Mixed Messages
Chapter 10
Movie Night
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Adalind looked at the snacks spread out on the table, cold drinks in the fridge, and a stack of soft, fluffy, blankets folded and ready on the brown leather couches. She stretched out in a white fleece long sleeve shirt and matching soft pajama pants.
Nick slid the door open from the bedroom and stepped out in matching white fleece pajama outfit and fuzzy slip on house shoes. "This is going to be so much fun. We haven't done movie night, in, Hmmm." He scratched his close cropped beard. "Ever I guess."
Nick turned and corralled thirteen-month old Chuck. He scooped up the blonde haired toddler and bounced him on his lap in the couch. The boy laughed and rubbed a chubby hand on his father's beard.
Adalind smiled and was about to say something when Diana bounced in. "Mom, I'm going to go get Mandy now."
"Make sure you tell her Mom."
Diana sat down on the couch next to Nick, closed her eyes, and relaxed. Soon, all the lights and appliances in the heavy concrete, converted paint factory, now four-bedroom home flickered. The glowing ghost of Diana stood up out of her body and walked to the middle of the room. "Ok, Mom. I'm so excited! This will be so much fun. I'll be back soon."
"See you in a bit."
All the appliances flashed again and ghost-Diana disappeared.
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Milliseconds later, all the lights in Amanda's suburban Seattle house flickered and Diana appeared in the middle of the living room.
Blonde haired Sandra looked up at the flashing TV from her forest green trimmed couch, then at the glowing ghost standing in front of her. "Hi Diana. How are you doing tonight?"
"Fine, thanks, Mrs. Prentice. Is Mandy ready?"
Sandra called up at the stairs, "Mandy, your sister is here. Are you ready?"
Amanda came bouncing down the stairs at light speed. "This is going to be so much fun! I've never astral projected before."
Diana said, "It's super fun!"
Sandra laughed. "I bet it is."
"Ok, are you ready?"
"Yes!"
Diana sat down on the forest green love seat. "Ok, come sit here next to me." Amanda sat down and took her hand. "Now close your eyes and relax."
Amanda closed her eyes and exhaled, sinking back into the big overstuffed chair. She relaxed and her breathing slowed. Her eyes flickered, all the lights in the house flashed, and a pink glowing ghost of Amanda stood up out of her body. Diana walked her to the middle of the room.
"Mom! Look!"
Sandra stood up and stared. She tentatively reached out towards the ghost of her daughter. Her hand passed into the plasma and Amanda giggled, "That tickles!"
Sandra smirked, then called up the stairs, "Misty, you have to come see this!"
"What's up?" Echoed down the stairs.
"It's Mandy, she's astral projecting with Diana."
Brown haired Misty hurriedly rushed down the stairs, and stopped in her tracks at the bottom, staring open mouthed.
Amanda giggled and pointed at the kitchen wall, and said, "Diana, can we?"
Diana smiled. "Sure." They walked over to the wall separating the kitchen from the living room. "Now just hold my hand and relax." Amanda's face calmed, and they stepped, holding hands, into the wall. A second later, their bodies disappeared, and
Amanda's voice echoed out of the kitchen. "Mom! That's so cool! Did you see that?"
A loud thud sounded from the living room. Sandra shot to her feet and instantly ran to her wife, laying unconscious on the floor. "Misty! Misty! Are you OK?"
Sandra knelt over Misty as her eyes slowly fluttered, she rolled to one side, and gently rubbed her head. Misty pushed herself up into a sitting position, supported by Sandra. "Sandra? Did I just see?"
"Mom? Are you OK?" Echoed out of the kitchen. The ghosts of Diana and Amanda came running back out, straight through the wall, through the couch, over to Misty.
Misty stared at two spirits passing straight through the furniture. She turned white, swayed, and fell limp again, this time into Sandra's arms.
Sandra gently shook Misty. She got up, worried, and found the phone. Diana laid her glowing left hand over Misty's heart and flashed her eyes purple. Amanda asked Diana, "Is Mom going to be ok?"
Diana said, "Your mom just got too excited. She's ok."
Misty's eyes slowly flickered, then opened up again. She looked around, bewildered. "What happened? Is Mandy OK? I thought I saw her ghost."
Diana still had her hand on Misty. "It's ok, Mrs. Prentice. Mandy was just getting ready to go watch a movie at my house."
Misty's eyes glazed over a bit. "Ok. Have fun." She stood herself back up off the floor like nothing happened.
A very worried Sandra stopped dialing, but watched Misty carefully. Her worry started to dissipate seeing her wife suddenly carry on like nothing happened. What in the world could I tell paramedics? My wife passed out because the ghost of my daughter is going to watch a movie with her ghost step sister?
Ghost-Diana now stood with ghost-Amanda in the middle of the room. "Ready to go?"
"Yep!"
"Ok, relax."
Suddenly, all the lights and electronics flashed violently and the sisters disappeared.
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Adalind leaned over the wood topped stainless steel bar, and looked at Nick with a gentle smile. "Hey honey, Diana is bringing a special guest over for movie night, tonight."
"Oh, great. Who?"
Adalind looked at Nick, wondering how to break the news. She wrinkled her brow and decided to just blurt it out. "Nick, we found out you have another..."
Nick's phone blew up with calls and text messages. He frowned, then turned and answered it. "I can't believe this! It's not even supposed to be our weekend on call but Holtby and Bauer just got into a wreck in a police chase. Renard says Hank and I have to deal with a murder while they sort out the accident and get them over to the hospital."
Adalind sighed and shook her head. Nick kissed her on the lips, headed back into the bedroom to change clothes, and said, "I'll make it up to you, I promise."
Nick, now dressed in blue jeans, a brown Henley shirt, and a black bomber jacket, rolled the wooden door on the elevator up, and was standing next to his car when all the lights and appliances flickered.
Adalind walked over to the iridescent ghost of Amanda, standing next to actual Diana, in her kitchen. "Mandy! It's so good to see you! Is this the first time you've ever astral projected?"
"Yes, Mrs. Burkhardt."
"What do you think so far?"
"It's super fun, but weird. Can you astral project?"
"Yes, although I don't do it as much as Diana. It freaks most people out."
"My mom, Misty, sorta passed out when she saw me walk through the wall out of the kitchen."
"I hope she was ok."
"Yes, she was fine."
"Have you gotten stuck in anything or fallen through any floors?"
"I got my hand stuck in the fridge door. Diana helped me get it out."
"And no getting zapped."
"Zapped?"
"Like if you touch your body when you're projecting or if a Hexenbiest zaps you."
"Oh, no. Diana warned me not to touch my body."
Adalind chuckled.
"What's a Hexenbiest?"
"I'm a Hexenbiest. So are Diana and Catherine, though they don't wogue yet."
Amanda's eyebrows rose, she shifted side to side, then looked up at Adalind.
"Would you like to see me wogue?"
"Yes, Mrs. Burkhardt, if it's ok."
"Sure. Ready?" Adalind looked at her eyes, then transformed herself into an ancient, mummified witch corpse. She ground bony teeth, barely connected by dried sinew and leathery flesh, and looked at Amanda through shriveled eyes that rattled around in their eye sockets. Hexen-Adalind looked into the endless abyss of her jet-black eyes and smiled. "Are you ok?"
Amanda smiled. "Yes."
"Ok, I'm going to wogue back." The ancient witch corpse transformed herself back into beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed, Adalind.
Adalind observed her reaction. She's definitely a Grimm, all right. "You're Lowen. Would you like to show me?
"Sure!" Amanda smiled and transformed herself. Her feline features were less pronounced than a regular Lowen. She had a curly mane and black body fur instead of the usual blonde, she was still very petite, and had less fur than a normal Lowen. Catherine and Kelly tried to touch her ghost fur, but their curious fingers passed into her plasma, making Amanda giggle. "Can they see Wesen?"
"Yes. All four of them. And Grimms too."
"So they see my eyes?"
"Yes, except they never see them turn blue. Even Diana only sees your eyes black. Can you see your own eyes turn black?"
"Only when I wogue."
"I bet that was weird."
"Sort of. My parents never taught me about Grimms before, so I didn't know what it was."
"Interesting. Well, I'm so glad we finally got you here for our movie night."
Ghost-Lowen-Amanda transformed herself back to Amanda. "Is Mr. Burkhardt here?"
"No, I'm sorry. Nick got called away on an emergency with the police department. He was looking forward to finally meeting you."
Ghost-Amanda looked down, shifted side to side, and sighed heavily. Three kids bounced up to her and started chattering excitedly. Diana grabbed her hand and they all zoomed out to the living room together.
Kelly wanted to show her the roof access, so they all climbed up the stairway to the large, flat, roof and watched the sun set over the Portland skyline.
Next he found the Uno cards. Adalind, Diana, Kelly, and Amanda played several games together. Amanda even won one when her final card was a wild/pick four.
Finally, out came the movie. Four actual kids and their ghost half-sister piled into the big couch together. Adalind laughed at the spectacle from her soft, brown leather recliner. "Kids, now give your sister some room."
They watched a zoo themed cartoon musical. Diana, Amanda, and Kelly had seen it several times and enjoyed singing along to all the songs.
Between movies, Amanda looked at all of the family pictures, one by one. She touched glowing fingers to the pictures of her father with his family. She noticed an older, dark curly haired, petite woman in several of the pictures with them. She looked at Diana. "Sis, who is that?"
"That's Mom, my other mom."
"Oh."
"She's Dad's mom." She paused for a minute when she noticed the sad but hopeful look on Amanda's face. "That makes her your Grandmother too, but we just call her 'Mom'."
"Is she?"
"She's a Grimm, like you." Diana flashed her eyes purple. "She will like you."
Adalind ambled over. Ghost-Amanda looked at the pictures, then at Adalind, who gave her a gentle, reassuring look. "Maybe you can meet your grandmother next time. Would you like to pick the next movie?"
"Sure"
They walked back towards the living room when Diana interrupted. "Can we try another cartwheel?"
Amanda looked at Adalind. Adalind chuckled and said, "I think there's room in the garage. We don't have much of a yard to practice in."
Soon the entire gang stood in the garage and eagerly watched ghost-Amanda coach Diana through a cartwheel. Diana got it on the 2nd try and did five cartwheels. Kelly and Catherine gave it a shot. Their natural Grimm athleticism had them turning sloppy cartwheels after the first try.
Adalind stared silently at Amanda, Kelly, and Catherine standing side by side. The uncanny family resemblance gave her pause, especially so with little Catherine. Catherine and Amanda were near carbon copies of grandma Kelly, with her dark curly hair, olive skin, and petite build. Amanda looked more like them than their actual baby brother, blonde haired Chuck, who easily passed as Diana's brother.
Adalind decided that she would not have guessed tall, blonde haired, athletic Sandra was her actual mother, she looked more like smaller, brown haired Misty. There was no missing Sandra for a Lowen, though.
Next, Amanda showed them how to do a handstand and turned a couple front and back walkovers. She coached Diana through a handstand. Diana wanted to try a walkover. Adalind chuckled as she watched Diana stretch her long legs out and try to balance on her hands with tiny Amanda's help. It took a few tries but she eventually got the hang of the balance and body position.
Kelly and Catherine couldn't resist trying the gymnastics moves, and got them both on the second try with Amanda's help.
Soon, they were back upstairs. Kelly and Catherine turned cartwheels through the kitchen as Diana chased them back into the living room. They piled back into the couch for a second movie.
This one was a silly adventure about golden retrievers playing basketball. The kids all laughed at the dog antics, then started yawning.
Soft, warm, blankets covered them. Sleepy eyes started nodding. Soon children drifted off to sleep. Amanda's ghost eyes closed slowly, she flickered, then disappeared. Kelly and Catherine slowly slumped over into the spot Amanda vacated, and slept soundly.
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The next week...
A white utility van slowly drove up to the powerline pole across the street from the Prentice's house. A black haired man wearing an orange and bright yellow reflective cable company vest over a blue work uniform pulled up a tablet computer and checked his paperwork. He put on a white cable company hardhat.
He slowly walked across the street to the yellow trimmed house, stepped up onto the front porch, and pushed the doorbell.
Misty answered.
He looked down at a stainless steel clipboard towards some paperwork, then up at Misty, and said, "Hello, Mrs. Prentice, I'm Carl Johnson from the cable company. We're doing some routine maintenance in the area this week. Our records show that your cable, internet, and phone service runs through the box I'm working on, across the street there. You will probably have a thirty minute interruption. I'll come check on you once I'm done to make sure everything is working properly."
She took a slow sip of her coffee, looked at his badge, hat, and vest, then said "Ok, fine. Thanks for telling me."
Sandra asked "Who was that?"
"A guy from the cable company."
"Are they finally going to fix the internet so it doesn't drop out every time it rains?"
"I'll ask him."
The technician walked back to his truck and slid an orange fiberglass extension ladder off the roof of the truck. He extended it and leaned it against the pole, then climbed up. He opened the junction box, installed a shiny square box with a small antenna in the cable, then buttoned it back up. He mounted a small black box inconspicuously on the pole next to the large, round, junction box connected to the thick, black, utility cable.
He pulled up his cellphone and his tablet, looked at the screens, made a few adjustments to the box, then climbed back down the ladder, packed up, walked back across the street, checked with Misty.
She spoke with him. He nodded, got a heavy tool belt out of his truck, and went around the back of their house. She stood, watching, while he opened up a gray plastic box. He pulled handfuls of vines and weeds out of the box, then pointed at the rusty, wobbly connections. He clipped corroded connectors off the ends of the black cables, replaced them with new, replaced the rusty three-way splitter with a brand new shiny unit, then buttoned it all up. She walked him back into the house to make sure everything worked correctly. Misty pointed the technician to Sandra, who smiled, thanked him, and signed his tablet computer.
The next day, he stopped on the street opposite from their house, climbed up the pole, and set up another small box overlooking their back yard. He then installed one more on each of the light poles overlooking the sides of the house.
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2.8k words 11/12/20 r1