The Girl Who Looked Beyond the Stars

by L B Anne

  Chana hit my hand out of my mouth. “Don’t do that. You’re ruining my hard work.” She had polished my nails the night before.

  Teddy’s brows furrowed as he stared at me without blinking. “You’re not lying. You didn’t do the lying thing. You really believe this?”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  He turned to Chana. “You too?”

  “Yeah, that’s my girl. If she says it’s true, it’s true.”

  He bounced his fists on the arms of his chair. He was really thinking it through. “So, if you can see angels, which I’m not sure I believe, can you see demons too?”

  “We don’t know for sure it was an angel.”

  “If it helped your dad, it had to be an angel.”

  “Makes sense,” said Chana.

  “I don’t know what else I can see. It only happened that one time. I didn’t get to ask Mr. Tobias about it. Maybe it’s that one angel in particular.”

  “Well, I don’t think you can count on Mr. Tobias for any information. I think his hamster is dead.”

  “What? What does a hamster have to do with anything?”

  “You’ve never heard that? The hamster is dead, but the wheel is still turning?”

  “No!” Chana and I replied.

  “You guys live in a bubble. It means he’s cray-cray.”

  Chana swung at him. “You should have just said that.”

  Teddy kept throwing out suggestions, and I was glad he was taking it so well. He snapped his fingers. “Go where angels hang out—a church.”

  “Do you seriously think angels would only be in churches? She just told you she saw one at the hospital,” Chana exclaimed.

  “Yeah, but at churches you have pastors or priests. You can ask them questions.”

  “No, I can’t do that.”

  “Just interview one of them like it’s a school project. They should be experts on the subject. You’re an investigator. Do it.”

  Chana turned away from the television and toward us, nodding. “You should do it.” She turned back and flipped through the channels. “Nothing’s on.”

  “Okay, enough about that before my brain explodes. It’s gaming time. Where’s the PS4?” asked Teddy.

  “Hold on a minute. Someone’s calling, or texting.”

  I took my phone from my back pocket, put in my passcode, swiped up, and glanced at Chana.

  “It’s him, isn’t it? I can see it on your face.”

  “Who, Mr. Tobias?” asked Teddy.

  “No.”

  “I know you’re not saying it’s the angel. They use technology? Are you kidding me?”

  Teddy jumped up from his seat and snatched the phone from me. “There’s no number showing where the text came from. It’s just blank, like it came out of thin air. That’s impossible.”

  Chana stepped to his side and read the text aloud. “Seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Hackley Park. Third Street. The tenth hour.”

  11

  “I

  s that a riddle?” asked Teddy.

  “Seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you? It’s talking about answers to what you’re looking for. Don’t you think?” asked Chana.

  “Yeah,” was all I could respond. I began to feel anxious. Instead of the usual thump-pause-thump-pause of my heart, the beat was a steady and fast thump-thump-thump-thump-thump. This was really happening.

  I walked away, leaving the phone with Chana and Teddy. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know anything else, but this thing was pushing me toward it. And then I did want to know—to solve this great mystery of what I’d seen and why. But I kept going back and forth between fear and courage and then lingering somewhere between the two.

  I spun around. “The tenth hour? It’s already past ten.”

  “No, that’s not what it means,” said Chana while staring at her phone. “It doesn’t mean ten in the morning. Hold on a sec, I’m looking it up. Here it is. It’s Jewish time from the biblical days. The tenth hour is four-to-five pm.”

  “You’re not going,” Teddy said as he tossed my phone on the sofa and sat down in front of the television. He grabbed one of the gaming controllers, set on moving on from discussing the text.

  I gave Teddy a side glance.

  “No, you are not. I’m with him,” said Chana. “How do you know that’s the angel? And I don’t understand why an angel uses a phone to communicate when you’ve already seen him.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe because you’re always around me lately.”

  “You must mean more than usual, because she’s always been around,” said Teddy.

  “You better be glad I’m around. I keep you out of trouble.”

  “Well, this is more info than the first text.”

  “The first? Are you saying he’s contacted you before?” asked Teddy.

  “Oops, did I leave that part out?”

  “Yes, you did.”

  “I didn’t respond to the first one. I was scared.”

  “She was,” Chana agreed, as if she wasn’t.

  “You were there?”

  “Yep. Can we start the game already?”

  Teddy put his controller down. “No. Not until she assures me she’s not going.”

  “Who are you, my dad?” I whispered.

  “Don’t worry. If she goes, I’m going too,” said Chana.

  “Great. Then you’ll both get kidnapped. You’re not going.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  Teddy rose from the sofa and stepped in front of my face. “Then I’m going too.”

  “No, you’re not.” We were nose to nose. He’s taller than me, so not really nose to nose. Maybe his nose to my forehead. Anyway, I could feel his hot pretzel breath in my face.

  “I’m going, or I tell your dad you’ve been texting back and forth with some grown man.”

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “You want to find out?”

  We stood there for a moment, glaring at each other. Then Teddy walked around me and headed up the stairs.

  “You better stop him,” said Chana.

  “Okay, okay. Come back.”

  Teddy turned around.

  “I’m tired of arguing about this. Fine, you’re both going, just give us some space. He may not appear if he sees me with people.”

  “It’s not like anyone but you will be able to see him!” Teddy exclaimed.

  Teddy led the way up Fourth Street toward downtown. A ten-minute bike ride to the Hackley Park, turned into twenty, because Teddy demanded to stop for an Oreo shake on the way, claiming he needed nourishment in case he needed to “handle somebody.” Yeah, he was tall for a thirteen-year-old, but he wasn’t going to handle anyone. He would run just like Chana and me.

  “You just think a sugar rush will help you run faster.”

  Chana didn’t laugh at my joke, and we always laughed at each other’s jokes, whether they were funny or not. In fact, she didn’t say much at all. She mostly rode behind, watching us. I think she was really worried about what was going to happen. At least we were going to a public place, so if anything happened, someone would see and perhaps come to our rescue.

  My heart raced with anticipation and a splash of fear as we stopped at the edge of the park.

  “Do you see anything?” asked Teddy.

  I took in everything—the lawn, walkways, trees, and benches. “No, nothing resembling what I saw at the hospital.”

  “Your voice is shaking.”

  “I’m shaking. I can’t breathe.”

  “Hold on. This is no time to have anxiety issues. You are the one that dragged us out here,” said Chana.

  “Dragged you? You demanded that you come.”

  Teddy pointed. “You two need to stop fussing and pay attention to your surroundings. Look at the trees back there. The branches. They’re moving.”

  “Stop making up stuff to scare us.”

  I wasn’t falling for one of his tricks. There was no way he was going to get me to
turn around just so he could laugh and call me gullible.

  But the expression on Teddy’s face as he watched the trees forced us to turn around. The trees to the right of us had been planted in a straight row down the walk, which was the length of two blocks.

  “That’s the wind, right?”

  “Wind doesn’t blow one tree at a time.”

  The branches of the tree furthest away from us were moving high at the top, and then the one in front of that one, and then faster from one tree to the next, coming closer until it stopped two trees away from us.

  We all gasped.

  As we waited for what seemed an eternity, branches of the tree twitched as if shivering.

  “What is happening?” whispered Chana.

  I shook my head but didn’t take my eyes off the trees.

  Just as she finished speaking, two squirrels jumped out of the tree.

  Teddy screamed and then burst with laughter.

  The squirrels into the next tree, chasing each other.

  “That wasn’t funny.”

  “So not funny,” I said as I held my chest trying to slow my racing heart.

  “Chill, Theodore. Sheena, we’ll wait here, and you ride over past the soldier’s monument. See if you see anything.”

  “That’s too far. If someone snatches her, we’re too far away to rescue her.”

  “What are you going to do, anyway?”

  “Don’t worry about it, I’ll handle it.”

  “We’ll ride up a little every few feet.”

  “Okay, as long as you stay out of the open.”

  “You just make sure you stay in the open where we can see you.”

  “Uh, this park is completely open.”

  My throat was suddenly dry. I swallowed hard, staring at the monument at the center of the park. What if one of the four Civil War veteran statues came to life and stepped down from the monument? Based on everything I’d seen lately, it could happen.

  I got off my bike, turned back to my friends, and put my hands up as to say, it’s okay. I needed to walk. It helped with the anxiety.

  When I’d almost reached the Third Street end of the park, I stopped and looked around. I could still see Teddy and Chana back behind me, off their bikes and stooping behind a tree, watching.

  “Looking for someone?”

  I looked at the empty bench to the right of me and then to the old man in a powered wheelchair to the left of me.

  “Mr. Tobias?” This town is too small.

  “It’s about time you arrived.”

  “It is?”

  “Exactly what is it that you want?”

  I looked down at the wrinkled hands covered in brown spots, which rested on the arms of his wheelchair. “...To ask you some questions.”

  “About?”

  “You know, you were a lot nicer at the hospital.” I looked over his head, around the park. If Mr. Tobias didn’t leave, the angel might not show up. What the heck was he doing there anyway?

  “What time do you have?”

  I checked my cell phone in case I missed an additional text and noticed the other texts were gone. “Four-thirty.”

  Mr. Tobias leaned forward and looked down the street. “It’s within the tenth hour,” he mumbled to himself.

  “What did you just say?”

  He looked up at me. “It’s within the tenth hour.”

  “Why did you say that? Did you text me? Was it you?”

  “Text you? Do I strike you as the kind of person that texts? I received a text to come here. I thought you just happened to be here.”

  “A text from who?” I asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then why did you come?”

  “The language of the text…”

  We stared at each other in silence.

  “Sit down,” he instructed and watched as I let down the kickstand on my bike. “I remember you from the hospital.”

  I felt relieved. “You do? I thought maybe you needed glasses or something.”

  “I only need glasses when I’m reading. Other than that, I can look through muddy water and spot dry land.”

  I almost laughed—almost. My stomach was still turning backflips from anxiety.

  “There is not much I will say in front of others. I have to guard the gift. There is warfare going on that you cannot begin to comprehend—yet.”

  “The gift? Wait, how did you get here?”

  “Bus.”

  “Really?”

  “I use a wheelchair, but that doesn’t mean I’m immobile.” He pointed. Nurse Paige waved at us from several feet away.

  “Now, Little Gleamer—”

  “I’m not exactly little. I’m thirteen.”

  “Excuse me. I guess you’re practically an adult,” he replied with a smirk.

  “That’s right, I am. Why do you call me 'Gleamer?'”

  “You saw what I saw that night, didn’t you?”

  “I think so. I mean, if you saw a giant, glowing being.”

  Mr. Tobias nodded. “You have been given a gift. The ability to see things in another realm.”

  “Well, that explains it, then.” I laughed. “No, seriously...”

  “Do I strike you as a man that jokes about things?”

  “You mean I can see, like, another world happening around us?”

  “Is that so unbelievable, based on what you saw?”

  I shrugged.

  “Tell me what took place at the hospital. How did you happen to be there?”

  “My father had been in an accident,” I replied and went on to tell Mr. Tobias everything that happened.

  He raised his head, looking me in the eye. His eyes still held that spark, like there was a battery behind them making them glow brighter green. His brows rose and fell as he rubbed his chin.

  “There’s something special about you.”

  “Me? No, there’s not.”

  “An Archangel revealed himself to you.”

  “An Archangel? Are you sure?”

  “Positive. Think. Was that the first time you’ve seen anything like that?”

  “Yes.”

  He shook his head. “I doubt it. You may not remember, but your gift probably showed years ago before you could express what you were seeing. Ask your parents.”

  “Ask them what? Have I seen angels before?”

  “No, ask them if you ever had imaginary friends.”

  12

  I think Mr. Tobias came to the same conclusion as I. Someone wanted us to meet up that afternoon. Whatever information I needed was to come from Mr. Tobias. Maybe I could relax now and stop worrying that something was coming for me and would beam me up into space or to another dimension.

  “Can you always see them?” I asked Mr. Tobias.

  “No, sometimes I know they’re around because of a smell.”

  “Really? What kind of smell?”

  “Flowers. Or a feather floats down in front of me, or I witness something that shouldn’t be possible, and I know they’re near.”

  “What do you mean by something that shouldn’t be possible?”

  “People getting healed, something like that.”

  “Like my dad.”

  “Yes.” He motioned to Nurse Paige and pointed down the road. “My bus is coming and so are your friends.”

  “But you said that before looking around. How did you know that?”

  “I just know. Listen, I won’t talk about this around anyone. You will learn what people think of you if you start telling them everything you see.”

  “But I have more questions about all of this.”

  “I’m sure you do,” he said, sitting up. “Too much information at one time is useless. You will only focus on certain aspects of what I’ve told you. Your gift is limited right now, and there’s a reason for that. A little at a time, Little Gleamer. We’ll discuss this further later. They’re bringing us together for that purpose.”

  “They? Are there many? Are they only in the hosp
ital? Is it possible for me to see them anywhere?”

  “Yes, they are many and they are everywhere.”

  “But the one from the hospital—”

  Nurse Paige jogged toward us. “Time to go.”

  The bus pulled up at the corner and Nurse Paige waved at the driver while fussing at Mr. Tobias to hurry.

  “Wait! Just tell me one more thing. Can they take human form?” I yelled.

  Theodore pulled up next to me on his bike. “Hey, we’re out in the open. I don’t think you should be yelling stuff like that.”

  We watched the bus let down some kind of lift for Mr. Tobias’s wheelchair.

  “Did either of you hear Mr. Tobias? Did he answer my question?”

  “How could anyone hear anything anyone else says over his nurse? She never shuts up, does she?”

  We watched the bus pull away.

  “Well, that was a short talk, what did he tell you?”

  “It wouldn’t have been so short if you didn’t all of a sudden need a milkshake!”

  “My bad, what did he say? He sent the text?”

  I shrugged. “He really didn’t have time to say much.”

  “Yeah, but you were talking.”

  “I didn’t learn anything.”

  “Fine. Don’t tell us, then!” Chana exclaimed and turned on her bike toward our neighborhood.

  “Chana, wait.”

  “No, keep it to yourself, if that’s how you want to be.” She pulled off and I watched the back of her two curly afro puffs bob up and down as she pedaled.

  “Now you’ve made her mad,” Teddy said and rode ahead to catch up to her.

  “What did I do?”

  “You did that face thing. She knows you’re lying,” he yelled back.

  Sheesh!

  I turned and faced the park, closed my eyes, and lifted my head as a breeze that hadn’t been there earlier blew over my face. My eyes flashed open. Once again, I felt someone near me. I jumped on my bike and hurried to the corner, where Teddy waited.

  “Look at you running like a bat out of—”

  “Shut it, Teddy.”

  13

  I nstead splitting up and going to our separate homes, we all rode to my house again. Chana pulled into the driveway first and stood next to her bike, waiting.