PART 4

PART 4

The first sun rays in that morning announced that it would be a bright day, with blue skies and no trace of the rain that insisted on falling down on the previous afternoon and night, spoiling the angels outing in the forest.

Despite her exhaustion, Tess was the first one to wake up and was finishing to prepare breakfast when Andrew showed up:

“Good morning, Tess. Weren’t you tired? I thought you’d sleep until late today!”, he said, stealing a piece of bacon the supervisor had just cooked:

“Well, yes, I intended to, Angel boy. But I thought about it carefully and decided to get up early and avoid having to eat a ‘special breakfast’, if you know what I mean!”

Chuckling, he nodded his head:

“I got it!… But fortunately it’s gonna be a beautiful day and there’ll be lots of things we can do! I’m sure that Monica will come up with a thousand of different ideas!”

“Hold it there, Mr! I am in command here, and I will be the one to give the orders!”, the supervisor said, the memory of the previous day still alive in her mind (and in her human body too). Andrew tugged his hands in his pockets, not really wanting to talk about their journey until the waterfall, as he had been the one to encourage Monica to continue their tracking into the woods:

“Well, what do you have in mind, then?”

“We will all go fishing today! It will be a light activity, we will be catching our lunch and, most importantly: we won’t have to walk!”, she announced. Despite her authoritarian tone of voice, Andrew was pleased with that suggestion:

“Ok. That’ll be fun anyway!”

*

Monica was sound asleep inside the tent, among some pillows and underneath a warm blanket when a chubby black puppy dog poked her head in and, as soon as she saw her mommy, she ran into her direction and started to sniff her in the neck and under arms, causing the Irish angel to wake up giggling incessantly:

“Joy!… You’re tickling me!… Stop it!… Please!!!”

But the little dog didn’t obey to that command; much on the contrary: happily wagging her tiny tail and pleased to have woken her mommy up, she continued to tickle her:

“… Joy, no!… Stop it!…”

A minute later, with her face completely red (and after several attempts), Monica finally managed to grab the playful chubby dog:

“Oh my!… Joy! You shouldn’t do this to your mommy! That is not nice!”, she was still trying to catch some air, while Joy reached up and covered her face with lots of kisses, “Where did you learn that, after all?”

At that exact moment, Andrew entered the tent and Joy left her mom’s arms to run clumsily towards the blond angel, staring at him and barking twice, shamelessly giving him away. He looked at Monica and shrugged his shoulders:

“I have no idea what she’s talking about!”

The Irish angel stood up holding her pillow in her hands:

“You should be ashamed, Andrew!”, she exclaimed, with a mock upset tone in her voice, and threw the pillow at him.

With a mischievous smile upon his face, he came closer to her:

“And you should be up hours ago, you sleepyhead Angel Girl!”, he replied throwing the pillow back at her, who let out a squeal and quickly looked for another pillow to throw at him. The angels started a pillow fight inside the tent, with little Joy barking and wagging her tail excitedly running around their feet, as if she was also taking part of the mess.

All that noise immediately drew Tess’ attention and , frowning with concern, the supervisor entered the place:

“What the heck is going on here?!”, she exclaimed, somewhat shocked with the chaos spread inside their temporary home. Andrew and Monica stopped the fight and Joy hid herself underneath her mom’s blanket.

“Look at the mess you two are doing!!!”, the oldest angel spoke.

“I’m sorry Tess; Andrew and I will tidy it up, won’t we Andrew?”, Monica replied, still with a smile upon her face.

“Sure, sure…”, her dearest friend agreed, trying to hold his laugher.

“Of course you will!”, she spoke, with a stern tone in her voice, “And after that, you’d better get yourselves ready to fish today’s lunch!”

The supervisor looked at the roundish form under Monica’s blanket:

“It’s ok, baby, you can come here with your grandma!”

Joy immediately got rid of the covers and ran towards her ‘grandmother’, who held her in her arms:

“Let me take you outta this mess!”

Receiving lots of tiny kisses from her ‘baby’, Tess smiled:

“Yes, I know, baby; this is not an appropriate environment for you!”, then she became serious again and turned to her two charges, “And what are you two waiting for? Start tidying up this mess right now!”

Joy looked at her ‘parents’ and gave two barks, as if confirming her ‘grandma’s’ command.

*

There was a lake not far from where they were, with crystalline and placid waters and surrounded by beautiful flowers and green trees. A dock had been built the there some years ago, probably by visitors or tourists, and a small boat had been left nearby it. It took the 3 angels and the smart little puppy only 5 minutes to get there and, as soon as they arrived, Tess and Andrew started to arrange their fishing rods and the baits.

Monica, on the other hand, stared at the lake for a few seconds and, quietly, lowered her head. Some sad memories of a dark stormy night, nearly 2 moths ago, had come back to her mind and the Irish angel gave a short sigh. But, a moment later, she felt a gentle squeeze in her hand and a loving voice whispering in her ear:

“I bet you’ll catch more fishes than Tess and I together!”, Andrew said, smiling warmly at his dearest friend and feeling in his heart an inch of sadness that flew from hers. Also with a tiny smile upon her pretty face, she raised her head and looked at him:

“I don’t think I could catch something. I’m not much of a ‘fishing angel’ myself, you know.”

Looking deep inside her sparkling brown eyes, and decided to erase any sorrow that could still be in her heart, he stroked her cheek, his smile never disappearing from his face:

“I beg to differ. You caught me. Literally and metaphorically speaking!”

The smile on her face grew wider and Monica didn’t waste any time in wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.

“… And that’s something I’ll be eternally grateful for!, the blond angel concluded, also holding her and kissing the top of her head repeatedly.

“I love you very much, you know.”, she whispered, resting her head on his chest.

“Well, to tell you the truth, I had a slight suspicion about this…”

Giggling, the Irish angel stood on the tip of her toes and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek. And, not distant from them, they heard an unmistakeable voice echoing in the air:

“Oh dear Father, I wonder if there’s any angel here in these woods who would be kind enough to help me out with all this fishing stuff, cause the ones I brought with me decided to cuddle together and admire the view!”

Smiling at their supervisor’s fake bad humour, and letting go of their previous sadness, Monica held Andrew’s hand and they walked over to the oldest angel.

“I’ve just had an idea!”

“Which idea?”, the blond angel asked.

“Well, if I can’t catch any fish, I can at least cook them for us! What do you think?”

Rather taken aback by their dearest friend’s suggestion, Andrew and Tess exchanged a look of surprise (and also fear). He gulped, without exactly knowing what to say:

“Well… I think… yes, I think…”

But his voice trailed off as soon as he saw the expression on Tess’ face: it was a really stern one:

“…. I think that… that you’ll catch a lot of fishes, Monica, as I’ve said before…”

“Yes, and I will be the one to cook here, Miss Wings! You don’t have to worry about it!”, the oldest angel concluded. But Monica wasn’t all too convinced by her friends’ words:

“Well… it’s ok… but if I don’t fish anything, then I’ll be responsible for the cooking. I won’t be comfortable to watch you two working while I just sit and wait, you know. It’s the least I can do, especially now that I’ve finally learned how to cook and I know you two trust on my abilities!”, she replied, hopefully and enthusiastically.

Tess and Andrew looked at each other again, now tensely, without really knowing what to do. But, a second later, Andrew tried to smile and nodded his head:

“It’s ok, then. You got a deal, Monica!”

“What?!”

“Really?!”, Tess and Monica respectively exclaimed.

“I agree with Monica, let’s all sit here and wait to see who catches more fish, though I truly believe that you will be the winner, Angel Girl, and won’t have to worry about any cooking!”

Tess was about to protest at that ‘dangerous’ agreement, when Andrew gave her another look and she finally came to realise that he had something else in his mind. So, she nodded her head:

“Ok… I agree with Angel boy; if you don’t catch any fish, you can cook today’s lunch, Angel Girl!”

“Thank you, Tess!”, the Irish angel replied, with a content smile. Andrew grabbed her hand:

“Now, c’mon, let’s take this fishing material to the dock!”

“Sure!”

As they walked ahead of her, Tess looked at the blue sky:

“Thank you Father for giving us faith and also creativity!…”