NOLA

by Alexie Aaron

  “You know Paulo?” Mia asked.

  “Not well enough to call him Paulo, but I respect him and what he has done for the church and the paranormal world.”

  “How long have you had your powers?”

  “Now that is a question that is going to take a while to explain. Let me just say that I didn’t have them before I was called.”

  “I appreciate your honesty. Am I that early or are the others late?” Mia asked, looking out at the rain.

  “After you left last night, the group got together and decided that it would be overkill for the bunch of us to walk around together. It made more sense to form three groups. Since I had already taken you under my wing, I volunteered to meet you here. The three witches are together, and Honor is working with Wanda and Pastor Phillips. We are going to work our way towards the fairgrounds.”

  Mia decided she would just go with it. She would have liked to be consulted, but she realized that she was the novice here. “Okay, Father Peter, we might as well get started.”

  “Shouldn’t we lay some ground rules?”

  “It’s not a competition,” Mia said.

  “No. I’m sorry, I’m not making myself clear. When we approach whatever lies lurking on our side of the ether, I think we should have a game plan, just so we show ourselves as having a united front. Disruptive spirits, we cross. Lost souls, we try to find a way to steer them in the right direction. And demons, well, that’s my territory.”

  “Demons?”

  “You have dealt with demons before?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I didn’t expect we would be running into any on this walk.”

  “I hope we won’t, but the group has had a couple of run-ins with two characters. One is very tall and has spindly arms and legs. And the other, I like to call him Huff and Puff. It’s a male who likes to flash his genitalia at the ladies.”

  “So if we see them?”

  “We send them to hell. They will be back, but we can at least give the neighborhood some relief from their mischief.”

  Mia angled her head as she gazed up at the priest. “You are a surprise. I don’t know anyone wearing a collar that would call what demons do mischief.”

  “These two aren’t at the nasty, brimstone level of demonic entities. They are babies, growing into their abilities. In a few hundred years they will be a big problem, but I hope to have a soft cloud on which to rest my head by then.”

  “No doubt by a reflecting pool of some kind.”

  This caused the priest to laugh again. Mia decided to ignore the twitching drapes and the people who had decided it was time to see what all the ruckus was about and had come out onto their porches despite the rain.

  “Come on, Mia. Honor’s guide said that one street over is a night wailer. It’s early, but I believe with your sensitivity you’ll be able to spot her.”

  Mia followed Father Peter off the porch and into the rain. They moved quickly to the cross street and took a right. As they rounded the corner, Mia heard a woman crying.

  “My babies, my babies are gone. Please help me find my babies,” she cried.

  Mia and Father Peter watched as the thin black woman beat her chest and pulled at her hair as if to punish herself.

  “My babies, my babies are gone. Please help me find my babies,” she repeated, her voice rising with every word.

  Mia approached the woman. “My name is…”

  “Ahem,” Father Peter interrupted her. He tapped his head, and Mia let him into her mind. “Mia, don’t tell them your name. We don’t have time for a conversation. We need to move her towards the light.”

  Mia thought, “What about her children?”

  “If they are dead, they will be waiting for her. If they are alive, they don’t need their dead mother wailing at night, keeping them up,” he counseled.

  Mia turned back to the woman and asked, “Do you know that you are dead?”

  The woman didn’t acknowledge Mia’s question. Instead, she blurted out, “The water came so fast. I put my little girls in a big Rubbermaid tub. We made the attic, but the water kept coming. I opened the window to climb to the roof, but the water came too fast and my babies floated out the window in the tub. I grabbed for them, and that was all I remember.”

  “You may find them in the light, or your family will know where they have gone. Someone will be waiting for you, to guide you. Can I have your name?”

  “Clare Richard,” she said. The woman put her hand up to her eyes. “The sun’s come out.”

  Mia only saw the gray cloud spewing rain.

  “Do you see anything in the sun?”

  “I see my aunt Debbie and my sister Connie. Lord, she must have perished too.”

  “Go to them. They will help guide you,” Mia said.

  “Connie, I hear you. I’m coming. You don’t have to yell. It’s embarrassing.”

  Mia watched the wailing woman take a few steps and disappear. Mia stood there a moment, pushing away the feeling that it would be easier if she joined the women in the light.

  She felt a hand pull the red hood off her head and felt the rain fall onto her face.

  “Come back to me, Mia,” Father Peter urged.

  Mia opened her eyes and blew out the breath she was holding.

  “How many have you crossed?” he asked.

  “I’ve lost count. Each time it gets harder to resist,” Mia admitted. She didn’t have to tell him what it was. She knew he felt the pull of the light too.

  “I don’t know if this will work for you, but you see, I have a trick to keep me wanting to stay here on earth. I promise myself something good to eat after I finish. You see, Mia, you can’t eat anymore if you cross. Can you imagine an eternity without…”

  “A strong cup of coffee and cherry Pop-Tarts in the morning,” Mia filled in.

  “Yes, or a shrimp po’ boy at lunch time with an icy cold beer,” he countered.

  Mia looked at him and thought about the other things that made her life wonderful. She saw Ted elbow-deep in a project, Brian wiggling with joy in his crib, Murphy pulling pranks on Mike, and much more… Ralph and Bernard looking at her with pride. The images continued, and she felt her feet now solidly on the pavement.

  “Thank you. I think I understand what you’re saying. Father Peter, I really don’t have a clue what I’m doing,” Mia admitted. “I just go with what my heart tells me.”

  “No one trained you, but yet you instinctively know what to do. Amazing,” he said. “The telekinesis?”

  “I was rubbish at it until a magician gave me the secret before he departed.”

  “Care to share?”

  “A magician never tells,” Mia teased the priest. “Okay, I’m feeling much better. Where do we go next?”

  Father Peter pulled out his notebook. First, he jotted down the name of the night wailer before looking down the list Honor had given him. He consulted his map. “Three blocks down, there is mischief afoot. It seems Honor has given us Huff and Puff.”

  “Great, genitalia, what more can one ask for on a rainy day in New Orleans,” she said sarcastically.

  “Oh, Mia, I promise you that you haven’t seen gonads until you’ve seen these,” he said and laughed again.

  They walked quickly towards their destination. Mia resisted the urge to jump into a few puddles they passed. There would be time later to stomp around, spewing muddy water all over the shiny red boots Ralph insisted she wear.

  “I’m going to wait for you behind that food truck that is setting up,” Father Peter said. “What I want you to do is lure the creature to me. I’ll take care of the rest. If he sees me, he will run. Demons move fast. We will lose him.”

  “K. I can’t see him. Are you sure he’s there?”

  “I can smell him. Mia, that bad smell is not coming from the food truck. Huff and Puff smells like sour milk.”

  Mia walked past the food truck and acknowledged the chef with a wave as she continued down the street. She did smell bad milk but still didn’t
see anything. She started to walk around a large, green garbage container that was left in the street to collect the bits of drywall and wood not needed by the renovators.

  Mia was too short to see inside the bin, but it didn’t stop her from trying. She craned her neck, but still, all she could see was green. She rounded the corner.

  “Ablooooooooooooooooooooooooh!”

  Mia jumped back at the sound. When her heart had settled, she was greeted with the most engorged penis she had ever seen. It was supported by two testicles the size and color of the red concrete balls outside of Target stores.

  “Ha huff ablooooooooooooooooooooooooh!” the thing sounded again, and as if the genitalia weren’t large enough, they inflated in size.

  Mia never saw what was behind the pulsating flash of enormous male reproductive organs. She backed up and almost ran away when she remembered why she was there in the first place. She moved backwards slowly.

  “Ha huff ha huff ablooooooooooooooooooooooooh!” the creature now doubled the size of the penis. It now resembled one of the great worms from the movie Dune.

  Mia’s stomach turned, but she kept on course. She noticed that a few of the construction men and women were looking at her oddly. Evidently, they weren’t being treated to the show-of-shows Mia was seeing.

  “Ha huff ha huff ha huff ablooooooooooooooooooooooooh!”

  Mia turned around and started to run as the enormous thing, no longer resembling anything attached to a human male, shot forward, its size rivaling a Thanksgiving Parade balloon. The testicles bounced on the ground making a sickening slapping sound as the demon chased Mia. She ran to the truck and stopped, pretending to catch her breath. She was doubled over with her hands on her knees. She watched as the demon continued its pursuit of her. She righted herself and walked slowly around the truck, maintaining the look of horror on her face.

  The demon followed her. She waited for it to catch up before stepping behind the truck and out of sight.

  The demon moved quickly around the truck and straight into Father Peter.

  “We meet again, Huff and Puff,” he said calmly.

  Mia noticed that the priest had drawn a rectangle on the muddy sidewalk with a chalky green substance.

  “Ablooooooooooooooooooooooooh!” the creature shrieked.

  The priest chanted something. Mia recognized a few of the words. He was using Latin, but it wasn’t any litany she had heard before.

  “Go back home now, Huff and Puff, disturb these people no more,” Father Peter commanded.

  The rectangle opened up. Father Peter put one hand out in front of him and gnarled his fingers and commanded, “Go!”

  Mia felt the pull of the vortex and saw to her horror that Father Peter was being pulled towards it. She wrapped her arms around the priest and dug her heels into the ground.

  “Ablooooooooooooooooooooooooh!” the demon screamed as the front of his penis was sucked into the vortex.

  Mia looked around the priest to see what she would later describe to Ted as the most unnatural sex act she had ever witnessed, as the vortex fought to pull the huge genitalia into it. The humongous Target-red balls inflated to stop the progression, but the pull was too much, and they too were drawn into the ground. The last thing to go was the demon himself, a randy little chap with a bowler hat wearing a Burberry raincoat.

  Father Peter chanted and moved forward, pulling Mia with him – she was too spellbound to release him – and smudged the green chalk. The vortex disappeared.

  “Mia, you can let go now,” Father Peter said, patting her clasped hands gently.

  Mia unlatched her fingers and took a step back. She flexed her digits as she tried to make sense out of what she had just seen. “Kind of puts you off sex,” she said, unthinking, to the priest.

  He ignored her and collected his supplies, putting them deep into his pockets. “Huff and Puff is a rare treat,” he said, winking at Mia. “I always feel a bit dirty after I deal with him.”

  “I’m hungry,” Mia admitted. She looked up at the sky and saw the sun struggling against the clouds. The rain had stopped, so she unbuttoned her raincoat. Mia shook it out and folded it as small as it would go and jammed it into the backpack she wore under the coat. Then she extracted a pair of well-worn combat boots.

  Father Peter walked over and helped balance her as she hopped around, exchanging footwear. She started to tie the boots when the father bent down and did it for her. Mia couldn’t help feeling like she was still being thought of as a child.

  “No, I’m being gallant,” Father Peter said. “It’s the least I can do after you saved me from hell. I didn’t realize that I was too close.”

  Mia gave up blocking the man from her mind. His admission of error had softened her feelings for him. Father Peter, after all, was just a man.

  Her boots tied, Mia pulled a fistful of bills out of one of her cargo pants pockets and handed the wad to the priest. “While I dispose of these things, please order us some food. I don’t care what, as long as it doesn’t resemble the family jewels,” she said.

  Father Peter watched as Mia jogged down the street, freed from the confines of the red slicker. She jumped up and tossed the red boots into the bin. She landed and turned around, an expression of pure glee filled her face. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that Mia Martin was just starting to have fun.

  Chapter Eight

  Murphy stood behind Ted, watching the monitors. He saw a lot of activity going on in the library, some spectral, but mostly just the other PEEPs members setting up. PEEPs found that the library was still open when they arrived. Since the librarian didn’t want the readers to be inconvenienced by shorter hours or cameras in the way, Burt decided that PEEPs would start off their efforts in the basement.

  “There’s an old dude in the basement,” Murphy declared.

  Ted was surprised. The team hadn’t set up a camera in the old book room as of yet. “Where?”

  “Standing in the hall. He’s watching the team work. He’s very interested in what they are doing.”

  “What does he look like? Jake, show Murphy the stills you captured last night,” Ted instructed.

  A series of time lapse pictures appeared.

  “Ain’t him.”

  Ted brought up his scanned copies of the old newspaper articles. The obituary of the philanthropist first.

  “Ain’t him.”

  “Okay. This is all I could find of the homeless gentleman, Chester Vogel. It’s a mug shot.”

  “That’s him.”

  “Would you be opposed to talking to him, man-to-man, ghost-to-ghost? Chat with him, and maybe in the conversation, toss in the question about why he hasn’t moved on. But don’t get too preachy.”

  Ted watched the ghost as he thought about the request.

  Finally, after a very agonizing five minutes, he spoke, “After the children. The children come first. Audrey is very worried.”

  “Thank you, Murphy. I’ll alert Burt of your intentions.”

  “Who will speak for me?”

  “I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”

  “Who will speak to the investigators for me?”

  “Cid or I, if you prefer. I know it’s tough not having Mia here. I’ve brought along a box full of energon cubes for you to use as needed.”

  “Sabine wondered why I wasn’t here from the start.”

  Ted wasn’t surprised that Murphy had talked to Sabine. She had called Ted earlier in the day to apologize for sneaking around the farm for the purpose of checking up on him and Brian. She also insisted he order Murphy some coyote urine.

  “I wanted you here, but you already know that. I’m not in charge. I can only raise an idea or an objection. I think you need to have a heart-to-heart with Burt.”

  Ted watched a look of irritation cross his face.

  “He’s changed,” offered Ted. “You’ve been in his head.”

  “It’s because I’ve been in his head that I don’t want to talk to him. He sti
ll loves Mia,” Murphy blurted out.

  “I picked up on that too,” Ted admitted and sighed. “But we’ve got to remember that Mia chose us.”

  “Us?”

  “Murphy, I’ve known from the beginning that I have to accept that she loves you too. I’m an insecure guy, so it sometimes fucks me up.”

  “Me too,” Murphy revealed. “But I won’t poach.”

  “I kinda feel like I did,” Ted admitted.

  “You didn’t know. Mia didn’t know. All is well, you and I are friends. You saved Mia. You went into the well and brought her up.”

  “Only after you started her heart,” Ted said.

  “We’re Batman!” Murphy announced, imitating Christian Bale.

  Jake covered the monitors in bat signals in celebration.

  Murphy nodded to the screens, “He’s trouble.”

  “I know, but he does make life interesting,” Ted said.

  ~

  Burt sat down in Miss Hodges’s office with Mike. They had set up a laptop with a large screen at one end of the desk. Cid was standing, filming the interview.

  “Miss Hodges, we caught some interesting things on film last evening,” Mike started. “We would like to get your opinion or maybe an explanation.”

  Burt brought up the echo, and before he played it, he explained, “This was taken with an infrared video camera. Are you familiar with infrared?”

  “I know it picks up heat signatures,” Miss Hodges replied.

  “It also shows us cold areas.” Burt went on to explain what each color represented before he nodded to Mike.

  “Cid, our technician, heard a repeating sound last night. It seemed to be coming from the checkout counter. We couldn’t see anything until we used the infrared.”

  “Sounds?” she questioned.

  “You’ll hear it on the tape. Perhaps you’ve heard it before,” Mike put forward. “We’re going to play it at normal speed a few times, and then Burt will slow it down.”

  Miss Hodges nodded and leaned in.

  Cid took a step to the right, so he could focus the camera on her face as Burt had instructed him before they began.