CHAPTER 37

Surprising news

Ella and Monica walked along the city streets facing a scene that seemed to have been taken from a war movie. The pavement was covered with grey ashes and the thick layer of dust still filled their lungs, raising a strong smell of death which was stronger near the tower's remains, almost three days after the tragedy. As the two teachers walked towards Monica's apartment, however, only the constant flashback of the latest events worked as a cruel reminder.

In Monica's neighbourhood things were exactly the same since the last time she had been there, on a September 11 morning, after arguing with Andrew for a silly reason, for which she was now beating herself up with guilt. She and Ella entered the apartment and Ella's heart ached to see how desperately the young teacher looked for any sign of Andrew's presence there after the attack to New York City.

"Andrew used to write a little note and place it against the refrigerator door when our schedules don't go together..." She said, some anguished tears falling from her eyes once again. "There's nothing here, Ella..."

Like a mother who wanted nothing but to comfort her daughter, Ella placed her hands over Monica's shoulder. "It's a sign that he's still outside, working to help all those poor people." She offered. "Now c'mon, baby, you need a good shower and some food."

"I'm not really hungry."

"But you will eat. I'm sure Andrew would be telling you the same thing!"

With a lot of effort, the old teacher managed to convince her selfless friend that despite her being worried about the others during the last couple of days, it was time to start taking care of herself. And truth to be told, the angel in human form did feel better after a warm shower and some of Ella's food. Even in her cooking her friend reminded her of Tess. It was past 8 at night and exhaustion was starting to take control of her human body when there was a slight knock at the door. She and Ella looked at each other and Monica rushed towards the door, her heart pounding loudly in her chest. Andrew could have forgotten his keys; he could have seen the lights on through the window and imagined she was home.

But as she opened up the door, her face fell: it was her next door neighbour, holding Bear by the leash and a small package in her other hand. Her son, Peter, was standing right behind her; his eyes always focused on an invisible point ahead of them.

"Carolyn... Peter..." Monica spoke, sadness covering her face once again.

"Good evening, Monica." The woman greeted, aware of her neighbour's tear-stricken face.

The dog was quick to jump on her legs, wagging his tale and looking up at her with expectation. "Bear... Oh, wee Bear..." she fell on her knees and held the dog close to her, receiving lots of wet kisses in reply. The animal let out a sad whimper, as if he could understand that something very wrong and very serious was happening. As if he could feel that someone was missing.

"I know... I missed you too, sweetheart..." the angel spoke, kissing the top of his head at the same time her hands ruffled through his soft fur.

"I was wondering where you and Andrew were since all this tragedy happened..." Carolyn spoke, glad to see that reunion as the animal was extremely attached to Monica.

"I... I was helping at St. Paul's..." the angel in human form said, and turned to her friend. "This is my friend Ella. She brought me back as I wasn't feeling very well..."

"This young lady here has been working non-stop since it all started," the old teacher explained as Carolyn acknowledged her presence.

"I can imagine... Help is coming from many places and she and Andrew are the kind of people who won't think twice before offering their support."

Not trusting herself to talk about Andrew right now, Monica nodded her head and stood on her feet again; Bear was now resting on her feet. "Thank you for taking care of Bear for us, Carolyn. And I'm sorry we let him stay with you for so long."

"Oh,no! Please don't even apologise, Monica! You know how well Peter responds to Bear's presence. This dog is making so much difference in his treatment."

Monica looked at the eight-year-old and managed a bittersweet smile despite the circumstances. "Bear can be such a wonderful friend, can't he, Peter?"

In an unexpected gesture, the boy gave two steps ahead and reached out to touch Monica's face, wiping a silent tear with a caress of his small hand. "Don't cry."

His mother covered her mouth, trying herself not to cry at that small miracle.

"Oh... I'll try not to, Peter, thank you for your concern." The angel replied, caressing his face and still managing to be happy at his sudden gesture.

"Monica... There... There's something I need to give you... Someone delivered this package today and it was your apartment number written on it."

Monica examined the package and unwrapped the paper around it. Inside, there was Andrew's wallet, a package with dog food and a note from the pet shop owner.

"This gentleman left his wallet and the dog food at our shop on the morning of September 11. We understood he is a firefighter and left in a hurry when he heard the calling for help from his headquarters. We truly hope these can be returned to him in person."

By the time the first airplane hit the tower, Andrew's shift had already finished and he was probably on his way home. He had even mentioned buying food for Bear a couple of days before and now the physical evidence of Andrew's last steps was resting in Monica's hands.

X

Ella hung up the phone after speaking with her husband. She wouldn't be coming home that night as her young friend had felt bad after dinner and she feared leaving her alone. Besides this, it was already late and the streets were more deserted than normal. Monica and Andrew's apartment was a safe place to spend the night and she would take Monica's old bedroom. The old teacher managed to convince her to lie down and rest until the following day and despite the fact that Monica insisted she wouldn't get any sleep, little by little she drifted off to a slight sleep.

Ella was now alone in the living room, as Bear stayed permanently by the bed like a loyal guardian that would protect the beautiful but broken-hearted lady who was there. Quietly, the old teacher offered her prayers for all of those who had died in the tragedy that, now more than ever, the world knew was a terrorist attempt. She also prayed for the volunteers who were helping those who had survived, and for the brave rescuers who were now risking their own lives in order to save others. And she specially lifted a prayer for Andrew. From what she knew about him, he was a good man and a loving human being. The teacher had lived long enough to read one's character in their eyes and she could see nothing but kindness and generosity in his green ones, besides, of course, the immense love he felt for Monica.

They should be together, they had been meant for each other, that was for sure. Watching them apart, watching poor Monica's despair was painful and it made Ella wonder why God would make this young couple meet and live such a beautiful love story and then allow them to go separate ways.

When Monica woke up, early in the morning of the following day, the few sunrays were already entering through the window. It was still early in the morning, though, and she could hear her dear friend was already up. She slowly rose to her feet and approached the window, letting the warm sunrays bathe her skin; accentuating the auburn colour in her hair and making her Gaelic features even more visible. Looking at the sky, the angel in human form conjoined her hands.

"Dear Father, please keep him safe... Watch over Andrew for me, as You know how much I love him... so much I'd give up my own existence to see him well... to see him at all..." She closed her eyes as a few tears rolled down her cheeks. "I know you might probably be listening to the same prayer from hundreds of people who, like me, are missing someone in this tragedy... Please comfort their hearts too, Father, because while I know you are real and that you are love, they can only trust so... And it is in a time like this that they lose their faith..." Monica opened her eyes again and saw the clouds passing by the blue sky. "To me, Andrew is the living proof of your love... of your existence as no soul can be as loving and caring as my dear Andrew..."

When Monica left the room and headed to the kitchen, Ella was relieved to see that at least her appearance was a bit better than the previous night.

"The hours of sleep did you good, baby." She said, preparing breakfast. "You do look better and you needed some rest."

"Good morning, Ella..." Monica nodded slowly, thinking that it was her Andrew who would prepare their first meal every morning.

"Good morning, baby. Please have a seat. I prepared something for us to eat. You need to recover your energy."

She watched as Ella placed the warm milk on the table and took a seat. And when her friend took a seat opposite her, she reached out for her hand. "Thank you for everything, Ella... You've done so much... you've been such a wonderful friend..."

"Oh, Monica you don't need to thank me, baby."

"I do... The Father couldn't have given me a better friend during this journey here on Earth..." she said, that sentence having more meaning to her than to the old teacher.

"I thank God every day for the people he placed in my way, Monica. You and Andrew are two of these people and I trust that in his wisdom, our loving father will place us all together."

A lonely tear fell from her eye as she managed a bittersweet smile. "This is what I believe too. And what I have been praying for..."

X

Despite the pain she carried in her heart for not having any news from Andrew, Monica decided to return to St. Paul's chapel in order to continue to help take care of the victims of the tragedy. Her kind and loving nature was ready to help and support those in need although it wasn't stronger than the anguish that was tearing up her heart.

And her help was very welcome. Volunteers were working in shifts as the number of wounded people taken away from the World Trade Center remains only rose. The ambulances worked in taking the most seriously injured and men and women who left the comfort of their houses to offer some relief to the victims of that tragedy.

Once in a while, a wounded fire-fighter was brought to the chapel and Monica was quick to rush and see if her search for her beloved Andrew had finally come to an end. But deception filled her angelic heart all over again when she found out it wasn't him.

"Thank you, young lady..." An old gentleman, with his suit torn and all covered by debris looked at her with gratitude in his eyes, and being an executive who was in another business meeting at the time of the tragedy, it had been a long time since he had felt grateful for anything.

"You're welcome, sir." She replied, managing a slight smile.

"How long have you been here?"

"Three days... since the planes hit the towers... We were visiting the chapel in an excursion, the children and me."

The man looked around and then back at her. "You were all here when it happened?"

"We were."

"It's a miracle that this small chapel wasn't hit when the towers collapsed." There was amazement in his eyes as he spoke.

"Oh, I'm certain that our loving Father is working here... The sycamore tree outside... it protected the chapel from the impact." She explained to him, once again remembering that the single gesture of planting a tree could have such consequences. And it had been an angel of God who had made this gesture; her beloved Andrew.

A woman's voice called her attention and she watched as an elegant lady approached them with tear filled eyes. "George!"

"Margaret!"

"Oh, dear God, you're alive! Thank God!"

The encounter was moving and Monica bit her lower lip as she watched the couple holding each other and crying with emotion. She was happy for them. And how she wished the same thing for her and Andrew!

"Thank you for taking care of him, miss..." the woman said, a few minutes later.

"Oh, please don't thank me for that, madam... I did very little if compared to the rescuers and the paramedics..."

"All of you are doing an amazing job... I never thought that there could be so many generous people in this town... I never thought that human beings could carry so much love for each other in their hearts..." the man said, still amazed.

As they left, Monica rose to her feet to go and assist other people but a slight dizziness made her sit down on a nearby bank again.

"Monica? Are you alright?" Janet, another volunteer who she became close to during these days, asked.

"Janet... I... I am, thank you..." the angel in human form took in a deep breath, trying to recover.

"You don't look quite well to me, dear... Perhaps you should go home now, you've been here all day long and helped so much already!"

"There's still a lot to be done, Janet. I can't leave now..."

"Yes, you can, baby, because a group of people who are from my church has just arrived and they'll stay here while the volunteers take a break!"

The authoritarian and at the same time caring tone of voice belonged to two people. But by that time, Monica knew that one of them wasn't walking with her any longer.

"Ella..." she said, turning to face her dark-skinned friend.

"Let's go home now, baby. Janet is right, you've done enough and the others are leaving as well."

Due to her insistence and to the fact that she wasn't feeling well again, the angel in human form elected to obey Ella. They left the chapel and were walking along the dirty and dark alleys near the church surroundings when Monica placed a trembling hand over her stomach and looked at the teacher with panic. The next thing she did was to empty her stomach into a little corner.

"I'm so sorry..." She whispered as her friend held her tightly, as her face was so pale that Ella was afraid she would also pass away.

"Sorry? Baby, you're scaring me already! At first I thought it was exhaustion because you had been working non-stop and also worry about Andrew, but now..." she said, making Monica sit down on the steps of a closed jewellery store.

"I think I'm... I'm very nervous with all this, you see..."

The old teacher reached for her friend's hands and looked deep inside her eyes. "Monica... You need medical care or you'll end up ill, and being ill means you won't be able to look for Andrew!"

That argument was enough to make the little angel's heartbeats speed up with fear.

"I need to find him... I know I will."

"The hospital is not far from here. Please, let me take you there, it's an emergency."

Monica nodded slowly. Since she had started living on earth she had never felt so bad, despite the fragility of the human body. So far, Andrew's tender touch and loving caresses made the experience proper of the flesh to be nothing but wonderful but now... But now, the angel was confronted with the bad side of being in human form and her beloved valentine wasn't there to take care of her like he always did.

X

What Monica couldn't imagine was how much she would need her dear valentine. Sitting next to Ella, in Dr Gibson's office later that night, she heard the truth that she and Andrew had never expected to happen; a piece of news that would change their existence for the rest of eternity.

The old gentleman returned to his room after leaving for a while. He went to pick up the exams that Monica had taken early in the ER.

"Well, Monica, I have the results of your blood test and my suspicious proved to be right." He said, with a friendly smile in her direction, despite the fact that he knew what she had been through in the latest days.

"They did?" Monica's eyes were wide open and scared like a child's. She looked at her friend, who was equally worried.

"What is it, doctor?" Ella wanted to know, praying for the young teacher.

"You're pregnant, Monica."

"Pregnant..." she whispered, not believing what she had just heard.

"Yes. The sickness, the dizziness and the exhaustion you've been feeling... they are all part of the process, and will cease in two months." The doctor explained, already prescribing some vitamins.

"Oh, Monica... dear God!" Ella murmured, surprised and both happy and worried about her friend now that the father of the baby had disappeared when the World Trade Center collapsed.

"Pregnant..." Monica repeated, placing her hands over her still flat belly; still in complete shock.