CHAPTER 11

It took Monica less than a week to put her plans into action. The yard sale would happen on that Saturday afternoon, as the little angel managed to talk to the people from the church, and these, in a solidarity attitude, talked to some of their relatives and closest friends. Without letting them know about Carrie's true condition, Monica told them about the woman's financial situation and her need to see a doctor. It was enough to mobilize them to help the lady and her family. But during those days, the Irish angel avoided telling Carrie about it, fearing that the woman could refuse help. Her going to the doctor would mean letting Jim know about the cancer that was little by little consuming her blood cells.

It was only that morning that the little angel gathered all her courage to tell her assignment about the event that might save her life. They were in the laundry room, chatting about trivial matters when, after folding a pile of clothes, Monica looked at the woman with a serious expression on her face.

"Carrie... I know you're going through difficult times right now..."

She let out a long sigh and sat down on a nearby chair. "Yes... I thought that Jim would manage to find some work to do, but nothing came along so far, and I'm starting to believe that this is the worst moment of our life..."

"I... I know that fixing the money issue might take some time, but once you're healthy, it all becomes easier..." she said, watching as the woman's face went pale and sad.

"I... I guess you're right..."

"And I also know that at this very moment, you need to take care of your health in order to help your husband and to raise your children..."

Not wanting to talk about it, she stood up ready to leave the room, "But we cannot afford a medical treatment right now, Monica, it would mean taking away from the kids the little amount of food we get, and-"

"I know..." Monica quickly interrupted her, "... and that's why I thought about something else..."

Now she got the woman's full attention back to her, she took in a deep breath and finally spoke, "Andrew, Tess and I organized a yard sale this afternoon, there at the church. The children will also help by baking cookies, and... well... I will help too, as I knitted some scarves... All the money we can get from it is going to help you buy medicines you need and even to start a treatment, if this is necessary..."

"What are you telling me, Monica?" she couldn't believe the little angel's words.

"That there are many people who want to help you and your family... That... when I told them you were going through difficult times, they all wanted to help... I guess it brought them the spirit of solidarity that everybody thought had disappeared a long time ago..."

Confusion clouded over her face and for a moment the woman didn't know what to think or to say about the angel's attitude. "I... I don't think this is a good idea... I mean... what will Jim say about it? I should talk to him first, and-"

Monica placed her hand over Carrie's, gently interrupting her. "Carrie, you and Jim have three wee children who need your love and attention... Think about them... Do this for Jenny, Brian and Kevin, and I'm sure Jim will understand and support you..."

Carrie hesitated for a few seconds, but the thought of her three children crying over their mother and her being unable to take care of them caused a knot in the pit of her stomach. Maybe, with the help of others, she would be able to start a treatment... maybe, the diagnosis she had been given a few months ago was wrong, and she'd been suffering from malnutrition all this time.

"D-do you really think Jim won't mind?" she asked at last.

"How could he mind if this means helping you? How could he mind if this means seeing your children happy to have their mom healthy again?"

A smile appeared on the woman's face and she nodded her head, "Monica... sometimes I don't believe people like you exist... After all the terrible things I told you, and knowing that Andrew and Tess are your friends and-"

"Please, let's leave it in the past, Carrie. All that matters now is your future."

Encouraged by the angel's words, she stood up from the chair. "Please, take me to the church? Everybody is there right now, right?"

"Y-yes, it'll start in an hour, but are you sure you don't want to rest a little?" the angel was immediately worried about her assignment's condition. "It's been quite cold lately, and you shouldn't take risks going out in a weather like this, you might catch a cold, and-"

"Please? I have to thank all these people for what they're doing for me..."

Sighing deeply, and unable to say no, the little angel nodded in agreement. "Alright. But we're not staying too long, okay? You need to rest as much as you can, until you're healed."

X

When Monica and Carrie got at the church, the yard sale had just started and it was possible to see how much those people wanted to help. They brought in clothes, blankets, curtains, dishes, some old furniture such as chairs, tables and lamps, Christmas decorations, and all sorts of other things in good condition to be sold.

With the help of Andrew and Tess, they set up tables and awnings for shade and the huge sale was placed in the church yard. As they got there, tears of emotion stung Carrie's eyes to see how help could come from the most unexpected places, at the most unexpected hours. "I don't know what to say..."

"You don't have to, Carrie. Just know that God always finds a way to tell you how much He loves you." the Irish angel spoke, placing her hand over her shoulder.

And as they approached the tables, a pair of green eyes soon caught sight of the little angel who had just arrived. A heartbeat later, it was Monica who felt a loving presence standing just a few steps away from her. And the next thing they knew, Andrew had his arms wrapped around her small form, in a tight, warm embrace that lifted her off the ground a little.

"What you did was beautiful..." she whispered in his ear, unable to let go off his loving arms.

Smiling, Andrew kissed her shoulder. "I didn't do anything... I only did what you asked me to... And only someone with a beautiful soul and a loving heart could think of something like this..."

"Then I'll have to blame you again... If it wasn't you loving me, my heart wouldn't be so full of love... And then I wouldn't have managed to think about all of this..."

Andrew pulled away just a few inches, enough to look at her pretty face, and still smiling, he caressed her cheek, "That's not true... You're always doing wonderful things to people... And I'm blessed to be one of these people!"

Blushing, she lowered her eyes for a moment, and then raised them again, smiling at him in a way that would melt his heart. "I don't know about that... but I guess you have a wee bit of advantage in relation to the others!"

While the couple of angels talked, Tess and Carrie greeted each other and the woman thanked her for the organization of the event. They spoke for a while but the housewife couldn't miss the way the angels gazed at each other, unaware of their surroundings for a few seconds: it was pure love reflected in the spark of their eyes.

"Look at these two! Aren't they adorable?"

Tess followed the woman's eyes and then rolled her own eyes playfully at the image of her two angel babies together. "Well, yes, too adorable sometimes!"

Andrew held her face with both hands and lay soft kisses on her forehead and nose. Truth to be told, he felt like keeping the little angel in his arms and kissing her for as long as he could, but it was not time for that. He sighed with a bit of resignation, though not less happy, and brushed a tiny kiss on her lips before they parted, turning their attention back to the event they'd organized. Yet, the blond angel kept a firm hold on Monica's small hand.

X

The yard sale went on just fine and the idea worked so well that even before it was finished, they had enough money to pay for three months of medicines. Although Carrie was deeply moved with everybody's help, deep down inside she felt bad for not telling Monica, Andrew and Tess about the diagnosis she'd been given a few months earlier. As the housewife was feeling a bit tired, Monica took her to the sacristy, so she could rest sit down and rest for a while. Carrie spent some time alone, exactly considering telling the angels - her closest friends now, the truth about her illness, but a voice calling out her name interrupted her thoughts. It was her husband.

"Jim?"

"What's all this, Carrie?" he wanted to know, confusion had clouded over his face.

"Monica... she and her friends organized this yard sale to help me start a treatment... We'll have money for the medicines and all the other expenses, and-"

"I can't believe you're doing this to me..." the man interrupted her, visibly not happy to hear that.

A bit taken aback by her husband's reaction, Carrie bit her lower lip, afraid to go on talking. "This... this is to help us all, Jim... I know you cannot afford a treatment right now, and..."

"Exactly, I cannot afford, and you just went out telling everyone about it!"

With tear-filled eyes, she gave two steps closer to him, "You know what, Jim? For a moment I thought you'd changed... that you really cared about your family, but now... Now I see how wrong I was! You're the same selfish man I got married to all those years ago!"

Saying that, she rushed outside the small room, decided to stay away from that man. She expected him to understand and support the idea, she had thought they would go through that situation together and even trusted he had changed, but all these wrong impressions. Desperately searching for the exit, Carrie ended up bumping into Monica, who came along the corridor in the opposite direction, attracted by their loud voices.

"Carrie? Is... is there anything wrong?"

"I... I just want to go back home, Monica, that's all..." the woman replied, and before the little angel could say something else, Jim came along the same corridor.

"Carrie, I need to talk to you!"

"We don't have anything to talk about, Jim! Just let me go!" she replied, and ran away without looking behind.

The truck driver gave up going after her. Instead, he stared at the little angel standing before him with upset eyes. "Are you happy now, Monica? Is it what you're here for? To separate my wife and me?"

"I... I don't know what you're talking about..." she replied, the inevitable sensation of fear once again taking control of her heart and soul.

"Oh, you don't? So this is God's way to punish me for trying to kidnap one of His angels? I thought He didn't punish people, I thought He just wanted to love them, but I was wrong!"

Shaking her head in disagreement and permanent confusion, Monica spoke again, "J-Jim, I... What happened? Why are you so angry, we-"

"I cannot afford paying for expensive medicines and you and your friends found a way to beg for money! You all found a way to humiliate me before my family and everybody else!"

"We just want to help!" she replied, with her heart pounding loudly in her chest.

"I didn't ask for help... I didn't ask for your money!"

Jim turned his back on her and exited the church building, following the same path Carrie had done a minute before. Guilt washed over Monica's soul, and thinking that she had made a terrible mistake, the little angel was going after him, when a gentle hand over her shoulder stopped her. "Angel, wait..."

She turned around to face Andrew, and in her eyes it was possible to see the first tears of despair. "Andrew... I... I didn't want this to happen! It's not what it was supposed to be! They had to be together and not fighting! I have to go to them, I need to fix things before it is too late, please-"

Now placing his other hand on her cheek, the blond angel spoke again. "You did what you had to do, baby. Now it's up to them. Carrie and Jim need to have that conversation. Time is running out for her."

With tears now freely rolling down her face, she looked deep inside his green pools, aware that what he was saying was true. Still, she shook her head, "I didn't mean to make them argue... I didn't mean to make this man feel humiliated before his family..."

With his heart aching, both with love and sadness, Andrew gently pulled her to a warm, loving embrace, and felt twice sorry as she grabbed his tee-shirt and buried her face in his chest, sobbing miserably. "I know that. Carrie knows that. And most importantly, God knows that too, Angel. In fact, the only person who cannot see the truth here is the man who's just walked out of the church." He kissed the top of her head repeatedly before going on talking, "But now that you managed to reach Carrie's heart, now that you made her build up the courage to face her illness, it is Carrie herself who will make Jim see the truth."

The little angel held him a bit tighter, listening to his constant heartbeats. They spend a long minute in silence, until Monica's tears subsided a little, and she spoke again. "Thank you..."

"I told you that you don't have to thank me for anything, angel..."

"I do..." she insisted, her crying voice filling the deserted corridor, "I love you so much that... sometimes... I come to the conclusion that... that there's no 'me' without you..." Her words and the genuine love that came along with them only made his heart clench. Andrew loved her so deeply and so intensely that he too realized at that very moment that his soul existed due to God's will. But his heart only beat because the angel Monica was there with him.

X

Jim easily reached his wife, and with just some quick steps, he managed to hold her arm and make her stop walking. "Carrie, you had no right to hide this from me!"

"You know what? You're right, Jim, there are many things I should have told you!" She replied, with anger written in her face.

"What are you talking about? What has this Monica... what has she told you to do?"

"Monica and her friends, and all these people who came here today are the ones who really care about me... It's for them and for my children that I'm gonna take the money from the yard sales and start my treatment! And you know why? Because you cannot afford it, it's way expensive!"

"So this is some kind of revenge? You're gonna humiliate me in revenge for a mistake I made ten years ago?"

She shook her head, tears falling freely from her eyes even though she continued to stare firmly at him, "No... It has nothing to do with you... It has to do with me... And with the cancer I've been diagnosed with some months ago..."

Carrie's last words came as a shock for him. For a moment, Jim thought he had misunderstood what she had just said. "What... what are you telling me, Carrie?" he spoke, his voice was almost a whisper.

"Exactly what you heard... I suffer from leukemia. It took me some time to accept this - I thought it was probably a mistake, that the doctor was exaggerating, and that it was nothing but a terrible flu, maybe pneumonia, but now... Now Monica made me see the truth! When she talked about my children; when she made me see I have to live for them... then I realized I had a lot to fight for..." she spoke, watching as the expression on her husband's face changed completely, "And I'm ready for this, Jim. I'm ready to face this illness... with or without your support."

Jim stared at his wife, trying to grasp the concept that she had cancer. He knew she hadn't been well for some time, but lack of insurance and selfish pride had kept him from doing anything about it and all the while Carrie's body had continued to be invaded by this deadly disease. He had never felt more wrong in his life.

"Carrie…" He whispered, but she quickly cut him off, anger still visible in her eyes.

"No. I don't want your pity, Jim. You knew something was wrong, but only now that you know it's cancer, you want to act like you care. You didn't care before. You didn't want to see or admit that I was sick, but denying it doesn't make it go away!" Carrie was trembling and she blinked back tears of anger and hurt, "For months I have carried this secret on my own, because I felt that anything different would have been an inconvenience to you. I had accepted the fact that I would die, that was until Monica made me see things differently."

"You should have told me," Jim insisted, still completely overwhelmed by both his wife's diagnosis and her fury directed at him, "I didn't know, Carrie! Had I known, I would have done things differently!"

"You knew I was sick and you did nothing," She snapped, before closing her eyes briefly, suddenly feeling very tired, "I don't want to talk to you now. I'm going home."

He watched miserably as Carrie slowly walked away from him, wanting to go after her, but knowing that right now there was nothing more he could say.