Big Love (20 page)

“Love seldom does,” Nell said. She pecked Zing on the cheek.

Chapter
Fourteen

The last five days of Zing’s earthly existence were the best of her life.

Zing held Nell’s hand as they walked back to her apartment. They’d had a picnic in the park with Mindy (who’d been forgiven for her transgression), Carol, and Homeless Tom. Zing had arranged it. She wanted to say goodbye. No one, not even Annabelle, had figured out a way for her to stay. Zing knew that Nell was heartsick, but they both tried to live in the moment and ignore the sadness.

“So what will happen? Do you evaporate or just disappear piece by piece?” Nell asked. She bit her lip and blinked back tears.

“I don’t know. I’ve never done this before. I guess I’ll just be here until I’m not,” Zing answered.

They waited at the crosswalk for the white man on the traffic signal to indicate it was safe to cross the street. When Zing had first arrived, she thought the white man was nice and the orange man was angry. It took her a few days of watching other people to deduce their true meaning.

Zing stared down into her beautiful eyes. “I will always be there for you, you know, just not in this form.”

“I know,” Nell said.

A man wearing cross-trainers and running shorts ran across the street. Thinking it was time to cross, Nell stepped off the curb and walked into the street.

Zing glanced up at the traffic signal. It was still the orange man. The runner had broken the rule.

A garbage truck sped into the intersection.

A loud alarm screeched in Zing’s head. The garbage truck was headed straight for Nell!

Zing didn’t think, she reacted with lightning fast reflexes honed by 1,004 years of guardian angelship. She leapt into the intersection and forcefully threw Nell out of the truck’s path.

The garbage truck screeched its brakes and blared its horn.

But it was too late.

The truck was headed right for Zing.

Time slowed. Nell’s eyes met Zing’s. Nothing moved. It was just the two of them and the enormous garbage truck coming straight for Zing. It was at that moment that Zing knew what it was to truly experience selfless love.

Nell screamed, “No!”

That was the last thing Zing heard.

The truck collided with Zing, tossing her body high into the air. Zing’s last conscious thought was, “So this is what it feels like to fly.”

Zing hit the pavement, her body bouncing like a rag doll.

She didn’t move.

Everything froze. The truck was still. The crowd of people was still. Then Nell broke the stillness with an ear-piercing scream. She pushed through the crowd and ran to Zing, shouting over and over, “No, no, no, no. . .”

***

When Zing opened her eyes, Annabelle stood over her. “You have a real flair for the dramatic,” Annabelle said.

Zing blinked. “What happened?”

“Well, what was the last thing you remember?” Annabelle asked.

Zing sat up and shook her head to get the fuzziness out. “Getting hit by a garbage truck,” she said. She looked down at herself and didn’t see any blood or gore.

“That’s pretty much what happened. The good news is that you saved Nell’s life when you pushed her out of the way. All she’s got are scraped up hands and knees.”

“I did? Thank goodness.” Zing stood. Her angel form felt weird after wearing a body for so long. Her head spun, and she stumbled. Annabelle quickly manifested a chair. Zing sank gratefully into it.

Frida, another guardian angel, handed Zing a bottle of water. Zing looked around her. She was surrounded by her former coworkers at HQ. Zing gratefully chugged the water. Finally, she asked, “I hope I didn’t pee my pants when I got hit.”

Annabelle shrugged.

“You didn’t,” Gloria said. She was another of Zing’s coworkers. “Here, look at the monitor. You can see yourself, I mean, your human self.”

A large white screen appeared where none had been before. Zing stared at it. She saw the accident unfold. It happened so fast. It felt like it took twenty minutes when it was happening, but now Zing saw that it really only lasted a few seconds.

She watched her body lie motionless in the middle of the street with people crowded around it. Nell pushed through the crowd and threw herself next to Zing’s body. She was sobbing hysterically.

Zing saw her body twitch. Not much. Just the tiniest bit. Zing leaned forward in her chair and stared hard at the monitor. “Am I breathing? I mean, my human body. Is it still breathing?”

“Well, technically you’re still alive,” Annabelle said. “They have you hooked up to machines and those machines are keeping you alive.”

Annabelle waved her hand at the monitor and the picture changed. Zing saw her human body lying in a hospital bed. Tubes and wires were hooked up to her. There was a mask over her nose and mouth. The body’s chest rose and fell.

“How come I’m not dead? Shouldn’t I be dead?” Zing asked.

Bertha suddenly appeared in front of Zing. “By all rights, you should be dead. Why you’re not, I haven’t the foggiest—probably because you’re so damned stubborn,” Bertha said. “Good job on the save, by the way. That was a perfect textbook rescue. We might use the footage of that in some of our training classes.”

“So, I did the right thing?” Zing asked.

Bertha nodded. “Nell’s life is far from over. She was not intended to get crushed by a garbage truck.”

“What about. . .” Zing had tears in her eyes. “What happens now?”

Bertha put her hands on her ample hips and said, “Your days as a human being are over.”

“But what about Nell? She’s given me her heart and soul. I can’t just leave her like this.” Zing gestured to the monitor where it showed Nell bent over Zing’s prone body. Nell was sobbing. Carol and Miracle stood in the background, hugging each other, crying.

“You did your job. Now it’s over. And the sooner you get that through your head the better,” Bertha said. She turned and stomped off. After ten feet, she stopped and turned back around. “Oh, and welcome back.” Then she left.

Zing ran to the monitor. She lightly touched Nell’s face on the screen. She whispered, “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”

Annabelle put her hand on Zing’s shoulder. She leaned down and whispered in Zing’s ear where none of her coworkers could overhear, “Let’s go for a walk.”

***

They walked slowly. Zing was still getting used to being in angel form again. She figured it was like getting her sea legs. They stopped walking when they reached the Zen garden. It was fashioned after the lovely gardens of Kenrokuen—one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. According to the head gardener, Ito, she’d built it like the original garden, so that it incorporated the six attributes important to a Zen-like quality of reflection. (Bertha had originally wanted a garden modeled after Eden. But after the infamous apple tree shenanigans, she consented to a Zen garden instead.)

Zing didn’t know much about any of that Zen stuff. All she knew was that the garden was a place to get away from her desk and blow off steam. “Let’s go in,” Zing said.

“Let’s not and say we did,” Annabelle countered.

Zing took her arm and pulled her onto the gravel walkway that led to the Zen garden. “I won’t do anything bad. I just want to get one last bit of reflection before we have to go back to the grind.”

“You promise? Last time you made Ito really mad and we had to sit through that anger management seminar.”

“She came after me with a rake,” Zing said.

“You deserved it,” Annabelle said. They stood looking at the smooth sand with perfect lines made by Ito’s rake. There was one strategically placed boulder sitting at the far end of the garden and a smaller one set off to its side. It was very peaceful. Annabelle breathed in deeply, closing her eyes and attempting to center herself.

“Did Ito miss me while I was gone?” Zing asked.

“Actually, she did. She came looking for you after a week of undisturbed peace in her perfectly-raked Zen garden.”

To Zing, this seemed like the perfect invitation. She made a run for it, skipping through the garden, twirling like a dervish, and destroying the perfectly aligned sand. She climbed up on the larger boulder with a big grin on her face.

Annabelle opened her eyes and screamed. “You promised!”

“I lied,” Zing said. She jumped off the boulder and landed a perfect 360, destroying the one spot of sand that had been left unspoiled.

She faced Annabelle and said, “I thought that would make me feel better.”

“Did it?”

“No, not really. I miss Nell.” She reached up to wipe away a tear, and
then she realized she didn’t have tears anymore. “I think I stubbed my heart. It hurts really bad. Worse than stubbing a toe even.”

At that moment, Frida came running up to them. “I thought I’d find you here,” she said, breathlessly. She leaned over, hands on her knees, and tried to catch her breath.

“What is it?” Annabelle said. “What’s the big hurry?”

Frida straightened up. “Bertha is fit to be tied. Zing, you’re not brain dead. I mean, you’re human body isn’t. The doctors have taken you off all the machines and your body is breathing on its own. You’re in a coma and. . .”

“And what?” Zing asked.

Frida continued, “And Bertha is pissed. She keeps pacing in front of the monitor and muttering something about Nell keeping you alive.”

“How could Nell keep my body alive? She’s not a doctor.”

Frida shook her head. “I’m not sure. But Bertha keeps muttering something about love. About a love so big that it can’t die.”

Zing grabbed Frida by the shoulders. “What’s Nell doing?”

“She’s with Carol and Miracle and they’re all sitting around your bed. Betty is there, too.”

“How do you know about Betty?” Zing asked. She knew Annabelle had been keeping tabs on her, but how did Frida know?

“Oh, we’ve all been watching you. You were like our very own soap opera.”

“You didn’t watch during the intimate moments, did you?” Zing asked. She certainly hoped they hadn’t. She didn’t want the whole office to see her with her ass up in the air making animal noises.

“No, that would have been an infringement of your guardian angel civil rights,” Frida said, pouting.

“I made them turn off the monitor,” Annabelle said, narrowing her eyes at Frida. “Believe me, they wanted to watch.”

“It’s not like it was you, Zing the angel,” Frida said, pouting even more.

“What was it like?” Zing asked.

“It was like you were acting,” Frida said.

“Yeah, but that’s just it. I wasn’t acting,” Zing said. She plopped down onto a wooden bench. Annabelle sat on one side of her and Frida sat on the other. They each held one of Zing’s hands.

“What if I told you I might know how to help?” Frida asked softly.

“Help me get back into my human body?” Zing asked.

Frida nodded. She pulled a ring of keys out of her robe pocket.

Annabelle gasped.

“What are those?” Zing asked.

“They’re keys,” Frida said, dangling them in front of Zing’s face.

“I know that,” Zing said. “But keys to what?”

“The personnel office.”

Zing looked confused. “So?”

“Oh, I get it,” Annabelle said.

“Get what?” Zing asked.

“Betty used to be a guardian angel, right? How did she manage to stay corporeal? There must be paperwork. All we need to do is find it,” Frida said.

Zing leapt up from the bench. She pulled Frida to her feet and hugged her. “You’re a genius!”

Annabelle looked worried. “We could get in big trouble for this.”

“Bertha has it out for me already,” Zing said. “I’ll probably get in trouble even if I don’t do anything. When can we do this thing?”

“Tonight. After eight. Only a skeleton crew stays on to monitor human activity,” Frida said.

“Perfect,” Zing said.

“I’ll keep lookout while you two search the file cabinets for Betty’s file,” Frida said.

“Shhh! I hear someone coming,” Annabelle whispered harshly.

Gloria peeked her head through the bushes. “I figured you all would be here.”

“We were just going for a walk,” Zing said, casually.

“I wanted to warn you that Bertha is looking for you all. You better get back ASAP,” Gloria said.

“Thanks, Gloria,” Frida said.

Gloria nodded and disappeared back through the bushes.

“Meet you outside the personnel office at eight thirty tonight,” Frida said, following Gloria through the bushes.

Annabelle turned to Zing. “I hope this works.”

“It will. It has to,” Zing said.

***

At eight thirty that night, Annabelle and Zing were dressed in all black and armed with Maglites. They were even wearing black Crocs.