The Guardians (16 page)

She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I leaned forward. “Have you always felt this way, or has it only been since your mom died?”

Abby shifted in her seat, refusing to meet my eyes. “No, it was before.” Finally, she looked up at me. “It’s hard to explain.”

I pushed my tray away and crossed my arms. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Abby sighed. “I guess it’s like this. People like me because of who I am, not what I am. I’m Pastor Thomas’s daughter. I was Victoria’s daughter, but now I’m the daughter of “poor Victoria who got murdered”. I’m the sister of Hannah who won’t speak…It’s like sometimes I don’t have my own identity.”

I nodded. “I see what you’re saying.”

“Yeah, I’m popular, and I get elected to things, but people really don’t know me. Maybe if they did, they wouldn’t like me after all.”

“I think you’re wrong.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t give yourself enough credit. Look what you did with those kids tonight. A lot of girls wouldn’t have stepped foot to volunteer least of all give up their afternoon doing makeovers on dying children.”

“Maybe…”

“Believe me, I’m right.” Something bolstered inside of me causing me to smile at Abby across the table. “Before it’s all said and done, I’m going to make you believe you’re somebody special.”

“I hope so,” she said. “When you do, maybe you can get the message to Landon.”

I snorted in disgust. “No, you deserve someone who will treat you with respect and who will love you like you deserve to be loved,” I insisted.

Abby raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you speak so forcefully before.”

I flushed and stared at my tray. “Well, it’s the truth.”

Sitting across from Abby, I couldn’t help feeling like we were on a date.
Wishing
might have been the better word. I certainly wished for time to stand still so we could stay in the moment as long as possible. I never seemed to have enough time with her.

Of course, wishing us anything more than angel and assignment caused guilt to pulse through me. What was I thinking? Didn’t I know this wasn’t right? Didn’t I know that having a crush on a human girl was the worst possible thing I could do? I shuddered at all the questions bombarding me, especially since they did nothing but make me hate myself.

But unfortunately, time didn’t stand still, and when Abby glanced at her watch, I sighed. “I guess we better go.”

“Okay.”

We had started to the car when a man came running up with a limp child in his arms. He was speaking a mile a minute but in Ukrainian.

“Please sir, you’ve got to calm down, and we’ll help you,” I answered.

At the sound of his native tongue echoing off my lips, the man’s eyes brightened. “Praise God!”

I met Abby’s astonished gaze. Her mouth hung open after hearing me speaking Ukrainian. “Follow me,” I said, motioning towards the emergency room. Abby trailed behind us as we headed inside, and I led him over to one of the desks. “What happened?” the receptionist asked.

The man quickly told me. I turned back to translate to the receptionist. “She’s been running a fever all day, and now she’s completely unresponsive.”

The receptionist eyed the little girl before calling a nurse to the door. When the nurse started to usher the man back to an examining room, he grabbed my arm.

“Uh, I don’t think I’m—”

He shook his head wildly. “You must to translate!”

Reluctantly, I trailed behind him. Abby stayed glued to my side, barely releasing my hand as we slid behind the “Authorized Personnel Only” doors. Just as I focused on the nurses and doctors hovering over the little girl, a panic crept up my throat, cutting off my air supply.

Abby’s emotions criss-crossed through me as her grip on my hand tightened. For someone so small, she had the grip of someone twice her size. But then I realized her panic. The last time she’d stood in the emergency room was the day her mother had died. She, Chaz, and her father raced to the hospital to find out what had happened to Victoria and Hannah. When they were whisked back behind those same “Authorized Personnel Only” doors, the news had been life-altering.

I squeezed her hand reassuringly. Her eyes, frozen on the floor, flickered up to meet mine. A shadow of a smile stretched across her face.

The doctors and nurses started flinging questions left and right at the father. Quickly, I translated back and forth as fast I could.

Once they had the information they needed, Abby and I were ushered outside to wait in the hallway. We leaned back against the wall, waiting anxiously for news. Abby broke the silence Abby finally spoke. “What language were you speaking with that man?”

“Ukrainian.”

“How do you know Ukrainian?”

“My parents spent a year there doing missionary work,” I lied.

“You sounded pretty fluent for just a year,” Abby said.

“I have a special little talent for languages.”

Abby smiled at me. “I think you have a little talent for everything.”

I blushed. “I don’t know about that.”

“You’re just modest,” she countered, nudging me playfully.

“Whatever,” I murmured.

Finally after what seemed like a small eternity, the doctors and nurses began exiting the room. My heart rattled to a stop as I feared the worst. When the father followed behind them smiling, I exhaled in relief.

“They say she will be fine. She just needs some fluids, and they will be able to bring her fever down.”

“That’s wonderful,” I said.

The man smiled knowingly at me. “I prayed for someone to help me just before I saw you in the parking lot.” He tentatively reached out to touch my arm, as if making sure I was real. “Bless you, Maleck Yahweh.”

I didn’t argue with him. Instead, I merely smiled. “I really need to get my friend home, but I’ll send my brother, the chaplain, to check on you in a little while.”

“Thank you.” The man extended his hand. He turned to Abby and shook her hand as well. Then she and I headed back out to the waiting room. As we swept through the mechanized doors, Abby turned to peer up at me, a questioning look etched across her face. “He called you an angel, didn’t he?”

My foot caught on the door, and I tripped forward. “W-what? I mean, why would you think that?”

“I heard him say “Maleck Yahweh”. That means ‘angel of the lord’, doesn’t it?”

Beads of sweat popped out on the top of my lip. I didn’t even begin to know how to get out of this one. “Uh, yeah, I guess it does.”

Abby shot me a funny look. “Don’t you believe in angels?”

Once again, I tripped over my own feet.
Would you get a hold of yourself? Abby is going to think you’re some kind of klutzy spazz!
“Sure, of course I believe in angels. Do you?”

“Oh, yeah, I believe in them.”

Our footsteps echoed along the silent pavement. “What do you think they look like?” Abby asked, breaking the silence.

I shrugged. Somehow I thought the less I said the better. She already had too much hold on me that I feared I might just blurt out,
“I’m an angel!”
Finally, I murmured. “I dunno.”

Abby lifted her head to gaze up at the sky. “Do you think they look like all the paintings? You know, with big, billowing wings and muscular bodies?”

“Hmm,” I replied, nosily shifting the change in my pocket.

“Or do you think they look like us? Like where it says in the Bible that you might entertain angels unaware?”

“Maybe.”

“Aren’t there supposed to be like a bunch of levels of angels?”

“Nine,” I quickly murmured.

Abby looked at me with interest. “So you do know a lot about angels?” I started to shake my head, but she pressed me. “Oh, come on, tell me what you know.

“Well, uh, each of the nine levels is divided into levels of three. Some angels in the highest tier, like the cherubim and seraphim, stay in the presence of God all the time while the lower level of archangels and angels are sent out among the world to guide and protect man.”

“That’s a nice thought—you know, though, thinking there’s angels watching out for us. There could even be some watching us now.”

I smiled. “Yeah, there could.”

Chapter Fifteen: CASSIE

After our first full week of rehearsals, things still weren’t good between me and Lauren. So, I after my Friday evening shift at the hospital, I drove past the coffeehouse, searching for Lauren’s car. Luckily, I saw it parked in one of the spots on the side of the building, so I pulled in front of the shop and hopped out.

When I stepped inside, AJ immediately spotted me. “Hey Cassie! Nice to see you back again.”

I smiled. “Hi, AJ.”

AJ’s smile faded as Lauren walked past him with a tray full of coffees. He glanced helplessly between the two of us, and by his expression, I could only imagine he thought Zach was in trouble for having two girls in the same place.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “It’s okay, AJ. I’m not here to see Zach.”

His dark eyebrows arched in surprise. “Oh, you’re not?”

I shook my head.

“So if you’re not here for Zach, is it you couldn’t get enough of me the other night?” he asked, an impish grin spreading across his face.

“How did you guess?” I replied.

“I’m irresistible.”

I grinned. “Well, even as irresistible as you are, I really came to talk to Lauren.”

Mock concern flashed across his face. “You guys aren’t gonna have like a bitch fit or something over that darling brother of mine, are you?”

I wasn’t exactly sure what a “bitch fit” was, but it was pretty obvious what he was imagining by the mischievous smile on AJ’s face. I shook my head. “We’re both in
West Side Story
, and I wanted to talk to her about it.”

He nodded. “She’s set to go on break in about ten minutes. Go ahead and have a seat, and I’ll send her over.”

“Thanks, AJ.”

“Zach’s gonna be on in about thirty minutes. He’s warming up in the back. Well, he’s supposed to be working in the storeroom, but he usually blows that off to warm up.”

“Okay,” I said, heading over to the table Zach and I sat at the other night. It would give Lauren and me the privacy we needed.

When she saw me sitting there, she rolled her eyes. “What are you doing here? Stalking Zach?”

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you.”

She shook her head, making her dark ponytail swish back and forth. “Well, I don’t wanna talk to you.”

I fished around in my purse and pulled out a ten-dollar bill. “AJ said you had a break coming up. I think that’ll buy a little of your time, don’t you?”

Sighing with exasperation, she plopped down in the chair next to me and swiped the bill from my hand. “So what is it you want?” When I didn’t reply at first, she glanced to see if anyone was around us before saying, “Does this have something to do with me and the bathroom this afternoon?”

I nodded. “I’m worried about you.”

“Look, you don’t need to worry about me. I told you it was no big deal.”

“But I think it was. I mean, you’re telling me you’re fine, but I have this feeling that deep down you aren’t. Like there’s things you’re holding in that you really want to talk to someone about, but you won’t let yourself.”

Leaning back in her chair, she smirked at me. “Wow, so what are you, some kinda singing psychic who sees her cast-mates’ deep, dark secrets? I didn’t know you were that talented.”

“You’re not denying what I have to say. So does that mean there’s some truth in it?”

She rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m not denying you saw me make myself throw up. But it’s no big deal. It happens all the time with people before they go out on stage. So why are you getting all ‘let’s have an intervention’ with me?”

I shook my head. “That’s not your problem and you know it. I’ve
seen
you, Lauren. You make yourself throw up on purpose. What I can’t understand is why you do it. That sort of thing can lead to horrible problems later on.”

For a brief moment, her eyes flashed in horror at my revelation. She couldn’t hide from me anymore, and she knew it. But just when I thought I had cracked her shell, a veil of defiance wafted over her. “Jeez, you sound like some video we’d watch in health class or something.”

“I’m serious, Lauren.”

“Look, for me, it doesn’t cause any problems; it solves them.”

“How can you say that?” I countered.

Lauren narrowed her eyes at me. “Yeah, I’m sure it’s easy for you to sit there and pass judgment. You’re this goddess with a perfect body. I’ve never had that. Guys never noticed me until I dropped twenty pounds two years ago. So, it’s not a problem; it’s called
weight maintenance
.”

Leaning in, I propped my elbows on the table. “You really think that badly of yourself?”