NOLA

by Alexie Aaron

  Audrey blushed.

  Sabine walked over to the main computer screen and asked, “Who’s the little fellow in here?”

  “Jake. He’s our ghost in the machine,” Ted said.

  “Is he trapped?”

  “No, he’s there voluntarily.”

  “Oh, I never thought a ghost would like the confines of a machine. I learn something new each and every day,” she said sweetly. “Hello, little ghost, I’m Sabine. I like your little red shirt.”

  Jake responded by growing Marvin to fill the screen.

  “That’s Jake speak for: he’s not a little ghost.”

  “Pardon me,” Sabine said half seriously. “Ted, do you think I could see your little boy before I go?”

  “Sure. Mrs. Braverman has been watching him while the meeting was going on. Why don’t we both go over the farmhouse so I can relieve her.”

  Sabine waited patiently while Ted finished with a few things before she walked with him into the farmhouse.

  Mrs. Braverman, dressed in Chicago Bears attire, was surprised to see the pale blonde woman come in with Ted. She looked enough like Mia to be a sister. Sabine, who read her mind, walked over and introduced herself. “I’m Sabine, Mia’s cousin.”

  “Susan Braverman, I’m Deputy Tom’s mother.”

  “You must be very proud of your son,” Sabine said sweetly. “I’ve heard from Mia and Bev that he is a hero.”

  Susan perked up. “He’s a good son.”

  Sabine looked at the woman’s clothes and said, “I’m sorry your team hasn’t been doing too well. They have good hearts.”

  “Do you watch football, Sabine?”

  “My daughter Maisha is quite a fan. We tape the games, and whenever Maisha gets grumpy, we play her a recording. I know it’s not good parenting but…”

  “Excellent parenting!” Susan exclaimed. “I did the same with Tom, except we had video recordings back then.”

  “Does Tom play football?”

  “He used to in school. But Tom’s heart wasn’t in it.”

  “My heart wasn’t in what, Mom?” Tom asked, walking into the kitchen.

  “Football. Tom, this is Sabine.”

  “We met at the hollow,” Tom said.

  Sabine looked at him and seemed entranced.

  “Do I have something on my uniform?” he said, brushing his jacket.

  “Oh no, Tom, I’m just seeing where Stephen reached in and started your heart. Mia has the same mark.”

  “You can see it with my clothes on?”

  “It’s not a scar on your body; it’s a mark on your aura.”

  “Where?” his mother asked, interested.

  Sabine took Susan’s hand in hers and guided it to Tom’s chest. “He came in through here and squeezed, I imagine. You see, the aura scars not unlike skin. Tom has this beautiful strong color, but here it turns all purplely. Same with Mia.”

  Ted, who had left to retrieve Brian, listened to Sabine from the hallway.

  “Mia’s aura has a lot of damage to it, but the heart slice is the same as Tom’s.”

  “I’m very happy Murphy saved Tom,” Susan said, her eyes tearing up.

  “Oh, I didn’t mean to make you sad,” Sabine said, petting Susan’s arm. “I’m not very good at small talk.”

  Susan shook her head. “Don’t you change a bit, young woman.”

  Ted cleared his voice. “Here’s Brian, come to see Aunty Sabine.”

  Sabine whirled around, and Brian’s eyes lit up. “Ah am ah am a eeeeee.”

  “Yes, I’m your mom’s cousin, Sabine. Your daddy calls me Aunty Sabine, but I’m really your second cousin.”

  “Ah am ah am?”

  “She’ll be home in two days,” Sabine said. “Can I hold him, Ted?”

  “Sure, anyone that speaks Brian should be able to hold him.”

  Sabine took the child from his father and danced a little with the baby until Brian smiled. “Are you having a good time with Mrs. Braverman?”

  “Emmm Ah ee.”

  Sabine looked over at Susan and said, “He really likes you.”

  Tom and Ted shook hands. Ted offered him a beer, but Tom patted his uniform and said, “I’m on duty, some other time. I just came by to give Mom a ride home.”

  “Did you hear that? Mrs. Braverman gets to ride in a police car,” Sabine said in a singsong voice. She moved away from the group and down the hall. “Let’s see if we can see it from the guestroom window.”

  “She’s really good with babies,” Susan commented.

  “She should be, she has thirteen-month-old triplet girls.”

  “Oh, dear, she’s the woman that just lost her husband,” Susan said. “So young, so sad.”

  “I think this is her first day out of the house without the girls,” Ted said. “She came over to help interpret Murphy for us.”

  “I hate to interrupt, but I’ve got to get back on duty. Mom, if you’re ready…”

  “Just let me grab my purse,” Susan said. “I want to say goodbye to Brian. I’ll meet you outside.”

  Ted walked Tom to the door. Susan came down the steps soon after. Before she left she said, “What do you think of Tom and Sabine?”

  Ted was speechless, surprised by her question.

  “Too soon? Yes, maybe too soon,” she said and left the house.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Sated with jambalaya and beer, Mia and Father Peter waited for the others at the rendezvous. It wasn’t long before Wanda, Honor and Triple P walked up. Wanda had something sticky in her hair. Mia offered her a wet wipe.

  Wanda, although appreciative, was horrified by the orange goo. “What in the name of holly branches is this stuff?”

  Triple P looked at the contents of the wipe and guessed, “I think that last spirit spit on you.”

  “Now why would he do that?”

  “You called him a low-rent, scum-sucking pervert,” Honor reminded her.

  “Well, he was,” Wanda defended.

  “Sometimes the truth is hard to hear when you’re dead, dear,” Honor consoled.

  “Seems like you ran into a nasty one,” Mia observed.

  “I’ve never had one spit on me before,” Wanda complained.

  “Me neither,” Mia said. She looked around at the others, and everyone pretty much agreed that this was a first.

  Honor kept looking around her as if she were afraid of something. Mia sidled up next to her and asked, “Can I be of help? I can stand behind you, so you won’t have to pivot so much.”

  “Oh, my god, am I that obvious?” Honor moaned. “Oh, Mia, my spirit guide Champagne is missing. Miss Ruby, lately of the French Quarter, said she saw her last night, and she was acting strange. She thought maybe Champagne had gone rogue.”

  “How reliable is Miss Ruby?”

  “I would stake my life on her claims. She’s old world and tends to exaggerate to scare the tourists, but she’s never lied to me.”

  “Alright, if Champagne has indeed gone rogue, then how does this involve you?’

  “You see, sometimes when the spirit guides lose it, they… they…” Honor faltered a moment. Then she seemed to find courage and said very clearly, “They kill their mediums.”

  “No wonder you’re hopping around like a drop of water in a hot skillet.”

  “Oh, Mia, I do believe the country girl in you is showing.” Honor laughed. “Wherever did you get that phrase from?”

  “My best friend is a ghost from a bygone era. His word usage sometimes sticks to me. Honor, I’ve had a ghost go crazy on me before. I know how horrible it is.”

  “Tell me about it, Mia?”

  “I was raised by a young female ghost who was trapped inside of the home I was born into. She watched over and cared for me until she lost it. It happened when I was a teenager. She’d had enough of being trapped. She went from nurturing to harming within a week. I thought if I could relocate her remains, I could set her free of the house. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find all of her bones, so
I burned the house down to make the search easier. Only then did I find the hiding places her father had secured her remains. I had Father Santos help me inter her. I think the fire released her, but I’d like to think that the light came for her too.”

  “So there were signs.”

  “Yes, it builds. It doesn’t just happen. How was Champagne yesterday?”

  “Happy and teasing. She’s kind of naughty. She told me that your Ralph dyes his hair.”

  “He does,” Mia said. “He also fights aging with every product known to man and womankind.”

  “Anyway, when I woke up this morning, I felt a loss. I tried to contact her again and again, but I got nothing. Monique had her guide Mimi check out our targets for us. Champagne was supposed to be doing that last evening.”

  “How about we retrace her steps?” Mia suggested. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find out what happened to her.”

  “What if she’s bad, Mia? What do I do then?”

  “You don’t do anything. You leave that to me and Father Peter.”

  “I’d like to wait until Candy, Monique and Becky have checked in. I’ve got this bad feeling I just can’t seem to let go of.”

  “Sure, no problem. We’ll wait.”

  Mia didn’t want to hover over the woman, so she made the rounds, making small talk with Wanda and Triple P. Finally, she ended up with Father Peter who yawned.

  “Mia, I think the beer and food has made me sleepy. I wonder, if we asked nicely, whether anyone on this street would open their gates and brew us a pot?”

  Mia looked at the eight-foot fences and view-obstructing foliage and doubted it. She understood that within any city there were people who would take advantage and rob these people. But Mia saw the fences more as the residents had caged rather than protected themselves.

  The more time that passed, the higher the level of stress Mia felt radiating off of her fellow sensitives. No one was more pleased than she when they heard the good-natured bantering as the three women came into view.

  Becky rushed over to Honor and apologized. “You see, we wasted so much time waiting around for the first target to show. She never did, nor did the second. The last three were very cooperative,” she reported.

  “I don’t know what’s going on. Something has scared off the spirits.”

  “The old ones are leaving,” Candy said softly. “The thing that is prowling the French Quarter has widened its territory.”

  “I may have an idea what it is, but where it is and how to defeat it has yet to be determined,” Mia said. Seven pair of eyes settled on her. She was nervous but continued, “There is the possibility that someone has activated a soul eater.”

  “I feared as much,” Candy confided. “The migration of souls to the swamps is massive.”

  “Forgive me, but I don’t know what a soul eater is,” Triple P confessed.

  “Me either,” Wanda admitted.

  “Mia, would you do the honors? Be concise,” Honor instructed.

  “A soul eater is a being that comes from the dark world. It feeds first upon the souls of the dead, and when that supply has been exhausted, it rips the souls out of the living with such velocity that it kills them. Ancient shamans would summon these creatures to use against their enemies. They would sneak into the villages of the rival tribes, summon a soul eater and leave. Whole civilizations have disappeared before the soul eater was sated.”

  “There was a backlash to using these entities,” Candy continued. “The soul eater knows no loyalty. It could and has turned against the very person that summoned it. They stopped this practice about the time the Romans started to eat the civilized world. Not even being enslaved could convince a holy man to summon a soul eater. They are that dangerous.”

  “Who summoned one?” Wanda asked.

  “That is the question. I’ve some idea, but I can’t act upon it until I have taken certain precautions,” Mia told them.

  “Why you?” Monique asked.

  “I’ve been asking myself that since I arrived here,” Mia said. “I don’t know the area, and I’m without my right hand man, er, ghost.”

  “I think we can help you with that. I hear you are a bilocator,” Candy said.

  “Yes.”

  “You can travel the ley lines, yes?”

  “I can and have.”

  “How about your partner, can he?” Candy asked.

  “With me he has. Once or twice alone. But I can’t ask him to do this. I’d have him flown down, but he hates flying. It scrambles his senses.”

  “It does all ghosts,” Becky said with authority. “The solution is to find an experienced bilocator that can take him halfway. Let’s say, Cahokia. You pick him up and bring him down to the southeast corner of City Park. A statue of General PGT Beauregard, sitting astride his horse, guards the entrance.”

  “Have you traveled this line before?”

  “I used to call it the Chicago Express. True, you have to change lines at Cahokia, but I can get to Chicago faster this way than Southwest Airlines. The only problem is that I have to leave my body behind,” Becky pouted. “What use is being in the town of stuffed pizza if you can’t eat it?”

  Mia smiled. “We’re going to need a guide, one that knows the city.”

  “I’ll do it,” Father Peter volunteered. “Unlike most of you, I’m not dependent on the spirit world.”

  “The Holy Spirit, you are!” Wanda reminded him rather loudly.

  “I think we can agree that is different,” he said, lifting an irritated eyebrow.

  Mia watched the combatants mentally prepare themselves for an argument on the differences in their ideologies. She needed to corral them in order to deal with the problem at hand. “Please, we all believe in a higher power of some kind. But right now, we’ve got to band together to help the earthbound spirits.”

  “Mia’s right,” Honor said. “I say we suspend our walks until we have addressed the problem in the French Quarter. Mia, you have our support.”

  “Thank you. I have a feeling I’m going to need it,” Mia said.

  “Do you have someone trustworthy to watch your body while you make this trip?”

  “Yes, Ralph. He’s done it before,” Mia said smiling, remembering waking up from rescuing Sabine to sporting pink polished nails. “Sabine,” Mia thought. “I’ll ask Sabine to bring Murphy to Cahokia.”

  The group disbanded, and as Mia rode back to the Marriott to break the news to Ralph, she was already reaching out to Sabine.

  “Why sure, I can take him to Cahokia. Are you sure you want to take on this soul eater, Mia?”

  “I don’t want to, but I feel I must. I don’t stand a chance without Murphy. Judge Roumain would not have called me here unless I was his best choice.”

  “I thought Gerald arranged this?”

  “I have the feeling Gerald owed the judge a few favors.”

  “Favors, they seem to cause more problems than they are worth,” Sabine said sagely.

  “Sabine, I will owe you a favor when we are finished.”

  “No, I give you this freely, no strings. Murphy has been missing you, and I haven’t seen Cahokia in years. Does Ted know yet?”

  “He is my next call. I didn’t want to activate the players until I had talked to you first.”

  “Why, Mia, I’m honored. I’ll be waiting for your call. You may want to downplay the danger; otherwise, you’ll have Ted arriving with a machete.”

  “Ted and Cid,” Mia reminded her.

  “Yes, they are two peas in a pod. I’d like to have a friend like Cid,” Sabine said wistfully.

  “You have me,” Mia said, meaning the words.

  “Oh, Mia, do I? What is it you say? Oh yes, cool beans!”

  ~

  Ralph was stunned when Mia explained to him what she was going to do.

  “Why you?”

  “I’ve been trying to answer this question since I got here. I think that Alexei’s problem has spread out and is creating an even bigger proble
m. PEEPs seems to have a good track record of taking care of the impossible.”

  “But that’s PEEPs. Here, it will be just you and Murphy.”

  “And the Guiding Lighters,” she reminded Ralph.

  “Have you talked to Ted yet?”

  “I’m going to call him next. Don’t give me that look. I know I should have talked to him first. But why worry him until I had talked to you and Sabine? I had to have the most important players in line before I made further plans. Plus, he would want to come down here, and what about Brian? I want one of us to be there for him in case something happens.”

  “He’s not going to be pleased.”

  “I know.”

  “Well, I’ll be here watching over you, if that will help.”

  “It will Ralph, it will.”

  ~

  “You’re going to do what?” Ted asked, unbelieving.

  “OOB to Cahokia to pick up Murphy.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need someone with the ability to communicate with ghosts to have my back,” Mia answered.

  “Why?”

  Mia took a deep breath and proceeded to explain her conversation with Judge Roumain and what the entity had asked of her.

  “He’s got some nerve. Where was he when the Other was here?”

  “That is a whole other thing. Ted, I promise to be careful.”

  “Do you promise to return?”

  “Yes,” Mia said and added a silent, alive or dead.

  “I don’t like this, but I can see you’re determined. I’ll go and find Murphy so you can ask him yourself. Who knows, he may say no.”

  They both knew that the ghost would say yes to anything Mia asked of him.

  “Yes, he may. Do you think I could see Brian after I video chat with Murphy?”

  “I’ll have to wake him up.”

  “Please,” Mia pleaded.

  “Yes, of course. Minnie Mouse, I would feel better if I were down there with you.”

  “So would I, Teddy Bear, so would I.”

  ~

  Ted watched as Murphy stood there while Mia asked him. He saw no conflicting facial or body indications that Murphy wouldn’t want to travel to be with Mia. He did, however, see a twinkle arise when Mia told him that Sabine would be escorting him as far as Cahokia. “Did Murphy and Sabine have something going on?” Ted asked himself.