Burt picked her up and swung her around. “We did it,” he corrected.
“Did Mike make it?” Mia asked.
“He’s pulling on some decent clothes. Glenda is making coffee. Have you seen Cid?”
“No. Have you seen Murphy?”
“Not yet.”
“Come on,” Mia said, pulling on his hand.
Burt let himself get caught up in her excitement. He had no other choice. It was truly a miracle what had happened.
Mia reached the bell. She unwound the cord and pulled down on it.
The bell tolled. Murphy showed up before the second time the clapper hit the side.
“We made it,” Mia said.
Stephen looked at Mia and at Burt and allowed himself to be pulled into the inevitable hug.
“What’s happening now?” Orion asked, pulling on some sweats.
“Your granddaughter is having a three-way in the driveway with Burt and Murphy,” Ted said. “Oh shit, the bell has woken Cid. He’s headed over there. I better go down and stop the bloodshed.”
“Mia, what the hell is going on?” Cid asked, running over. “What’s the emergency?”
Murphy dissolved out of Burt’s embrace and tried to look cool leaning against the woodpile.
“You’re a G-damn hero,” Mia said, reaching up, pulling him down to her level, and kissing the side of his face again and again.
“Mia!” Ted scolded. “You release the boy before he has a heart attack or worse.”
“Can anyone explain what’s going on?” Mike asked, walking over. “Mom found Altair in the aerie drinking her vodka.”
Mia put her hand to her face. “Of course, this would have affected him too.” She turned to leave, but Ted caught her around the waist.
“Dear, I really must insist, if you’re going to hug an archangel, that you put something decent on.”
Audrey walked down the drive carrying a pink housecoat that Mia thought she’d hidden. “Put this on. What’s going on?”
“You used to keep cigarettes in your gym locker,” Mia blurted out.
“How in the world did you know about that?” Audrey said.
“Mia, settle down. I think you’re having an episode,” Cid said.
“You had a pornographic magazine under your mattress when you were in middle school,” Mia told him.
“I did not.”
“Ted and I saw it when we were hiding under your bed.”
“Oh, that magazine.”
“When were we under Cid’s bed?” Ted asked.
“Twenty years ago,” Murphy answered for her.
“Listen, everybody, you may not know this, but all of us were sent back in time twenty years,” Burt said. “But not as adults. We were all twenty years younger.”
Mia took a deep breath. “I know we seem like we’ve lost our hold on reality, but it really did happen. I think we should muster in the aerie. Let you guys listen to our tale and judge for yourselves. And yes, I should put some clothes on. I just had to make sure we all made it back. Magic is magic, but sometimes fate throws a curveball. Mike, I’ll reimburse Glenda for her vodka,” Mia promised. “Tell Altair I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
Mike smiled and saluted.
Mia tugged on Ted’s arm. “Come on. I better settle the kids down.”
“I think Dieter has it all under control. Minnie Mouse, you scared us,” Ted said.
“Well, you got yourself blown up.”
“No.”
“Yes. I warned you about making your own explosives,” Mia said.
“I apologize for my explosive teenage personality,” Ted said, not believing a word of the tale so far. But still, Burt and Murphy were corroborating some of it. And he knew about Cid’s magazine. It wasn’t Cid’s. It was Ted’s, and he hid it there when he was thirteen. How did Mia know about it?
“I also know about how you and Cid would take his mother’s Saab convertible out after dark when his parents were away.”
“Damn, you’re scaring me, Mia.”
The group was assembled in the aerie’s large library when Mia and Ted walked in. Cid had put together snacks. Altair smiled when he saw Mia. He waved her over. He pulled her down next to him and spoke in a soft voice, “I was on patrol when, suddenly, all these alternative memories poured in. I landed and found your place full of the people from the memory assault. I found a giant bottle of Grey Goose in the fridge and helped myself. Burt walked by me in a daze, so I knew you were successful.”
“Mia, would you like to start?” Burt asked.
“Excuse me,” she said, getting up. “Where’s Murph?”
“Here,” he said, manifesting behind the couch.
Mia looked at everyone first. “First of all, thank you for being kind and listening to our story. We’re going to do our best to tell you in the shortest way possible who, what, where, and when, but I’d love for you guys to help come up with why,” Mia said. “It all started when Audrey and Orion had us choose candles…”
After Mia, Murphy, and Burt finished, Altair filled in how Orion ended up flying to the rescue with Angelo and Nicholai. “It became very apparent that there were players in this candle thing, or because of this candle thing, who were determined to do away with Mia. They thought, incorrectly, that she was vulnerable. True, Mia did not have the gifts she has as an adult, but she had the knowledge, and she had all of you to help her in her quest. I was preparing to protect her if she didn’t succeed.”
“How?” Mia asked.
“Nordin and I were going to adopt you, and I was interviewing a suitor to protect you when I passed.”
“Where?” Mia asked, wrinkling her face.
“NOLA.”
“No…” she said, a deep blush forming.
“Yes.”
Murphy started to laugh.
“He wouldn’t remember this stuff, would he?” Mia asked nervously.
“Don’t know?”
“Who are we talking about? Not Angelo!” Ted growled.
“No, Sticks,”
