It was the laughter which felt the best for him. “You’re safe, Pooh Bear.”
For the man they called Mr. Exit, he had pulled off the interstate and instead of getting lost, what he found made him forever grateful. In the meantime, he needed to reach out to the Archangel to discuss the Investment Club and as well as the other five Technicians, Mr. Merge, Mrs. Hump, One Way, Falling Rocks and Mr. Slow.
“Oh! Willow would need to make neck ties and handkerchiefs and I guess mugs for them as well. Plus, Wrong Way, she’s not out of the running yet. Yeah, that chick needs a necktie too,” he said, chuckling aloud and adding to his notebook.
“Daddy, are you talking to yourself?” Karli asked.
“Working it out, Pooh Bear,” he said, continuing what he was doing. “Daddy is working out some business matters.”
“I love you, Daddy!” she yelled out.
“Love you back, Karli,” he replied, getting back to the matter at hand. It was going to be a good life with Willow and the girls. Hopefully, soon they would add one more to the fray. A little boy. A little boy would be nice. Tomas? Vincente?
Vincente Hoyt.
“I like that a lot,” he said, allowing his mind to drift to what his wife was going to create for dinner. He was lucky to have her, grateful for the blessing, and thankful she agreed to be his.
He liked that idea a lot too.
RAMI SLANECKI WAS A sadist. He liked that about himself a great deal. It did his heart good to run the arrow through the back of Proderick Hymn’s L-7 vertebra and watch the man’s legs stop working last week. Life didn’t offer many rewards, but this was one for The Glitter Man.
“The thing is, Proderick, I like to keep my word,” he told the man as he lay on the cot, strapped to the bed, staring at the images dancing on the wall. “I found your family in North Carolina.”
He’d never tell Hymn that the family actually lived in South Carolina. He couldn’t have Proderick sending people to retrieve the woman and girls. That would never do, so he allowed the lie to stick.
“Look at how pretty Willow looks in that dress. Oh. Oh. Wait, when he turns around and sees her walk in...right there! Right there! That look on his face. Priceless. Hymn you can almost feel the love,” he told a drooling Proderick Hymn.
The video rolled on as the image of Karli coming down the water slide and diving into Exit’s arms played next. This was followed by Dusty Rose learning to swim across the pool on her own after two examples shown by her new Daddy. Karli was next, swimming like a champ across the water, to be praised by her father.
“Look at how relaxed they are floating around that lazy river,” he said to Hymn. “Hold up, let me show you something really cool.”
Rami flipped the camera around to Willow sitting in a lounge chair sleeping as the girls floated in the water. Her face showed nothing but peace as she rested in the seat, unaware she was being filmed. The image also made Rami smile.
“You know, I was going to get film of them in the bed, but you know what, I didn’t feel she deserved that. By the looks of things, she has slept better in the last few weeks than she has in six years,” Rami told Hymn. “Maybe it’s just me, but I’m a sucker for a happy ending. And trust me when I tell you Hymn, that woman and those girls are really happy. Makes me feel kind fuzzy inside.”
He showed his pictures of the wedding. The Glitter man showed pictures of Dusty Rose in shades lounging by the pool, a teen boy standing close by chatting her up. He shared photos of the little girl, sitting next to Willow, grinning as she ate a cookie.
“Yes sir, they are one happy family,” The Glitter Man said, smiling at the images. “They are going to have a really nice life.”
Epilogue
THE SERENITY OF THE night held the Archangel captive, not allowing him peace and troubling his ability to rest. Rising from the couch in the hotel room at the lodge, an unsettling wedge jammed itself into his craw and would not budge. The woman Willow unnerved him in a way that also dogged his thought processes, but seeing Merge again after so many years, added to the inability to sleep.
“Get a grip, Gabe,” he cautioned, getting to his feet. The hotel had a bar, and although he wasn’t a man to imbibe in the habit of spirits, now and then and good shot of Bourbon eased his mind.
Cabrina’s cheeks were still rosy from the amount of sun she received playing in the pool with Michelle and Johnnie. It had also become obvious that his wife was ready for her own family. Chuckling to himself, it would be his luck to get a smart as a whip daughter like that Karli, who made him smile each time he thought of the little girl.
“Ten years old and forming a trust circle. Knuck if you buck, what in the world,” he said, laughing, and letting himself out of the hotel room. In the morning, they would head home, but the uneasiness climbed over him again as he entered the Lodge Wood Fire and Grille and took a seat at the counter. The drink options were limited and instead of a bourbon neat, the Archangel ended up with a red wine, a bit too sweet for his liking, but it was all they had.
Less than five minutes had passed when a familiar scent appeared, followed by the body of a man he knew would return.
“Merge,” the Archangel said not looking up.
“Gabe, how’s it swinging?” Joel Thomas Lee said as he took a seat and ordered a cola. “You knew I was coming back didn’t you. I figured you’d come down and wait for me. How do you always know?”
“I guess we are connected on a spiritual level. You don’t check in regular enough Merge, I need to hear from you more, understand what is happening in your head,” the Archangel said.
“Same stuff that has been happening in my head most of my life old man, still trying to find my purpose, well, that is, outside of the one you’ve given me as an angel of death,” Merge replied.
“You were always so dramatic,” Gabriel said lifting the glass of wine, taking a hearty sip.
“And you my mentor, have always over simplified the way through life. There is always a toll to pay to the Ferry Master, and at some point, the bill comes due,” Merge said, solemnly.
“In the interim, we move forward, tend the flock and ensure that all are fed and few are being misled,” Archangel replied. “Do you need anything, Joel. You know the front door is always open for a visit. The spare bedroom is just as you left it eight years ago.”
“A lot has changed in five years Gabe, especially me,” he offered. “Besides, now you’re married. Hell, a lot of the crew is married. Is that your next step in building your church of the wayward souls; creating family units?”
Gabriel Neary sat quietly. The weight of the conversation hovering between them as he gave thought to Willow’s words, the child Karli, and others like Dusty Rose who were victims, or soon to be victims of predators because they had no where to go. The kids were too old to live in another adult household and too young to live on their own. A thought popped into his head.
“Family is what you make of it, and to be honest Joel, there are kids out there, experiencing the same ugliness you went through as a teen, who all need help. Not only do they need help, they need a safe place to get their lives on track so that life doesn’t eat them alive,” Archangel told him. “It is my hope that the next evolution with you is to give back that which has been given unto you.”