When Angels Play Poker

by Maura O'Leary

  With that, Bob opened his car door. As he walked away, he turned and said, “For what it’s worth, I had a wonderful time”

  Maura turned her face away and didn’t say a word. She was too choked up to speak, and she didn’t want him to see the tears brimming on the edge of her blue eyes. As soon as his got in his car and drove off, she started sobbing.

  Jimmy, Pat, and E. B. had traveled in the back of Maura’s car from Walden. They heard what Bob had to say, and they were left with a devastated woman in the front seat to deal with. Maura at this point was crying so hard she was starting to hyperventilate.

  E. B. spoke first. “I can’t believe it. This is so not good. Maura is going to spiral out of control in a big way.” She turned sideways to look at Jimmy and snapped, “How can he do this to her?”

  Jimmy replied in a quiet, concerned voice, “I don’t know. I’m truly sorry.”

  “Well, we need to get this situation under control before she hyperventilates.”

  Pat piped in. “Well, I think I should follow Bob. Clearly he’s suffering from a bad hangover and driving with one as well. So I can catch up and drive with him, and also try to figure out what he’s truly thinking and report back.”

  “Okay, that sounds like a plan,” replied E. B.

  Pat got out of the car, and once out of view, she spread her beautiful glistening wings, which shimmered the colors of the rainbow, and flew away in search of Bob’s car.

  Meanwhile Jimmy was sitting in the back of the car in stunned silence, next to E. B. He didn’t know which to be more upset about: the stupid bonehead move his brother had made or the emotional mess of a woman in the front seat. Seeing Maura that upset unglued him. Just as he was to turn to E. B. and ask, “What now?” Maura started the car.

  E. B. immediately jump up and over to the front passenger’s seat. She quickly looked back at Jimmy with concern written all over her face and said, “What the heck does she think she’s doing starting the car? She can’t see, she’s crying so hard! Oh, Jimmy, I told you this was going to spiral and become a bad situation.”

  For the first time, Jimmy saw the true love she had for Maura and could feel the panic emanating from her. In a different scenario, he might have sat back and enjoyed this moment to see E. B. unraveling—but clearly not then.

  Maura backed up the car, drove out of the parking lot, and headed onto the highway going north. E. B. turned again to Jimmy. “There is no way we can stop her from driving. It’s her free will, and we can’t interfere with that. But how can she drive when she can hardly see?”

  “No worries, E. B. I’ve got this!” Jimmy said as he quickly moved from the back seat to the front driver’s seat with Maura. Since he was a spirit guide and couldn’t be seen, he was able to slide his angelic body between her and the steering wheel. Jimmy then proceeded to put his hands over hers on the wheel and his feet over hers on the accelerator and brake. He turned to E. B. with a big grin and said, “Hot damn! This works! And I love driving.”

  E. B. gave a big sigh of relief and relaxed a bit. “Good move, Jimmy. I don’t want to imagine what could happen today with her so unfocused and not seeing or thinking clearly.”

  As they started heading north toward her home, Maura started talking out loud, asking, “Why didn’t Bob want to marry me? What is wrong with me? God, why did you put me on this earth to be so unloved? Is it some sort of survival test on earth? Why does that have to happen to me?” She started crying harder again and said, “There is no reason for me to even be here.” With that awful statement, she drove by the highway exit for her home.

  As she was having this conversation E. B. was distraught. She leaped up from the passenger seat, went to the back seat behind Maura, and wrapped her with as much love and warm energy she could push forward as she enfolded her from behind. “Oh no, no, Maura! You are so wrong. You are so loved from above, by so many souls in heaven. We try to pour as much love toward you as needed daily, but sadly you don’t always feel it. I love you and protect you always as your main guardian angel. Jenny prays every day for you and shines her incredible light down to keep you safe. And now you even have Jimmy as your new spirit guide. And there is always God, who loves you unconditionally. You must never forget this.”

  But sadly Maura was so distraught, she wasn’t tapped into feeling or sensing E. B. or anything she was saying. She just kept driving north with Jimmy focused on not letting go of the steering wheel.

  All of a sudden, E. B. gasped and with a serious look on her face said, “Oh, Jimmy, I think I know where she’s going! I hope I’m wrong.”

  Jimmy was trying to keep his angelic stuff together as he looked back at a very stressed out E. B. Damn! Never thought I’d see her coming totally unwrapped in front of me. But it just proves how serious the situation is with Maura and how much she meant to E. B. Having two women losing it in the car was not cool, and he wasn’t sure what to say or do.

  Just then, he swore he could hear Norm’s voice as clear as a bell in his head, saying, “This is why I chose you, Jimmy, to protect Maura. It’s your time to shine.” In that moment, Jimmy felt a sudden boost of confidence. He turned and said, “E. B., where do you think we’re going?”

  “To a private beach on the North Shore. It’s a favorite spot of Maura’s. When she arrives, if she goes the wrong way and takes the seawall entrance down to the beach—oh, I don’t know what will happen! The seawall is ancient, narrow, and crumbling from all the damaging storms that have occurred over the years. It’s a place with bad steps, and if you hit the wrong step, you could easily fall off the wall. And the worst part is the path is high above the ocean, and under the waves there’s nothing but big, sharp rocks. So if you were to fall, you would slam against the rocks and most likely die. I hope that Maura doesn’t go this way, because if she were to lose her balance—” E. B. started to get choked up and couldn’t finish the sentence.

  She finally said, “I hope her emotional state doesn’t make her go this route.”

  “Now, let’s not jump to conclusions,” Jimmy replied. “She might just be out for a pretty drive to calm her emotions, and maybe she’ll stop for some lobster!” He flashed a quick smile her way.

  “I don’t think so, but let’s pray I’m wrong,” E. B. said somberly. “Speaking of that, I hope Jenny is up in the prayer room gathering a bunch of angels to pray with her for Maura.”

  Jimmy looked quickly behind him at Maura, and and stated “Well, it looks like she’s calming down, so the prayers must be working.”

  At that moment, Maura turned off the highway and started following the signs that said “Marblehead.” Jimmy felt it was a good time to let her drive on her own, since they were off the highway, so he went to the back seat. He sat and thought about all that had happen in the last few hours. She was in his care now, and nothing his brother had done that morning was going to change that.

  As they started to drive along the ocean, Jimmy could visibly see Maura calming down more. He wished he could sing to her but then realized the radio was right there. As he glanced at E. B., who was deep in thought, looking out the window, he said, “Hey, I’m going to turn on the radio now. Let’s come up with some cool songs to sing along to and cheer Maura up.”

  “Excellent idea!” E. B. said, and she focused her energy on having Maura turn on the radio. Jimmy focused on some lively dance tunes, and soon they were coming through as Maura flipped the channels. She started to smile and sing along to some of the music, and what she didn’t know was that Jimmy was singing along with her, and E. B. was making some happy dance gestures as well and clapping along to the lively tunes.

  As things just seemed to be lightening up, Maura turned down a road with a sign that said, “Welcome to Marblehead.” E. B. stopped clapping, got very attentive to where they were going, and held her breath that it was the right direction to the main entrance to the beach. But Maura turned right off the
main road to go down a side street where she had lived years ago and parked at the end of it.

  E. B. moaned, “Oh no, Jimmy. This is where the seawall entrance is.”

  Jimmy knew then that what Maura ended up doing in the next few hour was all that mattered. And it was up to him to make sure nothing went wrong. He jumped out of the car when she did and turned to E. B. and quickly said, “Don’t worry. Unlike the poker game, I will not take my eyes off her, and I am laser focused on protecting her. It’s my job!” With that he walked by Maura’s side along the seawall path with E. B. in tow, somberly and intently praying her heart out.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Seawall

  Maura walked down the narrow pathway that led onto the seawall. She stopped and assessed the situation. It was a much narrower path than she remembered, with random breaks in many areas along the wall. It was clearly crumbling. Where there used to be stairs closer to the beach, they had broken off.

  She looked way down to the ocean and could see the high tide coming in. Waves where starting to crash up against the wall. It was a beautiful location overall, and Maura stood there and took it all in, breathing in the salty air. Then slowly she walked along the crumbling path carefully and sat down at the highest point in the middle of the seawall. She promptly started to cry her heart out again and repeatedly murmur, “Why?”

  No, wait, thought Jimmy as he watched her. It’s a wail from the depths of her soul. It was gut-wrenching to hear and watch, and he wrapped his angel arms around her to protect her from the edge of the cliff and all the pain she was inflicting on herself. He could feel all her hurt and anguish and would have done anything he could to erase what his brother had caused. She doesn’t deserve this!

  At that moment, E. B. came to Jimmy’s side and said, “Oh, Jimmy, what if she jumps? If she does, she will hit the sharp edged rocks below and die on impact.”

  Jimmy didn’t reply at first. He was too concerned, because he knew she was right, and from E. B.’s energy, he could feel her stress and immense worry. Then E. B. said quickly, “Jimmy, listen. We need to come up with a plan. And we need to act fast! The top priority is that you need to save her if she jumps.”

  “Oh sure, E. B. How’s that supposed to happen? I don’t have wings.” Jimmy snapped.

  “Well, you can leap down and jump up to catch her if she falls. You’re her spirit guide, and that’s now your job, Jimmy,” E. B. said firmly.

  “OK … and pray tell what will you be doing?”

  “Exactly that—praying hard and asking for a miracle.”

  “Really? Well, that’s good stuff, E. B.”

  “Look this is serious, Jimmy. If she dies, the person who needs to release her soul to heaven is me. I don’t want to have to do that! But that’s my job; it’s what I do.” And with that E. B. turned away, because she was starting to get choked up.

  “Well, that’s not going to happen—not on my watch,” Jimmy said firmly. “I don’t want you ever to have do that until it’s her time. So you go say your prayers, and I’m going to practice leaping from the edge of the seawall to the water until I can do it at MOC 5 speed!” He turned his attention back to Maura just as she edged her butt closer to the edge of the cliff.

  He never took his eyes off her as he practiced his drill. It reminded him of being back in the army, leaping down, landing on a rock to make sure he could catch Maura, and then jumping back up onto the seawall. Jimmy did this until he found a perfect rhythm and path that would make his movement as fast as possible to catch Maura, if she jumped.

  Maura currently just sat at the edge, despondent and forlorn with red puffy eyes.

  Right at that moment, Norm appeared from the other side of the seawall and made his way quickly to E. B. She gasped and said, “Oh, Norm, thank goodness you’re here! I was praying for a miracle, and now you’re here to help! Maura is in a bad way.”

  “I clearly can see that.”

  “What can we do?”

  “I’m not sure, but we need to snap her out of this despair state quickly before she does something that we will all regret.” With that he approached Jimmy on the middle of the seawall.

  “Norm!” Jimmy said as he leaped up from the ocean to the top of the seawall.

  “Pretty impressive stuff, Jimmy. Good job! I need you to come with me and brainstorm with E. B. on what we can do to help Maura.” Jimmy stopped practicing and walked over to Norm and E. B.

  Norm said, “Let’s quickly review Maura’s life when she was in a bad place and it was a close call. Any thoughts?”

  “What about the time Lad, her dog, saved her when she was a teenager?” E. B. said.

  “Good thought, but it’s too obvious if we bring him into this situation. Lad’s been gone a long time, and it would seem a unbelievable coincidence. She would think her mind was playing tricks on her.”

  “Well, clearly Maura loves animals,” Jimmy stated. “And it would cheer her up to see one. Wait! What about the bulldog, umm, Ugly, that brought Bob and Maura together. Remember? It was the second time they met.”

  “Yes—he’s right!” said E. B. “Ugly would be perfect! Though I can’t believe they named him that.”

  “True, that was definitely an intervention,” Norm murmured. He thought about it for a minute and then walked back over to where Maura was. He knelt in front of her, looked into her puffy eyes, and said, “How is it you don’t know how deeply you are loved—every day by all of us above? I’m so sorry about Bob and the situation. I am going to do everything I can to help fix it, but we need to help mend you, your heart, and your soul first—and fast.” With this he wrapped her in a warm, loving white light.

  Maura looked up to the sun and felt the warmth invade her being. She had no idea it was Norm, next to her, sending as much love as he could. She then went back to staring at the waves, mesmerized. The high tide was still coming in, and the waves were getting higher and crashing powerfully right near were Maura was sitting. Seeing this, she started to untie her sneakers and took them off.

  Norm observed this action and stated “Okay, this is getting serious. I’ll be back shortly.” He walked toward the end of the seawall, toward the pathway. He then quickly turned back and said, “Jimmy, keep practicing the drill to catch Maura if needed.”

  “And E. B., just keep being you.”

  To this E. B. replied, “I don’t want to take her to Heaven, Norm! Please don’t make me be the one to do it.”

  “I know, E. B. Let’s hope and pray you don’t have to.” And with that Norm quickly dashed away toward the entrance area of the seawall.

  Once out of sight, Norm morphed into a hawk and flew high up in the sky, extended his huge wings and gliding slowly. His piercing eyes were focused on the side streets below in Marblehead, and with each block he flew further away from the seawall and Maura. Finally he saw what he was looking for and quickly dove down and landed softly on a large branch of a pine tree.

  At that moment, Winston the bulldog was desperately starring out the kitchen screen door toward the lawn. He needed to go out something fierce, but his owner was preoccupied upstairs or just not listening. Winston barked loudly one more time, and with no response, he murmured to himself, “Screw it,” stepped back, and rushed forward. He leaped through the screen door, ripping it apart. When he landed on the grass, Winston sighed loudly in relief.

  And then he heard, “Hello, Winston,” not from inside the screen door but above him. He looked up fast and realized he’d know that voice anywhere. Incredulous, he said, “Boss? Whatcha doin’ here? What’s wrong? I know I just busted in a screen door, but I hope you’re not here because of that. Things must be really slow in Heaven, if you are!”

  Norm chuckled and said, “No, Winston, but I do need your help today.”

  “Anything. Norm, you know that.”

  “Okay, so I need you to run like the wind as fast as those
short legs will take you to the seawall about four blocks away. You know where it is, right?”

  “Sure, Norm, but I’m not as young as I use to be and a much chubbier bulldog too. Maybe I can catch a ride on your hawk wings?”

  “No, Winston. You can do this if you put your mind to it. I’ll be right above you to guide you along.”

  “Okay then, I’m off! But tell me while I’m running my big butt off—why am I doing this?”

  Above him, Norm flew along and filled him in. “There’s a woman on the seawall, Maura, who’s considering jumping off the cliff, because she’s very distraught. I need you to distract her. You are going to remind her of a different bulldog, and hopefully it will make her rethink falling off the cliff and get her in a better mood overall. She loves dogs. Bottom line, Winston, you’re going to have to pour on the charm and love for Maura.”

  “Got it, Norm,” Winston replied, panting heavily as he ran.

  “By the way, she’s going to call you by a different name. Please just go with it, okay?”

  “I’ll do my best, as always,” Winston puffed out slowly in reply.

  “I know, and please hurry.”

  Back at the seawall, Jimmy stopped practicing. He knew what to do now to perfection. He decided it was better to stay at Maura’s side and watch her and hope she didn’t make a stupid move.

  Maura continued to stare at the rising tide, totally mesmerized by the crashing waves. She was looking very forlorn as she sat there.

  At that moment, Jimmy looked up into the sky, and he couldn’t believe his eyes. Hovering over Maura and around E. B. were hundreds of angels as far as he could see. It was the most amazing sight he had ever seen. All of them illuminated tons of light and love down on Maura and around E. B. It was beyond overwhelming and brought tears to Jimmy’s eyes. As he gazed up at this incredible sight, in the center of the mass of angels he saw Jenny with the most immense light of all shining down.

  In that moment, Jimmy knew THIS was where he now belonged and his purpose in heaven. He turned to E. B. in stunned silence and awe.