PARTs 1 and 2

PART 1

“I’m almost finishing it!”, Tess exclaimed, proudly looking at the purple woollen sweater she was crocheting and which was practically ready, with very little adjustments to be done. And her work was indeed skilfully and well done. The layout of the woollen threads was perfectly designed in a straight row, which went from one side to another, and the stitches were carefully interlocked, making the gown to look like as if it had been knitted by an expert.

“Oh Tess, it’s so beautiful! You have such a talent for crocheting!” Monica was enchanted with her friend and supervisor’s ability.

“I’m very pleased with it too, Angel Girl!”, she replied, a little self assuredly. “But I’m also glad that the Father gave me an assignment who could teach me that!”

“Well, I’m glad too, because then you could teach me and now I can make this new sweater for Andrew!”

The Irish angel stood up from the couch and stretched the sweater she was knitting so that Tess could see it:

“I’ve made more than half of it, maybe I’ll finish it next week. What do you think, Tess? Am I doing it right?”

But the older angel had to choose the words carefully in order to give her opinion about her charge’s work: the rows were all irregular and tortuous, the layout of the chains was confusing and it was not possible to identify the pattern she intended to form. Not mentioning that the right sleeve was slightly lower than the left one, and the stitches were fairly loose. Besides this, the collar was also tortuous:

“Well baby... you know... I’m sure that Andrew will be very... very touched with what you’re doing for him... Actually, he’ll love your gesture even more than this... this small gift...”, Tess said, hoping to have used the right words, which, in fact, she had, because Monica smiled pleased with that comment:

“I decided to make it green, to match with the colour of his eyes, you know.”

“That’s a lovely idea, baby...”

“But I won’t show him until I finish it! Secretly, I took one of his sweaters to use as a model, so I won’t have problems with the seizing.”

“Yes... I can see that...”

The supervisor stood up and carefully folded her sweater and left it, together with the crochet kit, on the comfortable armchair she had been sitting on for the last hour:

“Well, I need more thread to finish this and I’ve heard that there’s a town bigger than this one, some miles from here, so I’ll go there to buy some more, ‘cause I want to get this ready tomorrow. Besides, I’ve heard there are lots of shops in there and I want to check on them too. Wanna come with me, Angel Girl?”

“Oh no Tess, thank you, but I’ll stay here and finish this row. Besides, Andrew will arrive at any moment and I want to be here to welcome him. We rarely take our vacations together and I want to enjoy them as much as possible!”

“Alright, then, baby... Don’t wait for me for lunch, ‘cause I think I’ll take this last half of the morning and the entire afternoon to know the city!”

Tess grabbed the keys of her Cadillac and, when she opened the front door of the beach house, a little chubby puppy dog managed to bolt through the door and enter the house by passing between the angel’s legs faster than a lightning.

“But what the heck??!!...”

The little animal rushed towards Monica’s direction:

“Oh, look who is here! It’s my precious baby!”

Joy put her front feet on the couch (slanting black eyes and long ears framing her tiny face) and her puppy bark echoed inside the house, as if she was begging for the angel’s lap:

“Come here, sweetie!”

She scooped the animal and took her close to her face, immediately receiving lots of ‘kisses’.

“Oh, I love you too, sweetheart!”

Tess crossed her arms in front of her chest, not pleased at all with that scene:

“Monica, if there’s something impossible in this world it surely is this dog and that sweater sharing the same physical space!”

“Don’t worry Tess, Joy is a very polite wee dog and she knows how to behave like a lady is supposed to!”

“Monica!...”, the look on Tess’ face was a stern one:

“It’s ok! I’ll take her outside, but I’ll go together with her, as I know how lonely she stays there...”

The Irish angel kept the sweater she was knitting inside a drawer and turned her attention to the dog:

“... you are missing your daddy, aren’t you dear? I miss him too, but don’t you worry, he’ll be here soon!”

Hearing that, Tess rolled her eyes with some (mock) distress:

“Oh Father... Please, help me!”, she grumbled, leaving the house afterwards.

*

Monica took Joy to the backyard of the house and poured some dog food on a bowl:

“I’ll fix you some food, ok? You’re growing up and need to eat properly in order to become strong and a beautiful lady!”

The excited little puppy didn’t even wait for her to finish filling in the bowl, ferociously eating its content.

“Oh my! You are really hungry, aren’t you?!”

While the animal devoured her food, the angel looked at the beach and a smile appeared on her face when she saw a tall, handsome figure walking on the sand towards the house:

“Oh finally! He arrived!”, she happily exclaimed, and turned to the little dog: “See wee one? Your daddy is here!...”

Realising that Joy would never interrupt her delicious meal, Monica decided to meet her dear friend alone:

“You stay here and eat all your food, ok? I’ll be back soon!”

In a hurry, she left the house and headed towards Andrew. The blond angel smiled and waved when he saw her and, a minute later, Monica wrapped her arms around his neck with a broad smile upon her face:

“Oh Andrew! I’m so glad you’re finally here, my friend!”

He tightened his hold on her and lifted his dear friend from the ground, feeling the wind blowing her hair against his face:

“It’s so good to hold you again, Angel Girl!”, he said, grinning with pleasure when he heard her voice.

“It can’t be better than holding you! I have so many plans for our vacations! We’ll have so much fun!”, she replied, still hugging him tightly. The blond angel placed her on the ground and pulled away just enough to look at her face:

“All I can say is that I’m already having fun!”, he stated, gently stroking her cheek and looking at her with all the love in his heart evident in his eyes, “Wanna have a walk on the beach?”

“I’d love to! I left Joy in the house but she’s eating her breakfast now and I wouldn’t dream of interrupting her!”

She laced her fingers through his and her smile turned into a playful one:

“But she missed her daddy very much, you know...”

Laughing at that comment, Andrew wrapped his arms around Monica, bringing her closer to him again, and kissed the tip of her nose:

“Well, I missed my baby a lot too. But I missed her mother the most!”

She planted a loving kiss on his cheek and, hand in hand, the two angels started strolling along the beach, with a warm sun shining on their faces and a gentle breeze blowing from the deep blue sea.

*

One hour later, Andrew and Monica were back into the house they were staying in, and decided to go straight to the backyard, hoping to find little Joy running along the green grass:

“She seems to be starving in the morning, in the afternoon and at night! I don’t know how such a tiny little thing can have such a huge appetite, Andrew!”

“Well, remember how weak she was when she was born? Maybe she’s trying to compensate!”, he replied. Both looked around but couldn’t find the dog:

“Joy! Come here, sweetheart!”, Monica called. There was no reply. Andrew checked the bushes in the yard:

“Hey girl, where are you?!”

But the animal didn’t give any response to their callings, causing Monica to start worrying about her whereabouts:

“Oh Andrew, where can she be?...”

“Monica, stay calm, I’m sure she’s here somewhere!”

It was then that the Irish angel noticed something:

“The kitchen door is open, she might have...”, a sudden thought came to her mind and her eyes grew wide, “Oh no!...”, she exclaimed, and rushed through the door.

“What is it Monica?!”, Andrew asked, following her and without understanding why she looked so scared.

They ran from the kitchen straight to the living room and there, Monica stopped abruptly, her hand on her mouth and brown eyes wider than before with the scene in front of her. Andrew arrived a second later and was equally impressed with what he saw: there was purple woollen thread spread all around the living room, as if a big purple cobweb had been formed on the floor. The thread passed by the coffee table, the couch, the armchair, the side table (this one had been thrown into the floor) and the bookshelf, and ended up in Joy’s mouth. The little dog had managed to undo the entire sweater that Tess had been working on for weeks in just an hour. Trapped in the thread itself, the animal barked repeatedly, both happy to see the two angels and eager for someone who could free her from the wool.

“Well... Seems like she’s been pretty busy spending all that energy she gets from the food you gave her, Angel Girl!”, Andrew joked. But the look on Monica’s face was a desperate one:

“Oh my goodness!... That’s a tragedy! A real tragedy!...”

“C’mon Monica, it’s not a big deal. We can clean up this mess before Tess comes back, if that’s what you are afraid of!”

The Irish angel shook her head:

“No, Andrew, you don’t understand! All that wool... That is, I mean, that WAS Tess’ sweater, the sweater she has been knitting for weeks and which she was almost finishing...”

Hearing that, the blond angel frowned and ran his fingers through his short hair:

“Oh!... Then I have to agree with you... That is a real tragedy!”

PART 2

Monica walked over to Joy and freed her from the thread. The little dog ‘kissed’ the Irish angel’s hands and, after that, ran excitedly into Andrew’s direction, immediately pulling his shoelaces with her tiny teeth and undoing them, completely unaware of the total disaster that she had just caused.

“Andrew, what am I going to do now? Tess told me to keep Joy away from the sweater and... I just let that happen...”

Tears started to form in the corner of her eyes and she looked at him with despair:

“...She will tell me to send Joy back... She won’t let me stay with her anymore!...”

Andrew took a deep breath and, once again, ran his fingers through his hair: although their supervisor really liked the little dog and even played with her sometimes, once she saw what had been done with her sweater, she would be furious, that was for sure. Besides this, there was the fact that Tess had warned Monica to keep Joy away from the living room, which only worsened the situation. The return of the little animal to the ranch from where she had come was practically certain. He reached down and scooped the playful puppy:

“Well, young lady, seems you’ve got yourself into a big trouble!”, he said, closely facing her. But, indifferent to the seriousness of the situation, Joy covered his face with tiny kisses:

“And don’t you try to buy me with sweet kisses! You’re gonna be outside, alone, to think about what you did!”

“Oh Andrew don’t be so hard on her, she’s just a baby and didn’t know what she was doing!”

“Monica, she has to learn!”, he replied, as if they were talking about a real child. Sensing he was right, the Irish angel nodded, and Andrew took Joy to the backyard, closing the door behind him.

When he returned to the living room, he found his dearest friend with a sad look in her eyes and that image broke his heart:

“Hey sweetie, stay calm, ok? We’ll fix this out, I’ll help you!”

“I don’t want to be away from her, Andrew. I love her so much...”

He knew how much Monica adored all the animals in the world, and that little dog was even more special to her than any other. To separate them from each other would break the angel’s heart forever and that he wouldn’t bear to see. Besides, he too became very fond of Joy, and loved to play with and take care of her, as those were happy moments he shared with Monica.

Andrew gently stroked her cheek and lifted her head so that their eyes could meet:

“Joy isn’t going anywhere, ok? We’ll find a way to get this mess solved!”

“But how?”

“You said that Tess was knitting the sweater. Don’t you have a model, anything similar to it?”

Monica walked to the chest of drawers in the corner of the living room and opened one of the drawers, picking up the sweater she was knitting, and showed it to him:

“Tess taught me how to crochet and I was making this sweater for you... It was meant to be a surprise...”

Although Andrew loved every little gesture or word that she directed to him, it took him a lot of effort not to let his face show what he really thought about her knitting abilities:

“Oh... That’s... very... very nice of you, Monica, to make this for me...”

“It’s not finished yet, but I’ve made more than half of it. Did you like it?”

“Well, it’s... it’s unique! I bet no other angel in the entire Heaven will have one like this! And it doesn’t really matter if you made me a sweater or a handkerchief. The most important is that it was you who made it!”

She managed a slight smile, but was still confused:

“You know... Tess told me you’d say exactly this...”

The blond angel nodded his head, imagining why the supervisor had made such comment.

“Why did you want to know if there was a model?”

“Oh, I had an idea but let’s forget it, I don’t think it’ll work...”

“Which idea?”

“Well... I thought that, with the model, you could knit another sweater equal to hers, but that won’t be possible ‘cause... ‘cause it would take a lot of time and we don’t have much left...”

“Yes, that’s true.”, she agreed, “Besides, I’m still learning, it’s not totally equal to hers, you know...”

“Yes, I know... I mean, I had another idea: we’ll go downtown, where there are lots of shops that sell these kind of clothes and maybe we’ll find another sweater, equal to Tess’, so we can replace it...”

Her eyes lit up:

“Do you really think we could find another one?!”

“We have to try!”

She nodded and, suddenly, wrapped her arms around his neck:

“Thank you...”, the Irish angel whispered, placing a loving kiss on his cheek. He smiled and hugged her back:

“You’re more than welcome, Angel Girl!”

*

As soon as they arrived in town, the angels started to go from shop to shop, looking for a sweater equal to Tess’. Monica had even taken the one she was making for Andrew, although he had insisted that it wasn’t necessary:

“We’ll need it so we won’t confuse similar patterns.”, she said.

But after walking for nearly two hours, they couldn’t find anything that borne any resemblance to the outfit the older angel had so carefully knitted.

“Oh Andrew, I think we’ve been to all the shops that sell crocheted clothes, but none of them has anything similar to Tess’ sweater!”

The blond angel nodded his head and was also losing his hope, when he suddenly saw, not far from where they were, a small shop, which sold not only crocheted clothes but also all sort of crocheting and knitting material. He took Monica’s hand:

“Take a look over there! We haven’t been to that one yet! Come with me!”

They entered the shop and found a middle aged woman sitting behind the counter. She was listening to the radio, as the shop was empty, and had a not so friendly expression on her face:

“Good morning madam...”, the blond angel greeted.

“Yeah...”, she replied, not minding their presence at all. Andrew and Monica looked at each other, not missing her bad humour, but he elected to ignore it:

“My friend and I have been to all shops that sell crocheted clothes but we couldn’t find what we were looking for...”

“So what?”

“Well, do you know if there’s another shop around here that sells this kind of clothes?”

“Do I look like a tourist guide?”

Again, they exchanged a look, but Monica decided to use her habitual kindness in order to speak to the woman:

“We’re sorry to bother you, madam, but, as a matter of fact, we have a big problem, and we would be very grateful if you could help us. You see, we are looking for a sweater for our dear friend Tess. There was an accident with hers and we want to replace it, but we couldn’t find any sweater equal to the one that was destroyed...”

The Irish angel reached inside her bag and picked up the outfit she was knitting for Andrew, and, despite his attempt to stop her, she showed it to the woman:

“The sweater was equal to this one. Do you think there’s anything similar to this around here?”

The woman looked at the sweater with disgust:

“Oh gosh! I’m sure there isn’t! Who would sell such a horrible thing like that?!”

“Excuse me?...”, Monica said, totally taken aback by that comment.

“Monica I think we’d better go...”, Andrew tried to avoid another tragedy, but there wasn’t time, as the woman kept on talking without mercy:

“A 3 year old would knit something better than this thing! Look at those stitches! They are all messed up! The rows are tortuous! One sleeve is lower than the other! And what kind of pattern is it anyway? Besides, look at this collar! Who would do something so stupid like that?!”

Those words were like a sharp pain straight to Monica’s heart:

“I... I didn’t know it was that bad...”, she said, her eyes glistening with tears.

“Bad? It’s awful! Whoever made this would never touch a needle again! And I doubt whether anybody would be crazy or ridiculous enough to wear this thing! Forget it lady, there are no more shops around here, and even if there were, surely none of them would sell something so horrible!”

With a sad look, Monica put the sweater back in the bag:

“Excuse me...”, she whispered, and left the shop afterwards. Without fully understanding the damage she had just caused, the woman looked at Andrew:

“Did I say anything wrong?”

The blond angel took a deep breath and looked around, trying to imagine how he would fix that second tragedy.

*

Monica was sitting on a bench, not far from the shop. Eyes lowered to the ground, hands resting on her lap and a sorrowful expression on her face. Andrew left the shop 5 minutes later, carrying another bag, and it didn’t take him so long to find her. Quietly, he went to sit beside his dearest friend:

“You don’t have to wear it, you know...”, the Irish angel said, still staring at the ground, “I wouldn’t want you to look ridiculous...”

He looked at her with his eyes filled with love and put some strands of her long auburn hair behind her ear. Then, he cupped Monica’s chin and lifted her head so that their eyes could meet:

“Listen to me, Angel Girl: you will finish that sweater and I will wear it. And you know why? Because this outfit has something that woman wasn’t able to see: the love you put in it! And that, sweetie, is something we’ll never find in any shop in this entire world!”

She looked at his compassionate green eyes and, shedding some tears, hugged him tightly. Smiling, the blond angel stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head repeatedly.

“I just wanted to be able to do something right...”

“What are you saying Monica? You’re such a wonderful angel and do the Father’s work so beautifully!”

“I mean I would like to be able to do something else... I’d like to have some special ability, a talent...Tess, for example, has a beautiful voice...”

“Well, you have a beautiful accent!”

“But with her voice, she has a special way to please God...”

“You have a special way to please God by taking the truth to the ones who need it!”

“You two have a talent for cooking...”

“And you have a talent to prepare the best coffee in all Heaven!”

The Irish angel quietly reflected about his loving and reassuring words and, a minute later, she pulled away just enough to look at his face:

“Do you know what I really have? A wonderful friend who is always on my side, in the good and bad moments!”

He returned her tearful smile:

“That you will have for the rest of eternity; you can be sure of it!”

She stroked his hair and kissed his cheek:

“I love you!”

“I love you too, Angel Girl. And right now, we’re going back to the house, ‘cause we have a problem to solve and I have another idea to solve it!”, he said, taking the bag he was carrying.

“What is it?”, Monica’s eyes were already filled with curiosity.

“You’ll see; now c’mon!”