“Oh. How interesting,” Ted said, his eyes dancing.
“Mia has a type,” Murphy blurted out. Mia smacked him on the arm.
“I don’t understand,” Audrey whispered to Orion.
“Sticks evidently bears an amazing resemblance to Ted as a teenager, although he’s a demon and is made up of branches and sticks,” Orion said. “However, I’m worried about Angelo tagging Mia’s mind house.”
“We’ve got time to work this out,” Audrey said confidently.
“To sum this up,” Burt said, “I evidently made a wish or said the words I wish when we were blowing out the candles, and this wish took us back twenty years.”
“Why didn’t it happen immediately?” Cid asked. “Mia said she woke up twenty years ago, and when Burt snapped the candle, we all woke up at night. Shouldn’t we have been there at the table?”
“That’s a very important observation,” Orion said and looked over at Altair. “Someone must have slowed the process.”
“Maybe, or slowed time,” Altair said.
“Does it have to be a conspiracy?” Audrey asked.
“I’d like to think it was completely innocent,” Mia said. “I’d love to put it behind me, but I learned too many things in the past that bother me.”
“You know I don’t believe in a lot of this malarkey,” Glenda said. “But I find the story plausible, and I too worry about motives. I’m glad we all made it back. How many of you died?”
Burt, Ted, and Mia held up their hands.
“I died twice,” Mia said. “But thanks to all of you, the Others didn’t kill me.”
“You mentioned you saw the contract,” Mike said.
“Yes.”
“Who took the contract out?” he asked.
“Fredericka Cooper,” Mia said.
Orion’s face fell, and Altair seemed to find a certain amount of clarity in the answer.
“Before any of you feel sorry for me, I want you all to know that each one of you has contributed to make my life full and wonderful. We can’t help the family we’re born into, but we can help who we call our friends. I’m very fortunate to have all of you. I will do my best to repay your kindness.”
“I’m sorry about the candles,” Orion said. “That’s on me.”
“It was my crazy idea,” Audrey admitted.
“Please, don’t go there,” Mia said. “We survived, and I’m going to eat cake for breakfast until it’s all gone. Now, if you’ll forgive me, I’m going to go home and sleep until my little guys wake up.”
Ted watched Mia as she looked in on the kids. She tapped on Dieter’s door and walked in and planted a kiss on his sleepy forehead. “I missed you,” she whispered. “You have brought such joy to my life.”
“Aw, I bet you say that to all the teenage boys you adopt.”
“Knucklehead,” Mia said with a smile and closed the door.
Mia turned into Ted’s arms. He guided her into their room and closed the door. He tenderly kissed her as he undressed her. Mia clung to him. “Do you know how much of a dirty old lady I felt like when you first kissed me?”
“I kissed you?”
“Yes.”
“I kissed a girl when I was thirteen?”
“Yes.”
“Damn, I wish I could remember that.”
“It was like this,” Mia said and tenderly kissed Ted.
“Wow,” he said and kissed her again. “You could have had a do-over, but you fought to come home to me. I shall never forget this.”
He kissed Mia deeper and deeper, both of them lost in the other’s pleasure. Time seemed to suspend itself to grant them time to enjoy each other until they were sated.
Altair walked down the hill and over to where Murphy was laying looking up at the night sky.
“This answers the question, ‘Do ghosts daydream at night?’”
“Pull up a piece of the hill and sit down,” Murphy invited.
“How bad was it?” Altair asked, reclining and looking up at the stars.
“At times horrible. To see her go through so much pain. She had to fight that demon that was inside her while trying to make sense of what was happening and what she had to do. If she had survived it but not been able to return to this time, I’m afraid she would have been too dangerous to have around.”
“This is why I wanted to take care of her. I could watch for signs that revenge had become her priority.”
“I’m not going to betray our friendship by telling you what she had planned for whomever she found responsible for her losing her children. At one point, when the realization hit her that all of the positive things she fought so hard for wouldn’t happen, she was heartsick, and when she added that Mark would resume his prophesy of being an angel hunter, she was so overwhelmed, she died. Ted and I had to revive her.”
“It seems like your friendship survived this adventure,” Altair said.
“Yes.”
“You’re much calmer than when you came back from the GSD.”
“Yes.”
“Are you still going to wait for her?”
“Yes.”
“But you’re not going to spoil her marriage.”
“No.” Murphy turned and looked at the archangel. “You see, she needs all the humanity she can get. I’m dead. I can’t give her children or do the things she does with Ted and the others. I’ll wait until she’s dead, and then, and only then, will I ask her to spend eternity with me.”
“I wish you luck,” Altair said.
“You’re not going to put a monkey wrench in this are you?” Murphy asked.
“No. You were there for her and endured things that would have broken anyone else. It’s good to see the real Stephen Murphy back.”
“Who did this to us?” Murphy asked.
“I’m not sure. But there are only so many entities powerful enough to have this much control. The list is small, and as far as I know, none of them have
