Cid wanted to challenge her but knew the more he talked with Candy, the later he, Mia, and Ted got on the road. “Before I forget, the dealership called, and they are coming to pick up Mom’s car later.”
“Well, you better be here because I’m busy.”
“Candy…”
“Call me tomorrow to check in,” she said and walked off to complete her look. “Hey, nerd boy, have you seen my black scrunchie?” she called from the bathroom.
“No. Maybe you left it at school?”
Mia pulled the scrunchie out of her hair and handed to Ted. He reached out from under the bed, aimed, and shot it across the hall. The scrunchie landed a foot away from the back of Candy’s foot.
“What’s that at your feet?” Cid asked.
“Damn, there it is.”
“You’re not supposed to swear,” Cid needled.
“Don’t be such a piss pants,” Candy said and slammed the door.
“I want to kill her,” Mia whispered.
“I know. But she’s his family.”
“He’s so kind, smart, handsome, and good,” Mia listed.
“That doesn’t matter to his sister,” Ted replied. “Wait… he’s not handsome.”
“Yes, he is. I love his brown eyes. I fall into them when he looks at me.”
Ted turned her face to his and kissed her.
“Um, gross,” Mia said, playing the twelve-year-old.
Cid, who was standing in the hall, had heard everything. He smiled.
His sister opened the door and pushed past him. “I overheard Mom and Dad. They’re sending you to fat camp this summer. I suggested it. We’re going to Disney World, and you’re going to fat camp.”
Mia was out from under the bed. Ted caught her before she could make it through the door. He pinned her to the wall with his body. His hand was on her mouth and his lips at her ear. “There is too much at stake. Settle down,” he hissed.
Mia did so. Ted held her against the wall until Cid walked in the room and said, “Coast is clear. What the hell were you two doing in here?”
“Mia was determined to punch your sister out,” Ted said. “I had to restrain her.”
Cid blushed. “I’ve seen you fight. Candy would be down in one bitch slap.”
“Sorry, I don’t know what came over me,” Mia said.
“I’ve never had anyone stand up for me before,” Cid said, amused.
Mia turned and hit Ted on the shoulder.
“Except Ted, did I forget to say Ted?” Cid said impishly.
Ted rubbed his shoulder. “Yes.”
“Sorry, Ted,” Mia said. “I don’t know what came over me.”
“For the record, whose wife are you twenty years from now?”
“Yours,” Mia said.
“Well, act like it,” Ted said and stormed off.
Mia just whistled and walked into Candy’s room. “Which is her favorite outfit?” Mia asked Cid.
“Why?”
She picked up a pair of scissors off the teen’s desk.
“And how am I going to explain that? ‘It wasn’t me, Candy. It was Ted’s future wife who shredded your clothes?’”
“Damn, you make good sense. Sorry, I’m acting like a…”
“Kid,” Cid finished. “I think the longer you’re here in this timeline, the more immature you get.”
“Nope,” Murphy said from behind them. “She’s always like this.”
“He’s right. This is why Ted and I are so good together,” she said.
“They can be embarrassing,” Murphy warned. “Time we hit the road.”
~
Burt eased his bad hip by piling up some of the pads he had ripped off the wall. He was cold on the tile floor. The pads were helping, but they smelled bad. He suspected that prior inmates had urinated on them. He did his best not to think about the smell. Burt had satisfied his hunger with the last of the soup from the first thermos, and he needed to keep it down. He decided to play a game with himself to test his memory and to keep him from going nuts. He put in a tape in the recorder and pressed record.
“Top ten haunts,” he announced and thought a minute. “Ten: The Gruber Mansion. Tons of ghosts. I can still see Mia sitting in that chair, with her feet up against the barred door, blasting the ghost in the cellar with her rock-salt shotgun each time the ghost manifested. And I’ll never forget Audrey screaming when she thought the marionette was attacking her. It wasn’t. She just got tangled in the strings and, well, attacked herself.
“Nine: Clinton Middle School. Matching wits with the ghost. Ted’s big brain saved the day. Little did we know that the entity was auditioning us to be its host.
“Eight: Lucky’s bar on Route 66. That’s when we found out that we really knew nothing about dealing with ghosts en masse. Biker ghosts. Being rescued by the nuns was an interesting chapter in my life.
“Seven: The Rosemont Hotel. Mike was adamant that the place was a hoax. Turns out the ghosts were making it look like the haunts were being faked. Mia had to rescue the manager from an old escape slide installed by bootleggers.
“Six: The Jewel Theater. The renovation of the burlesque theater brought out a very dangerous ghost. But it was good to see Amber again.
“Five: Dew Drop Inn. This B&B that I investigated alone should have kept me from doing this exact thing. I had to be rescued, but the inn was so real. It enchanted me. I didn’t know I was freezing and starving. I would have died if Mia and Murphy hadn’t caught up with the inn.
“Four: Glenda Dupree’s family’s house in Lund. Actually, the whole town of Lund was haunted. But the disturbances centered around two very different
