“How considerate,” Mia said. “I think I could survive for one night.”
“Who are you kidding?”
Mia nodded. “K. We better get started. We’re losing light.”
The two of them worked out the mystery of erecting a 1960’s era Boy Scout tent together. The inside, although dry, smelled funky. Mia knew Murphy couldn’t smell, so she didn’t address the problem. She just wrinkled her nose and started to unpack her stuff. Murphy had found two sleeping bags. She spread one out on the canvas floor, and the other she would sleep in. She excused herself to use the toilet in the house.
Murphy handed her a key. “Back door. In and out quickly or you’ll have to explain things to Chastity.”
“When was the last time you spoke to her?”
“In this timeline? When the tree fell. I asked her why. I didn’t like the answer.”
Mia turned on her flashlight and walked out of the barn. Dusk had fallen, and it was dark and quiet. Almost too quiet. She knew it was because the fauna didn’t enjoy the presence of the ghosts of the farm and the hag in the hollow. There were a few crickets looking for mates, but beyond that, Mia heard nothing but the wind in the trees.
She entered the house and moved quietly across the peeling linoleum floor. The bathroom was tucked under the stairs, and she made quick use of it. She knew the minute she flushed, if Chastity was about, she would come up from the cellar. Mia was in no mood to deal with that bitch. The closer she got to Murphy, the more she hated Chastity. Mia flushed and fled.
Murphy waited outside for Mia. He couldn’t get over how small and fragile she looked. But under that skin was grit that would carry them through the toughest battles. He admired her pluck. Her language as a teenager was embarrassing. He envisioned his mother turning in her grave each time Mia dropped what Cid and Ted called the F-bomb. But the Mia after the children were born was different. She still would drop an F-bomb occasionally, but the circumstances needed to be dire.
Mia launched herself out the back door. She stopped and forced herself to lock it. The window of the door filled with the white film of a spirit. Mia tried to avert her eyes, but she knew she had to face what was standing there.
Chastity Murphy would forever be a beautiful woman. Her brown hair and black eyes appeared dull in death. Her skin was waxy, and her expression was one of annoyance. She stared at the child Mia, and Mia, the adult held hostage in the small body, stared back.
Mia mouthed the word bitch.
Chastity didn’t know why this child would call her a female dog, but it still was rude. She reached through the glass at Mia.
Mia stumbled backwards into the steadying hands of Murphy.
Chastity looked at her husband. He was protecting this child, why? She shook her head and disappeared.
“Phew, that was a close one. Tell me, was she always so stern?” Mia asked.
“No. My mother, now, she was a pillar of salt when she didn’t want to discuss anything. She would stand there and stare frozen-like until I went away. Maybe Chastity learned that from my mother.”
“I’m hungry. Let’s see if my groceries survived the walk home.”
“Home?” Murphy asked. “You think of this old place as home?”
Mia looked around and then looked at Murphy. “I will always think of this place as home. As long as you’re here, I know I’m home.”
“You confuse me when you talk this way, Mia,” Murphy complained.
“I’m sorry. But we are a screwed-up kind of family. From a distance, people would think we’re father and daughter.”
“That makes this so much creepier,” Murphy complained.
“K, drop that. You’re my family every bit as much as Cid is.”
“Better.”
“There is a saying that you can’t choose your family, but I think I have. Every member of PEEPs are my family. Your dead father Kevin and Fergus are part of my extended family. At the age I am now, the only family I had were Charles, Amanda, Ralph, and Bernard. Now I have friends whom I love, whom I know love me back. They have seen me through some embarrassing encounters and trying times.”
“But you have seen them through the same. You and I fight, but I never doubted we would still be friends until the GSD.”
“That was hard on both of us. But hey, we beat it. We’re still friends.”
“Mia, when you die, are you going into the light?”
“I fear that I’m headed into Purgatory. I don’t see that I’m going to be able to slip out of Roumain’s hands. Wait, that sounded worse than… No, I think that’s what it’s going to be like… Nevermind, where was I?”
“What if you stayed here with me?” Murphy asked.
“What if I turned out to be a zombie ghost like we’ve seen? What if I have no emotions and can’t feel?”
“I’ll still care for you. Remember when we were discussing the movie The Ghost and Mrs. Muir?”
“Yes, you said that relationship was highly improbable.”
“He waited for her. I would wait for you.”
Mia pushed her promise to Ted to join him on the Starship Enterprise – his idea of Heaven – to the back of her mind. She also knew that Michael would do anything to keep his healer. But what did she want?
“I don’t think it’s improbable,” Mia said. “Once I’m dead, when the rules are different, I don’t see why I can’t spend part of my eternity with you.”
“But not all?” Murphy asked, disappointed.
“I have made promises, some of them foolish,
