NOLA

by Alexie Aaron

  “But you just ate.”

  “Father, I have a confession. I’m always hungry,” Mia said without an ounce of contrition.

  Chapter Nine

  Audrey walked around the busy library. She had Ted transfer most of her monitoring equipment to the PEEPs iPad. She wandered up and down the fiction stacks on the second floor, sometimes stopping when a spine of a book was misaligned. Audrey adjusted the volume and walked on, happy to be part of the presentation of all the works of fiction. This library still used the Dewey decimal system. The collection was computerized, but the card catalog was still kept up to date. She mentioned this to Miss Hodges, and her reply was, “Computers occasionally go down. The cards don’t.”

  When Audrey was a young girl, she would close her eyes and run down the rows, trailing her fingers lightly on either side of the aisle. She would randomly stop and pick out one of the two books her fingers pointed to. Sometimes she would take both books out. This was her way of becoming a well-rounded reader. If given her choice, it would be mysteries. She was a Nancy Drew devotee. The mystery series had taught Audrey how to hone her investigative skills. As she grew up and was exposed to Raymond Chandler and Barbara Michaels, she learned that she needed to watch her back while investigating. This evening, while the library was open to the populace, she would spend it taking readings of the public areas while giving herself permission to browse the impressive collection of books.

  Matt had given Audrey an e-reader for Christmas, and Audrey did use it, downloading the latest in independent authors. But she still liked the feel of the plastic wrapper on a hardcover book and that distinctive smell that only a library could supply. Matt’s family had amassed an impressive library in their home, but they were heavy on biographies and history and light on mysteries. Audrey was a voracious reader, sometimes taking out ten books at a time. After witnessing Audrey manage an armful of books, Mia had Ted and Cid make a special tote for Audrey’s visits to the library. The waterproof-fabric, zippered tote had retractable wheels and a long leash for pulling the heavy books safely to her car.

  An icy-cold finger tapped Audrey on the shoulder. She spun around to see a tall, elderly gentleman behind her. She looked up into his sharp eyes, set off in a wrinkle-filled face and asked, “Yes? Can I help you?”

  “You shouldn’t be listening to your rock music in the library,” he scolded.

  Audrey glanced at the iPad and could see how he could have mistaken it for something other than a tool of her trade. She turned it around to him and explained, “This is for taking scientific readings of the library. Here is temperature and humidity,” she pointed out. “And here measures the electromagnetic field and…”

  “Electromagnets?” he spouted. “What do they have to do with a library?”

  Audrey needed to be quick on her feet, yet she didn’t want to give the man a glib answer. “This gives us an idea of the amount of alternate current, the type of electricity that you would associate with televisions and microwaves. If there is too much concentrated in an area, it could cause the patrons and employees to have headaches and, in some cases, see things.”

  The man seemed to buy her explanation. “I’ve seen things over in Hobbies. Maybe you want to take readings over there.”

  “What kind of things?” she asked, tapping her earcom to get Ted’s attention.

  “I could have sworn I saw two young fellows, wearing bell-bottom jeans, tossing the Popular Mechanics magazines around. When I went to interfere, they disappeared. The magazines were all over the floor. I thought at first it was just hooligans, but the manner of their dress had me puzzled.”

  “You said they were wearing bell-bottoms…”

  “And tie-dyed T-shirts. Not the manufactured kind you can buy in the mall but homemade. And their hair was long.”

  Audrey was impressed by the man’s recall. “Shoes, do you remember what kind of footwear?”

  “That’s the odd thing; they didn’t appear to have any feet. So do you think a concentration of these currents could cause me to see something like that?”

  “Oh no. I think you saw something else,” Audrey admitted.

  “Tell him the truth,” Ted advised.

  “My name’s Audrey McCarthy, and I’m with a group of people who investigate the kind of phenomenon you’ve been describing.”

  The man held out his large, arthritis-claimed hand and grasped Audrey’s gently, “I’m Walter Parks,” he introduced himself. “I used to teach science in the middle school.”

  “Careful, Audrey, this guy’s going to know if you’re embellishing,” Ted hissed.

  “Mr. Parks, can you take me to the area? Maybe with your keen eye and my meters, we can solve this mystery,” she offered.

  The man turned his arm, pulled his sleeve back and consulted the wristwatch he wore. “I’ve got a few minutes. My grandnephew is picking me up in a half hour.”

  “Well, then we better get started. Lead the way.”

  Ted alerted Cid that he may want to meet Audrey and Mr. Parks in Hobbies with a camera. “Maybe the GoPro would be less obtrusive,” he suggested.

  “Gee, I’m aghast you haven’t named it Tiny Tittie or something more vulgar,” Cid teased.

  “Too many cameras, not enough time, now that I’m married with child,” Ted said, regretting instantly the with child comment.

  Cid let it go. He would file it under ammo when next the two had an argument on who was the smartest.

  He found Audrey in the company of a man of approximately eighty years. He was lean and wrinkled, but his eyes were sharp and lacked the rheumy look most of his peers would be sporting at their age. After introductions were given and Mr. Parks gave his permission to be filmed, Cid stood down the aisle a ways, focusing in on the pair.

  “About what time did you see the two entities?” Audrey asked.

  “I’m not exactly sure, but it would have been between seven and eight in the evening. You see, my grandnephew drops me off while he has his drum lesson and picks me up at eight fifteen. I make sure I’m at the checkout desk by eight so I’m not late,” he explained.

  “That’s nice of your grandnephew,” Audrey commented.

  “Well, actually, we are in cahoots.”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “My grandnephew Adam is supposed to be studying. His mother doesn’t think pounding on drums actually needs to be taught; and my wife thinks I’m at Adam’s drum lesson. She thinks the kid needs a male role model. So, we’ve found a way around the powers that be. I pay for the lessons, and he, in turn, covers for me with The General.”

  Audrey giggled.

  Cid studied Audrey’s face a moment. She was so genuine. He thought Matt was a very lucky guy to have a woman like this in his life, and PEEPs was lucky to have Audrey investigating with them. Mia told him in confidence once that she envied Audrey’s good-natured way. “Audrey is the heart of PEEPs,” she had declared. At the time, Cid only saw the tasks the researcher performed and didn’t take into account the emotional support that Audrey gave everyone. He now understood what Mia was trying to tell him.

  “I guess the cat’s out of the bag now,” Mr. Parks said, nodding towards the camera.

  “Not if you keep The General from watching the show,” Audrey conspired.

  “Good thinking,” he said, winking.

  Audrey turned her head quickly and the curls surrounding her face bobbed up and down. “Did you see that?” she asked Walter.

  “If you’re talking about the book that went sailing over the trains and model cars from the poetry aisle, then yes,” Walter Parks answered.

  Cid moved the focus of the small camera and hissed into his mic. “Ted, we’ve got movement. Send Burt over with the infrared, over.”

  “Burt’s on his way, over and out,” Ted replied.

  “What the dickens is going on?” Walter asked, taking the lead and walking around the end of the hobbies section to look down the next aisle.

  Cid did the same from the op
posite end and caught both Walter’s arrival and the two snickering teenagers tossing a thin volume around as if it were a Frisbee.

  “Ted, tell Audrey to give Walter a free hand to manage the situation as if he were in the classroom,” Cid said.

  Ted relayed the order, and Audrey nodded.

  “Mr. Parks, if these two were in your classroom, what would you do?” she asked him.

  Walter walked down the aisle, stopping a few feet from the entities and held his hand out, announcing, “That will be enough of that! Hand it over.”

  Surprised, the boy nearest to him handed him the book. Walter glanced at the book and bellowed, “Byron! You’re tossing Lord Byron around? Byron is for romancing your girlfriends not competing for the Olympics!”

  The other boy looked at his book and handed it to Walter. Walter looked at the book and handed it back. “Hughes is overrated and was unkind to Ms. Plath. Toss away, boys.”

  Burt arrived to be on hand to film the Frisbee game. From an infrared point of view, the entities were pretty warm, not as warm as the humans interacting with them, but they seemed to draw energy from a heat source instead of an opening in the veil. If Burt had to pinpoint where these boys had been spending eternity, he would have said the library.

  Audrey handed the iPad to Walter so he could see how the tablet was recording data. She slid a digital recorder under the two miscreants and asked, “Hey, guys, I’m Audrey from PEEPs, and we’re here to see if we can help any lost souls in this building.”

  The two boys continued with their game, but one of them did say something that surprised the living beings watching them.

  “Todd and I love it here. But you may want to see about the old man in the basement. He’s got a lot of nasty going on.”

  After a few more seconds, the two ghosts faded, and the book dropped to the floor.

  Audrey bent to retrieve the book but stopped when Cid cleared his voice.

  “Could be hot or freezing cold. Burt?”

  “The camera shows that it’s hot but fading. It should be safe,” he said.

  Audrey picked up the book, returning it and Byron to their proper spots on the shelves. She turned to Walter and asked, “So you think Hughes is overrated why?”

  Cid followed the two while they discussed poetry. Burt stayed onsite and did a cursory check of the adjoining aisles. He made a note to make sure he told Audrey what a great job she did interviewing Walter Parks and the entities. Speaking of entities, he had lost track of Murphy. He touched his earcom and asked, “Ted, location check on Murphy.”

  “The big guy’s with me. Do you need him onsite?” he asked.

  “After the library closes, we’re going to try to communicate with the children. Then I’d like him to do some recon work with me in the basement, over.”

  “Murphy nodded, over.”

  “Ted, good job on orchestrating the Frisbee event, over.”

  “Can’t take credit. That honor goes to Audrey and Cid, over and out.”

  Murphy looked at Ted a moment and wanted to disagree. He saw how hard the tech worked to get the right people in the right places at the right times. And he did it all by sound. They didn’t, and wouldn’t, have any cameras set up until after closing hours. He wasn’t sure if Ted was being humble or if Ted saw himself only as a cog in the investigative machine. Either way, Murphy was impressed.

  He reached out a hand and patted Ted on the back.

  Ted turned around and smiled. “Thanks for that, Murphy. It’s great to have you here. I sure do miss Mia.”

  Murphy tapped his chest.

  “I don’t think I tell her enough how much more fun all this is when she’s around.”

  Murphy nodded.

  “Although, Mia would remind me that Audrey was better in this situation than she would be. Mia would have joined in on the book toss regardless of who was being spun.”

  “Bad Mia,” Murphy said and slapped his knee.

  ~

  The park looked different from the angle Mia was hanging from. Upside down, the grass became the sky and the rapidly darkening sky, her floor. She swung wildly as the demon Sticks continued its climb up the ancient oak tree. She tried to right herself, relying on her stomach muscles and arms to virtually climb her own leg, but the wild swinging motions of her kidnapper were making it near impossible. Twice, she had to save herself from having her head cracked on the large branches as they passed them.

  Adrenaline pumping, she had no time to think things through. She concentrated her telekinesis on the hand of the demon. She created enough heat to burn her skin through her pant leg and to encourage Sticks to let go of her. She fell downwards fast and only managed by the grace of God and the tail of a kite, stuck firmly in the branches of the old giant, to save herself. She swung over to a stable branch, fearing the knotted cotton would not hold her weight for long. Mia climbed down and took off running in the direction of the meeting place where Sticks had abducted her from.

  The attack had been swift. She and Father Peter had just finished the beignets they purchased from a vendor while they waited for the others in front of the grandstand at the racetrack in the fairgrounds. Mia took their wax paper wrappers and cardboard coffee cups and headed towards the trash cans outside of the building. The wind had picked up a bit, and she assumed the scratching she heard was dry branches rubbing along the building’s front façade. Even though darkness was just falling, she was uneasy that the exterior lights of the building had not yet lit. She quickly accomplished her task and headed back towards Father Peter.

  A large, spindly hand wrapped itself around her leg and pulled her upside down.

  “What the hell?” she asked before she screamed. “Something’s got me!” Mia twisted and managed to pick up rocks and branches from the ground as they passed. She flung them at her captor to no avail. “Come on, this isn’t funny. I just ate, and I’m going to puke,” she tried to reason with the thing. As they crossed a parking lot into a green area, the overhead lights blinked on. What she saw of her abductor didn’t ease her fears. A twisted visage of bone and bark greeted her. It had eyes, but from her angle, she couldn’t see if they held any color or light. There was no nose to speak of, but it had a mouth very similar to a carved pumpkin. Realization washed over her. This had to be the other demon, Sticks. Nothing gets more Tim Burton than this, she determined as she fought to stay conscious by pulling up on her pant legs to get her head upwards. She couldn’t hold it for long but managed to exist in this world by keeping away the star-studded blackness that tried to claim her again and again.

  Father Peter heard Mia’s cries and started running to where he last saw her.

  “Whoa, priest, where are you going?” Candy asked as she and the other two witches arrived at the meeting place.

  “Sticks just grabbed Mia,” he called out. “He’s headed towards the state park.”

  “You’ll never catch them on foot,” Becky said, looking around them. She spied a couple of motorbikes parked in a handicapped parking space and trotted over to them. “I’d like to meet the crips who can manage these babies.”

  “Physically-challenged,” Monique scolded her, hefting the large Harley off the kickstand. Monique waved her hand over the engine, and it roared to life. Becky lifted her voluptuous skirt up through her legs, tucked the hem into her waistband and got on the bike. Father Peter straddled the remaining cycle and lifted it up. Candy jumped on behind him. Monique passed her hand over the large engine as they moved by them, and the engine turned over.

  The noise of the engines negated any verbal conversation, but Father Peter managed to give Monique a few directions telepathically as they cut across the fairground’s parking lot.

  Mia tripped over a fallen branch and went sprawling. She landed face down, her pack riding high on her back. She tried to get to her feet but was impeded by a pain in her thigh. Mia rolled over, reached into the flap pocket of the hurt thigh and pulled out the charm Candy Kane had given her. She looked at it and at the
demon now bending down over her and thought Sticks was the biggest spider she’d ever come across. She squeezed the charm and called out, “Weebee!”

  Smoke moved out between her fingers that were clasped around the charm. Mia opened her hand, and the smoke formed the head of snake. If Mia had to testify in court, she would have identified it as a common garter snake. But, in reality, it may have started off common but quickly grew into something that was beyond Mia’s knowledge. The head shot forward pulling a thick, large body behind it. Mia dropped her hand, absently rubbing her thumb over the now smooth stone.

  Weebee quickly observed the supposed spider in front of her. She grew in comparable size.

  Sticks had backed off Mia in the early moments of the snake formation. It eyed the phenomenon as if it were a magic trick. How did this humongous snake come out of the little human’s pocket? It reached out a boney hand and tried to encircle the neck of the ever-growing serpent. When one would not do the job, it used two, and this was how Sticks found himself face to jaw with Weebee.

  Weebee unhinged her jaw and grabbed the head of the demon as it wrapped its tail around the rest of the creature and swallowed.

  Mia got to her feet and backed up, watching as Weebee ingested the demon. The snake wavered a bit, and Mia could have sworn she looked a little nauseous.

  “Oh dear.” Mia realized what had happened. Weebee was used to digesting spiders of all shapes and sizes. A demon was a whole new situation.

  Mia bent over the snake and lifted the massive head, looked into its eyes and said, “My bad.”

  A roar of machines preceded the blinding twin lights of the two hogs. Mia put her body in the way of the bikes, jumping up and down, waving her arms to get the operators of the motorcycles to stop before further injury could be done to Weebee.

  The lights were killed, and four people rushed over to Mia.

  “Careful, I have a sick friend here,” Mia cautioned.