Heather Graham (16 page)

Cathy shook her head strenuously.

“I was told to help the boys,” she told Gabriel evenly. “That little guy is nowhere near grown up himself, and he gave everything he had to save his brothers.”

“So you want to give him life.”

“Yes.”

“I’m warning you—”

“I have to do this!” Cathy whispered vehemently. She looked at Don.

She needed his help. Needed his strength, he knew. He stood behind her, setting his hands upon her shoulders. He felt so cold.

So frightened.

“I’m still warning you,” Gabriel said, “that you put yourself into grave peril—”

“I understand, I’ve heard your warning. But I’m not asking you for advice. I’m asking you what I must do to give him life.”

“I gave you a booklet to read, you know,” Gabriel told her.

“I’m sorry. I haven’t really had the time to go through it properly,” Cathy said, exasperated.

“You’re going to let her do this?” Gabriel asked Don.

Strangely calm, he said, “I’ve argued with her. But I haven’t really the power to stop her, do I?”

Gabriel stared at him for a long moment, then sighed. “Go to the child. Hold his hand. Will life into him.”

“That’s it?” Cathy asked.

“You’ve learned to project thoughts and images into the minds of others. To move objects. This is just the same. Concentrate, and will life back into the boy.”

“All right,” Cathy said. She turned to Don. Tears sprang into her eyes again. “Please understand. I have to do this.”

Don watched her gravely, nodding. “I know, Cathy. I know. That’s one reason I love you so deeply. So very much.” He enveloped her in his arms. Crushed her against him. Whispered, “I love you, Cathy. For all eternity. Somehow I will find you—come heaven or hell.”

“You haven’t much time,” Gabriel commented.

Don turned to him. “Do you mind?”

Once again, Don turned to his wife. Placing his back between themselves and Gabriel, he kissed Cathy, slowly, tenderly. She returned his embrace, his kiss. Then she suddenly tore from him. And ran across the snow to the place where the rescue workers still worked over the young orphan, Brenden. She slipped through his brothers, pressed aside by the paramedic who thumped on the child’s heart, tried to get oxygen back into his lungs.

The children were jostled, but they didn’t seem to notice. And Cathy, invisible, was there.

An angel in the snow. She had never been more beautiful. She took the young boy’s hand in hers.

Looked back to her husband one last time.

“I love you,” she mouthed.

“I love you, too,” he mouthed back. For eternity, Cathy. You’ll never know just how much.

Then he turned to run himself.

In a different direction.

He had the power to give life back. Once. Only once. He could give life back to a stone-cold corpse.

And he intended to do so.

Gabriel caught his arm. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Giving life back.”

“To Cathy?”

“Of course. Will it work? It will work, right? But I should hurry before whatever could happen to her happens?”

Gabriel released him. “Remember you risk your soul.”

“I have no soul without her. But answer me, please. Will it work?”

To his amazement, the angel smiled. “Yes, it will. I rather thought this was what you intended.”

“You’re not going to try to stop me?”

Gabriel shook his head. Don smiled wryly. “You never really did like me a hell—sorry, heck—of a lot.”

“On the contrary, you’ve come a long way.”

“Thanks. And thanks for you help.” Awkwardly, he extended a hand to the angel. Gabriel accepted it. Shook it. “Hurry,” Gabriel told him.

Don nodded, and started running through the snow himself. He reached their car, imbedded now in the snow. He crawled, slid, and slithered over it, falling into the snow where his and Cathy’s bodies lay.

He ignored his own, brushing the snow fervently from Cathy. God, how lovely she was, even in death. He drew her from the snow into his arms, dusted her cheeks. Kissed her cold lips. “Ah, Cath, you told me you were cold. I can warm you, my love.” He closed his hand around hers and looked toward the night sky, the stars appearing there despite the snowfall.

“Thank you, God, for this chance to save her!” he whispered.

He closed his eyes for a moment, admittedly afraid of what his future in death could be …

“Live, Cathy, live!” he whispered. He kissed her lips again, breathing his power and warmth against them. “Live …”

And in his arms, she suddenly choked. And began to breathe …

C
ATHY ANGEL VERY SLOWLY
opened her eyes. She was cold; she was sore. She blinked, and realized that there were all manner of people staring down at her. It was night; there was shouting. She could see flames leaping into the air, feel snow upon her face, feel heat, pain, relief …

She tried to move.

“Hold still, lady. They say you went into that pit a dozen times. The kids are okay, there’s a mountain of rescue workers here, you just take it easy now, eh?”

She couldn’t do that; she tried to rise. She shook her head. She felt as if a mist of confusion was drifting through her mind.

Christmas Eve, Fifth Avenue. She’d been trying to hurry to meet Don because she knew the holiday traffic would be getting to him, night would be falling…

The accident. The truck had crashed into them; they’d plowed into it.

She’d…

She’d died, hadn’t she…?

She could vaguely remember the children. Yes, she must have thought she was dead. But they’d lifted the children from the train…

Or dragged them from a pit?

The boys. She remembered the boys clearly. Brenden, Harry, Sean, Michael, David, and Pete. Brave Brenden,’ so little to be using such tough talk, yet so determined and strong. Until…

He had fallen.

“Brenden…” she murmured.

“The boy is going to be okay. Thanks to you and your husband.”

“My husband!” Cathy whispered. Her eyes widened. She looked around desperately. “Don … where’s my husband?” she asked.

The workers around her stared uncomfortably at each other. Cathy looked across the snow.

Don.

He lay on his back. His face was nearly as white as the snow. It seemed that he slept. At peace. “Don!” Cathy whispered.

“Wait!” someone called, trying to stop her.

They could not. She crawled desperately through the snowbanks to his side. “Don? Don?”

She touched his face. His handsome features. He was cold. Colder than the snow, like ice, like…

Death.

“Don!” She shrieked his name. Heedless of the snow, of the world around her, she drew him into her arms, pressing her lips to his, touching his forehead. “Don! Damn you, don’t leave me,
don’t leave
…”

She started to sob. Great tremors wracked her; hot liquid tears began to flow down her face.

Splashing on his forehead, his cheeks.

Gabriel brought himself into human form to watch the accident scene unfold.

He’d been at this many, many years. He was no stranger to pain, to death. And yet…

He wished that he had the power. To give life.

But he did not.

He was the messenger angel. Trusted, beloved. But he didn’t have the power to give back life.

“Dear God…” he prayed. There was no actual form to his prayer, yet he suddenly felt light and warmth, and knew that he was not alone.

“He loved her.”

“He was a good man.”

“Yes, better than I realized. I wish I had the power to … help.”

“But you don’t.”

“Perhaps he needn’t perish forever,” Gabriel suggested.

He heard laughter. A soft chuckle that still filled the heavens with thunder.

“He was a good man, indeed. With a few lessons to learn.”

“And those learned too late,” Gabriel said sadly.

“Maybe not.”

“He had but one chance to give life. He gave it as he felt he had to, just as she gave it as she felt she had to.”

“Yes.”

“But now … Oh, it is heartwrenching, isn’t it, my Lord?”

“Maybe not so sad.”

“But they’ve both used their power—”

“Ah, but in the end, my dear servant,
I
am the ultimate power.”

“Yes, my Lord. Of course.”

And Gabriel smiled. “I don’t mean to be presumptuous, sir, but the way everything has gone tonight with Cathy and Don Angel—could it be that this is what you had planned all along?”

“It is what I hoped all along. You must remember, I have given mankind—and the angels, if you’ll recall—free will. And free will does leave things in the open a bit now and then.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Carry on, Gabriel, if you will.”

“Immediately, sir.”

Gabriel hurried over to Cathy and Don.

“May I see what I can do?”

Cathy looked up, startled. The man appeared to be a doctor or a paramedic. He was dressed in white, even to the huge fur-lined overcoat he wore. As stricken and terrified as she was, she noted his appearance, for he was a striking man. Beautiful might have been a more apt description, he was so very handsome. He seemed to radiate light, and warmth.

And she trusted him, instantly.

She moved back, still studying his face.

“Please!” she whispered brokenly. “Please … make him live.”

The man nodded. He bent over Don, going about the normal procedure for resuscitation. He felt her watching. He paused, smiling at her, reassuring her.

“The breath of life,” he murmured.

Don was still so white …

“Help him, please!” Cathy whispered.

The man stood, looking down at Cathy. He smiled.

“You still have the power.”

“I don’t.”

“Hold him, warm him. Love him. Will him to live.”

Cathy looked back to Don, tears in her eyes. When she looked up, the man was gone.

She drew her husband back into her arms …

She nearly jumped when he groaned. “Cathy?”

“Don!”

He looked up at her. Smiled slowly. She started to cry again, raining kisses all over his face. He slipped his arms around her, holding her in return.

“Oh!” she cried suddenly. “Are you broken anywhere? I mean, did you break anything. Are you—”

“I seem to be fine. I’ve had the weirdest dreams, though.”

“They weren’t dreams.”

“What?”

“We must have been all right immediately after the accident. Don’t you remember? We pulled the children out of that pit that formed after the crash. Maybe we inhaled too much smoke or something … Oh, Don! The children.”

She’d been holding him. Holding him as if he were the most precious thing in all creation. Assuring herself that he was well, fine, whole, all in one piece …

Then suddenly, she was up.

Nearly clunking his head right down upon the ground.

“Don—”

He stood beside her, rubbing his head. Dear Lord, but he’d had the strangest damned dreams. He’d died, he’d gone to heaven. Not quite heaven.

“Don, come on. We’ve got to see about the children!”

Cathy started hurrying on as he paused for a second, shaking his head.

He stared at their car. Shook his head again.

It was a miracle they were alive.

Miracle …

He looked across the wreckage, he saw a doctor in a white coat bent over a man. The doctor glanced his way. A handsome man. With a face so arresting it was startling. Like light. Brilliant…

The man smiled suddenly, gave him a thumbs-up sign.

And Don knew. It hadn’t been a dream.

He started hurrying over toward the angel, Gabriel. By the time he reached the place where Gabriel had been, the man was sitting, holding his head. The angel was gone. Don hurried after him. Tapped him on the shoulder.

When he turned, Don saw a stranger, someone he had never seen before.

“Sorry!” He said softly.

“Hey, we’re all pretty confused here,” the man said.

Don nodded. The man hurried on. Then Don felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned.

The doctor-angel was behind him. Don inhaled. Tears stung his eyes. He felt weak, as if his knees were going to give.

“Thank you,” he managed to whisper.

The angel smiled. “Don’t thank me. You know that supervisor you wanted to see earlier?”

Don smiled, nodding.

“You might want to thank him.” Gabriel nodded at Cathy. “Go get your wife, huh?”

“Yes. I’m going to get my wife. And my boys.”

“
Your
boys?”

“Yeah. The kids. Great kids, aren’t they? It’s strange, I always thought I’d be an okay father if I could start with a baby. I mean, we were always trying for a baby. But I’ve … I’ve touched these little guys. The oldest one is great. Oh, I just realized, I guess we should take the little girl, too, huh?”

“Sons—and a daughter. Sounds good to me,” Gabriel said. “A pack to want the car on Saturday nights. A little girl to cook cupcakes for Dad, then break his heart when she finds the love of her life.”

“Cathy would be great with a little girl.”

“Cathy would be great with any kid. And so would you.”

“Yeah?” Don said to Gabriel.

“Yeah. But are you sure? Seven kids?”

Don shrugged. “You only go around once, right?” he said.

Gabriel nodded. “Unless there’s a miracle.”

Don grinned. “Thanks again!” he whispered. He turned, knowing that if he looked back, the angel would be gone.

And he wouldn’t see him again. Not in this life.

There, up ahead, was Cathy. She was on her knees in the snow with the penguin-like nun, the little girl Cassandra, and all the boys. They were talking excitedly. It looked as if they had known one another a long, long time.

Don paused. He looked upward. Heavenward.

He closed his eyes.

Thank you. Oh, God, thank you.

Christmas. The gift had been life. And more.

Faith.

He glanced at his watch. Twelve-O-One.

He started running again. Plowed into his wife where she knelt in the snow. She landed flat back against it.

An angel in the snow, he thought.

He pounced down upon her, wondering what he was doing to them if they had a lot of cuts or bruises. But at the moment, it didn’t matter.