Last Chance Christmas

by Hope Ramsay

  Just as he squeezed off a round, Lark Chaikin popped up from behind the statue and hurled something. A cloud erupted around the sheriff that looked like his own personal dust devil.

  Lark lit out across the golf course in the direction of the tenth hole.

  Stone wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this situation. And he hesitated for just one moment.

  And that moment of indecision proved to be disastrous.

  “Daddy!” Lizzy’s anguished cry came from the direction of the tenth hole. He saw her pop up by the big crèche at the turn. There was blood all over her.

  “Stop right there, Stone,” Billy yelled.

  Stone turned his gaze back toward the sheriff. Billy was aiming his weapon right at him.

  “Billy, what’s going on?”

  “Shut up. I need to think.”

  “Why don’t you put the weapon away?” Stone aimed his own weapon at Billy, but he was a day late and a dollar short. Billy fired off a round.

  Stone’s last thought, just as the bullet struck his chest and carried him off his feet, was that he’d left Haley alone in his cruiser. She would be late for her Christmas play.

  CHAPTER

  20

  Come now, little shepherd, it’s time,” the angel said.

  Haley looked up into the eyes of the glowing person above her. This was not the Sorrowful Angel. This angel had wings and a halo. He burned so brightly that it was almost hard to look at him. He was kind of scary. And that wasn’t good, because she was already scared.

  Daddy had run off. And people were screaming. And there were loud noises that reminded her of that time when she’d been with Aunt Jane. The angels smited the bad guys that time. She was glad the angels had done that, but she really didn’t want to repeat the experience.

  “Be not afraid, for I bring you good tidings,” the angel said, and unlike Maryanne, this angel got the words right. “Come, we need your help.”

  Oh, boy. She was no good at helping angels, didn’t they know that?

  The angel waited, and Haley knew that she didn’t have much of a choice. Kids never did.

  So she got up from the floor of the backseat and climbed out of Daddy’s cruiser. It was practically nighttime outside, which seemed kind of strange because it had just been daylight a minute ago. It had also gotten really, really cold and windy. The angel put his arm around Haley, warming her.

  That was different. The Sorrowful Angel was always cold, but this angel was as warm as a fire. Haley followed the angel down the path and around the bend.

  “Be not afraid,” the angel repeated, “for I am with you.”

  It was a good thing the angel said that, because just as soon as Haley could see the Ark, there was another loud sound, like a balloon popping only louder. And that’s when she saw Daddy get shot.

  “Go to him.” The angel pushed Haley forward. “Be not afraid.”

  Haley hesitated for a minute. Sheriff Bennett was standing by the statue of Jesus on the eighteenth hole. And standing right next to him was the Sorrowful Angel.

  She didn’t look very sorrowful right at the moment. She looked very, very, very angry. Angrier than even Granny got, and that was saying something.

  The wind was starting to blow, and it whipped the dumb old shepherd headdress off Haley’s head and tossed it high into the air. “Go to him,” the angel repeated and gave her another little push.

  She ran toward Daddy. Halfway there, she heard Lizzy screaming from somewhere telling her to stay away. But the angel kept saying that she should go to Daddy.

  Sheriff Bennett turned toward her. He had a gun in his hand. And he started to raise it in her direction.

  Lizzy started screaming. Someone else was yelling, but she didn’t know who. And the angel was standing right next to the sheriff.

  Haley was really, really scared, but the angel behind her kept telling her not to be afraid. And in front of her, she could see Daddy lying on the ground. He was hurt bad. And she was scared that Daddy might be going away to be with Jesus just like Momma had.

  And then the strangest thing happened. Her headdress fell right out of the sky and right into the Sorrowful Angel’s hands. She twisted it up and then used it like a whip, the same way Lizzy sometimes did with a wet towel.

  She smacked the sheriff with it, and he kind of stumbled back. And then she cracked it against the sheriff’s hand, and he dropped the gun. The sheriff was beginning to look as scared as Haley felt.

  Haley took her eyes off the sheriff and ran the rest of the way to where Daddy was lying. She fell down on her knees beside him and started kissing Daddy’s face and pleading with him to wake up.

  And then the angels came. All of them. Just like before. There was a rush of wings and a flash of bright light almost like lightning, and it was just like in the play. Haley knew all of the narrator’s lines:

  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host.

  They didn’t exactly come praising God, though. They swooped down on Sheriff Bennett like a bunch of golden-haloed turkey buzzards. They circled around him, and then one of them picked Jesus up off His foundation and threw Him right down on the sheriff.

  The sheriff screamed as the statue came flying at him, but once it hit him upside the head, he fell down and didn’t move.

  The angels circled once and headed back up into the clouds. All except for the Sorrowful Angel. She drifted over and sat next to Haley and Daddy.

  And she started to cry.

  Haley started to cry, too. Daddy wasn’t moving.

  And that’s when it started to snow.

  Stone wasn’t sure where the fog had come from, only that he’d been wandering in it for a while. It was cold and wet against his face and muffled everything around him. He couldn’t see anything except for a soft blue flicker that reminded him of a TV set in a darkened room. He chased that flickering light for a long time.

  It seemed like he was always chasing that light. Like he’d been chasing it for an eternity.

  This must be a dream. He often fell asleep with the television going. The noise made him feel less lonely.

  He wearied of the chase; there was no point following that light—it was always just out of reach. He gave up and lay down on some grass at his feet. It was cold.

  “You need to get up,” Sharon said. “You’re not dead, you know.”

  He relaxed. Everything was okay and back to normal. Sharon was always bossing him around. But that was okay. He enjoyed doing her honey-do chores. It made him feel needed.

  He drew in a lungful of freezing air. He needed to move, but he felt complacent.

  “You stay here, and the snow is going to cover you up,” Sharon nagged.

  Snow? In Florida? Not likely.

  He opened his eyes. And remembered that he wasn’t living in Florida anymore, and Sharon was dead.

  It was a crushing memory. It left no room for anything else. Snow pelted him in the face, cold and wet. He squeezed his eyes closed again. His head felt muffled and far away. His ears were ringing.

  Why was it snowing?

  “Daddy, wake up.”

  Haley’s voice. He opened his eyes again. Haley was leaning over him, tears streaming down her beautiful face. Over her shoulder, he could see Sharon. His wife was crying, too.

  And that was weird, because he couldn’t remember ever seeing Sharon cry. She hadn’t shed one tear even when Tyler had died.

  What was Sharon doing here? He was starting to remember. He’d gone out to Golfing for God to get Lizzy and her boyfriend.

  “Get up, Stone. You’re not dead. Your children need you.”

  Haley leaned forward a little more, obscuring his view of Sharon. “Daddy, you need to listen to the Sorrowful Angel, okay? It’s snowing, and it’s cold and…” Her voice wavered. “The sheriff shot David, and Lizzy is crying, and Miss Lark is trying to calm her down. David is bleeding, and the angels came, and I’m so scared. Daddy, you need to wake up.”

 
He closed his eyes again. “Sharon,” he whispered.

  “I’m here. I’ve always been here. You haven’t let me go, and…” Sharon’s voice faded into the whistle of the wind. It felt like a freaking blizzard had just hit town.

  He opened his eyes again. The wind was whipping the snowflakes in swirls. In the twilight, the snow almost looked like mist, or even swirling ghosts.

  He stared up into Haley’s face. Her cheeks were red. Her shepherd’s costume was wet. She was shivering.

  Memories came flooding back to him. Horrible memories. He pushed himself up off the ground and was assailed by vertigo. Sharp pain knifed through his chest. He looked down at his uniform shirt. It had been torn when the bullet struck him and knocked him back. But, of course, he’d been wearing body armor.

  He was going to have a big bruise on his chest and maybe a couple of broken ribs. He touched the back of his head and found a knot the size of a walnut. That explained the vertigo. He was probably concussed.

  “Are you okay?” Haley asked. “The angels say you’re going to be okay. They say David is going to be okay, too, but Lizzy doesn’t believe it.”

  In the distance, he could hear Lizzy sobbing. And something else.

  Lark. Lark was here. She was speaking in calm reassuring words about applying pressure to David’s wounds. He should get up and help her. But he couldn’t quite make his body work, and Haley had kind of crawled up into his lap, pinning him down.

  Haley wiped the snot from her nose on the sleeve of her shepherd’s costume. “Daddy, the angels who had wings were kind of scary, and they were really warm, and they smited Sheriff Bennett on account of the fact that he was shooting people. But even before the angels with wings came, the Sorrowful Angel tried to beat up the sheriff. Why did the sheriff shoot David?”

  “The Sorrowful Angel doesn’t have wings?” The minute he asked the question he knew something inside him had snapped.

  “No, Daddy. That’s why she’s here, see, and not in Heaven. She can’t get to Heaven without wings.”

  All of a sudden the ability to see angels didn’t seem like such a curse. Sharon said she’d never left him. And if he could see her, then he could talk with her. He could be with her. He didn’t have to move on. He didn’t have to change. He could just hold on to her until it was his time to go.

  “Tell me more about the Sorrowful Angel,” he said, knowing it was the wrong thing to say. He should be asking about the sheriff. He should be taking Haley’s eyewitness report. He should be dragging himself over to where Lizzy and David were. Why had he asked this stupid question?

  “Uh, well, see she isn’t golden-like. She’s more blue, you know. And she’s cold. The other angels are really, really hot. And they’re gone now, but the Sorrowful Angel is still right here.”

  “Where?”

  Haley pointed. There was nothing there. But a moment ago, Sharon had been there, all blue and glowy and bossing him around like she always did.

  “She said she’s not supposed to be here. Didn’t you hear her? I thought you were talking with her. I thought, maybe, you could see her.” Haley’s voice sounded so small and frightened.

  He pulled Haley into his arms and gave her a fierce hug. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her cold nose against his neck. “I think I have a picture of the Sorrowful Angel,” he said.

  “You do? Really?”

  “Yeah. I do. I’ll show you tonight when we get back home. And maybe she’ll talk to us again.”

  Just then the sound of sirens destroyed the strange, muffled quiet of the golf course. Stone held his daughter and watched the snow falling. He should be doing more than just hugging his daughter and talking about a ghost. But he couldn’t muster the strength to get up.

  “I guess maybe there is a Santa,” Haley said.

  “Why’s that, sugar beet?” he whispered.

  “Because I asked him to please, please, please get me out of the Christmas play and also to make it snow.”

  “That’s all you asked for?”

  “Uh, well, I also asked him if he would please find a way to get the Sorrowful Angel to Heaven.”

  Guilt shivered up his spine, but he didn’t have a minute to examine it because Lark came bounding up from the tenth hole and skidded to a stop.

  She got down on her knees. Her big brown eyes looked bright and fierce. There were ice crystals sparkling in her hair. And he thought she looked very beautiful and bright like that. The crisis had brought out her color somehow. She didn’t look like a little brown bird, the way she had when he’d first met her. Now she seemed like a flare in the darkness. And he almost wanted to gather her up into the hug he was sharing with Haley.

  But he didn’t exactly know how to do that. She seemed so competent at that moment. So in charge. Like she didn’t need him. So instead of reaching out, he tried to push himself up off the ground.

  She pushed him down gently. Her hand felt oddly warm on his shoulder. “You’ve had a head injury. I don’t want you to move. I used Lizzy’s cell phone to call nine-one-one, and help is on its way. David has been shot but I don’t think it’s life threatening. Lizzy’s applying direct pressure to his wound, and he’s sheltered in the Christmas display on the tenth hole. I’m afraid that Mr. Marshall is dead. The sheriff is unconscious but breathing. I used some duct tape I found in the office up in the Ark to bind his hands and feet. I’m going out to the road. I’ll flag down help.”

  She stood and ran up the path. And it occurred to him that Lark was like a sergeant reporting to his lieutenant, or a deputy reporting to the chief. She’d gone into battle mode, and she was seriously impressive.

  Obviously, she had conquered her fear. Hell, she’d probably saved David or Lizzy’s life with that foolhardy but incredibly brave move of throwing the ashes at Billy. If Stone hadn’t arrived right at that moment, Lark might be numbered among the dead.

  He couldn’t think about that. It was too frightening even to let his mind go there. He clutched Haley to his chest and squeezed his eyes shut. His head swam. It felt like he’d had too much to drink. He had to open his eyes again and fix a horizon just to keep the dizziness at bay.

  Just then Damian Easley, Stone’s deputy, came pounding down the path followed by the Allenberg County volunteer fire department and EMT squad.

  In the mayhem that followed Stone lost track of Lark.

  Lark clutched the hot cup in her shaky hands and stared at Damian Easley across the table. The aroma of coffee permeated the atmosphere. She was sitting in the interview room at the Last Chance Police Department, and she was still shivering.

  If she had been cold, perhaps the coffee would have warmed her. But these shivers weren’t from the cold. They were the aftereffect of the adrenaline.

  She’d given her eyewitness report. She’d hung out with Damian at the golf course for a while. She’d watched the forensics team do their thing, and the coroner take Lee Marshall’s body away.

  She’d thought about Pop and Hettie and the Rhodes family.

  Nothing and everything had changed.

  She’d spent ten days here. She’d discovered a half sister and uncovered a mystery. She’d fallen for Stone Rhodes. But she still didn’t belong here. She never would.

  She realized it the minute she’d spoken with Stone, just before the EMTs arrived. He had been talking nonstop about his wife. He seemed to think that Haley’s Sorrowful Angel and Sharon were one and the same.

  It was crazy, of course. But head injuries—even minor ones—could make people kind of crazy for a while. Lark had seen plenty of that in the field. Stone would recover. But his current hallucinations pretty much confirmed where Lark stood with him.

  And she didn’t want to play second chair to Sharon’s ghost.

  No, she didn’t belong here. She belonged on a plane to Africa, leaving day after tomorrow. And after what had happened out at Golfing for God, she knew she’d be okay. She’d found that invincible place where every war correspondent lived.
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  She handed Damian a card with her editor’s name on it. “I’m going to be in Africa for a while, and then, who knows. But if you need me to testify at the trial, just give my editor a call. He’ll be able to find me wherever I am.”

  Damian nodded, and they both stood up. “You’re not going to stay? See how Stone is doing?”

  “I’ll give the hospital a call. You tell him to take care of himself, okay? And I’m sorry about the ashes on the eighteenth hole.”

  Damian laughed, his smile flashing in his dark face. “Oh, I think Elbert will forgive you for that. From what I heard, the ashes may have saved Lizzy or David’s life. You know, it’s funny how these things work. Folks will say it was your ashes and a freak wind that saved the day. But I think there’s something else going on out there.”

  “Are you saying you believe in angels, Deputy Easley?”

  “Ma’am, I do. And I think you just might be one of them. You have a good Christmas, you hear? And someone will be in touch with you if this mess comes to a trial.”

  She turned and headed toward the door.

  “You driving to DC tonight?” Damian asked to her back.

  “That was my plan.”

  “It’s a long way. You stay safe. And if you get sleepy, you stop someplace. When the caffeine and the adrenaline wear off, you might need a good sleep.”

  Lark nodded and left the police station. As she walked to Pop’s SUV, it struck her that Last Chance, South Carolina, was lit up with Christmas lights from Bill’s Grease Pit all the way to Dot’s Spot. And high above it all, the sky had cleared into a cold, velvet darkness.

  A star was shining high above the place. She stared up at it for a long time. It was too bright to be a star. It had to be Venus or Mars or one of the other planets. As she drove away, she could still see it hovering over the town.

  CHAPTER

  21

  Now, Mr. Rhodes, I don’t want you to worry about the hallucinations,” the doctor said.