Each time someone appeared to score by tossing the ball into one of a number of chalked squares, there were so may cheers that it was impossible to tell how the players were divided into teams – if, indeed, there were any teams.
Then something happened that Chrissy had never seen before, except in the movies, or had read about in books.
One of the players, a tall, lithely muscular girl called Mardy, elbowed aside a smaller girl as she made a rush for one of the scoring squares. She swerved and leapt past other players, making a ridiculously determined effort to score. She threw the ball down into the square with a triumphant cry.
As if this wasn’t an amazing, unfamiliar sight in its own right, a handful of other players nearby joined in with the girl’s exultant yells. Others just as loudly jeered, complaining that the point shouldn’t be allowed.
‘Wow, how seriously are they taking that game?’ Si chuckled in bemusement. ‘Detentions all round if they tried that at school!’
Far from being amused, Jial frowned apprehensively.
‘Someone might get injured if they continue playing like that,’ Chrissy said, wondering why scoring a point could be so important to anyone.
‘They’re playing to win; not simply to enjoy themselves,’ Jial pointed out with a disapproving puckering of her lips.
Around the green, smaller groups of people were taking part in other games. Most of these were being played as they should be, with the stronger, more athletic girls and boys helping the weaker players gain the most points. Yet even some of these games had their share of players treating the game as if it were really a contest; a test of prowess that – as was regularly discussed in Philosophy and Morals class – could only lead to discord and bitterness.
Even stranger, however, were the small gatherings taking place beneath the largest of the green’s trees. Rather than using the shade offered by the spreading branches as the ideal place to sit and talk or read, all the girls and boys gathered there were excitedly peering up into the leafy covering, shouting out words of encouragement or warning.
People were climbing in the trees, Chrissy realised with horror.
Why were their angels allowing them to risk–
And then it dawned on her.
Like Si and Emma, they obviously no longer had an angel to advise and guide them.
*
Chapter 11
Around the green, numerous examples of unusual behaviour were taking place.
Boys were attempting back flips in the air. Girls were cartwheeling. Whole groups were taking turns to leap over obstacles, such as old tree stumps or the long, wooden seats set a few yards back from the surrounding pavements.
Slowly, however, more and more of them began to stop whatever they were doing. Some were drawing to a halt in mid-run, others picking themselves up off the ground. Even more were turning around wherever they were standing or sitting to stare with gawping, incredulous eyes in the very same direction – towards Chrissy and Si.
‘Why…why are they all staring at us like that?’ Chrissy hissed nervously at Si.
‘You’re still holding hands, remember?’ Jial answered with a satisfied trill to her voice.
With an embarrassed squirm, Chrissy shrugged her hand free of Si’s. He stared back at her in surprise, then grinned mischievously.
‘Now what’s your little angel telling you to do?’
‘Everyone’s staring at us Si!’
Chrissy blushed. Even though she was no longer holding hands with Si, everyone was continuing to watch them as they approached the green. Most broke into a knowing grin similar to Si’s.
‘How embarrassing!’
Chrissy hung her head in shame.
‘You’re embarrassed?’ Jial said. ‘What do you think it’s like for me? If this were a regular job, I’d be out of work tomorrow!’
‘Chrissy! Chrissy!’
Emma was running across the green towards them, calling out Chrissy's name.
She was still tearful, her face reddened and creased with worry. Chrissy wouldn’t have recognised her if she’d had to pick her out of the crowd.
Normally carefree, her walk almost an exuberant skip, Emma was edgily clutching at a sodden handkerchief she was constantly dabbing her face with. Her long, flowing locks were tied up beneath an unflattering cap, as if – for the first time ever – she no longer wished to draw attention to herself.
‘What’s happening, what’s happening Chrissy?’ Emma demanded, frantically gripping Chrissy’s arm. ‘Can’t you see, can’t you see?’ she wailed, nervously glancing about her at the games being played across the green. ‘Other angels have vanished! They’re leaving us Chrissy, they’re leaving us!’
She glared with angrily bulbous eyes at the empty space next to Chrissy, where she expected Jial to be standing.
‘Why are you leaving us? What have we done to deserve this?’
‘We’re not leaving you; tell her that please Chrissy.’
Jial spoke as calmly and authoritatively as she could. Yet Chrissy was almost sure she could detect a quivering in her voice, a possible hint of uncertainty.
‘They’re not leaving us, Emma!’ Chrissy said, stretching out an arm, curving it around Emma’s back to give her a supportive hug.
Emma gratefully collapsed against Chrissy, her body shaking as she began to sob uncontrollably.
‘I feel…so alone!’
‘I think we’d better cut down on anything said between us for a while, don’t you think Chrissy?’ Jial said, frowning anxiously as she observed Emma’s distress. ‘I don’t think seeing us happily chatting away is going to help her one bit.’
‘She’s not the only one to take it all so badly.’
With a nod of his head, Si drew Chrissy’s attention to girls and boys she hadn’t noticed before. Like Emma, they were withdrawn, hanging back from the other groups as if lost and aimless.
Chrissy was surprised to see that some of these boys and girls were usually the most confident, outgoing people she knew. Now they were fretfully shambling around, their heads hung low. A few were crazily staring at everything going on about them, as if it had all suddenly changed into a frightening, unpredictable world.
Even as she watched them, however, the ones farthest from her began to cock their heads, as if listening to something in the distance. More and more of them began to hear it too, until even Chrissy could detect the faint, tinkling chords of what could have been an approaching ice cream van.
Everyone who had been miserable smiled. They turned excitedly to people whom, only a moment ago, they had ignored and avoided as if they weren’t really there.
Those who had started their games up again after finishing staring at Chrissy and Si halted in mid-stride once more. All those who had been playing to win frowned in disappointment, even angrily slamming any ball they held into the ground.
Emma stopped crying. She grinned ecstatically, excitedly clutching at her sodden handkerchief. Then, as if something had suddenly dawned on her, she began fretfully weeping once more.
Chrissy gave her a consoling squeeze.
Si shrugged.
‘Ah well, it was nice while it lasted.’
Everyone recognised those brightly tinkling tones, a tune happily remembered from their past.
It was the Angel Bus.
*
Chapter 12
Of course, only Chrissy saw Jial’s briefly puzzled expression.
It didn't look as if she'd been expecting the Angel Bus to turn up.
Even if anyone else could have seen Jial, they wouldn't have noticed her bemusement. All of their attention was now focused on the angels appearing one by one around the green. Ablaze with a silvery white glow, smiling serenely, these were fully matured angels. Their massive wings rose up in three pairs across their backs.
Still smiling, still silent, each angel gracefully made his or her way across the green, hovering just slightly above the grass rather than treading on it. Th
ey approached those who, only a moment ago, had been wilfully striving to score the most points, or had been walking around aimlessly, seeming both bewildered and miserable. The angels spoke quietly, amiably, reassuringly, as was their style.
The ringing tones of the Angel Bus grew louder as it turned into the road running around the large green. Almost as perfectly white as the angels, if missing their ethereal glow, the bus sparkled in the sun, especially along its immense, slightly silvered windows. It took up the whole parking bay it smoothly pulled into.
Although she hadn't seen the bus since she was three years old, from what Chrissy could remember of her experience it looked just the same. And she remembered a great deal of that day, for it was when she had first been presented with Jial.
Of course, Jial wasn't really Jial then. Then she had been nothing more than the tiniest baby, as weak, helpless and vulnerable as a kitten. She had been totally dependent upon Chrissy's incredibly naive care. Fortunately, unlike a real baby, the young Jial was indestructible, and didn't require either feeding or toilet training.
After three months of this, when an idea of how the relationship between them would work had finally begun to be realised, Jial had swiftly matured over a matter of days: overtaking Chrissy in age, knowledge and understanding of moral issues. But it had been Chrissy who had determined just what kind of angel Jial would be. Similarly, Si's earlier actions and raising of the infant Zorbielle had resulted in an elder brother figure, while Emma's ultimate wish (not that Chrissy knew this, of course) had been for a twin who was more gossiping friend rather than sister.
With a satisfied hiss, the door towards the front of the bus opened, automatically swinging aside. The angels began directing those they had been talking to into forming a queue running alongside the bus. The queue was soon snaking beyond the bus's end, as others began to join it without any prompting from the angels.
A few of those who had seemed to be enjoying their new found freedom hung back doubtfully. They were obviously in no rush to once again take on the restraints to their behaviour that would come with a new angel. Si, of course, was one of these, hanging back with Chrissy as if hoping he could continue to hide the fact that Zorbielle was one of the angels who had vanished. More surprisingly, Emma was hanging back too.
'It...it won't be Petrial! Not the real Petrial, anyway,' she mumbled miserably.
Even more surprisingly, Chrissy noted, was Jial's reaction to the arrival of the Angel Bus. At first she had seemed astonished then, as she had watched the angels calmly rounding up everyone who had lost an angel, her puzzled frown had changed into a disturbed anxiousness.
One of the angels had noticed that they were hanging back. With an understanding, calming smile, she began to unhurriedly glide across the ground towards them.
‘Come on,’ Si resignedly muttered, taking Chrissy’s hand and beginning to step towards the rear of the queue. ‘We’re going to have to go; and I’d prefer to be the one who decides to do it rather than being lectured to.’
Chrissy took Emma’s hand and, with nothing more than a pleading ‘Emma?’, persuaded her to walk along with them.
Seeing that they intended to join the queue after all, the angel turned off towards a group of boys who were on the point of moving away from the green. Another angel, having already spotted their intention, had already swiftly moved in to block their way.
Chrissy wondered what the angels would do if the boys refused to obey them. She couldn’t see that they would resort to any form of physical persuasion; they all appeared too kind, too spiritually graceful, to give any impression that they would risk harming anyone.
As a police car turned into the road surrounding the green, Chrissy believed she had her answer; if there were any trouble, the police would step in to control things. Not, of course, that the town’s police themselves had ever had to resort to any form of physical restraint – but she had seen police react purposely, robustly and even violently enough in movies.
As she, Si and Emma made their way towards the still growing queue, other patrol cars slowly, almost silently drew into the road, parking along the green’s edges.
Both Si and Jial frowned as they noticed this, as if taking it as a sign that the police might be expecting trouble. Emma hadn’t noticed the arrival of the patrol cars, didn’t notice them even as the police officers in each car stepped out onto the pavement or road. The officers began to warily watch the continuing efforts of the angels to gently persuade the more reticent of the boys and girls to make their way over to the Angel Bus.
Emma was blankly staring at her sodden handkerchief, which she was tensely crunching up in her hands once more.
‘Emma, it will be all right!’ Chrissy said kindly, once again curving a reassuring arm around the nervously weeping girl’s shoulders. ‘In a few days, when she’s grown, it will be just like having Petrial back!’
Even as she said this, Chrissy doubted the truth of her own words.
If she had been placed in the same position as Emma, would she accept that a new angel was Jial, even if she looked and sounded exactly like her? What, she would always wonder, had happened to the original Jial? The real Jial?
A replacement pretending to be Jial would make that loss seem all the greater, all the worse, as if the real Jial had been nothing but some toy or object that could be easily substituted.
‘It won’t be the same,’ Emma said determinedly between a burst of body wracking sobs, putting Chrissy’s own thoughts into words. ‘I grew up with Petrial. We’ve been the same age since we were eight. She was my best friend. I loved her!’
Chrissy hardly knew anything about how Emma’s relationship with Petrial had worked. Obviously, however, Emma had chosen the youngest age for an angel, then also chosen that they would grow up together as soon as Emma had caught Petrial up in age.
Chrissy glanced towards Jial, her eyes begging for help in reassuring Emma.
‘A new Petrial would remember everything they’d done together. In a while, maybe, who knows–’ Jial shrugged as if she weren’t really so sure how things would turn out. ‘Maybe Emma would come to think of her as the real Petrial.’
Chrissy couldn’t see how she could re-interpret Jial’s hesitantly uncertain comment in a way that would comfort Emma.
‘These are angels, remember?’ Chrissy said at last, feeling she would have to say something. ‘You can’t think of them as if, you know, they’re like us, humans, who die and then just vanish from the world!’
Jial grimaced. It could have been an expression of pain, even fear. Suddenly, Chrissy once again doubted the truth of her own words.
‘He looked terrified,’ one of an approaching group of boys and girls blurted out. ‘He put his hands up in front of his face, like he was being attacked or something!’
The boy re-enacted the disappearance of his angel with arms raised up against his face. He half cowered, half stepped back.
Perhaps, under the circumstances, it was perfectly natural that they had been discussing the disappearance of their angels. Perhaps they had overheard Chrissy, and it had set off recollections of their own experiences. Either way, the boy’s description made Emma anxiously cringe.
How had Petrial vanished? Chrissy wondered. Had she also been terrified?
‘Frestrielle just wished me luck. She said she’d enjoyed being my angel, but she had to go now, and wouldn’t be coming back.’
‘Mine too, more or less,’ another girl agreed. ‘But then, like Jake’s, she suddenly looked like she was being attacked. It was like she stood no chance against whatever it was that made her just disappear like that.’
Emma was becoming increasingly distraught. Realising this, Chrissy wanted to pull farther away from the group of boys and girls, but as they were all heading towards the queue it would look odd just moving away from them like that. She looked Jial’s way once more, hoping to see how she was reacting to these stories of how the angels had appeared to be being attacked.
<
br /> Before she could gauge Jial’s response, however, she was interrupted by a police woman who had stridden across the grass towards them.
‘Chrissy?’ the police officer called out. ‘Your angel’s still with you, isn’t she?’
‘That’s right, that’s right officer Veris,’ Chrissy replied quickly. ‘But I just wanted to be with my friends. You know, help them?’
She drew the police officer’s attention to Emma’s distress with a slight nod of her head.
‘Hah, sure, okay Chrissy.’ With a sorrowful, understanding smile, the officer backed away.
As they joined the queue, the conversation around them had fortunately changed, a few people even laughing, giggling with anticipation.
‘You know, now I’m a bit older, well; perhaps I did need a change, know what I’m saying?’
Jial appeared affronted by the flippant way the girl had spoken of replacing her angel. Chrissy, however, could understand what the girl meant. As far as Chrissy was aware, none of her friends had chosen an angel of the maximum age of twenty five, although a handful had allowed them to gradually mature to this age. Now, though, when they themselves were older, more mature – would they see a benefit in taking guidance from a more sophisticated angel?
Jial had hardly spoken since the arrival of the angels. Or was it, in fact, Chrissy wondered, since the arrival of Emma?
Either way, Jial strangely seemed to be every bit as bewildered by events as she was, if not more so. And that really didn’t make sense, did it?
Surely an angel should know everything? Particularly when it involved the angels themselves?
Around her, the laughing had grown louder, more excited. There were also cries of 'Cute!', 'Wow, I'd forgotten how adorable they were!' and 'Let me have a look'. The group standing by them had been joined by a couple of girls who, having been towards the front of the queue, had now circled back to proudly present their new angels to everyone.