Homecoming

by Alexie Aaron

  “Locked him in the trailer. I had a hell of a time stopping Murphy from pulverizing him with his axe.” Burt sagged a bit. “How is she?”

  “Don’t worry, that girl is tough as nails. She’ll live. She looks like hell. I expect there are a bunch of dislocated joints and internal injuries, but right now she’s hanging in there. We almost lost her. Says Jonas saved her life. How can this be?”

  Burt took time to gather his thoughts before speaking, “Sometimes the dead push through the veil and are able to be in our dimension. Not all can do this. Tonight Murphy broke through with his rage at not being able to stop George Albert from hurting his friend. I’ve been touched, lifted and beaten up by entities. So she’s not imagining it. Jonas probably did pull her from the underground pool and up onto the ledge.”

  “She said she died.”

  “She probably did. Mia’s not much for bending the truth when it comes to life and death.”

  Mia looked up at Ted from the floor. “You look so tall.” She looked behind him and said, “Hey Murphy. Thanks for the jolt.”

  Mike and Ted looked at Mia. Ted asked her, “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ll tell you later, when you’re not so tall.” Mia lifted her arms up, and Ted bent down and picked her up. Mike was exhausted but managed to follow them down the stairs. Glenda had every quilt she could find piled on the divan. Ted lay Mia down and tucked the blankets around her. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “You got to lay off the donuts, dudette, you’re wearing me out.”

  Burt came over and sat down next to her. “Hell of an investigation,” he said wryly. “Just when I’m getting some entities on film, you decide to jump in a well.”

  “Well you know how uncooperative I am,” Mia replied. “I hear you all were my heroes. Thank you.”

  The sound of a distant siren pierced the air. They heard Beth pull up in the truck. She slammed the door and ran into the house. “How is she? Oh, Mia, I’m so sorry,” Beth said falling to her knees. “The ambulance is racing the cops down the street.”

  “Oh crap, speaking of cops,” Mia started, “Glenda, Mike, I have to break something to you. There is a charnel house full of bones down in the well. George Albert boasted that he killed dozens of women and tossed them in there. I hope this doesn’t kill the deal on the house.”

  “Hell, I was born poor, I can die poor,” Glenda said and plopped in the chair. “I wish I could say that I knew that boy was a bad one, but I’d be lying.”

  “He used to pinch me when I was a kid,” Mike said as he passed out mugs of hot coffee. “I think he liked handing out pain.”

  Mia winced, remembering the beating she took. She worried that she wasn’t feeling much pain at all at the moment. She could move her arms and wiggle her toes, but that was about it. She heard the emergency vehicles pull into the drive. “Ted,” she whispered.

  He leaned in and listened.

  “I’m afraid,” she said, and her eyes watered up. “I’m kinda going downhill fast. Don’t let Murphy be alone. I’m not sure what he’ll do.”

  “I’ll take care of him, don’t worry.”

  Mia’s breathing was getting raspier, and she bubbled blood out of the sides of her mouth.

  “Don’t leave me, kitten. I have plans,” he said as he moved away and let the EMT’s take over.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Mrs. Dupree, can you open your eyes for me?”

  Mia wondered who the hell the nurse was talking to, so she opened her eyes to see.

  “There. Good girl. I don’t want you to talk, you’ve been on a ventilator and your throat is going to be sore for a while.”

  Mia watched as the woman in the colorful scrubs took her vitals. Her mind was hazy. Last she knew, Ted was calling her a pussy, no it was kitten. That was better. The other could so be misconstrued. She followed the IV tube down to her hand. She wiggled her fingers. Good. She tried to move the other set. They burned like a house afire. She didn’t like the feeling. With some effort she turned her head. Her hand was swabbed in gauze. Minus two points there. Mia wriggled her toes, and they worked fine but her heels hurt. Her left leg was wrapped up to her hip. That was going to make peeing fun.

  “Nurse,” she said hoarsely. “How am I?”

  “I’ll get the doctor,” she said and left the room.

  Mia groaned. That didn’t bode well.

  The doctor came in, picked up the chart and briefly consulted with the nurse. He looked over at her and introduced himself.

  “I’m a bit curious about my condition,” Mia said wryly. “Care to illuminate me?”

  “Your fall dislocated a hip and both arms. You had a rib shatter at the end and poke a hole in your lung. They picked more pieces of it out of your spine. And you have frostbite on the tips of your fingers. Other than that you’re fine.”

  Mia could only say, “K.”

  “We have you on morphine but really want to wean you from it soon. Your family is here. Do you feel up to seeing them?”

  Mia cussed silently, her family? She’d rather have died in the well. She nodded and waited for the onslaught of indifference and boredom that her mother would feign. Mike was the first one through the door, followed by his mother. She smiled at them. The Duprees, and she was Mrs. Dupree. K. It seems their first deception was holding up well.

  “You look like hell warmed over,” Glenda said.

  “Thanks for bolstering my confidence,” Mia said hoarsely.

  “You’ll be out of here by Thanksgiving, but you can’t eat no turkey. We’re going to take care of you at the house until you’re fit for travel, so don’t worry. Ted called your boyfriend - that must have been awkward - and he said he would see you when he got back next week. I won’t tell you what I thought about that. No one knows how to contact your folks, but Burt said you’d rather we didn’t.”

  “Ma, quit upsetting Mia,” Mike said and gently moved his mother away from the bed and over to a chair. “My turn.” Mike walked back. He was freshly scrubbed and wore his date clothes.

  Mia thought he must be after one of the nurses. She smiled when he put his face next to hers and whispered, “I saw you naked, twice.”

  Mia started laughing, and even though her chest hurt she continued to laugh. “I guess there are no secrets left.”

  “Nope. Whit’s an ass, give Ted a break.”

  Mia just looked at him. “Enough about me. What about you? We have to take care of something before I leave this area. Joel needs to leave you, and Jonas needs to be buried.”

  “I know. We’ll get to that. I would love to sit down with you, when we have time, and discuss what happened down there in the well. I mean besides you peeing yourself.”

  “You are a horrible human being, Mike Dupree,” Mia croaked.

  Glenda got to her feet. “Come on, stop flirting with the gal. There’s others waiting to see her.”

  Mike smiled and offered his mother his arm and they left the room.

  Mia groaned, and the nurse asked her on a scale from one to ten where was her pain. She told her eleven. The nurse pumped more morphine into her system.

  Mia felt woozy then kind of numb. Her lips felt odd. The nurse took her temperature and then stepped aside when Burt and Beth walked into the room. Beth came up to her and apologized.

  “What for?”

  “Bad thoughts, bad karma, bad stuff.”

  “K. Don’t worry. You had nothing to do with this, so be kind to yourself.”

  “I’ve been telling her this for half the day,” Burt said as he approached.

  Mia’s heart leapt when she saw the old Burt looking back at her. This was the man who had set her free from being petrified of her gifts. This was the man she spent hours making love to.

  “Have the police been in to see you yet?”

  “Um…” Mia started and looked at the nurse who shook her head. “No. Not yet.”

  “Good. Tell them everything but leave out Murphy, Joel and Jonas. Otherwise George Albert
may walk free.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t talk about the ghosties.” Mia raised her eyebrows. “I’ve been through the drill before.”

  “Yes, I forgot about that,” he said gruffly.

  Mia sighed as the old Burt was gone again. “How long has it been?”

  “You’ve been out of it for fourteen hours, give or take a minute,” he said.

  “How’s Murphy?”

  “He’s not good. Ted’s managed to keep him from dissecting George Albert, but he is very troublesome. I think a word from you will settle him down. Ted’s got him here. We better beat feet. Murphy’s not going to sit still for long.” Burt squeezed her good hand and met Beth at the door.

  Mia heard them well before they came in the door. Ted was shushing Murphy, and Murphy was dragging his axe on the floor. It made a sound that set Mia’s teeth on edge.

  Ted moved through the door and halfway up Mia’s bed before the nurse cleared her voice. He grabbed Mia’s good hand and looked down at her. “He is driving me nuts. Talk to him!”

  “Distract the nurse for a moment.”

  “Miss, can you give us some privacy, please?” Ted said in his best big boy voice.

  “I’ll give you five minutes, but don’t upset her.”

  Mia waited until the nurse walked out before saying, “Stephen Murphy, get your ass over here.”

  Murphy moved quickly to her bedside, pushing through Ted to get closer to her.

  “I’m alright. They put my arms and leg back in the sockets. I lost part of one rib, and if I’m lucky my fingers won’t fall off. So give everyone a break and behave. Would you like to go back to the farm? Ted can take you.”

  Murphy shook his head and pointed to Mia and then to himself.

  “You want to stay here. If you do, then you have to be an adult. No one is going to hurt me anymore. Ted will make sure of that. He will also be your friend too. But you have to stop with your axe whackery.”

  Murphy looked contrite. He pointed to Ted and put his hand over his heart.

  “Murphy says he likes you, Teddy bear.”

  “I like the geezer too.”

  Murphy leaned in towards Mia and actually touched her face.

  “New tricks,” Mia said and raised her eyebrows.

  Murphy looked proud of himself and moved away. He busied himself with the head of his axe.

  “Hopefully he will be calmer now. Thank you, it couldn’t have been easy.”

  “Anything for you, dear.”

  “So you called Whit?”

  “Yes, I told him you were out of the woods but suffered a few injuries and were going to stay in Lund until you could travel. I also told him that I would be bringing you back. I called Ralph and told him the same. He wanted to be on the first plane here, but I told him the situation, and he agreed to wait until you were back home and care for you there. I left it up to him to let your aunt and parents know if he thought it was necessary. I reminded everyone that there are no phones or cell phone reception in Lund. I promised Ralph a daily update on your condition. Phew! Your people wear me out.”

  Mia reached out with her good hand and touched Ted’s hand. “Thank you, you have done so much for me. You saved me. I owe you a big one.”

  “I’m going to collect so don’t forget that, K,” Ted said seriously.

  The nurse walked back in the room.

  “I better go. Smell you later,” Ted said and waved as he left the room. Murphy trailed after him. His axe was on his shoulder, and he had a bounce to his step.

  “You sure do have an interesting family, Mrs. Dupree,” the nurse said.

  “Please call me Mia. And my family is the best.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mia’s homecoming to Lund was an interesting affair. Mike, being the mister part of the fictitious Dupree couple, checked her out of the hospital using the PEEPs credit card. Mia was sure that Burt was going to have their hides when the statement came. He drove her in the PEEPs van and regaled her with their exploits on the way home.

  “Ted finally got Murphy settled down. He threatened to put his axe head in a bucket of that yellow dolomite he has in the command center. That stopped the pranks.”

  “Pranks?” Mia’s curiosity got the better of her. “Care to enlighten me?”

  “He can touch you now. And lift small objects.”

  “What does it feel like, the touching? I assume you are the object of most of his pranks.”

  Mike laughed. “Oh, yes. It’s cool in temperature but very light like a caress. He is fond of squeezing out toothpaste, shaving cream, and I’ve woken up with a lipstick smiley face on my forehead. Beth’s pissed. Evidently she doesn’t want to use anything that has been in contact with my skin. So you’ll have to buy her another one.”

  Mia was amused by the assumption that all Murphy’s stunts, pranks and whatnot were being laid at her door. Must be what parenthood felt like.

  “Are the police still there?”

  “FBI, as some of George Albert’s victims were from across state lines. They are still pulling them out of the well. We opened up one of the neighboring house for them to use as a base of operations. The one beside the well is full of evidence of George’s crimes. Jonas’s bones have been identified, and we have claimed them. Ma picked out a dandy coffin. We’re just waiting on you to bury the guy. I hear him in the attic occasionally.”

  “What about Joel?”

  “That’s the strange part. He’s there in the room with me. I hear him on the stairs, but he no longer yells at me. He just stares. I think the staring is more unnerving. I think you have to talk to him. Murphy has been guarding my door so I am able to get some sleep. Did you get ahold of your folks?”

  “I didn’t try. My parents are barely aware of my existence. I did talk to my godfathers and Whit a few times.”

  “How’d that go?”

  “Ralph is in New York putting the finishing touches on a Christmas extravaganza that is opening tonight. He was going to drop everything and come here, but I insisted that he shouldn’t. Whit, now he’s an odd bird. I can’t quite figure him out. He seemed more upset that I didn’t tell him I was going to be in a house with you, Burt and Ted than that I fell down eighty feet to my death.”

  “Um, I have nothing to say on that subject.”

  “Cool beans. Have you guys opened the room yet?”

  “Ma and Beth have been busy reading the diary you found and going through the rest of the house. She wants to make sure that we have exhausted all other areas of the search before…”

  Mia grabbed his arm and stopped him. She had an enormous smile on her face. “Mike, you said Murphy can move little things now? Have you asked him to look in the room for the books?”

  “No. Fuck me, I didn’t think of it.”

  “I’ll talk to him when we get back. You have to be real clear with the man or he will do something male like tear the pages out and float them out the window.”

  “He wouldn’t do that?” Mike asked aghast.

  “Wouldn’t put it past him. But don’t worry, I’ll be very clear. I also will try to curb his assault on you. Why you, I wonder?”

  “I’m the alpha male.”

  Mia burst out laughing. “You’re the alpha male. Seems to me, Burt has that sewn up.”

  “He just thinks he does. I’m just being compliant. It’s less work not being head honcho. More time for the ladies,” Mike said in a lecherous voice.

  “You are an interesting study, my friend.”

  “Are we, Mia, are we friends?” Mike asked earnestly.

  “I know we grate on each other, but I’ve always considered you my friend. You?”

  “Once I got to know you, I realized that you were the only one, besides ma, who saw through my façade. That made me very nervous. But I like you and admire what you do. Yes, I consider you a friend. It doesn’t mean I won’t hit on you now and again.”

  “I’d be put out if you didn’t.”

  “Tell me about the we
ll.”

  Mia took a deep breath before she started. As she told him of Jonas and the mermaids, she watched the November frostbitten farmland as they drove. The sky presented patches of sunlight to emphasize the largeness of the flat land that they crossed.

  Mike waited until she finished before asking. “Did you die?”

  “Yes. I was up and out of my body, but there was nowhere to go. I couldn’t leave Murphy, Jonas or the mermaids. Murphy, somehow I thought he’d be pleased to have my spirit to himself - well, he and Jonas - but he was angry. He knelt down and put his hand in my chest and started squeezing my heart. Damn that PBS and their med shows. Next thing I remember, I saw Ted standing in his boxer shorts with a cape on, cape blowing in the breeze. You were carrying me, and Burt looked worried. I remember the bath, pretty much everything else, but Murphy’s jolt only lasted so long. I was dying.”

  “You did give us a scare.”

  “I was petrified with indecision. Who would I haunt? You already have a ghost, and Burt’s way too grumpy lately. Beth’s guilt ridden and Ted, well Ted…” Mia’s voice trailed off.

  “What are you going to do about the boy?”

  “I don’t know. Can we just table this discussion for some time in the future? I understand I have twenty years to make up my mind.”

  Mike laughed as he made the last turn that would take them into Lund.

  ~

  “No, fruit. They have pictures of fruit in them.” Mia pointed to Beth who was holding in gloved hands one of the books. “Open up a few pages.”

  Beth carefully opened the book and almost dropped it when Murphy fanned the pages. “Careful, mister,” she admonished.

  Murphy looked at Mia, smiled and disappeared.

  The others looked at her expectantly. “He’s going to try. No promises.”

  They had just adjourned to the parlor that was bereft of all but the basics of furniture pieces. The PEEPs team dined on a fabulous meal made by Glenda with Beth and Mike, her sous chefs. There was a nice flavorful broth for Mia and the promise of pumpkin pudding later. Mia had to abide by the restrictions of her parole from the hospital. She was tired but happy. She had all the family she needed around her. Ted continued to tease her. Beth was getting used to it. Burt treated her pretty much the same. Mike was nicer, although she suspected it was because his mother was within ear pulling distance. And Murphy, well, was Murphy.