by Alexie Aaron
Dieter nodded. “Next year, I’m going to go to high school with the other kids. Right now, Cid and Ted are teaching me. Cid handles the English, and Ted the math. Where I come from, we didn’t stay long anywhere, so I didn’t get a full education.”
“Where are you from?”
“Nigeria.”
“You’ve come a long way,” Susan said as she cracked eggs.
“After my parents were killed, a man - I guess you would call him a missionary - sponsored my immigration. He died. I was living in a safe house.”
“Do you like it here?”
“Oh, yes, Susan, I do.”
“The ghost doesn’t bother you?” Susan hedged, unaware whether the Martins came clean with all that went on at their farm.
“Mr. Murphy, yes, I have met him.”
“He saved my son’s life.”
“He did?”
“Yes. It changed Tom - that’s my son’s name. He can see spirits now.”
“He’s a deputy,” Brian said. “He catches bad guys and tosses them in the goose cow.”
Susan wrinkled her brow. “Oh, do you mean the hoosegow?” she asked.
Brian nodded.
“What is this hoosegow?” Dieter asked.
“Old slang for jail. I suspect Murphy told him that.”
Brian nodded again. His face beamed. “Tom drives a gull darn jalopy.”
“Sheriff’s car,” Susan interpreted.
“Isn’t language fascinating?” Dieter said. “I want to be a linguist and work at the United Nations when I grow up.”
“Those are lofty and honorable goals,” Susan said, delivering a plate of French toast to Dieter. She set another plate down with smaller Brian-size pieces on it.
“I talk eye tail on,” Brian said.
This was too much for Susan. She broke out in giggles.
“Mr. Murphy strikes again,” Dieter said, rolling his eyes.
~
Mia left the attic after Cid and Mike secured it. She took her time descending the stairs, listening to the house. She didn’t like that she had been surprised by Dr. Rose’s hidden shadow men. Murphy moved beside her, and when she caught sight of him, she almost shrieked in surprise.
“I’m rubbish at this sensitive business,” she admitted. “This house has sapped my energy, and I just can’t seem to find my balance here. It’s almost as if the world is spinning but I’m standing still.”
“But you are standing still on a spinning world.”
“You’re getting too smart for me, Murph.” Mia grabbed the handrail as another wave of exhaustion hit her. She sunk to a sitting position on the steps.
Murphy chopped his axe three times.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
The warning produced Cid and Mike.
“When was the last time you ate?” questioned Mike.
“Dinner last night,” Mia responded.
“Quentin told me you need to get sunlight on your wings. Go on. We’ll watch the house. We have Murphy to protect us,” Mike said.
Mia looked over at Murphy.
“I’ve got this,” he said.
Mia got to her feet and accepted Mike’s arm. He walked her to the back door and bore the cold as he escorted her to the middle of the yard where Cid had shoveled a spot for Mia. She unfurled her wings, nodded her thanks to Mike, and took off.
She looked up and pushed herself through the cloud layers until she broke through into the sunshine. She turned her wings to the east and floated there, enjoying the radiant heat upon her back. As she nurtured her body with the sunshine, she thought about all that had happened and what was still in front of them. She thanked Altair for his generosity. The money left over from the building and outfitting the aerie would come in handy as Ted’s beloved robots probably would not survive this experiment. At least they were machines and not humans.
She thought about Rose Malloy. Mia hoped that Father Santos would help her. A whirlwind of activity had taken her thoughts away from her unfinished business with the late town gossip. Mia knew that the hag may have influenced some of Rose’s actions, but the core of Rose was a mean little girl. Why did mean little girls exist? Were they the product of bad parenting, or did they emerge from the womb with a hunger to hurt others? Was it their insecurity that fueled their attack on the weaker ones? Mia really had no idea. She would sit down and discuss this with Cid, or possibly, Baxter when there was time.
Time, where had the time gone? Brian was almost one. True, his mental age was much older, but his little body was still too young to do the things he craved. She had been warned by Glenda not to potty-train the youngster too young. It would frustrate Brian as much as her and Ted. But Brian didn’t like wearing a diaper. Maybe it was time to move him to Pull-ups and see what happened. Brian also wanted to sit and have lessons with Dieter. That blew her mind. She’d only wanted to run the fields when she was young. Books came much later. When she wasn’t building forts out of her parents’ tomes, she was making massive lines of domino-inspired designs through the house with the books. Maybe if she had read sooner…
“Mia, you can’t look backward,” she scolded herself. To do so would bring up cringeworthy memories. Even He-who-walks-through-time always chose to walk into the future. He returned to the past, but only to the time from which he left in the first place.
Mia turned around and faced the sun and closed her eyes. She felt the healing rays work into her face, easing the pain that the stress of the last few weeks had wrought. A shadow crossed the sun. She opened her eyes and startled. There before her was Sariel.
“Have I fallen asleep? Am I dreaming?”
“No. What are you doing here?”
Mia explained and asked him the same question.
“Chicago is my watch. I caught the scent of a Nephilim in the air.”
“Quentin flew with me to help save Mike and Murphy.”
“Mia, I worry about your association with the creature.”
“He is my uncle and not a creature.”
Sariel was surprised by her icy voice. He frowned.
“Sorry, I’m cranky. Please forgive my tone,” Mia said quickly.
“No. I understand. But I hope you understand that there may come a day when your uncle will be on the other side of a battle. Will you be able to handle that?”
“I suppose it will be as horrible as brother against brother in the Civil War.”
“Yes.”
“Or how Michael felt sending his brother to hell.”
Sariel studied her face. “It was his duty.”
“I’m sure it was a nightmare for him. I know I don’t know the story. I wasn’t there. But Michael isn’t a cold being. I think it hurt. I know betrayal. The wound it cuts is deep and leaves a lasting scar. I feel sorry for him.”
Sariel lifted an eyebrow. No one felt sorry for the most powerful of angels.
“It was nice to speak with you. Unfortunately, I have a haunted house to deal with.”
“If you need me, call,” Sariel reminded her.
“Yes, sir.”
Sariel watched Mia as she glided down into the cloud layer. He made a mental note to not bother her in her dreams for a while. She was showing signs of fatigue. She needed the training, but she also needed time to rest dream-free.
Chapter Thirty-five
Mia and the others worked quickly, moving the expensive furnishings and breakable items into the three-car garage.
Meanwhile, Ted adjusted and readjusted his bots. He would pull the security wood pins from Thorn’s machines as soon as the house was ready. He knew that Audrey was upset that the bones of Renee’s victims were still in the second floor wall. The coroner’s department had canceled on her again and left it up to her to hire an independent group. Once she had explained that the murderer was long gone, they stamped it a cold case and moved on to more pressing matters.
“If the house and the bones are still there, I’ll hire my father to extract them,” Mia promised. “We can’t af
ford to wait any longer. The breaches are getting wider. Soon we’ll have a mass exodus of uncontrollable monsters.”
Cid had managed to get the carriage house’s furnace working. The PEEPs had moved their expensive equipment to the warm rooms over the garage. Mia insisted that Audrey sit after catching her carrying something heavier than a teacup.
“Last night, Orion and I broke the news to my parents.”
Mia looked at her friend, trying to read her emotions before prodding, “And…”
“My mother was overjoyed. My father asked the usual questions, and when Orion produced a copy of his net worth, Dad gave his blessing. They don’t know about me being pregnant. I’d like them to assume it’s a honeymoon baby.”
“I understand,” Mia said. “So we’re going to become related. I think it’s awesome.”
“Mia, I’m scared.”
“What of?” Mia asked.
“That I’ll be too boring. He’s lived several lifetimes of adventure. What do I have to give him?”
“Orion has lived his life mostly in books. You’re a flesh and blood woman with a positive outlook. You’re giving him another chance at being a father. My grandmother selfishly took that from him. You’re going to be a loving wife and mother. And your inquisitive mind and inner strength are worth the sum of the Alexandria Library.”
“Mia, that was burned in… well, there are several theories.”
“What do you think is in the birdman vault?” Mia asked mischievously. “Cid and I were talking just the other day and…”
“No, don’t tell me. I can’t keep a secret like that to myself,” Audrey said smiling.
“You’re going to have to learn that secrets are more than deceptions,” Mia said. “Some things need to remain forgotten for their own preservation.”
“Like the existence of birdmen and Nephilim for example,” Audrey said. “Raising this little one is going to be interesting.”
“Well, you have the benefit of watching Ted and I make all the mistakes first. Sabine has survived three so far. Ask her about her first trip to the grocery store with the trio of tricksters. I peed myself laughing so hard. Then I remembered I have one of my own.”
“Ladies, I hate to interrupt,” Cid said, sticking his head in the converted living space. “Ted’s ready.”
Mia got up. “I’ve got to get ready.” She walked over and hugged Audrey. “For luck.”
Cid and Mia walked over to the house. Mia took ahold of the device that Cid gave her to monitor EMFs. They had taken baseline readings of the breaches in the pocket dimension. If the house remained whole, they would compare the new readings. This would tell them if the experiment was a success.
Mike had visited the neighbors and invited them to join his mother at a well-known local eatery on her dime. Glenda would keep them as long as possible. They planned to wait until dark. Between the large piles of snow from the blizzard and the lack of illumination, they should be able to operate in near seclusion.
Ted, with Murphy at his side, knocked the wooden pegs out. He took one last look at his bots and ran up the stairs and out of the house to the command vehicle. There, he and Jake would work together to coordinate the bots.
Murphy moved to Mia’s side. “All personnel are accounted for,” he said.
“Ted, everyone is in place. Good luck. Over,” Mia said.
Nothing seemed to be happening from the observer’s point of view. Inside the house, the bots worked in coordinated efforts, priming the antiquated pumps, building up steam, and finally, they moved to the converted console and plugged in.
Roustan Rose began to vibrate. It wasn’t strong enough to knock anything off a neighbor’s shelf, but Mia felt it under her boots. The snow slid off the drifts against the house. The building was there one moment, and the next was empty space.
Inside the command post, Jake communicated through Marvin to Ted, “Phase one has been achieved. Moving through phase two in five four three two one.”
The house reappeared.
Two sets of the four bots unplugged and pegged the gears into their new positions.
Mia moved quickly into the house, using her wings to speed through the place. The attic had normal EMF readings, as did the second floor. She reported this to Ted as she flew down the basement stairs. There, the hatch was wide open.
She spun around and saw nothing. The device showed normal EMF readings.
“Ted, the hatch is open. I’m not getting any unusual readings, but I think I need to go in. Send Murphy.”
“Be careful, Swee’ Pea.”
“Yes, Popeye.”
Mia waited for Murphy, and the two descended down into the subbasement. There, they found a few bricks missing. The frozen ground was rife with the roots of the large trees that surrounded the house on the property, moving through the breaches in the walls.
“It’s as if the trees themselves are anchoring the house here in this dimension,” Mia said.
“I hope so,” a female voice said behind them.
Mia turned to see a woman in her thirties, dressed in hardy winter clothing.
“Is this Rori?” she asked Murphy.
He took a look at the athletic woman dressed in Columbia outerwear and shook his head. “No.”
“Who are you, and what are you doing?”
“I’m Lee, and I’m here on behalf of the trees. This house is now in the perfect position. The trees are going to hold it here for a few hundred years and feed off the energy you have brought through from the primal dimension.”
“Is there a leak?” Mia asked, moving her device around the walls, walking over the approaching roots.
“Not from the pocket dimension. But the primal dimension is seeping in below this house and is now feeding my trees.”
Mia looked at the brunette, brown-eyed, freckled-faced woman and asked, “What exactly is going on?”
“This building has been watched by the trees. They were unable to warn you, being… trees. Actually, it’s very rare to stop and ask the foliage what it thinks. When we determined what was going to take place here, we were ready to stop you, but Mr. Murphy here has the utmost confidence in your husband, Mia Martin. That was good enough for us, and as you can see, he succeeded. We ask that he removes all these machines. Roustan Rose will remain in exactly this position until it falls into ruin.”
Mia looked at Murphy. “Did you know about this?”
“No.”
Lee walked over and looked at Mia’s device and handed her another one. “Here, this monitors enriching energy.” She looked at Mia’s questioning look at the ghost and cleared her voice. “Mr. Murphy didn’t know he was being used.”
“Rori?” he asked, heartbroken.
“Who’s Rori?” Lee asked. She dismissed her own question, “Anyways, when this ghost connected to the earth, he became part of the natural conduit. When you accepted the energy from what we humans call Mother Nature, you became part of the natural world. You are all connected. This planet is dying. We’re fighting the changes, but there are so few of us.”
“What are you?”
“I’m as human as you are,” Lee said with a smirk.
“You know…”
“Oh I know.”
“Then you’re not all human.”
“Yup. Here’s the deal. Leave the subbasement alone. Fill it in with soil and loose gravel. Seal the hatch and nothing, but a few bold sugar ants, will ever enter this house. No spirits, no pocket dimension monsters, no nothing,” she clarified. “You do all this, and the house will be sound. It will shelter generations from the cold Chicago winds.”
“Ted, did you get all of that?” Mia asked, touching her ear.
“Loud and clear. Over.”
Mia turned around, and the woman was gone.
Murphy hunched his shoulders when Mia asked where she had gone. Mia still held on to the device the woman had given her. She would hand it over to Ted as soon as she could. In the meanwhile, she and Murphy exited the subbaseme
nt satisfied that Roustan Rose would only be haunted by the memories of what went on there.
“We should check on the bones,” Mia said. “You know that’s the first thing Audrey is going to ask about.”
“I’m not going into that wall,” Murphy said stubbornly.
“If you think I am, you’ve got another thing coming. You’re the security chief,” Mia pointed out.
“You’re the archeologist’s daughter,” he countered.
They didn’t hear the small gears of Curly as it moved into the third floor closet and released the trap, nor the sound of sliding Opticals as they slid down into the wall. Their combined search of the space showed that it was empty. Not even a cobweb survived the dimensional shift.
“Mia, stop arguing with Murphy,” Ted ordered. “The bones are gone.”
“K,” Mia said. “Hey, isn’t it Rori time?” she asked Murphy.
He nodded, looking uncomfortable.
“Go. Get. I’ve got this,” she said.
Murphy disappeared.
“He’s kind of a cute for a dead guy,” Lee said from behind her.
Mia whipped around. “Stop doing that.”
“Sorry. I was just looking around. My ride doesn’t get here for another fifteen minutes. Do you mind if I hang with you guys?”
“If you answer a question truthfully.”
“Take out that ear thingy and I will,” Lee said.
Mia took out the com and turned it off.
“Did you bring on that snowstorm to isolate us?” Mia asked.
“Not my department. I’m kind of a tree-hugger, seed-sower type of person. I’m responsible for replanting the burned out forests. Breaking through lava fields is one of my specialties. Hard as eff, but worth it.”
“How did you disappear down there?”
“I didn’t. Watch,” she instructed. Lee walked over to the staircase and backed into it touching her belt. She seemed to disappear. Her clothing and skin blended in with the complex wood, carpet and wallpaper. She stepped away. “I think you call this camouflage.”
“Whoa.”
The two women climbed the stairs. When they got to the entrance hall, Mia put her earcom back in. The secrets they shared on the flight up were not for the ears of the PEEPs. The front doorbell rang.