A feather by the breath of God - by Gaby

It was the first day of work for Lorena at the Funeral House and she was finishing to clean the living room’s windows when a headache made her dizzy and almost fell to the floor. Andrew, who was entering the house at that moment, saw her and went to her side. “Are you ok?” the blond angel asked.

“Yeah, yeah... it’s just a little headache,” Lorena said. “You’re the guy that drives the hearse right?”

“Well, yeah, that’s one of my jobs, yeah... I’m Andrew,” he said shaking hands with her.

“Lorena... It’s my first day... I guess we’ll be seeing more of each other here.”

The sound of the door opening made both turn and see Monica coming in. “Hey,” she greeted them and went by Andrew’s side.

“Hey, baby,” he said too and pecked her on the lips to Lorena’s surprise.

“I see you met Lorena,” the little angel said.

“Yes, we just met... and you haven’t told me, Monica...” the brunette woman added purposefully.

Monica blushed slightly. “No, sorry, I didn’t.”

“But she did tell me you have a daughter...” Andrew said.

“Gracie... yes! Do you like kids?”

“He’s great with kids!” Monica replied for him and he blushed a little this time. “We’ll be happy to help you take care of her when she comes back from school.”

“Thank you! I just hope Mr. Alcott likes kids too... By the way, he wanted to see you, Andrew,” Lorena told the angels.

“Ok, see you later,” he said lovingly rubbing Monica’s arm before he went to see their “boss”.

***

Andrew had gone to let Sidney know he had accepted a new “delivery” while he was gone and they were seeing the little boy’s corpse when Gracie opened the door. “Drop the sheet, Sidney,” Andrew said when he realized the girl was at the door.

“What?” the man didn’t understand until the angel grabbed the sheet and covered the boy.

“Hey, you’re Lorena’s kid, right? You’re Gracie...” Andrew said going towards the girl but she was so scared she all but ran away.

“Hey, kid, don’t go! Stick around!” Sidney said as if nothing had happened. “You may learn something...”

More than mad at the man, Andrew just shook his head and pushed the door to leave. He ran into Monica, Lorena and a crying Grace in the living room.

“Andrew?” Monica asked when she saw how upset he was.

“I-I’m sorry...” he said and left. The little angel followed him.

“Andrew?” she stopped him by the garden.

“How can he be so cold and merciless?!” the blond angel snapped when they were outside. “Grace was shocked and he didn’t care! He thought it was kind of a teaching for her, an useful experience and wanted her to come closer and look at the boy as if he wasn’t a human body but a thing!”

The Irish angel came closer to him trying to avoid his moving arms. “Calm down, Andrew, we’re not helping Grace or Lorena...”

“Sidney is supposed to care about that girl! She’s only twelve! I feel so ashamed and so mad that...!”

“I know,” she said placing a hand on his cheek to make him stop and look at her, “I know.”

“God forgives me but sometimes men like Sidney make me so mad...” he kind of excused himself.

“That’s all right... Come here,” she murmured in a soothing low voice and pulled him down for a long hug.

Still reluctantly after his bad mood, the blond angel little by little surrendered to her warm embrace and buried his face in her sweet smelling hair.

***