by Alexie Aaron
“No wonder he thinks about you too much. You’re a minx.”
Chapter Three
Mia and Nicholai flew back slowly through the Ghost Ship Dimension in Lake Michigan. They took advantage of the spectral breezes and moved with just the mere flick of the feather.
“I saw a dragon do this. She looked more like she was floating, she was so graceful,” Mia said.
“There’s something you don’t see every day.” Nicholai pointed down.
Below them were three ships. A cargo ship was traveling the freighter lane while the other two were ghost sailing ships tailing the larger ship from the GSD.
“Those are pirate vessels,” Mia said.
Mia wanted to get closer to see if she could identify the ships, but Nicholai shook his head and motioned for them to move higher, out of harpoon range. He guided Mia safely to Angelo’s penthouse before he took a more eastern route away from the dangers of the lake back to his home.
Mia landed and found the patio abandoned, but the door to the penthouse was unlocked. She knocked lightly and didn’t get an answer. She walked quickly to the closet and put on her jacket and pulled out her phone. She dialed Ted.
“Hello, wayward wife.”
“Sorry, I’m not sure if I’m wayward as much as kidnapped,” Mia said.
“How did they take the Quentin confession?” Ted asked.
“Two of the three surprisingly well. I haven’t talked to Angelo yet. He’s not here at his penthouse at the moment.”
“How did you get in?”
“Through the garden door. Do you need anything from the city?” Mia asked.
“Just you.”
“I’ll call you when I take off so you can get the dancing girls out of the house,” Mia said.
“Wayward yet considerate,” Ted said. “I think I’ll keep you.”
Mia put her phone away and went in search of a pad of paper to leave Angelo a note. She found the paper and Angelo in his office. He looked up at her and frowned.
“You could have told me when I was healing you. I thought we had reestablished our trust. I’m not going to lie to you. I’m very angry.”
“You have every right to be. I’m sorry.”
“When did you tell Stephen Murphy?”
“I haven’t.”
He looked at her aghast. “You told us before Stephen?”
“Yes.”
“He’s not going to be happy when he finds out.”
“That’s up to him.”
“I don’t understand how your mind works?”
“You’ve been in it enough times. I’m surprised you haven’t set up a summer residence…”
Angelo laughed. “Thank you for coming back and apologizing. I need to think this through.”
“Take all the time you need. I have to go now,” Mia said. The old Mia would have walked over and hugged him, but the thinking Mia knew that it may send the wrong message. She just walked out, transformed, and left his penthouse. She looked at the sky in the direction of home and was happy to see it clear. “An excellent day for flying,” she said and took off.
Had she looked towards the lake, she would have seen Captain Henry Waite’s telescope trained on the skyline. “Why hello, Mia, remember me?” he said before he instructed the crew to pull the ship into deeper water to wait.
~
Mia stood there waiting for Brian. She turned her back on the group of gossipy moms. She figured out quickly that Lisa Lane-Cordoba was going to sour the other moms on her. She had hated Mia in school, and Lisa, by all accounts, hated her now.
Brian sensed the ladies’ eyes upon him as he walked out of the school. They resembled chickens pecking at the ground. He put up his proud beak, walked straight to his mother, and handed her the paper rose he had painstakingly constructed during craft hour. The other children, after they made theirs, could run outside for imagination time. Brian was instructed to read a short description about roses and fill out a question sheet naming the parts of the rose. After completion, he could join the other kids.
“How beautiful!” Mia said, holding it up to her nose.
“Mom, paper roses have no scent.”
“Yes, they do. They smell like paper,” she said. Mia grabbed his hand and asked, “Would you like to go to the park today? Your dad and Cid are a bit cranky. I promised them we wouldn’t make much noise.”
“Could we go to the aerie instead? I remember there are three books about roses there.”
Mia angled her head and thought. “I think there are four. Although, I think one of them is written in Demon.”
“Do demons like roses?”
“Maybe. At least enough for a book to be written about them. Tell you what, let’s get a spiral sketchbook. This way we can work together and keep notes. I used to be able to do a mean pen-and-ink rose when I was in school. I’d love to show you how.”
Brian’s face lit up. “So you did have some happy times in school?”
“There were a few classes I really liked. Art was one of them.”
“Where were you last night?” Brian asked as they continued to walk towards the town center.
“Nicholai took me to see his house by the lake, and I fell asleep. I guess I was tired from flying. I’m sorry I missed tucking you in and taking you to school this morning.”
“Dad almost sent me to school in my pajamas, but Murphy stopped him.”
“I guess they were up pretty late last night.”
“There was a lot of laughing. Dieter let me wear his earphones so I could fall asleep.”
“What a nice big brother. You know his birthday is coming up.”
“I’ve been saving.”
Mia looked down at her son. “You have?”
“Uncle Mike gives me a dollar every time he sees me if I don’t ask him more than five questions.”
“What a racket you’ve got going,” Mia commented.
“I have eight dollars.”
“Wow, you’re rich,” Mia said, opening the door to Acalan’s shop.
“Acalan! Your competition is here,” Zarita, Acalan’s grandmother and shop assistant, called. The large woman moved quickly for a woman in the winter of her life. “I’ll follow him and see if he’s trying to steal your secrets.”
Brian put his hand on his face.
“They’re on to us,” Mia said. “We may as well come clean.”
“Oh, Mom, you’re embarrassing me.”
Zarita bent over and studied the paper flower in Brian’s hand. “Is that real? It looks real, but how can we have roses this late in the year?”
Brian’s face lit up. “I made it.”
“You did a fine job. How can I help you, Mr. Brian?”
“My mother needs a spiral sketchbook…” He looked at Mia who mimed a pen. “And a pen and ink.”
“An ink pen?” Zarita asked.
“No. A drawing pen and a bottle of ink,” he clarified.
“What color?”
Brian looked at his mother, and she hunched her shoulders.
“What colors do you have?”
“Caramba, do we have colors. Blue, black, green, red…”
“Black isn’t a color,” Brian said.
Acalan walked up. “He’s right, Grandma Z. Black isn’t considered a color because it doesn’t reflect light and doesn’t reside in the color spectrum.”
Brian tapped his chin. “I just learned something.”
“Me too,” Mia admitted. “Hello, Acalan, how’s my painting?”
“Touring Ohio with the Midwest art show. It won best of show in Topeka, Kansas.”
“It travels more than I do,” Mia complained. “Acalan, do you remember when Mrs. Morrisey showed us how to draw pen-and-ink flowers?”
“No,” the paint-speckled Hispanic artist said. His brown eyes flashed with a memory. “Wait, yes. Why?”
“I’m going to show Brian how to draw some roses.”
“I’m going to research roses. Look at the one I made,” Brian
said, handing it to the artist.
Acalan examined the rose. “Very nice. I think, Grandma Z, we need two calligraphy pens with different nibs. But I’m going to make an adjustment for your hand, Brian.”
Zarita walked over and selected two sets of pens and returned and handed one set to her grandson. Acalan took the pen and pulled the wood from the nib holder and took a folding knife out of his pocket and trimmed the handle and replaced it.
“There, it’s Brian size.” Acalan squatted in front of Brian. “Brian, the ink stains. It will stain your fingers and anything you spill it on. You must be very careful.”
“I will. I promise.”
“Good. Now, go over there and color me a masterpiece while I sketch your mother.”
Mia started to protest.
“Nothing naughty,” Brian warned.
Mia giggled. Her son remembered her words from the last time Acalan made Mia sit for him.
“I promise.”
Mia followed Acalan up the stairs. “Stand looking out the window. And be still.”
Mia knew it was futile to object when Acalan was in this mood.
“Good, good,” he said as he sketched. He pulled out a camera and started taking a few pictures. He stopped, adjusted the camera, and took a closeup of Mia’s face. “Your eyes are sad.”
“Not sad, tired,” Mia explained. “I had a misunderstanding to clear up, and it took me all night and half the day to do it.”
“Good result?”
“Two-thirds good. One-third pending.”
“Concentrate on the two-thirds, the other will come along.”
“That’s great advice.”
“Your eyes have changed since I painted them; they have blue just behind the green. Your nose is the nose I remember from school.”
“I like it this way, less perfect, more me.”
“I was offered a commission to design a new tarot deck. I would like you to be XVII The Star.”
“No. She’s naked if memory serves me, and Brian said, ‘nothing naughty.’” Mia ducked under the artist’s arm and ran down the steps.
Brian had two of everything lined up on the counter.
Zarita rung them up, and when she totaled, the cash register didn’t open. Brian cleared his voice and said, “Allow me. Acalan, make this devil open the drawer!”
“Your kid is after my job,” Zarita said, crossing her arms.
“No one could replace you,” Mia assured her.
Acalan fixed the register while Zarita bagged their purchases.
Mia was getting ready to leave and stopped. “I’ll have to discuss posing for you with my husband.”
“Yes, you should. He can come with you if you prefer.”
“I’m not saying I’ll do this, but I’m not saying I won’t.”
“Call me, and we’ll arrange a time that is convenient,” Acalan said and handed Mia a card.
She put it away in her purse, took Brian’s hand, and they left the store.
“Acalan, that girl is trouble,” Zarita told him. “Maybe it’s better you keep your distance.”
“Grandma Z, she’s not trouble but troubled. I don’t think she knows the difference.”
Mia and Brian walked back to the preschool where the van was parked. On the ride home, Mia listened to Brian talk about each student of the class. Evidently, Noah got himself in another fix during craft time. Today he started to lick the tissue paper, and the color bled onto his face. “He looked like a tomato.”
“Noah is a free spirit,” Mia said. “A tomato among apples.”
This caused a fit of giggles from Brian. “If he is a tomato among apples, what am I?”
“A pear.”
“You’re a peach.”
“I love peaches, thank you,” Mia said, pulling into the drive. “Remember to be quiet in the house. We are going to change our clothes and take Varden with us. I think if your dad and Cid have headaches, Lazar may be feeling a bit under the weather too.”
“How can they all have headaches?”
Mia thought about the amount of beer bottles she found stacked in the mudroom but held her tongue.
“Maybe they were laughing too hard.”
“Brian, I think you solved the puzzle. You are a very smart kid. I’m lucky to have you around.”
Brian beamed.
Mia pulled the van into a parking space. Her phone pinged. She took it out and looked at the text and answered back.
“Who was that?” Brian asked.
“Acalan. He gave me his schedule for the next few days. Maybe, I am going to sit for another painting. I just have to ask your father if it would be okay.”
“I didn’t think you had to ask for permission.”
“When you’re married, it’s important to include your spouse in making decisions, big and small, whenever you can. There are times when you have to make them quickly, but when you have time, it’s a good idea to consult with your wife or, in my case, husband.”
“It keeps you out of the doghouse,” Brian said.
“Yes, Brian, it does.”
The door opened, and Murphy assisted Brian out. Mia hadn’t spoken to him yet today. “Hello, Murph.”
“Good afternoon, Mia. May I have a moment of your time?”
“Brian, Varden, and I are scheduled to do some homework in the aerie. Can it wait until after?”
“Yes.” Murphy caught on that she was trying to teach Brian about time management. He grinned. Normally, Mia would have said something like, “What now?”
“Good. I look forward to seeing you there. I’ll take Brian in and get him started on changing out of his school clothes. You go in and check in with Ted.”
“Thank you, Murph.”
Mia walked over to the office and stuck her head in the door. Cid and Ted were working on the terminals. Cid’s head was mere inches from the keyboard. Ted was looking at the monitor with one eye. She walked in and placed her healing hands on either side of Ted’s face.
“Pumpkin, that feels so good.”
Mia kissed the top of his head and moved on to Cid.
“Thank you, Mia,” Cid said when the pain melted away.
“All you have to do is ask,” she said. “I’ve done the crime myself. Hangovers happen. I do hope you had a good time,” she said, moving back to Ted and massaging his shoulders.
“I did,” Ted said. “Did you?”
“No, not really. It was a bit stressful. I’m going to have to gather our gang together and go over the same ground soon. I hope their reactions are better.”
Cid looked over at Mia concerned. “Is this that big secret Ted won’t talk about?”
“Yes. I’m surprised he hasn’t mentioned it,” Mia said.
“You can try it out on me now,” Cid insisted.
Ted looked up at her when he felt her hands start to shake. He put a hand on one and said, “Cid, let’s leave this for a while. Mia’s had a hard night.”
“Okay,” he said and turned back to the keyboard.
“Cid, Quentin is alive. I didn’t kill all of him,” Mia blurted out.
He looked over at her aghast. “How is that possible?”
Mia explained and begged his forgiveness. “I couldn’t risk the birdmen finding out. They have ears everywhere. I understand if you’re mad. I only told Ted because he’s Ted.”
“I’m surprised you did, considering his track record on secrets,” Cid said. “Mia, there is nothing to forgive. I know that sometimes the work you do has to remain secret. Jake says my mind is easily read. I’m the weakest link.”
“You’re open and honest, not weak,” Mia said, meaning it. “Thank you, for receiving it well.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t crack when we were all on that island together,” Cid said.
“I had my moments. Well, gentlemen, I’m gong to take the boys to the aerie so you can have peace and quiet. Before I forget, Ted, may I spend tomorrow morning with Acalan after I drop off Brian?”
“You d
on’t need to ask my permission, Minnie Mouse.”
“Yes, I do. I will be posing for a portrait.”
“Wings?”
“No wings,” Mia said. “He’s been hired to illustrate new images for a tarot deck, and unless I can talk him out of it, he’s determined I’m going to be number seventeen. He said it was alright if you came with me for the posing.”
“Do you trust him?” Ted asked.
“Yes. He’s not after my body; I’m not the right gender. He protected me as a child, so I imagine he will protect me as an adult.”
“Sure. Call me if you need me to pick Brian up after school.”
Mia kissed his cheek. “I’ll leave you gentlemen to your work. I’ll be up at the aerie if you need me.”
Mia walked out the door.
“You’re a very understanding and secure husband,” Cid said.
“Why?”
“Jake, show Ted card XVII, otherwise known as The Star. All images you can find.”
The three screens filled with pictures of a naked woman at a stream. There were a few women who were clothed in filmy fabric. A few cards were just a picture of a star, but the majority were of a nude woman.
“I can see why he asked Mia,” Ted said slowly.
“This one is dressed and has angel wings,” Cid tapped the screen. “Maybe this is the image he is going for. After all, he can see her wings.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“You can tell her no,” Cid said.
“No, I can’t because, even if it is one of these nudes, there is no one better suited in my eyes too.”
Cid looked at his best friend. He had been sure there would be a freak out.
“I have never understood why she continues to choose me to be her lover when she could have anyone. There is one constant in my life and that is that Mia Cooper loves me. I can feel it with every touch. I can hear it in her voice. I can see it in her eyes. Even when I’m a jealous insecure bastard, it’s still my hand she seeks out to hold, my love she fights to keep. Sure, we’re not perfect, and both our behaviors around others may be suspect unless you know what truths we hold inside. She is so powerful, but when we are alone, that falls away and she’s that girl who dropped her towel, surprised to see a geek ironing her dress in the motel room.”