“No wonder you were in love with him,” Murphy said thoughtfully.
“I had a crush on him, but I wasn’t in love,” Mia clarified. “I do know, if he wasn’t around, I would have lost my nut completely.”
“I feel bad for scaring the piss out of him.”
“I don’t. He was my knight but also my tormentor. It’s complex.”
They passed the Ace Hardware and started up the hill.
“When I was a kid, I didn’t socialize much,” Murphy explained. “Having the stigma of your dad disappearing didn’t help. I was kept at home and tied to my mother’s apron strings until I was old enough to work.”
Mia was quiet. This was unusual for Murphy to open up about his childhood.
“Knowing now that he didn’t leave us helps, but there was a whole lot of hurt that changed me. Mia, I’m wrapped so tightly inside, it’s a miracle that anyone ever got through to me.”
“These days we call the negative stuff we hold on to baggage.”
“They have a label for everything in these modern times,” Murphy commented. “Take us for example. We suffer from a hero complex.”
“We do?” Mia asked.
“Oh yes, according to Cid’s books, we think that we have to sacrifice ourselves to save the world.”
“But we do,” Mia said.
“Yes, but there is now a label for us.”
“I’d like my label to read, ‘Warning do not feed after midnight.’”
“Like a gremlin,” Murphy laughed. He looked down at Mia and asked, “How are you feeling now?”
“Happy to be with my best friend on an adventure. I have to compartmentalize so I don’t fall into a pit of despair surrounded with what-ifs, but I’m enjoying this moment.”
“Me too.”
“I wonder what happened to Quazar?” Mia said as they turned onto the road leading to the farm. “His shop is a Starbucks in 2018. I’ve been in it, no Quazar.”
“Maybe ask Gerald when we reset time.”
“Do you think we will remember this?” Mia asked.
“Yes. I think we will.”
“You seem so certain.”
“It took me a while, but I remembered the future. I think the past is going to be a cakewalk.”
“What’s a cakewalk?”
“It’s an expression we used to mean easy in my day. Although, a real cakewalk wasn’t easy at all. When I was a youngster, I saw it when it was performed on a traveling show. A cakewalk was a graceful dance that was performed in a square.”
“Like a square dance?”
“No. In a cakewalk, the contestants were judged. The winner received an elaborately decorated cake as a prize. I think it started down south on the slave plantations.”
“Show me,” Mia said.
Murphy performed a high-leg prance with an arrogant backward tilt to his upper body and head. “If I’m doing it right, it should look easy, smooth, graceful.”
“You look like a hoity-toity at a debutant ball.”
“Then I got it right. Cid says the plantation owners never caught on that the slaves were making fun of them when they danced.”
“I’m uncomfortable with talking about slaves,” Mia admitted.
“Slavery was bad. We have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
“That’s why we have hero complexes.”
Murphy laughed.
The sun was moving below the tree line by the time they reached the farm.
“I think you should spend the night in the barn. I can protect you there. In the house…”
“I remember that Chastity is there. The barn will be fine.”
“The last people who fled the farm left some camping gear. I think there are a few sleeping bags…” Murphy said and disappeared.
Mia was left alone to walk the drive up from the road. Memories flooded her senses from the first time she met Murphy to guiding Mike and Burt to the farm when it was owned by April. Mia passed the icehouse where Ted had helped her build a marble mausoleum over Murphy’s bones. Mia’s eyes watered. “I wonder where they all are now?” she said. She imagined Ted’s and Cid’s heads poised over school books studying. Mike would be on the farm doing chores, but Burt was a mystery.
During their brief time as a couple, Burt and she were good together. They had their disagreements, but physically, they were an amazing match. “Yikes, a twelve-year-old has no business thinking of such things,” she scolded herself. She still felt a connection with Burt. She could see that Burt had suffered as much as she had in their quests to rest the lost souls, free the hostage homeowners, and work with a crew of strange individuals.
“Mia!” Murphy called. “Come, I found the camping gear.”
Mia sniffed, turned, and trudged up the remainder of the incline. Murphy had pulled the door open a crack. Mia took off her pack and held it beside her as she squeezed in.
“Careful, there are some rotted floorboards,” Murphy said, taking her pack from her.
“I had forgotten that you had a cellar here,” Mia said, looking around. “You really built a magnificent structure.”
“It’s not as pretty as the little barn Cid built for me,” Murphy said.
Mia thought about the little red barn tucked into the hillside on the other side of the aerie and smiled. “It’s pretty, but it won’t last as long as this one has.”
“Time
