The Siege (23 page)

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” Ted said.  “I have Cid living here rent free, and speaking of rent, we’ve not seen anything but utilities out of PEEPs for the last two months.”

“We’re doing pretty well though.  No mortgages to pay, just the cost of day-to-day living.  My father was able to get us covered under the university medical insurance.  Baby Martin is covered.”

“Charles came through as he promised.  I think he likes the role of future grandfather.  Amanda on the other hand…”

“Don’t expect her to babysit,” Mia said.  “Nor would we want her to.  Look how I turned out.”

“Like you were raised by wolves,” Ted said, squeezing her shoulders.

Mia turned around and reached up to bring Ted’s face down to hers.  “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he said and kissed her tenderly.  “Do you remember the advice I gave you about having babies too soon?”

“Oh yes, I remember. We were sitting on the stoop at Homely’s.  You sat down and articulately expressed yourself.” Mia thought back.

Ted blurted out, “I hear you’re on the rag.”

Mia had looked at him horrified.

“I have three sisters,” he explained, as if it would excuse his choice of conversation.  “At least you’re not knocked up.”

Mia remembered being devastated.

“Oh no,” he said aghast.  “You didn’t want to be prego?”

“I don’t know.  I had a couple of dreams and thought, why not?”

“Honestly, take a look at how big that guy is.  His head is humongous.  You will be split in two delivering his kid.”

Mia hit him on the leg.  But he continued.  “You’ll be covered in baby puke, and I don’t think Murph’s going to want to hang around you with a screaming kid on your shoulder.”

“I guess what you’re saying in your most elegant way is, to take my time.  Make an informed decision.”

“Yes. Make sure both of you are ready,” he said seriously.  “Plus, we have a lot of ghosties to wrangle before you settle down.”

Mia smiled. “I fear you might be right.”

“You mentioned the size of Whit’s head, but yours is far bigger.  Will I be split in two?”

“I said all of that because I didn’t want you to have
his
baby.  But in retrospect, I would have loved the child no matter the father.  It’s yours, and that’s what is important to me.  I will protect and take care of both of you, I promise.”

“The kid’s yours,” Mia reassured her husband.  “If he looks like Mike, it’s just coincidental,” she teased.

He didn’t speak a moment.  “I deserved that I suppose.  I wonder what has gotten into me.  I’ve been very immature and insecure lately.”

“I’ve noticed you’re not your usual overconfident, boorish self.”

“Thanks for that, pumpkin.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I think that I’m a bit scared that I’m not going to be a good dad or a good husband.  I’m a bit, well, odd.”

“You’re perfect. After all, I’m a bit weird.”

“A match made in the Addams’s house.” Ted gently leaned his wife backwards and nuzzled her neck.

“Ah, Morticia and Gomez, they epitomized romance after having kids, didn’t they?” Mia said.

Ted gently returned his wife to the upright position.  “We still have to figure out a name for Pugsley.”

“I think we have to name him after Cid and Murph,” Mia reminded Ted.

“Yes, but our child has to have his own name.”

“So you’re going to toss out Theodore?” Mia asked.

“Um, yes, do you want the kid to get a black eye in preschool?”

“That cancel clears the grandpas’ names too.”

“Most certainly.”

“So far we have Pugsley Cid Stephen Martin,” Mia voiced.  “Kind of sounds like a comedian.”

“Let’s drop the Pugsley.”

“K.”

The two of them stood there, looking out at the falling snow for a while.  Each of them running and rejecting names in their heads.

Finally Ted admitted, “I’ve got nothing.”

“Me too.  Although, I love the name Paolo, but I worry it would hurt Father Alessandro’s feelings,” Mia said.  “His birth name is Tomas.”

“That’s too close to Tom for comfort.  I heard at the sub shop, you two were dating,” Ted said.

“Brian,” the two said together.  Sabine’s late husband’s name had been in the back of each’s mind for some time.

“He was a knight,” Mia said dreamily.

“He overcame adversity and illness,” Ted said practically.

“Brian Stephen Cid Martin.  That sounds very professional,” Mia said.

“I think we better write this down.  Phew!  I thought, when they ask me the kid’s name, I was going to blurt out Bruce Wayne!”

“We can’t have that.  There is only one Batman,” Mia said, pulling Ted down for another kiss.

~

Murphy moved through the house, checking every window and door.  He upped the thermostat, knowing that Mia would be awake soon and hated to bathe in a cold bathroom.  Maggie lifted a sleepy head and thumped her tail as he passed her.  He moved through the kitchen floor and down into the cellar where he contemplated the large sheet of marble over his grave.  He understood why Ted thought this was the best way to protect his remains, but he found it strange.  It’s not like the cellar hadn’t been used as a crypt before.  Memories of the entombed body of his wife Chastity were still fresh in his memory, even though Cid had done an expert job filling in the recess and shoring up the wall.  Why did his mother bury her down here?  True, she was every bit the adulterer that was displayed on the plaque, but where was his mother’s humanity?  She had always been a Christian woman who displayed her beliefs every day of the week, not just on Sunday, so her denial of a Christian burial for her daughter-in-law was uncharacteristic of the dignified woman.

Where were Chastity’s parents?  Did they not mourn their daughter?  Murphy wished that he had been more aware after his death.  He took solace in the trees when life left him.  Perhaps he should have tried to comfort the people left behind.

~

Cid woke to the diffused sunlight of the continuing storm.  He noticed a twitch of curtain at the window of the guestroom.  He assumed it was the soldier keeping watch.  Murphy had given Cid the ability to see his spiritual form, but that didn’t translate to other spirits.  Cid’s overdeveloped hearing helped him identify the muffled sounds that made their way through the veil.  Sometimes, he could even hear them speak, not as clearly as Mia, but it was enough for him to be aware that he wasn’t alone.

“Good morning, Breeze,” he addressed the spirit with Mia’s pet name for it.

A slight tap answered him.

Cid sat up and swung his legs over the bed.  “Hopefully, our friend Audrey is closer to finding out your real name.  We’ll have to wait until the snow melts to give you a Christian burial though.  We’re hoping to find your people and inter you close to your folks.

Another tap.  For a brief moment, Breeze manifested himself and bowed his head in thanks before he disappeared again.

Cid was impressed.  The extra energy had not only made manifestation possible but brought out the spirit’s gentlemanly manners.  Those actions weren’t learned in the afterlife.  This man was brought up a gentleman.  Cid hopped out of bed and pulled on his clothing from the night before.  He needed to get to the landline and tell Audrey of his observation.

Cid noticed that the house had a warm cozy feel to it as he descended the stairs.  He stopped at the thermostat and chuckled as he saw that someone, he suspected Murphy, had upped the temp ahead of the programmed heat for the morning.  It’s not that he disagreed with the ghost.  No one wanted to hear Mia shriek when her bottom hit the cold toilet seat or deal with surly Mia the rest of the morning. Be it human or ghost, no one wanted that.

He waved his arm as he entered the kitchen to turn on the overhead lights.  He grabbed the phone and dialed the number they had to reach Audrey at, which had been penned on the adjacent white board.  Nothing.  He bounced the receiver hook a few times and shook his head when there was no dial tone.

Cid picked up the iPad Ted had left on the kitchen table and noticed, to his relief, that the PEEPs Wi-Fi system was still up.  He shot a question over to Jake and waited for a response.

NO DIAL UP AVAILABLE

Cid took the time to send a thank you.

IS THIS THE END OF DAYS?

No, just a storm related glitch
, he typed.

THOUGHT RAPTURE MISSED ME, PHEW!

Cid set the iPad down and proceeded to put together a breakfast.  He had all his ingredients for apple pancakes set out when Maggie whined at the back door. She pushed at the flap, but it didn’t budge.

“You really ought to learn to use the facilities,” Cid suggested to the dancing dog.  “You’re not going to like it out there.”  Cid walked over and unlocked the back door.  He pulled inward carefully.  The mystery of why the dog flap didn’t work was solved with the exposure of two feet of packed snow on the back porch.  “It must have slid off the extension’s roof sometime last night.”

“I beg your pardon?” Ted’s sleepy voice asked behind him.  “Brrrrr, shut that door.”

“I can’t, we have a dog with a full bladder and…”

They heard a faint whistle and the front door opening.

“Come on, Maggie,” Mia’s voice called.  “That’s my girl,” she said as the dog bounded out of the house, across the snowy porch and out into the yard where she immediately relieved herself before she hopped over the snow back up the porch and into the house.  Mia rubbed down her coat with the beach towel she had hung inside the door for this very reason.

Cid tried to shut the door, but the snow had eased its way over the threshold.  He and Ted tried to muscle the door closed.

Mia guided them out of the way.  She cleared her voice.  “Take the dustpan and jam it on top of the broom handle,” she described as she did so.  “Voilà, we have a snow shovel.”  She handed it to Cid.  “Start digging.  You geniuses really can’t think before coffee,” she stated, walking over to the empty pot.

Ted couldn’t think of a witty response, so he sat down and put his head on the table.  Cid scooped up the snow and tossed it off the porch.  “I’m thinking that we should build a roof here.”

“Didn’t Murphy suggest that already?” Ted mumbled.

Murphy, hearing the sound of his name, appeared in the kitchen.

Mia turned around, feeling his presence.  “Good morning to you!  The twins need your guidance when it comes to thwarting snow accumulation.  Maggie couldn’t use the doggie door because it was jammed shut by the snow that slid down off the extension’s roof,” Mia explained.

“Twins?” he asked, fearing that Erdmut and Garrit Hoffman had come from the hereafter to visit - that’s all he needed, autistic spirits in a snowbound house.

“Oh sorry, that was sarcasm,” Mia said, pouring Ted a large mug.  “The two of them can’t think unless they are caffeinated.  Evil twin geniuses.”

“I think he gets the idea,” Cid grouched.

Mia handed him a mug of coffee.  “What’s got you so grumpy?”

“No phone.”

“Well, that’s to be expected. Have you seen it out there?” Mia said.

“Didn’t happen last year with the blizzard,” Cid pointed out.

Murphy nodded.

Mia smirked.  He could no more tell one winter from another.  Time was different on his plane of existence.  But Mia kept her comment to herself.  She suspected that Murphy had turned up the heat for her comfort.  She wasn’t going to rat out a valuable ally like Murph.

“The PEEPs Wi-Fi’s still up.  Jake is holding his own out in the barn,” Cid said, handing the iPad to Ted as he scooted past him on his way to the food prep area.

“But he doesn’t have anything to hold,” Mia said, unable to resist.

Ted snickered.  “Very immature, but very Martin.  You’re in a good mood this morning, pumpkin,” he observed.

“I awoke to a warm house.  Someone warmed the toilet seat…” Mia looked around, and Ted raised his hand.  “And the house.”  Mia winked at Murphy.  “Who wouldn’t be feeling fabulous?”

“We’re snowed in,” Cid pointed out.

“Cut off from the world,” Ted added.

“But we’re all together,” Mia said with Audrey-like glee.  “Here I am, in a cozy home surrounded by my three favorite men, a visiting gentle spirit, and a dog with bacon-withdrawal shakes.  Nothing could spoil this day.”

BAM!  BAM!  BAM!

The three deafening knocks seemed to have started at the front door, but the ferocity that echoed through the house gave testament that it had originated in hell.

The sudden appearance of Breeze with a restraining sword across the exit of the kitchen was a surprise.  He didn’t have to voice his concerns because they were already in everyone’s minds.  “Don’t answer it.”

Chapter Eighteen

Burt frowned at the handset of the kitchen phone.

“What’s the matter?” Dave asked as he looked up from his scrambled egg breakfast.

“I’m not getting an answer, just a steady busy signal,” Burt reported.

“In my neck of the woods, that means the phone you’re trying to call has been disconnected.  Any of the family hit hard times?”

“I was calling the farm.”

“The phone lines could be down because of the storm.”

“If so, it’s a first.  Most of the main lines were buried when they tried to subdivide it, if memory serves me.”

“Give the phone company a call if you’re worried,” Dave suggested.  “I don’t think we’ll be driving out there anytime soon.  Thank god, I ended up here last night.  I can’t imagine being stuck over there with Saint Cid.”

“You really have a problem with Cid, don’t you?” Burt observed, replacing the handset.

“Don’t you?”

“No, I think he’s a very moral person.  He tends to be a bit pedantic and throws around a lot of psychobabble.  Is that why?  Is he trying to reform you?”

“Can’t be done.  Mia tried and failed.”

“You talk like it’s a badge of honor that you’re resistant to change,” Burt said disappointed.