Finding Midnight (4 page)

“No doubt,” Summer said.

“I have some books I could loan you to help
identify some of the more obscure plants and I would certainly
enjoy helping you with any you can’t figure out,” Dr. Stuart
offered.

“Thanks. I’ll definitely take you up on
that. I love plants, but I never really looked into herbs that
much. I mostly planted flowers for the nuns by the rectory, so any
help I can get on herbs would be great.”

“No problem,” Dr. Stuart said.

Chapter 4

Summer felt another pair of eyes upon her
and turned to the big house’s window to see Ms. Midnight scowling
at them. Summer waved without thinking, catching the doctor’s
attention. He, too, waved and said, “Hello, Myrtle!” to which she
immediately closed the curtains and retreated.

“You know old Lady Midnight?”

“I do. My oldest brother Mark was the same
age as Myrtle. Is that what you kids call her, old Lady Midnight? I
suppose she and I are getting up there in age.”

“It isn’t a very nice name. I usually
reprimand Tori for using it, and here I just said it.”

“I imagine when you don’t know much about
someone, it’s hard not to let your imagination get away and conjure
all kinds of strange thoughts about someone who is not social or
very welcoming.”

“She’s never even spoken to me; she’s only
left me a note. She stares at me every evening when I’m working in
the garden. It made me feel very self-conscious at first but I’ve
gotten used to it. I wave hello and goodbye every night. It’s
weird, but it’s kind of nice knowing she’s always there watching.
Like a crabby guardian angel.”

Dr. Stuart laughed heartily as they headed
to the cottage to say their goodbyes.

“I’d like to learn more about Ms. Midnight
and her family. It sounds as if they were an influential family at
one time.”

“They were and in some areas, they, I mean,
she, still is. I’ll tell you about it sometime. Maybe Tori could
come and learn a little more about Ms. Midnight too,” Dr. Stuart
suggested.

“Sounds like fun.”

“Well, this old man is calling it a day. I’m
pooped.”

“Thanks, Dr. Stuart, for all you’ve done. It
really was fun. I still can’t believe you got so many people to
help. It really went fast with all the extra hands,” Summer
said.

“It did and you’re very welcome. I guess
I’ll be seeing you in the morning.”

“Definitely and thanks again.”

“You’re welcome, Summer—it was my pleasure.
Have a nice night,” he said as he got into his car.

*****

Summer sat in bed jotting down the details
Dr. Stuart revealed about witchy sounding names for plants and some
of the interesting facts he relayed during their talk in the
garden. When she grew tired, she set the binder on the night table
and turned off the light.

It had been a busy day and sleep came
quickly, but a few hours into her blissful slumber, she awoke. She
assumed it was one of those dreams that happen occasionally when
you are quite sure you heard someone call your name or you jerk
awake when you are falling in a dream. She shrugged it off and
tried to fall back to sleep when she felt a presence nearby.
Immediately she thought of the first night she’d stayed in the
cottage and a shadow walked past the window. This, however, was
much more intense. The air around her felt thick as stifling panic
set in.

She quietly got out of bed, making only a
hint of a squeak from the release of tension in the box spring. She
grabbed the baseball bat behind the nightstand. She’d found the bat
in amongst the tall weeds of the garden earlier that week. She
thought it would provide her with some protection—if needed.

On tiptoes, she made her way to the sheer
curtains that covered the French doors of her bedroom to get a peek
outside. A floor board directly behind her creaked. She sucked in a
sharp breath as a large, cold, strong hand covered her mouth and
pulled her into the dark corner away from the window. She
struggled, tried to scream, but the steel-like body behind her was
not letting her move an inch. The arm around her waist was rock
hard, holding her still.

A deep whispering male voice shushed her as
he raised the hand from her waist and, pointed to a shadow moving
across the French doors and the floor within her bedroom then
replaced the steel vice of a grip back at her waist. She blinked
her eyes in disbelief. It appeared to be folding a large pair of
wings into its large body as its horned head bobbed, presumably
looking and listening. When the head was out of view, a trailing
tail slunk by, looking as if it had eyes of its own, moving around
and observing the surroundings.

When the shadow was gone from the window,
the man holding her lessened his death grip on her mouth allowing
her to take a much needed deep breath. He kept her there for a long
moment holding her firmly against his body. She guessed he was
waiting for the danger to be well away before he would let her
go.

*****

It seemed as though he held her for hours
when he finally released his iron grip on her.

“What was that? And who are you?” Summer
lifted the bat she almost forgot she held.

He raised his index finger to his lips,
suggesting she whisper, then sat on the bed and offered her a seat
next to him.

She whispered, “Was that a dragon? Who are
you? How did you get in here? What’s going on?”

Cool and collected, he tackled her questions
in short, decisive answers in the order she asked them.

“Yes, that was a dragon. I’ve been known by
many names, but for these purposes, call me Daniel. It’s
complicated and I’m not presently sure.”

“What?” she asked.

“Yes, that was a dragon. You can call me
Daniel—”

“I heard you the first time.”

“Then why did you ask?” One heavy brow
lifted.

“Well, it’s not every day you see a dragon
or have an intruder save you from another intruder—you were saving
me, weren’t you? Or is the dragon the good guy and you’re the bad
guy?”

“In this particular case, I believe I am the
good guy. You do ask a lot of questions,” he said.

“Do I? I’m sorry, but you’re not really
explaining any of this very well.”

“I’m not? I’ve answered your questions.”

“No, you haven’t—you didn’t tell me how you
got in here.”

“I did. I said it’s complicated.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“To the best of my recollection, it is an
answer.”

“Okay…it’s not a very informative
answer.”

“Oh. Well, then I ‘appeared,’ that’s how I
got in here,” he said, brushing a curl of hair away from his left
eye.

“You
appeared
,” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I wished to be here so I am.”

“That’s convenient.”

“It is, isn’t it,” he said with a smile.

“What are you that you can ‘appear’ at will?
A genie? And why are you known by many names?” she asked,
flustered.

“No. Genies are not real,” he answered
matter-of-factly. “I’m a ‘Watcher’ and I am known by many names
because I have been here for a very long time.” A kind of sadness
seemed to come over him as if the very words were painful.

Summer lowered the bat. “How long?”

“Since the beginning.”

“The beginning…of what?”

“The beginning of this,” he said as he held
out his arms. “Everything, life as you know it.”

“Is that a bad thing? You seem sad about
it.”

“Yes, I am sad. I’ve sinned against my
father and I will pay for that for all eternity.” His deep-set
almond eyes welled with emotion.

“All of eternity? Who is your father?”

“God, of course, as he is yours too,” Daniel
replied.

“God? Then you are a—”

“Fallen angel.”

“But I thought fallen angels were bad—that
they were all colleagues of Satan,” she explained.

“Not all of my brothers went into the bowels
of Hell. There are some of us who refused to follow Lucifer to his
present destiny. Some of us continue to ‘watch,’ as was our initial
task given to us by the father.

“My brothers weren’t all bad, even Lucifer.
I believe there was no other angel that loved Father more than
Lucifer, but Father’s fascination with your kind and the intense
love and forgiveness he showered upon you, made many of my brothers
jealous of Father’s affections.

“In an attempt to get Father’s attention,
Lucifer planned a coup. Father accused Lucifer and some of us of
not loving humans like he did, so what better way to show love to
the humans but in the very way they showed love to one another?
Lucifer talked many of us into lying with human women. This was how
humans showed their love for one another.

“But that is not how Father saw it. It went
against Father’s wishes. Lucifer knew this but after all, Father
had shown so much mercy to humankind, he would surely forgive his
angels and see that we too loved mankind. We knew we would be
punished, but Lucifer’s hope was that with our punishment, we would
also be opening the door of communication and could relay to Father
just how much we longed for his love and approval.

“But things went terribly wrong and Father
did NOT forgive us and the lines of communication were not
opened—in fact, they were terminated for all of time.

“Father’s fierce wrath broke Lucifer’s heart
in two and anger consumed him and many of my brothers. That anger
was not just towards Father, but the object of Father’s
affections—mankind. In the beginning, Lucifer and his followers
pursued those of us who were not consumed with anger, but only
wished to redeem ourselves. After a time when his pursuits were
fruitless, Lucifer stopped asking. I don’t condone my brother’s
ways or his deeds. In many ways he has transformed into something
unrecognizable to me, but underneath it all he is still my brother
and will always be.

“So a few of us still ‘watch’ as we’ve
always done. Some have been watching so long they’ve become like
stone, many littering churches all over the world to be nearer to
Father. Others like myself stay a bit more mobile. Does that
explain things a bit better?” Daniel asked.

*****

“Yes. Thank you, but why me? Why are you
watching me out of all the humans on Earth?” Summer inquired.

“As a favor, to a very old friend,” Daniel
said, his peach-fuzz mustache quivering slightly into an almost
detectible smile, which made Summer imagine Daniel was remembering
that old friend fondly.

“But why would your friend want you to watch
me? What connection am I to him?”

“I didn’t ask.”

“But don’t angels just…know stuff?”

“Yes, but only if we wish to. When it comes
to friends, it’s better not to invade too much on their
thoughts.”

“So you started watching me because a friend
asked you to—no questions, no explanations, nothing.”

“Yes.”

“And just how long have you been watching
me?” Summer asked.

“All your life,” he said, shifting his
weight on the bed, making it squeak.

“All my life?” She tried to wrap her head
around the notion, then with a sudden realization she said, “Then
you know who my parents are?”

“Yes.”

“And…?”

“And, what?” he asked.

“Are you going to tell me who they are? Why
they gave me up? Where they are now?”

“No.”

“No, just like that. No. Why?”

“It’s not my place. These things will be
revealed to you in time,” he said.

Summer pinched the bridge of her noise as a
range of emotions rose to the surface—frustration, confusion, and
anger. A headache tickled at the back of her head as she sorted
through the barrage, when a memory popped into her head. “Then you
were there when I fell out of the tree when I was twelve?”

“Yes.”

“I broke my arm in two places. Why didn’t
you save me?”

“It wasn’t life threatening,” Daniel said
calmly.

“It wasn’t life threatening? So you just
watched and let me go through all that pain?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t get it…that doesn’t seem very
angelic to me.”

“I can’t interfere with your destiny. You
learn from your mistakes. Sometimes these lessons are harsher than
others, but you may need that knowledge somewhere down the
road.”

“And what could a child possibly learn from
breaking her arm that would help her in the future?”

“Pain is a powerful thing. Artists,
musicians, and writers often use these past experiences to find
true emotion in their art.”

“But I’m a vet, not an artist,” she
corrected angrily.

“And you are more compassionate towards an
animal’s injuries because you know what it feels like to experience
the pain of a broken bone,” Daniel explained.

This profoundly touched her and made her
think about how she did use her past experiences in almost every
aspect of her life.

“But what about the dragon? Why did you
protect me from the dragon? Wasn’t that supposed to be a life
experience?”

“Your destiny does not have one set path.
There are many, many choices that are made in one day that can
change the whole direction your life takes. It is your destiny to
meet this dragon, but it was not today. Not yet.”

“So the dragon will kill me, sometime in the
future?”

“I can’t say.”

“You can’t or you won’t?”

“It’s impossible to say at this point. There
are many paths that will draw you two to meet, but what becomes of
that meeting, only you and the dragon can determine.”

“So if we do meet—this dragon and I—and it
is my destiny to die, then you will be there to watch the whole
thing without lifting a hand to protect me?”

“Yes.”

“That seems very unemotional,” Summer
noted.

“It’s true. Angels don’t have emotions like
humans. We never would’ve been able to do what Father asked of us
if we had such a debilitating trait. We’ve seen entire nations
wiped out, wars, disease, starvation, catastrophes no human could
ever imagine. These were all things humankind had to experience to
move forward, learn, adapt and evolve into the race you are
now.