by Thornton, EJ
"Me too. When was your last flat?"
She chuckled. "I know I know you. Do you work out at the airport?" I shook my head.
"I was there several weeks ago. I thought that's where I might've seen you. Where do you work?"
"I'm a guard," I said.
"What do you guard?"
"People."
"Like a body guard?"
"Something like that."
She shook her head no. "Nobody I know needs a bodyguard."
"Everyone you know needs a bodyguard!" Pearl said. I heard all the angels laugh. Jeannie got a peculiar look on her face as if she'd heard what Pearl said.
"I know where it was from!" she exclaimed. I panicked for a second remembering our encounter in the dream. I looked for George. He motioned that it would be okay. "A couple of Sundays ago, you were at the church on Washington street. You stood up when they asked who was visiting."
"That's right. I did," I said, relieved. "Good memory. I greeted you in the narthex after the service, with your little girl, was it?"
"Girls," Jeannie corrected.
"I met so many people that day. Nice people, all of them,"
"You'll find that there."
The man came in to tell Jeannie her car was ready.
"Nice talking to you," Jeannie said. on her way out. "Maybe I'll see you again soon."
"I'm certain of it," I said. We smiled at each other and Jeannie paid for the repairs and left. She waved as she left the waiting room.
I stayed in the chair until the mechanic left the room and Jeannie had driven away. Then I went back to only being visible to angels. The mechanic came in a few minutes later to check on something. He looked at the chair I had been in and then he looked around the waiting room and outside the door. He shrugged his shoulders and left.
George and I caught up with Jeannie and Pearl. Jeannie's driving was quite a bit calmer now. She drove to the movie theater. Pearl explained to us that when she is really hurting, Jeannie goes to a movie and tries to get lost in it. It's a good way for her to distance herself from her situation. She picks a movie whose situation is as far removed from her own as possible, that she can just forget for a little while. Today, she picked a movie about a military trial; without a love story, without pregnant women. Jeannie calmly watched the movie about the military court martial. We had her settled and she would stay calm for a few hours. "She's fine. You better go help Henry," Pearl told us.
We went back to the pub. Jeremi was still there and the girl was still beside him. I had never seen Jeremi this drunk in my entire life or death. Henry was beside himself. These were the most miserable times for Henry. If he was going to be able to protect Jeremi, it was going to have to be in spite of Jeremi. The bartender tried to get him to leave. He offered to call a cab. Jeremi refused. The girl told him she knew where there was a party and she would take him. He agreed to go with her to this "party." Jeremi got into the car with the girl and they drove away from the pub, without saying goodnight to anyone. George, Henry, and I went along because this was shaping up to be a disaster.
As I suspected, the "party" was nothing more than liquor at her house. Jeremi protested until she pointed out her large selection. One of the many bottles was the brand of brandy that Jeremi drank the most often. It appeared to me that this girl had had this "party" planned for a quite a while.
All of his protesting behind him now, Jeremi asked what movies she had to watch. She pulled out an assortment of films from action to X-rated. Jeremi picked an action movie. She made him a drink and sat down on the couch next to him, very close. Jeremi squirmed a little, but she persisted. Before too long, she made her move. He gave in and soon, they were kissing very intensely.
Henry made the phone ring to distract them. She took it off the hook. George made her car alarm go off. She got up briefly, looked out the window, pointed a remote at it and turned it off. On the way back to the couch, she flipped on the stereo, turned off the TV and the lights and unbuttoned her blouse. I tried to talk sense into Jeremi, but it was a lost cause!
It became terribly clear that she and Jeremi were going to have sex. I was afraid this was going to ruin everything we had been working for. "Well, what do we do now?" I asked George and Henry.
"We need to make sure that he at least uses a condom to keep him from getting exposed to anything she might have. Beyond that, it would take an intervention beyond what is appropriate," Henry said.
"What is this going to do to the plan?" I asked anxiously.
"The future is unwritten," George said.
"She's a spoiler. She's angel-less. She knows his weakness and she's using it to get to him. Exactly why remains to be seen," George explained.
"We've got to stop this!" I insisted.
"Shy of an earthquake, probably not. Besides, the way she's using our interventions against us, she'd like the ride. No, I'm afraid not," Henry said.
"At least they are practicing 'safe sex,'" I said.
"There's nothing safe about this sex," George said and shook his head with disgust.
"I've got to get out here! This is too awful to be any part of," I said. I never wanted to see this side of Jeremi. I looked to George for direction.
"Henry, call us if you need us," George said. Henry nodded. We went back to talk to Pearl and to check on Jeannie.
The movie was almost over. Jeannie had settled down considerably. You could see her thoughts return to her problems as soon as the lights came up. She walked slowly out of the theater. When she got back to her car, she rested her head on her hands on the steering wheel. Eventually, she took a deep breath and drove slowly home. She got there and dragged herself out of the car and into her apartment. Without turning on any lights or even checking her phone messages, she drug herself down the hallway dropping things as she went. She fell back onto the bed, face up, eyes wide open. The occasional tear fell down her cheek. Eventually her eyelids started to droop and she fell asleep. She stayed in that exact position for the rest of the night.
"She is so hurt. I've never seen her like this before," Pearl said. "She's been hurt in her life before, but betrayed like this in love like this... This is brand new territory for her. She's devastated."
"But she only suspects that Jeremi slept with the spoiler," I said. "Do you think she's holding out any hope that it'll be okay?"
"Her hope for a happily ever after is shattered," Pearl answered "I think right now, this whole situation has taken her to one of the lowest points in her life. She's pregnant, alone and the father is cheating. Despite the strong face she tries to show the rest of the world, she is hurt, lonely and scared."
"What can we do?" I asked.
"There's only one message for nights like these," George said and Pearl nodded. I looked at them perplexed, so he went on. "Life is hard, but God is good!" I nodded in agreement.
For the rest of that night, we sang every song we knew, quoted every piece of scripture with that theme, preached sermons with that message, so that idea would seep into Jeannie's subconscious, then conscious mind, so she could start fresh in the morning.
Chapter 19
Henry called George and me back in the morning, before Jeannie woke up. We went to see what we could do. Jeremi was beginning to stir. He had fallen asleep on the couch and the spoiler had curled up on the couch with her head on his lap. He opened his eyes quickly, looked around and realized where he was and what he had done. He grabbed his head. It looked like a combination of shame and pain. She was still asleep. He moved very slowly, cautiously and tried to get her head off his lap. Once he did, he got his things together, swigged the last of the brandy on the table and got out of the house.
Once outside, the sun hurt his eyes and his head. He put his sunglasses on. He looked around and tried to figure out where he was. He picked a direction and walked away. He looked at his watch and shook his head. I could tell he was trying to cook up a story to tell Jeannie about where he had been. He rehearsed it silently in his mind, outwardly
with his hands. He looked pretty ridiculous. He made it to a street he recognized and stuck out his thumb as cars went by, but nobody picked him up. He kept on walking. Eventually he made it back to the pub, where he got into his car and drove straight over to Jeannie's.
She was still asleep. The look on her face was much more peaceful now than the expression she'd had when she went to sleep. She woke up abruptly to the knock on the door.
She looked out the peephole. She could see a smiling Jeremi. She opened the door, but blocked his entrance. Undeterred, he breezed right past her. "So what happened to you last night?" he asked her.
Flabbergasted, Jeannie's jaw dropped, "What happened to me?"
Jeremi took control of the conversation. "Yeah, I thought we were going to a movie, then you call and cancel at the last minute without giving me a reason. You stranded me there! Did you get a better offer or something?"
"No," Jeannie was really caught off guard. Apparently, Jeremi thought the best defense was a good offense. This was hard to watch. We all shook our heads in disbelief and disgust.
"So what did you do, last night?" he asked her.
"I went to a movie, BY MYSELF!" Jeannie was very emphatic.
"What movie?"
"That new military one, at the mall."
"You went without me? You know I wanted to see that one." Jeremi tried to act indignant.
"So sorry," Jeannie said sarcastically. "I figured you already had plans for the night, you were well on your way when I came into the pub last night."
"Here we go!" Pearl said.
"What are you talking about?" Jeremi tried to act innocent. It was despicable.
"I came to pick you up at the bar and I saw you with her. I figured three was a crowd." Jeannie turned her back on him.
"Her?" Jeremi acting ignorant.
"Yes, 'her'! I saw you sitting at the bar next to her. She had her hand on your thigh and she was buying you drinks. You looked quite cozy!" Jeannie accused.
"Oh that. You've got it all wrong. I just know her from the pub. We're just friends." He waited for her reaction.
"If I did that with my male friends, you'd go ballistic. She was all over you!" She started to cry.
"I'm sorry, baby. I wish you'd come in and we could have avoided all this," he said.
"Well, most of it, anyway," Pearl chimed in.
Jeannie turned around and looked him in the eyes, tears in hers.
Jeremi put his arms around her. "Stop crying, baby, I'm here. I'm here for you now." She sobbed in his arms for a few moments.
"She's gone," Pearl said.
"Do you mean she believes him?" I asked.
"She wants to believe him more than she wants to believe what she saw and as you said before, she only suspects, so there is a lot of room for doubt in her mind right now," Pearl said.
"Then he had better do something to earn her forgiveness," I said, sounding again more like a father than an angel.
"What forgiveness?" George asked. "Instead of confessing, he tried to make her think it was her fault that she's feeling this way."
Unfortunately, George was right.
However, it appeared that Jeremi's guilty conscious-despite his hangover--got the better of him. He treated Jeannie like a princess that day. He made her breakfast, then he took her to a movie and after that they went out to an early dinner. The girls returned and they all went out to a playground where Jeremi played with the girls.
He decided to stay away from the pub. He quit his job there and got a job in a department store. He avoided the spoiler like the plague. He stayed very close to Jeannie and the girls. It appeared that things were going to be back on track, momentarily.
Chapter 20
Several weeks later, Glory decided to visit Jeremi, Peter, Melinda, and their kids and take the opportunity to meet the mother of her next grandchild. Peter invited Jeannie and the girls over to a big family dinner. One evening they all talked and got to know each other better. It was only about a month now, before the baby was due. Each Guardian had fun whispering story ideas into their charge's ears for them to tell. Jeannie enjoyed listening to stories about everyone else. Marie whispered to Carole and Carole told a story about her mom, after which, Jeannie, although embarrassed, smiled, but shot Carole a look like: You just wait until we get home.
Glory pulled Carole close to her and got her to talk some more. Glory told Carole she could call her Grandma. Everyone laughed, talked and got along well all evening long.
It was a lovely time, the first union of my two families into my new expanded family.
Glory made it a point to pull Jeannie aside and let her know that regardless how things worked out between her and Jeremi, that she was now family and that she intended to stay close. Peter let Jeannie know that he would be happy to help, if she ever needed it, regardless of her relationship with Jeremi. It Jeannie was relieved and thankful to receive such support from Jeremi's family. She and the girls left a little after that.
Melinda and the children went to bed, leaving Peter, Jeremi and Glory alone to talk.
The three of them looked at each other. None of them seemed to want to start the conversation.
"Cute girls," Glory said, breaking the ice.
Jeremi and Peter nodded in agreement. There was an awkward silence again.
"So what's going on with the two of you?" Glory asked. "Peter says you spend a lot of time with them."
Jeremi looked at Peter, who shrugged his shoulders and tried to look innocent of the charge of "talking about him behind his back." "Yeah, I spend some time with them. It's just a trip that she's pregnant."
"Is she the only person you spend time with?" Glory asked.
Jeremi hesitated, then said, "Recently, yeah." I could tell that this question unsettled him.
"How recently?" Peter asked.
"Recently. You know, recently," Jeremi snapped defensively. "Look, I like her. She's having my baby. She's the only one I'm seeing, and that's enough for me."
"Is that enough for her?" Glory said in a very soft voice and looked down at her hands.
Peter shot Jeremi a disgusted look and motioned his head toward Glory.
"I'm sorry, Mama. I'm sorry I snapped. I'm just finished talking about whether we should get married because..." Jeremi looked around deciding he was probably outnumbered in this argument. "Just because."
"Have you talked about it with her?" Glory asked.
"Only once. The night we found out about the baby. We both decided getting married just because of the baby would be a mistake."
"That was months--" Peter began, but stopped when Glory put her hand up.
Glory nodded, pursed her lips and kept her words in. However, I could tell that her mind was going a million miles an hour.
Peter changed the subject and the conversation lightened quickly. Jeremi got restless so he told them he was going to bed. He kissed Glory and said, "Peace!" to Peter and quietly went down the hallway to his room. A familiar clink could be heard coming from the direction of his bedroom.
Glory and Peter both heard it, recognizing it for what it was.
"There he goes again," Peter said.
"Is it every night, still?" Glory asked, concerned.
"And every morning."
"Lord have mercy," Glory looked up. "Is Jeannie like that?"
"Once she found out about the baby, she quit drinking anything."
"Well, that's something," Glory said. Peter nodded in agreement. "Do you think he loves her?" Glory asked.
Peter answered. "I think he probably does, but I think his drinking is between them." Glory stayed quiet. "He just does really stupid things when he's drunk."
"Like what?"
"Like going to parties with other women," Peter said.
"Lord, have mercy! Does Jeannie know?"
"Mama, I'm sure she suspects."
"He'd better be careful, Nothing bad is going to happen to my grandbaby!" Glory said sternly.
Peter nodded. "I gue
ss we'll have to wait and see what happens."
They talked for a few more minutes and then Glory went to bed. George, Naomi and I stayed with her. She got down on her knees and prayed quietly and earnestly for about half an hour. We all got on our knees right beside her and prayed right along with her. This was the most intent I'd seen her for several months now. This situation worried her immensely. I knew she felt she shouldered this burden alone.
I wanted to let her know that we were right here with her. "Talk to me," I said to her.
She reacted to my words, with her body. She got into bed and turned out the light. I laid down beside her and again I said, "Talk to me." She sighed heavily and rolled away from me. "Talk to me, Glory, I'm right here."
"I've never had this hard a time getting her to talk to me. What's the problem?" I asked George.
"It could be a multitude of things. She's afraid she'll wake someone by talking out loud. Maybe she's just so preoccupied by the situation that nothing else can break into her thoughts," George explained.
"What can I do to bring her back to me?"
"D j vu dreams are helpful at times like these," George said. I gave him my usual perplexed look, so he explained further. "D j vu dreams, it's a dream where we guide our charge through the problem they're having. They tell us how they would like it solved. Then we show them the solution they've described and the probable outcome. We work through the problem, until they are at peace about it. It's different from dreams where we're actually talking to them. Here we simply guide them. They really do all the work. Then like all dreams, if she has any memory of it, it will fade from her conscious mind. If their solutions come true one day, they might remember bits and pieces of it. That's why they call it d j vu, because they've already seen it. It's a good way to get them to work out a problem, so they release their stress about it."
"They just forget it?"
"It's their thought processes, Martin. They already know the solutions and they can rethink them again when they're awake. They're actually working these things all out for themselves, we just give them the venue."