PART 1

"Mary, Maggie! Mark is ready and waiting for you downstairs!"

Monica's soothing voice had an immediate effect on the two little girls who were checking the last details of their Halloween costumes. The six-year-olds sisters emerged from their bedroom and slowly and carefully climbed down the stairs of their house, joining their equally six-year-old little brother some moments later. The Irish angel smiled broadly, enchanted with the image of the triplets dressed up with their Halloween costumes, secretly picturing her little Angela a few years from now.

"Why do you girls take so long to get ready? Now we'll have less candies to get!" Mark complained. He was wearing a lion costume, while his two little sisters were dressed as a ballerina and a princess.

"Because we wanted to see our costumes a bit more! Mom won't let me go to school dressed up as a princess tomorrow!" Mary replied, in a self-assured way.

"I wanted to wear the ballerina clothes the other days too!" Maggie spoke, somewhat regretfully.

But the children were not the only ones who were wearing different clothes that night. Monica was dressed up in a beautiful fairy gown: her lilac dress went up a bit bellow her knees and its long sleeves, which were white and transparent, make it look even more graceful. She was also carrying a magic wand, with a star on its edge, and one could notice the angel was having fun with that situation. Her auburn hair was loosen and cascading over her shoulders, and she really looked like a character taken from a fairy tale. The only thing Monica resented was the fact that her bright white shoes bothered her a little, and she couldn't wait to remove them at the first opportunity she had.

Highly amused, she caressed Margaret's blond hair, "Who knows you will become a ballerina when you grow up, huh, wee Maggie?"

The little girl turned hopeful blue eyes to her baby-sitter. "Do you really think so?"

"Of course, sweetheart! And what a beautiful ballerina you'd become!" she said, smiling at the girl's own pleased smile.

"Oh, look at them! They're absolutely adorable!" The children's mother exclaimed, as she and her husband entered the living room. They were dressed like Gomez and Morticia Adams and it was possible to notice they were as excited as the children.

Smiling, their father took a picture of the trio and once they were all ready to leave the house, the mother looked at Monica with infinite gratitude.

"I don't have words to thank you enough for accepting the job, Monica!"

"Yes, Kathleen is right. We were surprised when the agency phoned this afternoon saying that they had finally found a baby-sitter who accepted to work tonight!" the father added.

"Yeah, all the other baby-sitters had been hired already. We were so lucky!"

Monica smiled, secretly aware that luck didn't have anything to do with her presence there. "I'm glad I can help!"

They left the house some minutes later but parents and children went into two different directions: while Mr and Mrs Harris went to the club, where a Halloween party was going on, their children went trick or treating in the neighbourhood of that pretty little town, a few miles away from Salt Lake. And little did they know that they were in the company of a real angel - who, that night, was disguised in a fairy costume.

X

"You're kidding me, Tess!" Andrew exclaimed, clearly annoyed with his latest orders. The two angels were at a club, where loud music was playing and only adults were dressed for the costume party that was happening at that very moment.

The angel of death was wearing a simple pair of blue jeans, brown shoes and a green shirt, but contrary to him, Tess was dressed up in long purple dress, embroided with hundreds of pumpkins and a matching purple hat, as she too had a Halloween assignment. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" the supervisor replied; both hands on her hips, eyebrows raised and a very serious expression on her face.

For his own sake, Andrew elected not to reply to that question - even though it was possible to read his thoughts just by the expression on his face. Upset, he shook his head and sighed with impatience and frustration. "Tess, you know exactly how I feel about this... Halloween stuff..."

"Well, and what do you expect me to do? Go up and tell God to pick another angel for the job because this one doesn't feel like working tonight?"

"What you're asking me to do simply goes against everything I believe about this date..." he insisted, leaving the older angel more upset than she already was.

"Oh, really? And who is 'asking' you anything, here, mister? I am giving you an order, that came from the Father Himself, and you are to fulfil it without questioning it because you and I know that if He told you to do it, it's because He has a perfect plan, which will not be ruined by an angel of death who refuses to work on the Halloween!"

"Who is going to watch over Angela?" Andrew made one last attempt to convince her he was not the right angel for the mission.

"Well, when I left there were five angels disputing who would rock her to sleep and you know why? Because she is an obedient little angel, who everybody likes to watch over, contrary to her father who is acting like a five-year-old!"

Sighing deeply, the blond angel gave up arguing with her and tucked his hands in his pockets. "Alright."

"Good! Now move on your angelic butt outta here cause I too have an assignment to take care of!" She grumbled, and walked away from him, leaving a not all to pleased angel behind.

X

"Look! We have so many chocolates already we could save some for the next Easter!" Mark exclaimed, counting the contents of his bag after one and a half hour of trick or treating around the city. He, his sisters and Monica were sitting on a bench, resting their feet a little before resuming their search for more candies (and the Irish angel was secretly thankful that they had stopped).

"We don't have to save it all until next Easter, the Easter bunny will bring us some more chocolates!" Mary retorted, really worried about the possibility to wait until April to eat all the candies they had received.

Her sister nodded her head in agreement. "Mary is right. If the Easter bunny sees we have so much chocolate he'll think we don't need some more and will leave us with nothing!"

Giggling at their conversation, Monica looked around and then at the sky: it'd been a rather chilly night, and now the wind was picking up a little more. The angel wondered if soon it would start raining. "Well, since you all have candies that will last for a very long time, what do you say we continue our 'trick or treating' on our way back home?" she suggested.

"Aw, can't we stay for a little bit more?" Mark pleaded.

"Well, we've gone quite far from home already. We will visit some more houses on the way and still get home in time for your favourite cartoons!" The angel offered, and that seemed to work for them.

"Yes, Monica is right. And I'm getting tired already." Little Maggie agreed.

"Good..." The Irish angel looked around her, not really sure of which street to follow. After some moments of indecision, and noticing the trio was gazing at her and waiting for an order, she sighed and pointed. "... let's go this way then..."

Carrying their bags, the children and the angel walked for some more time and it was possible to notice that Monica was constantly checking every street they passed by, hoping they wouldn't pass by the same corner. All of a sudden, however, it was the children's voices that alerted her for something else: a house had called their attention.

"Quick, let's go to the other side of the street!" The little boy spoke, he and his sisters alarmed at the old house's image.

Monica frowned, finding their sudden fear rather strange. "Go to the other side of the street? But why?"

"Because that house is haunted, Monica! The ghosts live in there and kidnap children every Halloween night!" Mary explained, as another gust of wind blew against their faces.

Tilting her head, and eyeing the old house with typical curiosity, the Irish angel bit her lower lip with a pensive expression on her face.

"Please, Monica, it's true! My friends from school even saw the ghost who lives in there!" the little boy insisted. But the angel kept on thinking, trying to understand the silent message her heart was telling her.

"Hum... And how did they see it if they too are afraid to pass by the house?" That question made them reflect a little and Mark nodded his head. "Hum... I dunno..."

"I don't think there are ghosts in there, children... In fact, the lights are on, so there must be somebody home..." she said, holding the triplets' hands.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, wee Mary, I'm quite sure... Besides, who knows the people in there can tells us exactly the way back to your house, huh?" she said, winking at them and finally convincing them there wasn't any danger lurking around.

Hand in hand, they walked up to the house and climbed its steps, and Monica rang the doorbell afterwards.

When the door flung open, the Irish angel finally understood why her heart was telling her to go to that old house. Standing at its door was her beloved Andrew, who was immediately greeted by the children's joined voices. "Trick or treat!"

Slightly surprised, as he too didn't imagine who would knock at his door, the blond angel let out a small laughter at that "coincidence". And on the following second, his mouth dropped open at Monica's appearance. He could never imagine how amazingly beautiful she would look wearing a Halloween costume like the one she was wearing, and the blond angel felt his heart skip a beat at her image.