Angel Unaware (21 page)

Tony picked up the letter and waved it at Dora. “She’s been nothing but trouble all her life. She’s caused more pain than her selfish, childlike brain can possibly comprehend. Rosalie and Matt didn’t have a choice: they had to tolerate her, but I don’t. Nothing would make me happier than never having to lay eyes on her again.” He stood, his feet planted far apart, his hands on his hips, the light of determination shining brightly from his eyes.

Dora simply smiled.

Dora placed the breaded pork chops on the table and poured milk for Penny. Wiping her hands on the towel, she walked down the hall.

“Penny, Tony, supper’s ready.”

Tony peeked out of the living room where he’d been watching the news on TV. “Great. I’m starved.” After their talk, his mood seemed to have improved a hundred percent.

Dora laughed. “Good, because I’m sure I made way too much food.” She looked up the stairs to check for Penny. “Penny?’ she called again. “Supper is ready, sweetie.” Then, walking ahead of Tony, she led the way to the kitchen.

Tony took his place at the head of the table, and Dora sat to his right. She glanced at the door. “I wonder where Penny is.”

Tony got up. “She’s probably rehearsing her essay. I’ll go get her.”

Dora filled Penny’s plate with food and had her meat cut by the time the kitchen door opened, and Tony came in. His face was sheet white.

“She’s gone,” he said.

“Gone? Where?” That was all Dora could force from her throat.

“I don’t know. She left this.” He held out a piece of pink construction paper. Written across it in purple crayon were words that turned Dora to icy stone.

I’m sorry I was trouble
.

Trouble
had been scratched out several times before Penny had been satisfied with the spelling of a word that wasn’t part of a six-year-old’s usual vocabulary.

Dora will take care of you. She’s an angel
.

“Trouble? How did she get that idea?” Tony paced the kitchen floor. “I never told her she was any trouble. For God’s sake, out of everyone in my life, she was the least amount of trouble.” He slammed his fist into the palm of his hand. “If that bitch Lisa hadn’t come here, none of this would be happening. If anyone is trouble, it’s her, with a capital
T
.”

Lisa
! Instantly, Dora’s mind flashed back to their earlier conversation about Lisa.
She’s been nothing but trouble all her life
. She tried to think. Where had Penny been during that conversation? Upstairs. But what if she wasn’t upstairs? What if she’d come down in time to catch the tail end of Tony’s tirade? Dora’s heart dropped to her feet.

Tony’s pacing jolted to a stop. “My God, do you think she was kidnapped?”

Dora had considered it for a second. She knew there had been such events in the news of late and that each kidnapping had thrown the respective Guardian Angels for each of the victims into turmoil. Sadly, in too many cases, their intervention had come too late. But this didn’t seem to fit that scenario.

“I don’t think so. She wouldn’t have had time to leave the note if she’d been snatched out of her bedroom. Besides, we were right here. We would have heard the door open and someone going upstairs.” In her heart she knew Penny had run away because she felt unwanted. She hesitated. Should she tell him what she really thought because of the wording in the note? Should she tell him it was his words that might have driven Penny from the house?

This was no time for worrying about Tony’s feelings. They had to start looking for Penny. “Tony, I think Penny might have overheard our conversation about Lisa and thought we were talking about her.”

His brow furrowed. “What conversation?”

“The one in which you said nothing would make you happier than to never have to lay eyes on her again.”

Tony’s face went whiter than the snow covering the ground outside.

CHAPTER 16

Tony immediately called the police, and then he and Dora waited in the living room for their arrival. Night had closed in and the outside temperatures had been dropping steadily. The thought of Penny out there, cold, alone, and frightened, gave rise to a desperate helplessness that Dora had never known before. Where would a little girl go?

Right after Tony had called the police, he’d called Millie and woken her up, hoping Penny might have decided to go over there. But Millie said she hadn’t seen her since the day before, when Penny and she had had ice cream sundaes together. They were quickly running out of places to check, and it seemed as though the police were taking forever to arrive at the house.

The next calls went out to the homes of Penny’s friends, all with the same result. No one had seen the little girl. Their options had been exhausted.

Dora thought about making an excuse to go upstairs and ask Gracie to contact Penny’s Guardian Angel, but she didn’t want to leave Tony alone. Besides, she knew Penny’s Guardian Angel’s hands were tied. The fact that she’d left the note told Dora Penny had run away using her free will, and a mortal’s free will was the one thing in which angels were forbidden to interfere. A Guardian Angel could only stand by, watch over her charge, hope the choice the mortal made was a good one, and be ready to step in if danger threatened. This thought was the one thing that gave Dora even a small measure of comfort.

Instead, Dora sat on the couch wringing her hands, racking her brain for answers, and watching a distraught Tony pace the length of the room, stopping every few moments to peer out the window for any sign of the police. When the street remained empty, he uttered a string of curses and resumed pacing.

“What the hell’s taking them so long?”

“Tony, it’s only been twenty minutes since we called them. I’m sure they’ll be here as soon as they can.” But she might as well have been talking to the chair. Her words bounced right off him.

The explanation was meant to calm Tony. However, even to her it seemed as though hours had passed since Tony had picked up the receiver and dialed 911.

While gazing into the Earth Pool, Dora had seen other parents go through this trauma, but she had never fully comprehended the pain, the agony, or the fear that tore at their insides until now. The helplessness was the worst. The need to be doing something, anything, to find Penny, anything besides sitting and waiting while the child was out there cold and alone, became overwhelming.

Penny was so little, so defenseless. Was she afraid? In danger? Sorry she ran away, but unable to find her way home? The questions tormented Dora until she had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out. Where on earth could the little one be? She drew a blank. Dora hadn’t been around long enough to know if Penny had any secret places where she could go to be alone.

In a desperate attempt to distract Tony and herself, she searched her mind for anything that would make him feel he was doing something.

“Tony, try to think about where she may have gone. Does she have any special hiding places where she likes to go and play by herself ?”

He stopped pacing and stared at her as though she had grown three extra heads, then his face crumpled. “I have no idea. Isn’t that pathetic? I have no idea where my own niece would go to hide.”

Dora could have cut out her tongue. Her stupid attempt to ease his pain had only added to it. “No, it’s not pathetic. Little girls have secrets, just like big girls do. If she had somewhere that she considered a refuge, a place only she knew about, she wouldn’t share it with anyone. That would defeat the whole purpose, wouldn’t it?”

For a moment, Tony considered her words, then shrugged. “I suppose.” He resumed his pacing.

Knowing he felt less than adequate about caring for his niece, but unable to let it keep her from trying to figure out where she’d gone, Dora pressed him for an answer. “Think, Tony. If she isn’t here, where might she go?”

He halted and held his hands out in a hopeless gesture, his eyes hot with impatient anger. “I don’t know, Dora! I don’t know! If I did, don’t you think I’d be there bringing her home?”

Though Dora knew his anger wasn’t aimed at her, but came from frustration and worry, she still cringed.

Instantly, remorse washed over his expression. He threw himself on the couch beside her and drew her into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you,” he whispered into her hair. “I know you’re as worried as I am, and you were only trying to help. I had no right to snap at you like that.” He pushed her away and stared into her eyes. “Forgive me?”

She nodded, happy to see some of the tension drain out of his face. “Always,” she whispered back. She leaned against him, enjoying the strength of his body next to hers. Somehow, with his arms around her, everything seemed less hopeless, less—

The phone rang. Both of them went rigid. Tony bolted from the couch and snatched up the receiver. Biting down on her lips, Dora leaned forward expectantly and watched his expression for some sign that the phone call was about Penny.

“Yes?” He ran his hand through his already-mussed hair, and then looked at the ceiling. “Thank God.” His grim expression melted into one of intense relief. He smiled and nodded at Dora.

The tightness that had gripped Dora’s limbs since they’d realized Penny had left the house loosened. She fell back against the couch, too limp to hold herself up.

“Thanks, Millie. We’ll be right over.” He hung up the phone.

Just as he turned to tell Dora what Millie had said, red lights flashed across the living room walls announcing the arrival of the police. Tony hurried to the front door.

Dora could hear the murmur of voices, but couldn’t make out what they were saying. Unable to contain herself any longer, she leapt to her feet and followed Tony. Just as she got to the door, he was closing it behind a uniformed officer.

“Tony?”

He swung around and scooped her into his arms. “Our little girl is all right. She’s at Millie’s.” He kissed Dora’s surprised mouth. “Millie couldn’t sleep after I called her, and when she went downstairs for a drink, she found Penny curled up on the sofa in the family room. Evidently, she used the key Millie keeps under the back porch mat to let herself in.”

Dora was more than delighted that Penny was safe. Joy blossomed inside her. She wanted to jump and scream to the world that Penny was okay. Instead, she hugged Tony close and blinked back tears of gratitude.

“Let’s go bring her home.” He kissed Dora’s nose, then grabbed her hand and ran to the back of the house.

As she followed Tony out the back door, Dora couldn’t find words to express how happy she was that Penny was safe and had not been wandering the streets in the icy cold night. However, at the same time, one phrase Tony had used rang through her head and drowned out all other thoughts …
our little girl
.

No matter how much she loved Penny, Dora couldn’t allow herself to think in those terms. Penny was not
their
little girl. If she had a claim at all on the child, it was tenuous at best, and the time was quickly approaching when she would have to relinquish it. Penny was Tony’s.

Tony couldn’t believe their good fortune. This could have turned out badly, but it hadn’t. He had to be grateful for that. At the same time, he had to wonder what had prompted Penny to run away.

When Tony entered Millie’s kitchen, he and Dora found Penny sitting at the table drinking a cup of hot chocolate piled high with fluffy white whipped cream. As soon as she saw her uncle, she let go of the mug and leaned back, her shoulders hunched forward and her eyes lowered to her lap.

Millie pulled them both to the side and, in a whisper, told them, “She ran away and won’t tell me why. When I found her on the couch, she told me she remembered that I kept a key under the back door mat and let herself in. Said she was going to stay here until tomorrow. I have no idea where she planned to go after that. Truth be known, I don’t think she had a plan, either.” Tony started forward, but Millie stopped him with a hand on his arm. “She wouldn’t have done this unless she was really upset about something. Tread lightly.” He nodded.

Millie stood to the side and watched Tony, seemingly ready to pounce if he said or did anything to distress Penny further. Dora went to stand beside their neighbor.

For some time, he stood looking down at Penny. How should he approach the situation? Why had she felt she had to run away? Had she, as Dora suspected, heard the conversation he and Dora had been having? Something told him that asking her about it right away would be the wrong approach. Instead, Tony took a deep breath and slid out the chair opposite Penny.

He sat down, folded his hands, and leaned on his forearms. “Hi,” he said quietly.

Penny peeked through her lashes at him. “Hi.” Her barely audible voice quivered.

So far, so good
.

Now, what to say? Nothing came to him. He glanced at the parade of ceramic angels on the windowsill above the sink. This would be a good time for the Guardian Angel Millie professed everyone had to jump in and give him a bit of guidance. But no voice came out of the blue spouting wisdom and feeding him the right words. Evidently, his Guardian Angel had decided he was on his own.