Abithica (39 page)

I stopped him, wishing Lane couldn’t hear what I was about to ask. “So, you’re saying I possess human bodies, like some sort of… of a ghoul? Wouldn’t that mean I’m a… a…
fallen
angel?” I stared down at the Legnas burn on my hand, quickly covering it with my other one. That mark had something to do with drugs and who knew what else. Sydney had pretty much the same thing on her hand, and she’d been running in
really
bad company.

“Fallen angels have rejected their blessed state in order to pursue their own desires,” Father Gabe continued. “I see just the opposite in your case, in that you have forsaken your own desires since the very beginning in order to pursue your higher role. Sydney tells me she wanted her body returned, and you granted her wish.”

“But… but… I couldn’t refuse her. I’d have been stealing her life.” What he was saying was just too much! I’d surely have known I was an angel
somewhere
along the way. It wouldn’t have happened in a busy airline terminal with all sorts of travelers walking by.

“I also happen to know you came to Sydney
after
she prayed for help.”

“A bit unexpected, a little unsettling and a whole lot confusing, but true,” Sydney said, nodding in agreement.

“I’m willing to venture all your assignments began along those same lines,” he said, smiling once again. “I need to tell you something else, but before I do, tell me you understand what I’ve just said, even if you don’t accept it.”

There’s more?
“Oh, I understand what you’re saying, sure, but—”

“When your friend Marge called and told me about you, she also gave me a little background on how you were thrust into her life.”

“I was an overdose victim. Yeah, I know.”

“What she didn’t tell you was that you were clinically dead when you arrived at the hospital,” he said, very gently. “Your body hadn’t quite given up… but the signs they look for, the responses were vacant—gone. You were in a coma, unable to move or respond to your environment and likely to remain that way for a lifetime. The soul belonging to your present body had departed or else was hovering nearby, no longer able to use the vehicle we humans call life. Whatever drugs were responsible for your condition had ruined your higher brain functions and destroyed the bond between soul and body.”

“Then all those same vital signs suddenly, inexplicably revived. No one else was there to see it happen. Dr. Marge was the only one. Her professional opinion was that she’d witnessed a miracle right there in the hospital corridor. She talked at length with the EMS crew and concluded that their data was correct.”

“She told me some of that, yes, but never put it in quite those terms.” I’d finally stopped my tears, with barely three tissues left in what had been a full packet.

“If that girl’s soul is still present—that’s a big
if
here. I’ve had some emergency training—but if she
is
still there, it is through you that she is experiencing life right now—”

It’s yours now
… I’d heard those words when I was waking up in the hospital
.
Could
that have been my host saying goodbye?

“…that would make her the passenger and you the driver,” Father Gabe continued. “You’re her tour guide, in a way. Does my explanation help?” He hesitated. “Faith told me that you kept warning her and Steven about Sydney, that you believed she might try to hurt them.”

I shot Sydney an apologetic look, and nodded.

“So that tells me you could… what… feel Sydney in some way? Sense her?”

“It’s hard to explain. Maybe something like that. I just knew that I might get switched out of her at any time—who could say when? I sure couldn’t—and then the person she’d been would return even angrier than before.”

“What about Annie? Can you
feel
her?”

“No.” I’d thought about this a lot. “There’s nothing there at all. Marge and I waited to see if anyone reported a missing person, but no one did. She thought I might be in my early twenties, so I might have been living alone… or maybe I was an orphan… or maybe my parents didn’t even care. Nobody missed me, not officially. No cops, nothing. That’s why I can’t understand how
you
came looking for me when nobody else did.”

“I’ve always taken an interest in street people,” Father Gabe explained, “here in Tucson and several other places west of Denver, where I was first ordained. After you ‘disappeared’ I put out lots of feelers among those of my brethren with similar interests. One of them, in Seattle, had heard of a young girl with a Legnas tattoo who’d been carted off by an EMS ambulance just before Christmas day. Since Sydney has the same mark on her hand, I thought that was a very significant sign from God. When I inquired further and couldn’t get any answers, I decided to make the trip myself. That’s when I talked face to face with Marge the first time. I left my card.”

Everything he said seemed to fit. I uncovered my hand and exposed the brand. Sydney placed her hand next to mine and everyone took a look, even Shae. Mine was a lot redder than Sydney’s, but it had been much worse at the hospital. Marge had figured it was only a few days old then. The two brands were pretty close.

“The Legnas mark their victims that way,” Father Gabe said. “Now I have a theory about free will, Annie, and talking with you has confirmed it. Are you interested?”

I glanced at Lane, and he smiled. “This is the part I wanted you to hear.”

I took a deep breath, then nodded.

“It’s possible Annie may never be able to surface again, even if she wants to. Even if she’s still here.” He took a deep breath. “As Angel Abithica, you can
choose
to stay with her as long as she needs you, rather than feel you’ll be switched to someone new. I suspect you’ve already made that choice. I also suspect that it may turn out to be a complete lifetime in view of what we know… but as I said, what’s a human lifetime for an angel, measured against eternity?”

“This is too much. You’re saying all I have to do is—”

“Declare your wish. God already knows what Annie has chosen. Without you, she may well live out the rest of her existence as a thing, a vegetable as is often said, not a vibrant human being. Or she may have chosen to relinquish that body for your use, and be with Him now.”

Nobody moved. Nobody said a word.

“But I want to be normal,” I whispered. “I want to be
me
.”

Father Gabe stood and came to me. He held out both hands for the second time, waiting until I filled them with my own.

“Annie, do you know what priests are supposed to do when they feel deep in their souls that they can no longer fulfill their promises to God?”

I had to shake my head on that one.

“They simply declare it and send their life in a different direction. There are rules they should follow as far as their diocesan or religious order ties are concerned, but I’m talking about their promises to God. They have free will in that regard, you see, just as you do. If your hunger for human love and meaning means torture for your soul, that is
not
what God intends. He is a loving God, not a punishing one, especially where his angels are concerned. Annie can be your final visitation as an angel, if you declare it to be so. You have only to make the decision. It doesn’t have to be out loud. It’s just between you and God.”

I was crying again, but this time I kept my teeth clenched and let the tears roll down my cheeks. Not an hour before, I was ready to leap on that plane back to Seattle, and now? Now everything was different. A little scary, but I had to admit I’d never thought of things quite the way Father Gabe explained them.

“Stay here, Annie. Let me love you.” Lane slipped his arm around me again.

“Me, too,” Shae echoed. “Please stay with us. You can teach me how to write angel stuff. Please?”

Angel stuff? It was my choice, really. Father Gabe was probably right. After all, I knew nothing about angels when you came right down to it, even if I happened to be one. I closed my eyes then, and thought the words:
I want to be Annie. Amen.
Done! There was just one more thing I had to do before I did anything else, even before I dried my tears. I turned to the man who had his arm around me.

“I love you, Lane Riley. You can have me for as long as you want. I—” It was all I got to say before he kissed me, tears and all. When he finished, I was out of breath. Across from us, three faces were grinning ear to ear. Shae’s hands were across her mouth, stifling giggles.

Suddenly she stopped, looking up, and her little mouth hung open.

“What? What is it, Shae?” I asked.

“Your eyes. They were brown, and now they’re sparkly blue. Woweewow!”

“What?” Lane gasped. He turned me so I faced him. “My God, Shae, you’re right. They were definitely brown.”

Faith and Sydney both got up and came closer. Finally, Father Gabe took a look. He smiled, nodding. “I think we’re seeing a little of God’s humor here. He doesn’t want Annie to forget that she’s Angel Abithica, even though she’s taking a little vacation as Annie for a lifetime. Just another of his little miracles.”

Shae jumped out in front of him, taking another look. “I see tiny little lights in the blue part,” she said. “They’re like twinkle stars.” Then she turned to Lane. “Now her blue eyes match
your
blue eyes and
my
blue eyes. Woweewow!”

“I wonder what Brave Britches will do next?” Lane smiled broadly.

Shae pondered the term. “What’s a ‘Brave Britches’?”

“A very affectionate term of mine for the angel sitting next to you.”

“Well,
I’m
not gonna call her that. I’m gonna call her Bithica. There! I said it right out loud, and I didn’t even concentrate.”

He laughed. “That was very good, Shae. Now can you say A-bithica Brave Britches real fast, three times in a row?”

She shook her head. “But I can say super-cala-fraja-lipstick-ex-p-ala-doe-shus really fast. Wanna hear me?”

* * *

I still had lots to work out, but I wouldn’t have to do it alone. This was my new family, thanks to Marge Williams and Father Gabe. And Sydney. Maybe I could even talk Marge into flying down to meet everyone. I could thank her properly that way. She could pack what little stuff I had up there and… oh, forget that. I’d get what I needed right here in Tucson, starting with shoes. I knew just the place to get some to handle any situation that came my way, along with a packet of tissues.

And maybe… just maybe… I could even teach Shae some angel stuff.

The End

After receiving her journalism degree, Susan Goldsmith was an Undercover Private Investigator, worked as an outside Sales Rep, and then spent five years in pharmaceutical sales.

Today, she is living her dream with her high school sweetheart and their two daughters in The-Middle-of-Nowhere, Arizona, where she spends her days unleashing her rampant imagination and documenting all the carzy places it takes her.

http://susangoldsmithbooks.com

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