by Alexie Aaron
Audrey had taken her aside and told her, “He’s been waiting for this date to happen all summer. He loves this girl. He’s dating the head cheerleader, and she genuinely liked him.”
Jerry had kissed her closed mouth, but now his tongue moved against her teeth, and she opened her mouth.
“Eileen Fisher, I’m Deputy Braverman. You and your team have been abducted. Come with me. We need to get you out of here.”
“I’m Ivory,” she insisted.
“Murphy,” Tom called.
Murphy put his hand on the woman’s arm, and it seemed to jolt her to her senses.
Tom repeated himself. This time Eileen listened. “The others?”
“We know where they are now. We have to evacuate the town first. We are trying to do this without Jerry finding out. Many of these people are weak. We need the strong to help them,” Tom explained.
Eileen nodded. “Leave it with me, sir.”
Mia pulled away a moment as if she was catching her breath. Jerry had her back against the brick wall behind the shop area of the school.
Jerry studied her face. “You look so different.”
“What do I look like?” she asked, placing his hand on her breast.
“Nevermind,” he said, leaning in to kiss her again.
“Town’s clear,” Ted reported. “We need more ambulances. Quite a few of the people are suffering dehydration and starvation, not having eaten in days.” He looked over at his wife and at the time. She had been gone two hours now.
Mia felt Jerry’s hand travel up her leg. The timing couldn’t have been better.
“Jerry, do you have, you know, something?”
“What?” he said, intent on reaching third base.
“I can’t get pregnant, Jerry. We need condoms.”
“Oh,” he said.
Mia had a bad moment when she thought, when he patted his pockets, that he might have a condom on him. She couldn’t let him get to home plate.
He pulled out his wallet and checked it. “How much do they cost?”
The kid was a virgin. “Not much. Let’s go into town. You buy the condoms, and since my parents aren’t home, we can do it in my room,” Mia said.
Jerry smiled. “Come on. Are you sure you don’t want to wait?”
Mia took his hand and placed it on third base. “Does this feel like I want to wait until after the dance?” she asked.
Jerry smiled and took his time removing his hand. “Come on,” he said, helping her pull her clothing back into place.
Mia walked with him, hand in hand. They walked across the playing field. Mia was careful to time her stride. If she moved too fast she would look blurry to Jerry and the others.
A few of the football players looked oddly at Kenny walking with the head cheerleader. There was a derogatory comment, but that was the extent of the contact with the people outside the school.
“Target is moving to the town,” Tom reported. He waited a few beats before he ran down the hill towards the football field.
Mia and Jerry walked towards a store that she knew wasn’t going to have a person in it, let alone condoms. “Jerry, do you love me?” she asked.
He stopped. “Becky, I do. I have loved you for years.”
“If you knock me up, will you marry me?” Mia asked shyly.
“You know I will.”
“Well then, let’s go to my house, unless yours is closer?”
Tom faced off against Whit who was one hundred percent Kenny. He was an asshole who looked on Tom’s uniform as a joke. “Whit, it’s Tom.”
Still nothing.
Tom decked Whit. He took him down in one punch.
Whit was filled with pain. He looked up at the cause of the pain and asked, “Tom, did you just hit me?”
Tom pulled him to his feet and quickly explained what was going on. Whit ran to Orvin and Justin and slapped them around until they regained their identities. The four of them worked quickly to clear the field of people, including “non-descript boy in stands.”
Jerry moved against Mia. They still had their clothes on. Mia hoped to get the kid to misfire, so he would have to start again. She worried that Jerry had youth and determination on his side. She was nearing the moment when she had to reconcile that she would have to endure something she didn’t want to do, for the greater good.
The door burst in, and there stood Murphy.
“What are you doing in here!” Jerry screamed in frustration.
“What are you doing to my niece!” Murphy yelled back. He raised his axe.
Jerry rolled off Mia and backed against the wall.
“It’s okay, Uncle Stephen. It’s Jerry.”
“Your parents will be so ashamed,” Murphy continued.
Mia got up and adjusted her clothing.
“You go downstairs and wait. Your young man and I are going to have a heart-to-heart.”
Mia left the room and OOBed as fast as she could into her body. She gasped as she sat up. Ted was there. She reached for him. “Nothing happened. Murphy got there in time. But we are going to have to play nerd and cheerleader sometime…” Mia said.
Ted looked at her a moment, lost in fantasy, before coming out of it to tell her, “We have everybody that we had on our list.”
“Thank God. Any casualties?”
“A few are going to be in the hospital for a while, but everyone came out alive.”
“Good. I’m going back as a human. Murphy is still there, and I need to see if I can rid the valley of this ghost.”
“Be careful,” Ted said and kissed her before he would let her go.
Mia jumped down and ran through the fog and down to the town. She saw Murphy with his hand on Jerry’s shoulder.
“Murph!” she called.
He pointed to Mia and said something to Jerry. Jerry scrunched up his face.
Mia walked up. “Hello, Jerry. I’m Mia Martin.”
“Hello.”
“Has Murphy explained anything?”
“Just that I shouldn’t be in the bedroom of an underage girl.”
Mia tried not to smile.
“And that you were his girlfriend, so keep my hands off.”
“How charming,” Mia said. “You and I have to talk.”
“Where is Becky?”
“I imagine in heaven, Jerry,” she told him. “That is where you should be too.”
“I just wanted my date. I just wanted to dance with my Becky,” he said. “Why did this have to happen?”
“It was a tragedy,” Mia commiserated. “But you have a chance to be with her again. If it was true love, she may be waiting for you in the light.”
“I didn’t see any light.”
“You weren’t ready to see it. First, lift the enchantment off the valley, and then the fog,” Mia instructed.
“It took me so long to build this…”
Mia reached forward and put her hand on the boy’s face. “I know what it’s like to have your crush in your arms finally, but there is more waiting for you,” Mia assured him.
Jerry stood very still. Mia felt the ground beneath her fall. Murphy was quick to catch her. The façade of the town was built over a fallow field. He set her down, and they watched as the fog lifted. They could see the lights from the emergency vehicles bouncing off the trees.
“Was that Becky with me?”
“No, it was me,” Mia admitted. “I had to keep you occupied to get the people to safety. They hadn’t eaten and had had very little water in a very long time.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Jerry admitted.
“I’m sorry I deceived you, Jerry.”
“I guess I knew, but I wanted to see where it would take me.”
Mia laughed. “You rascal.”
“So I died a virgin.”
“There are worse things,” Mia said.
Murphy and Jerry shook their heads.
“Murph, you’re not helping.”
Jerry looked behind Mia. She turned around an
d smiled. “There’s your ride,” she said. “Considering what you’ve done, I’m surprised it’s going up.” She laughed. “Now get before I recommend some time in purgatory.”
Jerry stopped and kissed Mia before he walked into the light. She had her eyes closed. Murphy watched Mia’s face a moment. He saw a sadness creep in.
“Why were you sad?” he asked.
“He wasn’t a bad kid. Just a horny teenager who died a virgin.”
“I didn’t die a virgin,” Murphy said.
“Well, you could’ve fooled me,” Mia teased.
Chapter Ten
Mia took her time in the shower. She had a multitude of things to wash out of her mind and out of her hair. She had begged some clothes off of Audrey and vowed to pack better the next time she took a trip. She liked the cute little skirt that looked so good on Audrey. Mia wore it with Cid’s black tee tucked in and her own combat boots. Over it all she wore Mike’s blazer. She put on her candy necklace and took a bite out of it. Mia thought she looked cute. Ted thought she looked hot. He had a protective arm around her when Whit came into the cabin with his team. Whit introduced everyone. Cid had a smorgasbord of deli foods on the kitchen table and beer and soda on ice.
Whit didn’t really pay much attention to Mia. He concentrated on giving the lowdown to Tom and to Burt who was representing PEEPs.
Mia shook hands with Justin Davis, who was more interested in Ted. Mia excused herself and walked outside looking for Murphy. She found him sitting in an Adirondack chair in front of Audrey’s cabin.
“You look nice,” Murphy said.
“Thank you,” Mia replied. “And thank you for saving my virtue.”
“I got the feeling you were enjoying yourself a bit,” he teased.
“Shhhhh,” she said and winked at him. “I’m beginning to understand how you feel.”
Murphy looked at her.
“You do all this work, risk your existence, and no one can know what you did.”
“Yes. It can be a stinker sometimes. But I know what I did, and you know what you did. That should be enough.”
Mia studied him a moment. “You’re right. Gee, I’m still learning from you, Murph.”
“And I from you, Mia.”
Mia and Murphy knocked fists.
“Hey, Cooper,” Tom called, looking out the door. He saw her and walked over.
“I wanted to thank you before I left. If it wasn’t for you and Murphy, this could have ended very differently.”
“I’m glad everything turned out,” Mia said honestly.
Tom reached out and shook Murphy’s hand. He then picked Mia up and hugged her and swung her around. “Stay crazy, Cooper. Don’t let anyone make you feel less.”
“Thanks, Tom,” she said.
“Want to go for a walk?” Mia asked Murphy.
He held out his arm to Mia. They ventured down the path to the woods.
Whit watched her walk away. He had done his best to ignore her, but Mia Cooper Martin was hard to ignore. She had changed. Her skin glowed, and he loved her long hair. She had a sense of peace and fulfillment about her. Her confidence was intimidating. Her marriage must be agreeing with her. In the cabin, he avoided Ted like the plague. How that nerd had taken Mia out from under him was a pill impossible for him to swallow. But he had opened the door when he slept with that slag Beth. Whit trotted towards where she had walked off to. He suspected she was with Murphy.
“Mia, wait,” he said as she started to descend the hill.
Mia turned and said something to the air beside her.
Whit walked up. “I’ll never know your part in this, but I think I owe you a thank you and an apology.”
“Whit, you don’t owe me anything. We’ve both moved on. I hope you’re happy,” she said sweetly.
“I saw the BBB poster. What were you thinking?”
“I wasn’t,” she admitted and laughed.
“So you’re happy with the geek?”
“Yes, and I have a son.”
“The geek showed me his picture, but I already saw him.”
“Murph said you stopped by. Why didn’t you come in?”
“Because I’m a self-centered, immature male. I see you, and I think, I could have had that. I see that child and know he should have been my kid. I fucked things up to the point where I can’t rationalize my actions anymore.”
“Whitney, the only thing you have to know is this: I did my best to keep your wife alive. I was fighting for her and for you. When you realize that, then I think we can be friends, but that is it. I love Ted Martin with all my heart. He is the father of my son and my children to come. He knows me, cares for me, and isn’t, on those rare moments, afraid to be in my shadow. This is something you and I could never have. Move on, and enjoy your life. Take in the weirdness of the world, and maybe you’ll see your job as fun instead of a chore.”
“Mia, did you love me?”
“Yes I did,” Mia answered.
“But not now?”
“I guess not,” she lied, more for him to move on than for her to be honest.
“In our line of work, we may run into each other again,” Whit said.
“I’ll buy a round when we do,” Mia said. She held out her hand.
Whit took it and pulled her into him and kissed her like there was no tomorrow. He left her like that. Her eyes closed and her mouth slightly open.
“You’re a liar, Mia,” Murphy scolded.
She opened her eyes and smiled. “I know, Murph. Roumain and I are going to tango when I bite it.”
“You bring it upon yourself,” he said.
“Thanks for the compassion.”
“Women don’t behave the way you behave on Little House on the Prairie.”
“You’re holding me to a rerun of an eighties show? Well, that’s just great.”
Ted watched Mia arguing with Murphy. He saw Whit leave the path to the woods, and Ted followed it to find Mia and Murphy standing and waving their arms, arguing about television.
Murphy looked over her shoulder. “Ted’s coming.”
Mia turned around and smiled as she watched him walk over. Ted was a graceful man. His height could have given him an Ichabod Crane look, but his muscled upper body, from carrying equipment and her around, gave him a sexy cowboy look.
“The feebs are gone. You can come back now,” he said.
Mia looked up at Ted. “Whit said his goodbyes.”
Ted colored a bit.
“Murphy was here as a chaperone. He needn’t have bothered though.”
“You’re still mad at him, aren’t you?”
“I guess. For more than sleeping with Beth though. But you can’t change the past nor the people that are stuck in it.”
“About your past, I’m sorry for my reaction, Mia.”
“I didn’t tell you about it because I, very successfully, had hidden it from myself. If it wasn’t for Mike’s prying… I know he meant well, but I’m not some child who needs to be taught right and wrong. People think, because I’m small, that I’m a child. I get picked up by you brutes and dismissed in conversations as if I don’t have a brain. I lived off the grid for five years without any of you. No Murphy, no one. I faced demons and horrors that I’d rather not remember.” Mia turned around and stared off into the valley.
“Why did you choose me?” Ted asked.
“Because I love you.” Mia turned around. “You make me laugh, and you used to adore me. Now I think you’re a little afraid of me.”
“Just when I think I know who you are, you change, or I find out that you’re someone completely different than I thought you were.”
“Some people see that as a challenge.”
“And he got a face full of fist for his trouble,” Ted said through his teeth.
“Did you marry me because Father Santos said it would keep me safe?” Mia asked.
“Yes, but that wasn’t the only reason. Mia, I love you. I do adore you. I find your whole transformation out of this
world and sexy, very sexy. You’re so brave. You carried and gave birth to my son under the most extreme of circumstances. As I watch the two of you together, I know I have been given such a gift to care for. I get jealous. I worry that you could easily exchange me for Dupree…”
“Why would I do that?” Mia asked. “That’s not in my nature. I like Mike. I can’t help that, but I don’t like him that way. He understands I can’t be kissing the ass of authority. I think you missed that. What else did your love-blind eyes miss, Ted?”
“A lot of your past evidently.”
“Do I know who you used to date? Did I ask?”
“No.”
“I took you inside me and showed you how much I need you. I showed you me. Did you miss something?”
“You didn’t show me everything.”
Mia looked up at Ted and narrowed her eyes. “That vault was closed for my sanity.”
“You said there was more.”
“Yes, and I was going to share that with you, but I don’t think so now. You’re not mature enough. You thought the worst of me when you first heard about Lobo. I was a virgin and was in love with a young man who cared for me. Lobo didn’t get in my pants because I felt I owed him. I loved him. How many lovers have you had to bury? Oops, I forgot, none, unless I die again. I hope Murphy’s not around when that happens. I don’t want to be saved anymore.”
“Don’t say that!” Ted said, grabbing her. “This isn’t you. You have me and Brian to live for.”
“I have Brian. Poor kid can’t choose one’s mother. But do I have you? Will I have you when I share with you my last lover?” Mia shrugged. “Don’t be making me any promises until after I tell you. As soon as we get home, I’ll sit down and tell you. I have to stop at the garage to get something first, and then you, Cid and Murphy will hear all of it.”
“Why them. You just have to tell me,” Ted said tenderly.
“They’re part of us. When I married you, I knew I was marrying Cid too. I’ve never been jealous of this. Murphy, well, that’s changed, but I still consider him my family. Dead or alive, he has been there to pick up the pieces and set me straight when I’m in the wrong.” Mia looked up at Ted. “You are my world, my happiness, my heart, and I don’t know what else I can do to prove this to you. It has to be more than sex, Ted.” Mia started crying.