“Bnnns.”
“Come on, you’re a Martin. Try again. Jelly beans,” Mia enunciated.
“Welly bees.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful, she said as she rocked her son.
Murphy looked in at the two and turned and asked Cid, “Does she know?”
“She has a feeling, but I told her we’d talk after Brian was put down for the night.”
Mia walked downstairs. She was dressed in Ted’s Chiefs jersey and skintight, black yoga pants. She walked to the front door and opened it, looking outside.
Cid stared at her. Did she expect a different scenario? Did she want to see their car there and Ted busy in the barn inventing something?
Mia shut the door and sat down on the couch. Cid walked over. Mia opened up her hand, and inside lay a platinum leaf ring, Ted’s size. “I found it on the dresser. What did I do?” she cried. “No note, no explanation, nothing.”
“It’s my fault.”
“Tell me,” Mia said. “Sit down please. I’m getting a neck ache.”
Cid pulled the chair over and told her of his and Ted’s conversation. “I pushed him to do the right thing. He was supposed to call her and tell her that it was over and to leave him alone. At first, I thought, when I heard him packing, that he was going there to break up with her in person. It was when he woke Brian up and cried, holding him, that I knew that something was terribly wrong. He handed him to me and said, ‘Take care of them,’ and left.”
“So he chose her? He doesn’t love her. He feels sorry for her. I refuse to believe that all he wants in his life is basic Beth. But, she is someone whom he can always be better than, someone that isn’t going anywhere, isn’t sprouting wings for heaven’s sake.”
“I think that the thought has been with him longer than we imagined,” Cid said. “I think, he thinks that he deserves her, that fate has decided that he has to leave everyone he loves and take care of her.”
“But she’s horrible. I have to stop him,” Mia said, getting up. “He’s not thinking straight. What route does he take?” Mia asked herself. She pulled off the Chiefs jersey. Underneath, she was wearing a black yoga top with a matching bra.
“You’ll never catch up to him. He’s had two hours head start.”
Mia touched her wrist. “I’ll catch him alright.” She turned around and walked to the door. Cid could see tattooed feathers moving on her back.
“Mia, what are you doing?” Cid asked, following her out into the yard.
Mia tapped her wrists together and a pair of beautiful, luminous wings sprouted behind her. “I’m getting my husband back. He’s got some misguided comic book idea of what a man of caliber is all about. He thinks that you sacrifice what you want in order to be a hero. Well, fuck that.” Mia closed her eyes and pleaded with the powers of flight and flapped her wings. She took off running and flew. Low at first. She buzzed right over Murphy on top of the hill before she turned west and disappeared.
Cid sat back on his heels in disbelief. Murphy picked him up and set him on his feet.
“Did Mia just fly out of here?” Cid asked.
“Guess so. Gone after Ted, I imagine.”
“What if she crashes, or Ted rejects her pleas?” Cid asked frantically.
“She has to try. She loves him. She left Brian with his godfathers. She did right.”
“And if she fails?”
“We’ll pick up the pieces,” Murphy said with more confidence than he felt.
~
Mia passed the hollow and began to follow the route she and Ted had taken to visit his folks. She had a few hundred miles to go before she would start to look for him. She had to concentrate on the movement of her wings. It was a bit like rowing, the better the angle, the farther she would travel between flaps.
“My god, Mia, slow down. You’ll kill yourself before you reach him.” Sariel was above her. “Be still, glide. Let me,” he instructed.
Mia did as she was told, and Sariel reached down and pulled her to his chest and held her there.
“I have to reach him. He’s a fool, I know, but he’s my fool,” she said, crying. “Get me there, and I promise you my sword and shield when the time comes to fight.”
“I don’t need to be bribed to do the right thing,” he scolded. “Mia, you’ll fight beside me because it too will be the right thing to do. Look down. Is that the car?”
“I think so.”
“‘I break for geeks’ is written on the bumper.”
“That’s the car,” she said.
“I’m going to release you. Glide ahead, and set yourself down. Get ready to jump if he doesn’t stop.”
Mia nodded. She glided down.
Ted was arguing with himself as he drove. He couldn’t stop the tears that streamed down his face. He hated leaving Mia and Brian, but he had to do the right thing. Beth had no one. Mia had everyone. What did she need him for aside from fertilizing her eggs? He had given her a son. That should be enough. Time for him to save Beth.
There was something glowing in the middle of the road. He slowed down, and when he made out the winged creature, he stopped and pulled off the road. He expected it was Angelo or perhaps Sariel sent to fetch him. He wasn’t possessed. He had to convince the messenger of this.
He got out of the car and walked towards the mighty winged… “Mia?”
“How dare you leave without a word,” she spat. “Leave your ring, leave your marriage, and leave your son. What kind of coward are you?”
“It’s for the best. You don’t need me.”
“I do need you,” she argued. “You’re my world.”
“Beth needs me. She has nothing.”
“Do you love Beth?”
“No.”
“Are you aware that she is very self-sufficient? She has her own house, a budding ghost-hunting concern,
