The Angels' Mirror Pack 2: Books Four through Seven

by Harmony L. Courtney

  Once again, the woman’s hair, makeup, and outfit were astonishingly simple, yet vibrant in effect.

  She looked like a pint-sized Minnie Mouse today, complete with ears and a red polka dot bow. Her hair was pulled back into a single, low ponytail away from her face, and her eyes had little bows painted at the corners to match the one on top of her head.

  “Well, fix it,” Calico heard Romeo say as he walked back into the living room. She shrugged her shoulders at Prudence and ushered her further inside, down the ramp into the main part of the house, and over to where Minkle and Stub were in the process of finding their third clue.

  “Oh, I love this show,” Prudence exclaimed, clapping her hands. “I used to watch it with my son!”

  Suddenly her face fell as Minkle pronounced they’d found the missing mask.

  “But where did the rest of the gear go, Minkle,” Stub asked as tears began forming in Prudence’s eyes. “I don’t see it anywhere.”

  “Please, forgive me. I-”

  “It’s quite alright,” Calico told her, trying to think of something else to say. With awkward steps, she walked over to the fruit bowl and brought it over to the table in the entertainment area in the event either she or Angus were hungry.

  “I don’t usually… I don’t. I haven’t said anything to anybody about…”

  The woman glanced down at Angus, who, nestled in the crook of her arm was focused on the cartoon before him. “They do not know about my son.”

  “Thank you,” Calico heard Romeo say then. “I appreciate your help, Sir.”

  Shouts from the television of another discovery brought Angus to his feet, clapping as he laughed.

  In the awkward space around them, Calico finally spoke. “Please know that your secret is safe here. I would never assume to go about with someone else’s story in my mouth.”

  “What secret,” Romeo asked as he pocketed his phone and came to stand next to her. Prudence’s pale face became even more so before Romeo finally put his hands in the air. “Don’t shoot, it was a joke. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said…. I’m sorry.”

  The young woman looked at Angus, and then back over to where Calico and Romeo stood before moving closer toward them. She walked up to Calico, stretched her hands out to her, and, finally spoke.

  “May I… is there a way you and I could talk. Since I’ve already gone and…. It would be nice to have someone to share with, unless it’s too much for you. I just… the other women on the team are great, they are, but they haven’t been through….”

  She sniffled her tears back up as the theme song for Minkle and Stub roared to life again for another episode. Calico looked at Romeo, then back to Prudence, and nodded, letting the younger woman lead the way. Once they reached Angus’s room – toys in a stack on top of the extra bed – the pair sat down, facing each other.

  Prudence picked up the purple T-Rex Angus loved so much already and, staring at it blankly, began to talk.

  “When I was fourteen, my parents bring me to America from Shanghai. They tell me, in the US, everything will be different; it will be great. They can do more with their lives, and so can I,” she began.

  “My father, Ji, and my mother, Bao, they owned a series of laundry and tailoring facilities in our town, just outside Shanghai. They tell me, life can be so much better; they have connections and already buy into a restaurant chain in Oregon State. And because I was smart, they were able to enroll me in the best schools, even the college of my dreams, and I go. But I go to college still a child; I was sixteen, and I fell in love with one of my professors.”

  Tears misted the young woman’s eyes again as she continued to stare at the dinosaur. For just a moment, she met Calico’s eyes, and then hugged the T-Rex to herself, letting the tears flow again.

  “At first, the professor, he did not understand I was not teasing him; I was not making jokes with my heart, or his. Why would I? Hearts are… how do I say this?”

  She cleared her throat, straightened her back and looked at Calico once more. “In my country, we have Valentine’s Day, and we have White Day, which is one month away. Women give gifts on Valentine’s Day to those who they care about, but also to those they feel an… obligation of sorts to share with. And then, on White Day, men reciprocate. They sort out the honmei, or gifts of the heart, from the giri gifts, or those that are given in obligation. So, we know because of this to choose wisely which men earn the honor of honmei choco and which are not. And this professor, I would have, for the first time, given honmei to. I loved him. I… I still love him,” she continued, crossing her legs toward Calico now.

  “But he not think my heart is true, though we spend time together. We get close, or so to me, we are close. And soon, I learn, I will have a baby. I… I was not a Christian. I did not know what God’s love was, and how it brings people together. I knew a different love then. I still do not fully understand what God mean, but I know that when I find out I am pregnant, I am crying on the bus one day. A woman asked me if there was anything she could do for me; could she pray with me? Could she help me find somewhere? She was very… attentive. So I say yes, she can pray. Does she know others who will pray, too, because I in big trouble.”

  Calico wiped tears from her own eyes as the young woman continued pouring out her story, ashamed she had judged her by the manner of clothing she wore and her fun personality. She had been through so much pain, and yet, she was here, helping the Fergusons, in spite of it.

  “I go with this woman, Dorotea, and she take me to meet with women at her church. I do not say what is the matter until we arrive. I am scared; scared they will judge me, and make fun of me for giving my heart, and my body away, so young,” Prudence continued. “I did not tell the professor; I learn before finding I was having a baby he was engaged to marry someone different, and my heart could not understand. I left college and high school both, and did not wish to go back. My mother had worries that something was wrong, and my father tell me he disown me if I make him lose face.”

  Calico nodded as the woman continued, tears falling onto her Minnie Mouse sweatshirt. In the background she could hear Angus laughing again, and for a moment, she smiled.

  “So when I meet Dorotea that day, scared as I was, I say yes, I need prayer. I do not know Jesus, but I will trust that they do. I tell them of my honmei love for professor, and how we spend more and more time together as the semester moves forward. I start to cry, and I tell them I am having a baby, and my family will not approve, but I cannot let go, either. They pray for me, and Dorotea’s sister, Grace-Ann, she take me aside and tell me, I can stay with her. She is single; she has room.”

  Calico nodded in understanding, her thoughts flitting to Andrea Juarez for a moment before Prudence continued. “And so, she talk with my parents, and they agree. To this day, I do not understand what was said. I am only thankful. And so when I live there, I go with her to church, and many people come to be my friends, and I come to believe in God, and then, one night, too early to have my son, I feel him coming. We were finishing Bible Study at Dorotea’s house, and my water, it breaks. And six hours later, I am seeing my son’s beautiful face. He is a miracle.”

  “I name him Matteo, after his father,” she whispered before her voice escalated back up to normal. “And so I became Mother before eighteen years old. He have blue eyes, but shape like mine, and skin pink, like yours. Anyway, so he and I stay with Miss Grace-Ann until she get sick with cancer,” Prudence says, tears filling her eyes again.

  She hugged the dinosaur a little tighter, and looked back down.

  “Matteo is three now, and Miss Grace-Ann, she goes to the doctor and comes back. They tell her nothing can happen to her but to die. They say cancer lives in her stomach and her kidneys, and it goes into her blood, and into her bones. Too much, and she should just go home and live what life is left. Maybe three months, at most. And so, a woman from church comes, moves in with us, and she helps me take care of Grace-Ann. This was Penelope. She no like me fro
m the start, and make things difficult; Grace-Ann no want her there, but who else can come? Only Dorotea, only at night to bring dinner; she has family.”

  Calico’s heart beat within her, and she dreaded hearing the rest of the story, but knew she must.

  “Soon, Grace-Ann too ill to stay home. She choose a hospice; doesn’t want to die with Penelope there, even though she wants to be home with me and Matteo. She say, Dorotea her family, but we her family, too, and it make me cry. She ask to see Matteo before she moves, and Penelope keeps stopping it when she there, so we wait until she goes to the store. She tired and she weak, but she want to hug Matteo and tell him she love him, and will he remember her? He say yes, Nana – he call her Nana – I do keep in my heart, and we all cry, and they hug, and I hug them both, and then Penelope walk in, pulls us away. Says we not welcome to stay if Grace-Ann go to hospice. Says house goes to her for help; it is hers, not ours.”

  Prudence’s tears were streaming once again, and she pause to catch her breath a few moments; regain her composure to move on. Calico’s stomach began to growl, but she ignored it.

  “Dorotea help me get Grace-Ann moved, and no help from Penelope. Dorotea’s husband, Bert, watch Matteo for me, and so Matteo have slumber party with their kids, nine and seven year old. He have fun while Dorotea and I cry, and we make promises to come see Grace-Ann every day, like clockwork. I bring her Dr. Who and Anne of Green Gables to watch, because they her two favorite. I also bring many books so someone can read to her. I read, but not fast,” she said, by way of explaining. “So I only read her the Bible and Archie comics. She love Archie comics best of all. So funny!”

  A smile drifted softly to her face before it disappeared once more. “Grace-Ann only listen to Archie and the Bible one week; we only watch Dr. Who, series six and first Anne of Green Gables movie before she goes home to Jesus. Matteo not get to really say goodbye; he afraid of the hospice room. Scary place, I think, for young boys. So when Bert and Dorotea make plans, they make sure Matteo can say goodbye, face to face, and he cry what seem forever. We not understand he already sick, too. Not sick like Grace-Ann sick, but different sick. He have asthma, and we not know this.”

  Calico’s throat began to close as she thought about Angus, and what she’d do if she could not help him. She thought of little Matteo, and of Prudence, a young, grieving, single mother trying to make a way in life only to be faced with such an illness. Tears sprung to her eyes, even as she heard Romeo and Angus talking in the living room; a faint reminder of all Prudence had lost.

  “For a while, Matteo okay. Things get hard, and we make it. My parents, they begin to come around and see that he is good thing, even if not made in… made in proper marriage way, like should happen. They let us come live with them, and Mother watch Matteo while I work at restaurant again, and when she work, I care for him. Father spend time with him in evenings for a few minutes, and they watch cartoons then. One of their favorites, Minkle and Stub, and they watch Murshmellow People, and old Scooby Doo reruns and even some anime like Sailor Moon, from long time back. But one day, they watch cartoons and Matteo begin to cough. Father not know what to do; he never around before when Matteo sick like this. He panic and call me, but… but not… not able to tell me what happened.”

  The woman’s Minnie Mouse sweatshirt looked like it had taken a bath, her tears were so intense, and the bows that had been neatly painted near her eyes were wiped clean now. She hugged the T-Rex tighter a moment, then, finally, as if realizing it was a barrier to her truth, set it down; not between them, but behind her.

  “I rush home to house; only three blocks, but Matteo, he not breathing when I come. Ambulance was there, but too late. Driver say he gone now, I am sorry. We try, and he not breathe. They had mask on him, but it not working, and I hold my son, only last time, and he not hear me wail and ask him, come back, and ask God, bring him back. Three days later, we bury him; Father not come, he no can look at grave, no can come to church, but Mother come, and Bert and Dorotea come, and even Penelope, she come. Matteo, he only barely five, and then, he is gone. And Penelope cry more than almost everyone, and say how she sorry she treat him wrong. And then, all too much so I make photo album; I take locks of hair, and his first tooth, and so many things, and I put them in a box, and I go back to the college.”

  Calico’s heart was beating faster as she thought about what the woman had been through. The pain; the anguish, the difficult decisions and life changes she had experienced. And tentatively, she held her hand out to her, and their hands were clasping one another for strength to get through the story.

  “I go to see Matteo father, Matteo. I wait for him to finish last class and go to office, and at first, I no can tell him what is happening. I can only cry. I see his wedding ring, and I cry more, and he say, what are you here for, and why you cry, Prudence? And I have no words; I hand him the box, and then, he opens it as I sit there, not moving. Just watching him see what is there. And he begins to cry, and he says, why you not tell me? I would have helped you, and I say, you were my honmei love, and you break my heart. I cannot be close to you. And he ask where Matteo is; why I not bring him with me, and I say, because he gone now.”

  Calico looked down at their joined hands, thoughts fighting for position within her. Did he move to comfort her? Did he understand, God? Or did she have to spell it out for him? What happened when he learned he never got to love a son he never knew existed? Or did he suspect all along she had carried his child, and ignored his intuition, or the nudge of Your Spirit telling him to go find her?

  “And that is all, really, Mrs. Ferguson. He ask me then, gone where, and I say, he in heaven now, and he scream so loud I cannot hear anything else around me. People come; his wife, who work there, and I did not know, she come, and he sits holding little Matteo’s lock of hair I cut from when he die in his hand, and the baby book in his lap, and still he scream. She yell at me, what did you do, and I say, nothing; only come and bring the truth; he needs to know the truth, and I wanted to say so before, but did not have courage. My heart could not sustain it, to be near him, and she scream, too. Others watch, but say nothing as they scream on both sides of me, and finally, he stops; then everyone look at him, and his wife still screaming a moment, before she stops, and he is calm. There is peace on his face, and I don’t know what God tell him, because, me, I cannot be calm. I look calm, but inside I scream louder than them both, in my heart. He smells hair from little Matteo and asks, can I have just a little bit of it; can I have his smell, and I tell him yes. His wife walk from room, but he not pay attention. He hand me hair lock, and I pull a third from ribbon and he puts in an envelope and writes Matteo on it. All this time, he no ask what last name, so he only writes, Matteo.”

  Calico nodded as tears streamed from her face, still clutching the young woman’s hand as they sat, now, in silence. She could hear Romeo and Angus in the other room, but not the words they spoke. And, in silence, she praised God for Prudence, and for her life; she thanked Him for her family, and for second, and third, and every chance God would give them, and then, the pair stood together in one accord and walked toward the door.

  With a silent hug, they exchanged something no words could ever express, and then, they went to join the others and prepare for dinner.

  Thirty Seven

  Portland, Oregon… February 22, 2025

  Paloma held her breath as Masao climbed back inside the van and turned around to see everyone. He sat up in her regular seat, as the passenger nearest the driver.

  “Before I read to you what I have deciphered, there is some context that I wish to share. Jason,” he paused, nodding toward her brother, “you were there when we met Geoffrey and Maude Schindler, were you not?”

  At her brother’s nod, Masao continued, his eyes gleaning in the afternoon sunshine.

  “What’s this about,” Edward asked. “What would the old couple you met have to do with-”

  “Patience, Edward,” Masao said, chuckling. “I know you have
waited many years for this, but a few more minutes will not harm you. There is a reason, which I pray you will see.”

  Anouk Chanel and Me’chelle – who sat on either side of Paloma – each reached for a hand, and she was grateful for the support as Masao began again.

  “Geoffrey Schindler grew up in Gloucester, Massachusetts. His wife, Maude, was once Maude Pytlak, grew up in Buffalo, New York. Each had a brother, older than they were, and Maude’s brother was named Frankie, named after their uncle, the baseball player.”

  Why did the name Pytlak sound familiar?

  She knew why Schindler did, but there was no way there was any connection, was there?

  “Geoffrey, yes, you might wonder, was related to Oskar Schindler. They never met, though he says his brother, Otto, met him briefly in 1977, and had a good long conversation. But Geoffrey, he was in diapers when Oskar began helping the Jewish people. And so, the story goes, that one of the Schindlers’ neighbors when he was growing up was a commercial fisherman named Warren Wishart-Laurent, and the man had quite a number of stories to tell. He was quiet, but he was a good storyteller; this is what Otto and Geoffrey believed.”

  Paloma sat up straighter, startled at Masao’s words. He paused to look down at the notes in his hands and smiled a moment.

  If Rose’s brother had known Geoffrey Schindler, then what did this mean for them? And had Rose met the couple somewhere along the way? Did she know they had ties to her family?

  She squeezed Me’chelle and Anouk Chanel’s hands a little bit tighter as they continued to listen. She could see Jason and Edward’s eyes directed at the man as he spoke once more.

  “When Otto was ten and Geoffrey was eight, their family moved into the big city; Boston. Warren had told their father that most of his family lived there, and so he was able to recommend a few possibilities for places to stay. They ended up in the same building as Steven and Shannen, and after a while, another family moved into the building to be closer to family: the younger generation of Pytlaks. Maude was seven at the time. The three families became close.”