Chloe's Guardian

by Cheri Gillard

  “You might be in trouble?”

  “Might? No. To what degree I’m in trouble is more the question.”

  “But you saved me. Why would you get in trouble for that?”

  “It’s complex. I’m not to interfere with freedom of choice. And I’m not supposed to reveal myself to humans. And I’m certainly not allowed to fly them through the heavens.”

  “If I get home soon and don’t complain, will that help?”

  “I can only hope.” Horatius appreciated her desire to protect him. But he knew she could do little to help. Though getting her back home as soon as possible was the best idea. “We can check on the red-eyes to Denver. See if we can get you home that way.”

  “An airplane? I don’t have money for that.”

  “Nor do I. I will have to ask for a little assistance.”

  Chloe pointed up at the ceiling with a questioning look and mouthed, Those guys?

  Horatius nodded. “Could one of you get Chloe back to Denver for me?” Horatius said to the sentinels, speaking out loud for Chloe’s sake.

  Chloe squeezed his arm. “The bad guys will hear you!”

  “Not as long as I’m in Sanctuary. It’s okay.”

  Her breath rushed out and her expression relaxed.

  He stopped talking out loud to try to keep from panicking Chloe. Or arrange some kind of passage for her? I’m going to be grounded for a while here.

  “You are going to be more than grounded if you do not stop making things worse,” scolded one sentinel into his thoughts.

  “You were expressly forbidden from transfiguring,” said a second.

  “We will let Mebahel know the situation. Jabamiah will want to step back in to Guard this Dixon girl of his, now that the Watchers are going to increase their attacks on her,” said another.

  I’m sorry. But what choice did I have? Horatius thought.

  “There is always a choice, Horatius,” the first sentinel said. “This will get you and the girl back to Denver.” Tickets and cash materialized in his hands. “Mebahel says you are absolutely forbidden from transfiguring and you will no longer be able to transmute matter. The ability is blocked until you show wiser choices.” The voice shut off like a mute button.

  Horatius hid his feelings behind a fake smile. “Here is their answer.” He held up the plane tickets.

  “So everything is all right? You aren’t in trouble?”

  “Everything is just fine. Nothing to worry about at all. We’ll take a cab to the airport and get you home before your parents even know you’ve been gone.”

  ***

  Chloe cruised at thirty-two thousand feet alone. Horace was being strip-searched because of his Arab nose, brown skin, and lack of ID—which was on a Denver sidewalk somewhere. Why didn’t he just make it materialize? They’d pulled him aside but he implored her with his eyes to keep going and not even acknowledge knowing him.

  By the time the plane landed, she’d calmed down and decided he’d be okay and could just change into his angel form and disappear through the roof if they put him in prison. Now she was exhausted. So exhausted, she had to keep choking back tears. It was irrational, but all she’d been through was too unbelievable.

  The long airport corridor stretched out in front her in a dreamlike tunnel. She couldn’t think clearly. All she wanted was to be in her own bed sleeping. But she didn’t even know how she’d get home. She started to call Todd. Then she came to her senses.

  She could try Michelle, but she didn’t even have her license yet, and Chloe didn’t know if she’d be willing to come let alone be able to find the airport.

  No way would she call her dad.

  Her mom would have a cow. If she could even wake up.

  Kaitlyn was staying with her aunt in Indiana for two weeks. Tricia’s parents had taken Tricia and Jessie on a cruise.

  It would have to be Michelle.

  Michelle finally picked up the phone after Chloe called five times. She was obviously still half asleep.

  “Where’s mom?” Chloe whispered.

  “What? I can’t hear you.”

  “Shhh,” Chloe said. “I don’t want Mom to know I called.”

  “Is that you, Chloe?” Michelle said louder. “I can’t hear you. Move around or something. I can’t hear—”

  “Michelle, the connection’s fine. Be quiet. I don’t want Mom to know it’s me.”

  “Don’t worry about that. She’s so sound asleep, the roof could fall in and she wouldn’t know. Where are you? What time is it anyway?”

  “I need you to come get me.”

  “Did you do something stupid again?”

  “I’ll tell you later. Come get me. Leave Mom a note that we ran an errand. Please?”

  “Where are you?”

  “D.I.A.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “Long story.”

  “Take a cab.”

  “It’ll cost too much.”

  “I’m not driving over there. I won’t even have my license till Monday.”

  “Please. I need a ride home. I’ll owe you forever. I’ll give you anything you want.”

  “Anything?”

  “Sure. Just come.”

  “Your black Uggs?”

  “Sure, whatever. Please just come. Before Mom wakes up. Where’s Benji?”

  “He spent the night with Tony.”

  Chloe didn’t have energy to respond to Michelle’s refusal to call Dad “Dad.”

  “I’ll be at the United pick up. It’s where we picked up Dad after his trip last year. Do you know how to get here?”

  “No. I’ll figure it out. See you. I’ll leave as soon as I get on my new Uggs.” And she hung up.

  ***

  Two hours later, Chloe still waited. Gloom and doom enveloped her. That voice was back telling her how hopeless everything was. It took all her strength not to let the knot in her throat turn into a gush of sobs and tears.

  She thought of what Horace had told her—that she could resist the voice trying to demoralize her. Trying to? She was there—totally demoralized. Depressed. Despairing. She didn’t have the strength to muster resistance. She wished Horace was with her. In his angel form. He made everything better.

  When Michelle finally drove up to the curb, Chloe couldn’t hold the tears in any more. Michelle parked and jumped out.

  “I’m not driving back. The traffic is terrible.” She held out the keys. “What’s wrong?”

  Chloe grabbed her into a hug and held her close. She needed the security, the comfort.

  “What happened?” Michelle asked. “What did Todd-the-Idiot do now?”

  Chloe shook her head and cried on Michelle’s shoulder, trying to communicate that wasn’t what was wrong.

  “Not Todd,” she finally managed. She pulled back and took some deep breaths. “I’m just tired.”

  “That’s a lot of tears for being just tired. Get in. I’ll drive. I think we’ll have a better chance of living through the ride home with me doing it.”

  “I’m fine,” Chloe sniffed and wiped her tears off with her hoodie sleeve. “Thanks for coming. But you don’t have to drive back.”

  Michelle skeptically handed over the keys, but seemed relieved at the same time.

  Within minutes, they were sailing down the highway. The bumper-to-bumper morning rush hour was gone.

  “What were you doing at the airport anyway?”

  Chloe thought back over the last twelve hours of her life and couldn’t even begin to put into words what had happened to her. She almost couldn’t remember being mugged. And it seemed like eons ago, not hours.

  “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.”

  “Try me. I’m pretty gullible.”

  “All right. But keep an open mind. Last night on my way home from—”

  A loud blast cut off Chloe and the Jeep swerved hard and sharp. Chloe held on to the steering wheel with two white fists. At seventy miles per hour, the sideways jolt threw the vehicle int
o the air. She smashed her foot on the brake, but the tires weren’t even on the road. They were airborne. As the Jeep flew, it spun, turning its wheels toward the sky like a dead cartoon dog.

  CHAPTER 18

  Michelle was screaming. Or maybe it was her own voice. They were upside-down. They were spinning over the cement barrier between lanes. They were headed into oncoming traffic.

  Michelle doesn’t have her seatbelt on. She always had to be told twice to do it. And Chloe’s wasn’t on either. We’re both going to die.

  Their feet were over their heads, but neither of them budged from their seats. Pressure pressed down all along Chloe’s body, keeping her from crashing around inside the car.

  The spin finished and the car righted itself in the air. It crash-landed hard on the opposite side of the interstate, facing the wrong way, but upright. The car jolted and bounced down the shoulder while it made a horrendous metal grinding noise.

  After the last big jolt, the force holding her let up and Chloe’s body rebound only a little. She bumped her head against the edge of the window. No worse than a love tap. The car finally stopped.

  Michelle was still screaming. Chloe grabbed her hand.

  “Are you okay? You’re okay, Michelle. It’s okay. It’s okay,” she said over and over.

  They sat on the shoulder, facing the wrong way. Chloe tried to get her brain around what they’d just done.

  Michelle was crying and shrieking.

  “Something was lying on me,” Chloe said. “It held me down. I think it was an angel.”

  “We almost died,” Michelle screamed.

  “We didn’t. It’s okay. We’re okay.”

  “Oh. My. God!” Michelle panted.

  “Michelle, try to take a breath. You’re okay. You didn’t hit anything, right? Are you hurt?”

  “No,” she wailed. “Pressure. Held me down. What happened?” She was hysterical.

  “Michelle, look at me. Stop screaming. We’re okay. Really.”

  Michelle locked her eyes onto Chloe, like she was her connection to survival. The shrieks slowed into jerky sobs, then deep sighs and hiccups. They sat holding hands, whimpering and shaking. Chloe didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t think.

  Knuckles wrapped on the window. “Are you okay? Miss, are you okay?”

  A police officer stood at her window. His car with blue and red lights flashing on top was pulled up along the front end of their car, which pointed the wrong way, blocking the oncoming traffic from the left lane.

  Chloe fumbled to find the window switch, but her mind wouldn’t work right. After she locked and unlocked the doors and moved the side view mirror, she put her foot on the brake. That was stupid. She turned off the fan. The engine was dead.

  The cop knocked again on the door. Chloe couldn’t think straight. All her thoughts were churning, trying to figure out what had happened. Her hands and feet went through a series of automatic movements, useless and illogical.

  She finally gave up on the window and opened the door.

  “Are you all right, Miss?”

  “I think so,” she answered looking at Michelle for confirmation.

  “And your passenger? Is she okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah. I think so,” Michelle said with a shaky voice.

  “We’re fine. We’re both fine. Fine. Yeah.”

  “Did your airbags deploy?” he asked as he peered inside around the door.

  “No, no. They didn’t,” she said. “Wow. I can’t believe that just happened. I don’t know what happened. We were just driving, then suddenly. I don’t know.” It was all a nervous twitter. She couldn’t control anything.

  “I saw your vehicle flip over the barrier. Looks like you blew out a tire there,” the cop said as he inspected the back of the Jeep, which tilted toward the blown tire.

  “My mom’s going to kill me. She just got those tires.”

  “Why don’t you step on out then,” he said to Chloe.

  She opened the door the rest of the way and lowered herself down onto her legs, which were more like soft, fresh Play-Doh.

  “So go ahead and tell me what happened,” he said.

  “Should we call Mom?” Michelle asked, leaning over into the driver’s seat and speaking with a voice that wasn’t her own.

  “Yes. Go on ahead and let your mom know what’s happened and our location. That will be fine.”

  “I don’t know where we are,” Michelle said. Her voice cracked and quivered.

  The cop told her which mile marker, which direction, and which interstate. Fortunately, she remembered how to push the speed dial for Mom.

  While Michelle was on the phone, Chloe described to the cop what she remembered. They worked on some paperwork together and Chloe sat in the back of his cruiser. She got a ticket for not wearing seatbelts. But the cop kept saying how lucky they were, that it made no sense they got out without any injuries.

  The tow truck arrived and loaded the Jeep. And their father came because their mom’s car was on the back of the tow truck.

  When they finally arrived back home, Michelle got out of her dad’s red Prius.

  “Thanks for the lift, Tony,” she said and slammed the door. She went inside without waiting for Chloe.

  Chloe got out with hope she could make it into the house without a lecture. She opened the back and helped Benji, who’d spent the night with their dad, out of his car seat.

  “Come on, Baby. Let’s go,” she said.

  He carried his crocheted hexagon blankie. She wrapped it around his head to keep it off the ground.

  “If I didn’t have a meeting I can’t miss, we’d have a word, young lady,” her dad said.

  “Thanks for picking us up. I’m sorry to bug you,” Chloe said and closed the door. She took Benji’s hand and carried his backpack in the other.

  He yelled something more at her through the closed window but then gave it a rest and left.

  Inside, her mom was sitting forward on the edge of the couch, dressed and made up like it was a Saturday night.

  “Isn’t your father coming in?” she asked when Chloe closed the door and set down Benji’s backpack. “I've held a casserole for him in the oven.”

  “Of course not, Mom. He’s never coming in. You have to accept that.” Too much stress kept her from protecting her mom from the truth.

  Her mom rose from the couch without a comment and went to her room. The door clicked shut without her even asking how they were doing or what shape the Jeep was in. The chasm between them was too wide for Chloe to reach across. Maybe she would never be a decent mother to them, maybe she would pathetically hold out forever for a man who obviously didn’t love her, or maybe would take too many pills and deal with it that way. But Chloe couldn’t fix her. She could barely hang on herself.

  “Oh, I’m fine. Thanks for asking,” Michelle shouted at their mom’s closed door. She dug through the fridge and put the makings for a salami and cheese sandwich on the counter. “I just sailed through the air at ninety miles-per-hour, saw my life—my very short, unfulfilled life—flash before my eyes, had something lying on top of me—maybe it was even a guardian angel because no one else cares about me—crash-landed in oncoming high-speed traffic, broke the axel on the car I was hoping would be mine when school starts, and had to be brought home by my ex-dad. So don’t worry about me. I’ll handle all the damage this trauma brings me when I’m in counseling at twenty-nine and can’t keep a relationship or job or—”

  “Michelle. Stop it,” Chloe said. “You’re not the only one with a tough life.”

  Michelle glared at her. “Shut. Up. If you hadn’t…whatever it was you did, none of this would have happened.”

  Chloe picked up the phone to call her boss. “If you say any more to Mom, I’ll take my Uggs back.”

  “Nuh-uh. Deal’s done. They’re mine. Even if you kill me, these are coffin shoes. They’re comin’ with me.” She held up one leg, turning it side to side to admire the boot.

  The doorbell
rang.

  “Now what?” Chloe snapped.

  Michelle ignored both Chloe and the door and ripped open the salami container.

  Chloe pulled open the door.

  Like a giant Golden Retriever, a body jumped onto her and wrapped both arms tightly around her.

  “Cello, I’m so glad you’re okay!”

  “Kaitlyn?” Chloe tried to pull back to see if it was really her, but she wouldn’t loosen her death grip.

  “I got here as soon as I could. I’m sorry I’m so late.”

  “So late? I just got back.”

  “I called two days ago and your mom said, or I think she said—I always have trouble tracking with her—that you were in trouble, that you weren’t doing well. When I asked if I could stay with you for a few days, I thought she said it would be okay. I came straight from the airport.”

  “She forgot to tell me. But I’ve been pretty busy, getting mugged, flying with demons, getting stranded in D.C., totaling Mom’s Jeep this morning.”

  “Oh, you poor thing.” She finally let go of Chloe. “That sounds just rotten. No wonder you aren’t doing well.”

  So like Kaitlyn not to even question about the details. Like the demons, for instance.

  “And all that hadn’t even happened yet when you talked to Mom,” Chloe said.

  Kaitlyn waved at the cab driver to bring up her things.

  “You just came in a cab from the airport?” Unbelievable.

  “He’s great.” She picked up her viola case from the porch. “It will be good to spend time together. You can cry all you need and I’ll paint your toenails and we’ll eat lots of green olives. They’re good for the constitution. And they taste good. But you can have all the red middles.”

  She took her bag from the cabbie and handed him a wad of cash. “Thank you, Ikrimah. Tell your family hello for me.”

  “Goo’ bye,” he said in an Indian accent, then gave a shallow bow and returned to his cab.

  “You know him?”

  “Oh, yes. I rode all the way from the airport with him. He’s wonderfully nice. His wife is pregnant with their third baby. The first two were twins, Neeta and Maya. They are almost two. Neeta is talking so Maya doesn’t think she has to. His wife, Avani, is on bed rest. I think we should go visit her and take her sandwiches. How can you be on bed rest with two almost-two-year-olds?”