NOLA

by Alexie Aaron

  “I’ll be there, Mia,” he said and left the office to prepare himself.

  Ted moved into the frame with Brian. The sleepy little boy looked at the screen and said, “Ah am ah am!”

  “Yes, it’s mommy,” Mia said. “Have you been taking good care of daddy?”

  Brian babbled something, causing Mia to laugh.

  After Ted had laid Brian back down in the baby carrier, he asked, “What did he say to you?”

  “I don’t know. He just seemed so animated about something.”

  “Sabine can understand him.”

  “She’s a mind reader, Ted.”

  “Gee, I wonder what the mind of a baby is like?”

  “I bet a lot like yours,” Mia teased.

  Ted tried to look outraged but ended up laughing. He looked at Mia and tried to not notice the concern in her eyes. “I’ll take good care of our son,” he said without thinking.

  “I know you will. It is so hard to be down here without you,” Mia told him. “You make me brave. If I didn’t think this thing would somehow make its way north and threaten our home and friends, I would be on the first plane out of here.”

  “I know,” Ted said softly. “Kick some ass, Mia.”

  “I’ll try. I’ll call you as soon as I have Murphy down here,” she promised.

  “When is Sabine coming for him?”

  “First light. If we time this right, I’ll only be out of my body for twenty minutes.”

  “Good. Remember to eat something beforehand and hydrate.”

  “I will. I expect Ralph is already planning the menu and picking out the nail color.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “I’ll tell you later. I love you, Teddy Bear,” Mia said softly.

  “I love you, Minnie Mouse.”

  Brian looked over at his father and saw Murphy looking in at the window. Both had looks of concern on their faces. Brian burbled to try to tell them everything was going to be alright, but he lacked the words. Instead, he laughed real loud. Both men turned to look at him. Brian raised his thumb and enclosed his fist.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Mia looked at the automobile batteries that George had come up with in the middle of the night. He didn’t ask why she needed them or the other electrical items listed in the forwarded email from her husband. All he needed to know was that she needed them.

  “I’ve been asked for odder things in my line of work,” he said, yawning.

  “Then you have had a most interesting life so far,” Mia said.

  Ralph took inventory of the items the mad scientist Mia married had instructed them to have. Now all they had to do was put the Murphy charger together. “You mean, all of this equals one of those cubey thingys?” he asked Mia.

  “Yes. It’s just a precaution. The energy down here I feel is more than adequate to fuel Murphy, but this is just in case I’m wrong.”

  “You’ve been wrong before,” Ralph pointed out.

  “But enough about my love life,” Mia said good-naturedly back.

  George cleared his voice. “If that’s all, I think I’ll go home and get some sleep.”

  “Thank you, George, you’ve outdone yourself.”

  “Just reflect it in your tip,” he said, giving Mia a toothy smile.

  “Oh, you’ll be compensated,” she said wryly.

  Ralph closed the door after him. “Now I’m going to go and get some sleep. I’ll be back at six to body sit. You’re sure you have to do this so early?”

  “Yes, first light is the strongest time of the day for the ley lines. I’ll be gone an hour less than if I traveled at any other time of day,” she assured him.

  Mia watched him leave and walked around her room for a while before she was able to sleep. As she crawled under the duvet, she pondered her life and how good it was at this moment. Why the hell was she going to risk everything for this strange city filled with strange people? Was it for the friends she just met? Or for Alexei Romanov who contracted her to find his missing mask? Everyone would understand if she backed out, considering her young baby and husband at home. But she couldn’t. She had been given all this power for a reason. Maybe this was where she would come up against her greatest challenge or, perhaps, she would meet her end. Either way, she closed her eyes, comforted with the knowledge that Stephen Murphy would be beside her, come what may.

  ~

  The light had just crested the eastern forest when Murphy moved to the vortex. Sabine would be there soon. He had said his goodbyes to his trees and to little Brian who was having a happy dream, if Murphy had interpreted his sleeping face correctly. Maggie had whimpered when he didn’t let her out to run the hillside with him. He patted the dog, whispering, “Not this time, girl.”

  The sudden feeling of air being pulled into the void signaled to him that the vortex had been activated. Sabine stepped out of the vortex wearing a comfortable sweat suit. She smoothed the wrinkles in the fleece and smiled. “One never knows when you’re going to take a header outside the line. Best to be dressed for it.”

  Murphy smiled at the woman’s need for decoration in her spiritual or bilocated form. Today, Sabine had her long silver-white hair drawn back in a ponytail. She held out her hand.

  “Are you ready?”

  He nodded.

  “Now remember to hold tight to me so we don’t get separated. If this does happen, think Cahokia, and that will get you there safely,” she said.

  He nodded and took hold of her hand. Sabine guided them back into the vortex, announcing, “Cahokia please.”

  The swirl of light was dizzying. But soon Sabine had both of them stable, and they were moving along at a crisp rate.

  ~

  Mia studied the statue, but didn’t feel any entrance to the supposed ley lines. She was about to give up when a bilocated man strode out of the statue. Mia nodded and walked to the exact spot he came out of, thinking “Cahokia” as she entered the massive ley line. She felt the pull of the powerful line and also noticed as she traveled north, more and more spirits were entering the line. There seemed to be a mass exodus from the city of New Orleans. Mia thought it was sad and was determined to rid the place of whatever was frightening the peaceful spirits away.

  ~

  Sabine and Murphy moved from the exit at Monk’s mound towards the massive vortex that he and Mia would use to move southward.

  “You can feel the pull, Murphy.” Sabine held out a handkerchief so Murphy could see how the fibers of Sabine’s manifestation were being pulled. The handkerchief stood level with the ground. “Gravity is being displaced here,” she said. “I wonder if regular people feel the power?”

  Murphy didn’t know, so he just kept quiet to preserve his energy.

  Mia tumbled out of the line. She was never good at exits. Either they came too soon and she was surprised by them, or she waited so long that she lost focus and was tossed out. She stood up and searched the crowded grounds. Many travelers used these lines. As each passed her to enter the line, she felt a stronger pull from it. By the time she caught sight of Sabine and Murphy, Mia was quite winded.

  She and Sabine embraced. Murphy stood by, trying not to feel left out. Mia then turned to her friend and gave him a long-awaited hug. “I’m so glad you could come. I promise you an adventure that you’ll be telling the trees for years to come,” she said.

  Murphy didn’t know how to respond so he just grunted.

  “Sabine, I can’t thank you enough for bringing him here.”

  “Oh, Mia, it was my pleasure. Stephen travels so well, it was no problem at all. Stay safe you two. It’s time I got back to my girls. Bye!”

  Murphy and Mia watched as Sabine skipped back to Monk’s mound.

  Mia turned to her friend and said, “This is going to be very dangerous. We may not come out of this. It’s been so long since anyone has had to deal with a soul eater that no one can find any information on how to stop one. The judge said, ‘There is a bowl marked with runes. The inside of the bow
l is layered with crushed oyster shells. Water is poured into the bowl, and a drop of the blood of the first victim to be taken is added. This starts the process.’ I asked him how to stop it, and he said, ‘The bowl must be emptied and the blood returned to the victim.’ We not only have to find out where the bowl is, but who the first victim was. The blood is the least of our worries at this point.”

  “It’s sounds impossible,” Murphy said.

  “It sounds almost impossible. The almost is the loophole I’m counting on.”

  “We’ve been through worse.”

  “Yes, and come out a bit tattered but intact,” Mia said.

  “We’ve come out shining.”

  “Oh, look at who’s all positive,” Mia teased.

  “Come on, take me to New Orleans before I change my mind,” Murphy demanded.

  “Right this way,” Mia said, bowing. She held out her arm to her best hope at coming out of this fight alive.

  ~

  Ralph studied his goddaughter’s sleeping form. He remembered all too well the hours he and Bernard had waited while Mia had gone in search of Sabine. He treasured the moment when she opened her eyes, and the first person she saw was him. And then she had seen her nails. Boy oh boy had she let him have it. Ralph giggled at the memory. He had called Ted to let him know things had started and had a text already to send when Mia returned to her body. Ted had told him that he couldn’t think of a better person, including himself, to watch over Mia than Ralph. This touched Ralph deeply. He had spent his life on a quest for recognition: first for his talent, then his gender preference, then the right to be joined in marriage. But none of these felt as good as this young man trusting the life of his young bride to Ralph.

  Ralph had always been thought of as a basket case next to levelheaded Bernard. In truth, Ralph would admit to letting his emotions get the best of him, but actually, it was Ralph who spearheaded a lot of projects that Bernard was too faint of heart to attempt. For everyday problems, Bernard was called by a frantic Ralph, but in an emergency, Bernard would call Ralph. They were a match made in heaven. Who knew that on that fateful day when Ralph, the theater student, barreled headlong into the academic, Bernard, on the campus of Northwestern that they would end up husband and husband.

  “You look a million miles away,” Mia said, sitting up.

  “You’re back!” Ralph said joyfully. “Did you find Murphy?”

  “He’s right behind you. He won’t go any further into the room because of the windows.”

  “Murphy is afraid of heights?”

  “Who knew?” Mia said, looking at her friend who wouldn’t stop staring at the vista beyond the glass windows. “He says he can feel this building swaying.”

  “Can he really?”

  “No, he’s a bullshiter,” Mia grouched.

  “Bad Mia,” Murphy said.

  “Oh my god, is that what he sounds like?” Ralph said, amazed. “Sort of a young Burt Lancaster, no, Hank Fonda.”

  “Foghorn Leghorn,” Mia added.

  “He does not. Now you’re being mean,” he scolded her.

  Murphy loved to see Mia get parented by Ralph. He had a feeling that the only spank on her bottom came from Ralph, and he also suspected that both had cried afterwards.

  “You didn’t have to pull him into the elevator and listen to him whine all the way up,” Mia argued.

  “He can’t help having phobias. I have a few.”

  Mia lifted an eyebrow at the a few.

  She looked at the time. “I better get changed. We three are due to meet Father Peter at the museum in less than an hour.”

  “Three? You mean I’m invited?”

  “I told Alexei Romanov that we would investigate. And no one, besides Bernard, knows his way around a museum like you,” Mia explained.

  Ralph jumped up. “I have to shower and pick an outfit and…”

  He was still adding to the list as Mia let him out of her room. She walked over and closed the drapes, hoping this would ease the fear-ridden Murphy. “Honestly, you are a conundrum wrapped in bacon, Murph. Oh, and don’t think I didn’t notice that you and Sabine are on a first name basis, Stephen,” Mia teased.

  “Sabine is a nice, mannerly young woman, not a hoyden,” Murphy snapped back.

  “Looks like I hit a nerve. Perfect time for me to take a shower. You stay here and try not to fall off the building while I get ready.”

  Murphy flattened himself against the wall.

  Mia laughed her way to the bathroom. “Bad Mia, indeed.”

  ~

  Ralph had Ted on speaker phone as he dressed. “We’re going to meet a Father Peter at the museum.”

  “I looked him up, and he’s the man to call if you’ve got a demon problem. Aside from the birdmen,” he added.

  “I think he’s an arrogant show off, but your wife trusts him.”

  “Mia has a good read on people. If she trusts him, then he’s earned it,” Ted said. “Tell me your impressions of New Orleans? All Mia will say is that it has lots of restaurants and bars.”

  “Mia’s appetite is her tour guide,” Ralph teased. “Well, the first thing I noticed was there aren’t any children. No ankle biters in the downtown. Not at all like New York. Those women show off their kids like they are expensive purses. Here, no kids. They must bus them in for the schools.” Ralph went on to give Ted an overview of the place.

  Ted listened to Ralph while watching the lines of statistics and data on NOLA that Jake came up with. Twice, the computer loving ghost asked if Ted wanted him to jump a satellite and inhabit Mia’s cell phone. Ted was tempted, but Mia would consider that spying. So he thanked Jake but told him that he needed him at the farm now that Murphy and Mia were gone. The redshirted Marvin the Martian saluted and went back to work on the data Ted wanted him to find. It meant hacking into the police computer. It wasn’t lawful, and it was risky, but Ted needed information. Perhaps he could come up with something that would help Mia in her search.

  ~

  Murphy couldn’t stand the windows any longer and wandered into the dressing area of the suite. He thought that he would be more comfortable waiting for Mia in the closet. He stopped and stared at Mia, who stared back at him as he rounded the corner. She was dressed in a towel and was limping. He noticed the damaged leg and frowned.

  Mia misunderstood and said defensively, “I’m a human. I age, Murphy.”

  “No, you are beautiful, but your leg?”

  “Oh that. I did that trying to get away from this sixteen-foot-tall demon named Sticks.”

  Murphy raised his axe.

  “No, he’s already been dispatched, but I fear he was attracted to me because I have, evidently, a little demon DNA.”

  “I don’t understand DNA.”

  “You know how you have steely blue eyes, but your mother didn’t or your dad? But your grandfather did. It’s called a recessive gene. Evidently, all of us humans have a little of this and that in us. Each species has made their mark on the human race through time, but we normally reject the non-human genes. I seem to attract them,” she explained. “In the case of Sticks, I think he thought I was a demon and was simply in his own demonic way courting me, the dumb lug.”

  Murphy frowned as he thought. Suddenly his face lit up. “The yellow eyes!”

  “Yup, I imagine that’s the demon DNA,” Mia said, shedding her towel and pulling on her clothes, oblivious to having the male ghost standing there.

  “The wings?” he asked, looking at her strong naked back.

  “I would have bet on Judy causing that, but the judge thinks I also have a little birdman tucked in somewhere.”

  “What else?”

  “I don’t know, but he mentioned superhuman and angel. Can you imagine me an angel?”

  “No.”

  Mia laughed, surprised by his answer.

  “Bad Mia, no angel.”

  “I think you’re probably right, old man,” she said, pulling on a nice sweater from the Going-to-the-Museum clo
thes Ralph had already selected for her. “I was quite depressed over the demon thing. I mean, no one likes to think that they have any of that inside of them, but alas, I do. Do you hate me now?”

  Murphy shook his head. “I probably have some too.”

  Mia smiled. “I think I got the demon gene from Amanda’s side of the family.”

  This caused Murphy to laugh.

  “Now, I could really use some of those superhuman genes. To be tall and all muscly…”

  “Travel through time.”

  “Yes. None of this wondering how something happened; we could see for ourselves,” Mia mused.

  “Play paddleball with Dickensian ghosts,” Murphy suggested. “Do you remember what Ed did to that ghost?”

  “That wreath was out of this world,” Mia said. “Hey, you’re talking a lot. Did you take a hit off of the N’awlins energizer we put together for you?”

  “No, I just feel strong here,” Murphy explained. “I wonder why.”

  “Well, I have it on good authority that the strongest spiritual energy is in this city. Perhaps it works for tourists too.”

  “Tourists?”

  “Murphy, that’s you and I. We’re tourists. It means we aren’t from around here. We are touring.”

  “Rick Steves.”

  “Yes, good reference. I think you’re better informed than I am.”

  “Low bar.”

  “OMG, you just dissed me. Come on, let’s get this over with so we can go home, and you can’t talk to me anymore.”

  Murphy laughed. “Did you know that when I visited Sabine’s, Tauni gave me a handful of nine bolt batteries? I think she thinks that I eat them.”

  It was Mia’s turn to laugh. She dragged the N’awlins Energizer into the closet and put her clothing and shoes around it. “Don’t want the maid to freak out that we made a bomb or something,” she explained.