Philip and the Angel (9781452416144)

PHILIP AND THE ANGEL

BY

JOHN PAULITS

All rights reserved

Copyright © May, 2011, John Paulits

Cover Art Copyright © 2011, Charlotte
Holley

Gypsy Shadow Publishing

Lockhart, TX

www.gypsyshadow.com

Names, characters and incidents depicted in
this eBook are products of the author's imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales,
organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental
and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher.

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Dedication

For Doris Moriarty

Chapter One

“
Philip, why don’t you go out and play?
The rain stopped half an hour ago.”

Philip lay on the sofa reading
The Sorcerer’s Stone
. He looked over
to the window then up at his mother. “Do I have to? Harry Potter’s
in trouble.”

“
Yes, yes, yes. You have to or pretty
soon
you’ll
be in trouble.
Here.” She took his book and spread it open upside down on the
coffee table to save his page. “Get some air. You haven’t been out
of the house all week except to go to school.”

“
It’s been raining all week. Are you
trying to get rid of me?”

“
I have to clean and you’re always in
the room I’m cleaning next.”

Philip sighed. Emery, his best friend,
had called earlier to say he had a secret to
show
him. He couldn’t simply
tell
him about it, so Philip shouldn’t even
ask.

Philip did ask, but no matter how many times
Philip begged his friend to stop being so mysterious, Emery
wouldn’t. He kept a secret better than anybody Philip knew.

“
I’ll go see what Emery’s doing. He’s
got something to show me.”

“
Good idea,” said his mother as she
bustled out of the living room.

Philip swung his feet to the floor and put on
his sneakers while he listened to his mother doing the housework.
It didn’t look like much fun being a grown-up, but then fourth
grade wasn’t all that much fun, either. School would be over in
another month, though, and then summer. He finished tying his
sneakers and left.

The wet grass glistened and puddles shimmered
everywhere. The sun felt good. Plus a rainbow arced across the sky!
Philip walked along toward Emery’s house and studied the rainbow, a
really colorful one, a rainbow better than any Philip remembered
ever seeing. He followed it across the sky until it disappeared
behind the house in front of him. He noticed someone in the window
of the house waving to him. Philip waved back before realizing it
was that girl again.

The girl’s forehead pressed against the
living room window screen.

“
Hi,” she called.

Philip stopped walking. Who
was
this girl? She’d moved to the
neighborhood a while ago, yet he never saw her in school. He’d only
seen her at different windows of her house staring out at the
neighborhood. She’d begun waving to him, and he waved back. Now,
she wanted to
talk
to
him.

“
Wait,” she called and disappeared from
the window. A moment later she came out the front door. She looked
about the same age as Philip and had long blonde hair pulled back
into a ponytail. As she stood there in her jeans and pink T-shirt
looking at him, Philip felt nervous.

“
I’m allowed out a little today,” the
girl said.

“
Because the rain stopped?” Philip
asked.

“
No. No. I feel better
today.”

“
Were you sick?”

“
I’m always sick.”

This confused Philip.

“
Where do you go to school? I never see
you at my school.”

“
I don’t go to school. I have a teacher
who comes to my house on mornings when I feel all
right.”

“
You
never
go to school?”

The girl shook her head, and the ponytail
waggled behind her. “What’s your name? I know where you live. The
white house down there. Your father drives the blue car.”

“
Philip. I’m Philip Felton.”

“
Hi, I’m Angel.”

“
Angel?”

The girl shrugged. “It’s what my parents
named me. Angel. We moved here a little while ago.”

“
I know,” said Philip. He remembered
being awakened one Saturday morning by the noise of a giant truck
unloading furniture.

A woman appeared at the front door. “Angel.
Don’t stay out too long. Come on back now.”

“
My mom. Thinks I’m made of glass or
something. Gotta go. I’ll watch you from the window,” said Angel,
and she turned and walked back inside the house.

Philip continued on to Emery’s house.
She didn’t go to school because she was always sick?
She doesn’t look sick
, Philip
thought.
And her mother lets her out for
five minutes at a time? Weird.

Emery’s voice interrupted Philip’s thoughts.
“Philip, don’t turn around. Don’t turn. Don’t turn.”

Philip froze. “Why can’t I turn, Emery?”

“
I have my surprise with
me.”

There was a small noise. “Erf.”

“
Okay, you can look.”

Philip turned and saw Emery walking a tiny
black and brown dog with a long body and short legs.

“
What’s this?” Philip asked in
surprise.

“
It’s a dog.”

“
I
know
it’s a dog.”

“
A dachshund.”

“
Why do you have it?”

“
That’s my surprise. My dad got it for
me. It’s
my
new
dog.”

Chapter Two

“
Your dad got you a dog!”

“
Yeah. He said my mom and him were busy
with my two baby sisters so I needed a companion.”

Philip thought a moment. “How about me?”

“
You want my dad to get you a dog,
too?”
“No. I thought I was your companion.”

“
You are, but my dad said I needed a
four-legged companion.”

Philip looked down.

“
Maybe if you were twins . . .” Emery
grinned.

“
What did you name it?”

“
It’s a he, not an it, and his name is
Hansel.”

“
Hansel. Well, what does he do? Does he
do tricks? Make him do something.”

“
The only thing he knows how to do now
is eat and poop, but he already finished.” Emery held up a small
white plastic bag.

“
What’s in there?”

“
When he goes, somebody has to clean it
up.”

“
That’s
what’s
in there?”

Emery nodded.

Philip stepped more toward Emery’s other side
away from the bag.

“
Where’d your dad get him?” Philip
watched Hansel run in all directions to the limit of his leash and
smell everything he could get his nose on.

“
The shelter. Somebody didn’t want him.
But he’s still a puppy. Six months, the man at the shelter
said.”

“
Let’s go to your house to play with
him. We can teach him some
real
tricks.” Philip kept a suspicious eye on the plastic bag in
Emery’s hand.

“
Can’t. I’m walking him ’cause we’re
going to my aunt’s house. He’s coming with us.”

Philip squatted and petted Hansel. Hansel
licked his hand.

“
I think he likes me.”

“
There’s my dad, waving. I gotta go.
Come over tomorrow.”

Philip watched as Emery walked away. He
turned and began his slow way back to his house. A dog. A pet. He’d
never had a pet. His mother said they were too messy and needed too
much attention, but if Emery could take care of a dog, why couldn’t
he? He thought a moment of the white plastic bag again, but said to
himself with determination that he could do anything Emery could
do. But how could he get his mother to agree? She’d never let him
have a pet.

“
Hi.”

Philip turned his head. Angel again.

“
Hi,” said Philip.

“
I know what you’re thinking.” Angel
had her forehead against the screen in her living room window
again. “Come on over here so I don’t have to talk so
loud.”

Philip walked up her front path and across
the grass to the window.

“
Want me to tell you what you’re
thinking?”

“
You can’t. Nobody can.”

Angel smiled. “You’re wishing you had a dog,
but probably your parents won’t let you.”

Philip’s eyes stretched wide.

Angel laughed. “I’m right, eh?”

“
Yes, but how . . .?”

“
Am I starting to scare you?” Angel
made a scary face and turned her hands into claws and scratched
them against the screen.

“
How’d you know?”

“
I watch stuff from my window. It’s
about all I ever get to do. I saw you with your friend. What’s his
name . . . I think I heard you call him Emery.”

“
Right, Emery. His father got him the
dog from the shelter because he’s got two little baby sisters, and
his mother and father don’t have much time for him.”

“
And you’re jealous.”

“
It’s not jealous. I like dogs, too.”
He told Angel about his mother’s opinion of pets.

“
You’ve got a problem,” said Angel. She
smiled. “But just like I know what you’re thinking, I can solve the
most impossible problems.” Again she made a face and scratched at
the screen with her make-believe claws.

“
Stop it.”
Weird girl
, Philip thought. “You can solve my
problem and get me a dog? You
are
starting to scare me if you think you can do
that
.”

Angel beckoned him closer. Philip moved right
up next to the screen, and Angel whispered, “Your mom and dad won’t
buy you a dog, right?”

“
Won’t buy me
any
kind of pet.”

“
So, the only way for you to get a pet
is to take one home with you.”

“
I can’t just buy some animal and walk
in the door with it. They’d take it right back. Besides, I only
have seventy-five cents.”

“
Listen.” Angel made her voice very
low. “A small, tan stray dog comes around in the afternoons. I see
it all the time from my bedroom window.” She pointed toward the
rear of the house and upward. “If you go back there this afternoon,
go
every
afternoon until it
shows up, you’ll see it. Take some food with you.”

“
Food?”

“
Meat. From the refrigerator.
Leftovers.”

Philip nodded. “Okay.”

“
Make the dog follow you home. Put on a
sad face and tell your mom this poor stray dog followed you home,
and you’d like to take care of it. Promise to keep the dog in the
garage. Get your mother used to the idea, and little-by-little get
the dog into the house, and little-by-little it becomes your pet.
Ta-da!”

“
I don’t know,” Philip said
uncertainly. “You sure this dog comes around all the
time?”

“
I see it a lot.”