by Alexie Aaron
“Calm down, you’re disturbing the neighbors.”
Bev looked around her and all she saw was pigeons and roosting seagulls. This made her laugh, and with the laughter her blood pressure went down. “All I know is that he isn’t going to stop. He is a psychopath with a lot of ley power fueling him. Also he’s dripping in money, and in this country, money buys power.”
“I have my people looking into him. In the meanwhile, I have sent Captain Duda and his family on a Disney cruise and replaced them with a few, let’s say, gentlemen who would love to have the opportunity to be of service as long as violence was involved.” Gerald was a chess master and hoped that he was at least two steps ahead of this beast. He still didn’t have a name for this man who was cloaked with shell companies and aliases. But no one was untouchable. One just had to find the crack in the foundation and then exploit it.
“There are people enslaved on that island. In this day and age, slavery! It disgusts me.”
Gerald rubbed his jaw, noting the day’s growth of beard. “That is going to be a delicate situation. I have some ties into the state department, but there are no promises that once we liberate those people, they won’t be sent back to their countries of origin.”
“Do your best. The feelings of despair and apathy have reduced them to automatons.” Bev looked over at her friend. Outwardly he was in control, but she sensed that inside he was in turmoil. A hundred plans forming, reforming, shifting, rejecting and more materializing.
“Are you reading my mind?” he directed this thought to her.
“Well, yes,” she answered aloud. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize what it must be like to be you.”
“I beg your pardon,” he said sharply.
“Don’t be insulted. What I’m trying to say is that I take for granted, hell we all do, that you can fix anything. What we don’t take into account is the toll it takes on you. I’m sorry for assuming that you will come through for me, no matter how I treat you.”
Gerald’s face softened. “I do it because I love you, Beverly Cooper.”
“I know you love me, stupid man.” Bev moved towards him. “You have excellent taste, but I can’t be all you want me to be.”
“But, Bev, I’m not asking you to be anyone else but who you are. I just want you to be with me.” He took her in his arms and kissed her tenderly.
The pigeons cooed and the gulls quieted. Thoughts of love and lovemaking passed back and forth in their minds. Without more than a kiss, Bev was taken away and her knees went soft. Gerald hardened and drew her more closely as their souls merged in a joining that was beyond the physical.
~
Mia stared at the timbers in the room. She ran her hand along the boards and didn’t pick up anything. Puzzled, she traced each symbol, and after a short while she smiled. Walking over to the bookcase she drew out the tome of Nursery rhymes. She flipped through the book until she found what she was looking for.
Burt was on pins and needles. He wanted to ask her but didn’t want to disturb Mia’s concentration.
“Is it okay for me to remove this book?” she asked.
“I don’t see why not,” Burt answered.
“Sorry, Burt, but I was asking the spirits in this room?” Mia turned around and stared at the doll. It slowly opened its eyes. She continued, “I want to help you. But I need information. I will not harm you. I do not want to separate you,” she said and smiled. “You two. You have been together for so long. Let me help you.”
The doll’s eyes rolled backwards for a moment and then returned to stare at her.
She continued, “If I can take this book to the young lady, Beth, I could ask her help to understand what you are trying to tell us. Can I borrow this book? I will bring it back within the hour.”
The doll’s eyes rolled upwards again as if to think, then down again. It moved its head in a nodding position.
“Thank you,” Mia said, moving quickly from the room. “Come on, Burt, we don’t have much time.”
Burt stood paralyzed for a few moments as he watched the doll’s eyes close. He could hear Mia’s feet pound down the stairs. He picked up his walkie. “Beth, incoming missile headed your way, over.”
“Copy that, it just burst out of the kitchen door, over,” Beth replied.
Mia, struggling with being out of breath, started giving orders as soon as she was within earshot. “We need each page scanned. Do not harm the book. Come on people, are you statues?”
Beth cleared off the table, and Ted tossed her a hand scanner.
“Take photos of each of the pictures. We need to see everything.” Mia handed the techs the book. “And we only have fifty-eight minutes and counting.”
Ted turned around and set a timer on the computer. Mike looked at Mia and was the only one brave enough to ask, “Why?”
She took several deep breaths while she waited for Burt to join them before speaking, “The images or symbols burned into the wood are in this book. They are part of a language the spirits in that room use to communicate. A private language. If we can decode this language, we can talk to them and…”
“Find out what the fuck they want,” Mike filled in.
Mia laughed at his directness, “Yes, and who they are. I suspect twins. Twins often develop a private language with each other. And given this family’s penchant for only producing male offspring, they are boys.”
Beth, in the midst of scanning, gasped, “Check out the family bible. It’s on the table in the trailer. There are a lot of twin boys in the Hoffman clan.”
“I’m on it,” Mike said as he strode off in the direction of the front of the house.
Mia looked at the cooperative, retreating form and asked, “Who the hell is that?”
The three remaining PEEPs members burst out laughing. Burt put a hand on Mia’s shoulder and said, “We’ve been a bit puzzled ourselves.” He offered Mia a seat while Beth and Ted worked on the book. “Can I ask you what went on up there?” He nodded at the nursery window.
“Okay, I’ll do my best to explain. I didn’t see anything at first, just the destruction. The… let’s call them twins. The twins are there but invisible even to me. They have limited power presently. I’m not sure why, but they have moved into the fabric of that room. They are in the walls, the carpet, the doll - oh yes, the doll. Beth, the doll is a family heirloom, I assume.”
“Yes, passed down, according to Marjorie, from father to first born son. No one really knows who the original owner was.”
“How did you know this book was important?” Burt asked.
“I think when the boys tossed Mike the book it was obvious. It’s not their fault he caught it with his package instead of his hands,” Mia said simply.
“Forty minutes,” Ted warned, looking at the computer.
“I’m half way through,” Beth indicated. “Ted, can you get the computer to accept the scan any faster?”
“Negative on that. I'm giving it all she's got, Captain.”
Beth took the Star Trek reference in good humor and continued to work. Mike returned with the bible and handed it to Mia. She opened it to the family tree and groaned, “Does anyone read German?”
“I do, but my hands are full,” Beth said.
Burt jumped up and took over for Beth. She sat down next to Mia who pointed to the area she needed transcribed.
“Measles, I think? Death by illness,” Beth read.
“No, that’s not what I’m looking for.”
“Tell me,” Beth suggested.
“This set of twins died of something other than illness or old age. I suspect in childhood, but not too young.”
Beth reached for the bible, “May I?”
Mia nodded and leaned over, watching Beth’s finger move up and down the tissue-thin paper covered in various inks. She stopped. “Here’s a set of boys that died in 1915.”
Mia looked at where Beth’s finger was pointing and moved hers above it. She tapped on a name and the girls smiled at each other.
“Do you think?”
“Oh, yes, I think,” Beth agreed.
Mike who was hovering over them asked, “What? What do you think?”
Beth looked up proudly and announced, “We have the twins and Grandmother Hofmann. They died the same year. The same day. They died in a fire.”
“So we have the Grandma Hofmann and the twins in that house, but why?” Mike asked the group.
“The chair, the doll, the book,” Beth listed.
“Thirty minutes,” Ted interrupted. “How’s it going Burt?”
“Ten more pages and you can have the book for the digital photos of the illustrations,” he answered Ted.
“Armed and ready.” Ted held up a camera with a wicked, jerry-rigged lens attached.
“Mia, do you think you could communicate with Grandma?” Mike asked seriously.
“I don’t know. I could give it a try. Don’t expect too much. Some ghosts don’t know why they are stuck,” she warned.
“This one reads an e-book. In my humble opinion, I think she knows exactly what’s going on,” Mike reasoned. “Although, you’re the expert on ghosts.”
Mia laughed. “Oh, don’t be silly, Mike, I know squat in comparison to others. Just because I’m cursed with seeing them, doesn’t mean I know anything about them.”
“What about Murphy?” he challenged.
“Murph is a whole different kettle of fish. He and I have a history. Even with that, I don’t have a clue what the man is thinking.”
“Twenty minutes,” Ted announced.
His announcement took the spotlight off of her, which Mia appreciated. It gave her the opportunity to see the team work while pondering that kettle of fish and wonder what he was up to right now.
~
The moon was rising when Murphy left the barn. He walked straight over to the woodpile and resumed his earlier stance, staring at his grave. He wondered what his body looked like after the years of corruption. Bones he expected. He’d seen the hag’s bones, but she had been planted a hundred year more than him.
Did he want to travel beyond what was familiar? This was a question he didn’t know how to answer for himself. Wasn’t it fear of the unknown that kept him compliantly maintaining his farm? He really didn’t know.
Mia’s visits were less frequent. She had that PEEPs fella to warm her bed, he suspected. She didn’t let on, but he sensed things. Corporal beings were an unstable lot. April, the present owner of his old farmhouse, was a decent sort but boring and set in her habits. Within his range there were plenty of people who hadn’t passed on too, but the undead weren’t really much entertainment for him. They were stuck in either an echo of the past or bemoaning the injustice of their deaths.
He planted the business end of his axe in the stump of a felled tree and looked around. Murphy had nature, work to keep him occupied, and hours of uninterrupted peace and quiet. This was his heaven, or was it? Damn that girl for planting thoughts in his head. He knelt down and pushed his body through the earth, through the rotting timbers, and now hovered inches above his bones. He saw that his mother had laid him out in the clothes she found on his frozen crushed body. The buttons and a few scraps were all that still survived the decomposition. His flesh and tendons had rotted away. Many of his bones were just crushed fragments of grey material. His axe handle was worm ridden and would no longer bear the weight of the heavy cast iron head.
Murphy pulled himself up and away from his grave. He picked up his axe and walked over to the spot he had pulled Mia from. He looked back to his grave and towards the portal before sitting to have another ponder.
~
Sabine let Tauni fuss over her. A ribbon was drawn through her hair after a new gown had been carefully pulled over her body. The waif was too weak to sit up on her own so the bed back was positioned for her. Bev and Gerald had ensconced themselves in her bedroom after an argument or two. Gerald was all for leaving the girl alone, and Bev was adamant it would be bad form not to be there when Brian and Holly arrived. The doorman called up to announce them, and Tauni stood at the door ready to answer it when they arrived.
“Remember, look deeper than his wrapper,” Tauni advised.
“I’ve seen his soul, and it is beautiful,” Sabine said softly.
“You’re a good girl. I’m proud to know you.”
“Thank you, for keeping me well.”
“It’s my job, pet, it’s my job,” she said to Sabine just as the doorbell buzzed. She opened the door. Before her was a smartly dressed young woman. Tauni sensed her heart held the strength of a lioness. “Hello, you must be Miss Holly. I’m Tauni Cerise, Sabine’s nurse. Come on in.” She stepped aside and watched Holly walk purposefully into the room before turning around and addressing the young man behind her. “Brian, welcome to Sabine’s home.”
Brian sat as tall as he could in the powered chair. He leaned his skull against the headrest ever so slightly to keep it from lolling forward. His sister had him garbed in an elegant three piece suit that not only suited his coloring but hid the essential bags and tubes he needed to travel with. His shoes were shined and positioned on the footpads of the chair in such a way as to align his feet that tended to curl inward. Tauni could see the faded elegance of this knight that Sabine had told her about. She squelched the emotions that rose inside of her. She remained professional. “Right this way. Sabine, she has been waiting for you.” Tauni stepped aside and closed the door after Brian rolled past.
Holly stood aside and watched protectively as Brian followed the tall black woman to the far end of the room where a nervous young woman sat in a hospital bed waiting. She steeled herself for the rejection that could happen once this vital female took in her brother’s body.
Sabine’s face lit up, and her smile warmed the room. “Oh Brian, it seems like years since the boat trip.” She blushed and reached downwards to grasp his hand. The nurse lowered the bed, and soon Sabine looked more comfortably into her knight’s eyes.
“My lady,” Brian rasped. “You are as beautiful as your traveler persona.” He looked over at Holly and motioned with his eyes. “My sister Holly wants to meet you. Between you and me, I think she thinks we are going to get up to nonsense…”
“Brian!” Holly exclaimed. She walked over and stopped on the other side of the bed. “Sabine, I’ve heard so much about you. Ignore the rat child. I never said such a thing.”
Sabine smiled and looked from Holly to Brian and back again before she laughed. “Holly, I’ve never had a sibling to call a rat child. It sounds like fun.”
“She loves me but will never admit it,” Brian teased. “How about you taking a walk, wink wink?”
Holly was about to tell Brian what he could do with his walk and winks when she felt a hand on her arm and turned to see Tauni.
“Let’s have ourselves a cup of tea and let these children get acquainted. I have good ears. I will know if either of them gets up to hanky-panky.”
“Tea sounds wonderful,” Holly said and followed the nurse into the kitchen. “I was never very good at leaving him.”
“It’s understandable. Sabine told me that being around Brian’s soul was like being kissed by God.”
“Oh my, I wouldn’t say that,” Holly objected, but admitted, “I’m glad she sees him that way.”
“I’ve not been on this earth but nigh on forty years now, but I knows love when I see it. Those two have a connection that goes beyond the flesh. It’s early days yet, but let’s give the children a chance, shall we?”
“I’m not standing in the way. I just don’t want to see him hurt.”
“Love will always hurt. As much as it gives us joy, it will also give us sorrow.”
Holly eased back in her chair and thought about Tauni’s words for a moment. “Very well said, brilliant, actually,” she acknowledged.
“I have my moments, child. They come few and far between but when they do…” she sighed and let the rest of the words go unsaid.
Chapter Twenty-three
&
nbsp; Mia placed the book on the shelf and took a moment to look at the other titles that had been lovingly place there for Marjorie’s twins. She envied these boys. They were nurtured by a flesh and blood, loving mother. Her own mother had no nurturing aspects to her personality. Mia was a child that learned the hard way to keep away from mommy when the academic was in the muse. However, she was loved, but by a ghost. An immediate bond occurred. The spirit did her best to nurture Mia, while holding off the destabilization that would eventually turn this calm nurturing entity into a crazed spirit, seeking freedom from the confines of the house. Mia set her free and buried her bones in consecrated ground, with Ralph and Bernard’s assistance.
“Were you loved?” she asked the room. “Did someone comfort you when your teeth were cutting through?”
Ted who was listening in from the command center was puzzled by Mia’s questions. There was something so sad about them. He leaned in and watched as the doll opened its eyes. He spoke into his microphone to the earpiece Burt insisted she wear, “Mia, the doll has eyes on you.”
Mia turned and approached the doll. “Hello, you. Thank you for the use of the book. My friend is busy trying to figure out what you are trying to tell us.”
The doll closed and raised one eye.
Mia laughed and asked, “Are you flirting with me?” She carefully reached out and stopped before she made contact. “May I?”
The doll nodded.
Mia picked up the toy and held it in the crook off her arm. She then sank to the floor, oblivious to the drywall dust, and opened her mind.
Images of another room, with calico curtains blowing in the breeze from an open casement window, moved in front of Mia’s inner eye. A dark haired boy, then two played on the floor, soundlessly moving lead toy soldiers back and forth. Their clothing was clean, crisply ironed play clothes, as identical as the twins were. They were happy in their silent play. Light danced along the wall as it filtered through the trees outside of the room. Mia picked up a scent for the first time. There was a freshness in the air. It left a sweet taste in her mouth - apple?
