by Alexie Aaron
Tauni liked this big lug.
“Plus, I get to sing.”
“Sing?”
“Oh yes, everyone that works here sings.”
“I’m trying to picture you singing, and I keep getting opera.”
“It’s because of my ample belly,” Tony said laughing. “But, like my father before me, I like crooning.”
“And he’s marvelous at it,” Dash said, walking out into the restaurant.
“Tauni, this is my boss Dash Renee.”
Tauni stepped off the bar stool and grabbed hold of Dash’s outstretched hand. “I’ve heard wonderful things about you and this place from Sabine.”
“Sabine is being too kind. She won’t sing for me.”
“She, like her cousin Mia, wasn’t blessed with a singing voice,” Tauni said diplomatically. “I’ve always wondered if it’s that way for all sensitives?”
“Okay, how about you?” Dash said, running over to the piano.
“Me! Oh dear, how did I get myself into this? Tony, save me.”
“Play ‘Summertime’,” Tony instructed and held out his hand to Tauni. “Come on, doll, now’s not the time for hiding your light…”
Mia walked into the bar and slipped into a booth. She didn’t want to interrupt the magic that was happening at the other end of The Eighty-eight.
Tony’s rich baritone blended with Tauni’s soulful alto. Dash’s playing wasn’t as smooth as the resident player, and Tauni missed a few words, but Mia was thoroughly entertained. When they finished, she jumped up and clapped, scaring the crap out of Tauni.
“Mia Martin!” Tauni scolded.
Mia raised her hands. “I thought you’re supposed to clap?”
“She’s just nervous because she thought we were alone,” Tony said.
“Ah, got you,” Mia said.
Tauni walked over to where Tony hung up the suiter and unzipped it and drew out two dresses. “These are Sabine’s. She wore them when she was starting to show with the girls.”
Dash walked over and grabbed the pastel tunic and held it to Mia. “Nope.” He took the handkerchief hem dress and nodded as the more vibrant colors seemed to suit her better. “Wear this one with black tights.”
“Come on, I’m pregnant, no tights,” Mia complained.
“Are those the black leggings you wore last night?” Dash asked, pointing at her pants.
“Yes.”
“Would you wear those?”
“I guess,” Mia said, holding the dress out as if it could bite her at any moment.
“You’ll have to forgive the girl. She just isn’t what you would call fashionable,” Tauni said.
“Ralph warned me,” Dash said. “Tauni, would you consider being my guest tonight?”
“The girls are still at the grandparents… So yes, I’d like to come,” she said.
Mia noticed that Tony seemed pleased.
“I’ve got to run if I’m going to have time to change,” Tauni said.
“I’ll call you a cab,” Tony said.
The two left the restaurant together.
Mia looked over at Dash and whispered, “You’re matchmaking, aren’t you?”
“Me? How could you say such a thing?”
“With my feral vocal chords,” Mia said. “I’ll see you tonight. I have two Murphys to deal with. Oh, just to warn you, the door was opened to McNally’s, and there are new ghosts afoot. We’re working on keeping them onsite. Hopefully, my husband has secured the stuff we need. But I would avoid any Irish drinking songs just in case.”
Ted and Ira set the last of the six lamps on the platform along with a backup generator. Sabine insisted that there be some kind of place for the spirits to sit. Mia lifted an eyebrow but said nothing. It wasn’t her show. Patrick had helped to assemble makeshift seating and tables out of a stack of pallets that Dash had stacked behind the kitchen.
“Has anybody seen Murphy?” Mia asked.
“Which one?” Ted asked.
“Stephen?”
“He was walking with his father and Fergus. He said he was going to show Kevin around the neighborhood,” Sabine said. “I told him he should take his dad out to his farm and show him around.”
Ted winced.
Mia saw this and sympathized. She didn’t relish having two Murphy ghosts either, especially when Kevin seemed to have Fergus permanently at his side. Three ghosts may be asking too much, even for Ted’s accepting temperament.
“How are they getting along?” Mia asked.
“It’s odd to see. Murphy is older than his dad by eight years, but Kevin treats him like a five-year-old. Fergus won’t let the two have any time alone so they can work out their problems. He keeps interfering,” Ted said. “He looked at the garment Mia had crushed under her arm. “Is that the dress?”
“Yes. I’m going to change just as soon as I take a turn around the pit.”
“You make it sound so glamorous,” Ted said in a high-society tone.
“Oh, yes, just making the rounds. Touching base with who’s who of the excavation.”
Mia jumped in the back of the PEEPs truck and walked by Cid and Mason and hung her dress up in the back. She came back out and asked, “Have we had a sighting on the Dark Watcher today?”
Both men shook their heads.
“Any new ghosts? Murphy said there was some movement inside McNally’s.”
“Not that we’ve been able to pick up. They could be too weak,” Cid answered.
Mason asked, “Should we toss an energon cube…”
“NO!” Mia said a bit too loud. “Sorry, I don’t know where that came from. Not a good idea. We’re not filming down there, and we want them to stay weak until we can get a priest down here.”
“About that,” Cid said. “Father Simon is available and can be here in fifteen minutes if we need him. Father Santos flew with Angelo to bless your uncle Luke.”
“That is so strange. Mason, I used to be basically an orphan until PEEPs came along. Now, I’ve got family out my ass.”
“Mia! For shame,” Mike said, doing his best Father Santos impression.
“You sonofabitch! You scared the piss out of me,” Mia said. “Damn, now I will have to wear those damn tights.”
“I love it when she swears,” Mike said. “Guys, we’re going to keep a full team on tonight. Alternate and nap when you can.”
Mia walked down the ramp and reached out with her mind. She heard some scratching from inside McNally’s but didn’t see any new faces amongst the spirits that were congregating around the salt lamps. Mia walked over. Grady and Roy were relaxing. “Hello, boys, I missed you.”
“Ah, ever the charmer,” Roy said.
“Did you find Three Thumbs?” Mia asked.
“No.”
“I’m sorry. Did you meet up with anyone else?” she asked, sitting down next to Grady.
“No one from our bunch. There’s only a few floating around. They said that most of the old guys took a ride on the light, and perhaps our friend was one of them,” Grady told her.
“It’s possible. Did you hear, Kevin Murphy showed up?”
Roy sat up straight. “Where is he?”
“Taking the city tour,” Mia said. “Why?”
“He owes me money.”
“How much?”
“Five dollars and fifty cents.”
Mia dug in her jegging pockets and came up with the money. Roy looked at the bill suspiciously. “Looks like play money.”
“It’s legal currency. I want the I.O.U.”
Roy dug in his pocket and looked through the mangled bits of paper. He handed one to Mia. It tingled in her hand. She looked at the scrawl. The original debt was a dollar. She could just make out enough of it to believe it was the real deal. She folded it the best she could, considering that it was astral and jammed it in her pocket. “Thank you Roy. How much does Grady owe?”
Grady’s eyes opened wide.
“Don’t pay his debt. He’ll not learn anything otherwis
e,” Roy said.
“I’ve got an idea on how he can repay me. Now tell me how much to buy the I.O.U. from you?”
“Ten dollars,” Roy said.
Mia had a feeling that he inflated it, thinking she couldn’t pay it. She reached into her boot and pulled out the money she’d won on Murphy’s fight. She handed the ten over to Roy, and he handed the I.O.U. to Mia.
“Is this yours?” Mia asked Grady.
He looked at it and nodded. “What do I have to do to cancel that debt?” Grady asked.
“I want you to keep Roy and you out of The Eighty-eight tonight, and if possible, any of McNally’s bunch as they emerge from sleep.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Bring them over here or keep them in McNally’s. During the day, take them on a tour of the city. Let Roy beat on them. I don’t know, just keep them out of the bar.”
Roy was trying to pocket Mia’s payment, and it kept falling in on the ground.
“Here, let me show you how ghosts take objects,” Mia said. “Do you have a handkerchief on you Roy?”
The stout ghost smiled and reached in his back pocket and came up with what looked to Mia as a clean handkerchief. “Mother always said to have two on me. One for my nose, the other to hand a lady.”
Mia put the folded bills and quarters in the cloth and folded it up. “Now try it.”
Roy did and the money settled on him as if he died with it. “I guess it’s not true,” he said.
“What?”
“You can take it with you.” Roy winked.
The three ghosts moved past the place where the tenement building used to be. Murphy talked about the fire that took most everything. “They built again, but most of our folk had left. Oh there are plenty Irish around, but our good neighbors are spread around the countryside. Mom cashed in some of her mother’s jewels, and I bought some land northwest of here. I built a house and a barn. Mom stayed with me.”
“Did you get married?”
Murphy’s face clouded. “To the wrong woman. She ended up assisting in my death.”
“The scrubber!” Fergus growled.
“Did you have any children?” Kevin asked.
“No.”
“So the Murphy line has ended,” bemoaned Kevin.
“There are lots of Murphys about but not from your line.”
“Stop your pissing. You’re more Callen than Murphy anyway,” Fergus said.
“There are two Callens on the site. One is working with me,” Murphy said proudly.
“I’d like to meet them,” Kevin said. “How’d you get yourself involved with these hunters?”
“They’re more investigators than hunters. Mia and I became friends when she was just a girl in school. She could see me without me manifesting. Mia spent time with me, now and again. She went away for a while and came back, and we renewed our friendship. These investigators came to my farm, and she and I helped them out. I’ve been more places dead than I’d ever been alive,” Murphy bragged.
“How’d your mother go?”
“I don’t know. I died long before she did. She’s not buried on the farm.”
“Did she hate me, Stephen?” Kevin asked.
“She wasn’t the same after you were gone,” Murphy said diplomatically.
“Why do you carry that axe around?” Fergus asked.
“I died with it. Just like you died with that knife in your boot. And Da died with that flask. Do you know that ghosts can’t drink, but somehow you can?”
“Only out of the flask,” Kevin said. “And it never runs out.”
“A Jaysus flask!” Fergus pronounced.
They stopped walking and started to watch the people who now inhabited the neighborhood come home from work.
“That’s a guy with a problem,” Fergus pointed out. “See him, he’s talking to himself. He has all these neighbors, but he just glares and talks to himself.”
“He looks like a sleeveen to me,” Kevin said. “Look at those eyes. He’s not talking to himself; he’s cursing the people. I don’t like him one bit.”
“What’s sleeveen?” Murphy asked.
“Sly,” Fergus said. “They used to call us Orish sleeveens. We didn’t get no respect.”
“The Irish did eventually. This city was run by Daleys, and the country had a president who was a Kennedy.”
“Jaysus!” Kevin exclaimed. “If I hadn’t gone drinkin’, I could have run this town.”
“You,” Fergus scoffed. “You, who can’t put down the bottle.”
“Those are fighting words,” Kevin warned.
“I’m sorry. Just teasing you,” Fergus said quickly. “I don’t need a thrashing from you. Your son gave me what for not but a day ago.”
Kevin looked at Murphy, assessing him. “He is a strong fella.”
Murphy shook his head. He wasn’t falling for any compliments at this late date.
Mia had a few moments before Ralph and Bernard were supposed to arrive at The Eighty-Eight, so she had Jake pull up all the notes pertaining to the Dark Watcher. “I am everyone, and I am no one,” was perplexing and the comment – no, request - for PEEPs to “Look forward.”
“There’s only one being I know that can look forward,” Mia mumbled.
“Did you say something?” Cid asked, pulling out an earplug.
Mia felt for him. The job site went from the noise of the machines to the revelry from the piano bar. Cid never got a break from the noise. “I was thinking about something the Dark Watcher said. He…”
“Mia, why do you think it’s a he? There is nothing to substantiate that the energy is male.”
“It could be my laziness to assume it’s male, or the nagging feeling I have that I’ve met this thing before. Anyway, he said, ‘Look forward.’ I think he means the future. I’m going to try to contact Ed and see if he would do just that for me.”
“So you’re thinking that the Dark Watcher isn’t an entity that was formed from a tragic incident in the past but the future? Do you know how incredible that is?”
“But not impossible,” Ira said. He had been listening in as he watched the camera feeds. “If you look at wormholes and the old theories that you could go back in time if you traveled a certain way through them… Yes, I know it’s more science fiction than science, but I think it could happen. I’ve been thinking. What if something happened with such high energy that it blew a hole in this reality. Where would the energy go? Why not backward?”
“Ed does travel in self-sustained portals. Who’s to say that a portal can’t be opened accidently?” Mia pondered.
Cid nodded. “I think it would be worth the favor. Ed does have a driver’s test coming up. I’ll take the favor, Mia. I’ll finish teaching the guy to drive.”
Mia hugged Cid and got up. I have to find Sabine. Judy is in Greece, and I doubt there is a working phone on the island right now. I’ll have her contact Komal, and he’ll ask He-who-walks-through-time.”
Mia found Sabine in the trailer having a conversation with Patrick and Mike.
“Sabine, could I speak to you in private for a few minutes?” Mia asked from the door.
Mike got up and Patrick followed suit. Mia closed the door and locked it.
Sabine tried to read Mia, but Mia put her hand up. “Let’s use our words, shall we?”
“Sure.”
“I need you to contact Komal and have him ask Ed if he could walk forward through time, let’s say a week at most. I’m concerned with what may happen here.”
“Here?”
Mia tapped the table for emphasis. “Right here.”
“Why?” Sabine asked.
“The Dark Watcher asked us to ‘Look forward.’ We need to do this, and not just because he asked.”
“Go on,” Sabine said.
“Sabine, I get the feeling I know the Dark Watcher, that I know or knew him in another form. His grief is extreme. He feels helpless, and we offered to help,” Mia reminded her cousin. “I can’t touch him, an
d you shouldn’t either. But we can ask Ed to walk forward and report back to us.”
“I agree.”
“Please mention that Cid is offering to finish Ed’s driving lessons as compensation.”
“A favor for a favor,” Sabine said. “Why don’t you talk to Komal yourself?”
“That part of me was taken with my wings,” Mia said. “And I got pregnant before I could go back to the island to reconnect with Komal.”
“I see. Okay.” Sabine sat down and rolled her neck and shook the tension out of her shoulders. “Komal,” she said quietly and repeated it until the words called without the help of her vocal chords.
Mia felt she was somehow intruding on Sabine’s private conversation so she turned her back and tried to think of something else. She connected with the baby who was growing in her womb. She sent nurturing and loving thoughts to him and was rewarded with the feeling of movement. “Varden, grow strong. We love you, and your brother Brian is waiting for you.”
A hand was placed on her shoulder, and she turned, not to see Sabine as expected, but Ed. “Come, Mia.”
“But the child?”
“I will return you to the same spot in time. No harm will come to you or your child.”
Mia took Ed’s hand, and he guided her into the portal.
Chapter Twenty-nine
Ed and Mia exited into a dark world. The lot on which they stood not seconds before was a crater. Gone was McNally’s as was The Eighty-eight and the block surrounding them. Aside from a few stakes holding up yellow crime scene tape flapping in the wind, there was nothing there. Ed took her home to the farm where she found Susan collecting Brian’s clothes and putting them into a suitcase. Dieter walked in, his body slumped, and his face was wet.
“I cannot believe that they all are gone.”
“I know, dear, it still seems unreal. We have to be strong for Brian. Have you packed yet?”
