Crossroads

by Alexie Aaron [Aaron, Alexie]

“Physically good, mentally not so good. I go through periods of insecurity, especially after being in the company of young vital birdwomen like Idra.”

  “I know you have to work it out for yourself, but in my opinion, you are far superior to Idra. You’re a nurturer, and you can communicate with the babies and young birdmen when no one else can. You have taught me so much. I have no idea how vast the community of birdmen is, but I can tell you that if I’m any example, you’re desperately needed. Do you train others? If not, you should. There’s no manual or internet site for birdwomen. We’re living in a world where there are many hybrids like me. We have a hard enough time sorting out who we are, let alone our children. Why should wingless birdwomen feel lost? Or birdmen who aren’t warriors?”

  Nanny Berta drew up a chair.

  “Why did I only feel safe when I slept beside Nicholai? Was it a father thing? Or a birdman thing? I think you know these answers. You have a wealth of knowledge inside you that you need an outlet through which to share.”

  “I have journals. They aren’t full of gossip – well, there is some gossip,” Nanny Berta said, laughing. “But most may be useful.”

  “Tell you what, don’t seek out another job after you think I’m ready to go solo with the twins. Live here and work on, I don’t know, books or a website that will enable you to share your knowledge.”

  “I can’t live on charity,” Nanny Berta said.

  “Could you back me, Ted, and Lazar up when things get too much for us?”

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. I will understand if you choose to go another route. More than ever, I value choice.”

  “I know why you felt safe sleeping in Nicholai’s arms,” Nanny Berta said.

  Mia looked at her expectantly.

  “He makes you feel safe, wanted, and adored. Just like your children do when you hold them. He knows you’re not a child or his child, but he would die protecting you. Mia, he sees something in you that you’ve yet to see in yourself. When you do, you’ll be able to sleep soundly.”

  “Thank you, Nanny. I just thought I had the hots for the old bastard.”

  Nanny was surprised with Mia’s response. It sent her into a fit of giggles that Mia joined in with. The twins smiled as the room was filled with lighthearted laughter and, later, with the remembrances of both women.

  ~

  Burt arrived with Paula and Noah at the PEEPs office. They came straight from school. Ted was prepared with some art materials for Noah to use while he spoke with Paula. Thirty minutes later, Mia walked in with Brian and Varden. Noah hugged his friends.

  “Enos is in the garage. He has a plastic bowling set and wants to know if you’d like to play with him,” Mia told them.

  “Me too?” Varden asked, so excited his voice was breathless.

  “You too,” Mia said. “But listen to Enos, or he won’t want to play with you anymore.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “Yes, Brian’s mom,” Noah said.

  The boys ran out of the office. Mia looked at Ted.

  “Paula, you’ve answered all these questions, and we have a good idea of what went on in plain sight at each of the houses. Mia can, with your help, see what you couldn’t see, such as ghosts or wires if these were elaborate hoaxes.”

  “How?”

  “I’ll just hold your hands while you think back. I may see things you haven’t. I may see nothing. I will not intrude on your private thoughts. I’m just going to be viewing the instances of paranormal activity.”

  Paula waited until Mia sat down and held out her hands.

  “Think back to when you first witnessed something amiss,” Ted guided.

  Mia waited and entered Paula’s mind at that point.

  Ted guided Paula by consulting the information he had already taken from her.

  Mia didn’t see anything until Paula and Derek first heard the voice. The ghost wasn’t much more than a face inside a swirling gray mass. He, at one point, towered over Paula’s husband Derek. Maybe it was a good thing neither Paula nor her husband could see him. There was such hatred aimed at Derek. He said more than “I’m going to kill you and everyone you love.” He ranted about how Derek was responsible for his death inside and that he was going to drag Derek and Paula into Hell with him.

  In the next home, the ghost appeared pretty much after the knife was stabbed into the drywall of the kitchen. The ghost’s rant was the same. Mia heard a small gasp, and she realized that Paula was holding Noah. Noah could see the ghost! Mia backed out and cleared her voice.

  “Paula, open your eyes,” Mia asked.

  She did so.

  “What age was Noah when Derek was killed?”

  “Two, two and a half, why?”

  “I’m not sure yet. Would you be opposed to me reading Noah for a little while?”

  “No, I guess not. Do you mind telling me why?”

  “I think Noah is sensitive or was when he was a tot. I think he saw more than you think he did.” Mia went on to explain the gasp coming from the child.

  “He did stare at the wall a lot. I thought he was just looking at shadows. Is this why he is the way he is?”

  “Artistic?” Mia asked. “No, that’s all on you.”

  Paula laughed.

  “I find Noah refreshing,” Burt said. “He looks at things very similarly to you, Mia.”

  “It could be the sensitivity or just a coincidence,” Mia said.

  “How do you think it would be best to read Noah?” Ted asked.

  “Angelo would take the child on his lap. He’s better at this than I am. I’ll just sit beside Noah and hold his hand and explain that he’s going to see a little girl in his head. That will be me.”

  Paula went out to get Noah.

  “Mia, is the child in trouble?” Burt asked.

  “I think both are in jeopardy. There is so much hate coming off that apparition. It scared me, and I wasn’t even there.”

  Noah sat on the steps of his mind house waiting like Brian’s mom instructed. A little girl with a tattered dress and messy hair walked over.

  “I’m Mia.”

  “I’m Noah.”

  Mia traveled with the child into his memories. They were sparse, as younger children’s memories are. She and Noah played games along the way. When they reached the time when Mia heard him gasp, it was very evident that Noah could see more than Mia saw through Paula’s eyes.

  “He comes around a lot. He played pranks on my parents. I thought he was an invisible friend, but he never was nice to me. Look.” Noah pointed.

  The ghost was a tall man with new prison tats on his arms and across his face. Mia saw the swelling of the recent tattooing. The symbols were odd. Mia took a mental picture of them. She was sure they were a clue. The ghost laughed as Paula cried when he dropped forks in the garbage disposal as she was running it. Sparks flew out and burned Paula’s hand.

  “First, I kill your father; next, I kill your mother; then I’m coming for you, kid!” the ghost growled as it faded away.

  “He’s an evil ghost. He is not an imaginary friend,” Mia told Noah. “Show me all the times you saw him.”

  By the time Mia was finished with Noah, both needed a nap. In Mia’s case, she would tough it out until she had everything recorded.

  Burt picked up Noah and carried him upstairs where Enos had been staying. Varden offered to lay down with Noah. Brian, not one to be out-mannered by his sibling, pushed him aside and climbed into bed. “You sleep on the floor.”

  “Brian, be nice,” Burt scolded.

  Brian tossed down a pillow and Varden seemed alright with that.

  Burt cracked the door and walked down the steps and into the office. Mia had scribbled furiously on paper and handed each drawing to Ted who scanned them in.

  Paula looked on, concerned. She looked up at Burt and asked, “Is she alright?”

  “She’s just trying to capture what she saw as
quickly as possible so she can let it go. Sensitives have to purge other people’s memories as soon as possible lest they become their own.”

  Mia stopped. She gathered her thoughts. “Please sit down. First, your son is a stable, very interesting young man. I see no evidence that the trauma he’s gone through has had any lasting effects.”

  “That’s encouraging.”

  “But he has seen something that wasn’t pleasant. When we are young children, we see things, and unless someone shrieks and says ‘how terrible,’ we don’t see the horrors adults do. Noah saw a ghost. I’m going to ask for Enos’s help with getting the vision out of my head. Together, I think we can produce an image. I saw the ghost as male with recent prison tattoos, which falls in with your story of your late husband helping to put a dangerous man away. The tattoos aren’t normal. I think that they are power-drawing symbols. I have a few sources to consult to pin this down.”

  “What does this ghost want?”

  “To kill all of you.”

  Burt saw Paula pale, but she seemed to find her mettle and dealt with the information.

  “It’s not a forgone conclusion. We can fight it. Between Burt and some of our interesting associates, we will stop this.”

  “How does it keep finding us?”

  “I don’t know yet. If the ghost was attached to Derek, it would have lost any hold on you when Derek died. I’m still thinking ghostly attachment, but I can’t tell you what the item is yet.”

  “What if you find it?”

  “We burn it. And burn the bones if possible, on the other end. Unfortunately, depending on the power markings, cremation could strengthen the entity and give it more power to move, so we really must research this properly. Ted thinks, as Burt does, that there is a pattern to decode. We’ll work on this before going back into your home. Burt, do you feel you can put them up for another week?” Mia asked.

  “No problem.”

  “Paula?”

  “Noah likes Mr. Hicks and the house. I do, however, feel I’m imposing.”

  “I assure you that you are not,” Burt said. “I’m enjoying the company.”

  “Speaking of company, I left Millie and Reg in charge of the twins,” Mia said, smiling. “Nanny Berta is keeping her distance but still has an ear out if they run into trouble.”

  “Did Varden get any quality time with them?” Ted asked.

  “Some. I think our middle child is being ignored.”

  “I could take him fishing,” Burt offered.

  Paula looked at the kind man with new eyes.

  “I think he would like that when we have been deserted by relatives. This way, it will be ever so much more special,” Mia said.

  Ted rolled his neck. “Burt, you never took me fishing.”

  “That’s because you would bring math on the boat with you. Number one rule, no math.”

  Paula giggled.

  “Incoming. Dr. Cooper and the Coopersons are thirty minutes out,” Jake announced.

  “Thanks, Jake,” Ted said. He opened the blinds and waved everyone over.

  Cid ran by like his pants were on fire.

  “He really takes his meals seriously,” Mia said. “Don’t tease him. We’ll never find another wife who can cook. I’m going to go and help him until he throws me out of the kitchen.”

  Mia left. They watched her run after Cid.

  Paula tapped her chin. “Mia said Cid was your wife?”

  “Ted and Mia tease Cid that he’s their wife,” Burt explained. “Cid lived here rent free and decided he would cook for the Martins in return for their hospitality. Mia, who is a great baker but not a great cook, embraced the idea whole-heartedly.”

  “Cid came with the Ted Martin package,” Ted said. “Just as you-know-who came with the Mia Cooper package.”

  “Still, you made out well on the deal,” Burt said.

  “As did you,” Ted reminded him but said no more.

  Noah entered the room yawning. “Mama, I’m hungry.”

  “There are snacks in the refrigerator,” Ted said, sitting back down.

  “Or I could take you and your mother out to eat?” Burt said.

  Paula flushed. “Really, you don’t have to. I can make us something.”

  “I insist.”

  Paula turned to Noah and instructed, “Go and say goodbye to your friends and we’ll go.”

  “Yes, Mama.”

  Brian and Varden arrived on the heels of Noah leaving.

  “Your Grandpop Cooper is twenty-five minutes away. You may want to straighten your room, boys.”

  “Already done. Varden did it while I was at school. I’m going to go and wait on the porch.”

  “No river.”

  “No river,” Brian acknowledged.

  Varden stayed. “Where’s Mommy?”

  “Helping Uncle Cid.”

  “Can I stay here and be with you, Dad?”

  “Me, boring old Dad?”

  “I don’t find you boring.”

  “I’m doing a chart right now. Would you help me by calling out these numbers one at a time?”

  “I can do that.”

  Enos ducked his head back in the garage. He was pleased that Ted was making the effort to spend time alone with Varden. Maybe Burt offering to take Ted’s son fishing woke the man up a bit. The more he was around Burt, the more he realized that Burt really knew how to work people.

  Chapter Fifteen

  A duo of dust-covered vehicles pulled into the Martins’ drive. Brian sounded the alert with a bellow into the front door, “GRANDPOP COOPER’S HERE!”

  Reg and Millie, who had been minding the twins, walked out onto the porch.

  Ed got out and assisted his very pregnant wife and son out of the first SUV. Mia launched herself off the porch running, coming up short when she saw Judy’s condition. “Why didn’t you tell us? Congratulations!”

  Ed picked up Mia, whom he considered his sister by blood transfusion, and swung her around.

  “Ed, put Mia down,” Judy said.

  “Whoa, I now know what it feels like to be Varden,” Mia said. She wobbled over to Adam and hugged him and then his mom.

  “Do you have any hugs left for your old dad?” Charles asked.

  Mia looked at her father, who never lost the look of being dusty and sunbaked, no matter the current weather conditions. She walked over and hugged him. “I missed you so much.”

  “Me too, Mia, me too,” he said.

  There was a faint sound of burbling coming from the porch.

  “Are those my granddaughters?” Charles asked, looking from the porch back to his daughter.

  “Yes. Genevieve and Maeve.”

  Charles waved a hand at the Martins and then prepared himself as Brian ran up and jumped into his arms. He picked Brian up and set him on his shoulders. Mia never realized how strong her father was. She had never thought of him as strong. “Okay, Mr. Brian, where are your brothers? We are two short of a full set.”

  Ted came out of the office holding Varden’s hand.

  Adam squealed with delight. “Varden!”

  Varden looked over and saw the child he had played with on the island and smiled shyly.

  Dieter drove up the drive in the golf cart. He had been in the aerie getting things ready. He stopped it and shook hands with his grandfather and Ed. Judy he hugged before he picked up Adam.

  “You, dude, have grown.”

  Nanny Berta looked out the children’s window at the scene below. She had heard that Refugia had settled in the abandoned body of a Cahokian princess that He-who-walks-through-time brought back. The birdwoman community wasn’t pleased with Refugia’s defection. Nanny always maintained that she would reserve her judgment until she had more facts. Now was her time to do so.

  Lazar walked in carrying a folded load of laundry. “Ah, another arrival. This one had Mia all stitched up inside.”

  “Why?”

  “
How much do you know of the battle of the frost giants?”

  “Bits and pieces.”

  “Mia’s mother, Amanda, opened the door to Niflheim and Muspell after she said some horrible things to Mia. Amanda was killed before Mia could save her. Dr. Cooper told Mia he doesn’t blame her because Amanda was hell-bent on opening that door. But Mia still feels guilty. Mia was a neglected child. Her mother, for most of Mia’s life, despised her. Amanda was Dr. Cooper’s sun that he revolved around. If it weren’t for Ralph and Bernard, I doubt Mia would have survived her infancy. Consequently, there’s all this pain mixed with guilt on both sides.”

  “So sad. But Mia is a loving woman, you wouldn’t think she’d be bitter.”

  “I think you can thank a ghost and a team of ghost hunters for that.”

  “You know a lot about things.”

  “Mia and I have a distant kinship as you know. She lets me read her mind.”

  “She doesn’t realize that you can read her emotional memories too,” Nanny observed.

  “She does, but I don’t think it matters. For some miraculous reason, Mia trusts me.”

  “And me. We are fortunate people,” Nanny said.

  Murphy waited until the Martins went inside before presenting himself to Dr. Cooper and Ed.

  “Your house is sound, Ed. Let me know when you want to start working on it. I will help you as much as I can.”

  “I appreciate that, Stephen,” Ed said. “I’m going to be taking time off just to do that. Judy is due soon, and I’d like to have most of the house livable by then.”

  “I think, then, we better see if we can get Cid to help out too,” Murphy said, looking over at the very pregnant Judy.

  Enos walked up.

  “Who is this young man?” Ed asked.

  “We’ve met, but I was in armor and had my wings out,” Enos said, shaking his hand. “Enos Ahlberg.”

  “Enos, would you be interested in earning some favors?” Ed asked, looking at the strong young man.

  “Can we not do this for friendship?” Enos asked.

  Ed smiled. “I like this kid.”