Guardian Angel (2 page)

"This has to be a hallucination" Michael murmured, raising his hand to his head so fast he nearly tore the IV out of it. He tried to recall what had happened. He remembered crossing the road, and then…a dream. Michael worked out that he must have been hit by a car or been involved in some kind of accident, ending up in hospital. Then this girl had to be a nurse or some kind of hospital worker. The wings were probably just a trick of the light, a remnant of his dream. Michael sighed as logic took over his confusion, and he turned again to face the girl.

  She had moved away from his bedside and seemed to be kneeling on the floor in prayer; the wings
, however, had not disappeared as Michael had hoped they would, so he thought he would try a bit of conversation to help shake off whatever was still bugging him. The woman, meanwhile, prayed sending a pleasant almost melodic sounding voice upwards.

“Thank you sweetly for protecting my charge in his hour of need

  Thank you sweetly
for seeing to his recovery with such speed

  I forever will s
tand by his side; I forever will guide his whole

I forever will sing far and wide, I forev
er serve body and soul.”

“That’s a beautiful prayer and a beautiful voice you have there, nurse,” Michael commented, a bit taken aback. His head hurt less upon hearing the young woman sing, and he felt more relaxed.

“
Oh, it’s just an old prayer to send thanks into the sympho…” The woman trailed off, then turned round with a growing look of shock on her face.

“
AHHHHHHHHiiiiiiii
!” she screamed, jumping back and knocking a small beaker over with her wings.

 
She recovered herself and returned over to where Michael lay to look into his eyes again. “You…you can see me?” she stammered.

“
Well, yeah of course, did you think you were like the invisible man? Sorry for embarrassing…” Then it was Michael’s turn to trail off as he looked at the smashed beaker. Tricks of light or imaginary wings don’t tend to knock things over.

“
Those…those wings are
real
?” His head suddenly began to hurt again, and a growing sense of nausea formed in his belly.

His yell brought a nurse running into the room with a half-prepared meal tray. She opened the door almost straight into the face of the winged woman, who stepped aside deftly just at the last moment. The nurse walked straight up to Michael’s bed, totally ignoring the woman standing there. She would have been hard to miss. What was going on? It was still possible he was going crazy, or that headache was a sign of something serious.

  The nurse went over to the machine and checked the
statistics on it, noting Michael's vitals. She then checked his IV and finally turned to him, looking into his eyes before smiling warmly.

“
It’s good to see you finally awake, you have been drifting in and out for a while now,” she said. “I heard you shouting as I was doing the food rounds. Coming out of a coma can be a bit of a shock so breathe deeply and try to relax. Let’s get you comfortable, ok?”

Michael felt he had to ask the obvious questions, trying to ignore the winged woman
in the corner of his vision. She could, indeed, be just a figment of his confused brain.

“
What happened to me? How long have I been here?” he asked as the nurse adjusted his bed slightly allowing him to sit up at a lazy tilt.

“You were involved in a car accident. You were lucky; it could have been much worse. You’ve been here for three days now. You suffered a nasty knock to the head and a punctured lung, but somehow, miraculously almost, the lung healed itself within a day. The consultant had seen nothing like it. You really are a lucky young man.”

 
Michael nodded in agreement; things were making sense to him now. He sat up very slowly, his whole body aching with the effort and his head swimming. The winged woman was still visible, though she seemed to be hiding in the corner and he had to ask the nurse just to be sure.

“
Nurse…do you see anyone else in this room?” He pointed over to the corner as the winged woman waved her hands in alarm, as if to indicate that she didn’t want to be given away.

The nurse turned around, then looked around the room. She didn’t seem to notice the winged woman at all and turned back to Michael shaking her head.

“
Nope, no one else in here. Do you see someone?” She leant down again.

“
No-no. I just thought I saw someone out of the corner of my eye,” The last thing he wanted was to be taken for a madman.

The nurse hesitated
, looking at Michael sternly. “Well, it’s probably just your mind playing tricks on you. Do you feel up to something light to eat?”

Michael nodded, feeling as if he hadn’t eaten in...well, days. The nurse smiled and left the room. She placed a foldout table in front of Michael with a tray of food on it. The tray had a couple of pieces of toast, jam, butter and a small cup for water.

“Eat slowly and make sure to drink all the water. Your body will need a little time to readjust. I’m going to go back on my rounds now, but if you need anything just push the buzzer there. I'll let the doctors know you are awake and ask one to check on you a bit later. It’ll probably be a couple of hours though so just relax,” the nurse said.

“
It’s good to see you awake and again if you need anything just push the buzzer, my name’s Sandra,”

She left the room, shutting the door gently behind her. Michael leaned back in his bed, letting the warm soft pillows embrace his aching head again. So he had been in hospital for three days, since a car accident. He couldn’t remember much about it just crossing the road, and then dreams. But the winged woman - she felt familiar…and she
still
hadn’t disappeared. In fact, while he was thinking she had returned to be inches away from his face.

“
AHH…!” Michael yet out a loud yelp, and the woman to stepped back a pace.

“
It’s true…you can really see me…this isn’t good, this hasn’t happened before. What do I do? What do I dooo…?” The winged woman was clearly talking to herself as she paced back and forth by Michael’s bed.

“
This is too weird. I really must be going crazy.” Michael sat up, and watched her frantic pacing. In any other situation, she would have looked comical.

Michael pinched his forehead with his fingers, squinting. His headache kept coming and going, either because of the accident, or the mystery woman. Better just to get on with the job of eating his breakfast and worry about his odd situation later. He took a couple of bites, and his body told him it needed more. He devoured the rest of the slice in moments.

 
The mystery woman meanwhile had stopped pacing and was now staring at him with an odd expression. Michael looked back and shrugged, did he have crumbs on his face? If so he didn't really care.

“
What?” he said, mouth half full.

“
How can you be eating at a time like this? Aren’t you a bit shocked that there’s a “
beautiful
” young woman with wings standing in your hospital room? Or do you see Angels every day?”

  Michael finished his mout
hful and washed it down with water before replying.

“
Well, considering I've had a knock on the head and I’m in hospital, I just kinda assumed you were a figment of my imagination. Maybe I’m going crazy. Heck maybe I’m even still asleep!”

  The woman leaned low over him. She wore a loose fitting white top
, and Michael had to try very hard not to glance down her cleavage. She grinned. She gently placed her hand on the meat of his arm and then pinched it hard.

“
Ouch
”. “What the hell was that for?”

“
Could a figment of your imagination do that?” the woman countered grinning.

 
Michael looked at his arm and saw an angry red mark where she had pinched him. He rubbed it to soothe the pain, his mind reeling. She had left a mark; hallucinations couldn’t leave marks, could they?

“
OK…OK, this is really too much. Maybe I should just go back to sleep. When I wake up, this will all turn out to be some kind of weird nightmare.” Michael lay back down shutting his eyes.

“
Hmph So I’m like a nightmare! Sheesh, I spend all your life watching you, keeping you safe. I save your life, so your song doesn’t join the chorus on high, and this is the thanks I get, called a nightmare!” She folded her arms across her chest and turned her back, looking angry.

  Michael
opened his eyes again, staring at the ceiling. What she had said, petulant though it was, struck a chord with him. She had said something about the chorus on high. Realisation hit him at once. This woman was the same one in his dream, the same apparition he had seen the night before, and the same woman who had been up in the tree. He had even seen her before the accident. That surely meant she had to be real?

He turned his head slowly, keeping it buried in the pillow against the vertigo of his situation, and he took a long look at her. She was indeed beautiful in a cute kind of way. She looked to be about five-foot-five but her wings made her seem much larger. She had piercing blue eyes, long blonde hair and a pair of red ribbons worked into two front strands. Michael sighed and swallowed his growing anxiety to try and smooth things over with...well, the angel.

“
Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you, but you have to admit this is a shock to me. I mean, it's not every day you meet an…an angel in a hospital room. It’s like something out of a movie.”

“
This isn’t any movie, I’m afraid, and I’m not just any angel. I am your angel, your guardian angel. It’s my job to look after you, guide you and one day…" The angel trailed off. "Well anyway," she added "I'm just glad you're ok."

“
So, what’s your name? I mean, you obviously know mine, seeing as you’ve been with me from day one. Must have been weird seeing me naked all those times, eh?”

“
My name is Jasmine, and as for seeing you naked, I can’t say seeing a tiny winkle was altogether very interesting. But you were a cute baby, I must admit, especially that little birthmark on the back of your thigh. Looks like a little baby sheep,”

 
This had to be real. No-one had seen that mark, apart from his parents and a few ex-girlfriends. He also felt himself blush at having his joke turned against him. Did she look at him in the shower now he was an adult? No, being an angel he doubted she would do something so improper. Michael decided to accept things as they were, at least for now; if he tried to go against the flow his head might explode.

“
So, what happened with the accident? I barely remember it? You must have seen it. After it happened, I saw you in my dreams.”

Jasmine’s face turned very serious, and she moved to sit by him on the bed. She smelled of the flower she was named after. As she sat on the bed, she barely made an impression, as if she were light as a feather. She placed her hand on the bed to steady herself, then leaned closer.

“
You were involved in a car accident, as the nurse told you…but it wasn't really an accident. Someone influenced that driver, distracted her into hitting you. It’s the only reason on High let me directly heal you. If it had been natural…I would have lost you.” Jasmine whispered frowning.

“Your dreams are how I usually talk to you. The human subconscious is tuned into our songs and sings with us in the great symphony. Dreams are the easiest way for you and us to tap into it, allowing me to guide you, talk to you and comfort you. I was there when your ex left you in the dumps, when you got ill - every time, watching over you and praying you would be OK.”

“
So. You’re saying someone wanted me dead?” a dread grew in Michael's mind.

“
Maybe…but maybe not. I mean, the darker powers in the world have many little schemes they like to play out. It could have just been a malicious act…or something more, I don’t know. But try not to worry. You’re OK now, and I'll be here to keep you safe.” Jasmine smiled and placed her hand on top of his.

“
You seeing me is something totally different though. I think it’s the first time this has happened for hundreds of years.” She paused for a moment.

“Someone’s coming. Your doctor. I am going to go on high and try to find out if they know anything. Get some rest. Even from up there, I'll be keeping an eye on you, so try not to worry. If this is temporary, then it was a pleasure to talk directly to you. If not, we can chat when I come back.”

 
Rising from the bed, Jasmine placed her hands together and raised them above her head. Her wings spread, and a light enveloped her. She sang a few notes and slowly moved upwards in the light. She turned her face down to him, even as her wingtips passed directly through the ceiling. She smiled, pushed one of her hands out towards him and made the peace sign saying “Toodles!” she said, passing through the ceiling in a ring of light and out of Michael’s sight.