“You mean in the group there are people who don’t know they have been wished backwards?” Cid asked.
“Yes.”
“Who was all there?” Ted asked.
Mia pulled the card out of her back pocket and handed it to Ted.
The teen looked at the names. “I don’t know any of these people with the exception of Cid, you, and Murphy. Wait, Mike Dupree…”
“Give me that,” Cid said. “Yes, that’s the guy who was all-state in track last year. He’s in high school. Not in Wichita, somewhere north of here.”
“It doesn’t faze you at all that twenty years from now Cid is still with you?” Mia asked.
“No, should it?” Ted asked.
“I guess not.”
“Who am I to you?” Ted asked Mia.
Mia looked at Murphy for support. “Tell him, Mia.”
“In the future, you’re my husband. We have two sons, Brian and Varden, and have adopted a teenager named Dieter. We live in Big Bear Lake, Illinois. We work for Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners, and at the time of the wish, you had worked your way into becoming one of the partners. Mike Dupree and Burt Hicks are the founding partners. We meet when your group investigates Murphy’s farmhouse.”
“I’m a ghost hunter?” Ted asked. “I find that hard to believe.”
“You handle all the technical stuff. You run the command center. You invented these little earcoms and give us information while we’re investigating.” Mia turned to Cid. “You come along later and help Ted - if you’re not in front of the camera or running the camera.”
“Wait, someone wants this in front of a camera? What am I, the comedy relief?” Cid asked.
Mia slid off the bed and put her hands atop Cid’s shoulders. “You know what a beautiful a person you are inside right now?”
Cid nodded.
“Well, you’re that beautifully handsome on the outside twenty years from now. We call you Superman because you look like him. And your super hearing, of course.”
Cid took one of Mia’s hands off his shoulder and held it. “Are you lying to me?”
“No. You’re more than just a colleague, Cid. You’re a dear friend who is part of our family. You’re building a house near our farm. Ted and I wouldn’t know what to do if you left us.”
Ted walked over and yanked Mia’s hand out of Cid’s. “My future wife, Garrett.”
“You’re a jerk,” Cid said.
Mia looked at Murphy. “Have I said too much?”
“No. But these gentlemen have to realize that the future already has changed. This may never happen, no matter what they know. This is why it’s very important to find the Duprees and Burt Hicks before the full moon. Also, there could be a more sinister reason all of this has occurred.”
“Can we eat first before discussing this?” Mia asked, walking over to her backpack and pulling out what was left of the mangled sandwiches.
“Oh no, you’re not eating that,” Cid said, taking it from her. “Follow me, I’m sure there is something I can find to cook in the Martins’ kitchen.”
Mia turned around and pushed Ted. “If I get stuck in this timeline, Martin, I’m not going to live with an insecure jerk. There are better men out there, like Cid.”
Ted frowned.
Murphy felt sorry for him, but he had to learn his insecurity could and had caused a lot of heartbreak.
~
Orion steeled himself before he knocked on Fredericka Cooper’s door.
She opened it and stared down in disbelief. “Orion?”
He looked at the woman who was in the winter of her life, but he still saw the beauty that attracted him to her in the first place. “Fredericka, may I come in? I have something very important to discuss with you.”
“What is it?”
“It’s about your granddaughter Mia.”
“Come in,” she said, stepping away from the door. “I’ve just made some tea. Would you like a cup?”
“That would be nice,” he said, following her into the brightly lit kitchen.
He sat down at the kitchen table and watched as Fredericka brought over the teapot, cups, milk, and sugar. She stopped and placed some of the cookies she had just baked on a plate and brought them over too.
“I know you told me never to come back, and I wouldn’t have, but I feel that the welfare of your granddaughter is worth the intrusion.”
“Go on, what’s wrong with Mia?”
“According to my associates, she lives in a Dickensian nightmare of an existence. She’s not properly fed or clothed. There is nothing that would nurture a girl in that home. The house stinks of cigarettes. There is evidence of neglect. My associates want to call social services, but they can’t presently find her.”
“What do you want me to do about it?” Fredericka said dully. “Charles has forbidden me from visiting them. I only get to see her if they can’t find someone else to watch her when they go on digs where she’d be an inconvenience. I can’t talk about magic or why the girl sees ghosts. If I do, I’ll never see her again. Charles has made himself clear.”
“Was he always this way?” Orion asked.
“No. Just since he met that woman, Amanda. He can’t form a sentence without her name in it. She sniffs and he’s there to hold a tissue under her nose. It’s rather disgusting. I thought after the child was born he’d change, divide his attentions between the two, but evidently, I was wrong.”
“There’s a ghost who attends her.”
“Really?”
“I think that’s the only love Mia receives beyond the attention that Ralph Mendlessohn gives her.”
“Amanda only allows him there because she doesn’t know what to do with Mia when Charles is gone. Evidently, when Mia was a tot, she ended up on the other side of the lake, and the police
