chapters 9 and epilogue

CHAPTER 9

The church was really crowded on that Sunday morning, as the entire town wanted to give thanks for Mrs Schmidt’s recuperation. But, besides this, it seemed that the woman’s disease had made them recuperate their own souls, which had been so hopeless and lost for so many years.

Monica, Andrew and Tess were there too and, together with the Schmidt’s family, listened attentively to Father Rosenberg’s words, which, more than never, had come from the bottom of his heart:

“We all know that a Mass is not only an opportunity to listen to the Father’s words, but also a celebration of faith. And today we have here a living proof that God listened to our prayers, as everybody, the whole town, is very happy for Mrs Schmidt’s being healed from a terrible disease that threatened her life and made us reflect on how precious our own life is and how much we need to fill it with hope. Hope that we’re not alone in this world, that there’s Someone taking care of us all the time and to whom we turn to ask for help and comfort, and also to give thanks for all the wonderful things He gives us. Of course we can’t forget that doctors did their job, as well; that’s why the Father gives them inspiration!”

“Gee! I’ve never seen Father Rosenberg preaching such a beautiful sermon”, Rose said, in a low voice, to her father and Melissa.

“You’re right, Rose. Talking about inspiration, I’d say he is really inspired today!”, Mr Schmidt agreed. The priest kept on talking:

“But the symptoms that faith was coming back to this town started before Mrs Schmidt went to hospital. When the orphanage was about to close, I saw every single soul in here giving their best to help the children who live there. And I confess that I should’ve been the first one to do this. But I was so locked up in my own sadness and grouchiness that I wasn’t able to!”

Hearing that, Tess slightly nodded, completely agreeing with those words. Monica and Andrew didn’t miss this detail and looked at each other, trying to hide the smile upon their faces.

“Fortunately I had an opportunity to redeem myself and ask for His forgiveness, which I believe He has already conceded me.”, after a brief pause, he continued:

“And we felt this need of helping because of two reasons. The first one is that Mrs Schmidt represents everything the Father taught us: help the ones in need and love them with all your heart, unconditionally. That’s what she’s been doing for so many years: giving home and affection to these children who, for some reason, couldn’t receive these precious blessings from their real parents. It is the most beautiful way to tell God that you love Him, and leads to the second reason: we all form one single and perfect family in God’s eyes. There’s no race, but the human race; who has one common Father. Mrs Schmidt left it all too clear by opening her house and her heart to some of His children. Some of the children she took care of were adopted and nowadays have a new family; others grew up in the orphanage and became decent and loving adults, who managed to build up their own families; and there are the ones who still live in there, and they too have a family, for this lady embraced all of them as a real loving mother. And, like her, whenever we do an act of kindness and generosity towards a human being, we’re honouring our Heavenly Father.”

Those words went deeply into everyone’s hearts, and, surely, they would be remembered by the inhabitants of that little town and their future generations.

Monica, who was sitting between Tess and Andrew, held her two friend’s hands, lacing her fingers with theirs, and looking at them with all the love in the world reflected in her eyes. They returned her look; no words were spoken, but it was clear that the 3 angels shared a common ‘I love you’ with themselves.

*

“I still cannot believe that Father Rosenberg is your uncle! It’s fantastic!”

“Yes, and I’ll have a family now; and even a last name: now you can call me Thomas Rosenberg!”, the boy stated, filled with contentment. He and Rose were inside the barn, playing with Luka’s 6 puppies.

“And, you know, though Father Rosenberg is a bit grouchy sometimes, I really like him. Just like your grandma has been a real mother to me, I guess he’s been kind of a father all this years.”

“Yes, I guess you’re right. And the truth is that Father Rosenberg isn’t that grouchy. I think that if he spends one or two months taking care of the orphanage, he’ll become really cool!”

“Yeah, all the kids liked it a lot when he read for them and even made the voices of the characters!”

They laughed at the scene of the (now) ex-grouchy Father Rosenberg surrounded by children and reading them a bedtime story. It was then that Tom remembered something:

“What about the ranch? You said that your dad would have to sell it...”

“You’ll never guess what happened! Melissa is very rich and she lent dad the money to pay the bills! But I think he’ll pay her back pretty soon, ‘cause she also had a brilliant idea: to open the ranch to the public!”

“How’s that so?”

“People who live in big cities love spending their vacations in places like this, so they can stay here fishing, riding a horse, eating the farm products, everything we do every day, but that, for them, is really different.”

“Hey, I liked that! Melissa is very intelligent!”

“And you know...”, the girl lowered her voice, “... I think she and dad will start dating at any moment; you gotta see the way they look at each other!”, she announced, happier than before.

“Yuck! That’s all you girls think about! You’re always seeing stuff like this in other people’s lives!”, he said, with disgust and some irony. But Rose ignored that comment:

“That’s why we are more intelligent, you silly!”

“Says who?!”, he teased. But she couldn’t reply because, at that moment, Monica, Andrew and Tess showed up:

“Hey, looks like this ranch is getting a little crowded!”, Andrew joked, looking at the 6 puppies that were spread all around, being attentively watched by their mother. But one of them immediately stopped playing with her brothers and sisters and clumsily ran towards Monica:

“Hullo wee Joy! Did you behave yourself, huh?”, she scooped the little dog and placed it close to her chest, receiving lots of kisses: “Oh my Goodness! I love you too, sweetheart! See Tess? Isn’t she the most adorable tiny little creature in this world?!”

“Tiny little creature?...”, the supervisor studied the animal for a few seconds, “I’m under the impression that this dog is overweight...”

“She’s not overweight, Tess. Just a wee bit chubby...”

“She’s roundish, you mean...”

“Well, when she was born, Joy was too weak and needed some extra care. So I gave her some extra vitamins and other supplements to make her stronger...”, she said, trying to justify her protectiveness, because, in fact, Joy’s belly was twice as large as her other siblings’.

Andrew chuckled at her words, never missing all the love and care in his friend’s voice, as he could feel those feelings flowing from her heart, which always made him love her even more, on every second of his own existence.

“Don’t you feel like having such a lovely and adorable little animal always by your side, Tess?”

“Well, if I were a retired angel, with no assignments to take care of and no charges to supervise, I would consider this possibility again...”, she answered, remembering that she herself had already owned a little dog. “...But I don’t think that would be possible under the circumstances. Not mentioning the mess that the animal would certainly make, specially now that it is still a puppy!”, the oldest angel stated, and patted on Joy’s little head: “She’s a pretty dog, though... I understand why you wanted to tell her goodbye, Angel Girl. I’ll be waiting for you outside, ok?”

“I’ll be with you in a minute, Tess.”, the Irish angel replied. As the supervisor left the barn, Tom and Rose exchanged a look and the girl cleared her throat:

“You know, Monica, Tom and I have been thinking... We talked a lot and there’s something we decided...”

“What is it?”

“Well, you took care of Joy all this time and she really loves you. So we decided to give her to you!”

The Irish angel’s mouth dropped open; as she wasn’t expecting to receive such a present like that:

“... you want to give Joy... to me?! You mean... she’s... mine?!”, she stammered, with astonishment.

“Yes, so you’ll have her always on your side to play with you, Monica!”, Tom said. But, suddenly, Monica remembered Tess’ words and the smile on her face disappeared:

“Well... thank you children, I really appreciate that, believe me... But I think Tess is right... Joy needs a lot of attention, you know... and... I think her real  mommy is the best one to watch over her...”

Disappointment was evident not only on her face but on Andrew’s as well, for her knew how much that little dog meant to her.

“I’m really happy that you want wee Joy to be mine, but what Tess said is true, and she has a lot of experience, as she had a dog herself... I have to do what’s best for Joy...”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna stay with her, Monica?”

“I- I can’t Tom. She’ll be much better off here, in the ranch. There’s a lot of space here and she’ll have her brothers and sisters to play with her as well.”

“Then, maybe, you could come here to visit her some day...”, Rose said, both children realising how hard that separation was to the Irish angel.

“Well, yes... I could come and check on her once in a while...”, Monica turned to the little puppy, “And you’ll behave yourself, won’t you, wee one?”

She received lots of kisses in reply, and a bittersweet smile appeared on her face:

“I love you too, sweetie... We’ll have to say goodbye for a while but I promise I’ll visit you, right?...”

With tears forming in the corner of her eyes, she held the puppy closer to her and kissed her little head. And the children were not the only ones whose hearts were broken with that scene. Andrew frowned and felt his own heart ache because of the sadness that irradiated from the Irish angel’s eyes.

Monica placed Joy on the ground and patted her head:

“Be a good girl, ok?...”, she said, and turned to Andrew, taking his proffered hand and squeezing it tightly.

“And you take care of yourselves too, right?!”, the blond angel said, “Be good children and remember to keep God inside your hearts.”

“We will, Andrew!”, they answered, and watched as the two angels left the barn.

*

Tess was not far away form there, and watched as Mr Schmidt and Melissa walked along the green field and talked. Monica and Andrew soon joined the supervisor:

“I guess we’ve managed to put the lost birds back into their nests and also brought some of them closer to each other...”, satisfaction was evident on her face. Monica nodded her head:

“I’m so happy for them...”, she said, trying to chase away the sadness that still remained inside her heart. Tess looked at Andrew:

“Angel Boy, could you do me a favour? Would you bring my baby here? I left it in the entrance of the ranch.

“Sure, Tess. I’ll be right back.”

Mr Schmidt and Melissa stopped near a pond, where some ducks were swimming, and looked at their surroundings:

“This is such a lovely place! I spent my whole life in the city with Michael, and couldn’t even imagine how wonderful the countryside is.”

“I guess that in the countryside everything seems... truer. What I mean is that, here you can really feel the essence of the living creatures, of people...”

He looked at her:

“I have to confess that I forgot this for some years. But recently those feelings came back and I’m really glad about it...”

Melissa smiled, still concentrating on the pond that was in front of her:

“Well, I’m glad I ended up in this town in that morning!”

Mr Schmidt took her hand and squeezed it:

“And I’m glad for that too!... I couldn’t have found a better business associate...”, he had a playful tone in his voice.

“Business associate?!”

“Yes, and... I hope that we can sign a kind of long term agreement. One to last, let’s say... 50 years!...”

Smiling broadly, Robert kissed her hand. She looked back at him and grinned with happiness in her eyes, both holding each other tightly afterwards:

“Ok, I think we can discuss that!... And, in fact, I think we can renew this ‘long term agreement’ for another 50 years if you want!”

“That’s the kind of proposal that I would never turn down!”

Both laughed and shared a small but loving kiss.

“And I guess that that makes our assignment 100% fulfilled!”, Monica stated. Tess nodded:

“You’re right, Angel Girl. They form a beautiful couple and will have the chance to restart their lives together.”

At that moment, they heard a horn behind them: it was Andrew.

“Well, ladies, let’s go! The Father gave us a weekend off and I can’t hardly wait for it!”

He allowed Tess to take the driver’s seat and went to sit in the back of the red Cadillac, and the angels left the Family Schmidt’s Ranch, following the road that lay ahead. 

EPILOGUE

Monica, Andrew and Tess travelled for nearly two hours, crossing a beautiful countryside scenario. In this meantime, Andrew and Tess chatted about the last assignment, the weather, the plantations along the way and the region itself, where there were no other houses. Monica, on the other hand, had spoken only two or three sentences, and although she was a nature lover, the Irish angel didn’t show much enthusiasm about her surroundings.

The truth was that she missed Joy terribly, as the possibility of taking care of a little creature who became totally dependent on her was something extraordinary, and a way to expand her huge love capacity. Not having that possibility anymore was something the angel would take some time to cope with.

“Well, here we are, babies!”, Tess announced, and stopped the red Cadillac in front of a cosy wooden house, hidden nearby some green trees and surrounded by a flowered garden.

“Looks like pretty good to me! Calm, comfortable and relaxing!”, Andrew looked around him, “And it’s beautiful, isn’t it sweetie?”

Monica managed a feeble smile:

“Yes...”, came the laconic answer. The 3 angels got out of the car and the Irish angel whispered under her breath:

“I’ll take my bags...”

She walked towards the back of the vehicle and noticed something:

“I think this trunk door is broken, Tess...”

“What?!”, the angel was already scared with the possibility of her ‘baby’ being damaged.

“Look, it’s already open and...”

When she opened the trunk door, Monica let out a cry of surprise and astonishment. Quickly, Tess ran towards her, thinking that the damage had been even more serious and worried about what would’ve caused that reaction. Andrew walked towards his friend too, but not as worried as the supervisor. Monica covered her mouth when a little black fur ball looked at her from the bottom of the luggage compartment and barked happily:

“Oh my God!... Oh Father!...”, the angel exclaimed, taking Joy in her arms and immediately receiving lots of kisses.

“Oh, I’m happy to see you too, sweetheart!”

“How in the world did this dog manage to enter here?!”, Tess wondered, extremely surprised.

“She might have jumped into the car when we were out watching Mr Schmidt and Melissa talking!...”, Monica answered, as she too was really surprised.

“And what are we going to do about it now?!”, the supervisor asked. Monica looked at her with pleading eyes:

“Oh no Tess... Please, we can’t take her back to the ranch, it’s a long distance and... well, the truth is that I wouldn’t bear saying goodbye to her again...”

“Oh my... I don’t like the course of this conversation!”

“Please, Tess, let me stay with her, please! I’ll take care of this wee one, she won’t be a bother, I promise! You... you won’t even notice that she’s here! Please?...”

Andrew tugged his hands in his pockets and chuckled, as he knew very well that nobody couldn’t deny Monica anything when she made that pleading face. Tess looked at her charge and sighed hopelessly:

“And do I have any other choice with you staring at me like this?!”, she mumbled, with a stern tone in her voice. A broad smile appeared on Monica’s face and she wasted no time in holding the supervisor tightly:

“Oh thank you, Tess! Thank you, thank you very very much!!!”, she kissed the oldest angel’s cheek, with happiness flowing from her heart. But Tess didn’t seem pleased at all:

“Why am I under the impression that I will regret this very soon?...”

“I love you very very much, Tess! And you won’t regret this, I assure you!”

“I hope so, Miss Wings! And how such a small and roundish animal managed to jump that high and straight into the trunk of the car is something really intriguing!...”, she stated, with a suspicious expression on her face and staring at Andrew. The blond angel, who, until then, had limited himself to watch his dearest friend’s happiness, became serious and grabbed some bags:

“I – I think I’d better take this luggage to inside the house...”, he said, in a low voice, quickly disappearing from the supervisor’s sight. Still grinning, Monica looked around her for the first time since their arrival:

“I’ll take Joy to know the house and the garden!, she said, and also disappeared.

Only then, the stern expression on the oldest angel’s face vanished completely, and she shook her head and laughed:

“... as if I didn’t know that this was going to happen in the end! That Angel Boy has a lot to learn before he can deceive this old angel here!...”, she exclaimed, and, gratefully, looked towards the sky, “Oh Father, thank you for these two charges! Existence wouldn’t be so funny without them!”

*

Andrew and Monica were sitting on the couch, in front of the fireplace, with a warm blanket over both of them, their legs stretched out to the coffee table. On it there were also three empty mugs: two of coffee and another one of tea, and an empty pizza box. Snuggling close to her friend’s neck, Monica  wrapped her arms around his waist and sighed:

“Oh Andrew I’ve missed so much being like this with you!”

“Yeah, Angel girl, it’s been a couple of tough weeks for us three, and I was anxious for some days off, especially when it involves you!”

She looked at him affectionately and planted a kiss on his cheek:

“So was I!”.

It was in that moment that Joy walked through the room and looked at them, barking softly as if begging for some attention.

“Oh look who is up!”, Monica grinned at the vision of the small black fur ball that begged for her lap, “Come here, sweetie!”

Immediately applying to that request, Joy put her front feet on the couch wagging her little tail moving from one side to the other, and the Irish angel grabbed her in her hands close to her face.

“Were you missing your mommy, dear? I’m here, mommy is here!”

Listening to those words, Andrew raised his eyebrows:

“Mommy?”, he said, with a mix of an inquisitive and amused look.

“Why not? I take care of her and love her so much, it’s as if she was my precious baby!”, she smiled with enthusiasm, and then turned to the little fur ball: “You’re really my precious baby, aren’t you, sweetie?”.

And the Irish angel received lots of puppy kisses in response. Her dearest friend couldn’t help but laughing. But, with a mischievous smile, Monica went on:

“But although I love her and treat her with all the love in my heart, something is missing, you know...”

“And with all that, what on earth could be missing to ‘wee’ Joy, Angel Girl?!”, he asked, still laughing.

“A father...”, she said, looking straight to his eyes. Andrew’s face now turned into a surprised one:

“A father?!”

“Yes. A mother and a father are very important in every creature’s life, specially now, in her puppyhood! And I’ve been thinking...There’s a certain angel, with blond hair and beautiful and compassionate green eyes, who could pretty well be the perfect father to wee Joy here...”, Monica stated, with a playful tone in her voice. Amused, the older angel decided to play along with her:

“Her ‘puppyhood’?...And who could be this ‘perfect angel’?”

After some suspense, she turned to him, her dark brown eyes sparkling, and finally asked:

“Would you like to be the father of my wee Joy, Andrew?”

Immediately blushing at that proposal, although he more or less waited for it, he smiled and pretended to be considering the matter with mock seriousness:

“Well, let’s see... I don’t know... you two can be a bunch of trouble sometimes... but you don’t seem to be so bad after all. I guess I’ll take your proposal into consideration...”

Monica looked slightly indignant and gave him a nudge on the ribs:

“Hey! What do you mean by Joy and I being ‘a bunch of trouble’?!”, she protested, but couldn’t hold in her smile for long. Grinning at her ‘upset’ physiognomy, Andrew took little Joy in his hands and close to his face:

“Hey little one, it seems that now you have a dad too, what do you think about having someone else to love you and take care of you, huh?”

The little dog barked at those words and started to cover his face with ‘kisses’, as if she was loving the idea of having the two angels spoiling her everyday:

“I think she agrees!...”, Andrew said. Then, he wrapped his left arm around Monica’s shoulder and, looking at her with all the love in his heart, whispered into her ear: “I couldn’t think of a prettier, warmer and more adorable mother than my angel girl!”, he whispered into her ear, kissing her forehead afterwards.

She smiled back at him and, happily, held him tightly:

“Well, I couldn’t choose a better father too, as you’re the greatest responsible for her being here today...”

“Shhhh!”, he checked on their surroundings to see if they were really alone, “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Miss Wings!”

Giggling, she decided to keep quiet and snuggled against his chest, both caressing the little dog.

Instants after, Monica raised her head with a worried expression:

“Andrew, we’re forgetting something! I mean, we’re forgetting someone!”

“Who sweetheart?”

“Tess! We’re forgetting Tess! She’ll be very upset to know that she was completely left out of Joy’s life!”

Amused with the seriousness on his best friend’s face, Andrew rolled his eyes and was going to say something, but, before he tried, Monica kept on talking:

“Wait! I already know what we’re going to do!, she straightened her body on the couch before announcing it: ”We can ask Tess to be the grandmother of our baby!”

Hearing that suggestion, the older angel couldn’t help but giving a loud laugh again, and the Irish angel looked up at him in an inquisitive way:

“What’s so funny, Andrew? What are you laughing at?”

Hardly controlling himself, he managed to answer to her question:

“I’m laughing... At the look on Tess’ face when we ask her... to be the grandmother of our baby!”, he said, and, before anyone could say something else, they heard a strong and unmistakable voice echoing through the living room:

“So you two had better stop laughing and give me a good explanation to this!!!”

Immediately, they looked at the doorway and saw Tess staring at them, with her hands raised to her hips and an inquisitive, puzzled and rather upset expression on her face. Seeing that physiognomy, the two angels looked at each other and burst into laughter until they had tears in their eyes, which only made Tess more furious: 

“I can see no fun ‘round here and you are getting into a big trouble if you don’t start explaining what a weird conversation was that I’ve just overheard!”, she stormed.

Still laughing, Monica patted on the sit beside her on the couch:

“Come here, Tess, please...”

With a suspicious expression, the oldest angel attended to her request:

“C’mon, start talking you two!”

“You know, Tess, Andrew and I wanted to ask you to be the grandmother of our wee baby here”, she said, taking Joy in her hands and showing her to her supervisor, who opened her mouth with surprise. ”As parents, we would be worried about who was going to take care of our wee one when we were out working...”

“And there’s no one we could trust more to watch over our Joy than you!”, completed Andrew, still trying to control his laughter.

“Me? The grandmother of a dog?!”, said Tess, with an expression of somebody who had just heard an absurd thing.

“I’m sure you’ll be the perfect grandmother for wee Joy, won’t she sweetie?!”, the Irish angel said, turning to the little dog, which barked and once more, as if agreeing to have the supervisor taking care of her too:

“See Tess? She said yes!”

Monica put Joy face to face with Tess, and, not being able to resist to such cute small animal, she took her in her hands:

“Let’s see what we have here... yeah... On second thoughts, you’re the heck of a pretty little dog!”, said the oldest angel, smiling as the tiny creature wagged her tail: “Yes, that’s what you really are, baby!... And, all in all, it would be much better if you had someone really serious, firm and responsible to take care of you other than these two, whose main diversion is to make fun of everybody and everything!”, she stared at her two charges, who were still trying to control their laughter, and, giving up on scolding both of them, she stood up holding Joy in her arms: “Now, c’mon baby, let’s go to the kitchen and Tess here will fix something for you to eat!”

“Tess I’ve already gave her food...”

“I’m talking about real food, Miss Wings, not coffee and pizza!”, the older angel snapped, disappearing through the kitchen door. Andrew and Monica looked at each other more amused than ever:

“She’s going to spoil Joy more than we two together!”, the blond angel said. Monica nodded with a smile and sighed:

“Yes that’s true, and now our family is perfect! I have you, Tess and Joy, and we all have one another! Isn’t it wonderful?”

He looked at her, his eyes full of love, and kissed the tip of her nose:

“It couldn’t be better, Angel Girl. It couldn’t be better!”

They wrapped arms around each other and continued watching the fire, overhearing, from the background, the sound of Tess’ voice taking care of the little animal. And a white dove flew from the window and above the house, crossing the starry sky.

THE END