As she hung up, she noticed that Jial still looked thoughtful.
‘Chrissy, I’m just going to have to…to…’ Jial said hesitatingly, ‘to leave you for a little while.’
Chrissy’s mouth fell open in shock. She was distraught, and suddenly weeping once more.
‘What? No no! You just said you’d never leave me! You said angels don’t just vanish!’
‘Not without explaining why they’re leaving. And I’ll be back, as soon as I can!’
Chrissy tightly wrapped her arms around Jial, embracing her like she was never, ever going to let her go.
‘No no no, Jial! I don’t want you to ever–’
She almost fell, her arms abruptly grasping at nothing more than empty air.
Jial had vanished.
*
Chapter 6
As she made her way to Si’s house, Chrissy couldn’t help but nervously glance about her.
The streets she was walking down, streets she had calmly walked down hundreds of times before, suddenly felt unfamiliar, even a little alien and dangerous.
Like she had suddenly been surround by too much space. An uncontrollable, unknowable space.
It felt odd to be on her own. It felt like a very important part of her was missing.
Jial was a very important part of her!
She had always been with her. For as far back as Chrissy could remember.
She was her friend. Her closest friend. Someone who’d listen to her when she was upset; when she had secrets to tell. Someone who – unlike just about everyone else she knew – understood her perfectly.
She was also her conscience, of course. Although, really, not a very strict conscience.
She was like her little sister.
A funny little sister.
A cheeky little sister.
Sometimes, even a little petulant little sister!
And that’s why Chrissy loved Jial.
And why, she was sure, Jial loved her!
*
Like most of the houses in Hermon, Si’s was neat, low built, and set back from the road behind a small, regularly maintained lawn. Si was standing out front with his dad, their truck jacked up to one side of the driveway.
Si hadn’t noticed Chrissy urgently heading his way. As his dad dropped down to the floor and pulled himself under the truck, Si followed him, slipping into place alongside him.
Now that was odd.
Chrissy had never, ever seen someone’s father invite his son to help him repair or maintain a vehicle. It was one of those things you were only supposed to learn or take an interest in once you were declared an adult.
Was that it?
Was Si now regarded as an adult because Zorbielle was no longer around to advise him?
After all, if Zorbielle had still been around, he would have insisted that Si didn’t take part in anything that counted as extra and unnecessary – in some cases even dangerous – education.
If Zorbielle was still there, and he had allowed it, where would he be now? Sitting casually by the side? Or keeping as close to his charge as he could, lying partly merged with Si in a more angelically insubstantial state?
When Chrissy had been younger and frequently played games such as hide-and-seek with her friends, she’d often chosen a tightly confined space like a cupboard to hide away in. Jial could have opted to stay outside, as many angels did, or take on an insubstantial state and sit half in, half out. Instead, however, a giggling Jial had also crammed herself into the space, as if she too were hiding, using her insubstantiality to blend and become almost as one with Chrissy.
Then of course, Jial had been similar in size to Chrissy, if anything more like an older rather than a younger sister. It had been a strangely thrilling, electrifying experience for Chrissy, creating a sense that she too was now an angel. The gloriously white wings seemed to sprout from her own back, reassuringly curling around them both as they quietly chuckled and whispered to each other.
Oh how she had enjoyed those moments of an unimaginably wonderful closeness.
And now Jial wasn’t even with her!
When was she coming back?
Where was she?
What had happened to her?
Had she too, like Zorbielle, vanished forever?
Just ahead of her now, she could hear angry shouting. It was Si and his dad, slipping out from under their truck and arguing ferociously.
Chrissy had never seen anything like it. You just didn’t argue with your parents! As soon as it seemed you were about to start an argument with either one of them, your angel would somehow calm you down, making you count to ten until you looked at everything from a more reasonable perspective.
Suddenly, even worse, something Si said made his dad just about freeze in shock.
‘Wait here!’ his dad snapped furiously, irately pointing at Si with a sternly rigid finger. ‘You wait here, got that young man?’
Throwing his wrench down onto the lawn, Si’s dad strode off back towards the house’s front door. Hearing Si greet Chrissy, he glanced back over his shoulder. Chrissy immediately felt the heat of his accusatory glare. Was he blaming her for what had happened between him and his son?
As his dad slammed the door behind him, Si confidently ambled over towards Chrissy. He was wiping his hands on an oily rag as if he’d actually been fixing the truck.
Some hope, Chrissy thought, hiding her smile. The closest a boy would get to fixing a car would be looking up advice on the web. It would end a tour of a vehicle’s more basic features with a terse, ‘Now ask an expert to repair the fault you think you may have discovered.’
As Si drew closer, he moved a little jerkily, a little uncertainly, as if he’d planned on kissing Chrissy but suddenly realised he was splattered with oil.
‘Si,’ Chrissy said urgently, abruptly remembering why they’d agreed to meet, ‘Jial’s vanished too. She says it’s only for a while, though. So I think she’ll find out what’s happened to Zorbielle!’
Si grinned.
‘Well, I think I already know. As I said, the angels must think I’m ready to be left on my own – to be an adult!’
‘Si, you’re not an adult!’
Was that a wise thing to say? Chrissy wished she had Jial here to advise her.
Then again, as angels went, even Chrissy wasn’t too sure that she got the best advice from Jial.
Si chuckled good-naturedly at what he could have taken as an insult.
‘Hah, that’s exactly what dad just said!’
‘You’ve told him? Told him Zorbielle’s gone?’
‘Sure, just now. Didn’t you see how his head just about exploded? I’d said now the angels reckoned I was an adult, he could start showing me how to fix the truck properly rather than just pointing out it had a wheel on each corner!’
‘Did he know why Zorbielle might have gone?’
Si shook his head dismissively.
‘Ah ah; he said he’d never heard anything like it – that it sounded dangerous to him!’
‘That…that’s what Jial thinks – I think, going by the way she seemed to react.’
‘Let’s face it, Chrissy; I was going to have to tell Mom and Dad at some point. Seeing as how they’d soon pick up that I’d stopped speaking to what seemed to be empty space to them.’
‘Simon!’
His mom was standing at the front door, frowning worriedly. Once again, like his father, she fleetingly glared at Chrissy as if holding her responsible for Zorbielle’s disappearance.
‘Simon, please come in for a moment! I think we need to talk, don’t you?’
‘Okay Mom.’
He said it with that confident, carefree grin Chrissy loved so much. He turned to face Chrissy once more, opened his mouth to say something – but his mother yelled out to him once more.
‘Simon! I meant now! This instant!’
‘Shheeessssh,’ Si sighed, grinning in a half laugh once more as he added light-heartedly, ‘I mean, Chrissy, do
you ever get that feeling, you know, that you must’ve been adopted?’
With a final beaming smile for Chrissy, he turned and sprinted back towards his front door.
‘Coming Mom!’
*
Chapter 7
Adopted? Yeah, Chrissy often felt that way too.
Sometimes, when she was in a particularly bad, especially frustrated mood, she even wished she had been adopted.
I mean, why were they so strict?
Such incredible killjoys?
Don’t do this! Don’t do that!
Do this! Do that!
Where had her own more carefree attitude to life come from, when her parents were such complete grinches?
Sure, she loved her mom and dad; but why oh why did they have to be so…so controlling?
The whole town was boring enough without them making it even more boring.
Now if she had been adopted, if she really had come from some more fun loving mom and dad – now that would explain a lot, wouldn’t it?
She must definitely be from a family from a more exciting place than mind-numbingly dull Hermon. If only because anywhere had to be more exciting than this dreary dump!
Nothing ever happened here!
Everything happened elsewhere!
In the movies, in the books, they were always describing these absolutely amazing places, where kids had fun, dated, loved and fell out with each other as often as she had breakfasts. Oh sure, they might all come to a bad end, but it was a simply wonderful life while it existed!
London. New York. Tokyo. Singapore. Even cities in China for heck’s sake!
All these places ablaze with light, with everything you could dream of to do, day or night! Cities that never went to sleep!
And Hermon? The whole place seemed to be asleep by ten!
Only the angels remained awake, guarding their charges.
Ohhhh, she shouldn’t be thinking like this, Chrissy abruptly admonished herself.
It was only getting her down. Making her feel envious. Ungrateful.
If only Jial were here with her, she wouldn’t be wasting her time dwelling on such selfish thoughts!
Jial would be helping her think of the amazing amount of things she should be grateful for! The things she had, not the things she didn’t have!
‘Jial, where are you Jial?’ Chrissy muttered, edgily glancing about herself as she made her way home.
She jumped when her cellphone rang. Taking it from her pocket, quickly fumbling with the buttons, she saw that it was Si who was calling.
‘Si!’ she spoke angrily into the phone. ‘You know you’re not supposed to call me directly!’
‘Mom and Pop said I should,’ he confidently replied. ‘It’s important. Is Jial back?’
‘No, not yet,’ Chrissy said sadly.
‘Good; I mean, good for now. I wouldn’t want her to be around in case she picked up from your replies what I was talking about. See, Chrissy, I need to know; have you told anyone else yet that Zorbielle’s vanished?’
‘Si, of course not!’
‘Good good; see, it’s Mom and Dad who don’t want anyone to know just yet.'
‘So they’re okay about Zorbielle just disappearing like that?’
‘Ah ah.’
Chrissy thought he said it like he was shaking his head. Like he was having to be careful about what he said as his mom and dad were nearby, listening in; perhaps even on the phone’s extension. He’d been a little hesitant, as if he’d been doubtful about how he should answer.
Sure, she was reading a lot into a simple ‘Ah ah,’ but then again she’d got to know Si’s way of speaking quite well by now. Besides, that ‘Ah ah’ was all he’d said for the moment; he’d gone quiet, without any further explanation.
‘Sooo…’ Chrissy said, trying to swiftly work out what she should say, ‘should I come by tomorrow…?’
There was a slight pause.
‘Yes, yes; I’ll explain tomorrow.’
‘Shouldn’t you, you know, let the council know? About Zorbielle just vanishing like that, I mean?’
Again, there was a slight hesitation before Si answered.
‘No, no, Chrissy; they were planning on phoning, Mom even picking up the phone at one point: but Dad stopped her. They had a quick chat – what they were saying, I’m not sure – then came back to me saying they needed a little more time to work out what to do. No one has to know just yet, okay?’
‘Okay, got that; no one has to know just yet.’
‘Look, I’ll see you early tomorrow, honest. Okay?’
‘Okay, right, yeah.’
As Chrissy slipped her phone back into her pocket, she wished more than ever that Jial was with her to talk this over. It’s the sort of strange problem you saw girls in movies wrestling with by writing it down in their diaries, which Chrissy had never really understood. Wouldn’t it be better to confide your worries to your angel, as she did with Jial?
But hadn’t Si just said that he didn’t want Jial to know about this? Well, that’s more or less what he’d implied, wasn’t it?
Yet it sounded like his parents were troubled by Zorbielle’s disappearance, and unsure what to do next. Surely this was the very thing you should be talking to your angel about?
It was all so confusing, so unusual.
Her cellphone urgently rang once more.
Chrissy deftly slid it out of her pocket, expecting it to be Si calling back.
It wasn’t – it was her friend Emma.
‘Hi Emma, how–’
‘Chrissy, Chrissy!’ Emma wailed tearfully. ‘Petrial’s gone! My angel’s just vanished!’
*
Chapter 8
Hearing Emma weeping down the phone, the first thing that flashed through Chrissy’s mind was concern for Jial: she still wasn’t here. Had she vanished for ever too?
Immediately realising she was being selfish to think in this way, Chrissy tried to sound as calm as she could when replying to Emma.
‘Emma, it’s probably only for a while; Jial’s gone for a while too, but she said she’d be back.’
‘She did?’ Emma sounded hopeful, even managing to stem her tears a little. But her nervousness instantly returned. ‘But…but Petrial didn’t say anything like that. She…she sounded really worried just before she disappeared, Chrissy! I think something awful’s happened to her!’
‘Emma, look, look…’
Chrissy was struggling to know what to say. How could she reassure her friend when she herself was worried about everything that was happening to her at the moment?
‘Emma, have you told anyone else about this yet?’
Even as she said it, Chrissy wasn’t quite sure why she’d asked this question.
‘No, no; I…I was hoping that Petrial would be back soon, at first, when she first vanished a few hours ago. But the longer she’s been gone, the more worried I’ve got. I thought about mentioning it to Dad, or Mom; but Dad’s really edgy, like he’s got lots of worries all hitting him at once. Mom’s all frantic, and worrying along with him too. Like she reckons that’s what the mayor’s wife’s supposed to do. Besides, they give me weird looks like they know something’s wrong. But I don’t know how, cos I’m making sure I’m acting all right whenever they’re around.’
‘Well, Jial…Jial…’
Chrissy bit her lip. She’d almost blurted out to Emma that Jial was trying to find out what had happened to Zorbielle. But, of course, Si had told her she mustn’t let anyone know that he’d also vanished.
‘Jial will be able to tell me what’s happening when she’s back, right?’
‘Okay, okay; I know it’s late, Chrissy, but could you come over my place? I’m worried, I mean really worried! Please?’
Chrissy glanced about her, noticing that the evening sky was now rapidly getting darker. Yes, it was still so light that you didn’t really need the street lighting that had come on a few moments ago, but there were few people around now. Most families had alre
ady settled down for the night, either in front of the TV or around the table for dinner. Soon the only ones out on the street would be the police in their patrol cars, relaxing and winding down as they looked forward to heading on home themselves, probably long before it hit ten.
‘Jial’s not with me yet, Emma. And I’m not sure when she’ll be back. I really do think we should wait until she’s with me; otherwise we’re never going to be able to figure out where Petrial’s gone.’
On the other end of the phone, Emma hummed and hawed doubtfully.
‘I’ll come straight over tomorrow morning,’ Chrissy said quickly. ‘Then we can have a proper talk about this, Emma. But…but don’t tell anyone else that Petrial’s gone, okay?’
‘But why not, Chrissy? I need to find out what’s going on! I’m worried, I–’
‘Please Emma! I can’t explain just yet, but I think it’s best you don’t tell anyone, right? Please trust me on this one.’
Chrissy wasn’t really sure why she was telling Emma to keep the disappearance of Petrial a secret. She was using the reaction of Si’s parents’ to Zorbielle’s disappearance as a guide, as that was all she had to go on at present.
‘Okay, okay, Chrissy. But promise me you’ll come by tomorrow! I…I don’t think I can live without Petrial.’
*
Chrissy didn’t really know what Petrial was like – what Petrial had been like. Although Emma was one of her closest friends, she had revealed few details about Petrial to Chrissy. Then again, Chrissy hadn’t told Emma much about Jial either.
To do so would be like revealing you innermost secrets. And you only revealed those to your angel.
With a promise that she would definitely call round early tomorrow morning, Chrissy finally hung up on a still distraughtly weeping Emma.
Chrissy felt awful cutting her friend off like that without being able to offer her any help or even consoling words.
But what could she do? What could she say?
If she’d stayed on the phone any longer, she would probably have joined in with Emma’s anxious wailing.
What must it be like to lose your angel? How terrible must it be?
Sure, Si seemed to have coped well with Zorbielle’s disappearance. Even relished the freedom it gave him.
But Emma, like Chrissy, was much closer to her angel than Si had ever been to Zorbielle. Perhaps it was a girl thing, this close relationship you built with your angel.