by Alexie Aaron
“No, just three. I have no idea if the rest came from one or more families. I’m hoping Audrey will come up with more information,” she said. “Let’s assume for the sake of this project that they are all Ashes.”
A nervous giggle escaped from one of the postgrads.
Mia nodded. “I know they died in the fire and probably were reduced to ashes, but the eldest boy’s name was John Ashe. We know this from a rope skip song passed down through the generations of school children.” Mia recited:
Hop one foot to clear the soot
Hop on two to open the flue
Touch the ground three when you can see
John Ashe coming through the trees.
“We don’t know who originated the chant, but as in Ring Around the Rosie, it tells a story.”
“What?” the postgrad challenged.
“In this case, the ghost of John Ashe was seen by the children in the schoolyard after the fire,” Mia answered. “In Ring Around the Rosie they were talking about the plague and the burning of the bodies after… ashes to ashes we all fall down. No one was safe. There are many other explanations of this rhyme, but for me this seems the most plausible.”
Charles watched the student from the corner of his eye. This young woman seemed absorbed in what Mia was saying. He also knew that the postgrad had challenged Mia in order to make herself seem important. He didn’t believe in this kind of game playing and would sort out the student later. He was proud of Mia’s explanation and for her standing up for herself.
CRACK!
Charles looked over and saw Murphy indicating that he had found something. Mia walked over and knelt on the ground close to the west side of the foundation. “I think there may be an easier way to get to the lower level.”
Charles watched as she paced off an area.
“Murphy found an entrance to a root cellar. If the children took shelter in the cellar, the smoke would have killed them long before the roof fell in.”
“Team, let’s concentrate on clearing the dirt away between these two markers,” Charles instructed. “Mia, why don’t you take a break? I’ll radio when we’ve found the way in,” he promised. “Call Ralph. He’s concerned you’ll exhaust yourself before the wedding.”
Mia looked at her father. “It’s weeks away. I wish we’d eloped.”
“Now, now, you’re the one that let him loose to plan the wedding. You’ve got to play nice and help him out.”
“It’s all the fittings. I haven’t changed sizes in four years. I’m not going to suddenly blimp out overnight,” Mia complained.
“Ted says you’re too fond of donuts,” Charles teased.
“Ted’s an ass,” Mia said, not meaning it. “If he would refrain from picking me up like a child then he’d have no complaints.”
Charles shook his head. “You two.”
Mia left him to his work and dialed Ralph as she walked towards the command center.
“Mia!” his over-exuberant voice crowed. “Just the person I want to talk to. Come over to Ann Seaver’s… We’re tasting cake.”
“We’re?” Mia questioned, reversing her trek to take her to the neighborhood instead of the PEEPs vehicle.
“Me, Ted, Cid, Audrey and Ann of course.”
“So that’s where the team disappeared to,” she said. “I’m sure you only had to mention cake, and they all came running.”
“PEEPs have quite a sweet tooth,” Ralph said. “I think we’ve narrowed it down to five flavors.”
“I’m on my way,” Mia said and put her phone in her pocket. She walked through some brambles and cussed as one caught her pant leg. She reached down, pulled at the stubborn branch but wasn’t able to remove the thorns from her pant leg with her gloves on. Mia took off her gloves and worked at the vine until she freed herself.
The air grew thick. Mia coughed and looked around her. The woods was filling up with a mist. She hoped her father would still be able to work his team under these conditions. She sniffed the air and realized it wasn’t mist but smoke. She coughed again, and her eyes stung. Flashes of orange filled the canopy of trees. Large branches weakened by the flames dropped around her.
She got on her feet and looked around. The smoke made it impossible to see but a few feet in front of her. She tried to call out for Murphy, but the heat of the air burned her throat. She got on her hands and knees and crawled, hoping she would be able to make the edge of the woods before the smoke overcame her. She continued even though the thorns tore at her skin through her clothing. The smoke filled her lungs. Mia stopped crawling and fell forward. Her life with PEEPs flashed through her mind intermingled with the love she had found with Ted. Reuniting with her parents played a cameo in her life’s play as she curled into the fetal position. Her last thoughts were of the lost children and the anguish they must have suffered.
“Ted, Mia’s heart monitor is going crazy,” Burt informed him. “Is she there with you? If so, she’s had enough caffeine.”
“She’s not here,” Ted said jumping up. “She was headed this way through the woods.” He launched himself out the back door of the house. Cid followed him, leaving Audrey to calm a hysterical Ralph.
Murphy looked around him. He sensed something was wrong. He was watching Charles’s group carefully move buckets of earth away from the foundation when he felt a prickling at the back of his neck. He looked around him and saw the smoke.
The archeology team didn’t seem to notice the difference in the air quality, so Murphy assumed that the smoke was in his realm and not theirs.
“Charles, come in,” Murphy overhead Burt’s voice as it came over the walkie talkie.
“Charles here, what can I do for you?”
“Is Mia with you? I can’t reach her on com,” he explained.
“No, I thought she was headed your way…”
“Your daughter came through here a few minutes ago,” the postgrad announced, “and headed south.”
Charles repeated the information.
Murphy moved quickly away from the team, heading south. Navigating the smoke-filled woods was nearly impossible for the farmer.
Mia felt the heat of the fire and knew she had to continue to try to move. With every ounce of strength she had remaining, she called out, “Help me!”
She felt strong, thin arms wrap around her body before she passed out again.
Ted scanned the woods and saw Murphy struggle out of the trees. Ted ran over to him.
“Smoke, too much smoke,” Murphy said and dropped to his knees. “Mia, I can’t find Mia.”
Ted looked and didn’t see any smoke. “Murphy sees smoke and can’t find Mia,” he told Cid quickly.
Cid looked at the tree line and didn’t see any smoke. All he saw was dappled sunlight causing a beautiful light play on the edges of the woodland. There was a light breeze moving through the colorful maples, causing the remaining leaves to dance on their limbs. He wiped the sweat from his eyes and looked again. This time he saw a movement in the woods. There was a shadow moving outward.
“Ted, there!” he pointed to the path behind Barb’s house and started running towards it.
Ted assisted Murphy to his feet, and the two of them moved quickly towards the edge of the woods where John Ashe stood holding a very still Mia.
Burt’s voice didn’t have to tell Ted the obvious, “Mia’s heart has stopped.”
John released his hold on the woman as one of the tall adults grabbed her. He watched as she was gently set on the ground. The red-haired man put his mouth over the woman’s and blew air in until John saw her chest rise and fall. She started coughing.
“Is that buttercream frosting?” Mia asked weakly. She licked her lips. “Yes, buttercream.”
“What happened?” Ted asked.
Mia’s eyes moved from him to the woods. There she saw John Ashe. He pushed the hair off his forehead and sighed with relief. He nodded to Mia and disappeared.
“Mia, Mia, can you hear me?” Ted’s voice cut through the et
her.
“Yes, I’m sorry. John Ashe was standing there,” Mia lifted her hand and pointed.
“He carried you out of the woods. What happened?” Ted asked.
“I’m not sure. One moment I was taking off my gloves to untangle a vine, and then all the smoke came,” she said and looked over at Murphy. “What’s wrong?”
“Murphy was consumed with smoke too. He couldn’t find you. He barely made it out of the woods,” Ted explained.
“I’m sorry, I think I caused that…” her voice drifted off.
“My baby!” Ralph screamed as he ran up to the group. “Get her off the ground; she’ll catch a chill. Honestly, were all of you born in barns?”
Ann and Audrey caught up to Ralph. Audrey put an afghan, Ann had grabbed as they left the house around Mia’s shoulders when she stood up. Mia wavered a bit, dizzy from her recent lack of oxygen, combined with the angst that Ann had left on the afghan from too many nights of worrying about her business. She handed the blanket back to Ann and waved away all the arms wanting to steady her. She instead crouched down and was silent for a while.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know I was having a vision. I don’t understand it. I assumed everyone sought out the house when the flames came. But they couldn’t have. I was pulled into the last moments of someone else that died in the fire. When he died and stopped breathing, I think I did too.”
“What?” Ralph asked, kneeling down and lifting Mia’s face to his. “You were dead?”
“No, I just forgot to breath. It happens,” she admitted blushing.
Ted put his hand on her shoulder. “How are you feeling now?”
“Oh, foolish, I should have never taken off my gloves,” she said standing up.
Ted took her in his arms. He looked at her and said, “It’s over now. You’re safe and in time for cake.”
She looked at him and reached up and touched his face. “Is there any left? I see you’re wearing most of it on your face.” Mia scraped off some frosting from the edges of his lips and put her finger in her mouth.
“Hey, I was saving that,” he scolded.
Cid was pleased to see that the banter was back between his friends. He touched his ear and reported, “Burt, Mia’s fine. She’s hungry.”
“She’s always hungry,” Burt said and went off com.
Burt got up and motioned for Mike to take over. He stepped out of the truck and looked over at the school first and then the woods. Was all this worth losing an investigator over? Mia really didn’t do anything wrong. She simply took off her gloves. But in doing so she must have connected with the remains of something that pulled her in. Yes, it was possible for the sensitive to die under the pull of a vision. He’d seen her have near misses before. This was one reason he had placed into protocol that Mia’s solo involvement was to be the very last resort. He’d rather have the team work within safe parameters than have quick results with the risk of harming Mia.
“Penny for your thoughts?” Audrey said, approaching Burt from the woods.
“Is nothing we do safe?” he asked, the worry deepening the lines of his forehead.
“It depends on your definition of safe, I suppose,” Audrey answered.
“How is she?”
“Embarrassed and worried about Murphy. You know, normal. When I left, she was demanding to be set down. Ted had her slung over his shoulder. Ralph was lecturing her on staying away from poison ivy. Mia wanted to go and find her gloves, but without gloves, she can’t touch anything but Ted. That’s when he picked her up. I offered to bring her a new pair and help her search for where she lost the other ones.”
“Why?”
“Because someone died there. That’s the only reason she would have been so overcome with the vision. She never felt it happen. To her, and Murphy for that matter, it was really happening.”
“Let’s get this straight. She almost dies, and still she wants to investigate what almost killed her?”
“After cake,” Audrey added.
“Oh, that makes a big difference.”
“The boys said John Ashe saved Mia.”
“So he’s strong enough to move a human through the woods but…”
“Not strong enough to leave the woods,” Audrey finished. “He stood at the edge and waited for the boys to get to them.”
“This continues to confuse me. We have a school full of youngsters who no doubt all died from old age, running around with no ties. And then we have John Ashe, a prisoner of the woods.”
“I’m sure there is a cosmic book of ghost rules somewhere, but until we find it, I guess we have to accept that this is what is in play for now,” Audrey counseled.
Burt reached out and pulled her in for a hug. “You are a very smart woman; did anyone ever tell you that?”
“Yes, hundreds.”
He bent down and pulled her chin up. “Did any of them tell you how beautiful you are?”
“Two or three dozen,” she teased, looking in his eyes.
“How about, how dear you are to me. How you comfort me with just a glance, did anyone tell you this?”
“Just you,” Audrey said.
Burt leaned in and kissed her softly. Audrey responded. He kissed her again and pulled her close to him.
“I guess this is as good a time as any to notify you two that you are live,” Mike’s voice over their ear coms announced.
Burt and Audrey pushed apart guiltily.
“What’s the pool say?” Mia asked, her voice hampered by a mouthful of cake. “I know I picked four months.”
“Hang on. Nope, you picked three months twenty days,” Mike said.
Burt could hear the crackle of the paper. “Damn, Ma wins again. How does she do it?”
Audrey looked at Burt confused. He took out his ear com and said, “They bet on everything.”
“So they bet on when we would first kiss?”
“Oh, I’m sure there are other bets too,” Burt said, drawing Audrey in for another, longer kiss.
“That information will remain private,” she said and pulled her ear com out of her ear before enjoying what Burt had to offer in the middle of a schoolyard with archeology students meandering about.
Chapter Fourteen
Mia found her gloves after a few hours of backtracking. They were lying at the foot of an old hydrangea bush where raspberry vines had taken over. She shook the neon orange can of spray paint and circled the area around her sunken knee impressions. Ted pounded in a stake and attached an orange flag to the top. Mia would leave the excavation of this spot to her father and his professional team.
She had asked Cid, who was going home to take care of Maggie, to take Murphy home with him. The ghost needed to recharge. Mia still couldn’t fathom how her vision was able to pull Murphy in.
“Maybe it wasn’t a vision at all but a haunting with a possession,” Ted offered.
Mia didn’t discount what he was saying. Sometimes Ted’s intuition was better than hers. She relied on her own experiences to explain things while Ted was able to remember almost everything he had ever read or seen. He was a computer with a beating heart tied together with a boyish imagination. He wasn’t perfect, but Mia wouldn’t have him any other way.
Today he was being overprotective. Normally this would bother Mia, but her foundation had been shaken, and she needed his presence by her. She walked over to where he was examining something on the ground. His long body was folded in a squatting position as he studied the layers of moss as he pulled them up.
“We used to call that Easter moss. We would line our baskets with it and put the hard boiled eggs on top,” Ted explained. “I’m surprised to find it here, but nature finds a way to survive I guess.”
Mia held out her hand, and he dropped a tuft of moss into it. “This looks like Reindeer Moss,” she said, bringing the plant towards her face to smell it.
“I’m sure it’s what we used to call Easter moss. And look there, there’s a hydrangea bush. I’ve seen several varieties of
plants that don’t grow here naturally,” Ted said.
“Perhaps someone tossed their waste here instead of composting. Or the seeds were brought here by birds,” Mia suggested.
Ted stood up and surveyed the area. “Minnie Mouse, would you let me put you on my shoulders so you could see this area from my perspective?”
Mia laughed. “Oh the Jolly Green Giant perspective. Sure, why not.” She turned around and let her strong fiancé lift her onto his shoulders. Once she was balanced and settled, she looked at the area surrounding them. “Turn please,” she requested. “Hold still,” she instructed as she drew her feet up and manage a wobbly stance on top of his shoulders. “It’s a garden, or it was. I see it. There was another house in here.” Mia looked over, and even though time had softened and filled in the edges, she could see the formal garden laid out before her. If she subtracted the trees and berry bushes, what was left was the remains of someone’s flower garden. The thorns that tore into her pants weren’t from the berry bushes after all but from old spent roses.
She gently tapped his head, and Ted lowered her to the ground. She walked the perimeter of the garden and pushed away piles of leaves until she found a foundation stone. “I don’t know the importance of this,” she said, honestly. “It’s just another house. I have no clue how old. All I know is that it was long gone before the fire. There was no standing structure because I moved right through it in my panic to get out of the woods,” she said pointing out the broken branches. “This is where I lost consciousness,” she said kneeling down. “It’s where John Ashe found me.”
“I think we need Audrey to go back further in her research,” Ted said.
“How do we justify the time, Teddy Bear?” she asked quietly. “It’s just an old house. John Ashe and the children probably played amongst the ruins, but I doubt it is holding them here,” Mia said honestly.