Laura and Joanie sat on the Rawlins’ front stoop, having arrived a half an hour before after making sure all videos and pictures of the night’s mission had been stored and backed up. Steve Corbett would be editing and revising them the next day. Dan and Jenny heard Mike’s car and opened the front door to greet their returning ghost-busters.
“Mike Rawlins! I thought I told you not to go through any more damn Haunt portals!” Jenny wasted no time getting positioned behind Laura and Joanie, hands on hips.
“Uh oh,” Demon projected. “It looks like Mommy’s takin’ the treats off the table.”
Demon fell back behind Mike with Denny. Mike glanced back at them as they approached the house. “Gee thanks. I’m sure glad I get better backup when we’re killin’ Haunts.”
“Hey, I’m as backed up as I can get without losing a chance to slip into the house,” Demon replied.
“Sorry, brother,” Denny said. “Want to switch identities?”
Mike grinned and turned back around. “Hi, everybody. Denny will be removing your video feed so we won’t have these uneasy moments upon our return, right Denny?”
“Uh… sure, Mike. I-”
“Stossle! Want to take a guess at the odds that’s happening?”
“No, Ma’am!”
“Where the hell do you think you’re slinking off to, Mr. Roboto?” Jenny slid over in front of the door as Demon had angled around to the stoop’s side, hoping to glide past the grinning Dan, holding the screen door open. “I’m thinking of having Dan here build you a real dog house in the back. How’s that sound, Farfel?”
Demon immediately went belly up, playing dead, while shooting a mind message to Mike. “Oh no… your Mom did not just call me Farfel! Best calm her down, Dempsey, or I see Klingon justice on the horizon. Oh yeah, and anyone else calling me Farfel better get ready for a trip to the emergency room.”
Mike kept a straight face with iron reserve while watching his Mom’s mouth tremble into a smile at Demon’s antics. “Sorry, Mom. We had another surprise. The Haunts filtered into the Ansel house all day through the portal. There were four or five sticking part way through when we got there with I don’t even know how many flitting all over. D and I had to secure the other side with holy water mixed with Haunt remains before coming back through and sealing up the portal.”
“Blah, blah, blah… what the hell makes you think any of that techno babble cuts you any slack with me over disobeying a direct order?”
Mike chuckled, raising his hands up in surrender. “Okay, Mom, you got me. What would you like in penance for the horrible sin of saving our universe?”
“He’s right, Jen,” Dan spoke up for the first time. “No one in authority has accepted this invasion as legitimate. These kids have been on the front lines for the rest of us. If the Haunts get out of our area, I dread thinking what could happen with these rifts opening across the country. They’re doing all they can to stop it. I don’t think raking them over the coals when they save our asses is the right greeting when they survive doing it.”
Jenny whipped around to face Dan, her features a mixture of rage and fear as she battled to not lash out after listening to Dan’s listing of the facts they needed to face. “Damn it, Dan!”
Dan took his wife into his arms, thumbing the teens and previously pretending to be dead Demon into the house. “I know what I promised. Go on in the kitchen. C’mon Jen, let’s have one with them. I already heard from your folks, Denny. I could tell your Dad’s pretty proud of you, boy. He gave his permission for you to have a taste.”
“Yes!” Denny pumped his fist on the way by Dan, before Joanie gripped his hand in both of hers, leaning into him.
In the kitchen, Dan poured the boys a shot and got them a beer. He then poured Demon a bowl of beer, holding up a shot glass for Demon to see. Demon stood up, did a dancing circle, and threw in a ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ move. Dan laughed along with everyone else and poured the shot into Demon’s bowl.
“You could have just nodded,” Dan said, watching Demon take a long lapping interval before sitting back and letting loose his signature lip quivering twenty second belch.
Dan sat down with his wife with their own beverages. He held up his glass of beer. “Thank God almighty you’re all home safe here with us now to enjoy this moment.”
They all clinked glasses, with Jenny choking back a sob. Demon sat next to Jenny and put his paw up on her hand where it rested on her thigh. She dropped down to hug him. “Thanks D, for bringing them all back alive.”
Demon licked Jenny’s face, something he never did, and leaned his head in against hers.
“Tell her, Mike. Tell her we have to do this before they get a foothold. That’s how we lost my world. No one believed until it was too late.”
“Holy crap, D! Mom, Demon says we’ve got no choice in this. They overran his world because no one believed until it was too late.”
Jenny gave Demon a final pat and then drained her drink. Dan filled it without asking. “I guess we make our stand here then. No more treating you bunch like recalcitrant kids. It seems we’re committing suicide if we don’t back Demon Inc a hundred percent, so we’re with you. God help us all.”
“We’ll get ‘er done, Mom,” Mike promised. “One day at a time, and we’ll do all we can to stay safe. Oh yeah… ah… you two weren’t in the room with the gang earlier. I’m trying out to be quarterback on the football team tomorrow afternoon. Can you cover for me at work this week, Dad?”
Dan laughed, shaking his head. “My God, boy, what have you done now?”
“Mike had to adjust Brad Sanderson and a thug he brought along this morning, Mr. R,” Denny explained. “They gave us no choice. We tried to get by them, but they weren’t havin’ any. Mike dislocated both the thug’s shoulders and cracked Brad’s rib. Best of all, the thug got arrested, and Principal Franz suspended Sanderson.”
Dan looked confused, but nodded agreeably with what he’d heard. “Okay… how did all that manifest itself into Mike being the quarterback for the Arroyo football team?”
“I… ah… volunteered to fill in for Sanderson with Principal Franz because I knew she would be taking heat for expelling the first string quarterback. It’s just for one week.”
“Kid, I think your sense of responsibility may be a little skewed,” Dan replied, raising his shot glass and sipping. “I’ll cover your play at work, but how do you learn quarterbacking skills before a game on Friday night. On top of that, you do know you have a match too, right?”
“Yeah, Dad, I thought of taking in Jerry and Stan’s game in my spare time, but I don’t think I can pull it off because of interfering timelines.”
Dan laughed uproariously, along with the rest of the kitchen’s occupants, including a snorting Demon. “I hope you remember our fooling around with the football when you were younger. I used to snap the ball to you because I played center in high school. Your Mom had to go out for the passes. We had fun, but I don’t think you did all that well.”
“I remember. It was back when I thought about playing ‘Pop Warner’ football. Maybe I should have played defensive tackle or end.”
“Your Mom and I will definitely go to the game if you get cleared to play. Might as well add it into the Twilight Zone list of activities. Denny, are you on with me as his corner crew since Stan and Jerry can’t do it?”
“You bet, Sir,” Denny replied, the sip of liquor and beer going right to his toes. Joanie kept her hand in his. “We… we still haven’t worked out a cure for Mike’s touch. If you’d seen how Gail-”
“What?!” Laura spoke up for the first time having sipped her watered down wine with her own aching attraction for Mike. Her experiment the night before touching him had led to dreams of Mike, leading to a sweat soaked awakening in the middle of the night despite Demon’s cure. The ache it left still haunted her, along with the actual Haunts. “Spill it, Denny!”
Denny realized his mistake in a split second of blurry consciousness. “I spok
e out of turn, Laura. It all has to do with Mike’s interaction since his wounding by the Haunt. I…I may not be as sharp as I should be, talking about this, so I’ll just shut up.”
“That would be for the best,” Mike observed. “Unfortunately, Laura seems determined to play this out by her facial features. Let’s not spoil a calming time for us all, Laura… okay? Gail misjudged her touching incident. Let it go.”
Laura met Mike’s admonishing gaze for a moment, but the intensiveness dissolved any misplaced feelings of outrage she had. “Sorry, Mike. It’s the hormones racing through me, plus my stupidity in experimenting with your touch last night. That was stupid. I’m as bad as the cops and our fearless leaders, taking everything for granted when I know better.”
“We’re all flying in the dark,” Mike acknowledged. “Demon can counteract it… ah… because… ah… he-”
Laura held up a hand to cut off Mike’s halting explanation. “You’re burying yourself here. D, helped me already. Were you able to counteract the Mike/Gail cats in heat incident with your touch?”
Demon nodded before finishing his bowl and grabbing it up in his teeth to drop it in front of Dan. “Tell your Dad I need another beer and a double shot, Mike. Your love life bores the hell out of me.”
Mike snickered, standing away from the table to look away before he launched into full blown laughter. “D says he’ll take a double with the beer this time, Dad.”
“He’s earned it.” Dan got up and filled Demon’s bowl with another beer, adding a double shot of liquor. “I know everyone must be hungry. How about hotdogs and some Mac & Cheese?”
“Oh yeah!” Demon projected to Mike before starting into a Mr. Roboto move, but lost his balance, much to everyone’s amusement.
“I’m cutting you off, D,” Dan stated with a laugh.
Demon sat and waved a paw in circular uncaring motion. He messaged Mike. “I am soooooo… wasted.”
No one could get anything out of Mike as he howled in laughter, waving away any demands for his interpreter skills.
* * *
Mike parked the Chevy in the Arroyo high school parking lot. It had been a quiet, comfortable ride. He, Denny, and Joanie knew they wouldn’t be facing Haunts again during the day. At the moment, that fact provided a distinctive feeling of relief to the teens. The escalating attraction Joanie felt for Denny had been noted by Mike, both the night before and during breakfast before the ride to school. He smiled, wondering if the group date they had planned for Sunday would ever come about. It was only as he shut off the car that Mike spied Brad Sanderson, and a slightly smaller and older doppelganger next to him Mike figured was his Father.
“Heads up. We have unexpected company.”
Startled, both Denny and Joanie perked up from where they rode in the backseat together with hands entangled, scanning around them.
“Damn,” Denny said. “I knew this ride over here was too perfect.”
“Easy, brother. Film it, and I’ll find out what Brad and his Dad want,” Mike replied in calming tone. Mike exited the driver’s side as Sanderson and his Father arrived at the front bumper.
The older man walked forward with his hand out. “Mike? I’m Brad’s Father, Eric. I took off work today for one reason. I want this situation resolved between you and my son.”
Mike shook his hand with a nod of understanding, noting Brad kept his eyes on the ground in front of him. “That would be exceptional, Sir. I’m all for it.”
“I guarantee there will not be any more problems instigated by my son with you. That he put my brother-in-law’s psycho son Jud on you was wrong in a deadly serious way I understand in the most sober of terms. Please forgive my family’s idiot maneuvers lately. It will never happen again. You have my word on it.”
“Thank you, Sir,” Mike replied. “I will make sure we do our part to not escalate this any further. I’m going to try and fill in for Brad during his suspension with the football team. Know this. After it’s over, no matter what the outcome, I will leave the team. Principal Franz stuck her neck out for me by doing what’s right. I didn’t want anything reflecting badly on her because of doing what was right.”
“That’s good enough for me, but my son’s stint as an Arroyo high school quarterback takes a backseat to the stupidity of the actions he’s initiated recently. They end now.” Eric Sanderson again shook hands with Mike. “It’s good to meet you. I hope if we meet again in the future it will be on much better terms.”
“I’m sure it will be, Sir. Goodbye.”
Denny and Joanie joined him at the front of the car. “Wow, he seems like a stand up guy, Mike. I wonder what the hell went wrong inside Bradley’s head.”
“I don’t know, Den. All I do know is that’s just one less thing we’ll have to worry about. I trust you two will be watching our Ms. Kincaid in first period English closely.”
“Don’t worry about us, Mike,” Joanie replied. “You’d best be figuring out a way not to get killed at your football tryout.”
“Yeah,” Mike said, running a hand over his close cropped hair while glancing around the parking lot. “About that – would you mind staying and filming it, Den? Who knows what these clowns have in store for me. I want to help Ms. Franz out, but I’m not getting hosed doing it.”
Denny got an answering head nod from Joanie when he glanced her way. “We’ll be there. I guess we don’t have to remind you about not hand holding with any of your female cohorts, right?”
“Let me get back to you on that,” Mike replied, heading off for the school.
“Uh oh.”
“What do you mean uh oh?” Joanie yanked on Denny’s arm.
“I’ve been noticing Mike’s getting a little on edge lately.”
“Oh, I get it. You think Laura and Gail have made him mental, along with being mind linked to an alien dog, becoming part Haunt, and crossing over to the dark side a couple times. So what’s the solution, Worm?”
Denny put his arm around Joanie. “I guess we watch for him to start glowing in the dark. Our lives are starting to resemble a zombie movie. I don’t have a clue how Mike gets up every day and launches into everything he does. I follow his lead. Ever since I stood out in front of the school and watched him clock Brad Sanderson with a roundhouse kick to the temple, and then politely ask me for a bottled water to revive him, he’s my role model.”
“You are such a groupie!”
“Guilty as charged,” Denny admitted. “This football tryout ought to be good for another episode of Mike’s personal Twilight Zone.”
“I wish we could have Demon with us this afternoon when we’re at the practice.”
“Mike can take care of himself. It’s the football team I’m worried about,” Denny replied.
* * *
“Well, well, well… look who came to practice!” Coach Larkin bellowed out, bringing all conversation to a halt. The rest of the team stopped whatever they were doing to stare at Mike Rawlins. The members of the team that had tried to stuff him into a drainage pipe had graduated, but the story of Mike finding a lead pipe to successfully defend himself still circulated regularly. That his most recent encounters at Arroyo were well known was apparent in the looks Mike received as the team straightened from their lockers to greet Rawlins.
Mike gave Coach Larkin a wave as he walked into the locker room. “Hi, Coach.”
Tony ‘Sasquatch’ Conterro lumbered over, fully dressed in his practice uniform with helmet in hand. He stuck out his hand. “Glad to see you, Mike.”
Mike shook hands with the smiling Tony. “Thanks, Sasquatch. You play offensive tackle, right?”
“Yep. It’s my job to make sure no one gets to my quarterback. I hear you’re filling in for Brad since his latest dumbass move.”
“Principal Franz is someone I respect. She did what was right in suspending Sanderson, and I didn’t want it to cost her. I think I can help you guys win the upcoming game… if you’ll let me.”
“We’ll see about that,” Larkin rep
lied, walking up past Conterro and into Mike’s face. “You’re our savior now, huh Rawlins?”
“If you have a practice uniform for me, I’ll see if I can help you. If not, no harm done.”
Larkin motioned for his assistant. “Dave? Get Rawlins suited up. I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this experiment. Did you bring those papers I told you about?”
Mike handed a folder to Larkin. “These are the papers, including my physical I had done for my MMA eligibility.”
Larkin looked through the folder and nodded. “Okay then, go with Dave. He’ll get you a practice uniform. I don’t expect to take up too much of your time Rawlins, once you see this isn’t some thrill ride at the amusement park.”
Twenty minutes later on the practice field, the team ran through warm up drills. Mike followed directions through the sprints and calisthenics, very familiar with the routine through his MMA workouts. Larkin and his assistant coaches talked animatedly on the sideline, while team captains ran the team through the drills. Mike grinned as he easily beat the fastest runners on the squad during sprints. He waved as he saw Denny and Joanie.
“Hey, Rawlins,” Larkin shouted. “Quit waving to your fans, and run on over here. It’s time to see what it is you can do for us… or not do. First string defense! Get over here to help Rawlins get a glimpse of what he has to face Friday night if he makes it through practice.”
Loud acknowledgements and jeers sounded as the team did as they were ordered. Larkin walked the ball over to Mike, gesturing at the second string offensive linemen he had assembled to do the drills with Mike. “This is your crew. They’re guys who don’t give up even when they know they probably won’t play. I respect them. I don’t respect you. Do you think you can take a snap from center without a lesson?”
“Yes, Coach, my Dad was a center on his football team and he taught me how to hold my hands to take a snap. I don’t know your plays. Can I work this a little like a backyard scrimmage?”
Larkin smiled. “You sure can. Let’s see what you got.”
Mike took his crew of reserves into the huddle. “I’m Mike Rawlins. How many of you got ordered to do a lay down when I take the snap?”
Demon Inc (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 2) Page 20