Chapter 7.
Noel opened his eyes and gazed directly at Chris, the time had come.
“Christopher Pyke, son of James Herbet Pyke and Catherine Grace Penketh, you need to listen to me.”
Chris frowned at his unexpected words.
“How do you know the name of my mother and father?” Who are you?”
Chris went to stand up, but Noel stood quickly indicating that he should remain seated.
“Chris it’s late” Noel looked at the clock again, it was nearly 3am “I have something to tell you, after which it is up to you what you do with the information I am about to impart to you.”
“What the……..”
“Chris!” Noel bellowed, “ I will tell you who I am, I am Noel but I am not everything you think I am. I am actually and angel; a Christmas angel to be exact and I have been sent here to you Christopher Pyke. Your heart has been hardened for too many years, you see Christmas as an inconvenience at worst and a profit making process at best. But on this Christmas morning your heart has started to feel again.”
“An angel?” Chris’s shocked expression turned to one of sarcastic humour “You, the gangly boy in my kitchen an angel?”
Noel continued, he had to get this done, he could feel his human form fading and he was feeling unwell. He had been warned about this before transcending; his head hurt, but he needed to get on with the task at hand.
“Yes, now shut up and listen. I know everything about you Chris. I know that Annika was the love of your life, I saw you together in Prague all those years ago. You gave Annika a locket that day, a gold locket and told her that you had placed your heart in the locket and was entrusting it to her.”
Chris was now in total shock, there was no way Noel could know this.
“No one on God’s earth knows about that locket” he whispered, eyes wide with confused amazement.
“You are right, Annika did die”
“I just told you that!”
Noel put his hand up to silence Chris, ignoring the blinding pain that was now in his head.
“Yes, I know you did. What you don’t know is that she did not die of an accident in Prague on a cobbled street. Her father sent her to Ireland when he discovered that the two of you were planning to move away.”
“Ireland, as in where the Irish live?”
“Yes, where the Irish live! What other Ireland do you know? Danek Kolar and Annika had argued the night before you were to meet. He had bullied her into the truth about the two of you. He was furious with her, as Danek had promised her hand to a local boy from a wealthy family. He may have been a crook, but Danek had pride and the news of a poor American boy stealing his daughter’s heart was too much for his pride to take. That night he had all her belongings packed up and had called his henchmen in to keep watch on her whilst he made arrangements.”
Chris was now silent, listening to what Noel was saying,
“Danek Kolar contacted his crime lords across Prague and the arrangements were made for her to go to Ireland. It turned out that Danek had a half-sister there whom he had never met, but that didn’t matter, what Danek wanted Danek got!”
Noel began pacing the room slowly as the truth was being spilt out.
“Annika arrived in Ireland the day she was supposed to meet you. She was heart-broken and her new aunt took her in like she was one of her own. She became a recluse and would never leave the house. They had a young daughter at the time and Annika learned to love the little girl; that two year old was the only person she confided in.”
“What do you mean confided in?”
“Annika realised she was pregnant after living with her aunt for a few weeks. The only person she talked to about it was that little girl.”
“Pregnant? You mean….”
“Yes Chris, she was pregnant with your child, but please let me finish, we haven’t much time. Eventually, her aunt Mary realised what was happening and she tried her very best to encourage her to visit the hospital and get the medical attention she needed, but Annika ‘s heart never mended. She was a broken woman.”
“Why didn’t she try to find me?” Chris blurted out “Why didn’t she come to America and find me?”
“Because Danek told her he had you killed. Her father was a very powerful man, and he had every intention of having you shot. For some reason, when that cold man looked at you that day, he knew that you genuinely loved his daughter, and against all his intuitions he let you live, and sent you back here. Annika went to Ireland believing you were killed that night, and she went willingly as she told her father that if he forced her to marry another, she would kill herself.”
“So she thought I was dead?”
“Yes Chris she did. Once Danek Kolar put a hit out on someone, the deed was always carried out! Annika refused to talk to her father ever again. He called every day in the hope that she would eventually forgive him, but she never took the call, she never talked to him. She only ever said to her aunt that if he ever came to her that she would kill herself. Danek would never take that chance, so he never saw his daughter again.”
“So how did Annika die?” Chris asked, the tears now pouring down his face “Oh my poor, poor Annika!”
Noel allowed him a few minutes to mourn his love once again, but he had to continue,
“She died in child birth Chris. She gave birth at home, no doctors involved just her aunt, her uncle and the little girl were there. She held her son for five minutes and loved him so very much.”
Chris was silent, the information piecing through his heart
“Love is a magical thing Chris. When Annika held that tiny boy in her arms and she gazed at him she knew that despite her father’s wicked ways, he had loved her. The love she felt for her son was the same love he held for Annika; he just got lost along the way”
Noel shook his head at the sadness of the events, and continued.
“She called her son Danek, after her father as an act of forgiveness for his transgressions. She was an amazing lady Chris! Sadly, her heart was seriously weak after all the stress and sadness she had felt, and her heart just stopped beating. It is said that humans can die from a broken heart, and it is true.”
Silence fell around the room for a few minutes before Chris got to his feet.
“This means I have a son?”
“Yes!” Noel smiled, this was his gift for Chris, to deliver him his son. Only Chris could accept the truth of this and act as he felt right. As an angel he could not affect free will.
“If you are a Christmas Angel Noel, you will know where about in Ireland he is. God in heaven he must be eighteen years old now!”
“I am a Christmas Angel, but your son is not in Ireland, he moved.”
“Where is he now? I’ll need to make contact with him!”
Chris began to pace around the room now, not knowing what to do next. A feeling of excitement began to fill his heart.
“I have a son! I have a son by my beloved Annika!”
He ran towards Noel and picked him up in his joy, the happiness filling him from his head to his toes. He swung Noel around in his arms as the good news filled every molecule of the surrounding environment. He put Noel down abruptly and grasped his shoulders
“Where is he Noel? I will book a flight today and blow the restaurant!”
Noel began laughing jovially, how fabulous it was to see this transformation, this spirit of hope. He ignored his fading body, he knew he still had time.
“He is here, in San Francisco!”
“What! What! Oh my God, oh my God!” Chris put his hands on top of his head in disbelief. His son was here in San Francisco.
“Where? Where?”
“You told him to leave your kitchen Chris.”
“What? What are you talking about? I have never met my son!”
“Yes you have!”
“When?” Chris demanded, confused annoyed and excited at the same time.
“Today!”
Chris
began to think about the people who had been in and out of the restaurant this day. He could not place anyone as his son
“Noel! Tell me!” he demanded.
“Dan.”
“Dan?” Chris echoed quizzically “Dan who………….NO!”
Noel nodded, “Yes.”
“You mean Dan the boy I fired this morning?”
“That very boy!”
Chris tried to remember what the boy looked like, but could not. He had been so wrapped up in his own misery that he never really noticed anyone
“Do you recall Pierre telling you that his parents had arrived from Ireland? That he lived with his sister here in San Francisco?”
“Not really” Chris said quietly “I rarely listen to anything about anyone.”
“Mary, Dan’s mother is the half- sister of Danek Kolar. She and her husband always wanted a son, but it was never to be, so they took Dan or Danek as is his full name in as their own. They love him very much Chris and he loves them also.”
“Does he know?”
“He knows he is adopted yes, but he has no idea you are his father. That is for you to work out Chris. I will tell you this though; he is a chip off the old block!”
“What do you mean?”
“He is a really good cook. A Chef in the making!”
“Ha!” Chis laughed out loud. His son was a Chef!
“Dan has always admired you Chris. As far as he is concerned, you are his hero, but he has no idea you are his father, none of them do.”
Noel looked at the clock again it was now 5am
“What do you want to do now?” he asked Chris hoping with all his heart he wanted to meet his son.
Chris grabbed his coat and ran towards the door
“Well come on angel boy! Take me to my son!”
****
Dan opened the door at 5.30am, bleary eyed on that Christmas morning, his hair scraggy and his mind still half asleep. He could not believe it when he saw Christopher Pyke standing outside in the cold air.
“Chef?”
Noel nudged Chris to respond to the boy.
“Chris, call me Chris” he responded nervously
“What are you doing here?”
“I made a mistake Dan. I shouldn’t have fired you yesterday. Can we come in?”
“Erm, yeah, yeah sure, come in!” Dan said taken aback and confused at what was taking place.
“What is all the noise about?” Mary asked as she walked into the hall. She took one look at Chris and stopped in her tracks.
“What are you doing here?” she whispered
“Do you know my boss Ma?”
“Your boss? Is this the man who fired you Dan?”
“Yeah, but I think he’s about to give me my job back!”
Mary walked up to Chris, her face staring at his
“I don’t believe it! You are Dan’s boss? You are Christpher Pyke?.
“What are you talking about Ma?” Dan said, worry now in his voice.
Mary walked down the hall and into the kitchen, the three men following her. She opened her handbag and pulled out a small gold locket. Her eyes locked with Chris’s gaze as she opened it up and handed it over to him.
“I thought you were dead!” she whispered, her eyes now filling with tears “If I would have known…”
Chris took the locket and looked inside. There within the trinket was two aging pictures, one of Annika and one of him; a younger happier version that he did not recognize.
“Why are you giving Chef my mother’s locket?” Dan asked, confused with the events taking place.
Chris’s eyes welled up, he felt his heart was ready to burst; all these years of sadness, all these years of loneliness.
“Danek must have softened towards me Mary.” Chris said quietly “It’s true he was going to have the hit but changed his mind at the last minute.”
“Poor Annika!” Mary said quietly, “She died of a broken heart you know. She just wanted to be with you.”
Chris turned to Dan, and handed him the locket.
“This is yours Dan. I bought this for your mother before you were born.”
Dan took the locket slowly and turned his gaze back to Mary as his mind began to process what was happening.
“Son.” Mary said, tears falling down her face, “This is your father.”
Dan looked at Mary and back at Chris,
“No!” he screamed “No he isn’t, the man upstairs asleep is my father!”
He marched out of the room, locket clutched in his hand and he ran upstairs.
Chris went to follow but Mary gently grabbed his arm,
“Let me go. When he calms down we can tell him what we both know.”
“She’s right Chris” Noel said as Mary followed Dan upstairs.
“It’s 5.55 Chris, I have to go now.”
Chris looked at Noel, surprised at his words
“What do you mean go? You have to stay and help me with Dan!”
“No I don’t, this is all up to you now. I was sent to offer you an alternative path that is all!”
Noel walked to the front door and opened it; it was time to go home.
“Noel, where are you going?” Chris followed him to the door
“Home!”
“Wait, I don’t understand.”
“Home Chris, Heaven. There is only one way to get to heaven!”
“I don’t understand?” Chris began shaking his head
“I am human Chris. There is only one way a human can get home and that is to die! I have felt my human form fading for the last few hours, and I must say I am not liking the experience. However, it is merely a pathway to my real home”
“Wait! Wait!” Chris pleaded “What about Annika, is she happy?”
“Oh Chris, she is ecstatic! You know, time doesn’t really exist in heaven. As far as she is concerned you and Dan will be with her any moment, and it was her request to the Father that brought me here to you.”
“How am I going to be a dad Noel?”
Noel gave a huge bellowed laugh despite his pain as he walked down the street. He didn’t want Chris to see him die; humans just did not understand the release of it.
“You will be a brilliant father Chris!” he shouted back as he began to walk out of site, “Keep an eye out for me in my angelic form!”
Noel turned a corner out of sight as Mary came back down the stairs and touched Chris on the shoulder.
“He is starting to accept it Chris. I told him that we would answer all his questions, when he was ready to ask.”
Chris nodded and slowly closed the door, saddened at the loss of his angelic friend, happy at the gaining of a son; Noel’s gift to him from his lovely Annika.
****
Noel turned the corner that Christmas morning, the pain in his head increasing. He stopped for a while and steadied himself on the cold stone wall to his right.
“Oh Father,” he whispered, “this doesn’t feel good at all!”
The pain in his head became worse, and his vision was becoming blurred
“No wonder humans are afraid of this time. At least I know it is just an experience I need to go through to go home. At least I know! They don’t!”
He held his head in his hands for a while, willing the end to come.
In the distance Noel could hear a morning choir singing in celebration of Christmas. He raised his head and followed the wonderful music that was filling the air. He came to a small chapel, and opened the door. The music was wonderful, they were singing his favorite song of all time, ‘Silent Night’; his human heart filled with warmth and contentment as his human body slumped in the doorway. The aneurism in his head burst with great force leaving his eighteen year old body a shell, laying in the doorway of an old chapel in Sausalito.
His mission was done, and he went back to the angelic realm where
he could sing out the joy of Christmas for all of mankind to accept into their hearts.
Epilogue:
Dan, Mary Paddy and Chris walked into the restaurant. Pierre was told of his arrival and came out of the kitchen in a state of mild panic.
“Where ‘ave you been Chef?” his French manic accent enquired.
“Pierre, my good friend!” Chris said, hugging his work colleague tightly “Happy Christmas!”
Pierre was speechless and just stood stone still as Chris let him go and slapped him on the shoulder.
“Go and tell all the staff that after service today, I am going to cook everyone a wonderful Christmas dinner to say thank you!”
Pierre was still in shock and made his way back to the kitchen as Dan, Mary and Paddy laughed at his reaction.
Chris put his arm around Dan’s shoulder
“This restaurant, and all my restaurants will be yours one day. Next week we begin your training!”
Dan beamed up at Chris
“Wow!” he turned to Mary and Paddy, “Ma,Da, can you believe it?”
May and Paddy smiled back at their son. They loved him so much and were happy to share their love with Christopher Pyke.
Daisy rushed over
“Dan! What’s going on?”
Dan began laughing
“You are never going to believe it Daisy!” he walked towards the pretty girl and turned to Chris
“Is it ok if I have ten minutes with Daisy dad?”
Both Chris and Paddy answered in unison, creating a nervous laugh between them all.
Dan walked away with Daisy as he started to tell her the story of his mother and father, and the miracles that had taken place this Christmas.
“Chef, Chef!” Suzie called, as she moved towards him with something in her hand, “This was pinned to the restaurant door this morning.”
Chris looked at the envelope in her hands, on it was written;
‘To Chris Pyke – Private and confidential – From the happiest angel in the heavens’
Chris opened the envelope to find a Christmas card inside, on the front of which was the picture of a beautiful male angel, with the brightest wings he had ever seen, the biggest smile he had ever seen and a body of strength that oozed gentleness. He opened the card and read the two words out loud:
“Your Friend.”
End
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