“Can I speak to you, Caleb?” Joan threw me a suspicious glance. “Alone?”
He took off his glasses and set them on the table before stepping into the living room with me. Joan was left in the kitchen, her eyes widening in either anger or hope—I wasn’t quite sure which.
“I could pay for the trip.” I braced myself for the explosion. In the short time I’d known him, I’d learned that Caleb was proud and unwilling to accept any handouts. He opened his mouth to protest, but I stopped him, raising my hand. “Hear me out first. I have some money put aside. It’s just sitting there. I could lend it to you to be paid back whenever and however you can.”
Eyes ablaze, Caleb smiled. “You’re a good man, Sky. And a good friend.” He took a step forward and laid a hand on my arm, sending millions of electric shocks through my body. “But you don’t know Joan. She’s a drama queen who’ll go to extremes to get what she perceives to be of utmost importance only to blissfully forget about it a few days later.”
From between shallow breaths I laughed. “The offer is there if you want it, but I understand if you don’t.” Just keep your hand on my arm. Much to my disappointment, he dropped his hand, leaving a pleasurable hot spot in its place.
“Thank you, Sky. I appreciate it.” His unusual eyes scanned me from head to toe, and blood rushed to my cheeks. Holy mackerel! With just a glance he’d set me on fire. “You look good.” As soon as he said it, he laughed. “Sorry. That sounded pretty cheesy.” I didn’t care. I was a cheesy angel. I smiled, willing him to compliment me again, but he moved on. “Let’s ignore my sister for as long as we can bear it and then decide what to do about the damned field trip.”
We did. For the rest of the evening, we were confronted with Joan’s evil eye and scowling. At one point during our dinner at the local burger joint, I imagined her with an eye patch and a parrot on her shoulder. Heavens knew she wouldn’t stop grumbling like a pirate in pain. Caleb and I pretended we didn’t notice and enjoyed our evening together.
“Come on, Joan, be a grown-up for once and stop acting like a spoiled two-year-old,” Caleb finally said, tired of her frown and icy attitude. “What about that ice cream you love so much?”
Joan’s face relaxed ever so slightly at the mention of the treat, and I jumped on it. “I’ll buy you the biggest cone they sell. What do you say?”
She gave me a half-hearted scowl and then nodded. It was the waving of a white flag. I ran into the store and made good on my promise.
The two siblings stayed outside in the chilly evening, sitting on a bench across the street. When I left Sweetums, balancing a gargantuan ice cream cone in my hand, I looked up to where they were waiting and caught Caleb watching me. I almost dropped the cone. There was heat in that look and something else—tenderness and yearning. My heart skipped a few beats and I stumbled a little.
“I thought you were going to drop my ice cream.” Joan made a dash for the cone and yanked it from my hand. “What were you thinking?”
My lips stretched into a smile as I raised my eyes to Caleb’s. “I had my mind on lavender fields. Beautiful, never-ending fields.”
Caleb bit his lower lip, and I watched in idiotic fascination as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. Oh yes, I had fallen hard!
____________
THE CALL
Filing mission papers had to be by far the most tedious job ever invented. After the first two hours of my shift, I was ready to poke my eyes out or volunteer for the cemetery squad—the crew in charge of accounting for each soul taken by the “other side.” Not a job any of us aspired to. Having to witness that kind of agony on a regular basis could drive even the most stable of angels to madness.
Another week had passed since I’d seen Caleb, and time dragged by as if wearing lead-lined boots. Gabriel still showed no sign of forgiveness, which was pretty ironic considering who he was. He was taking great pleasure in assigning me to the dreariest of tasks. For an angel, he was proving to be particularly twisted.
“Gabriel wants you to go to central storage to look for file 10235B,” Amy yelled from the other side of the room. Everybody else was out on mission, leaving no doubt the order was aimed at me. The job would get me moving at least—I couldn’t even feel my feet anymore.
Central storage was on the other side of headquarters and a nice walk along the Edge of Arcadia, an area where you could look down at the Earth below. The land of the mortals was a beauty, and I could never get enough of staring at it. With its amazing green forests, immense blue oceans, and never-ending brownish deserts, the human Earth was an amazing piece of art. To me, nothing in the angelic world even compared to it. I strolled along the Edge, drooling and dreaming. Caleb was down there, not remembering me and by now probably forgetting our short meeting the week before.
With a sigh, I entered the ugly, square building that sheltered all the files from past soul collections and headed for the main room where I could scroll the database for the file’s location. I found it quickly and headed for the upper floors, where the microchip with the file was located, but stopped midway. A thought came to me. Are Caleb’s parents dead? Is that why he seems to be a mixture of brother and father to young Joan? I spun on my heels and went back to the computer to look for their names. All I had to go by was their last name and their progeny, which made it a little more complicated, but if there was something I’d learned to do in the many times I’d been relegated to my desk job, it was research. I was, in fact, very good at it.
It took me about ten minutes, but I found it: Elaine and Malcolm Pierce, parents of Caleb and Joan Pierce, souls collected almost ten years back from the wreck of a car accident. Ten years…. Caleb would’ve been around eighteen and Joan around eight. My heart went out to them. Both orphaned at an early age. No wonder Caleb carried that subtle weight on his shoulders, the weight of responsibilities thrown at him prematurely. The weight of youth cut short.
I jotted down the location of the file and, throwing caution to the wind, I unfurled and flapped my wings up to the upper floors instead of using the stairs. Let them see me disobeying orders in the surveillance camera. What could they do to me that they hadn’t done already?
The original file I was sent for was pretty easy to find since it was about a much more recent death, but it took me a long while to find Caleb’s parents’. It was almost as if Gabriel didn’t want anyone to find it. I realized that was exactly what had happened. Gabriel didn’t want anyone to know the true nature of my screwup, so he was hiding anything connected to Caleb. Carefully, I removed the chip from its receptacle and slipped it into the pocket of my jeans. As it turned out, Gabriel’s overcautious move had given me the chance to peruse the file at home without the fear of someone noticing it was gone.
Amy was at the door to the office, a purplish tint to her round cherubic face and her arms wrapped tightly across her chest. I was hit in the face by the heat of her anger. “Two hours? Really? It took you two full hours to fetch a tiny little file?” Her voice came out more growl than words. “You are by far the most incompetent angel I have ever met.”
Even though it wasn’t uncommon for me to be the target of similar comments, it still bothered me. I wasn’t that incompetent, was I? I definitely marched to the beat of a different drum, but did that make me incompetent? I scowled at her in response and handed her the chip. “Have you been to that place lately? It’s huge and these files are tiny.” The excuse sounded ridiculous even to my own ears, but I couldn’t let it go.
I spun on my feet and trotted to my desk, where I was planning to sulk thoroughly and fully for the next few hours. But as soon as I sat down, my phone vibrated in my pocket. My heart skipped a beat. I never got calls on that phone—the advantages or disadvantages of not having many friends, you decide—and when I did, it was normally bad news of some kind. Gabriel called me on that number when I totally ignored him on the official seraphic phone, a dinosaur of a contraption that would make any tech-savvy person cringe.
I
didn’t recognize the number on the caller ID at first, but then it hit me—it was Joan’s number. Why is she calling me?
“Sky?” Her voice came through high-pitched and hysterical. Something was wrong. “It’s Caleb. He’s in the hospital.”
My stomach followed my heart in its funny hopscotch race. “What do you mean he’s in the hospital? What happened?”
I felt rather than heard her sobs and her tears of panic. “He was in a terrible accident. I didn’t know who to call. We have no family and Caleb has no friends. Not anyone I could call for something like this.”
“Calm down.” The words were more for me than her. My heart was racing a thousand miles a second, and I could taste bile. Was this Gabriel? He promised he wouldn’t hurt him. “Where are you?”
“I’m at the hospital. Can you come?” The request was made in a tiny voice as if she were scared I would turn her down.
I was going to get in all kinds of trouble. “Which hospital? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I barely hit the disconnect button before I was out the door, running toward the Edge. I could hear Amy’s exasperated voice yelling behind me, but I was beyond caring. Caleb was hurt. The one thing that really mattered to me was in danger.
I managed to alight in a deserted and sheltered alley behind the hospital. Surveying the grounds, I furled my wings and walked around the corner to the front. I was well-acquainted with this hospital. In fact, I was very familiar with all the hospitals in the area because of my job. But this was a different situation. I wasn’t here to harvest a soul but to make sure I didn’t have to. Again.
As I crossed the swinging doors of the ER, I spied Joan’s small figure curled up on a chair, her head against her knees.
“Joan,” I said softly, trying not to call too much attention to myself. An angel, even in his human form, can’t help but attract attention. The good thing about hospitals was that people were always too busy either saving lives or worrying about them to pay much attention to their surroundings. That made my undercover job much easier.
Joan’s head popped up at the sound of my voice, and she propelled herself off the chair and into my arms. “So glad you’re here, Sky.” Her mouth was crushed into the middle of my chest, but I could still hear the sobbing. “I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose him.”
You and me both, girl.
I caressed the top of her head and gently prodded her toward a less crowded corner of the waiting room. We sat side by side on the small blue seats, her head still cradled in my hand, resting on my shoulder. “Calm down. You’re not going to help him by freaking out.” Hypocrite. My anxieties were through the roof, and if I didn’t have to comfort the elfin girl, I would be unwisely stomping through the hallways of the hospital trying to find Caleb. “Tell me what happened.”
She took a couple deep breaths, bracing herself to talk. “I don’t understand how this happened.” Hiccups punctuated her speech. “Ever since his motorcycle accident a few weeks ago, he hasn’t driven anywhere. He’s been waiting for the insurance to pay for a new bike. But someone called and told him his bike was ready for pickup.”
I frowned. “The insurance?”
“That’s what we figured. They didn’t identify themselves.” Joan pulled a tissue out of her pocket and blew her nose. “They gave him the address and he left. I wanted to go with him, but he insisted I needed to work on this paper for school and that he would be back soon.” The hiccups turned to sobs again. “The next thing I know, I get a call from the hospital telling me he was in a terrible bike accident.” She was bawling, and I wanted to do the same.
The whole thing smelled like a rat. An angelic rat. “What exactly happened?”
She raised her eyes to mine. Joan was pretty, but she didn’t have her brother’s beautifully multicolored eyes. “The thing is, Sky, there’s no way he could’ve picked up the bike from the shop, got on it, and had an accident. I got that call not even fifteen minutes after he left. It would’ve taken him at least half an hour—probably more—to get there.”
Definitely angelic rat stench. “Where is Caleb now?”
“In surgery.” Her eyes filled with tears anew. Where was Caleb’s guardian angel? I bet Caleb had been removed from the list since he was supposed to have died three weeks ago. “I can’t lose him, Sky. I just can’t.” Her eyes latched on to mine, a hint of a request reflected among the desperation. “You can do something about it, can’t you?” It was a mere whisper, but it shook me to the bone.
I swallowed. Hard. “What do you mean by that?”
“You’re an angel. You can help him.”
If I hadn’t been sitting, I would’ve fallen on my butt. How did she know that?
“Don’t be silly. How can I be an angel? Angels don’t exist.” As proficient as I was at telling lies—for an angel, anyway—this one was hard to utter out loud.
“I knew it as soon as I opened the door the night you came looking for Caleb,” she continued, her eyes never leaving mine. My mouth dropped open, but no sound came out. “I’ve seen an angel before.” Her statement echoed Caleb’s words to me that first time we met.
“When?” I didn’t even bother to disguise my surprise.
“The night of our accident.” Her hand tightened over mine as if she needed to anchor herself to something. “After the car skidded and ran over the cliff, one of you came to get my parents’ souls. I was barely conscious, but I remember it well. Something about your eyes is like that angel’s. When I tried to grab his hand, he told me it wasn’t my time yet and that I would be all right.”
Caleb must have seen it too. I didn’t know they’d been with their parents at the time of their deaths. I didn’t know what to say. Should I lie? Or should I just go along with it?
“You can help him, right?” Her voice was pleading, desperate.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any special healing powers. I was only a collector, not a giver. I hung my head, disgusted with myself. What was the use of being an angel if I couldn’t even save the one I loved? “I’m an angel of death, Joan,” I told her in a hushed voice. “I take. I can’t give back.”
Her brown eyes widened in horror. “You’re not going to take him, are you?” She moved a few inches away from me as if my proximity hurt her.
“No, no, of course not.” I couldn’t tell her I loved him, could I? And I definitely couldn’t tell her that Caleb should already be dead. “I just can’t help much, that’s all. We’ll have to hope the doctors do their magic. I’m sorry, Joan. I really, really am sorry.”
Time trickled by; the only way I knew how long it had been was by the fact that it was dark outside. We sat together, her head on my shoulder, my head on hers. I wondered what people thought, seeing the two of us like that. Physically, we couldn’t be any more different. Joan was like Caleb in many ways: she had dark, almost black hair and a smooth, light tan that contrasted heavily with my angel-white skin. Caleb was very tall, unlike his sister who couldn’t be much taller than five feet, but they were both slim and had well-defined lips. The biggest difference was the eyes. Where his were that unusual combination of green and violet, hers were honeyed brown.
My phone vibrated in my pocket and I jumped, startled. “Shit! It’s Gabriel!” Joan blinked at me, uncomprehending. I put a finger in front of my lips. “Shhh, don’t say a word. It’s my boss.”
“Angels have bosses?” She must’ve been asleep, for her eyes looked unfocused and bleary.
I raised my finger to my lips again and pressed Talk. “Gabriel?”
Needless to say he wasn’t happy, but then again, when was the last time Gabriel had even smiled? “Are you totally out of your mind?” I hoped the other people in the waiting room couldn’t hear the archangel’s irate voice. “What makes you think it’s okay to leave work in the middle of the day like that?” I exhaled in relief. He didn’t know where I was. “Without as much as a simple request. What in Heaven’s name is your problem?”
I took a long brea
th and braced myself to be deceptive once again. Every time I lied, a little piece of my angel soul seemed to break away. “I wasn’t feeling well, and Amy was being very unreasonable.” It wasn’t a total lie. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me. I need a day off to clear my head. Please, Gabriel.”
On the other end of the line I could hear Gabriel whisper in Seraphic, a quirk of his when he was collecting his thoughts. “All right then. I’m feeling generous today.” Like hell he was. “You can take the rest of the day off, but you better be at work on time tomorrow.”
I raised my eyes upward and said a silent prayer of thanks to the big boss. Not sure he had anything to do with it, but I liked to think he was all merciful and not too attached to rules and regulations like Gabriel and the other archangels were. I heard the telltale click of the call being disconnected and put the phone away.
Joan was staring at me as if I were a two-headed alien—which I guess I kind of was. “Gabriel? As in Archangel Gabriel?”
I nodded, scanning the room to make sure no one was listening. “Yes, but please keep your voice down.” My whisper sounded too loud to my nervous ears. “No mortal is supposed to know we really exist.”
Forgetting her woes for a moment, she giggled. “Yeah, like I want to start telling people I’m friends with an actual angel. That would make me really popular.” Her smile died quickly and was replaced by a grimace. “Why did you say you were worried about Caleb?”
I slid my hand down my face. What could I say? “Long story for another day.” Dodging the answer was better than lying, and I didn’t feel she—or I—was ready for the truth yet. What would she think of me if I told her how her brother and I had met?
A doctor in scrubs came through the heavy gray doors, removing his surgical mask. “Miss Pierce,” he called, scanning the room. We both jumped to our feet in unison and rushed to the man who looked at me in confusion. “You are?”
Lavender Fields Page 4