Living the Dream (18 page)

Authors: Annie Dalton

By this time I was trembling so hard it took three goes to switch on my mobile. Before I could hit speed dial, my phone burst into the opening bars of our cosmic theme tune.

”
Carita
, he’s here! He just walked into the hut. Mel, can you hear me? Mel?”

Back in Ghost Canyon Cody fell into bed and slept for eighteen hours straight. Then she got up and ate such an enormous plate of stew the aunts could only watch in awe.

Aunt Bonita waited till her niece finished eating then lit a cigarette. Cody gently removed it from her fingers. Ignoring her aunts’ shocked exclamations, she stubbed it out on her plate.

“I need you to still be here for a long time,” she told them with a sad little smile. “I need you to all be alive and quarrelling when I come back to the Navajo nation.”

“Come back!” said the aunts with one voice. “You’re leaving?”

I felt like I’d been slapped. How could she leave now, after what she’d seen in the cave! What about her apprenticeship with Butterfly Woman? What happened to saving the world?

“I can’t live on the reservation,” Cody explained. “It’s too far from Mom. She hasn’t got anyone apart from me. It’ll mean me going into care, but I can handle that. I’ll come back in the holidays, if that’s OK? I couldn’t not come back, not now.”

Aunt Bonita distractedly picked up her cigarettes, then dropped them as if she’d scorched her fingers. “There’s another possibility,” she said very quietly. “We all drive on up to Maryland, spring your mom outa the hospital, and bring her back to live here?”

Cody’s eyes slowly filled with tears. “Why would you do that? My mom’s really sick. She’s been sick her whole life.”

“The Navajo got people like that too,” Aunt Jeannie put in gently. “We just have our own ways of looking after them.”

“But she’s not even Navajo!” Cody was openly weeping now.

“Pouf, old-time Navajo people used to do that all the time,” Aunt Bonita said nonchalantly. “They were constantly taking white people hostage. By the time the cavalry showed up the hostages were having so much fun, they just refused to be rescued! That’s why so many Navajo got foreign names. White, Latino, African American, we’re the original rainbow tribe!”

I could feel shaky excitement in Cody. Was it truly possible? Could she really live her dream AND take care of Julia?

“We’ll fetch your mama back in time for the dance,” said Aunt Evalina, as if it was all decided.

“There’s going to be a dance?” said Cody.

“The biggest in living memory,” said Aunt Bonita.

Angels get a particular feeling when it’s time to leave Earth. It’s like a shimmery musical note that no one else can hear.

I blew them a kiss, then tiptoeing out of the trailer I settled myself on the rusty swing. Through the open window I could hear Cody and her aunts excitedly making plans. Closing my eyes in the Arizona sunlight, I waited for the Agency to beam me back home.

Chapter Twenty-Two

S
ometimes the Universe sends all our Christmases at once.

I’d just cleared Arrivals, and I was literally on my phone calling Lola to find out when they were due back, when I saw her and Brice in cold-weather gear firmly marching in my direction at the head of a crowd of angel trainees. They all looked sternly focused like they were still on a mission.

They got to a few metres away from me, then the sea of trainees suddenly parted to let someone through. It was Reuben, tired, smiling, totally unharmed. I just stood like a dummy until he was right beside me.

“Did you get my text about Millie?” Reubs deliberately spoke too quietly for anyone else to hear. I nodded, silently drinking him in. “So what do you think?”

“I - I was actually a bit confused,” I fibbed. “What are you saying exactly? That there’s like a cosmic vacancy?” (Well, no one respects a pushover, do they?)

Reuben shook his head. “No vacancy. There’s only one angel girl for me. If I can’t have her, I don’t want anyone.”

He looked so totally desperate that having held out for all of two seconds I just walked into his arms-to loud cheers and wolf whistles from the watching trainees.

Somewhere Lola was shrieking, “Oh that’s SO SWEET!”

“Ahh! Finally brought together by the Powers of Darkness!” Brice mocked.

But I was deaf and blind to everything else. My beautiful angel boy was safely home at last.

Next day I was called to Michael’s office, where he told me I’d been put in for a special HALO award. He said Ambriel could only use me as a channel for the Creation angels visions because I was so totally in tune with Cody. The old-style Navajo approach wouldn’t have worked with her at ALL.

He said some v. flattering things which I don’t want to repeat because that would make me sound SERIOUSLY grandiose! Then as I was leaving he said calmly, “Obviously, you’re going to the dance?”

Everyone came as it turned out! Angel kids from my school, trainees who’d read about Cody in the blog I started after I got back to Heaven, Earth angels I’d worked with on missions. Michael came with super high-ups from the Agency. Apparently Cody was the best news the Agency had had in a v. long time. As for Ambriel and his friends - well, you can imagine why they wanted to be there.

The night was in full swing by the time we arrived. Like most big Navajo celebrations this was being held in the open air. Every time the musicians took a break, teenagers with twig brooms ran on to sweep the trodden earth, spraying water to keep down the dust.

“Can you see her?” Lola kept saying. “Can you see Cody?”

I quickly spotted Vickie and Earl. I saw Julia chatting to Lily Topaha. I saw Roxie, Dwayne, Tazbah and the new baby.

Lola pulled my sleeve, “Is that her? Wow! Cody lucked out when she got you as her guardian angel. A new name, a new life and angelic style tips thrown in!”

I shook my head in wonder. I’d been looking for a girl in grey! But this calm, smiling Cody was wearing the exact vibey colours I wore on my mission!”

Several Navajo musicians in traditional tribal clothes walked on to the makeshift stage, carrying a set of massive log-shaped drums. “This should be worth hearing!” Reubs said in my ear.

The drummers started pounding out a beat you could literally feel thudding in the roots of your teeth. All the Navajo elders launched into some kind of stomping circle dance, and the younger Navajo gradually joined in. They did it like they were just humouring the oldies, but really it was the wild rhythms pulling them into the dance. I saw Jim Yellowbird catch hold of a surprised-looking Julia, dragging her into the circle.

Ambriel was watching from the far side of the circle. He gave me the thumbs up that had become our little joke. I waved happily and felt Reuben’s hand reach for mine in the dark. “You can stop bugging everyone now,” he teased softly. “You finally found out why they made you an angel.”

It turns out that my life has been influenced by Cody Fortuna just as much as hers has been influenced by her guardian angel. Seeing her wake up and start to live Ambriel’s dream had set me buzzing with excitement and hope! Actually it set me wondering. Maybe more kids in my century could wake up and remember who they really were. Maybe, like Cody, they just needed the right kind of cosmic support. Then the Agency’s plans for Earth could go ahead like they were supposed to.

I kicked these thoughts around with Reuben, and after a LOT of late-night talks, we came up with this super-wild idea. Our friends and teachers came on board and the whole thing went supernova!

From next week our cosmic roadshow is going to be hitting the streets of the twenty-first century, hunting out gifted kids like Cody before the Dark Agencies can get to them.

Remember that spine-tingling moment when your misty prehistoric planet burst into flower? This is like that moment, only this time it’s not plants, it’s humans who get to make that impossible leap to the next level!

For now, though, just picture me and Reubs grooving to the Navajo beat, until Lola and Brice grab our hands and we find ourselves being pulled into the madly spinning stomping dance, whirling our way into the most thrilling part of the story where angels and humans finally join together to heal the Earth.

About the Author

Annie Dalton has been shortlisted for the Carnegie medal and won the Nottingham Children’s Book Award and the Portsmouth Children’s Book Award.The twelve Angel Academy books (previously known as Agent Angel), became an international best selling series. Annie lives overlooking a Norfolk meadow with a ruined castle, in a row of cottages that were rescued from bulldozers and lovingly rebuilt by a band of hippies.

www.anniedaltonwriter.co.uk

Also by Annie Dalton

Urban Fantasy Books

Night Maze

The Alpha Box

Naming the Dark

The Rules of Magic

Angel Academy Series

Winging it

Losing the Plot

Flying High

Calling the Shots