With a quick bending of her knees and a slight shake of her head, Chrissy deftly shrugged off Jial’s hands before they tightly clamped around her ears. Sure, she shouldn’t be listening in, but this involved her. Besides, it was way too interesting, as she just had to hear Si’s reply.
‘Er, yes, yes.’ Si nervously glanced Chrissy’s way with an uncharacteristic flush of embarrassment. ‘Zorbielle, er, said it was fine to remain, er, friends, but anything else…well, er…’
‘You should wait, yes?’ Ben finished for him.
‘Aarrggghhh!’ Jial wailed, theatrically grabbing her long auburn locks as if about to start tearing them out. ‘Who was it who figured adults can get by without a guardian’s advice?’
Si cringed in humiliation as he nodded in agreement to Ben’s query. Seemingly unaware that he’d made Si reveal his attraction to Chrissy, Ben beamed with satisfaction.
‘If I were allowed to,’ Jial fumed, her wings flaring in the same way someone would throw their arms up in exasperation, ‘I’d throw every book here at him!’
Chrissy grinned happily. And no, not because she’d like to see Ben’s reaction to a mass of books flying towards him from out of empty space. She was happy because, at last, she knew Si cared for her as much as she cared for him.
When Si looked her way again, she smiled dreamily, joyously. She hoped it was a smile saying she felt the same way about him.
He grinned back, a little stupidly, a little with relief.
‘Now, what have I just told you guys?’ Recognising the meaning behind the looks passing between Si and Chrissy, Ben shook his head in bewilderment.
‘Yeah, yeah, well played Ben!’ Jial declared, giving him a mocking, slow handclap.
Chrissy almost laughed, something you should always try to avoid if you’re amused by whatever your angel’s said. Anyone nearby might think you’re laughing at them. Fortunately, she was distracted by an urgent, live news item coming up on the large TV bracketed to the wall just above and beyond Ben’s head.
‘Sorry, sorry,’ Chrissy said with a puzzled frown to both Ben and Si, ‘sorry to interrupt; but could you just turn up the TV please?’
With an equally puzzled frown, Si leaned back to pick up the TV’s remote from the counter, switching it from mute to sound. The President was holding a live press conference, speaking into a number of mikes in a subdued, serious tone. A large American task force based in the Mediterranean had been redirected to sail for the Egyptian coast, in preparation for airborne attacks on a new regime that had recently overthrown the elected government.
‘So?’ said Si, wondering why Chrissy had wanted the TV turning up. ‘It’s old news; I saw this a couple of weeks back. The attack never happened – they were stood down at the last minute.’
‘Yeah, yeah; that’s what I thought too,’ Chrissy agreed, but drawing his attention back to the images of planes taking off from an aircraft carrier. ‘But they’re saying it’s live. Yet it all looks exactly like I remember it looking the last time.’
‘Yeah, I see what you’re saying.’ Si stared up at the TV once more. ‘I remember it because, just after it, there was that crazy run of Josh Taylor’s that you’d’ve said was impossible if you…hadn’t…’
He trailed off in amazement as the President’s press conference was immediately followed by the breathless yells of an ecstatic sports commentator urging on a footballer’s mad, wildly swerving dash across a pitch full of floundering rival players.
‘It could be a tape mix-up.’ Jial said it nonchalantly enough, but Chrissy noticed that she seemed strangely anxious. ‘It happens,’ Jial added, regaining a sense of calmness.
Ben didn’t just look anxious: he seemed to be sweating with fear.
‘What…what do your angels say?’ he asked nervously, his eyes still locked on the TV.
‘It could be a tape mix-up, it happens,’ Chrissy and Si both answered at once.
*
How had both angels arrived at exactly the same answer?
Jial shrugged off Chrissy’s questioning glare with a nonchalant, ‘Hey, haven’t you heard that saying? – Great minds think alike! Besides, it’s pretty obvious that’s what happened, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah, course; should have thought of that myself!’ Ben breathed with relief. ‘Just mixed up tapes!’
Chrissy thought he still looked a little flustered, however. He was edgily looking her and Si’s way, attempting to gauge where the angels might be. He grimaced fretfully, his almost bulbously fear-filled eyes giving her the impression that he’d been hoping for more information.
Why Ben seemed so panicked over a simple newsroom tape mix-up, she wasn’t sure. Everything was back to normal on the TV. The news reports coming up now were all about today as, of course, they should be. There hadn’t been any apology or explanation for the tape mix-up, probably because the person responsible was keeping his fingers crossed that no one had noticed his mistake.
‘It’s a shame what’s going on out there,’ Si said innocently, obviously unaware of his employer’s unease.
‘Out there?’ Ben snapped. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean in Egypt; I told you, that’s where I went on holiday. Just a few months back.’
‘Oh yeah, yeah, you did,’ Ben chuckled, rapidly stroking his thick, ginger-tinted moustache. ‘The pyramids; you said the pyramids were amazing, right?’
‘That’s right; but really odd, you know, the way they’re right on the edge of the city like that. When you see pictures of them, they always look like they’re out in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Hardly do their tourist trade much good, would it, if they showed them like they were just a bit of urban sprawl?’ Jial had gone back to looking over the books, running a finger over the titles on their spines. ‘Most of these – the sort we like, anyway – we’ve read, Chrissy. We’re just gonna have to widen our horizons I’m afraid.’
‘When will you be getting some new stock in, Mr Goodstone?’
Chrissy had hoped her simple question would be a good way of helping Ben concentrate on his business once more, calming him down a little. Instead, it seemed to increase his nervousness, even though he tried to hide it.
‘Oh, er, there’s a, er, warehouse problem, apparently. I’ll, er, let you know when we get the new books in, obviously Chrissy.’
Chrissy caught Jial sharply turning her head, fleetingly frowning at the news – then acting as she hadn’t heard and immediately returning to browsing through the books.
‘Here’s one; how about this?’ Jial said, her fingers hesitating over the edge of the book as if she’d almost been tempted to pull it free.
Chrissy moved alongside her, taking the book out herself. It wasn’t that Jial wasn’t capable of removing the book; she could, if only with a great deal of concentration, as it was a much more involving and delicate task than simply flinging something across a room. But at all times, guardians had to ensure they weren’t performing actions that either gave their charges too much physical help or would appear annoyingly unnatural to anyone nearby.
‘Sure, sure,’ Chrissy said, quickly taking in the cover picture and the teasing plot summary on the back. ‘Yeah, we’ll take this one.’
She wasn’t really so sure that it was a book they’d like. But although asking Ben about new stock hadn’t seemed to take the edge off his unease as she’d intended, she hoped buying a book might do the trick.
‘I’ll have this please, Mr Goodstone,’ she called out brightly, holding up the book.
At last, Ben’s ruddy face broke into his familiar crooked smile.
‘Good choice Chrissy,’ he called back cheerfully. ‘I’ve had a lot of good reports back about that book from everyone who’s purchased it!’
He moved back behind the counter, preparing to ring up the sale on the till.
Chrissy and Si swapped sly, secret grins. Had Ben just forgotten that he was on his way out? Or had he decided to hang on a little longer, just to make s
ure they weren’t left alone together?
*
Chapter 4
Ben hadn’t just hung on a little longer.
He’d hung on and on, furtively looking in turns either Chrissy or Si’s way. He’d obviously appointed himself their chaperon for the day.
Chrissy had also stayed a good while longer than she’d planned, expecting Ben to eventually tire of his self-appointed role and reward himself with the coffee he’d originally promised himself.
‘Bye Mr Goodstone, bye Si,’ Chrissy finally resignedly called out, making her way towards the door with a sad, disappointed smile.
‘Bye Chrissy, thanks for your custom!’ Ben yelled back, grinning with what looked like relief to Chrissy.
‘Bye Chrissy, I’ll give yo–’ Si was about to give her a cheerful wave, but lowered his hand the instant he noticed Ben’s disapproving frown.
Even as she and Jial headed up the street together, Chrissy looked back towards the store a number of times.
‘Don’t you dare think of going back there!’ Jial warned with a giggle. ‘There’s only so long I can pretend I’m simply ecstatic looking at book spines! Even if it looks like he’s leaving, I’ll bet you he’s hiding around the corner, just to catch you sneaking back! The poor man was having kittens. He was so worried he’d led you guys into a relationship you weren’t ready for!’
With the odd, slight fluttering of her wings, Jial glided along just a few inches above the floor. As usual, she was shoeless, wearing only her intensely white bobby socks. Now and again, as other people walked by, she passed through them as if she were as insubstantial as a mirage.
Chrissy was half walking, half skipping, she was so happy. Even though Ben had been keeping a beady eye on them both back in the store, they’d managed to swap thrilled grins, even pouted kisses, followed by barely suppressed chuckles. Jial, of course, had spotted all of this even if Ben hadn’t. She’d sternly rebuked Chrissy for being ‘just a little childish today’.
‘Says the girl I think of as my little sister?’ Chrissy had whispered back with triumphant glee.
‘Isn’t this book the film we saw? Only with a different title?’ Chrissy now asked Jial, reading more of the book’s description as they made their way home. ‘The one with Zaaaccc?’
She pronounced ‘Zac’ as a long, dreamy sigh. Jial bristled, preparing herself for what she knew would be coming next.
‘That’s right,’ she snapped bluntly.
‘Hah, so that’s why you wanted this book, is it?’ Chrissy changed her voice back into a dreamy sigh. ‘Ohh, he’s so dishy!’
‘I did so not say he was dishy!’
Chrissy gave her a light nudge with her elbow.
‘Oh come on, Jial! Every film he’s in, you sit there drooling!’
She opened her mouth wide in an exaggerated imitation of someone in a love-struck daze.
Jial nudged Chrissy back a little harder.
‘I do so not drool! Angels don’t drool!’
‘Well, obviously some angels do drool!’
‘It wasn’t drooling!’ Jial insisted, laughing now. ‘It was the story! It was so so sad!’
She came to an abrupt halt, turned to Chrissy and, lightly grabbing her by her arms, stopped her going any farther.
‘Tissues!’ She said urgently. ‘If we’re going to read the book, we’re going to need to buy a whole box of tissues!’
*
‘Perhaps we should…should have got another box,’ Chrissy sniffed sadly, reaching for another tissue from the box they’d placed beside them on the bed.
‘It’s okay…okay,’ Jial sobbed, dabbing her eyes, wiping her cheeks. ‘We can always start using your spare bed sheets!’
Chrissy was holding the book up between them, but they were taking it in turns to flick the pages.
‘Finished?’ one would say.
‘Ready,’ the other would reply, their reading pace hardly differing.
Jial had wrapped a soft, comforting wing around Chrissy’s back, its feathers warm and luxurious. They both had their legs stretched out before them, crossed at the ankles. They touched and wriggled their toes together whenever they came to an especially emotional part of the story.
‘Ohhhh, it’s so sad…so sad…’ Jial wailed miserably, while somehow also grinning happily between her tears.
Chrissy leant across to dab Jial’s tears.
‘You know, sometimes I wonder just who’s looking after who here,’ she said with a weepy laugh.
‘You’re the one who choose the movie we watched!’ Jial said, both sobbing and giggling.
‘But, what I don’t understand is…’
‘Oh oh, I think I know where this is going again!’ Jial chuckled, now dabbing her own tissue at Chrissy’s tears.
‘Well, but I don’t understand! Why don’t we hear what her angel’s advising her to do? We hardly ever see it in books, movies – even when it’s about teens, not adults!’
Seeing that Jial was halfway through opening her mouth to speak, Chrissy had assumed she was going to offer her usual answer – that most books and movies were about people who had reached an age where they no longer required an angel’s help.
‘Chrissy, just look at us!’ Jial said instead, tearfully laughing as they both continued to wipe away each other’s tears. ‘Your choice of angel is really really personal! Believe me, if you wrote a book, you’d be giving away way too much about yourself if you thought all angels are like me! It works differently for everyone. So writers avoid revealing too much about themselves by just assuming you know the character’s actions are based on–’
Jial was interrupted by the shrill ringing of the hallway phone standing at the bottom of the stairs.
Chrissy and Jial looked at each other.
‘Si?’ Chrissy whispered hopefully.
‘Si,’ Jial nodded, quietly giggling as she added, ‘Bet you!’
*
Downstairs, Chrissy’s mom stepped into the hallway from the kitchen and picked up the phone.
Both Chrissy and Jial cocked their ears, giggling quietly together when they noticed how conspiratorial and silly they looked. They heard Chrissy’s mom give her usual, cheerful phone greeting, but of course they couldn’t hear who was on the other end of the phone.
Chrissy glanced towards her cellphone lying on the bedside cupboard. Life would be so much easier if boys were allowed to call you on it directly, rather than contacting you first via the household’s landline.
Not, of course, that it definitely was Si…
‘Chrissy?’ her mom suddenly shouted up the stairs. ‘It’s Simon for you!’
Chrissy jumped off the bed and rushed down the stairs, Jial following just behind.
‘Now, don’t be long on there,’ Chrissy’s mom warned her, handing her the phone with a wary smile. ‘Jial, I shouldn’t have to tell you this; but make sure she has no more than a minute, all right?’
She spoke to empty air, mistakenly presuming Jial was on Chrissy’s right-hand side. Jial gave Chrissy an irate pout, one Chrissy recognised as saying, ‘See the trouble you get me into?’
As her mom returned to the kitchen, Chrissy put the phone to her ear.
‘Hi!’ she said excitedly, then, after the briefest pause, ‘Hi me!’
Jial raised her eyes. Chrissy always said that in reply to Si’s, ‘Hi, it’s me.’
Chrissy’s face fell. Her eyes widened in horror.
‘No! No, it’s not possible!’
‘Chrissy?’ Jial asked, concerned.
Chrissy lowered the phone.
‘It’s Zorbielle! He…he’s just vanished!’
*
Chapter 5
‘Vanished?’
Jial turned pale. She clutched at her throat.
‘How? He…he can’t just vanish! Didn’t he say anything first?’
Chrissy returned to speaking on the phone, urgently asking similar questions; How? When? What did he say?
Jial nervously
wound a lock of hair around a finger as she waited for the replies.
‘No, he didn’t say anything; he did just vanish!’ Chrissy said, briefly lowering the phone once more. ‘Just a few minutes ago. Si called here straight away.’
Jial grimaced worriedly as Chrissy asked Si for more details.
‘But wouldn’t he have said that?’ Chrissy asked in reply to something Si had said. ‘I mean, surely Zorbielle would have told you you no longer need him, rather than just vanishing like that?’
Alongside her, Jial shook her head.
‘Si isn’t old enough to manage without an angel. How did Zorbielle vanish? I mean, was he just there one second, then the next, poof, he’d gone? Or was there something else? What was he doing when he vanished?’
Chrissy was unnerved by Jial’s expression of absolute confusion. She’d never seen her look so fretful.
She quickly asked Si what Zorbielle was doing just before he vanished.
She lowered the phone, edgily biting her lip.
‘He says Zorbielle put his arms up in the air, like he was terrified and trying to protect himself from attack. Then he seemed to freeze like that. Then he just disappeared!’
*
Now Jial was the one who looked terrified.
‘What…what’s going on Jial?’ Chrissy asked her anxiously. ‘How can this be happening?’
‘I’m not…not really sure, just yet,’ Jial admitted. ‘Though I’m sure there’s an explanation for it; a perfectly innocent explanation.’
She smiled as she added this last part, yet it seemed to Chrissy that it was a forced smile, like Jial didn’t really believe what she was saying. Chrissy anxiously yet gently grabbed hold of Jial’s arm.
‘Jial; you’re not going to leave me, are you?’
Jial shook her head, grinned dreamily like she was having to think about it.
‘Course not, course not Chrissy!’
She didn’t say it with the conviction Chrissy was hoping for. Remembering that Si was still holding on, Chrissy spoke into the phone once more.
‘Si, Jial can’t explain it either! Look, should we meet up…right, yeah, okay. See you there!’