball cap and ruffled his curly auburn locks. She placed a kiss on top of his head before replacing the cap. “Want to tell me about it?”
“About what?”
“Whatever has you feeling guilty. Oh, you’re the one that put the thumb screws to Burt,” Mia realized. “You could have asked me about it. I couldn’t tell you Burt’s side of the story, but I could tell you most of what you wanted to know.”
Ted looked up at her. “I think I may have been suffering from male insecurity, and it led me down the wrong road.”
Mia laughed. “Well, I’ve never suffered from male insecurity so I’ll withhold my comments, although I’ve been around quite a few males that did. It’s a momentary illness. Once the ego is stroked, or other things, wink wink, you’ll be on your feet and feeling secure in no time.”
“Well, Doctor Freud, I’ll take your word for it, but I’m feeling more insecure wondering how many other things you have stroked?”
Mia acted outraged which got Maggie on her feet. She stood between Mia and Ted.
“Maggie is trying to protect you,” Mia said. “Good girl, you take care of Teddy Bear.” Mia reached down and petted the dog. “I’m so proud of you. Would you like some bacon?”
Maggie’s loyalty instantly changed. Ted was forgotten. Mia walked over to the refrigerator and opened it.
Ted pushed his chair back and was about to get up when he noticed for the first time what was setting on the table. It was a large box wrapped in what appeared to be an altar cloth.
“This isn’t the box, is it?”
“If you are talking about the rosewood box containing the papers recovered from Cold Creek Hollow, then yes, that’s the box, but the altar cloth is new.”
“I thought it was Big Bear Lake Library property,” Ted said, stepping back, loathe to touch the box.
“Big Bear Lake Library is a lending library, dear,” Mia said, turning around. “I borrowed it. I’ll return it after we have done our research.”