Crossroads

by Alexie Aaron [Aaron, Alexie]

  Mia faded back into the darkness, lest Macario sense her presence. Earlier, while Macario was distracted with communicating with his cousin, she had dropped the tracker inside the outer box that held the coffin. Mia moved quickly out of the fallout shelter. She motioned for Murphy to leave his tracker on the outside of the building before the two of them moved away from the derelict factory building and Simpsonville.

  Ted was smiling down at her as she opened her eyes. He kissed her lightly on the lips, which extracted a groan from Jake’s Marvin the Martian persona.

  “Welcome home, Minnie Mouse.”

  “Did the trackers work?” she asked, flexing her fingers to get the feeling back.

  “If you were in Simpsonville, then yes.”

  “Wonderful! They’re in another fallout shelter. My question is, how do they find these places?” Mia asked, sitting up.

  “Internet. County planning offices. If they’re smart, they soon will be looking for other accommodations,” Ted said.

  “I saw a lot of anger, and it wasn’t just coming from Macario. There was a man with him. He was in charge of a few other men. This man was full of negative energy. A lot of it seemed aimed at Macario.”

  “Did you hear anything Tom can use?”

  Mia told him all she heard about the banks. “Evidently, there may be information still in the Glynns’ possession that the Francos need. They are going to use the briefcase to zone in on Paula. Now’s the time to lay a trap.”

  “I’m worried they aren’t going to let us burn Macario’s body,” Ted said. “After all, it’s evidence.”

  “Then we have to get to it before they do,” Mia said.

  “We, and that includes you,” Ted reminded Mia, “aren’t going anywhere near the human side of this until the gang members are rounded up.”

  Mia frowned but understood. Facing off with an entity honor bound to fight with an ethereal device was one thing; humans toting submachineguns was another.

  “I better call in my report to Tom,” Mia said.

  “He’s coming here.”

  “Not with…”

  “Just Tom.”

  Mia smiled. “I know I’m being a pain in the butt regarding Whit, but I keep tripping over baggage when I’m supposed to be acting like an adult.”

  Ted took Mia’s hands. “You’re doing just fine. He was deliberately provoking you and your bodyguards with the crap he was spewing. You’re just keeping me, as Brian says, out of the ‘hoosegow.’”

  Mia tested her legs and, under Ted’s care, stood up. She looked around the office and noticed the recycling bin was out from under the counter. “Was Varden in this?” she asked, scooting it back into place. “I’m sorry, I’ll remind him he has to put it away.”

  “No, actually, it was Noah. Evidently, he believes in putting all his artwork on the back of discarded papers,” Ted said.

  Mia put her hand to her chest, and she started to breathe hard. She walked over to one of the keyboards and typed in a request to see the film of her and Burt’s walkthrough of the Glynn house. She watched as Cid took the time to film each one of the pictures that Paula had framed and put on the wall. Mia tapped the screen, which brought an angry Martian to the monitor.

  “Do I tap on your window?” Jake asked snidely.

  “Sorry. Can you enhance this one?” she asked.

  “To what end?”

  “I’d like to see what’s behind it,” Mia answered, breathless.

  “Some,” Jake mumbled.

  “Why?” Ted asked, typing commands into the computer.

  “Gaspar and Macario were talking about some lost information they think Demetrio, aka Derek, may still have. What if…”

  The screen flashed. Ted had used some filters on a small piece of one of the colorings Noah had done. Behind it looked like masses of numbers.

  “That’s code,” Ted said and tapped the screen.

  Mia noticed that Jake didn’t yell at Ted. She brushed aside the bias and started to calm herself so she could speak. “Ted, the Francos have been looking for information to get them into a bank and a vault. I believe this code…” She broke off and looked at the door and back at Ted. Her eyes held his.

  Ted saw she wanted to leave to retrieve the artwork, but something was holding her back.

  Ted got up and opened the door. “Take me with you,” he said.

  Mia ran out into the drive and grew Ted-sized. She opened her wings and pulled her husband into her arms.

  Jake watched the two disappear, and a sound came from him that sounded like a sniffle. “How do I compete with that?”

  “You don’t,” Cid said, observing from the doorway. “The moment my best friend met Mia, I had a choice to make. Do I whine about the time he spends with her? Tell him falsehoods to get him to turn his head away from the starlight? Or do I love him and give Ted what completes him? I chose to be at their side and watch something I doubt I’ll ever have. The devotion Mia has for Ted. His admiration of her. Mia turned away Heaven to be at his side. He sees every change as wonderful. She is his superhero, and he is hers. We can find fault with both of their individual behaviors, but when they are together, there is nothing better.”

  Cid raised his hands before him as he explained, “An energy flows between them that is more than sexual. I think the reason she won’t let Soren plan for her life after Ted is that I believe she’ll cease to exist without him, and she knows it.”

  “Do you hate her?”

  “No. I love her, I love him, I love them,” Cid admitted. “I think, if you would allow yourself, you would love Mia too.”

  “He’s too smart to be in her shadow,” Jake said.

  “She’s too awesome to be in his, yet both have taken a step back and lifted the other up. Run all the tape you have of Mia looking at Ted. When you’re done, you’ll understand what I’m telling you.”

  “I’ll do so later. Right now, I need to put my energy into making sure they are able to get into the Glynn house without being discovered,” Jake said.

  Cid nodded and sat down to help by watching the video feeds.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Mia dropped into the Bravermans’ backyard. Ted turned, and as Mia transformed, he held her to him as if letting her go was an impossibility.

  “I felt it, Mia,” Ted said. “I felt what it is to fly. No more will I lie awake and wonder what being Superman is like.”

  “Of course not, you’re Batman,” Mia dismissed. “Come on, we haven’t much time. Macario will recharge. He’s too smart to enter the graveyard, but he will get here. If I’ve figured this out, I’m sure he has.”

  “The place is being watched by the Feds,” Ted said as they crept along the fence line.

  The streetlights started blinking. Ted hissed. “It’s Jake. He’s going to buy us time.”

  The lights started to blink on and off, chasing each other as if it were a Broadway marquee. Mia and Ted saw the Feds get out of their vehicles to watch the light show. Their phones and radios started playing music.

  Mia and Ted ran around the fence and entered the house through the back door.

  “Gather all the artwork off the walls,” Ted said. “We’ll look at it away from here,” he explained, taking framed picture after framed picture off the walls.

  Mia ran through the house as quietly as she could.

  Jake and Cid heard her light footsteps, followed by nails being pulled out of the wall, dropping on the wood floors. Ted moved like a robot, but between the two of them, they had stripped the place of the wall art and were out the back door in minutes.

  Mia handed Ted her stack and transformed. He backed into her arms, and she held him as they shot up into the night sky.

  Jake returned the light grid to the control of Big Bear Power and Light and the cell phones to their original providers. Cid waited outside the office for them to return.

  Mia landed, setting Ted down gently. He walked forward,
handing Cid the stack of artwork. “Here you go, Superman. Use those eyes of yours and see what you can find. I’m going flying with my lady.” Ted stepped back, and the two of them shot up into the night sky.

  Mia took Ted to the curve of the earth. She turned and pointed to the red planet. “There’s Mars. Are you sure you don’t want to go there?”

  “Not without you,” Ted said.

  Mia turned and pointed to the west. The earth was just spinning away from the sun. The last light danced over the miles before going out. Ted saw before him the Milky Way, its view unimpeded by the earth’s light pollution. He imagined he was primal man looking up into the heavens for the first time. The beauty of the stars filled him with awe. He turned his head and asked, “How can you leave this and go home?”

  “You’re my home,” Mia said. “All of this is wondrous, but what really counts is you.”

  Ted felt Mia gently turn him around. He saw the blue star reflected in her green eyes, but he also saw himself.

  “I love you, Ted.”

  “I love you, Mia.”

  Ted kissed Mia, and she allowed herself to drift as emotions filled her. After, Ted would ask her questions like: how can I breathe up there? when do you get your rocket boosters? and finally, isn’t science wonderful?”

  ~

  Cid had carefully laid all the frames out carefully. He was just getting ready to open the back when Mia and Ted came through the door. Ted handed Cid a paper bowl of 8˚Below Rolled Ice Cream.

  “You can only get this in Wichita,” Cid said, walking over to get a spoon.

  “Mia drifted a bit,” Ted said, looking at the project before them.

  “I never was a good navigator. When we got lower, to see if we could read a water tower so we could get our bearings, Ted saw a familiar sight,” Mia said. “After we ordered, he directed me home.”

  “Thank you! I’ve just started to take off the backs.”

  “I feel maybe we should have asked,” Mia worried.

  “But what if Noah said no? Forgiveness sometimes is easier than asking,” Ted reasoned.

  “I’ll remind you of that next time you catch Brian with your Funkos,” Mia teased.

  Cid watched as Mia opened the backs and handed Ted anything she couldn’t identify. Ted scanned the pages into the computer. He then handed them back to Mia to restore the art to their frames.

  “We need to put these someplace they cannot be found until we get this sorted,” Mia said.

  “You can use my workshop,” Murphy said, manifesting.

  “Thank you. I haven’t seen your workshop yet. Until recently, I’ve been too fat to go down the stairs,” Mia told her friend.

  “Come then,” Murphy said, lifting the pile of framed artwork as if it weighed nothing.

  Mia followed him to the stairs, past the door to the cavern, and into his shop. He set the bundle down and looked for a place to secure them.

  Mia ran her hand over the unfinished pieces of furniture and then started to pick up tools.

  Murphy watched her from the corner of his eye. His friend seemed bewitched by the array of chisels and wooden mallets. He had forgotten how handy Mia was. She had stopped being a handyperson when Cid arrived on the scene. She found a knife and examined the blade.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  She seemed startled. “I remember when a blade was just for whittling or slicing food. Now I look and ponder if it will get through demon hide or if I can use it to operate on a wing.” Mia sighed.

  “I understand. My axe used to fell trees and chop wood.”

  Mia’s smile was slow in returning. “Do you hate me?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “I took all this simple life of being a woodsman away from you.”

  “You didn’t take anything away from me.”

  “But if I didn’t change, you would…”

  “Would still be ousting the wrong people from my land. I wouldn’t have been a pirate, rescued maidens in distress, or have Mother Nature to converse with. I would have never made friends with Cid, nor been called Uncle Murphy. I wouldn’t trade my existence right now for the old days.”

  Mia continued to nose around the workbench in silence.

  Murphy was determined to get Mia to engage with him on a more personal level. “While you were gone, I listened in on a conversation Cid was having with Jake.”

  “You better be careful about eavesdropping. One never hears what they want when they have an ear where it shouldn’t be,” Mia advised.

  “Cid mentioned something that upset me.”

  “Oh dear. Would you like me to talk to him?” Mia said, laying her hand on Murphy’s arm.

  “It was about you.”

  “You better not tell me then,” Mia said.

  “He said, ‘I think the reason she won’t let Soren plan for her life after Ted is that I believe she’ll cease to exist without him, and she knows it.’ Is this true?”

  “Cid’s very perceptive. I see merit in his comment.”

  “Is this how you feel?”

  “I fear living longer than my husband, just as most women who love their spouses do. The thought of living hundreds of years past his death is not the life I see for myself.”

  “You’ll have your children to guide and then their children. You’ll still have me.”

  Mia turned and looked at him. “Knowing this is a comfort. How about we just let the universe decide my fate?”

  “When have you ever let anyone make a decision for you?” Murphy said, crossing his arms.

  Mia laughed. “You too are very perceptive.”

  Murphy wanted to shake her up but realized, at that moment, it would be wrong. Instead he said, “Thank you for the time you always make sure to give me.”

  Mia lifted an eyebrow and then smiled. “You’re welcome. Now come on, I’m dying to know if Ted has figured anything out yet.”

  Burt put the phone down and put on his shoes. He was just about to lock up when a set of lights pulled into the drive and stopped outside the gate. He watched as Paula got out of the cab and walked unsteadily through the gate. He rushed out, and although he initially suspected she may have had a drink or two, it wasn’t the case at all. Paula was exhausted.

  “I’m sorry, I should have called.” Paula began clutching the brown briefcase to her chest. “But they wouldn’t give me my phone back.”

  “Who wouldn’t?”

  “I’ve lost track, Homeland maybe.”

  “I was just going out to meet with PEEPs. Let me call them and tell them I’ll be delayed,” Burt said.

  “I want to see Noah. Let me come,” Paula pleaded.

  Burt swept her off her feet and carried her to the garage. Before he opened the door, he took the briefcase out of her hands.

  “Give that back!” she demanded.

  “Paula, this is how they are finding you. Do you want us to lead them to Noah?”

  Paula shook her head and started crying.

  Burt steeled himself and put the case in a plastic bag and then put it in another bag. He placed scoop after scoop of salt in. He sealed the bag and put it in the backseat. “I’m sorry, Paula, for being so crass, but you’re in danger. I’ll explain it all as we drive over.”

  “That’s the last of Demetrio’s things I have.”

  “No, you have memories and that wonderful artistic little boy. The case is just a thing.”

  “I have things in it I’m going to need,” she said.

  “We’ll sort it out at the PEEPs office. I’ll call ahead and have them make a safe place where we can open the case.”

  Mia and Enos were waiting for them at the door of the office. Mia nodded to Enos, and he walked over and secured the briefcase while Mia examined Paula while she sat in the car.

  “Didn’t they feed you?”

  “No.”

  “The entire time you were there?”

  “No. At on
e point, they had me standing in one place for hours. My feet are killing me.”

  “I’m going to have a word with Tom. They can’t get away with treating you this way.”

  “It wasn’t the locals. They were suits from downtown Chicago.”

  “Still…” Mia complained. She looked over at Burt. “Go in and get Cid.”

  “I can carry her.”

  “I know you can, but I also know you’ve already carried her. You have to be careful.”

  Burt colored but nodded.

  After he left, Mia said, “Your son is safe but missing you. We’re going to get you fed and charged up, so when you see him, he doesn’t worry.”

  “Mia, if they arrest me…”

  “They won’t, but if they do, Noah stays with us,” Mia said.

  Cid arrived, and Mia stood back and let him scoop Paula up and carry her into the office. “I’ve made some sandwiches. We’ll get you sorted, and then I believe, Mia and Ted have a good surprise for you.”

  Mia held the door open, and Cid brought Paula into the office and settled her in a chair. He played waiter and soon had Paula eating.

  Burt looked over the materials Ted had assembled and patted him on the back.

  “It was Mia who led us to them,” Ted said.

  Enos walked into the room. “As soon as you’re able, Mrs. Glynn, we’d like you to empty the briefcase.”

  “Who’s watching it now?” she asked.

  “Stephen Murphy. It’s in the best hands,” Enos said.

  “Activity at the Glynn house,” Jake announced.

  “Paranormal or human?” Burt asked, sliding into one of the seats at the large computer console.

  “Paranormal.”

  “Warn the locals,” Burt said. He looked over at Mia who was watching the large screen.

  “It’s Macario,” Mia said. “He hasn’t manifested, which means he’s conserving energy. I would warn Tom against going in there until morning.”

  “I’m going to put up the defense screen on our property. Go and warn Murphy,” Ted said.