Checking Out

by Alexie Aaron

Murphy motioned her away and took a swing of his axe and cut into the hard, frozen ground. Slabs of soil fell away and slid to the ground. He swung again, and the axe almost bisected him as it bounced back with such force. Murphy scrambled to retrieve the axe while Mia examined the wall as the earth fell free. There, resting in what Mia assumed was the core of the former ley line, was a rock that resembled a large slice of burnt pizza. “Such a small thing. Iron, oh crap, no wonder you couldn’t touch it. It’s probably mostly iron and perhaps nickel?” Mia guessed. “Anyways, we’re fucked.”

  “Mouth,” Murphy warned Mia. Even underground he didn’t appreciate her use of swear words.

  “Sorry, but who the ef is going to hear us down here? Give me a moment to think this through. It’s in the heart of the line. The iron deflected the magnetic flow. But it’s so small?” Mia got up and backed away. “I wish Ted was here. He’s so smart. Wait!” she exclaimed, rushing to the wall. “You could dig a channel on an angle under the rock and take another swipe at it. If we’re lucky, the rock will tumble away from the heart of the line,” Mia presumed. “Do you have enough power to do this?”

  He studied the wall and asked, “Which way?”

  “That would be up to you, Paul Bunyan. You know trees and how they fall. Perhaps the physics is the same. Just make sure the rock moves at least a few feet in either direction.”

  “What happens when it falls?” Murphy asked.

  “Good question. I don’t know. I think we should beat feet away from here just to be safe. I have no idea… The line may simply be reconnected. There could be fireworks. Perhaps a small explosion when the normal line tries to blend with the meteorite-enhanced segment. Or it’s quite possible, it’s been too long, and the segments will no longer join. In that case, it’s back to plan A. I’ll have to talk to the house.”

  “Stand behind me, Mia.”

  She walked over and stood. Murphy shook his head and pushed her back a few feet. “I need room,” he cautioned.

  Mia nodded. She watched as Murphy undercut the ground three feet from the meteorite. He worked his way upwards inches at a time until he had made a large angled shaft. “Hold on,” he said as he raised his axe once more.

  Mia couldn’t hang on to anything but did appreciate the warning. She watched as the cast iron of the ghostly axe came into contact with the earth just below the meteorite. As the ground began to crumble from the weight of the rock, it began to slide. It got hung up for a brief moment, its smooth angled surface catching on the edge of the shaft. But gravity and weight won out, and it fell into the shaft and slid away from its forty year resting place. Sparks and green light filled the chamber.

  Murphy ran to Mia, grabbed her and pushed his way upwards out of the ground and once more into the clearing. The two of them ran backwards and watched as the ends of the line twisted wildly in the air. Mia had seen electric lines do this after being snapped from their moorings during a storm. The lines whipped around. The southeast line flew a few feet over their heads. Mia and Murphy hugged the ground until the dangerous, powered segment had passed over them.

  No sooner had they escaped the southeast segment when the northwest part of the line moved quickly towards them. They tried to evade the pull of it, but it was too strong for them. Mia pulled Murphy hard to her as the segment dragged them in. Mia and Murphy tumbled uncontrollably as a rush of energy pushed them northwards with uncontrollable speed.

  ~

  Mike thanked his hostess for the cherry cordial and the company. “I fear I must retire. Audrey and I need to make an early start tomorrow. I have important business to attend to in Hillside. Thank you so much for the good company and hospitality,” he said as he climbed the stairs.

  There was a momentary shudder that caused Mike to grab for the handrail. “What was that?” he asked.

  “I don’t honestly know,” she said. “I haven’t felt anything like that since…”

  Mike could see she fought for the memory but gave up after a few moments. “I’ll make sure breakfast is served at six am promptly. This will give you time to enjoy Millie’s confections and coffee before you hit the road. Pleasant dreams, Mr. Dupree.”

  Mike turned back and continued his climb to the second floor. He walked down the corridor and was greeted by Audrey who was standing wild-eyed in the hall. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Come look outside!” She grabbed him and pulled him into their room and over to the casement window.

  Mike peered out into what looked to be a laser light show. Streaks of green filled the air around the inn. Pulses of orange moved along at a slower rate and popped open, their insides oozing down what he could now see as a wall of some kind. The inn shook again.

  “What’s happening?” Audrey asked.

  “I don’t know. Get dressed and gather all our equipment. I think the inn is losing its ability to stand still. See how the ground is getting closer. Is that wheat? No, it’s snow, and it’s spiking upwards.”

  ~

  Burt and Maggie ran to the PEEPs truck. From where they estimated the ley line was, the brief ground tremor folded the snow back as if it was flayed skin. The overhead sky was lit with orange orbs and green lightning.

  Cid had jumped out of the truck with a camera and was filming the phenomena. Burt traded the leash for the camera. Cid took Maggie to the safety of the truck before joining Burt. He held an infrared camcorder and scanned the area. The cold blue of the snow was a sharp contrast to the heat of the ballooning ley line over them. The line moved nine and a half inches off the ground according to the sensitive measuring device he held in the other hand. It extended ten feet in the air, except for the area in which they assumed the Dew Drop Inn rested. There it shot fifty, sixty yards into the air. Through the viewer, it looked like a python that must have swallowed a rhino, a very angry rhino by the heat that was coming off the uppermost part of the bulge.

  “What’s happening?” Burt asked, not expecting an answer.

  “I suppose Mia and Murphy have reconnected the line. Do you realize we are actually filming a ley line? How great is that!” Cid said, losing his composure and jumping up and down.

  Burt, who was filled with worry, looked over at the young man briefly and said, “I hope it’s worth it.”

  The realization that Mike and Audrey were stuck in that bulge and that Murphy and Mia had not appeared dawned on Cid. He struggled to come up with the right words and failed to say anything but, “Crap.”

  ~

  Mia and Murphy tumbled out of the end of the line into another clearing. The sky overhead was clear. The winter sky was full of stars. Mia lay on her back and reached upwards, “Murph, the stars are so close…”

  Stephen Murphy, who had landed facedown, didn’t appreciate her star gazing. He struggled to his knees. His axe was gone. He frantically searched for it and found it fifteen feet from him. “Where are we?” he asked, righting himself.

  Mia, who was consumed with the night sky, didn’t hear him at first.

  “Where the hell are we?” he asked again.

  She still didn’t answer.

  He walked and stood over her, blocking her view.

  “Hello, Murph, whatcha doing?” she asked sweetly.

  “Where are we?” he growled.

  Mia sat up and looked around. “I suppose if we are at the end of the northern line, we would be in Itasca. This used to be a place of pilgrimage for the ancient peoples. I can see the draw. It’s beautiful.”

  Murphy looked around and appreciated the magnificent trees that surrounded the clearing they rested in. He saw the ley line sparking a few feet away. “Time to go,” he said, reaching his hand down to help her up.

  Mia shook her head. She knew his energy was too depleted for them to connect outside of the ley line. She got to her feet unassisted. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. You must be exhausted,” she apologized.

  “Worried.”

  “I am too. Part of me doesn’t want to go back. It’s as if part of me is
meant to stay here where it’s safe and…”

  “You can’t stay here. No body, no Mia.”

  “I know that but…”

  “Your eggs are scrambled from the trip,” Murphy said, pointing to her head. “You have to go back to your body, Mia. Back to Ted. Back to save Mike and Audrey,” Murphy insisted.

  Mia rolled her neck and took one last look around her. “K. Time to save the world. Murphy and Mia go once again into the ley line,” she grumbled. “I’d like to come back here when it’s all over.”

  “Come back with Ted. Come back in the summer. This is no place to be right now,” he advised.

  Mia, still a bit dazed, took a moment to organize her thoughts. “Sorry, Murph. I don’t know what came over me. Let’s go. This time, let’s walk and surf the line upright.”

  “Good plan,” Murph said and waited for Mia to walk into the line and pull him in after her.

  ~

  “My wife’s not feeling well. I think we’d better leave now,” Mike explained to Mrs. Brewster who met them at the bottom of the stairs.

  “If she’s ill, she should get some sleep. I can’t have you two wandering lost in the night. It isn’t hospitable!” she exclaimed.

  “I’m sorry. Please make up our bill. We’d like to leave now,” Mike insisted.

  Mrs. Brewster was about to argue the point when Millie and Paul came into the lobby. “Let him leave, Mother,” Millie requested. “You can’t keep them here.”

  “We’ve never had a guest leave in the middle of the night. What will people say?”

  “Mrs. Dupree is ill. They need to leave to get her some help,” Millie said. “People get ill. To hell with what people will think.”

  “Don’t you swear at me, young lady,” Mrs. Brewster said.

  The house shuddered again. Audrey lost her footing and stumbled down the last few stairs. “Please, Mrs. Brewster, let us go,” Audrey pleaded, hanging on to the rail. “We’ve had a wonderful stay. The inn is beautiful and so accommodating, but I feel bad and need medical attention,” Audrey said, forcing tears to well in her eyes.

  There was a loud banging on the front door. Paul walked over and opened it.

  “Not you two!” Mrs. Brewster shouted, seeing Mia and Murphy standing on the porch. “I have no room nor time to deal with you!”

  “Mike, Audrey, leave now,” Mia said calmly.

  Mrs. Brewster moved to block the door, but Murphy pushed her back, holding his axe in a menacing way.

  Mike grabbed Audrey’s hand, ran by the protesting woman and out onto the porch.

  He took a moment to look back before heading down the steps and over to the van. He opened the door for Audrey, and she jumped in. He circled the car and got in, watching the porch of the inn for any sign of trouble. He started the van and drove away from the building. He passed the PEEPs truck and pulled off the road a few yards from where Cid and Burt stood filming.

  Audrey got out of the van and ran to Burt and hugged him so hard that he had a hard time breathing. He put the camera down, facing the light show, and asked, “Are you alright? I was worried. What are you wearing?” he asked, looking at the long-john-wearing, flannel-gowned, fur-coat-topped redhead.

  “Layers,” was all Audrey got out before Burt kissed her. “I missed you. Did you have a good time with your parents?”

  “Excuse me, but could all of this wait? We have a bit of a crisis here,” Cid said, backing away. The bulge on the infrared was red hot and shrinking.

  Mike ran over and picked up the discarded camera. “Go on, Burt, take care of Audrey. She’s had a time of it.”

  “How is it in there?” Cid asked.

  “The inn is shuddering, trying to maintain its position, but the ley line is too powerful. Mia and Murphy showed up in the nick of time and got us out of there.” Mike lowered the camera and looked at Cid. “Hey, it just dawned on me that I saw Murphy,” he said.

  “You can tell us all about it later. Film,” Cid ordered.

  Mike set the camera on his shoulder and refocused as the inn wavered before them.

  ~

  “It’s my inn! Get out of my inn!” Mrs. Brewster shouted over and over as Murphy backed her up behind the desk.

  “Millie, Paul, we have to leave now. I’m not sure what’s going to happen here. Mrs. Brewster, you too. Come with us. Leave the Dew Drop,” Mia urged.

  “I’m not leaving my inn! Get out. You too, Millie. You’re a traitor. You get out of here and take your farmer husband with you.”

  “But, Mother, it’s over. You don’t have to stay imprisoned here anymore. Let go of the inn, let it go!” Millie pleaded.

  Paul drew his distraught wife away towards the door. “Come home with me, Millie. She won’t be alone. She has the inn to keep her company,” he explained.

  Murphy waited until the couple left the porch and were walking out into the night before releasing Mrs. Brewster. He nodded to Mia and walked towards the door. “It’s time.”

  “Mrs. Brewster, since you won’t leave, please listen to me. The Dew Drop is going to move on. Whether it stays intact or not is a mystery to me. You could end up in limbo forever if you stay here,” she warned. “Come with us. The inn doesn’t need you anymore. It will travel to the end of the line, and then it will be free. Let it go, come with us,” Mia urged.

  “Nonsense. The Dew Drop Inn will always be a place of class and hospitality. We will serve the lost travelers, giving them a safe harbor for the night, and they will leave the next morning with a stomach full of…” Mrs. Brewster stopped speaking. “Who will cook the breakfast?”

  “Don’t look at me. I turn perfectly good sausages into doorstops,” Mia admitted. “Please come with us. Your daughter and son-in-law are waiting for you. Your husband waits at the doorway to the great beyond. Come, let the inn go,” Mia asked for the last time.

  “No. Now get out of here. I have guests to prepare for,” Mrs. Brewster said and pointed to the door. “And take that axe-wielding hooligan with you!”

  “You heard her, Murph, let’s go.”

  Mia ran out the door with Murphy on her heels. They jumped off the porch, landing on the frozen ground of the field.

  Cid caught a flash of heat exiting the shrinking ley line that cooled to a deep blue as it moved towards him. “Murphy?” he asked.

  CRACK!

  Ted spun around, hearing Murphy’s call sign and looked at Mia who was just opening her eyes.

  “Whatcha doing?” she asked.

  “Researching tropical holiday destinations,” Ted said as he gathered his wife up in his arms. “Don’t you ever…”

  “Move a meteorite without an exit strategy?” she asked.

  “Well, yes.”

  “Done and done,” she said. “Murph needs some joy juice, Teddy Bear.”

  Ted got up and pulled out the T drawer and gathered up two of the battery cubes. He activated them and tossed them out. He had to grab hold of Maggie who thought the cubes were toys to be chased. He pulled her back inside and over to where Mia was struggling to get out of the artic sleeping bag. “What’s the hurry?” he asked.

  “First, I want to kiss you long and hard. Then, I’ve got two ghosts to see to. Mrs. Brewster decided not to join us on this side of reality.”

  Ted gathered her into his arms and gave her the asked for kiss.

  Ted’s kiss cleared the cobwebs from her mind. The strange effect the explosive tumble had on her faded the moment her soul connected with his. She drew strength from the love that surrounded her. “I love you, Ted. You are my home, my life and my love.”

  “And your barista,” he said, fighting his emotions. “How about a cup of coffee before you venture out into the cold again?” he asked.

  “I’ve got your love to keep me warm. But I’d like one once I make sure Millie and Paul are headed in the right direction.”

  “It’ll be waiting for you. Now scoot, I’ve got important readings to download.”

  Mia jumped off the truck, letting M
aggie follow her. She nodded to Murphy who wanted nothing to do with what she was going to supervise next. “Watch Maggie, will you? She may get a bit excited.”

  Murphy nodded nonchalantly. He got to his knees and enjoyed the attention the dog gave him. Evidently he was missed by someone.

  Mia walked up behind Cid and Mike. “You see any spirits around here?”

  “Lady, you’re asking the wrong people,” Mike said.

  “Where are Burt and Audrey?” Mia asked, looking around.

  “If my hearing is as good as it was, then they’re in the van making out,” Cid said as he widened the focus of the infrared on the fluctuating line. “You should see this - oh, you can see it.”

  “Maybe not in the same way.”

  “I see a brilliant green and orange python digesting a meal. You?” he asked.

  “I see a big pile of crap being forced down a sewer pipe,” Mia said, eyes dancing.

  “Oh gross,” Cid complained.

  Mike shook with laughter. He had a hard time keeping focus and had to set the camera down for a moment. “Now look what you did,” he said. “Burt’s going to have a hard time editing my Blair Witch technique out of the film.”

  “Ted should really come out and see this,” Mia said.

  “Ted is seeing it,” Cid started to explain, “but he prefers computer language to…”

  “Crap moving down a sewer pipe,” she finished.

  Chapter Eleven

  Millie and Paul stood watching the Dew Drop Inn as it fought to hold its position with the pull of the ley line. Mia approached them quietly, listening to their conversation.

  “I don’t know why she is so stubborn,” Millie ruminated. “It’s not like she particularly likes playing hostess.”

  “I don’t understand. You said the inn was her life,” Paul asked.

  “It is, and it isn’t. She likes her place in society: the innkeeper, the hostess, the savior of the lost. But in reality, she doesn’t like the guests at all. She puts on a pleasant face, and I think she’s quite good at masking her feelings. It’s my father that loved the inn and the catering to the guests. When he died, she just kept on with the job. I don’t know why. It wasn’t like we needed the money. I think she didn’t know what else to do,” Millie realized.