Chapter Five

A scream from room 105 frightened all who could hear it. Three nurses ran into the room where the girl was still asleep. She immediately quit and her eyes opened just as abruptly. The closest nurse to the girl jumped back, startled. The child sat up and looked around at the fearful, concerned nurses. Her favorite nurse, Nurse Hart, shooed the rest out of the room and sat next to Mira on her bed. Mira was sitting up, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Are you alright, sweetheart?” she asked draping an arm over the girl's shoulders.

“Don't worry about it.” Mira adopted a carefree expression. Nurse Hart glared at her favorite patient. The child was so much different than what she had imagined.

“Mia,” she said sternly. Mira sighed audibly.

“I used to wake up screaming all the time when I was a little kid. I used to have awful nightmares. This is the first time it's happened since I was thirteen,” Mira admitted dully. She then smiled brightly. “It's probably because I haven't been able to play my guitar in such a long time!” Nurse Hart rolled her eyes.

“Go back to sleep, honey, you leave tomorrow.” She rubbed the girl's back gently before she slowly left the room.

***

“That nurse, Nurse Hart, said that you woke up screaming,” Kimmy commented lightly as they walked home. For some unknown reason to the woman, Mira absolutely refused to ride in a car, it grated on Kimmy’s nerves a little bit, but she decided to ignore the troubling phobia.

“Really? It used to happen all the time.” Kimmy glanced over at her, she looked as if that was the most interesting thing she'd ever heard.

“Niko used to have the worst nightmares, up until he was about thirteen. He would scream until either your dad or I came in and woke him up,” Kimmy explained as they entered the large suburban neighborhood.The two women walked slowly down the twisted roads that Kimmy had memorized years earlier. Mira nodded at the older woman as her house came into sight. “Okay Mia, I'm going to wake Arthur up for work and then I have to leave. Make sure the boys get up soon. I don't want them sleeping the day away. Oh and this weekend Arthur and I are leaving on a two week business trip. So the rest of the week you'll have to help me prepare for that.”

“Sure thing Kimmy. None of that should be a problem,” Mira replied as she began to head through the kitchen toward the basement door. “Have a good day.”

Mira was surprised to find that all of her stuff had been unpacked and neatly placed in logical areas. Her large collection of books were stacked on the bookshelf, her clothes folded and put in drawers, and miscellaneous things were put into miscellaneous places. The thing that caught her eye though, were the guitars. Her precious guitar, was placed neatly on a brand new stand, while a second, brand new guitar stood next to it. Her fingers itched to play and make up for all the lost hours.

Mira picked up her new guitar and she closed her eyes as her fingers took over. They glided across the strings and strummed rhythmically. She was so focused on playing that she didn't notice when Arthur stood in her doorway and watched her. Her facial expression resembled an odd mix of both joy and relief. The thing that Arthur himself wasn't aware of was the tiny smile that began to form on his bright red lips.

When Mira glanced up, Arthur was gone, but she realized when she looked to her left, that she still wasn't alone. Someone was sleeping in her bed. And she had a pretty good idea who it was. As the song she was playing came to an end, the boy rolled over and looked at her through sleepy eyes. He mumbled something unintelligible before closing his eyes and falling back asleep. Mira sighed and gently set down her guitar. She rolled her eyes as she climbed onto the bed. She began to jump, watching with satisfaction as Niko jolted awake.

“Time to get up!” she called. Niko reached out one of his muscled arms and shoved her off of the bed. Mira laughed lightly and skipped across the room. “Breakfast is in ten minutes, you better be ready for a long day by then or you'll be waking up to something much worse!” Niko groaned, but pulled himself out of bed anyway.

“You,” Kacey pointed at Mira after breakfast as they all sat in the living room, “are coming with us today.”

“What? Why?” she asked, startled.

“We were talking last night, and we decided that since you get to teach us cool things at night, we get to show you cool things in the day time,” Niko explained. Mira nodded her head at her brothers.

“Okay. Fair enough. What are we doing today?” Niko and Kacey grinned at each other.

“We're going to a party with the team today. And you have the pleasure of being invited,” Kacey responded. “Oh and you're going to need a swim suit. And please don't dress in you boy clothes.” Niko laughed; Mira scowled at them.

“We want to show you off.” Niko tried to keep a straight face, but cracked up anyway.