She looked over at the old man with the demon eyes. She liked his eyes. They reminded her of… best not to go there. She concentrated and kept herself in the moment.
“Mia, you can do this. I’m confident that you can. I think you need to visit each person on the list, and I’ll track down Orion for you. I know a guy. It’s this guy we need to see after we get permission from your parents. How do I explain to your mother and father that an old man and his butler would like to be in charge of their twelve-year-old daughter for two weeks and get them to agree to it?”
“Does it matter? Can’t I just disappear? My parents are distracted with each other. They may not miss me for a few days.”
Wyatt opened the card and turned it around to face her. “But these guys will, and they will cause trouble. It may stop our progress. Remember, you may have to live out this timeline, and I don’t think a stint in juvie for being a runaway will be the way to start it.”
Mia picked up her pieces and placed them back on the board. She picked up Wyatt’s queen and looked at it before handing it to him.
“That’s it!” he exclaimed.
“What is?” Mia asked, worried that the old demon was having a heart attack.
“Chess. I’m going to have Nordin convince your parents to send you to chess camp.”
“You know, it may work. They are always looking for ways to get rid of me.”
“What about school?”
“My father has been at odds with the quality of my education for a while. I’m the one that makes me go to school. He thinks by supplying me with books, I’ll teach myself.”
Nordin, who entered the room in time to hear his new role in this farce, handed Mia the translated copy of the candle along with its incantation spelled out phonetically. She looked up at him and asked, “Is there anything you can’t do?”
“We’ll see how well I can act. I guess you and I are off to convince your parents that you’re a chess prodigy. Have you ever played before?”
“Not in front of them. As far as I can remember, I’ve never even picked up a chess piece.”
“Then how did you beat, Mr. Wayne?” Nordin asked.
“He taught me in another timeline. I played a bit, but he and I spent many hours playing chess. I learned a lot from him.”
“It’s confusing, you talking about the future as if it’s the past,” Nordin admitted.
“Too much for you?” Mia asked.
“No, I just have to adapt. That’s what we butlers do, adapt.”
“You’re a hell of a butler, Nordin.”
“Thank you, miss.”
Wyatt got up and patted Mia on the back. “You two go and get permission, and I’ll make some phone calls. Then we’re off to see the wizard…”
~
Stephen Murphy moved into the dark house, being careful not to displace too much air. He was aware that his wife’s spirit had been seen by previous homeowners and renters. The last thing he wanted was to have Chastity find out why he was inside the home after all this time. He could argue that he wasn’t aware of how much time had passed, but he wasn’t a good liar. She would know that he watched the seasons change and marked it in the woods. He knew, within a month, how long it had been since he stepped into his abandoned house.
The décor had changed over the years, but the layout of the home hadn’t. Electricity was brought in, the wires clumsily run just behind the mopboards and cabinets. He moved up the stairs and rose into the attic. He found the safe he had cut into the beam and looked at the contents. The jewels and coin were all accounted for. The girl, Mia, knew where his hoard was but didn’t rob him. Either that spoke of her character, or she, like himself, didn’t like entering the house if her actions had even the slightest possibility of raising Chastity.
He left quietly and started to move towards his barn. He stopped and backtracked to the ice house. The child also knew where his grave was. Murphy stared down at the brambles that hid the old wood from prying eyes. Nature had moved in as soon as his mother had left the farm. They had forgotten the crushed man who was laid out and awaiting his burial. No one to miss him. No one to care.
But evidently in the future, he and the young girl do meet. Judging from the amount of information the girl knew about him, they must have talked, talked a lot. He didn’t know he could talk to the living beyond a word or two, words he used to frighten away lazy homeowners. He wasn’t concerned as much over his house as he was his barn and his farm. He had cleared the land himself, felled trees, and built his structures. His mother prodded him into taking a wife. The wrong wife. And when it became apparent there would be no children from their pairing, Chastity and he lost heart.
He pushed the bad memories away, choosing instead to concentrate on the story Mia Cooper had given him. She seemed genuine. She had come to the farm for what?
“Help. She came to me for help, and I threatened her with my axe,” Murphy scolded himself.
“We worked together.” Her words echoed around him. It stirred something in the back of his mind. He closed his eyes and brought up the memory of her offering him her hand. For a moment, he had expected to see a gloved hand reaching for his. He pulled his axe closer to his chest and tried to hold on to the vision of the gloved
