by Alexie Aaron
“What are you being so quiet about?” Mike asked, handing Burt a beer.
“I was just observing.”
“Mia and Gee Pop?”
“Yes.”
“She gets her looks from the other side of the family, thank God.”
Burt laughed. “You are a horrible human being.”
“I am, aren’t I?”
“But you saved Mia this afternoon.”
“I only did it so I could torment her later. I live to see that eyebrow go up and the abuse she gives me.”
“Careful, that sounds like you’re smitten.”
“Nah, my ship’s not going to be docking in her space port. We’re just nemeses.”
“I would feel sorry for you, but it is more torture having been docked and no longer allowed entry, than to never have been there.”
Audrey sat down. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Space,” Mike said.
“Oh. If Mia’s better, are we going to try the house again tomorrow?”
“I’d like to,” Burt said. “At least finish the house. The kitchen and cellar are all that’s left to investigate.”
“What about the elemental?”
“Orion thinks Mia can handle it with her sword.”
“Seems kind of mean to send her in there to kill it,” Audrey said.
“Murphy could do it,” Mike said.
“No, Mia, wants this. You could see it in her eyes,” Burt said.
“She’s a complex lady. If you only heard her talking to Mark like we did,” Audrey said.
“We did,” Mike confessed. “Cid, Burt and I were under the deck.”
Audrey laughed. “Ted, Glenda and I were in the living room.”
“It was fortunate that he was here before the painkillers I gave her hit,” Burt said.
“Why?” Audrey asked.
“Mia can’t lie when she’s drugged up,” he said. “Me neither. It takes away the part of you that says, ‘you shouldn’t say that, and you shouldn’t do that.’”
“Don’t tell me any more,” Audrey said, putting her hand on her forehead.
“One time…”
“Oh God, he’s telling us,” she groaned but didn’t cover her ears.
“It was after the hollow. We were both drugged to the gills and we…”
Mike looked over at Mia and swallowed hard. Audrey flushed.
“And we ended up in the bathtub because…”
Audrey made several attempts to get up, but curiosity kept her butt frozen to the couch.
Cid stared at Mia who was washing dishes with him. “Burt’s telling Audrey and Mike a story about…”
Mia looked up at Cid. “Does it have anything to do with painkillers?”
“Yes.”
“Try to think of it as a cautionary tale,” Mia said weakly. “Where’s Ted?”
“He’s outside with Orion and Glenda.”
“Phew. Um, was I any good? I don’t remember much.”
Cid leaned down and whispered, “Burt said he’d rate it as the all-time best…”
“K. I think I’m going to sneak out. Mike’s going to start staring at me and…”
“Go, I’ll listen for Brian.”
“Thank you,” Mia said and kissed him lightly on the cheek.
Cid was glad she left. He didn’t want to be forced to defend Mia’s honor. He took his friendship with his best friend’s wife very seriously.
“Here she comes,” Glenda said. “We were talking about you.”
“I also seem to be a popular subject amongst the drinkers upstairs.”
“The painkiller story?” Glenda asked.
“How do you know about that?” Mia asked mortified.
“That’s Burt’s favorite story after he’s drunk his fourth beer,” Glenda said.
“You know, I could have ripped that memory out of his fucking head when I was in there, but no, I thought Burt was a gentleman.”
“Look at you being outraged. It was sex, fantastic sex, and probably the best sex he’s ever going to get.”
“Nah, he’s an excellent lover,” Mia said. “He’ll have another story soon to tell.”
“There you go. He’ll have another story, and you’ll be out of the woods,” Glenda said. “How are you feeling?”
“A bit sore.”
“Too sore to show me your wings?”
Mia started coughing. “How?”
“Audrey talks too when she’s plowed.”
“The thing is, Glenda. Once you see me this way, you’re never going to be able to un-see me with wings. Do you really want to carry that kind of burden?”
“Hell yes. I’ve been keeping Tripod’s image and that Angelo. Heavens, if I were a younger woman… Where was I? Yes, please.”
“Hold on. Let me talk to Ted and Orion first.”
“They are down by the dock. I’ll go with you.”
“I think that if she transforms, the healing will take off. She’s got all this power in that little feather in her back. Do you know that archangel wings are so strong, you can’t cut through them? Let Mia go flying with me tonight. I’ll take care of her.”
“As a hummingbird?” Ted said doubtfully.
“No, I’ll stay human. I’ll just have wings. And I’ll keep my pants on. Audrey and Glenda are making me rather nervous.”
“I bet they are,” Ted said. He saw Mia approach them. He walked up and hugged her. “I missed you.”
Mia enjoyed his embrace. “What are you guys doing? Fishing?”
“No, we were talking away from the drunken mob up there.”
Mia laughed. “I bailed when Burt started telling the painkiller story.”
“Ouch. Should I go and punch him in the nose?” Ted asked.
“No. I did the crime, I’ll do the time.”
Ted laughed. “What’s on your mind?”
Mia wrinkled her nose and tried several times to talk but changed her mind.
“Come on, you can tell me.”
“Should I show Glenda, Burt and Mike my wings?”
“Ah, well that’s up to you.”
“No. It’s up to us. I’m the freak of the geeks here, and once they see wings…”
“Oh. Cid likes them, and Audrey. I fucking love them. Trust the boner-heads to be amazed.”
“K.”
“If they have any trouble, you can fly me and Brian to Hawaii until it all blows over.”
“Deal,” Mia said.
“Well?” Glenda asked Mia as she walked by her. Mia was on her way to the house to change into a t-back bra and shirt.
“I’ll show all of you at once, and then I’m going to go flying with my grandfather.”
“Sounds good. You get changed, and I’ll corral the drunks,” she offered.
~
Mike approached Mia as she walked out of the house. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Yes I do. But thanks for the out.”
Cid held on to Brian on the deck. He remembered very well Mia transforming, the night she fought for Ted. He didn’t need to see it up close, but still, he wasn’t going to miss it. The others stood in a semi-circle in the yard.
Orion had his shirt off and walked up to his granddaughter and asked, “Ready?”
“As ready as I’m ever going to be. I don’t know if I’m doing it right. You can correct me later away from these bozos, okay?”
“Don’t be nervous. Here, let me go first.” He rolled his neck and rubbed his thumb along the inside of his wrist. Tattoos emerged.
Mia followed suit. She turned her back, not wanting to see the expression on Burt’s and Mike’s faces.
Her back was full of black moving feathers. Mike couldn’t help himself. He walked up and ran his hand along her back. “Cool.”
Mia turned around and said, “Step back. I don’t want to hurt you.”
He did. Mia tapped her wrists together, and the wings folded out of her body. They were so large that they raised her off the ground.
“Mia, they’re beautiful,” Orion said, producing his crow wings. He reached out and took her hand, and they started running.
Burt watched in amazement as Mia took off flying. Her massive wings but trembled, and she shot upwards.
“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” Glenda said. “Okay, who wants to play poker?”
“I’m in,” Audrey said and left with her.
Burt and Mike walked over to Ted.
“I had no idea, Ted,” Burt said. “Did Angelo do that to her?”
“No. She’s always been a little flighty,” Ted said.
Mike started laughing and patted him on the back. “That is so cool. G Damn, you’ve got your own superhero mutant. I’m jealous.”
“All of this happened because I was an idiot,” Ted began. “After the hotel investigation, I thought that I should leave Mia, because she had so much, and I felt bad for Beth who told me she had nothing but me. So I left for Kansas before Mia came home one night. I didn’t even write her a note. I just took off my ring and left.”
‘”You fucking asshole,” Mike swore. “How could you do that to her?”
“I’m not proud of it,” Ted explained.
“Let him talk,” Burt said through clenched teeth.
“Cid said that when she found out, she changed before him. The tattoos emerged, the feathers moved, and then the most beautiful set of wings sprouted. She never flew before. Angelo had wanted to teach her, but she was too worried about my reaction, my feelings, so she decided to put it on the back burner. But when it became apparent that she couldn’t catch up to me in the truck, she took off running and flew to get to me before I did something stupid.”
“Where did she catch up to you?” Burt asked.
“A few hours out. I was driving down that little country lane we take to get around the construction on the highway when I saw something up ahead in the road. I saw wings, and I thought that Angelo had come to talk to me. I got out and walked forward, but it was Mia. She read me the riot act, told me that I was confused, and that I had some idiotic idea that as a superhero I had to leave all that I loved in order to do good. She was right. That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
“I knew it wasn’t over,” Burt said. “I should have tossed you through a few more windows.”
“How did she change your mind?” Mike asked.
“She used my and her memories and created a holographic view of our life together. It reminded me why I loved her in the first place. I saw how much she loved and needed me. Beth never really needed anyone. She wasn’t the victim I had thought she was. After the Judas hex, you all were down on Beth. She was the ultimate Judas. I didn’t think it was fair. I felt guilty and wanted to do the right thing.”
“Ted, I know that you never liked Beth that way,” Burt said. “Her inane chatter alone made her a bad fit with the team. I can only imagine what being married to her would be like.”
“But every superhero I ever read about sacrificed his happiness to do the right thing,” Ted explained. “I was going to fall on my sword and try to build a life with Beth. Except, standing there in the middle of the road was my wife telling me to come home. She told me that she needed me.”
“So you came home,” Mike said. “The best move of your life.”
“Yes, it was. I understand now that I don’t have to worry about Murphy or Angelo or Sariel. Mia loves me, maybe too much.”
“You don’t deserve her,” Mike said. “You fucking don’t deserve her.”
“Come on, Mike, he came back. It’s over,” Burt said, putting a restraining hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“No, it’s not. You see, Theodore Martin, she could do a lot better than you,” Mike reminded him.
“Don’t you think I know that? How the hell am I ever going to compete with archangels, Angelo and you?”
“Me?” Mike asked, surprised.
“You’ve been trying to take her from me from the start.”
“You over-caffeinated geek, if you only knew how much I’ve been on your side. I pushed you into making your first moves. I held her while she cried for you and didn’t take advantage. I’ve built up her self-esteem when your Bethy tore her down. It was me picking her up off the ground, holding her head over the toilet while her world was crashing down around her.”
“I didn’t realize,” Ted said. “In my experience, guys like you always got the girls, were voted class president and most likely to succeed.”
“So, what does that have to do with your and my friendship? Have I ever discounted your value to PEEPs?”
“No.”
“That wonderful woman flying around up there – damn, that’s freaky- she loves you. Burt and I know she loves you. It drives us nuts, but the facts are, you are the luckiest man alive. You have this beautiful son, giant brain, and a future that is only going to get better. You have the best friend in Cid that a guy could have. You come from a family of fun-loving people. You have it all, dude. Stop imagining that someone is going to take it all away. Just enjoy it. God, I would.”
Burt was proud of Mike. He had grown so much in the last few years. Burt knew that Mia had something to do with it. Mike probably had a few sleepless nights thinking of her. But he had Mia’s trust, and he showed himself worthy of that trust tonight.
Ted held out his hand to Mike. “I’m sorry for my insecurities. I would like to thank you for thinking of me when Mia needed help. You are a better friend to me than I’ve been to you, and I’m sorry.”
Mike grasped Ted’s hand and said, “I accept. But can you put in your will that I get Mia when you blow yourself up?”
“I’ll think on it,” Ted said, laughing.
Chapter Twenty-seven
“Mia, you’re working too hard.” Orion coached, “Birdman flying is all about letting the air around support you. There, that’s better. Now, when you have to stop suddenly, pull your upper body back quickly and your wings out so they are flat, like this.” Orion demonstrated.
“That is easier,” she said and laughed at the mistakes she’d made earlier.
“Each one of those feathers could hold a Burt off the ground if needed.”
“Like…”
“Dumbo. Oh, Mia, you are so bad. Burt is a healthy male and…”
“A wonderful lover,” Mia completed.
“Young lady, you are a married woman. You have to put memories like that away.”
“Did you stop thinking of your lovers?”
“No.”
“Orion, I can’t help but believe that Burt played a serious role in making me who I am now. When he found me, I had no confidence. I was hiding from the paranormal world. I was letting the humans take advantage of me. I thought that it was an honor to clean their fucking gutters. And all the time, they were calling me Crazy Cooper, the girl that screams in the graveyards, behind my back.” Mia looped back over her grandfather and flew upside down underneath him so he could see her face.
“He listened to me and loved me. There were major problems and hurt feelings later, but it was him who showed me how valuable I was.”
“Why didn’t it work out?”
“Angelo, a flitch, a kiss, and misunderstandings on both sides. I let it happen. I moved on to my high school crush, and he hated me for it.”
“Mia, I can’t blame you for beating Angelo up when you see him, but he really thought he was doing the right thing.”
“Actually, he did. No longer encumbered by the emotional baggage, I was able to see who I had been destined to be with all along. Funny thing was, Ted knew it before I did.”
“He is a smart but flawed man,” Orion pointed out.
“Flawed?”
“He is a hero.”
“Go on…”
“Ted tends to sacrifice himself for the greater good. He was raised on the higher ideals of Bradbury. He is Spock.”
“He thinks of himself as Batman.”
“The most severely flawed of the superh
eroes,” Orion said. “But he is who we need him to be, Mia.”
Mia grabbed Orion and pulled to a stop. “We?” she questioned. “Who’s we?”
“You, me, Angelo, Sariel, Murphy, the Council of Women. Ted was the reason you came here, yes?”
“I wanted to heal my marriage,” Mia explained.
“Mark Leighton is here.”
“What does Mark have to do with me being here?”
“Mia, it was prophesized by the sages that a man would rise up, hunt down angels like they were vermin, and change the balance of power. Humanity, without its guardians, would fall, and evil would reign. His name is Mark Leighton.”
“He’s just a boy.”
“He can see angels. Before you came, he was angry. He was angry at God for what happened to his father. He was traveling down a dark road. That house may have accidently saved him. It held on to the negative elemental, which was supposed to open up Mark’s heart to hate. You felt it when it touched you.”
“I’m not sure I believe the house was acting in Mark’s best interest,” Mia commented. Mia let go of her grandfather and drifted awhile, thinking. “How is he now? I expect you read him.”
“He’s a happy, optimistic boy. He believes in you, Mia. Your counsel has planted a seed. Your husband, if successful, will enable Mark to be able to communicate with his father, and the seed will grow. You and Ted have the opportunity to change his and our future.”
“How?”
“I’m going to ask you to do a few things. First, you need to show yourself to Mark, wings and all. Explain that you’re not an angel because angels are made not bred, and when an angel is killed, there is no one to take its place. Tell him that your wings were given to you by an archangel. Let him know that those most scary of creatures are fighting for mankind, and they need his help.”
“That is an awful lot to lay upon the shoulders of a twelve-year-old.”