Earth Angel (Angels and Seers: Book One) Page 18

Chapter 18

  The smell of breakfast waiting for me down the road at the church wafts through the open window as I throw on my training clothes and a light jacket, pulling my hair into a high ponytail without bothering to look in the mirror. Eggs, toast, and fruit are usually on the menu, to give us humans the protein we’ll need to keep up our energy for the day’s work; I usually take my eggs in the form of an omelette filled with green peppers and onions, with veggie bacon on the side. All the angels are vegetarians, as are three of the other seers, so I’m not the only one who won’t eat meat. That makes me feel better, since I don’t want to be any bother to our hard-working cook with my dietary preferences. I expect there will be some kind of protein smoothie offering as well, along with orange juice, bottled water, and coffee. Our cook, whose name is Max, tries to mix it up so we don’t have the same thing every day, but there is always a theme to things, and that theme is energy and power.

  I brush my teeth at lightning speed, wash my face, and head downstairs. Sam and Linda are nowhere to be seen, but they have to be waiting for my family. They’re scheduled to arrive any minute, and Linda, as mayor, is always part of the welcoming committee for new recruits entering the village. Sam was sweet to let me sleep, and is no doubt acting as my proxy greeter, which is kind of him, but I don’t want to miss their arrival. I need to look at them and see for myself that they’re all unharmed. Besides, I miss them.

  Bounding outside into the dim morning flickerings of the sun that only barely sets this time of year at these latitudes, I see them about three houses up the road. Sam, Jared, an angel I don’t recognize, John, Linda, and my family, all standing in a group. They look like they just got here, as their luggage is still at their feet. Sprinting, I practically fly toward them, and throw my arms around each of them in turn, beginning with my grandmother and ending with my newest infant niece, Charlene.

  “Have you been here long?” I ask as I eagerly look them all over for any signs of obvious injury. I can’t quite believe that they haven’t been hurt. Thank God we had the foresight to get them here when we did. There was no way they were going to stay off Jonathan’s radar forever.

  “We just arrived not two minutes ago,” Grandma assures me, patting my hand in the doting, comforting way of hers that seems to come naturally to grandmothers everywhere.

  “Sam, why didn’t you wake me up?” I poke him lightly in the ribs with my elbow, a slight accusing arch on one eyebrow. “I wanted to be here when they arrived!”

  “You had such a hard day yesterday, I wanted to let you sleep as long as possible. You needed the rest.”

  He doesn’t say it apologetically, simply states it as fact.

  “Well, thank you,” I say, disarmed somewhat by his frank kindness. “Still, I feel I should have been here the instant they arrived.” I turn back to my family. “I had every intention of being here.”

  “No worries, my dear,” Grandpa assures me. “We made it here safely, and it’s much more important for you to get your sleep. A tired seer isn’t going to save the world. From what we’ve heard, it’s quite the training camp you’ve got going here. If I was 30 years younger, I would be training right with you.”

  I know he would. My grandfather is proud of his military service, and rightfully so. Even now, at 86 years old, he would have no problem taking up arms with us if he thought he could be of any use on the battlefield, regardless of whether he could see the enemy. Sadly, depending on how large Jonathan’s army gets compared to how many we are able to recruit, we might have to bring him into play, along with other elderly and child volunteers, including the non-seers of the village. It’s not the ideal we’re striving for, by any means, but you do what you have to in desperate times. The United States even started signing up elderly men for the draft in WWII, though they never had to use them. The young and old are the very ones we want to protect the most, besides the Earth itself. If we can keep them out of the fight, we will.

  “How was the trip?” I ask, curious what they think about teleportation.

  “So cool!” my brother James gushes. “It’s the most amazing thing. One minute we were all together at Grandma’s house with our luggage, then an angel appears. He introduces himself, then asks us all to hold hands in a circle, which he joins, too, and then we’re here in Vermont, just like that. It was unreal! I thought I was in a sci-fi movie for a minute there. Only it was better, because it was real!”

  I laugh. James hasn’t talked like this since he was in high school. He may be 33 years old, with a wife and two kids, but the 15 year old in him is still very much there. Even more so than in Matthew, I think, who has always been the most mature of us all, and, at 35, is the picture of stoicism and responsibility. Still, even Matthew smiles when I ask about the travel arrangements. They all do. There is some excited chattering from everyone about the wonders of angel teleportation and how they want to do it again soon.

  We exchange some pleasantries, and gradually, the people who will host my family come out of their homes to welcome them. Assignments are made. My brothers volunteer as soldiers, as I expected they would. They are curious about exploring the seer powers they didn’t know they had, and proud to do their part to protect the world with other seers like them. They’re finally doing something that makes them feel connected to their special heritage, and I know from experience it’s an incredible sense of belonging. I’ve no doubt they will be spending most of their limited free time with the other seers, learning all they can about their forgotten ancestry and all that comes with it.

  My sisters-in-law, not being seers themselves and with young children to care for, are assigned to the nursery. All of the village’s children under the age of 14 are in the nursery all day. Some of them get schooling, while the really young ones do something akin to daycare. Matthew’s wife, Sarah, goes with the daycare volunteers, while James’s wife, Claire, a fourth grade teacher before her marriage, volunteers with the school group, where she will teach reading and cursive handwriting to the second through fifth graders.

  My nieces and nephew go with their mothers. Matthew’s 6-year-old daughter Allison is the only one old enough to attend school. James’s 2-year-old son Jamie and 9-month-old daughter Charlene, will be in the daycare program. Of the village children, there are a fairly even mix of seers and non-seers like my brothers’ children. Seer or not, they will all be protected and kept entertained for however long we have to be here.

  Grandpa volunteers in the armory to keep our battle weapons cleaned, sharpened, and ready for use, and our practice weapons in good shape for our daily use. Grandma is asked to join the village’s Council of Elders. Their job is to advise us on strategy and to use magic to contact angels who might be good recruits, or willing to act as recruiting agents in their home realms. She is thrilled at this assignment, since she knows it will be the perfect opportunity for her to learn what it really means to be a seer. The other women will teach her everything they know, and she can finally reclaim what should have been her birthright from the beginning. In any of the seer families in the world who are still in touch with their heritage, she would be part of an elder council by now, anyway. I feel good about this assignment for her, knowing it is exactly everything she ever wanted, however secret she thought her desires were, and that she will be the first in our family in thousands of years to be a true elder of the tribe (though she’s been acting that role in a de facto way for years). With her and what she will learn, we can again become what we once were as a family millennia ago…what we’ve always been meant to be.

  She’s brought the family angel book with her. I see it sticking out of the side pocket on one of her two suitcases. I also spot two cat carriers, no doubt containing my beloved felines, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester. The entire family have packed lightly out of necessity, only bringing what they really need (and in the case of the kids, some of their favorite toys). They know this isn’t a vacation. It’s kind of like a witness protection program, at least for them.


  I still can’t quite bring myself to think of any angel as evil, even Jonathan. Power hungry, crazy, megalomaniacal, and misguided, yes, but not evil. Angels are inherently good; it’s part of their essential nature. It would take something universe-shattering to turn one totally evil. It’s possible such an event happened to Jonathan; however, it’s far more likely that, in his own misguided way, Jonathan thinks he’s doing us all a favor by trying to put us under his rule.

  Still, he’s gone far enough down the bad path that he will do what is necessary to bring his plans to fruition, including going against the universal angelic rule to protect the sentient beings of this realm. Instead, he will kill the ones who stand against him, as he’s already proven with his own kind. My family and I are all here because I stood against him, just like Sam is here because Sam stood against him.

  I can’t feel guilty about my actions now that they are protected. If something had happened to them, that would have been one thing, and I’d have felt terrible. Even then, though, I still would have been convinced I did the right thing by standing against him to protect the world, and ultimately the universe and multiverse. It’s the way I was raised, I muse, feeling an immense love for all of my family as they stand there so bravely before me in this strange new world.

  All too soon, they are whisked off to their new temporary homes to get settled. They’ll join the rest of the community in their chosen roles later in the day, probably after lunch. Their hosts will give them a tour of the village and a briefing on everything that’s going on before thrusting them into the middle of it all. They won’t have much time to get acclimated, but no one who comes here does. We can’t afford the luxury. They’ll have to adjust to their new reality as quickly as possible, and I know they will do just fine. We are a hardy bunch who adapt quickly, and bounce back with the ease and effortlessness of rubber balls.

  We all hug again and exchange “I love you’s,” and then they are off to receive their orientation, leaving the welcoming committee on the street, watching them go. Once they’re all in their homes, I turn to the new angel who brought them. He is of average height with short, slightly tousled dark hair and a clear complexion. His clothing and wing length identifies him as an Earth Angel, the first we’ve recruited, besides Sam. As part of his kingdom, Sam almost surely knows him, though he’s given no indication of it yet. I know this newcomer will be changing into human training clothes right after breakfast and joining us on the kickball field, either as the leader of a new regiment or part of an existing one.

  “Thank you for bringing them here,” I say to him, genuinely grateful.

  “It was my honor,” he assures me, bowing slightly. It’s still a bit disconcerting when new angels do that with me. Their respect for seers is huge. It’s almost like we’re celebrities, and it makes me squirm a bit every time they treat us like we’re superstars. Thank goodness they get used to being around us quickly and soon start to see us as comrades and not commanders….well, except in the case of Sam and me, who actually are the commanders here.

  My name is Lucy,” I say, offering him my hand to shake. It is not a practice among the angels, but most of them know from observing us that it’s what we do.

  He shakes my hand as if he’s done it before. Like most Earth Angels, he’s dealt directly with humans on occasion, so he probably knows most of our customs.

  “Luke,” he says, introducing himself.

  “Nice to meet you, Luke. Welcome.” I nod at him, smiling. “Thank you for joining us.”

  “I could do no less,” he assures me with all due seriousness. I can tell right away that he is committed to our cause and will be a good soldier for us.

  Eventually, they all wander away to breakfast, leaving Sam and me alone on the street. We stand there in silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts, wanting to speak to each other but not quite knowing what to say.

  After a while, we walk together to breakfast, side by side, but not quite touching, as usual. I wonder if it will ever change.