Chapters 1 and 2

CHAPTER 1

It was about 7 o’clock in the night of a chilly but beautiful autumn Saturday, in New York city, lots of people started to form a queue in front of the Roxy movie theatre and there was a big outdoor on the top of it announcing the film to be presented that evening: “Grease”. The Roxy was set in an old but very imposing and well-conserved building. Although the film was somewhat old, it was a pleasure to see a musical classic like that, which would cheer up the entire family.

And it was in front of this pleasant place that Andrew had been waiting for about 15 minutes. Due to the night’s cold air, he was wearing a grey sweater, brown pants and leather shoes, with a beige coat under. After consulting his pocket watch with some impatience, he looked around him once more, as if looking for someone else. And, as soon as he did so, the blond angel smiled with relief: just around the corner, there came Monica, his dearest friend. She was wearing a black shirt, grey pants, a black cap and a light blue coat. Her shoes were black too, and she walked in a hurried way:

“Finally you’re here, I thought you wouldn’t arrive in time, Angel girl!”, he said, kissing her forehead.

“I’m sorry, Andrew, I really should be here earlier, but there was a problem in the last minute.”

“What happened, sweetie? Where’s Tess?”

“That’s the problem. Tess has caught a terrible cold when we were coming back from that assignment in Minnesota this afternoon. It was a strike of a cold wind that had her straight away!”

“Oh, so we’d better cancel the cinema and go stay with her!”

“That’s what I suggested, but she insisted that we should go and let her at home. I didn’t agree at first, but Sam came up and offered to make her some company. So I was more relaxed to think that she has somebody to take care of her. When I left, they were playing domino, and, despite the bad cold, she was winning!”, she said, with a smile on her face.

“Well, in this case, we don’t have anything to worry about. I’m sure that Sam will make a very fine guardian angel!”, concluded Andrew, and wrapped his arm around Monica’s shoulder: “C’mon, lets go inside before the film starts!”

They queued up and Andrew gave the two tickets to the ticket collector. After, they headed up to the cinema room, and, as they did so, Monica opened her mouth, enchanted by the beauty of the place. The room was covered with a red velvet carpet and beautiful chandeliers were spread on the ceiling and on the sides. The armchairs were also covered with dark red velvet and in a total of 200. But what caught more of her attention was the screen, which measured about 10 meters from one side to another, and more 6 meters high.

“Oh Andrew, it’s beautiful!”, she exclaimed “I can’t believe I’ve been an angel for almost an eternity and I’ve never had the opportunity to go to the movies!”

“And you’ll wait until the film starts, Angel girl!”, he answered, and held her hand: “Come, I’ll buy you some popcorn!”

“Do they serve coffee too?”, asked the Irish angel, in an innocent way. Andrew chuckled at that question and they both went to the cafeteria.

When they got closer to the counter, a young boy wearing a uniform came by:

“May I help you?”, he asked. The blond angel smiled as soon as he recognised him: it was his student, Edward, who had given him the cinema tickets:

“Hey Edward!”, he greeted, and the boy replied, also smiling:

“Hi Andrew! I gave you the tickets, but I didn’t think you were coming to see this film anyway!”

“Well I wanted a friend to see it...”, he said, looking to the Irish angel “This is Monica.”

The boy smiled once more:

“Hi Monica!”

“Hello Edward. It must be a pleasure to work in such a lovely place like this!”, she said, still marvelled at the surroundings. The boy was hesitant, not wanting to show her his lack of enthusiasm:

“Yeah, well, I have to come here everyday and ... you know, with time you kinda get used to it...”, and decided to change the subject “So what you guys want to eat or drink?”

Two minutes after, Edward brought them two orders of popcorn, a cup soda and a cup of mocha late:

“Here you are! I hope you enjoy the film!”, he said.

“Thanks Edward. See you at school, then. Bye!”

They got back to the projection room, arranged themselves in their seats and the film finally started. In just listening to the stereo sound, completed by the first images projected  on the giant screen, Monica smiled excitedly at her friend, who also had a happy look on his face to see her in such an enjoyment.

The hours that followed, were of pure delight. In the most romantic parts of the film, Monica rested her head on Andrew’s shoulder and he held her close to him, also resting his cheek on the top of her head. They had a smile on their faces and wanted this moment to last for an eternity.

But, two hours later, the film was over and the audience started to leave the theatre. The two angels began to walk in the street, hand in hand, with an expression of satisfaction on their faces:

“Oh that was wonderful, Andrew! I loved the film so much that I could come back here everyday!”

“I knew you would like it, Angel girl.”, he replied, with a content smile.

“Yes, you were right. Thank you so much!”, she said, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

At that time of the night, the temperature had fallen more and it was colder outside than it was before. Andrew noticed that his friend was wearing no gloves and took off his own, giving them to her:

“You’d better put these on, sweetie, it’s quite cold in here!”

She looked at him in a worried way:

“But what about you?”

“I’ll be just fine.”, he answered, putting his hands in the pockets of his coat, which was pretty warm. She put on the gloves and held his left arm with both of hers.

“Thank you Andrew. I was so worried about Tess that I forgot my gloves on the mantelpiece.”

“It’s a pity she couldn’t come.”

“Yes. But we can come back next weekend, I greatly enjoyed the movies!”

As soon as Monica said that, they heard a noise coming from the seat in a desert bus station. There, a teenage girl, with long straight black hair and green eyes was hiding her face with the palm of her hands and sobbing. The two angels looked at each other and got closer to her:

“Excuse me, do you want some help?”, asked Monica. The girl stopped crying and looked at them scared:

“No, I... I was just going home... excuse me...”

She was going to leave, but Monica grabbed her arm gently:

“Please don’t go! It’s quite dangerous at this time of the night for a girl to walk alone in the streets!”

The teenager stopped and, after a second, started crying again.

CHAPTER 2

In a snack bar, there were Monica, Andrew and the teenage girl they had met minutes before. The waiter served them two cups of hot chocolate and a cup of mocha late.

“My name is Monica. This is Andrew.”

“My name is Annie”, said the girl, and swallowed some of the hot chocolate.

“Now that you are calmer, wouldn’t you like to tell us what happened?”, asked the Irish angel, in an encouraging way. But she was a little hesitant:

“Well... to be honest... nothing really important has happened...

“So how come you were crying like that?”, Andrew asked.

“Don’t bother about that. It was a silly thing that happens once in a while, but it’s already over.”

“I don’t believe something that can make such a pretty face like this turn into a crying one can be silly.”, replied Monica, in a way that brought so much comfort to her that the girl stopped being so defensive and let go her worries:

“Well... I always come to that movie theatre... alone.. I don’t have any friends, you see. Just colleagues from my school, but none that is really close to me.”

“What about your parents?”

“I live with my mom, and she works hard to make ends meet. We only stay together on Sundays, at night. But I don’t blame her. On the contrary, I understand she has to work and, in fact, she’s really wonderful. I get along quite well with her.”

“And... Why were you so sad?”

The girl was going to say something, but, before that, she looked outside through the window: a tall handsome teenage boy was passing by, with another girl, tall and handsome like him. They were embraced and laughing loudly.

Monica and Andrew looked at each other understandingly, and Annie kept on talking, now in a sad way:

“I feel so unhappy... as if the world has turned its back on me.”

“You know that boy, don’t you?”, asked the Irish angel.

“Brian Thompson. Second year, Cathedral High School. He studies there since the age of 6... and me too...”

“Have you already told him about your feelings?”

“What for, Andrew? He barely remembers my name. We have been saying ‘hello’ to each other for almost 10 years and I’m as noticeable as a desk he seats on. Besides, look at me! He would never turn his interest on such an ordinary girl like me.”

“Oh c’mon, Annie. Don’t say that!”

“I don’t get upset in saying so, Andrew. I know that I’m short, a bit overweight and I have to wear these glasses...”

“You’re a work of perfection created by God”, interrupted Monica. ”You have beautiful eyes behind these glasses, beautiful hair and a captivating look. And perfectly able to do so many wonderful things in your life...”

“Love is as beautiful as you are, and such a feeling shouldn’t bring so much pain to a heart that has just started living.”, stated Andrew, in accordance to his best friend’s words. Annie smiled shyly:

“Thank you guys...”, and was pensive for some seconds, “It’s strange... I’ve known you for just a few minutes and it seems we’ve been friends for my entire life!”

“What a beautiful smile you have!”, said the blond angel. At that moment, a sudden thought crossed Monica’s mind:

“I have an idea! Once we are now officially friends, I suggest that, next Saturday, we could go to the movies!”

Annie’s eyes lit up:

“Really?! Are you serious?!”

“Yes! I just loved the place, the film and the popcorn with coffee, and feel like I could do this every day.”

“I’m not gonna be a bother for you two, aren’t I?...”

“Of course not, Annie. It’ll be a pleasure. We’ll do as Monica says: next Saturday, we’ll meet in front of the movie theatre, OK?”, said Andrew.

“OK. Now, I think I’d better go, ‘cause mom is going to get home and will be worried if she doesn’t find me... sleeping, of course!”

“We can make you some company.”, offered Monica.

The three left the cafeteria and took a cab, which stopped in the middle of the way to drop the teenager in her house. On the way back to the apartment the angels were renting, Monica was a bit worried:

“Oh Andrew I feel so sorry for that girl. She seems to be so lonely...”

“Yes, I felt that too, the deep sorrow in her eyes...”, he said: “It reminded me of somebody else. Do you remember Edward, the boy we’ve met at the cafeteria at the cinema theatre?”

“Yes, of course I do. If it weren’t for him we wouldn’t have gone there and none of this would’ve happened in the first place. He seems to have a great heart, although a wee bit sad, from what I’ve realised.”

“Yes, you’re absolutely right.”

“Do you think we could help them?”

“Well, we have a couple of weeks more to remain here, as I will be substituting Margaret until she comes back.”

A smile appeared on Monica’s pensive face. Andrew noticed that:

“Hey sweetheart, I know that angelic face of yours. What are you thinking about?”

She looked at him and took his hand:

“Wouldn’t it be lovely if we used our free time in order to help people in need?”

He smiled back at her, already understanding what she meant, and squeezed her hand:

“Yes, I guess that would be great!”

“We could do that as a ‘free time assignment’!”

He raised his eyebrows amused by the expression his friend used:

“A ‘free time assignment’?!”

Monica nodded, hopefully.

“OK. But you know we’ll have to report that to Tess...”

“Oh, but we will! And imagine how proud she will be of us after we’ve finished!”

“After?!”

“Yes.”, she answered, with an innocent look, “Let’s make it a surprise for her!”

Andrew chuckled at those words, having totally agreed with his best friend’s suggestion, although both of them had no idea of what exactly they were going to do.