PART 2

PART 2

Monica was holding Andrew’s hand when the police officer walked over to Joy to take the little animal to a dog shelter, and, despite Tess’ stern look at him, she knew that the small dog would have to be taken anyway, as none of the angels had a license to prove she belonged to them. And, besides this, all the trouble Joy had caused in a matter of minutes only worsened the situation. The future of the spaniel puppy together with her ‘parents’ and ‘grandmother’ was in great danger.

“Excuse me, ma’am, but I have to do it!”, the man said, facing a very angry Tess.

“There’s no chance I’ll get outta here as well as there’s no chance you’re gonna take my baby from me!”

“So arrest her too, officer! She’s disrespecting your orders and protecting a dangerous criminal!”, the bad humoured lady said, eager to see the group’s misfortune. The supervisor glared at her:

“Lady, one day you and I will have a conversation and you’re gonna change this attitude of yours in a matter of seconds, I can assure you!!!”

“Ladies, arguing is not gonna solve anything! I’ll have to take the dog!”

“Oh, please mister, don’t!”, Monica pleaded, “Don’t take her away from us!”

But, before anyone could say something else, another voice was heard coming from the crowd that watched the argument:

“Excuse me! Let me pass... Excuse me!”

A woman made her way to where the group was and, almost immediately they knew who she was:

“Sheriff Bale! I’m glad you’re here!”, the policeman said, “We have an animal with no license and a woman who’s saying she was attacked by it!”

The sheriff looked at the bad humoured woman and, after, at Joy. And when she saw the little black spaniel puppy, she smiled broadly:

“But I know this little dog!”

“You do?”, the police officer said. The sheriff came closer to Joy and confirmed:

“Of course I do! She saved my son’s life, a few months ago, on the beach!”

That revelation surprised everyone, including the angels. The sheriff looked at Monica and Andrew and soon recognised them too:

“And you two were the ones who brought my little Jimmy back to me! I would never forget your faces and what you did on that day!”

“I remember your little boy...”, Andrew said; the day they had almost lost Joy forever on a crowded beach came back to both angel’s memory.

“Yes... Our wee Joy found your little boy lost on the beach and stopped him from going into the ocean...”, Monica spoke, trying to control the tears that still rolled down on her cheeks.

“Hey, wait a moment! What the heck are you talking about?! That little creature is a threat to human beings! She is the criminal and I am the victim here!”, the bad humoured woman protested, causing the sheriff’s smile to disappear from her face:

“I suggest you to watch your tongue to describe the most courageous little animal I’ve ever seen in my entire life!”

“What?!!!”

Now it was Tess who stared at the woman with satisfaction.

“And, from what I can see, you, madam, seem to be the one who’s threatening this poor animal and her owners!”, the sheriff gave a few steps into the woman’s direction, “Did you know that animal abuse is a crime?”

“Oh... That’s absurd! I didn’t do anything to harm this disgusting little creature! She’s the one to be arrested here! She stole my dog’s food!”

“And I bet you were about to eat it all, weren’t you?”, Tess spoke, with an ironic tone in her voice.

“It was all a misunderstanding, sheriff, I swear. Our wee Joy didn’t have any intention to steal, she thought the cookies had been abandoned...”, Monica explained, still with an anguished voice.

“I know it was a misunderstanding and that this little one wouldn’t be able to do such thing!”, the sheriff kneeled in front of Joy: “So, how about you giving the cookies back so that we can finish with this confusion, huh?”

The little dog looked at her ‘parents’ and at her ‘grandmother’ as if asking for their permission:

“It’s ok, baby, you can let it go.”, Tess said.

“Yes, and I have lots of cookies here for you!”, Andrew added. Still unsure, Joy looked at Monica:

“Give it back to the lady, sweetheart, it’s not yours.”

Only then, the small puppy let go of the package of cookies and the sheriff gave it back to its owner:

“I believe we’ve finished this controversy!”, she said, “Now, for your sake, I suggest you go away and leave this little dog alone before I change my mind and arrest you for animal abuse!”

Burning with anger, the woman looked around her and, after, at Monica, Andrew and Tess:

“C’mon, you heard the sheriff!”, the oldest angel said. The bad humoured lady grabbed the package of cookies:

“I’ve never witnessed such an injustice!!!”, she exclaimed, and walked away from them.

Smiling with relief, Monica took Joy in her arms and held her tightly:

“Thank you! Thank you very much, sheriff!”

“You’re more than welcome. It’s a pity my little Jimmy isn’t here to see this brave little one again!”, the sheriff replied, soothing Joy’s black fur. The little animal looked at the sheriff and barked, causing everybody to laugh:

“I guess she’s sending her regards to Jimmy!”, Andrew said.

“Well, you can be sure I’ll tell him about it! It was nice meeting you again, have a good day!”

“Thanks, the same to you!”

As the sheriff and the people who watched all the confusion went away, Monica looked at the sky with a grateful expression on her face and whispered:

“Thank you, Father…”

Tess turned to her two charges:

“Well, I would’ve straightened that woman out anyway!”, she exclaimed. The Irish angel looked at her shyly:

“I’m so sorry about this confusion, Tess. I really am…”

“Oh, you don’t have to apologise, Angel Girl! Of course it wasn’t my little baby’s fault! Besides, that woman had what she deserved! I’ll make a mental note to take care of her someday…”, the supervisor stated, really considering that a future assignment. Then, she looked back at her two charges: “Now let’s get going cause there are some other people here to be straightened out!”

Trying to suppress a smile, Monica took Andrew proffered hand and both followed the supervisor. Noticing that Tess took some distance ahead of them, as she was walking a little bit faster than they were, the Irish angel looked up at her dearest friend:

“Did you buy it?”, she whispered, causing him to smile at her anxiety:

“Yes… Joy’s package of cookies and your package of coffee are here!”, he also whispered, showing her the bag he was carrying. A broad smile appeared on her face:

“I love you!”, standing on the tip of her toes, she placed a tiny kiss on his cheek.

*

Inside Tess’ Cadillac, the 3 angels analysed several travel agencies leaflets, about many different and beautiful places to visit during their days off:

“Look at this ski station! It would be a lot of fun to go skiing and ice skating in the mountains!”, Andrew suggested, sitting on the back seat of the car, while Tess and Monica took the front seats. Joy was next to him, already devouring the package of cookies her ‘daddy’ had bought for her. Tess stared at the blond angel not all too pleased:

“It’s spring and you wanna get yourself in the middle of snow, in a place where temperatures go bellow zero?!”, she stated, “I don’t think so!”

He rolled his eyes with some impatience:

“Well, the last time we went on vacations together we stayed at a house, on the beach, so I thought it would be good to try something new!”

“Let’s try not to be that radical, Mr!”

“What do you suggest, then?”, he questioned. The supervisor scanned the many leaflets in her hands carefully:

“I thought about some historical cities, along some old and traditional region! It would be good to come back a couple of centuries in the past and make a revival of the good old days!”, she responded, totally convinced that was the best suggestion. And, this time, it was Andrew who didn’t show much enthusiasm about it:

“… yeah… that could be… educational…”, he said, and turned to Monica, who, so far, had been listening to them and thinking deeply about the topic in discussion:

“What do you think, Monica?”

Still with a rather thoughtful expression on her face, she sighed deeply:

“Well… I think your suggestions are wonderful; both of them. But, after reading all these leaflets I realised something…”

“And what is it, baby?”

“Well… All these tours and places are really beautiful, but we’ll spend most part of our time going from one place to another and doing many things and there wouldn’t be much time to share one another’s companies. I was thinking about it… The Father has given us some days to bond and to have some fun, so we should take this opportunity to really stay together, just the four of us, you know.”

Hearing that, Andrew nodded his head emphatically and Tess considered those arguments seriously:

“You got a point there, Monica!”

“Yes, I agree with Angel Boy. Do you have anything in mind, Angel Girl?”

With a kind and warm smile upon her pretty face, she looked at her 2 beloved friends, the 2 angels she loved most in the entire Heaven:

“Well… Yes, I have an idea… why don’t we go camping?”

With her eyebrows raised, Tess stared at her:

“You mean you wanna go to the middle of the woods, with no electricity and cold water; bugs and all sorts of exotic animals surrounding you and trying to steal your food and your blood?!”

“Yes! Isn’t it wonderful?!”, the Irish angel replied, with all enthusiasm in the world.

“I like it! Camping is exciting and you always have a lot to explore!”, Andrew said, equally thrilled.

“All I can think about exploring in a forest is a trail to come back home!”

“Andrew is right, there’s so much we can do: find beautiful flowers, drink the purest water of the rivers, watch cute little birds humming their tunes and even visit waterfalls! I’m sure you’re gonna love it, Tess!”

“When I said I wanted to go back in time, I wasn’t referring to Pre-History…”

Seeing some of the initial happiness go away from his dearest friend’s face, Andrew leaned forward, standing closer to the supervisor:

“Well, it’s a pity cause if we went camping, we basically would buy all the food in advance and there wouldn’t be so many domestic tasks for us to do, such as cleaning the house, tidying up the rooms, cooking…”

Hearing the final part of his comment, the expression on Tess’ face immediately changed, turning into a pensive one:

“… in short, we would get rid of at least half of the things we had to do in our last vacation, cause everything would be basically ready, and then we could have plenty of time to walk around and enjoy the beauty of the woods together!…”, after a short pause, the blond angel continued to talk, “… but if you’d rather do some other thing…”

“Well… you know what, Angel Boy?… I guess you might be right…”, the supervisor said, and a spark of hope appeared in Monica’s eyes:

“He is?”

“I am?”, he also exclaimed, but not as surprised as his dearest friend.

“Yes. On second thoughts, I guess taking some time to get in contact with nature isn’t that bad! And I agree, there’s a lot to do when we’re camping other than all these domestic stuff you’ve mentioned; we could pretty well do the basics: clean the small campsite, the tent and cook only simple meals…”

“So you mean you agree with us going camping?!”, Monica asked, all her excitement and happiness now back again. Tess took her hand and smiled:

“Yes, baby. We will all go camping and I’m sure we’ll all spend some wonderful days together!”, she replied, exchanging a quick glance with Andrew, who nodded his head satisfied. And the Irish angel wasted no time in hugging the supervisor tightly:

“Oh Tess, I love you so much!”, she exclaimed, unaware of the silent conversation that had just happened between the two other angels.

“I love you too, Angel Girl!”, she replied, also hugging Monica in a motherlish way. “But now we have to start buying all the stuff we need to go camping.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Tess. There’s a big store in the city that sells everything we’ll need.”, Andrew remembered, and took an empty package of cookies on the back seat of the car: “And we sure could buy some more cookies too, cause I’m afraid ‘someone’ has managed to eat the content of this package in just 10 minutes!”

He stared at Joy accusingly and the little dog remained staring at the 3 angels as if nothing had happened:

“Well, I’m not surprised! This baby spent all her energy running away from that horrible woman a few minutes ago!”, Tess stated, “And now she needs to replace it!”

Monica took the animal in her arms:

“Maybe we should buy an ‘extra large’ package to cookies to our wee one!”, the Irish angel said, immediately receiving lots of kisses. “You know something? Thinking about it, if we really decided to go on a tour, there could be a problem to our little baby…”

“Yeah, we would end up going to some places where dogs are not allowed.”, Andrew agreed. Monica continued to talk:

“Which would be really unfair, considering that our wee one isn’t exactly a dog…”

That comment caused both Andrew and Tess to stare at her with surprised and rather puzzled faces:

“You mean Joy isn’t a dog?”, he asked, trying to confirm what he had just heard. Smiling, the Irish angel shook her head:

“Well, not exactly…”

“I’m sure I’ll regret asking this, but… what kind of creature do you think she is exactly, Miss Wings?”, Tess questioned, still not believing in what her charge was saying.

Monica stared at them, finding their confused faces really funny:

“Well… Andrew is her father, I’m her mother and you are her grandmother, and, considering that we 3 are angels and that she is a wee baby, we could say that Joy is an ‘angel puppy’!”

While Andrew burst into laugher at his dearest friend’s conclusion, distress covered Tess’ face and the supervisor started the car immediately:

“Let’s get outta here before I change my mind about this whole thing and get back to work!”, she exclaimed, and the red Cadillac left the park afterwards.