by Alexie Aaron
“Okay, list why someone would want you to be twenty years younger.”
“One, to put a monkey wrench between me and you, Ted. In the future, you’re my rock. Two, to stop me from being an assassin. I’m supposed to kill the duke of Hades, but he and I get along fine, so that’s not going to happen. Three, to make me a sociopath since they failed the first time. I was a cold bitter person before I met Murphy and you guys. PEEPs gave me permission to use my talents. I’m not just a freak anymore.”
“Why would anyone but Cid want to come between us, Minnie Mouse?” Ted asked.
“Oh my god, you used to call me that too.”
“What did you call him?” Cid asked, interested.
“Teddy Bear and Batman.”
“I am Batman,” Ted said in Michael Keaton’s voice.
“Well, I’m Superman according to Mia,” Cid bragged.
“He speaks the truth. Be nicer to him, he’s always had your back, Ted.”
“Except today. And I ended up in the locker,” Ted said.
“So, you’re not mad about him stealing me but more about not being there when you were being shoved in the locker.”
“Well, yes. I know Cid’s not going to take my girl because he’s not that kind of guy. He’s loyal.”
“He is,” Mia agreed. “Tell him, Cid, where you were, or I will.”
“I was there early, but Mr. Stevens spotted me. He had a note from my mother to call her. She and Dad are going to be spending tonight and the weekend in Kansas City with my grandmother. My sister is in charge. Which means there will be no one to watch me because she is going to be partying with her cheer squad over at the college all weekend. One of the cheerleader’s sister has a dorm room there. Anyway, I got back to the locker only three minutes late and waited, but you never showed.”
“I was there all the time and didn’t see you,” Ted said. His eyes narrowed, and he asked Mia, “How’d you know about this?”
“You guys talked about it one night when we were on night watch for PEEPs,” Mia said. Her eyes lit up and she asked Cid, “Hey, do you really have an empty house?”
“Yes, I thought I’d stay with Ted. His parents are used to me staying there.”
“How about if Murphy and I stay with you? I need a place to bunk overnight. I can’t catch a bus to the Duprees until ten in the morning. I don’t think they’ll let me hang out at the bus station all night, and I doubt a minor can book a hotel room.”
“You and me alone at my house?” Cid questioned.
“Murphy will chaperone, so no funny stuff,” Mia said.
Ted laughed. “Cid wouldn’t know what stuff to be funny with.”
Cid was going to object but thought the better of it.
They all waited until Cid’s sister, Candy, left with her friends before entering the Garrett house. It wasn’t a particularly tidy house like Ted’s. The cluttered counters spoke of parents whose interests were elsewhere. Cid had made them a snack of homemade pizza. They walked into the family room where he and Mia sat on the couch and watched television together. Murphy moved in and out of the house playing the chaperone while guarding the house.
Mia excused herself to use the facilities, and when she came back, she had on new pajamas.
“Those are nice,” Cid said.
“I guess. I didn’t buy them. Want to know a secret?”
“Yes.”
“No one will let me buy my own clothes. Time and time again, there is some male picking out my clothes. My father because he has to, my godfather Ralph because he feels sorry for me, and now the butler of a friend of mine. I’m too polite to say anything, but I hate it.”
“If you were to buy your own pajamas, what would they look like?”
“I would wear a big T-shirt and boxer shorts.”
“Come on,” Cid said.
Mia followed him to his room. He pulled open a drawer. The clothes were neatly folded inside. He pulled out a green tee and a pair of plaid boxers. He handed them to Mia. “They’re yours.”
“Really?”
Cid did a facepalm and mumbled, “Damn, I picked them out. Okay, let’s do this again. You pick out a tee and boxers.”
“I would have picked these out,” Mia lied. She started to pull off her pajamas and stopped. “I’ll just change in the bathroom,” she said.
“Wouldn’t matter. My glasses are so fogged up from me being nervous, I wouldn’t be able to see a thing,” Cid admitted.
Mia still went into the bathroom and changed. She came out and twirled. “How do I look?”
Cid, who had just wiped his glasses clean, nodded. “You look tough.”
“I like that,” Mia said. She walked around. “Your room is so clean. Unlike…”
“I know my house is messy. No one cares but me. My sister thinks I’m gay.”
“She’s wrong. There are very orderly gay men, but there are also messy gay guys. You’re not a freak about being orderly. You just appreciate your things more than most guys your age. And there is nothing wrong with being gay. I have two gay godfathers.”
“Mia, I’m so lonely,” Cid blurted out and started crying. “I have no one who cares about whether I live or die. My parents are embarrassed by me. My dad wants to send me to fat camp. My mother say’s I’ll grow out of it and keeps putting me in sports programs. My sister bullies me here and at school.”
Mia ran to the bathroom and got a clean cloth and put cool water on it. She came back to find Cid sobbing, laying crosswise on his bed. She got into bed and rolled Cid over so his head lay on her lap. She blotted his face with the washcloth. “There now, Mia’s here. You’re not alone anymore.”
Cid sniffed.
“We’re all freaks. I can see ghosts. My best friend is a ghost. He’s kind of a freak too. Murphy doesn’t want to scare us; he wants to help us. When you grow up, you turn heads as you walk down the street. You once pulled your shirt off, and I was so amazed I couldn’t talk. I just kept on staring at your muscles. Ted picked me up and carried me into the house.”
“Why did you pick Ted in the future to be your husband?” Cid asked.
“He wore me down. Not in a bad way. I think we were meant to be together.”
“Were you happy?”
“Most times. I think our baggage from our freaky days got in the way a few times. Plus, I kept changing. It must have been hard not knowing who I was when I came home.”
“Mia, I’m tired.”
“Close your eyes.”
“Don’t leave,” Cid said as his eyes shut.
Mia looked down at the sleeping dormouse. His face was streaked from the tears he continued to shed even in his sleep. A maternal feeling came over her. She missed her boys. She tried not to think that she may not see them again and, instead, focused on the Garrett’s little boy. His intelligence would always make him seem older, but his insecurities kept him immature for his age. Maybe this was why the adult Cid moved so slowly when he was in a relationship and why he clung to his friendship with Ted like a life raft. She continued to lightly stroke his face, feeling the ache of his loneliness.
Mia yawned. She was going to spend the night on the family room couch. Cid had left her a pillow and some blankets for her to use. Mia didn’t want to wake Cid, but she was exhausted. She lifted his head off her lap and slid a pillow under it. Mia carefully moved off the bed. Cid still slept. Next, she pulled the covers out from under Cid carefully, to not wake him. She had started to cover him up when he whimpered in his sleep. Mia slid in beside him and pulled up the covers over both of them. It didn’t take long for sleep to find her.
Cid smiled in his sleep. For the first time in a very long time, he felt safe.
Murphy walked in to see the young people sleeping together. He knew there hadn’t been any hanky-panky. However, he was rather concerned when he found Mia’s pajamas abandoned in the bathroom. He moved to the bed and gently lifted the covers and sighed. Mia had on a big T-shirt and looked comfortable. He took the pajamas away
and shut the door, leaving it open a crack. He decided that he’d spend the evening watching television and guarding the kids.
~
Mia woke in the early hours. She looked over and saw Cid sleeping there. His face looked so peaceful. She slipped out of bed and quietly walked into the family room where she had left her pack. Murphy turned around from watching a morning show. “The weather is going to warm up today, no clouds.”
“Is anyone else here?” she whispered.
“No. Cid’s sister never came home.”
“I’m going to go shower and get dressed. We’re going to have to find our way to the bus station.”
Murphy nodded.
Mia pulled out her jeans and decided that she’d use the top half of the Catholic school girl’s uniform. She brushed the wrinkles out of the blouse while she thought about all they had accomplished so far and how far they had yet to go. The Duprees were a formidable twosome, and Burt was a very stubborn man. She could only image what a pain in the ass he could be as a teen. “Please, don’t make me find out,” she said.
Murphy looked over at Mia. She wasn’t speaking to him. Mia talked to herself a lot. He’d been around for plenty of one-sided conversations. He watched her gather up her clothes and head for the bathroom Cid’s sister used. There she could find lots of lady things to use. He remembered Chastity’s lady things, jars of this and that, curling wires and ribbons.
Cid woke up and rolled over. He smelled Mia’s fragrance on his pillow. He blushed in embarrassment when he remembered bawling like a baby. She had been so kind to him. He looked at the clock, and it was still early. He didn’t have to get up for school for another hour. He lay back and thought about all the wonderful things Mia spoke about that he would experience in the future.
But what about Mia’s future? If she didn’t accomplish her quest to find the wisher and break the candle, her future would be drastically altered. She may not even marry Ted. She had confided in Cid that she wasn’t the only one in love with Ted when they got married. “The set of circumstances were that he wasn’t interested in the other woman. She didn’t take the rejection well. Mia said, “She actually sent an elemental dragon to the Dupree farm after Brian’s christening to kill us.”
“You fought a dragon for Ted?” Cid asked.
“For all of you. For myself too. I had help. Murphy stayed and protected the household while I led it away from the farm.”
“How?”
“Why don’t we let that one go for now,” Mia said and changed the subject.
Cid got out of bed. He had made up his mind. He picked up his walkie-talkie and opened a channel. “Ted, are you up, over?” He waited and repeated, “Ted, wake up, over?”
“Waking up, over.”
“I think we need to help them, over.”
“I agree, over.”
“We could get grounded for life for what I have planned, over.”
“I haven’t been grounded for life yet. I consider it my rite of passage, over.”
“Come over, packed for the weekend, asap, over.”
“Over and out.”
~
Mia stared at the light blue Saab 900 convertible in the Garretts’ garage and back at Cid. “You have to be kidding. This is your mother’s baby. You told me she saved for it for years. Can you drive?”
“No, but I read a book about driving.”
“I can drive, but physically, I’m not sure a passing cop is going to believe I’m old enough to drive,” Mia said. “I can’t get arrested. Time is fleeting.”
“I can drive,” Ted said from the open garage door.
“They don’t give thirteen-year-olds driver’s licenses here in Kansas, do they?” Mia asked.
“Of course not,” Ted said. “But it didn’t stop us from taking this car out in the middle of the night a few times when Cid’s parents were away,” Ted boasted.
“What if we get pulled over?” Mia asked.
“Murphy can manifest in the seat and take the rap for us. I doubt he can drive.”
Murphy shook his head.
Mia turned to Cid. “Are you sure you want to do this? You can get into big trouble if we’re caught.”
“Mia, my parents have been making decisions for me since I was born. I didn’t even have a say in the classes I took, what kind of glasses I wear, my clothes, anything. It’s time I rebelled.”
“But you’re taking your friend down with you,” Mia said as Ted hopped in the front seat.
“He makes his own decisions. Let us help you. Even if you took the bus, it’s going to let you off miles from where the Duprees live. What if they aren’t there? Are you going to walk all over Kansas looking for them?”
“You make a good point. It is a sweet little car,” Mia said, running her hand over the fender. “We may want to keep the top up until we exit the city though. Ted’s tall, but he still looks like a thirteen-year-old.”
“I’ve thought of that,” Ted said, pulling the rearview mirror down. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a fake mustache and placed it on his upper lip. Next, he pulled off his ball cap and put on a flat cap he borrowed from his father. He turned and asked, “What do you think?”
Mia and Cid burst into laughter. Murphy manifested and asked in a comical accent, “’ow much to go to Bucking’um Palace?”
Ted, being a good sport, took on the guise of Dick Van Dyke’s Bert in Mary Poppins and said, “Eighty pence a mile for you, the girl rides free.”
They loaded up the car before Ted started it and drove it out of the garage. Mia shut the garage door and climbed in behind Ted. Cid rode in the front, and Murphy, invisible to all but Mia, rode in the back with her.
Cid who had taken on the task of navigator started directing Ted. Ted, who thought he knew the way, resisted, and they had to turn around a few times before they even got out of the neighborhood. Each time Mia opened her mouth to add her two cents, Murphy pinched her and whispered, “Let them work it out.”
Finally, the foursome were on the road and headed for open farmland. Mia sat back and pulled out the dossiers Nordin had compiled of Glenda and Mike Dupree to look at as they drove. Glenda was listed as a widow receiving a paltry military pension. She operated her farm efficiently, hiring outside labor for the harvesting. Mike was a good student and a great athlete. There were a few copies of news clippings showing the handsome youth accepting awards and trophies for his high school. Mia had seen some of the personal trophies when she had visited the Dupree farm before. She remembered her last moments there guiltily.
Mike’s mother had cleverly managed to get herself stranded overnight at a relative’s, leaving Mike and Mia alone together. There had been a lot of chemistry between the two that both of them never took advantage of even when Mia’s marriage had fallen apart. In Glenda’s mind, it would be better for the two of them to get it out of their systems and move on. Nothing sexual happened, but during a frightful thunderstorm, Mia ended up confessing one of her darkest secrets to Mike, something she hadn’t told Ted about. Why was it easier to talk to Mike than Ted? It wasn’t that he was judgmental or a bad listener. It may have been nothing more than timing, but Mia still felt guilty.
“You’re pretty quiet back there,” Ted called back. “Is everything alright?”
“I’m just looking over the information that Nordin collected on the Duprees.”
“I thought you knew them.”
“Not in this time. I met Mike when he arrived to scout out a haunted house with Burt. He and I did not get along.”
“He was full of himself,” Murphy said. “I took him down a peg.”
“How?”
“I played pranks on him,” Murphy said and smiled. “I may play one when we meet him. I haven’t decided.”
“What was Mia like when you first met her?” Cid asked, turning around.
“She surprised me by being able to see me. She also could hear me speak, although I don’t remember much in the way of conversations.”
“Murphy didn’t talk a lot then. It takes a lot of energy to push speech through the veil. Now he never stops talking,” Mia teased.
“Sounds like Ted,” Cid said.
“Oh no, the Ted in my time holds the world record for words spoken in a twenty-four-hour period.”
“It’s a talent,” Ted said.
“What did you think of Ted when you first met him?” Cid asked.
“I thought he was the smartest, funniest, most likeable guy I had ever met,” Mia said honestly.
“How about you, Murphy?” Cid asked.
“I fried his monitors accidently and he forgave me, so I liked him.”
“Tell us about Cid,” Ted demanded.
“When I first met him?” Mia qualified.
“Yes.” Ted said.
“Hot sexy body, big glasses, very loyal to you, Ted,” Mia said.
“How come you didn’t say I had a hot sexy body?” Ted asked.
“Because… Murphy, you take this one.”
“I didn’t think either of them were sexy. Ted’s big nose was in my business, and Cid got himself lost in a snowstorm, and Mia had to go and save him.”
“But you married me and not Cid,” Ted confirmed.
“Cid didn’t ask,” Mia teased.
Cid started laughing
“You know I’m smarter than him,” Ted said, clearly annoyed.
“I think if you factor in all the variables, I’d say you two were even. You have this fantastic mind that can invent things out of the blue. Cid’s more down to earth. He cooks amazing meals and is a great listener. When I married you, I got Cid too. So, I’m the winner here.”
Cid turned around, giving Mia a thumbs up.
Chapter Twelve
Wyatt sat nursing a drink as he watched the crowd of young people moving up and down the street. Nordin, who had changed from his traditional black suit, had on a white linen pair of trousers and a Cuban shirt. The afternoon heat wasn’t excessive, but the humidity was high, and the sky was looking like it wanted to rain.
