Alexie Aaron - Checking Out

Maggie whined from her travel cage.

“I’ve got her,” Cid said getting up. “Do you need to take a walk, girl?”

Maggie responded with a sharp bark.

He opened the cage, and she bounded out. She took time to lick Ted behind the ear before pouncing on top of Mia, washing her face with flicks of her tongue.

Cid quickly pulled her off of Mia. “I’ll let you explain that to Mia,” Cid said.

“Coward,” Ted responded. “Maybe we should attach the lead before opening the cage.”

“Good hindsight advice.”

Ted watched Cid and Maggie exit the trailer before he rolled over to where Mia was resting. He sponged off the dog drool from the balaclava. “There, now you’ll be just fine. I wonder where you are, my little star?”

Mia held on to Paul with all her might. If she didn’t know any better, Mia would have sworn that they were being pulled in by a tractor beam. She noticed that the ley line had started to expand. Paul shouted a warning that was lost in the turbulence. Before she and Murphy could prepare themselves, they collided with a solid mass. Paul tumbled onto the front porch of the Dew Drop Inn, while Mia and Murphy had to inch their way along the clapboards towards the porch.

“If I wasn’t oobing, I’d suspect I just broke my nose,” Mia commented as she touched her face. Murphy was silent, but Mia wondered if he hadn’t connected with more sensitive areas of his ghostly anatomy. He walked funny, all hunched over.

Paul got to his feet. “This is it. This is the Dew Drop!” He ran to the door and tried to pull it open. “Millie! It’s Paul, let me in!” he said, pounding on the door. “I don’t understand it,” he said, looking over at Mia. “The door has never been locked before.”

“Perhaps it’s not locked to keep us out — as no one would have suspected we’d be here. It could be locked to keep something or someone in. You continue knocking while Murph and I try to find another way in,” Mia suggested.

Murphy grabbed Mia’s arm and pointed. She turned and looked out over the porch and saw fields of grain moving in sunlight. “It’s a mirage. There’s nothing there but energy,” she told him. “I don’t know what is real, but I’d suspect, that since it’s winter in Wisconsin, that isn’t wheat. The house however feels real.” Mia patted the side of the building. “Let’s see if we can find a way in. Check all the windows.”

Murphy and Mia walked the large porch, pulling on windows and were disappointed to find all openings locked to the travelers, even the ghostly ones.

Murphy raised his axe and tapped the ceiling of the porch.

“You’re right. We should climb up there and check the second story. I do hope that we don’t have to come down the chimney like Santa.”

Murphy rose and moved through the ceiling while Mia waited at the edge of the porch. She knew he probably could have entered the house himself but did not want to leave Mia alone and unprotected. Instead he lowered his axe over the side of the porch. Mia grabbed hold of the handle, and he pulled her up and over the side of the house.

She got to her feet and walked across the top of the porch to the second story windows. She cupped her hands and looked inside.

Burt gasped as a face appeared at his window. His first inclination was to run, but there was something familiar about the nose that was pushed up against the panes. Mia! He rushed over and prayed the window would be unlocked. It was. He opened it with a mighty heave. Mia, who wasn’t prepared for this, fell in head over heels, landing at his feet. Murphy moved into the room after her.

“How is it that I can see you, sir?” Burt asked. “Am I dead?”

“Don’t know?” Murphy answered.

“Hello,” Mia said from the floor. “Any of you gentlemen want to give a lady a hand.”

Burt squatted down and pushed the hood off Mia and looked at her face. “Mrs. Martin, I never thought I’d see you again.” He drew her up off the ground and hugged her before releasing the surprised investigator.

“Rule number one is…” Mia said, trying to push the wave of emotion away.

“Never to investigate alone,” Burt said smiling. “How are you here?”

Mia quickly explained while Murphy stood watch half in and out of the room’s closed door. “This is all so new to me,” Mia confessed. “I don’t know if you can survive the ley line if we try to extract you now. I think the inn protects you in some way. Although, I’m worried that you are headed for hypothermia. The average temperature of the ley line in wintery conditions is in the low forties.”

“I can see my body is cold, but I can’t feel it,” Burt told her. “I’ve been through so much.”

“Bring us up to speed,” Mia requested as she closed the window behind her.

Burt described the welcoming façade the inn had the first night he encountered it and how he seemed to be caught in a time loop of some kind. “It waffles between summer and winter. The two ladies here seem to accept that it can be winter and summer at the same time.”

“From our research, they’ve been here for some time. If they survived the push into the ley line, they would have starved to death long ago,” Mia said. “You’re dealing with ghosts. It’s common for those folks to be confused, if not crazy.”

“Hey,” Murphy said from the door. “Not all of us.”

“Sorry, Murph,” Mia apologized. “There’s no one saner than you,” she said, giving Burt a covert wink and a nod.

“Paul,” Murphy reminded her.

“Fuck me and leave me a rose, I forgot about Paul. Murph, see if you can locate him and bring him up here,” Mia requested.

“Who’s Paul?” Burt asked.

“Millie’s husband,” Mia answered.

“He’d be so old by now. How’d he survive the ley line?”

“Oh, he’s dead, a ghost that has been haunting the Tear Drop Tavern since the Dew Drop Inn disappeared,” Mia said and enlightened him on the bar and the empty lot it faced.

Burt watched through the window as two forms floated up through the roof over the porch. Murphy, who was dressed in a clean suit of clothes, seemed shabby next to the Wisconsin farmer dressed in his black suit of mourning. The time differences between these gentlemen’s deaths was over a hundred years, yet, aside from Murphy’s bowler hat, there wasn’t that much difference in fashion. The difference was money. He raised the window and invited the spirits in.

Paul moved through the window and headed for the door.

“Careful,” Mia warned. “I’m not sure what you’re going to find out there.”

He stopped and weighed her words. “Millie, I must see her.”

“I’m supposed to have coffee brought up,” Burt said. “She, usually, is the one tasked with that chore.”

True to his word, there was a light tap on the door. “Just a minute,” Burt called. He motioned for the others to hide in the bathroom. Burt walked over to the door and opened it. Millie stood there balancing what appeared to be a tray heaped with cookies and a pot of coffee.

“Come on in. Please set it over there.” He pointed to the table across the room.

Millie moved to the table, and Burt closed the door.

She looked back at him oddly. “You’re pretty chipper. Where has Mr. Grumpy gone?” she asked, setting down the tray.

“Millie?” Paul’s soft voice came from behind her.

She turned around and said, “Paul, I didn’t know you knew Mr. Hicks.”

He rushed to her and was pleased to be able to hold his wife in his arms again. To Millie, it had only been a few hours since they last parted. To Paul, it had been a lifetime. Mia and Murphy moved around the embracing couple and stood with Burt by the door.