Hooked on a Phoenix

by Ashlyn Chase

  It would look beautiful on Misty’s long, slender neck. He’d almost given the little necklace to her after her parents were killed. He understood what an inconsolable loss felt like.

  Now, thinking about her wearing it gave him a warm feeling inside. He gazed at the heart and saw it in a whole new light. Misty was the one who had made it possible for him to get over his loss. She’d given him the kind of unconditional love he didn’t think existed. She deserved the token of his affection and so much more.

  He tucked it in his pocket and jogged down the stairs. When he rounded the corner to the living room, he was greeted with loud hoots and applause from his entire boisterous family. The whole gang was there. Ryan and Chloe, Jayce and Kristine, Miguel and Sandra, Dante, Noah, Luca, his parents, and, of course, his beautiful wife, Misty. Her name fit as he gazed at her beautiful blue eyes, filling with moisture.

  She wasn’t the only misty-eyed one in the bunch. His mother and sisters-in-law all looked like they had happy tears about to spill.

  Misty led the long procession of kisses and hugs, handshakes, and pats on the back. As soon as his mother had stopped kissing him on both cheeks, twice, Gabe stepped back and found Misty in the crowd. As he walked over to her, he drew the necklace out of his pocket and opened the clasp.

  He held up the little heart so she could see it and then reached around her slim, tan neck and fastened it. No words were needed.

  The flood she had been holding back finally let go, but she was smiling as she was sobbing, so he knew they were happy tears. She slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him for a very long time. Which was just fine with him, because he never wanted to let her go either.

  At last, Gabriella announced, “Let’s go into the dining room and eat some of the feast that Misty and I slaved over all morning.”

  “There’s one last thing before we do that,” Antonio said.

  Everyone halted. Antonio pulled an envelope out of his pocket and crossed to the happy couple. “We never gave you two a wedding present.”

  “We don’t need presents,” Gabe said. “I have my gift.” He looked lovingly at Misty.

  She cuddled up to him and laid her head on his shoulder. “Me too.”

  “I’m glad you feel that way, because you’re not getting a bunch of presents. Just one.”

  Chuckles and laughter followed, but Gabe wasn’t the least bit embarrassed. One gift. That’s how he wanted it.

  “Everyone contributed to it,” Gabriella said as his father handed Gabe the envelope.

  Opening it, he found a hotel brochure and two plane tickets to Venice, dated the following day. “Wow! This is great, everybody, but shouldn’t I be getting back to work? It’s been ten weeks.”

  “So what’s another week?” Antonio smiled. “Don’t worry, Son. It’s been cleared with the chief.”

  “A week in Venice?” Misty asked, wide-eyed.

  “Divertiti, bella,” Gabriella said and kissed her daughter-in-law on both cheeks.

  “What does that mean?” Misty asked.

  Gabe translated for her. “Enjoy yourself, sweetheart.”

  She smiled at Gabriella. “Thank you. We will. Thanks, all of you!”

  Gabe handed the envelope to his brother. “Hey, Jayce. Hold this for me.” As soon as Gabe had his hands free, he dipped Misty and followed her down for a long, deep kiss.

  Jayce laughed harder than the rest. “Ah, newlyweds.”

  * * *

  “A honeymoon in Venice. I still can’t believe we’re here,” Misty said breathlessly. Gabe was taking her picture from the bridge over one of the canals.

  “Believe it, babe. You deserve it.”

  “Me? What did I do?”

  He laughed, draped an arm over her shoulder, and started walking toward the more populated area. “You waited for me.”

  She smiled up at him. “Is that all? That was easy. I had nowhere else to go.”

  He laughed. “And there’s also the part where you’re going to be the mother of my child.”

  She slowed. “About that… We need to talk.”

  He halted and stared at her.

  “Oh! I didn’t mean to alarm you. I just know there might be challenges with my MS, and we haven’t even discussed it.”

  He took in a deep breath and let it out. “True, but what do we need to discuss? I figure there’s not much we can do about it. If a problem comes up, we’ll just cross that bridge when we come to it.” As if illustrating his point, they stepped off the bridge and headed down one of the many cobblestone streets built on pylons centuries ago.

  “I don’t know what to expect. Maybe there’s no way to know, but we should probably have some kind of a plan. We slept on the plane most of the way over here to minimize jet lag. But now that we’re here, I just want to come up with some contingency plans.”

  “I’m going to need to do this on a full stomach. Let’s find a sidewalk café.”

  They proceeded farther toward the main square and came upon a café by the canal. “Is this okay?” Misty asked.

  Gabe glanced up and down the street. “Perfect. Not a pigeon in sight.”

  As they found a table, she asked, “You don’t like pigeons?”

  “Not swarms of them. If you have food in St. Mark’s Square, they’ll surround you. Some may even sit on your head. We should buy you a hat, just in case.”

  “I’ll bet Adam wished he had a hat that day.”

  Gabe burst out laughing. A smiling waiter came over to them and took their orders for two chocolate gelatos. As soon as he left, a woman with long, flowing white hair pulled a chair over and joined them. She removed a large floppy hat and laid it on the table, taking up most of it.

  “That’s what I like to see,” she said. “Humans in love, laughing, and enjoying my beautiful day. It makes my job worthwhile.”

  Gabe’s eyes widened. Misty wondered who the heck this nervy, weird woman was and why Gabe seemed so shocked to see her.

  At last, he found his voice. “Ah, Misty, allow me to introduce you to Gaia. I think she already knows who you are.”

  “Oh? Are you a Fierro family friend?” Misty asked as she extended her arm, offering to shake hands with the strange woman.

  Gaia gazed at Misty’s hand and hesitated a moment before she gave one firm shake. Then she leaned back in her chair. “I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time, but I need to talk to you two alone—and preferably before you talk to each other about the little matter you brought up on the bridge.”

  “You heard that?” Misty asked incredulously.

  The woman rolled her eyes as if to say “Obviously,” then snapped her fingers. The waiter heading their way froze. In fact, everyone in the café appeared frozen in place. Conversation had ceased. Even the breeze died down to nothing. It was the strangest thing Misty had ever seen, and lately, she’d seen some pretty strange things.

  “Hey. I wanted that.” Gabe pointed to the gelatos on the waiter’s tray.

  The woman narrowed her eyes, and suddenly, Gabe was gone.

  Misty jerked to attention. “What? Where’s my husband?”

  A second later, Gabe reappeared, covered in snowflakes and shivering. “That’s o-k-k-k-kay. I c-can wait,” he said, teeth chattering.

  “Now.” Gaia stretched her arms over her head as if getting ready to work. “As I said, I don’t have a lot of time, and what I’m about to ask you will require some consideration. I’ll have to return for your answer later.”

  What could this insane woman want? Misty just nodded dumbly.

  “Gabe didn’t give you my title, only my name,” she continued. “I’m Mother Nature. I made you, him”—she waved at the canal and the sky—“everyone and all this. Now, I need a favor, and after all I’ve done for the world, I think you should consider taking the job I’m going to offer you.”

/>   “Oh!” Misty pushed past the fear and disbelief and felt compelled to address the words job and offer immediately. “I’m sorry, Gaia. I’m not looking for a job. I’ll have my hands full with our baby very soon.” She pointed to her expanding belly.

  “Yes. I know. I made that possible too.” The woman smirked. “Here’s the thing. My original muses need help. They’re overwhelmed with all the changes that have occurred in the modern world. I’ve been recruiting modern women who can be trusted with some pretty cool powers to help them out. I try to find those who have the needed skills they lack.”

  “Wh-what skills do I have?” Misty asked. “I never went beyond high school, and I only worked in a bank briefly. I used to dance—”

  Gaia waved away her comment. “I have a muse of dance. Terpsichore. She’s very busy with all these crazy new moves she calls hip-hop, popping and locking, breakdancing, and they’re coming up with more all the time. She says it should be named ‘break-your-neck dancing.’ It’s all she can do to keep these fools from bodily harm as they defy my laws of gravity.”

  “Oookaaay,” Misty said.

  “Goddess, what my wife and I would like to know is what you’re expecting of her?” Gabe said.

  “Expecting? Just the best you can do. And I’m offering a lot—not money. Something only I can pull off. I want my muses to willingly accept the job I feel they’re suited for. I want you to be the modern muse of parenting. You know the saying, ‘It takes a village to raise a child’?”

  “Yeah,” Misty murmured, still in shock.

  “I’ve been saying that for centuries. People still don’t get the hint. My humans used to be nomads, and they traveled together in bands for safety. Even when they settled in one spot, they looked out for each other—and one another’s children.”

  “You want her to babysit?” Gabe asked.

  Gaia blew out a breath of frustration. “No, dragnix. And if I were you, I wouldn’t test my patience with stupid questions.”

  Gabe made a gesture of zippering his mouth.

  The goddess turned her attention back to Misty. “It’s a huge compliment, girlie. And because I know you’ll be caring for your own child, I’m willing to help in a big way—but only if you accept.”

  Misty chewed her lip. “I still don’t know what I’d be doing.”

  “Here, let me show you.” Mother Nature drew a large circle in the air, and an image came into view. A young girl, maybe a teenager, was trying to get a baby to stop crying. She tried to give him a bottle, but he turned his head, refusing it. She checked his diaper, which was dry. She tried rocking him and was getting increasingly frustrated when he only settled for a second and started to cry again.

  At last, she held the baby up in front of her and angrily yelled, “What do you want?” Then she began to shake him.

  “No! Stop!” Misty cried. “Don’t shake that baby!”

  One side of Mother Nature’s lip curved up. The girl glanced around and finally carried the baby down the hall and put him in his bed. Shutting the door, she walked a few steps away and let herself have a good cry too.

  A few moments later, the baby stopped crying. The young mother tiptoed back to the child’s room and looked in on him. He was asleep. She quietly shut the door and leaned against the wall, relief washing over her.

  When the picture faded, Misty gazed at Gaia. “What just happened?” Remembering who she was talking to, she took a respectful tone. “What are you trying to tell me, Goddess?”

  “Your instincts are good,” she said. “You’re going to make an excellent mother. The thing is, there are a lot of parents out there, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, who are frustrated, overwhelmed, and isolated! There’s no village to help them. Not only that, but some don’t have the faintest idea what they’re doing.

  “I just need you to be a friend when they need one most. A calm whisper in their ears. Do you remember how that girl stopped shaking the baby, put him to bed, and then faced her own frustration?”

  Misty nodded.

  “You did that. You told her not to shake the baby. And she stopped.”

  “She heard me?”

  “She did. In her own mind, though. It just sounded like her own voice of reason…that little inner voice that people learn to listen to if they have any smarts at all.”

  “Are you saying that little voice inside my head is a muse?”

  “Not always. But often enough.”

  “So when I knew a dance move was beyond my ability and stopped myself from attempting it, knowing I could get hurt…”

  Gaia shrugged. “It might have been your own good sense, or it might have been Terpsichore. You can ask her if you become her colleague.”

  Misty remained in stunned silence for a few moments as she put together the disjointed pieces of this “job offer.” It seemed as if with Gaia’s help, Misty would be able to save babies from some of the horrific headlines she’d seen in the news. If all she had to do was see a picture and yell at it, it would probably be okay. In fact, if she were successful, it would be extremely gratifying.

  Gaia had said something about powers. Was that the only power she was referring to—being able to talk to people through a bubble in the air?

  “Not at all.” Gaia startled her out of her reverie, apparently answering her unspoken question. “There are a number of powers that all my muses have. And there would be a gift for accepting the job. Some muses have had the nerve to call it a bribe. I prefer to call it a sign-on and retention bonus.”

  Gabe chewed his lip. “Goddess, with all due respect, if Misty is helping thousands of parents to take care of their children, how will she take care of ours?”

  Mother Nature folded her arms and looked annoyed. “Do you think I would saddle her with a job that would overwhelm her and make her just one more of the many parents she’s trying to help?”

  Gabe shrugged.

  Mother Nature heaved a sigh. “Look, it’s not very complicated. She’ll be trained by another muse before she’s expected to do anything. Here are some of the particulars that might help you understand. First, a muse is a minor goddess who can manipulate time a bit. Second, she can travel in the blink of an eye. She won’t miss a trick at home.”

  “So, travel is involved?” Misty asked.

  “Only if you wish to be close enough to intervene, although your involvement will be limited. You would have to stand outside the scene in a spot called the ether. It’s neither here nor there, just sort of a cool fog between physical and spiritual worlds. And you can take your baby with you, if necessary. Neither of you can be seen, because popping out of thin air in front of a human wouldn’t cause any suspicion at all.” Mother Nature rolled her eyes and snorted at her own sarcasm.

  “Would it help if you tell her there are a couple of muses she knows already?” Gabe asked.

  Gaia tilted her head. “Probably. Why don’t you tell her?”

  Misty gazed at Gabe. He said, “Jayce’s wife, Kristine. And Ryan’s wife, Chloe. They’re both modern muses now. Kristine is the muse of wireless communication, like cell phones and walkie-talkies and stuff. And Chloe is the modern muse of fire safety.”

  “She would take care of telling parents when their children are playing with matches. We try to avoid overlap,” Gaia added.

  “Two of my sisters-in-law are muses? And you didn’t tell me, Gabe?”

  “I didn’t know if I could. It’s drummed into our heads that humans can’t handle any knowledge of a paranormal world. We’re not supposed to tell anyone mortal about paranormal beings, powers, or any of it.”

  Misty glanced at Mother Nature. “But it’s okay if he tells me everything now, isn’t it? I mean, you’re here offering to make me…a what? Minor goddess? Would I be paranormal?”

  Gaia smirked. “Well, modern muses aren’t exactly normal, are they?”

&
nbsp; Misty sighed. Then it suddenly occurred to her that as a paranormal being, she might have the enhanced health and recuperative powers she had heard about. She sat bolt upright. “If I become a modern muse, would I still have MS?”

  Gaia looked at the sky and muttered, “At last, she gets it.”

  Misty turned excitedly toward Gabe and grabbed his hands. “Do you know what this means? I can be healthy again. We don’t have to worry about how to take care of our baby and me too if you’re at work for a few nights.”

  “I wouldn’t rush it, honey. In fact, Gaia already said you’re going to need to think about it.”

  Misty practically bounced in her seat. “What’s to think about? I can be cured!”

  Mother Nature rose. “Well, I have to turn my attention to an earthquake that just hit Asia, so I’d suggest you talk to your sisters-in-law and see what they think of my offer. I’ll drop by later.”

  With that, the all-powerful goddess disappeared, and the noise and activity of the busy café resumed.

  “Oh! She forgot her hat!”

  “Keep it,” the goddess’s voice answered.

  “Did you hear that?” Misty asked Gabe.

  “Hear what?”

  She sighed. That must have been a demonstration of the “inner voice” she was told about. If she accepted the job, she could be that voice for others. Misty plopped Mother Nature’s floppy hat onto her head. “That was…something.”

  The waiter set the little bowls of gelato in front of them. “Enjoy.” His complete unawareness of everyone’s temporary inanimate state, including his own, blew Misty’s mind.

  She picked up her spoon. She’d half expected her gelato to be melted by now, but apparently interrupting the law of physics extended to food too.

  Gabe lifted her free hand and kissed her fingers. “So, what do you want to do?”

  “Right now?” She shrugged. “I want to eat this gelato.” She dug into it with her spoon and enjoyed the cold, chocolate taste as it melted on her tongue.