NOLA

by Alexie Aaron

  Chapter Twelve

  After the movie, Mia decided to go back to her own room. She didn’t want GEM to get the idea that the sensitive was shacking up with Ralph. She let herself into her room and took in the view a moment before sliding under the covers. It wasn’t long before she was asleep.

  “Mia, my pet, it’s time to wake up,” a familiar, buttery voice intruded into her dream.

  She opened her eyes to the dark room and sat up.

  “Over here, little bird,” Judge Roumain teased.

  Mia followed his voice to the large mirror. “Oh no, no Alice Through the Looking Glass for me, I’m tired.”

  “Come, it’s time we talked.”

  “I can barely move…”

  The overwhelming, rich aroma of Columbian coffee rolled out of the mirror. Mia sniffed and moved towards the glass as if in a trance.

  She found herself in a tiny room, and on the table was a cup of coffee and a sign that read Drink Me. “Cut it out, Roumain,” Mia ordered.

  All but the cup of coffee vanished. Mia had rescued it as the table started to fade. She held the cup in both hands as the familiar Haitian graveyard took its place. Sitting like royalty, perched on a headstone was Judge Roumain. His top hat and formal, immaculate attire fitted the handsome entity to a T. Mia suspected this was more magic than tailoring but kept her opinion to herself.

  “Welcome, we have much to discuss.” He motioned Mia over to a moss-covered grave marker. “Sit.”

  Mia knew better than to resist this entity. She walked over, feeling the cool moss on the bottoms of her bare feet. She sat down and sipped the coffee. The caffeine sped through her veins, and the last tendrils of sleepiness faded away. She sighed.

  “Better?”

  “Much better. I’ve had a hell of day, you?”

  “Oh, my day’s been interesting. Trying to convince these souls that they don’t need to do penance is tiring.”

  “Really? Aren’t you afraid of losing your job?”

  “Oh, no, the place is quite crowded. I can barely move around without touching a guilt-ridden soul. But that’s not why I brought you here - although souls are the common denominator.”

  “I met Alexei and heard his claims.”

  Roumain nodded. “Alexei is the most unusual ghost, don’t you think?”

  “He’s different. He said you would tell me about soul eaters.”

  “On my side of the veil, there are entities who watch your world with rabid fascination. They seek out the weak and enslave them for their own amusement. They barter souls to gain power. Souls are a valuable commodity here.”

  “If they are valuable, why are you trying to get rid of yours?” Mia asked.

  “I don’t own these people; I just provide a place in which they can sort themselves out until they are ready to move on,” Roumain told her.

  “Oh.”

  “Things aren’t simple like they are in your world.”

  “My world is simple? I would hate to see what you call complex.”

  The judge adjusted his cuffs with his elegant, long fingers. “Soul eaters were a way of destroying the competition’s hoard. They were invented by the old ones. However, they soon fell out of vogue as the souls simply disappeared, leaving the players destitute and hungry. In your world, a few shamans and medicine men still called upon these things to help their tribes in battle, but they could not control them, and quite a few became victims of the very thing they called upon. We thought the practice had died out with the last of the conjurers, until someone in N’awlins activated a soul eater portal.”

  “Why would someone do that?”

  “Power, idiocy. Perhaps it was done unknowingly.”

  “Can you explain how this is done, so I can undo it?” Mia asked.

  “You’re a brave girl to try. I caution you not to, but I don’t think you listen to old Judge Roumain anymore, so I’ll explain the process.”

  “It’s not that I don’t listen to you. It’s that I resent you interfering in my life.”

  “Ah, Dad, leave me alone,” Judge Roumain mimed a surly teenager.

  Mia set her cup down and glared at the entity. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate you for saving me from bondage with the birdmen. Or for keeping me out of the dark world, but you could have simply said, ‘Mia, Don’t go in there,’ not get me knocked up. Don’t get me wrong, the sex was wonderful, and I love little Brian, but there are easier ways to communicate with me. And where the hell were you when the Other was trying to enslave me?”

  The judge rubbed his chin. “I can’t interfere with the business of collecting souls. It’s just not done. It did give your aunt the opportunity to step up though,” he said. Roumain smiled, and his even teeth glistened with health.

  Mia fixed her jaw.

  “Are you not dismissing my words now?”

  “Yes,” she admitted. “No, not really. I simply think I should investigate what happened to Alexei’s mask, and if I encounter this soul eater, I would appreciate knowing as much as I can, so I can keep out of trouble.”

  “I will tell you on one condition.”

  “What is the condition?”

  “You must not do this alone.”

  “Are you inviting yourself?”

  “Oh, no, I’m not a fool. Find someone that you trust more than anyone else, someone powerful.”

  Only one name came to Mia’s mind. “I can’t ask him to do this if it’s that dangerous.”

  “You don’t know what his answer will be. He could say no.”

  “No, he’ll do it for me.”

  “Ah, there’s the responsible Mia talking. You know if you ask him, he will say yes to please you. If something happens to him, then you’re responsible.”

  “Yes. What am I to do then? Do I leave this city to the soul eater?”

  “No, you can’t do that. When it finishes with the dead, it will move on to the living.”

  “It can be stopped?”

  “Yes, it can.”

  “But I may lose my life and Murphy’s soul if I try.”

  “Yes.”

  Mia got to her feet and moved about the gravestones thinking. She stopped and asked, “How is the soul eater conjured?”

  “There is a bowl marked with runes. The inside of the bowl is layered with crushed oyster shells. Water is poured into the bowl, and a drop of the blood of the first victim to be taken is added. This starts the process.”

  “So if I want to stop the process…”

  “The bowl must be emptied and the blood returned to the victim.”

  “But if the victim was taken…”

  “You see the problem.”

  “An almost impossible thing to do,” Mia mused.

  “The key word is almost,” Roumain pointed out.

  Mia nodded. “I have a lot of thinking to do.”

  “Yes, you do.”

  “Before I go, I’d like to say something.”

  The judge moved his hand before him and said, “You have the floor.”

  “I want to put this on the record. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me and mine. I think you’ve been twisting the fibers of fate in order to protect me, most times from myself. I don’t know how I earned the regard you seem to have for me, but I’m glad that you do. If I get mad at you, it’s only because I don’t understand and I’m pigheaded. Before I go, I have one last question to ask you. I’m almost afraid to, but I must. “You, Candy Kane and Angelo call me little bird. Is this just an endearment or do I have something else to be worried about?”

  The judge looked down at Mia and locked his strange eyes with hers. “Are you sure you want to know?”

  “No time like the present,” she said bravely.

  “Your species throughout time has been visited by super humans, angels, demons and, yes, birdmen. Some people have a few incompatible genes floating around inside of them. It wasn’t an accident that Angelo was interested in you or that Refugia chose your mind in which to escape from the aerie
. The things that happened to your body during her residence were all explained by her being inside of you, but I see it as something else. I see that instead, for you these genes are compatible and have attached themselves. Why? I don’t know. The Gray Ladies, maybe, but I think it may have happened earlier.”

  “I’ve had a child. Is he infected?”

  “Brian? Oh, I don’t really know. It’s too early. Interesting that you used the word infected. I take it you’re not pleased with this information.”

  “No, not really.”

  “Will it help you to know you have other genes that have also attached, and yes, Brian will possibly be affected too?”

  Mia felt faint. “I’m not overjoyed.”

  “All the things that you can do that are outside the norm of the average human are indicators that there are superhuman qualities, as well as demon and angel, inside of you. Whether they show themselves in a stronger form depends on your soul, Mia.”

  “What I did to the Other in my kitchen wasn’t angelic, was it?”

  Judge Roumain thought to laugh at the scene this conjured, but instead, he just nodded. He could see the pain running through Mia’s body, pain that was caused by doubt and self-incrimination.

  “Don’t worry about Brian. Ted has no demon genes; the child will reject it from attaching.”

  “So my parents…”

  “Possibly. Or the trauma you’ve been through combined with the monkey-business of the Gray Ladies. I answered your question; now please return the favor and answer one of mine.”

  Mia nodded.

  “Why aren’t you surprised about the demon genes?”

  “Because when the demon Sticks abducted me, it wasn’t to kill me. I got the distinct impression it was some kind of lower life courtship.”

  “You think that it was attracted to you?”

  “Maybe they can sense that I carry the gene.”

  “He-who-walks-through-time carries the gene. Was he attracted to you?”

  Mia couldn’t answer him. She didn’t know.

  “Ah, so we have a conundrum. Angelo may be attracted to you because of your birdman gene, but was Orion?”

  Mia knelt down and began pulling the weeds that grew close to the old stones. She didn’t want to think anymore. Her head hurt. “Why tell me all of this?”

  “You asked.”

  “I asked about… Oh, nevermind. You’re right, I opened the can of worms and serpents came out.”

  “You really don’t have to worry about this. If you have a gene that gives you bouncy red hair like your friend Audrey, does this mean you’re going to have a hot Irish temper? No. You can do things because you have the ability to do them. You also seem to have control – although shaky – of them. You’re not going to wake up one morning and have the overwhelming need to eat your young, or fly to Capistrano. That’s not how it works. I just gave you the explanation for why it’s there in the first place, that is all. Also to caution you, because you could get yourself into trouble if you use these abilities to do harm.”

  “This morning, all I was worried about was that I was vain. I’d like to return to this morning, please.”

  “Sorry, no do-overs.”

  “I guess I better get back. I have to get some sleep, and I have a full day with the group - not to mention, I need to do a little poking around for Alexei.”

  ~

  Ted, Cid and Murphy arrived back home in the wee hours of the morning. Ted rushed into the farmhouse to check on Mrs. Braverman and Brian while Cid downloaded the night’s filming and data to the main computer. Murphy whistled for Maggie, and she came bounding out of the house. He lifted the latch on the gate, and she happily joined him on his nightly rounds.

  In just a day, spring seemed to be in full force, even though the temperatures were still cold. Murphy noted the buds on the late-blooming trees and was pleased to see that the icy storms of the winter had not harmed the mature deciduous trees. He remembered when his mother had saved enough pin money to afford the cherry trees. They had long gone, but the birds had deposited enough pits that the woods were rife with their offspring. Trees were an investment in the future. They cleansed the air and gave shelter to the wildlife that had moved in when the Steele contingent had moved out.

  He thought about the activities in the Little Goodwin library. Five complacent ghosts and one bully had made themselves known. He wasn’t sure what the outcome was going to be for these spirits, but he knew he had to do something about the bully. He needed someone to talk to. Mia was too far away. Ted and Cid took too much energy to converse with, and he wanted to be able to offer PEEPs a solution at the afternoon meeting.

  He passed the clearing filled with snowdrops. Sabine’s words echoed in his mind. “I could just roll in them. Stephen, they are beautiful.” He smacked his knee. That’s it, he would seek out Sabine. He looked towards the east and estimated the time to be around five or six in the morning. He called to Maggie, who responded with a yelp. He urged her back to the house. He put her in the yard and made sure all was right with the humans on the farm before he headed to the vortex.

  He saw where Sabine had smoothed the ground, and he retraced her slender lines with his axe. The lines glowed, and Murphy felt the pull of the vortex. He said aloud, “Take me to Sabine,” and stepped into the whirling wind.

  He didn’t know exactly where he would end up. He found himself in a sunny yellow kitchen. The lights were on, and a black woman was busy at the stove. He tapped on the floor, and as the woman whirled around, he feared that he was in the wrong place.

  Tauni Cerise’s gift of sight was shaky at best, but she could see the dusty farmer clear as day. “Who are you, sir, and what are you doing in Sabine’s kitchen?”

  Murphy replied awkwardly, “Sabine said I could visit.”

  “At five-thirty in the morning?” Tauni asked, not really expecting an answer. She could see that the spirit was nervous and meant no harm. “I’ll go and see if she’s awake yet. Who may I say is calling?”

  “Stephen Murphy.”

  “Mia’s Murphy?”

  Murphy nodded.

  Tauni reached out a hand and said, “I’m Tauni Cerise. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Murphy concentrated and managed to shake the beautiful woman’s hand softly. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Cerise.”

  “You can call me Tauni, and I’ll call you Stephen. I know everyone except for Sabine calls you Murphy, but I prefer Stephen, if that’s alright with you?”

  Murphy couldn’t keep up with this talkative woman so he just nodded.

  “Alright, Stephen, I’ll be right back. Make yourself comfortable.”

  Murphy didn’t really know what exactly comfortable was, since he had no concept of fatigue other than energy drain. When Mia said those words to her guests, they sat on the sofa in the living room. Murphy walked into the apartment’s living space and found a clear spot on the couch amongst the piles of folded laundry and sat down.

  Three sets of stumbling tiny feet preceded the graceful movements of Sabine. Two little girls launched themselves at Murphy, catching him by surprise. The other toddler hung back. He suspected that she couldn’t see him.

  “Letta Ann, Nura Louise! You leave that man be. Sorry, Stephen, but my ill-mannered daughters rarely get visitors. Maisha Violet can’t see you, but she would be jumping all over you too if she could.”

  Sabine caught a pile of towels that Letta Ann had disrupted, just before they hit the floor. Maisha Violet moved cautiously into the now empty space. She had a unique way of climbing. She put her head first on the sofa and pulled the rest of herself up.

  Murphy laughed. He couldn’t help himself. Fortunately, Maisha couldn’t hear him. Unfortunately, her sisters could. Murphy quickly put his finger to his lips to stop them from teasing Maisha.

  Sabine caught this interaction with her girls as she piled the towels on the ground next to her chair. She found the axe-carrying ghost sweet and caring. She understood how her cousin
could fall in love with this spirit.

  Tauni Cerise came in with a cup of tea for Sabine. She set down a handful of nine volt batteries and explained, “Just in case you get hungry.”

  Sabine nodded and asked, “Tauni, why don’t you join us? I’m sure it would be alright, Stephen?”

  Murphy nodded.

  “I’m sure you have important spiritual things to talk about, so I’ll just take these rascals into the kitchen and get them some breakfast. Come on, girls.”

  Letta and Nura jumped off the sofa, and when Maisha tried to follow her siblings, she started to fall off the couch. Murphy quickly caught her with soft hands.

  “Thank you,” the little girl said and toddled after her sisters.

  “I’m glad you decided to visit me, Stephen. I sense that you have something on your mind.”

  “Mia’s too far away to consult. She used to say that she learned a lot from you, so I thought I would consult you, if that is okay?”

  Sabine flushed with pride. It had been years since anyone thought of her as viable in the paranormal arena. “I’ll do my best.”

  Murphy proceeded to fill her in on all the activity at the Little Goodwin library. Sabine sat and listened until he was finished.

  “This bully sounds like he could become dangerous to humans. You are right to be worried, and he is hampering the heaven the older gentleman has made for himself. I hate to think what the bully would do to the children upstairs. I take it, Audrey is gathering information on the bully.”

  “On all the ghosts,” Murphy corrected.

  “Good. Once she has the information, then I think you should call Father Santos… Oh, silly me, you can’t. I could call him for you or, better yet, Burt should make the call.”

  “I would like to present this at the meeting this afternoon, but I fear that Ted and Cid may not be able to interpret me well enough. I could use my voice, but the energy drain is severe.”

  “Let’s write it down…”

  “No, girl, you should be at that meeting and act as his interpreter,” Tauni said from the kitchen.

  “Tauni has super hearing,” Sabine explained.