John stared down through the windshield at the young woman sitting behind the steering wheel.
He nudged Paul.
“She’s really beautiful, isn’t she, Paul?”
Paul looked at the young woman below them, then back at John.
“Yes,” he said softly. “She certainly is.”
John smiled.
Paul didn’t.
“Let’s hope everything works out,” he said. “We only have seven Earth days.”
John cocked his head to one side.
“Uh, Paul?”
“Yes, John?”
“What’s a day?”
Paul closed his eyes for just a moment.
There were going to be a lot of questions.
Kathy sat alone in her car outside the clinic.
It was done.
It was over.
No one knew.
No one except Lucy.
Lucy had bought the pregnancy test. They had been best friends for as long as Kathy could remember, and now Lucy was the only other person in the world who knew what had happened.
Kathy lowered the sun visor and looked at herself in the mirror.
Tears were running down her cheeks.
“Why am I crying?” she whispered.
She wiped at them impatiently.
“Girls have abortions every day.”
But the girl staring back from the mirror didn’t look convinced.
Her brown eyes were swollen from crying. Kathy pulled a brush from her purse and ran it through her long black hair, then gathered it into a ponytail and pulled it through the back of her ball cap.
She thought about her mother.
Susan could never know.
And Chris?
Especially Chris.
Kathy started the car and turned up the radio.
Loud.
Maybe the noise would drown out everything else.
She put her hands on the steering wheel.
They were shaking.
Kathy stared through the windshield for several seconds before reaching for the radio again.
Click.
Silence.
For some reason, silence felt better.
Above her, John watched every movement.
“Paul?”
“Yes, John?”
“What’s that dripping down my momma’s face?”
Paul looked at Kathy.
“Those are tears.”
John’s brow wrinkled.
“What are tears?”
“It’s something people do here when they’re sad.”
John looked back down through the windshield.
“What’s sad?
Paul sighed.
He put a hand gently on John’s wing.
“I tell you what. Right now, let’s concentrate on that beautiful momma of yours. We’ll talk about all of that later.”
John nodded.
Then, after perhaps two seconds:
“Paul?”
Paul looked at him.
John smiled.
“I love her.”
Paul’s expression softened.
“I know you do.”
Kathy’s phone rang from somewhere inside her purse.
She jumped.
Even the ringtone sounded wrong today.
She dug through her purse, looked at the screen, and took a deep breath.
Lucy.
“Hi.”
Her voice cracked.
Kathy swallowed and tried again.
“Hi, Lucy.”
She listened for a moment.
“Yes. I did it.”
A pause.
“It’s all over now.”
Kathy looked out the windshield toward the clinic.
“Yes, I’m okay. I guess. I’m still really sore.”
She leaned her head back against the seat.
“At least I won’t be stuck with that cheater and his baby. It’s just…”
Her voice trailed away.
“It’s just not a good time for me.”
John looked at Paul.
“What’s time?”
Paul glanced at him.
“It’s something they use here on Earth.”
“What for?”
“John.”
“What?”
“We’ll talk about time later.”
John nodded.
Kathy was still talking.
“Lucy, you have to promise me. Nobody can ever know about this. Ever. Especially Mom.”
She hesitated.
“And Chris.”
Another pause.
“I’m leaving now. I’ll see you soon.”
Kathy ended the call and laid the phone on the passenger seat.
The seat was covered with pamphlets from the clinic.
She stared at them.
Then, with one sweep of her hand, she knocked them onto the floorboard.
“Time to get on with my life.”
She put the car in reverse.
Above her, John suddenly leaned toward Paul.
“Can I do it now?”
“No.”
“But you said I could.”
“I said you could when the time was right.”
John frowned.
“But you just said time doesn’t matter.”
Paul stared at him.
John waited.
Paul finally shook his head.
This was going to be a very long seven Earth days.
John smiled hopefully.
“Can I?”
“John.”
“The Kiss and Whisper.”
“Not yet.”
Paul put a reassuring hand on John’s wing.
“You only get one chance. One Kiss and Whisper. That’s why you have to wait until you’re absolutely sure.”
John looked down at Kathy.
“But I love her so much.”
“I know.”
“How will I know when it’s time?”
Paul smiled.
“You’ll know.”
Kathy slowly backed out of the parking space.
She reached for the radio.
Stopped.
Then looked at the clinic one more time.
Something inside her wouldn’t let her leave.
Not quite yet.
She stared at the building.
“It just feels like I’m leaving something important here.”
John’s expression changed.
For the first time since he’d arrived, there was no question.
He simply watched his mother.
Kathy finally turned away.
She switched on the radio, cranked up the volume and pulled into traffic.
Paul watched the car disappear into the stream of vehicles.
Then he looked at John.
“Come on.”
John grinned.
His wings opened.
By the time Kathy pulled into the driveway, she was singing along with the radio.
Or at least trying to.
She checked herself in the mirror one more time.
The puffiness around her eyes was still there.
Maybe Mom wouldn’t notice.
Kathy stepped out of the car and carefully closed the door behind her.
Creeeeak.
She winced.
“Is that you, Kathy?” Susan called from inside.
So much for sneaking in.
“Yeah, Mom. It’s me.”
Kathy headed straight for the stairs.
“Pretty hot outside. I think I’m going to take a quick shower.”
“Okay, dear. Everything all right?”
“Yeah. Just kinda sweaty.”
She hurried upstairs before Susan could ask anything else.
The warm water felt good.
Kathy stood beneath it longer than she needed to.
She washed her hair.
Then washed it again.
She didn’t understand why.
She only knew that she wanted to feel clean.
When she finally came downstairs, she was wearing her bathrobe with a towel wrapped around her wet hair.
Susan had made lunch.
“Come sit down,” she said. “Take a load off, girl.”
Kathy sat.
Susan smiled at her.
“So…what’s up with you?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“Just doing that teenager thing.”
Susan studied her daughter.
Kathy picked up her sandwich.
Susan knew that face.
She had known almost every version of it since the day Kathy was born.
The sleepy face.
The angry face.
The I didn’t do it face.
The heartbroken face.
But something about this one frightened her.
Susan had raised Kathy alone since Jerry died. Losing him had left an empty place in both their lives, but mother and daughter had grown especially close. There wasn’t much they couldn’t talk about.
At least Susan had always believed there wasn’t.
She had leaned heavily on her faith through those years. She had tried to share that faith with Kathy too—sometimes successfully, sometimes not.
But she never stopped trying.
And she never stopped praying for her daughter.
High above the kitchen table, two visitors sat atop the china cabinet.
John pointed toward Susan.
“Is that her mother?”
“Yes.”
John stared at her.
“So…where do mothers come from?”
Paul looked at him.
“And how did I get here? And where did you come from? And why doesn’t my momma have wings?”
Paul smiled.
“I asked some of those same questions once.”
“You did?”
“I did.”
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“What are the answers?”
Paul laughed softly.
“You’re going to discover them yourself.”
“When?”
“Soon.”
John’s eyes widened.
“How soon?”
Paul closed his eyes.
At the table, Kathy took a tiny bite of her sandwich.
She glanced at Susan.
Susan caught her.
“Kathy.”
“Hmm?”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
There it was.
The question Kathy had been dreading.
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“Kathy, I know you.”
“I’m fine.”
“Is it Chris? Did you two have a fight? Because you know all couples—”
“Stop it, Mom.”
Susan fell silent.
“Just…stop.”
Kathy stared at the table.
“If you really have to know, yes. We broke up.”
Susan waited.
“He cheated on me.”
“Oh, Kathy.”
“He’s a cheating monster. You have no idea.”
And that much was true.
Susan had no idea.
Kathy wanted desperately to tell her everything.
For one brief moment, she nearly did.
Mom, I was pregnant.
Mom, I was scared.
Mom, I didn’t know what else to do.
But the words wouldn’t come.
She couldn’t bear the thought of what they might do to her mother.
Susan pushed her chair back.
She walked around the table and stood beside her daughter.
She didn’t ask another question.
She simply opened her arms.
Kathy looked up.
And whatever she had been holding inside broke loose.
She stood and collapsed against her mother.
The tears came hard.
Harder than they had in the car.
Harder than Kathy could ever remember crying.
Susan held her tightly.
And then Susan began to cry too.
“I love you, Kathy,” she whispered into her daughter’s wet hair.
Kathy clung to her.
Susan squeezed tighter.
“No matter what.”
They hovered beside mother and daughter.
John looked at Paul.
Paul didn’t need to explain.
They could both feel it.
Love.
Their wings slowly opened.
Paul’s great wings spread first, followed by John’s smaller ones, until mother and daughter were completely surrounded.
Susan couldn’t see them.
Kathy couldn’t see them.
But for a few precious moments, four souls stood together inside a shelter of feathers and love.
John closed his eyes.
He knew this feeling.
A few moments later, Kathy pulled away.
“I love you so much, Mom.”
“I love you too.”
“You’re the best.”
Susan brushed the hair from Kathy’s face.
Kathy managed a tiny smile.
“I need to go upstairs for a minute. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay, dear. Go ahead. We’ll talk some more when you come down.”
Kathy headed upstairs.
John and Paul’s wings slowly folded.
They settled onto the back of the couch.
Paul watched Susan.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
John looked confused.
“What is?”
“The love.”
“Oh.”
John smiled.
“The Light of Love.”
“Yes. But there’s something else.”
Paul nodded toward Susan.
“The light inside her.”
John looked carefully.
Susan seemed different somehow.
“Her light?”
“She found it many years ago. And it still burns very bright.”
John immediately looked toward the stairs.
“Where’s my momma’s light?”
Paul said nothing.
John’s smile faded.
“I didn’t see it.”
He looked back toward the stairs.
“I saw a place where the light should be.”
Paul suddenly raised his hand.
“John.”
“What?”
“Look.”
Susan had returned to the kitchen table.
She reached for a book.
She opened it.
And John’s world exploded with color.
Light poured from the pages—gold and white and colors John had no Earthly names for.
Susan’s own light began to glow brighter.
John grabbed Paul by both shoulders.
“Paul!”
Paul laughed.
“What is THAT?”
John could barely contain himself.
“It’s beautiful! It looks like Love, only…only…”
He searched desperately for words.
“A thousand times brighter!”
Paul’s face filled with joy.
“That is the Light of the Light, John.”
John stared.
“The Light of the World.”
The colors danced across John’s face.
Paul looked toward the stairs.
“And I think Susan may be about to share it with your momma.”
John’s eyes grew enormous.
“This may be it,” Paul whispered.
John looked at him.
Paul nodded.
“Get ready.”
John’s hand instinctively rose toward his lips.
The Kiss and Whisper.
Then—
“MOMMA!”
Both angels spun toward the stairs.
“Momma, come quick!”
Susan dropped the book.
“Kathy!”
She ran.
Two stairs at a time.
“Kathy! Baby, what’s wrong?”
She found her daughter collapsed on the bathroom floor.
“Mom…
”
Susan dropped beside her.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Kathy?”
Susan’s hands began to shake.
“What happened?”
“I’m sorry, Momma.”
Susan ran into the hallway for the phone.
“911? Please—my daughter needs help!”
On the bathroom floor, Kathy’s eyes began to close.
“Please forgive me, Momma.”
John and Paul dropped to their knees beside her.
John looked at Paul.
There were no questions now.
Both angels lifted their faces and hands.
Golden light began to surround them.
It grew brighter.
And brighter.
Until their faces could barely be seen.
Susan rushed back and lifted Kathy’s head into her lap.
“Help is coming, baby. Help is coming.”
She stroked Kathy’s hair.
“What have you done to yourself?”
Kathy didn’t answer.
Susan held her daughter and listened.
Waiting.
Praying.
Then—
far away at first—
a siren.
Susan closed her eyes.
“Thank God.”
The sound grew louder.
Closer.
She held Kathy tighter.
“Please hurry.”
And beside them, unseen by either mother or daughter, John and Paul continued to glow.
John and Paul slipped quietly from the top of the china cabinet.
