Heaven or Hell

by Roni Teson

  She picked up her fork again and winked at the priest.

  “That’s amazing.” The father stared at Teresa without comment. Only when the woman put her hair behind her ears did he realize she radiated a sense of calm, an atmosphere that hadn’t been present yesterday or the day before—as if she were at peace.

  “What?” Teresa caught the priest staring at her.

  “It’s like you’re a completely different person.” He was baffled by this sudden transformation.

  “I do notice something’s different. We ate mashed potatoes yesterday instead of green things and carrots,” JJ said.

  The priest and Teresa laughed together as they finished their meal, and the conversation turned to everyday concerns.

  CHAPTER 31

  JESSIE WAS READING THE MORNING NEWSPAPER and sipping her coffee when the doorbell interrupted her usual routine.

  “I’m coming,” she called and jogged from the kitchen to the front entrance with her housecoat floating around her skinny legs. Jessie pulled open the door to find a boy on her front porch holding a dog with a rope attached to its collar.

  “Hello, Mrs. Torres,” the boy said.

  “Well, hello. Whom do I have the pleasure of meeting with this morning?” Jessie wondered what merited a visit from this child of about twelve.

  “I’m visiting my Grandma Lucy, up the road. Remember me? I’m Carlos.”

  “Oh, my. How you’ve grown. How’s your grandma?” Jessie thought the boy looked familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him. Where did Lucy live?

  “She’s fine. Grandma Lucy is using a walker now, but she’s still the same.” The boy looked Jessie directly in the eye.

  “Good. What can I do for you today, Carlos?” Jessie asked.

  “I found this puppy wandering down the block. I’ve gone door to door, trying to find out where she lives.” He lifted the little dog up toward Jessie.

  “Awww. I see. Well she’s not mine.” Jessie stepped back from the door and was about to say good-bye when the boy interrupted her.

  “Wait!” Carlos put his hand up to stop her. “My grandma sent me here.”

  “Oh. What’s up?” Jessie stepped forward. “Does she need some help?”

  “She needs you to keep this puppy. Gram said it was time you had some company and you’ll thank her later.” Carlos set the dog down and stood with his arms crossed while the dog sat with perfect posture and looked on expectantly.

  “I’m sorry, young man, but I’m not a dog person,” Jessie protested.

  “Please. Grandma’s allergic, and she said I can’t keep the pup another night. I’ll come by and walk her for you while I’m visiting my grandma. Please?” the boy begged. “I promise to help you.”

  “Did you call the pound?” The last thing Jessie needed was a dog.

  “No, they don’t keep them very long. They put them down. Why don’t you keep her for the night, and then I’ll find her another home first thing tomorrow.” Carlos stepped down from the porch then went and pulled a wagon up the sidewalk.

  A small pet bed and some dog food sat inside the wagon. “I’ve been calling her Bella and Bell for short, but you can make something else up if you like. She won’t be any trouble at all. Please?”

  Jessie reached down and petted the small dog’s shoulders. She’d read somewhere that dogs didn’t like being patted on the head. “My brother’s wife loved little dogs. He never let her have one when she was alive,” she half-heartedly muttered to herself.

  “As Gram would say, it’s a sign.” Carlos made a slight whistle sound with his teeth. Then he smiled at Jessie and pleaded some more with his eyes.

  “How old are you, Carlos?” Jessie asked him.

  “Gram says I’m beyond my years, but officially I’m thirteen this week.”

  “Well you are definitely wise beyond your age, young man.” Jessie bent down on one knee to get another look at the small pooch. “I’ll tell you what, you can leave her here. But, you’ve got to come back tomorrow afternoon to retrieve her. I’ve got a funeral to go to and I don’t want this little gal tearing up the house.”

  “Oh, she won’t tear up the house. I promise.” Carlos smiled as he bent down and spoke to the dog. “Okay, Bell, this is Mrs. Torres. She’s nice and she’ll take care of you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “She’s so quiet. Does she bark much?” Jessie asked.

  Carlos ran down the sidewalk pulling his red wagon, “Only when the doorbell rings. I’ll see you tomorrow, Mrs. Torres.”

  Jessie moved the pet bed, food, and little Bell into the house, putting the dog bed into the kitchen where she could keep an eye on the pretty little cream-colored creature. Within minutes, the puppy became Jessie’s new shadow, moving about the house along with the human. When the pup needed to go outside, she stood by the door and barked just once. She seemed to be a perfect pooch.

  “Oh my, Marion would’ve loved you,” Jessie whispered.

  Jessie thought for a moment about Joe’s notebook. Suddenly, she remembered Angel’s dogs. Was it a coincidence that Bell seemed so similar to the little girl dog, Belle, in that notebook of her brother’s? Was Carlos even a real kid?

  Now she was honestly thinking crazy. Oh, no, that kid couldn’t have been her brother. That boy was real and so was the dog food and the bed.

  Jessie began rifling through her kitchen drawers looking for a phone book. She needed to find this Grandma Lucy and validate that Lucy’s grandson was visiting her as he claimed, and that somehow Joe wasn’t playing games from his grave.

  Bell stood at Jessie’s feet, watching every move Jessie made. “Good doggy …” Jessie realized she’d been talking to the pup since she’d taken her in.

  Finding the white pages, Jessie began flipping through the directory, only to be reminded that the entire book was sorted by last name. Who was Lucy?

  The Internet. She could try an address search of her entire block and find out her neighbors’ names. But this was a job for JJ, in fact. Was the boy back in school yet? Jessie dialed Teresa’s cell phone, which Teresa answered on the first ring.

  “You must be psychic, Auntie. We’re going to stop by on our way to JJ’s school.” Teresa didn’t even say hello.

  “Well, hello, my niece,” Jessie said.

  “Oh, sorry. Hello, Aunt Jessie.”

  “Okay, get over here. I need your help.”

  “Wow, from polite to demanding. What’s up?”

  “I’ll show you when you get here.” Jessie hung up the phone and spoke to the puppy. “Come on, Bell, let’s check the computer.” She was already getting attached to the dog. That boy knew what he was doing, leaving Bell with Jessie.

  Jessie held Bell in her lap and powered up the computer. The pup fit like a glove with her head tucked down, settling in perfectly and fitting under the desk just right.

  “Oh, my, Joe. What’d you do, here?” Jessie spoke to herself as she stroked the puppy’s back. She began her search of her own address to see if her neighbors would follow. “Darn.” She soon grew frustrated with her search; this was definitely a job for her JJ.

  “All right, Bell, let’s get a fresh cup of coffee and wait for the family. You’re going to like them when you meet them …” Jessie’s voice trailed off, and she shook her head. What was she doing talking to this dog?

  Jessie waited for her niece in the kitchen with her cup of coffee while Bell made herself at home in her bed near the table. “Strange days, indeed,” Jessie whispered.

  Shortly after the two of them had found their comfortable positions in the kitchen, the doorbell rang, eliciting a firestorm of barking from that little dog. Jessie wasn’t used to the racket that Bell created with her yapping and dancing around in excited circles. “Shhhhh,” Jessie whispered in an attempt to quiet the cute little thing. “For such a small dog, you’ve got a big mouth.”<
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  Jessie opened the front door with the barking pet in her arm. “What’s this?” Teresa asked, evidently surprised.

  “I know. It’s a bit shocking, isn’t it?” Jessie responded. Then she smiled.

  JJ and Teresa settled at the kitchen table with fresh cups of coffee and listened intently to the story of Carlos and the puppy’s arrival.

  “I don’t remember anybody named Lucy on this block, Auntie. Do you?” Teresa asked.

  “No. That’s what I was trying to search for on my computer. JJ, can you go to my computer room and find the names of my neighbors?” Jessie asked.

  “Yes, give me a few minutes. I can find it.” JJ stood with his overly sweetened coffee in hand. He licked his lips, and spoke as he walked into the computer room, “This is the best coffee ever, Aunt Jessie.”

  “It’s the percolator that your mother will one day pass down to you and your wife,” Jessie yelled toward the computer room, and winked at Teresa.

  “All right Aunt Jessie, what’s up? Why did you send him out of the room?” Teresa spoke in a low voice.

  “I’ve got to tell you, something strange is happening.” Jessie felt perspiration pop out on her forehead.

  “Since that seems to be JJ’s thing these days, we should call him back in.”

  “No, I really need to know about who this Carlos kid is.” Jessie put her hand on Teresa’s wrist and continued, “Okay, this notebook that your father wrote is quite the tale. Within its pages is a crazy story about your sister and these little pups. The description and name are so similar to this tiny dog that I’m perplexed.”

  “What do you mean?” Teresa asked.

  “I’m not so sure now that his story is made up. I thought he’d concocted the world’s worse excuse for his absence over the years. Now, I think he just wanted us to know, and it’s that simple.” Jessie realized she’d been squeezing Teresa’s wrist. “Oh, sorry,” she said as she let go of her niece’s arm.

  “Okay, so tell me about it. Because we had breakfast with the priest and he claims he’s seen some odd things, too. I think he’s having a hard time with it—he came to breakfast in ordinary street clothes.” Teresa twisted her mouth, looking confounded.

  “He got you to go to breakfast with him? How’d he do that?” Jessie was herself somewhat stunned.

  “I know—that’s another thing that’s really strange. I agreed. Father Benjamin asked, and I said yes.” Teresa laughed.

  “Come to think of it, you look good this morning, Tia.” Jessie fastened her eyes on Teresa and examined her carefully. “Less stressed, almost happy. You look as though the whole world has been lifted off your shoulders, overnight.”

  “I feel better, somehow, some way. It’s unexplainable.” Teresa put her hand up to her chest.

  “Well it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you this relaxed.” Jessie thought about the years of waiting, the unknown whereabouts of her brother. The toll this had put on Teresa’s life was enormous.

  “Where’s the notebook, Auntie?” Teresa asked.

  “Will you read it?” Jessie thought this was the best thing that could happen now.

  “Yes, because now I’m curious.” Teresa rifled through her purse.

  Jessie watched her niece pull out a tube of lipstick and then layer some on without a mirror. The woman seemed better than all right; she seemed cured.

  Although Jessie couldn’t quite put her finger on what Teresa was cured of, Jessie did know one thing for sure—she really liked this version of her niece.

  With a relaxed look on her face, Teresa dropped the lipstick into her bag and continued. “I feel … better. Better than I’ve felt in a long time.”

  Teresa paused for a moment and ran her finger around the rim of her coffee cup. “I can’t tell you why the change of heart, but I can tell you my heart isn’t as heavy as it was. I kind of feel like the air around me is a whole lot lighter—almost weightless.”

  Jessie crossed her hands and lifted her head so as to make eye contact with Teresa. “Okay, then you might be ready for my theory.”

  “Your theory?” Teresa asked. She looked surprised.

  “Yes, my theory.” Jessie sipped at her coffee, before calmly placing her cup on the table. She took her time before speaking again—really thinking through the best way to explain her theory. “Well …” Jessie swallowed, and then much to her chagrin, the words simply flew out of her mouth. “I believe that somehow your father, or Marion, sent this pup to me. You’ll understand this better once you read Joe’s journal.”

  Jessie then rose from the table and went to the cupboard where she’d stored the remainder of the spice cake from the day before. She placed the cake on the table along with three plates, a knife, and some forks. “Have a bite of cake while I go and get the notebook,” Jessie said. She patted Teresa’s back on her way out of the kitchen.

  She’d placed the notebook on her nightstand the night before. Now, she smiled as she took up her brother’s journal and leafed through a page or two. Would Teresa and JJ think it was all bunk? And if they did, would they later reconsider?

  When she returned to the kitchen, JJ and Teresa were eating cake and looking at a piece of paper.

  “This is weird, Aunt Jessie,” JJ said.

  “What?” Jessie asked as she handed Teresa her father’s notebook.

  “Well, a woman named Lucille Hutchinson owned your house years ago. This is the only thing close to a Lucy I can find on your block with the Internet search.” JJ held the paper out to Jessie.

  “That’s got to be just a coincidence,” Teresa said.

  “Yes, it must be a coincidence,” Jessie agreed. “This person is someone who’s alive and in the neighborhood.” Jessie dismissed the piece of paper from JJ and went on, “Believe me, this kid was very much alive and breathing. Maybe the house we’re looking for is owned by Lucy’s husband—whose name we don’t know.”

  Bell sat in her bed near the kitchen table. She licked her paws, wiped her face with them, and acted as if she belonged right where she was. “Are you going to keep her?” Teresa asked.

  Jessie walked over to the puppy and bent over. Bell licked her hand as Jessie picked her up and sat back down at the table with the dog on her lap. “I already feel that she’s been here forever. Such a mystery as to where she came from though. That boy, Carlos, said he’d be back by tomorrow.”

  “Oh come on now. You don’t believe he’s coming back over, do you, Auntie?” asked Teresa with a smirk.

  “Classic,” JJ said. “If he does come back, you’ll never give that thing up.” He pointed at the dog.

  “Quit pointing—that’s rude.” Jessie put her hand on Bell’s back and gave the dog a reassuring squeeze. She got up with the puppy, walked over to the dog bed, and placed Bell gently back in the bed. She really didn’t understand what had come over her and why she was so protective of this little animal.

  “Oh, Auntie you’re a goner. That dog is staying here.” Teresa laughed.

  I am a goner, she thought to herself.

  JJ stood up. “Yep, I think so, too.” He then turned toward his mother and said, “It’s time for me to go to school.” He yawned. “This early stuff is for the birds.”

  “Okay, look who’s in charge now,” Teresa told Jessie. “But I’m listening to him, and taking his orders.”

  JJ then shoved a large bite of the cake into his mouth, grabbed his backpack, and waved his mother toward the front door.

  “Why is this one so anxious to get to school?” Jessie asked.

  “Yeah, why are you? With all the ruckus over the ‘flashster’ I’d think you’d want to avoid school altogether. And by the way, I’m not so sure that’s a good title for a guy to have. It sounds kind of like … Oh, never mind,” Teresa said.

  “Yeah, I know how it sounds. But what can I do? Anyway, getting to school
at the last minute will help. I can avoid the jocks, and that’s the group I’m worried about.” JJ walked around his mother and stood at the front door.

  After looking at her watch, Teresa jumped up as if shocked at how late it was. “Oh, God. We have to go, Auntie. Bye … Move it.” Teresa got to the door and pushed JJ in front of her while Jessie rose swiftly to follow them out.

  “Oh sure, now you’re in a hurry,” JJ mumbled.

  Jessie waved from the porch as her niece’s car backed out of the driveway. Once they had vanished from sight, she turned her attention toward her new housemate.

  What shall I do about this little doggy? she wondered.

  “What do I do about you?” she asked out loud. “You know, that boy isn’t coming back. I don’t know who he was, but we’re never going to see him again, are we?” As if on cue, Bell barked twice in agreement.

  Maybe it was Jessie’s frame of mind, or perhaps it was the change in Teresa, or possibly the mannerly demeanor of little Bell—whatever the reason, Jessie decided she was keeping the dog. And retaining the name Bell. The entire sequence of events was too much of a coincidence for Jessie not to surrender to the inevitable. And if this puppy really did take care of Angela for all these years, then it was up to Jessie to see to it that the dog had a loving home.

  “You’re crazy,” she mumbled to herself, shaking her head. “No way this happened how Joe explained it in his notebook. It’s impossible.”

  Bell then circled around Jessie’s legs and let out a few barks to communicate her own feelings on the subject.

  “Okay, okay. You’re home,” Jessie said. She’d go to the Internet later and read up on puppy care.