Mia's Journey: An Erotic Thriller (31 page)

“I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die.

I have so much I want to do first.”

Stephen Hawking

Chapter 85

Mia, and Mia Lynn arrived at the airport after a long transatlantic flight. They went through Customs and Immigration with no problems. As soon as she stepped into the baggage claim area, she saw Flynn, standing there in street clothes, waiting for her. How he knew she would be arriving, she had no idea. Maybe Swen alerted him. He recognized her immediately and walked up to her.

“Ms. Cobalt, it is a pleasure to see you again,” he said in his most polite and formal way.

“Officer Flynn, it’s good to see you as well. And please, we are old friends, call me Mia.”

Flynn nodded his head and then looked at Mia Lynn. “She is much prettier than her father. She takes after you. Please come this way. Swen Antlier made all the arrangements for you. You have a rental car as well as a hotel suite downtown. I also took time off and will be your personal driver.”

“Officer Flynn, that’s hardly necessary. I’m not an invalid.”

“It’s Lieutenant Flynn now, and it is necessary,” he said seriously.

“Why? Am I in any danger?”

“No. Of course not,” was all he said.

“As you wish. Tomorrow I’d like to visit James’ grave. Now I’d just like to get to the hotel and sleep.”

Flynn drove her to the hotel, carried her bags, then checked the room before allowing her and Mia Lynn to enter.

“I’ll pick you up at nine a.m. in the morning,” he said, handing her the key card.

“Why are you doing this? It’s not necessary,” asked Mia.

“I owe a debt to your husband, and it is very necessary. I told him I would, and I will. This was decided almost two years ago. With all due respect, Ms. Cobalt, you really have no say in the matter.”

Mia sighed. She felt Daddy watching, nodding his head in agreement and satisfaction.

“As you wish.”

Flynn picked Mia and Mia Lynn up exactly on time as she knew he would. He opened the door for her and insisted on placing Mia Lynn in the car seat himself. It was a beautiful fall day. The sun was out, the leaves changing color, and the temperature was perfect.

Flynn drove in silence to the graveyard. Mia knew Daddy had wanted to be cremated, not buried, and his last wishes weren’t carried out. He was buried instead. She wondered how he felt about that. She decided she would ask him later.

Flynn stood a ways off and let her have her privacy once they got to the graveyard. He pointed where she would find the marker and held Mia Lynn’s tiny hand as she walked over alone. She walked up to the cold, granite marker.

It simply said “Cobalt.” No dates, no inscriptions. The grave was tended and clean. Small mementos had been left on it. Some, it looked, had been there for years. One was a small teddy bear. Another was a plastic flower, another was an envelope held down by a rock, stained and weathered.

“Oh Daddy, I miss you so much,” she said, touching the cold gray stone.

“I miss him too,” said a boy about ten years old. He had come to stand beside her without her hearing him. Mia looked up at him. His features were slightly Asian, but there was definitely Daddy in him. Mia looked up and saw an Asian woman standing a ways away, probably his mother. His mother stared at Mia with barely concealed hate in her eyes.

“Do you come here a lot?” Mia asked.

“Yes, it is close to my school. I feel good here. Daddy talks to me. Does he talk to you too?”

Tears came to Mia’s eyes and dripped down her face. “Yes, he does.”

“Don’t cry. Daddy wouldn’t want you to cry. He’s happy now, you know. You were Daddy’s friend, weren’t you?”

“Yes, I was.”

“That means you’re my friend too.”

“How did you know I would be here?”

“Daddy told me. He told me to come and meet you.”

“Did he tell you anything else?”

“He said to tell you ‘everything was going to be okay, Baby Doll. Everything is going to be all right’.”

Mia fell to her knees and broke down in great racking sobs then, unable to contain them any longer. The boy stepped up to her, held her and stroked Mia’s head quietly, exactly as his father would have done. At that moment, Mia Lynn bounded over, unaware of her mother’s grief, and both children held Mia, as she held both children.

“Is she my sister?”

“Yes, she is.”

He got down on one knee and looked at her seriously, then held out his hand.

“Hi. I’m your big brother.”

Mia Lynn shook his hand solemnly.

“What do you remember most about your Daddy?” Mia asked the boy.

“What I remember is that he always used to joke with me. He never got angry. He used to play the piano for me, you know. Sometimes, I can still hear it. Now, when I play, sometimes he sits down with me and we play together.”

The three of them stayed sitting at Daddy’s grave talking quietly. Soon, Mia was laughing. The boy had Daddy’s off-beat sense of humor, and his mischievous grin.

“I have to go. I’m glad you were Daddy’s friend. You made him very happy, you know.”

He turned and walked away without another word. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Flynn walk up to him as well. Flynn stuck out his hand and shook the boy’s as an adult would do.

He then gave the boy a business card. The boy looked at it, shook his head as if to say ‘yes, I understand,’ then Flynn shook his hand again.

When the boy got to the car, he turned around and looked at Mia and Mia Lynn. He waved once, and was gone.

Mia and Mia Lynn stayed at Daddy’s grave the rest of the afternoon.

“Life and death are one thread, the same line

viewed from different sides.”

Lao Tzu

Chapter 86

“Daddy, I’ve got to go now,” Mia said getting up from his grave.

“Thank you Daddy for bringing me and Mia Lynn here to meet your son. He is so much like you. I miss you, Daddy. I have to begin my journey now.”

Mia took Mia Lynn’s hand and walked back to where Flynn was waiting patiently.

“Flynn would you take me back to the hotel, so I can pack my bags and then take me to the airport?”

“Of course. Where will you be going?”

“I don’t know yet. I’m waiting for the small voice to tell me.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’ll decide when I get there. Did you ever get married, Lieutenant Flynn?”

“No, ma‘am, I did not.”

“You should. You’re a good man, Flynn.”

“Most women don’t feel the same way you do.”

“Do you ever see Momma Prescott?”

“Occasionally. What was left of the Prescott estate was given to her. She sold off all the business holdings, including the estate. She took the money and started a number of charities. She came clean about the years of abuse and publicly exonerated you. She said that you acted in self-defense, and she had overheard Jeffery Prescott’s plan to kill you and the baby. Which was why no charges were ever filed against you. The Grand Jury sided with you in absentia.

“Cobalt was charged with a number of crimes, including kidnapping and murder of William Prescott. However, since he was already dead there wasn’t a whole lot the state could do. Everyone wanted to sweep the situation under the rug, and that was what they did. I was promoted. I almost quit in disgust. You tell Cobalt when you see him…” Flynn stopped, aware he was referring to Cobalt in the present tense, as if he were still alive.

“He talks to you too, doesn’t he?”

“Yes…”

They were both silent. Neither comfortable talking about an impossible, and deeply private, matter. Flynn dropped Mia off at the hotel, waited, then drove her to the airport.

“Mia, you and the little one are always welcome here,” Flynn said, trying not to choke up.

“Thank you, Flynn,” Mia said, kissing him softly on the cheek. Flynn watched as Mia walked away, Mia Lynn on her shoulder, big brown eyes, opening and closing her hand, in a child’s wave of goodbye.

Mia walked up to the Air France desk and purchased a ticket for Paris. When they arrived in Paris, she and Mia Lynn sat under the Eiffel Tower in a small sidewalk cafe.

Pictures didn’t do the tower justice. It was huge. Its spider-like supports sweeping up into the air, spinning a metal web. Mia once thought she saw Daddy on one of the tourist platforms high up in the air, looking down at her and waving. She waved back.

Mia felt she was with Daddy quite a bit now that she was traveling. He seemed happy, full of jokes and laughter. She knew Mia Lynn felt his presence too. She wasn’t scared in the slightest and took it as normal.

Mia Lynn was walking and talking now. Frequently, out of the blue, she would say, “Daddy thinks we should go here…” or “Daddy said…”

In Venice, Italy, she saw Daddy go by in a Gondola. Her and Mia Lynn raced after it. However, when the passengers disembarked, Daddy was nowhere to be seen.

In London, she saw Daddy outside Buckingham Palace clowning in front of the stone-faced guards.

In Costa Rica, she and Mia Lynn went for a ride in a glass-bottom boat. The coral reef was beautiful. The water clear and turquoise. Mia Lynn loved all the bright-colored fish as they swam under the boat. Mia could have sworn Daddy swam under the boat, in a mask and snorkel, tapped on the glass to get her attention, waved, then swam away.

They took a three-month world cruise, sailing all over the Mediterranean, coastal Africa, and finally Asia. Too many times to count she saw Daddy in the dining room, helping himself to lobster, or dressed as a crew member, even during the outing on shore.

Daddy was true to his word. He never left her. She talked to him nightly after putting Mia Lynn down for the night. She would sit down and quite naturally, she, or he would begin a conversation.

Sometimes hours would pass and she would come to her senses and realize she was talking to herself, yet hearing Daddy’s words in reply clearly in her mind. More than once, she wondered if she was going mad. Or had already gone mad, from the grief. But she didn’t feel grief. She missed him yes, but she didn’t grieve.

One night in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the snow falling quietly down outside, she asked,

“Daddy, what’s it like to be dead?”

“It’s like being alive, but much better,” he replied.

“How is it better?”

“For one, I don’t have to brush my teeth twice a day.”

“Daddy, be serious.”

“It is like everything is new and wonderful. Colors are more colorful. Smells, smell so good.”

“How can I ever repay you, Daddy?”

“By giving someone else the love I gave to you.”

“Will you always be here?”

“No, not always.”

“When will you leave?”

“When the time comes, not before. I won’t leave you, but there will be time for you to leave me.”

“How come you don’t leave now, and go to heaven, or wherever people go when they die?”

“I am in MY heaven, Baby Doll. My heaven is you and Mia Lynn.”

“I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

Robert Fulghum

Chapter 87

One year after starting her journey, Mia and Mia Lynn were touring Southeast Asia.

It was after Chinese New Year, and the weather was still cool. Mia was undecided. She didn’t really know if she liked Asia. It was not only very foreign, but many parts had a ‘rawness’ that she wasn’t comfortable with. Many other parts, like Bangkok and Singapore were so modern they put the US to shame. Singapore, especially.

Singapore with its sweeping skyscrapers was unbelievably clean for Asia. No other country, except Switzerland could match it. Bangkok was modern too, but not as clean as Singapore. Bangkok, and Thailand in general, were much more exotic.

Vietnam she didn’t like. The people, while friendly and smiling, seemed to be hiding something. Their eyes held a different story. Most seemed to want to cheat you, or were looking for ways to scam you. Most of the other tourists grumbled about it too. Still though, the beaches and scenery were beautiful.

Cambodia and Laos were like taking a trip back in time fifty years. Phom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was overlaid with colonial architecture. There were many places which told of the genocide there during the 1970’s. Even Daddy said unhappy ghosts walked there, and she believed it. It had that feeling.

Which was how Mia and Mia Lynn ended up in Yangon, Myanmar, sitting on a park bench during the winter. No matter where they went in Asia, Asians were just goofy about children and Mia Lynn in particular. Mia watched Mia Lynn closely. She didn’t fear for her, exactly. In truth, after traveling almost the entire world, the only place she felt in danger was in the US. Nowhere else had the tension she felt in all the major cities of the US.

Still, she was careful about her child the way any mother would be. The one thing she saw that she didn’t see in other Asian cities was the army patrols of sullen child soldiers, walking the streets, daring anyone to cross eyes with them.

They sat on a bench in the sun. Mia had bought some food from a street vendor and Mia Lynn had pronounced that she liked it. Which meant digging into it with her fingers. It was a curry of some sort which meant that Mia Lynn was a mess in no time.

“Come here, Baby Doll, let me wipe your face,” said Mia.

“It’s pretty good Mommy.”

“I can see that.”

“Can we get some fruit after, the yellow one that stinks?”

Mia laughed. The fruit did stink. “Sure. Why do you want to try that one?”

“Daddy said it tasted like onion flavored ice cream. I never had onion flavored ice cream before, so I want to try it.”

“Well, that sounds like your Daddy.”

Together they walked over to the fruit vendor. The smell got worse as they neared it. But it didn’t stop people from lining up to buy as much as they could. They got into line and waited patiently as any well brought up Western person would. However, people kept getting in front of them with no sense of order. Some people even pushed Mia out of the way to stand in her place, then pushed forward more, taking other people’s places.

“These people aren’t polite, Mommy,” Mia Lynn said. They gave up and decided to wait until the crowd thinned before attempting again. They went back and sat down on their bench.

An elderly monk with a walking stick came along then and the crowd immediately parted and made way for him. Many people offered up their positions in line for him out of respect. Mia realized he must be an important man. All the people seemed to know him, and bowed and wai’d.

He went to the front of the line, chose the best fruit, and offered to pay. The vendor shook his head ‘no’ and refused payment. The monk nodded his head in thank you and went back the way he came. He sat down on the bench next to Mia and Mia Lynn.

Without asking, he offered the fruit to Mia Lynn. Mia Lynn looked at her mother for permission to accept it. Mia looked at the monk.

He appeared to be somewhere between forty and sixty, she couldn’t really tell. He had a shaved head and wore the saffron robes of a Buddhist monk. He seemed harmless enough and she had watched him take the same fruit she herself was going to buy. So Mia nodded her head in approval, and Mia Lynn took the fruit from the monk and said thank you.

The monk smiled when she took it, and said, “You’re welcome,” in English. He sat back on the bench then and silently looked off into space. After a short while he said quietly,

“You have spirits around you.”

Mia was taken aback. “Excuse me? I’m sorry. Did you say something to me?”

The monk looked at her calmly. “You have spirits around you,” he repeated.

Mia looked at him. She felt a tug deep inside, the small voice was trying to be heard. Mia decided there was no sense in denying it.

“Yes, I do.”

“Do you know why they stay?”

“He stays to protect us, and because he loves us.”

“You are lucky to have such a strong spirit as your guide. Most people don’t. That makes you special in some way.”

Mia was silent. The monk was silent. Then abruptly he said,

“On this very bench a few years ago, I met a young man. He was seventeen at the time. He started his journey from this very bench. He became a man of power in his own right. It started right here.”

Again, Mia felt the tug. The familiarity of the words ‘he started his journey’ the Small Voice was speaking. What was it trying to say?

“What is your name?” the monk asked.

“Mia Cobalt,” she answered. “What’s yours?”

“You can call me Monk.”

“Well, at least it’s consistent.”

The Monk smiled. “I remember someone else saying the same thing. And this little Goddess, what is her name?” the Monk asked, indicating Mia Lynn.

The Small Voice grew louder.

“Mia Lynn.”

“My Lin,” the Monk repeated. He pronounced it differently though. Saying ‘MY ’ instead of ‘ME ah.’

“Of course it is,” he said simply. “The Gods are having fun today, I think.”

The tug was now a pull. The Small Voice rose in volume. Mia knew without a doubt this was the man Daddy had sent her to meet.

“You knew my Daddy, didn’t you?” Mia Lynn asked, speaking for the first time.

“Yes, I did,” the Monk said simply.

“Were you his teacher?” Mia asked.

“I would like to think I was one of his teachers. He had many.”

“He led me to you, didn’t he?”

“I don’t know. I know the Gods led me here today, if that matters.”

“What do we do now?”

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know,” said Mia, truthfully.

“What do you want to do, My Lynn?” the Monk asked.

Mia Lynn first looked at her mother, then did something she never did with strangers. She stood up, ran and jumped into the Monk’s arms. The Monk laughed and held her easily and she looked over his shoulder at her mother.

“Please join us,” the Monk said softly, holding out his hand, “you have nothing to fear. This is your destiny.”

Mia went and stood next to him without a word. Knowing this was where Daddy had led her and wanted her to go. The three of them set out for the monastery, and the long journey ahead.

Mia Lynn stayed in the Monk’s arms, looking over his shoulder, looking backwards to the bench where they had just been sitting. She opened and closed her chubby hand in a child’s gesture of goodbye at the empty space.

She saw her Daddy’s spirit with tears of joy running down his face, thanking the merciful universe as he was left behind, and they started their own journey without him.

The End.