by S. L. Naeole
The number of people who came forward to thank me was incredible. I didn’t know any of them but that didn’t matter to them. All that mattered was that they were human again.
What’s going to happen to all of them? I asked silently to Robert.
The EPs will take care of them. It’s what they do, remember?
“This is outrageous! You let her destroy us, destroy everything we’ve done?” Raphael cried.
I don’t know why I didn’t see it coming; Raphael bent down onto the ground and picked up a large white feather before charging at Gabriel. The unusually long angel’s quill pierced Gabriel’s heart. I saw it, saw it go through flesh, muscle, more muscle, and finally the organ that, for the first time ever, pumped blood.
I saw through his body, saw the blood seep out through the wound and fill his chest. I reached out for him, my hands instinctively going to his wound.
“No,” Gabriel argued as he crumpled to the ground, his hands held as far away from his wound as possible. “Let it run its course.”
“Coward,” Raphael spat.
Seeing that he was no longer a threat, several individuals came up to hold him, their faces and their thoughts full of rage.
“You’re not going anywhere,” one of them told him with a sneer.
“Grace...” Gabriel said softly. “Your mother would be so proud of you.”
I blinked back tears. “You…you tell her I said I’m sorry for doubting her.”
He smiled, his eyes closing. “She already knows…”
Gabriel died smiling, leaving this world with far more love for it than he probably had coming into it. No matter what anyone told me about it, I’d never take credit for that; he came to that decision all on his own.
“Hey, where’s the other creeptastic one?” someone asked.
I knew who they were talking about; I looked around for Uriel but he was gone.
“I can find him,” Stacy said, sniffing the air.
“No,” I said, my eyes moving through the thinning crowd. “Let him go; we can always find him—oh God, no. No!”
I moved without thinking, my body skimming over the ground as my wings of light flew out behind me, seeking, touching whatever it felt needed its help.
Like a stone, I fell to my knees. Mrs. Mayhew was on the ground, her head bent low, her arms wrapped around Dr. Bro whose own arms held her close to him in a loving embrace. The both of them were still, their eyes closed.
“Did I do this?” I sobbed, my hands reaching out to them. “I can fix them. I can bring them back.”
“Don’t, Grace,” Robert said, grabbing my arm as he came up beside me. “They died in peace together; let them remain that way.”
“Why? Why can’t I bring them back?” I sobbed. “They didn’t have to die; they don’t have to be dead! What good is being life, or whatever the hell it is that I am if I can’t help the people I care about?”
Robert took my hand and squeezed it, his other hand caressing my face as delicately as he could. “Because that’s not what they wanted.”
“How do you know that? How?”
He chuckled. “It’s who I am, remember?”
This didn’t help me feel better.
“Grace, I know you want to help fix everything now that you believe you can, but you can’t. There are some things you just can’t fix.”
I reached for him and pulled him into an embrace that mirrored the one locking the couple on the ground together. “I know, but I just…this wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“That’s just it; for them, it was. It was their time and they chose to go together. If only we all were that fortunate; your dad never got that chance.”
Stacy fell onto her knees beside us, her face a mixture of emotions. “I don’t know if I should be sad or relieved.”
“Why?” I asked, confused by the strict contradiction to how I felt.
“Because even though I’m going to miss them, the fact that they died together means that neither of them have to spend the rest of life without the other. You know what just thinking about that feels like. You’ve seen it in your dad—can you imagine spending forever missing someone like that; especially after how much the both of them have lost already?”
I nodded in understanding. “You’re right. You’re right… Wait; my dad! My dad still has Janice!”
Robert didn’t need to hear me say it or think it; he already knew what I wanted.
“What about Stacy, Lark, and Graham?” I asked as we rose above the ground.
“Don’t worry about us; since when did we need a babysitter?” Stacy shouted.
“We’ll be fine. Go make people better!” Graham added as he trailed behind.
I looked down at Lark’s broken frame and swallowed. No matter what I could do, I knew that there was no possible way I could fix her wing. Robert was right: there are some things you just can’t fix.
It’s okay. I managed blind, I’ll manage with one wing. If nothing else, it adds to my street cred.
Street cred? Do angels even have that?
I saw her head tip up, a smirk forming on her face. You’re an angel for five minutes and you already think you know everything; typical.
There was no preventing the smile on my face as I waved to the crowd of people who cheered as we left.
“Was that Shawn?” I cried when I spotted a familiar face before they grew too small to make out anyone.
Robert nodded. “He’s confused, and there’ll be a lot of explaining to do, but he’s going to be okay. They’re all going to be okay.”
I exhaled. “So…Janice?”
“No. First we get your dad then we go and see Janice. Grace-”
“Yes?”
“Your sapphire ring—the star’s back.”
I looked at my hand and saw that he was right. The white star that had disappeared from the ring that he’d given me for my eighteenth birthday had returned, brighter than ever. “I know why this happened,” I said suddenly.
“You do?”
I looked at him and grinned. “Yes. I don’t know why, but I do. The star disappeared because I needed it to. My mom said I was her light but I wasn’t anymore. Things had gotten so dark for me that I needed as much help as I could get. Now that things are a lot brighter in my life, the star felt it could go back.”
“You’re talking about it like it’s a living thing.”
I laughed. “That’s because it is.”
“If you say so, my love. Now, let’s finish putting this family back together.”
“And then what?
Robert kissed my forehead and then placed his hand on my abdomen. “Whatever we want.”
I sighed. “That sounds like heaven.”
EPILOGUE: GARDEN OF EDEN
“I know that it’s hard to believe, but at one point in my life the last thing in this world I wanted to do was wear a dress. But I’m getting used to the idea. I especially like the flowy ones that go all the way to the ground.
“Of course, I still wear my boots. Winter’s almost over but the snow keeps falling so I wear them; I don’t want people thinking I’m even more of a freak than they already do. After what happened this summer, there’s pretty much nothing that’ll change their minds about me, but you know what? That’s okay. I’m more worried about you and what this will all mean for you.
“I don’t want you to go through the same kind of problems that I did in school and in life, period. I mean, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll be the coolest kid in school, but kids can be awful and the last thing I want is for you to come home one day with a letter from the principal’s office saying you got into a fight.”
I stopped talking and dipped the paintbrush that I had in my hand back into the can. I pulled the brush out and returned to painting the edges of the wall, making sure that none of the lavender paint touched the pristinely white ceiling.
“Of course, I’m pretty sure that note’s going to come with a restraining order of some kind. Stacy�
��s promised you all the Tae Kwon Do lessons you want, and Lark’s probably going to teach you how to tear someone’s head off, so yeah…I’m worried.
“But I guess that’s expected, right? Why am I asking you that? You’re not even here yet!”
I lowered a free hand onto my belly and smiled as I felt the movement beneath it. “Well, you know you don’t have to get all cocky about it,” I laughed.
The door to the room opened and Robert walked in, a single lily in one hand, a box in the other. “How are my favorite ladies doing?”
“I’m doing fine; our little Maia here is apparently a know-it-all.”
He handed me the flower and then lowered his head to my expansive stomach, his lips pressing against the thin fabric that covered it. “She’s going to know just enough to get her into trouble and not enough so that her mother can feel like she’s helping her out once in a while.”
“Oh gee, thanks,” I laughed. “What’s in the box?”
“A surprise,” he said before handing it to me. “Lark and Graham are planning on coming by in an hour so you might want to wrap it up in here and go take a shower.”
“But I’ve got studying to do after this,” I groaned.
“You’re actually going to study?” he exclaimed, surprised.
“Yes. I don’t care if I can read the teacher’s mind and see all the answers to tomorrow’s quiz; I want to pass on my own merit. Besides, I’m going to take advantage of being snuck in this semester since I’m going to have to miss the next one.”
He shook his head, taking mine into his hands and bringing his lips down onto mine in a kiss that made my skin crackle with electricity.
“Whoa,” Robert murmured before the kiss deepened, his hands reaching around me and caressing every new curve that had formed on me in the past few months. “I’m going to miss this.”
“Miss what? My fat?”
“You’re not fat; and I’m going to miss having to hold you sideways because your belly’s in the way.”
“Oh!” I gasped, hitting him in his arm with the box.
“Hey! Don’t dent that,” he laughed.
“Why? What’s in it?”
“Open it and find out.”
I sat down on the floor, Robert joining beside me, and opened the box. Inside laid some tissue paper, and beneath that was a photo album. “Did you get this for the baby?” I chirped.
“Open it,” he repeated.
I pulled the thick white album out, setting the empty box to the side, and then settled the book into my lap. The cover was a thick, embossed white. It was simple and spoke plainly how well Robert knew me. He smiled at my thoughts and waited patiently as I opened the album.
A small squeak left me when I turned to the first page and found it already filled. A photo of my mom and dad when they got married was there, with a caption beneath that read “Grandma Abby and Grandpa James”.
“I know how my mom was able to get pregnant again,” I said softly as I took in the smile that lit up the black and white image.
“You do?”
“Uh-huh. It was me. I asked for a baby sister. I wanted one so badly, I snuck into my parents room one night and put my hands on my mom’s tummy and asked that she grow me one. It was stupid, and I didn’t think anything about it because I was six at the time, but knowing now what I can do…”
“You think that you did the same thing for your mom that my mother did for her?”
“Well…yeah. I think I’ve proven that I’m pretty capable of getting people pregnant,” I said with a short laugh. “Maia’s due a bit earlier than she should be if we go on the first time we did it.”
“I think my mother explained it to you-”
“Yeah, she said that angels don’t get pregnant the way humans do, that they…blend or something.”
“It’s not blending, it’s misting in unison.”
“And we didn’t do that until...well, it doesn’t matter when because Maia’s was conceived a lot earlier than that.”
“But we did, Grace. Or, at least, I did.”
My cheeks flushed at the memory of that night, the first time intimacy had ever been allowed between us. “Oh.”
“If we go by that date then it makes sense.”
He was right, and I groaned at how obvious it was.
“It’s only obvious when you know all of the facts. You can’t help not knowing something like this—you were given information about your call, not about how angels get pregnant. Anyway, keep going,” Robert said, his shoulder gently bumping mine in encouragement.
Smiling, I turned the page, this one holding a photo of Janice and Dad, with Matthew proudly displaying his new teeth as he waved from Dad’s arms. Beneath it read “Grandma Janice, Grandpa James, and Uncle Matthew”.
“Did Dad send you this one?” I asked, touching their smiling faces and feeling emotional.
“Yes. I asked him to send one as soon as he got over you being pregnant.”
“So you stole this from him then?” I joked.
“Okay…I asked but he didn’t respond so I had Janice send it. They took it outside the new house; nice, huh?”
I ran my finger alongside Dad’s face. “I still don’t know how I feel about him moving back to California. It doesn’t feel right, him not being here.”
“You know why he left,” Robert reminded.
“I know, but I still don’t understand why he had to go. Can’t EPs do their job like, online or something?”
He laughed. “If only it was that simple. Your father isn’t technologically savvy, Grace. He can’t hack sites; he can barely remember to check his email. What he’s good at is organization. After what happened this past summer, there’s a need for that; especially since we lost our registrar.”
“But why couldn’t he do that here?”
“Because his family is based in California. He needs to be where they are, Grace. He wants to change the legacy of his family—your family; especially now that that family includes us.”
I frowned, but accepted his explanation for probably the fifth time this week. I looked at the next page and grinned. Graham was making a pair of glasses with his eyes, his tongue sticking out as his body was held up by Lark, who somehow managed to smile for the photograph.
There was still grief in Graham’s eyes, the loss of his father an unintended price that I could not repay. He buried his father next to his grandmother, saying nothing when his mother showed up at the funeral. Ivy tried to reconnect with her son that day, but Graham couldn’t let her in. She left the next day for Florida and didn’t return.
Graham inherited the house from his father and, after a long talk with Lark and my dad, chose not to sell it after all. Lark, free to choose what she wanted to do now that protecting me was no longer an issue, decided that it was best to continue the ruse she and Robert had started, and finish high school.
“Who took this photo?”
“Stacy.”
“And is she-”
“Next page.”
Smiling, I turned the page and laughed out loud. “Is she serious?”
Stacy was positioned on one foot, her body tilted so that her other foot was in the air. In her hand was a cup of tea that she sipped with her pinky that stuck out parallel to her leg.
“She thought it was better than a photo of her beating up Graham.”
“That’s true,” I agreed.
I’d asked Stacy a few days after the fight on the field if she wanted to return to being human, to return to the life she had before the cancer returned, and she told me flatly that she did not.
“That life is gone, Grace. I have to move on and this life that I have now, what Dr. Bro allowed me to become is what I want. I’m doing something. I’m making a difference. I don’t think I could’ve done that if I were still human.”
“You made a difference with me as a human,” I said softly.
“Yeah, but that’s because you’re-”
“Different?” I joked.
>
“No, you dork. It was because you’re special. And no matter where either of us are, you’re always going to be one of my best friends.”
“Will you stick around?” I asked nervously.
“Why?”
“Because my daughter’s going to need an aunt,” I said with a sly smile.
“Yeah…like in a dozen years, maybe. You’re not thinking about having a kid anytime soon…right?”
“Well, not right away, but maybe in…seven or eight months?”
Very rarely has one ever been able to render Stacy speechless, but I’d done it, and I’d done it at the worst possible time.
“Stacy? Stacy say something.”
Her mouth opened, her lips moved, but no sound came out.
“Stacy, you’re the first person I’ve told. I mean, Robert knows but I wanted to tell you first. You can’t not say anything after learning my big secret!”
“You’re pregnant?”
I nodded and then smiled. “It’s a girl—she’s already told me.”
Stacy’s jaw plummeted. “She’s told you?”
“I know it sounds weird, but it’s true.”
“When? When did you know?”
“When Lem took me.”
“Wow. And you’re telling me first; Graham doesn’t even know yet?”
“Nope. You get first dibs on the title of auntie.”
She never promised that she’d stay, but she hadn’t left yet, and that was enough of a promise for me.
On the opposite page of the album, was a photo of Ameila. She was beautiful and serene in her photo, a warm smile crossing her face. She’d been almost as furious as Dad had been when she learned that I was pregnant, but it was mainly because she knew that Robert and I had known before the attack and had chosen not to say anything.
“Why would you risk your child’s life like that?” she scolded.
“You knew Grace was going to be fine; why are you so upset?”
“Because my grandchild deserves better than to be treated like an afterthought.”
It took a while for her to calm down, but eventually she began to work towards forgiving us, while Robert worked towards forgiving her. We were officially pardoned when we vowed to never call her “Grandma Ameila”.
