Starry Night (22 page)

Authors: Debbie Macomber

Will glanced from one to the other.

“How will he ever learn about humans if he doesn’t have the opportunity to mingle with them?” Mercy asked, siding with her dearest friend. Shirley could be such a stickler for rules. Okay, so they’d originally promised not to get anywhere close to humans, but this would be a good teaching moment for Will.

“How will he ever learn how to work as a Prayer Ambassador if he doesn’t become familiar with humans?” Goodness protested.

Shirley wavered. While she might be opinionated on a number of topics, she could be easily swayed, which was the best part of working with her, Mercy felt.

“Well …”

“Do we hear the humans’ prayers?” Will asked.

“Oh, no,” Shirley explained. “Only God hears their prayers, and then He talks matters over with Gabriel and then …”

“Then Gabriel passes along those requests to us.”

“And we assist in answering them.”

“One of our roles is to help humans realize how much they can do for themselves with God’s help,” Goodness clarified.

“We try as best we can without
interfering
in their lives,” Shirley added quickly, glaring at Goodness and Mercy.

This was a warning and Mercy recognized it the instant her friend spoke.

“But first, and this is the most important part,” Goodness emphasized, “it’s our duty to teach these humans a lesson. Then and only then are we able to help them with their troubles.

“The real difficulty comes when they don’t want to learn.” Goodness shook her head because this aspect of the job was often a challenge. “Some people seem to want God to step in and do as they ask without making a single contribution to the effort.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Mercy said, although she’d done a fair bit of finagling to help these poor witless souls. In theory, answering prayers didn’t sound the least bit difficult. Unfortunately, humans were sometimes completely dense.

“They can be so stubborn,” Goodness said, shaking her head again.

“Strong willed,” Shirley agreed.

“Oh, yes, and once—” Mercy snapped her mouth closed. It was best not to reveal their past antics for fear it would mislead their young charge into thinking that perhaps he should follow in their footsteps. Gabriel would take exception to that.

“Once?” Will pressed. “What happened?”

“Never mind,” Shirley said, reading the situation perfectly. “Some things are best laid to rest and not discussed.”

“Can I go down and be with the crowd?” Will asked again. “I won’t say anything to Gabriel.”

“He isn’t the only one,” Shirley blurted out. “I mean, we shouldn’t mutter a word of this to anyone in heaven.”

“Or Earth,” Goodness reminded them all.

“We can’t speak to humans?” Will frowned as though confused.

“We can but only …”

“But definitely not tonight,” Shirley said so fast her voice rose an entire octave.

Mercy took Will’s hand. “There have been times over the last two millenniums when we have spoken directly to humans.”

“Those occasions have been rare, however.”

“Yes, very rare.”

“But not as rare as they should have been,” Shirley found it necessary to add. She crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to be wavering about the best way to handle this training session.

“I don’t think it would hurt for Will to go down in the crowd,” Goodness said again. “It is a very special night here on Earth.”

“I promise not to say a word to anyone, human or otherwise,” Will assured them.

It was hard to refuse him when Mercy was itching to mingle herself. It’d been quite awhile since she’d visited Earth, and humans had long fascinated her.

“Let’s do it.” Goodness rubbed her palms together, as eager as Mercy.

“I … don’t know.”

Mercy ignored the former Guardian Angel. “I’m off. Will,” she shouted, “follow me and stay close. Do what I do.” She zoomed down toward Times Square with Will on one side and Goodness on the other.

“No, no … this could be a mistake,” Shirley shouted before speeding off to catch up with them. “Do as I do,” she added.

The four landed behind a concrete barrier with several people pressed up against it. Policemen stood on the opposite side, patrolling the crowd, looking for any signs of a disruption.

“Can they hear us?” Will whispered.

“Only those with spiritual ears who are attuned to God,” Shirley answered. “And even then they will doubt themselves.”

“No one is listening now.” Mercy was fairly confident the crowd was too caught up in the excitement of the moment to notice their presence, which was for the best all around.

“How come they’re bundled up with coats and scarves and gloves?” Will asked, looking around.

“It’s winter.”

“Oh.”

“Everyone is staring up at the giant clock,” Will observed.

“Yes, it’s only a couple of minutes until the new year arrives.”

“And that’s important?”

“Oh, yes. In two minutes this year will be over and a new one will begin.” This would be a hard concept for Will to understand. All their young charge knew came from heaven, where there were no clocks or calendars. In heaven, time had no meaning; the past, the present, and the future were all one and the same.

The restrictions of time had always been problematic to Mercy. Gabriel generally gave them a limited amount of time to help humans with their prayer requests, and staying within such a condensed time period often seemed impossible. Although, through their many experiences, Mercy had learned that with God all things were possible. That had been a powerful lesson and one she hoped to pass along to Will when the opportunity arose.

“How come the streets are black?” Will asked, gazing down at his feet. “They aren’t gold here.”

“It’s asphalt. Earth is nothing like heaven,” Mercy explained. If Will stuck around Earth much longer, other differences would soon become apparent.

“Where’s Shirley?” Goodness whirled around so quickly she caused a small whirlwind to form. People grabbed on to their hats. Papers flew in every direction. “We’ve lost Shirley.”

“No, we haven’t.” For Will’s sake Mercy made every attempt to remain calm. “I’m sure she’s close by.”

“She isn’t.”

“Oh dear,” Will cried. “Shirley’s disappeared.”

“She’s got to be right here.” Mercy was beginning to grow frantic herself. This wasn’t good. Shirley was older and tended to be easily sidetracked, but vanishing like this wasn’t the least bit like her. Of the three of them, Shirley was by far the most responsible.

“Look for children,” Mercy instructed Goodness and Will. Shirley was invariably drawn to little ones. It was a result of all the years she’d spent as a Guardian Angel.

Mercy scanned the crowd, then rose above the street and peered down, hoping for a glimpse of her friend.

Goodness joined her. “Do you see her?”

“Do you?”

“No.”

Mercy continued looking and when she turned to connect with Goodness, her friend was gone as well. Panic was
starting to take hold. “Will,” she shouted, fearing she’d lost complete control of the situation.

“I’m here.”

Thank heaven for that. “Do you see Goodness?”

“What about Shirley?”

Shirley wasn’t nearly the worry Goodness was. If her fellow Prayer Ambassador got loose there was no telling the trouble she could get into. And Goodness could do it without even trying.

“Is that Goodness over by those people on the stand?” Will asked.

Stand? What stand? Mercy surveyed the area until she saw the direction Will indicated. This was exactly what she’d feared. Goodness had gotten distracted by the television crew busily working the cameras. It was all those lights. Goodness found lights impossible to resist.

Mercy arrived in the nick of time. Goodness also had a weakness for anything electronic. Everything in heaven was advanced and her fellow angel was fascinated by the primitive forms of communication still commonly used on Earth.

“Goodness,” Mercy screeched. “Don’t do it.”

Startled, Goodness disappeared from the jumbo screen but not before her shadowy image briefly flashed across the surface. A hush fell over the crowd.

“Did you see that?” someone shouted and pointed at the screen.

“It looked like an angel.”

“It’s a sign from God.”

Mercy groaned. This was worse than she’d imagined. If word of this got back to Gabriel they could all be banned from Earth forever.

“I knew something like this was bound to happen.” Shirley appeared out of the blue, hands digging into her hips. Her face was crunched up into a look of righteous indignation.

“We were looking for you,” Mercy admonished before Shirley could complain. “Where did you go?”

“I was around.”

“Goodness.” Shirley grabbed hold of the Prayer Ambassador just before she made a repeat appearance on the big screen.

“She can’t help herself.” Mercy felt obliged to defend her dearest friend.

“Where’s Will?”

Sure enough Will was now nowhere to be seen.

“I’ll find him.” But first Mercy had to take care of Goodness.

“I know, I know,” Shirley said, catching hold of Goodness a second time. “I’ll get her back to heaven. You find Will.”

“Where were you?” Mercy demanded, unwilling to let Shirley off without an explanation.

“Sorry, I saw a cranky toddler. Mom was doing her best to soothe her with little success, so I lent her a hand. The little boy is fast asleep now.”

“Thanks to you.”

“I’ve learned a fair number of lullabies in my time.”

No doubt Shirley had.

“I’ll join you as soon as I can.” Mercy caught a glimpse of Will out of the corner of her eye. As she suspected, he’d returned to the street. The crowd started to chant off the seconds and then a loud, joyous cry arose as the mass of people welcomed in the New Year.

“Happy New Year,” Shirley cried out as she escorted Goodness home.

“Happy New Year,” Mercy echoed. Now all she had to do was collect Will before he got into trouble.

Oh dear … oh dear. It looked like she was too late.

Humans surrounded her, hugging and kissing, and there was Will, standing beside two people all alone with their backs to each other.

Mercy could see what was about to happen and felt powerless to stop it. With a single nudge of his wing, Will caused these two strangers to stumble into each other.