by Ann Crawford
But they’d also done their work, put in their time in so many ways, and neither of them needed it to happen. That’s usually when it does.
Chapter 8
The sleep-and-dream monitor displays Jack and Emily sound asleep, wrapped in each other’s arms in their Las Vegas hotel room. The night has already brought a visit from the angels to the hotel, where they could not watch their humans, followed by a return to the great hall. As the humans seem to have finally calmed down from their wedding night, the eight angels huddle around the desk performing their assorted tasks. Kind of.
Sapphire looks over the top of Christopher’s laptop at Brooke, a slight scowl marring her features. Then she sighs, relaxing her face.
Brooke glances over at her, but she has returned to her whispering. Brooke turns to Christopher, who smiles at her.
“Christopher,” Brooke asks, “what do you make of all the bad things that happen on Earth?”
“Oh, humans tend to be generally good. Some just get sidetracked along their way to ‘good,’ I guess.” Christopher lets her think about that for a moment before asking, “Feel like playing some games?”
“Sure.”
David joins them as Christopher pulls up a picture of the globe. From a pull-down menu, he selects a filter. They watch a greyish-black web extend all around the planet.
“That’s the dark side. It gets lighter every year.”
“Dark side?” David coughs. And just like Brooke said a long time ago, he says, “There’s no such thing.”
“Right, it’s not a real thing, per se. It’s just people’s belief in it that creates it. There are no monsters, no creepy crawlies, really, not anywhere—not out in the universe and not inside any human heart.”
Christopher selects another filter from the pull-down menu, and the group watches Earth light up under a rose-colored web.
“That’s the angelic realm,” he explains. “It stays exactly the same, wherever we are—whatever planet in whatever galaxy—millennium after millennium, light-year after light-year. We’re already infinite love, so it stays steady. It won’t grow or shrink or become lighter or darker.”
Christopher picks another filter, and they watch a glorious golden grid form over the planet. “That’s the awakening,” he says. “More and more humans are awakening. Every single day, the grid—and the planet— gets lighter and lighter, plus more and more powerful, too. It’s better here than anywhere else in the universe. Some planets are more awake, but they started out more awake. These humans on Earth are singular in this capacity.”
As Christopher talks, the golden web glows a little brighter, then even a little brighter again.
“There’s only so much we angels can do,” Christopher adds. “We are created only to love and only to be love. But humans start out their first time with almost nothing, and they have an infinite capacity to grow, time after time, so the more their love grows—”
“The brighter the web grows,” Brooke finishes.
“The higher they vibrate, the more people they get to vibrate at that level. Once one breaks through to a new level, others further on down the road can get there in even less time.”
“How much brighter has it become just while we’ve been standing here watching it?” David queries.
“About three percent,” Christopher says, pointing to a gauge in the corner of the screen. “You should’ve seen it five thousand years ago, two thousand years ago. Even a hundred years ago. So much darker.”
“How much brighter will it get?” Brooke asks.
“Up to them,” Christopher responds, pointing to the planet under the grid. He watches Brooke and David, to determine their reactions to his words. They are transfixed by the picture on the screen.
Christopher switches back and forth between the different light grids. “You can see the webs without the computer,” he adds, “if you want to. Anyone can, even them.”
Brooke and David remain completely transfixed, spellbound by the images on the computer.
Christopher smiles. The other angels stop their work—watching, loving, whispering, loving, computing, loving, assessing, loving, determining, and loving some more—and smile at them, as well.
“Uh oh, they’re waking up again.”
Another visit. Another round of jokes while they have their backs turned to their human charges on their wedding night. And another return to the great hall.
While the sleep-and-dream monitor reveals Jack and Emily sleeping and dreaming—once again—in their hotel room, Brooke watches a quick recap of the world news on a special section of the angelnet. She then turns to a talk show taken from human cable television.
“What are you doing?” Blake asks her.
“Oh, just always want to see if I can understand them better.”
“Well, that’s good.”
Brooke watches the show for a few minutes. “Can you believe humans ever complain, even for a second? Not the ones who are having an especially hard time of it, but the ones who are having an especially good time of it. Actually, the ones who have a harder time of it seem to complain less. But if I were there, I would never complain. Ever.”
She stops as she notices the other angels staring at her. “Well, can you imagine what it would be like to feel rain on your skin, fall asleep in your beloved’s arms, make love, eat a strawberry, taste chocolate? Just being able to experience that would be worth the price of admission, to me.”
She looks again at the teams of angels who are still just looking at her, mildly amused.
“What?”
They continue smiling at her.
“No one understands.”
“I do,” David says.
She looks at him, and then quickly looks away, back to the monitor.
The other angels keep smiling to themselves. Even Sapphire seems to be out of her funk of late. Blake and Angela look at each other—and nod.
“Okay Brooke and David,” Blake announces, “it’s Big Game time. Time for an introduction. Ready to meet the Big Boss?”
After a few seconds of stunned silence, the two gasp. “Finally!”
“I’d love to. But, just out of curiosity, why now of all times?” Brooke asks. “The humans are doing so well. We don’t really need to ask anything. For once, we don’t really need any help to figure out a course of action.”
“You’ll see.”
Angela adjusts a special dial under Emily’s monitors. David watches over her shoulder as he prepares himself—straightens his collar, brushes some angel dust off of his shirt—to be at his best for this long-awaited introduction.
Meanwhile, Blake adjusts a special dial under Jack’s monitors. Brooke watches over his shoulder as she prepares herself—stands up a little straighter, fluffs up her aura—to be at her best for this most auspicious moment.
And who appears on that special monitor, looking right at David is...Emily!
And who appears on that special monitor, looking right at Brooke, is...Jack!
“U-u-u-u-ummmmm....” David stammers.
“U-u-u-u-ummmmm....” Brooke stammers.
“You were expecting someone else?” laugh Blake and Angela.
“U-u-u-u-uh, well, yeah.”
“U-u-u-u-uh huh.”
Emily and Jack smile at the not-so-new-anymore angels from their monitors. Brooke and David look to the upper-left monitor to find the two humans are still sound asleep, still wrapped in each other’s arms.
“U-u-u-u-uh...” the two angels say in unison.
“Hi, Brooke and David,” Emily says.
“We want to thank you so very, very, very much for everything you’ve done for us,” Jack says.
“Everything!” Emily adds.
“U-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-uh....” The two angels certainly don’t have much else to say for the time being.
Jack and Emily give them both a warm smile from the monitors. The angels look back at the sleeping versions of these humans. And back to the humans looking at them from the
other side of the monitors. And back to the sleeping forms. And back....
“Who did you think we were talking to when we said we were talking to the Big Boss?” Blake asks.
“Uuuuuuuuh, well, G-G-God, or s-s-s-someone like that.” David doesn’t usually stutter, but this moment seems to be calling for it.
“The Big Kahuna?” Brooke doesn’t usually giggle, but this moment seems to be calling for it.
“Well, we were. Always.”
“Then...who...is....” David isn’t usually at a loss for words.
“God, really?” Brooke finishes for him.
“Everything,” Angela answers. “Everything everywhere. The whole of everything and the loving principle that guides all of creation.”
“But in this ball game,” and of course you know that’s Blake using those terms, “the humans are the ones who are really in charge of the playing field, the playbook, the scorecard, each play. Each time, every time, every minute of their lives.”
“Thanks again, Brooke and David,” Emily says.
“For everything,” Jack says.
Brooke and David are still not quite aware that they can talk to these two humans directly in this particular moment of infinity.
“Then w-w-w-what in c-c-c-c-creation do they need angels f-f-for?” Brooke sputters.
“It’s a team sport,” Blake says. “No one does this alone. When they go to Earth, they need help remembering. Everyone needs a coach. It’s all part of the game.”
“What a game!” David says.
“But most players of a game know what the game entails, what the rules are,” Brooke says.
“They do,” Angela states. “Before they sign up, they definitely know the rules of the game.”
“We didn’t.” It was almost a whine, but David is too perplexed to let loose a really good one.
“True,” Blake says.
“Everything’s for a reason,” Angela adds.
“To go play the Earth game requires some serious, serious in-depth training.”
“Seriously.”
The other six angels leave Brooke and David alone for the rest of the night. After the monitors of the higher Jack and Emily are shut off, Brooke and David watch—just stare at, really—the sleeping Jack and Emily. For the most part, that is. A couple of times, they switch on the day-in-review monitors to watch their wedding again.
Emily and Jack stand before an elderly justice of the peace in a tiny, flower-filled chapel as an elderly woman plays an organ behind them. After the radiating-from-the-inside-out bride and groom exchange wedding rings, they kiss.
All eight disappear when the humans start to stir…
…and reappear in their assignments’ hotel room.
Jack and Emily wrap their arms around each other…and then kiss…and then start to make love. The angels politely turn around.
Angela snorts. “You hear one about the humans on the morning after their wedding—”
“We’re living that one,” David moans.
“Indeed,” Angela says.
“But they were only living at half wattage. Not even that high,” David says.
“And they knew that.” Brooke is flummoxed, as well. “At least their higher selves did.”
“Their human selves seem to be making up for it now,” David says.
“One of the best games in the entire universe,” Blake chuckles.
“Most humans live at less than half of their half of their half of their half,” Stephanie comments.
“That’s a lot of halves,” notes David.
“Most live at less than five percent capacity,” Stephanie says.
Behind them, Emily moans with pleasure. For quite a while.
“Must be nice,” Brooke says.
At noon, the newlyweds fall asleep again. The angels disappear...
...and return to their desks in the great hall, completely unaccustomed to being there at this time of day. An entirely different shift of angels surrounds them. But, as the angels see on the monitor, Emily rolls over and bumps into Jack.
“Uh oh,” Blake says. “Here we go again.”
The angels disappear…
…and reappear in their humans’ hotel room, where the drawn shades have the room as dark as night, but the pillowtalk stopping and the kissing starting alert the group that it’s time to turn around again.
“Good thing we don’t require overtime pay,” Brooke says.
“Good thing we don’t need sleep,” David adds.
“Good thing we’re angels and completely devoted to our jobs,” Angela chides.
Somewhat ashamed, Brooke and David just nod; the other angels smile.
In the rugged mountains of Idaho—none too soon for Brooke and David, who had grown weary of the revolving door from the hotel room to the great hall—Emily and Jack take the highway exit near Emily’s house. They stop at the nearby convenience store to gas up and purchase snacks. As they are climbing back into the Jeep, the very same robber that David saw on his first day on Earth enters the store and pulls his gun on the owner again. Both men are older now, of course, and the meth usage has decimated the robber’s teeth.
“Give me your money,” he barks.
The store owner speaks with resolve through his shaking. “No. I’m giving you a phone number.”
The robber almost drops his gun. “Are you kidding me? I could kill you!”
“I’m going to save your life.” The owner holds out a slip of paper with a phone number on it. “Call him. He got off meth over ten years ago now. It sure ain’t easy, but you can do it, too. I know you can.”
The robber does indeed drop his gun. After a moment, however, he grabs the slip of paper.
All six of their angels cheer as they high five and fist bump each other.
As the robber leaves, his angels follow, blowing kisses and waving to the store owner’s angels.
Jack and Emily pull out of the parking lot. Their angels wave to the other angel teams and give them a thumbs-up—times eight.
Just as Beth, Emily’s longtime friend and a real estate agent, finishes pounding the “For Sale” sign into the ground, Emily and Jack pull up to the house. Emily fights back tears as she waves to her friend and looks up at her former home.
Jack takes her hand. “We’ll be back, if you want. Ten years will fly by. You know, Lacey....”
“I know. Hey, maybe Chelsea is truly gifted and will graduate early.” Emily tries to laugh and tightens her grip on his hand. “We’ll be happy wherever we are,” she says to him.
In the midst of packing, Emily stands and, putting her hands on her hips, bends from side to side to stretch out her back. Sam had taken only his personal items, and Beth told her friend that she could sell the furniture for her once the house was sold, so there isn’t all that much to pack. All of the yard and garden tools, the snowblower, and many other things that they won’t need in L.A. can be left for the new homeowners. But heirlooms and her special kitchenware? Definitely going with her.
“Take a break?” Jack asks.
“Sure.”
Without even saying a word, they move the rocking chairs right next to each other and take a seat, soaking in the afternoon sunshine.
Jack takes her hand. “You could make a beautiful home in a hut, on Mars, in a tent, anywhere. You certainly have the knack. And we’ll come back here if you want.”
Emily smiles at him, appreciating his gesture. “We’ll see.”
“Darling homes can be created wherever you go,” Jack says. “Because you happen to be the darling in the equation. You put the darling in darling.”
“Have I told you lately that I love you?”
“Yes. Every minute we’ve been together.”
“Same goes for you.”
Jack kisses her hand. “So, like I said, we can come back here.”
“Well, we’ll see,” Emily repeats. “I’m open to all good possibilities. And they’re all good as long as they’re with you.”
> Emily and Jack load the last of her boxes into a trailer. She takes a final look at her sweet house with its lavish gardens, and she puts her hand over her heart. Jack touches her elbow, and she throws her arms around him, choking back a sob. He holds her in a long hug until she feels ready to leave.
Jack pulls the Jeep and trailer up in front of the flower shop at Emily’s direction. Marion stands in the doorway, her smile and radiance broadcasting the warm welcome they always have.
“Marion, this is the only man worth leaving all of this for.”
Marion smiles at him. “I knew you’d have to be special, and of course you are.”
She hands Emily an envelope.
“What’s this?” Emily asks.
“Open it and find out.”
Inside is a check for five thousand dollars from... Veronica. On the card, Veronica has written two words: “Thank you.” Behind the card is a check in the same amount from Marion.
“She gave the same to me, and I’m giving it to you. An auspicious start to your new life in Los Angeles,” Marion grins.
Emily fights back tears. “I wish I could stay—and go.”
“Learn to bilocate. At least until the children are in college.”
They laugh.
“Then we might come back here,” Jack says. “This is paradise.”
Emily gives one more hug to Marion as well as to her cats, who had been staying at the flower shop in her absence. Now they would be staying there for the rest of their lives—and loving Marion and her environs far more than they would a big-city apartment.
Jack pulls away from the curb as Emily waves good-bye to Marion. The two women continue waving until the Jeep rounds a corner and they can no longer see each other.
Emily returns from the women’s room at a rest stop, wiping away a tear. As she spies Jack leaning against the Jeep, watching her, a huge smile spreads across her face.
She takes the keys he holds out and settles into the driver’s seat. In the passenger’s seat, Jack playfully puts his chin in his hands, elbows on the center console, and stares at her.
