Heaven Is A Place For Angels

A baby boy's cry was heard in the house. Emanuel was awake again. Iona rushed to her's and Theo's bedroom to take care of her little angel. Angela watched her bigger sister pick up her son and hold him in her arms, making him calm down again. She joined Iona in the bedroom and stroked her nephew's small and soft head, realizing how vulnerable he was.

"Can I hold him?" she asked carefully.

"Of course, dear, I think he fancies you," Iona replied as she handed the creature to her sister. Angela put her arm under his backside, and one on his back. He leaned against her shoulder and grabbed some of her hair, and without warning, he started to pull it.

"Emanuel, come on," Angela whined. "Not that hard!"

The boy's face shined with happiness. He had the cutest smile that a human being could possibly have, and he had that small gap between his front-teeth. She wondered whom he had got that from. That small boy had more personality than Angela could ever wish for, and he was so popular in that Spanish village. She sighed and faced her sister.

"I think I'm in love with him."

"Aren't we all?" Iona said and stroked over his cheek. He looked at her with a shy expression, hiding in Angela's hair. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for tonight?"
Angela frowned at her and looked uncomfortable.

"Must I go? Can't I stay here, and watch TV?"

"Well, we shouldn't force you to come with us. But is would be so nice, and you're with us now. Nothing could happen, right?" Iona said and grabbed Emanuel under his armpits, taking him back to her. Angela bit her under lip.

"Right, it would be nice. I haven't been that social, after all."

"You could need it, sweetie. We'll make sure nothing ever happens."

Angela sighed in relief; that sounded good, nothing was going to happen.

"Now, I'll get ready," she said and turned around, making her way to her own room.

Under the few days they had been there, she had paid a visit to Theo's mothers' store, which had the most incredible clothes Angela had ever seen. One thing about Angela was that she liked two different types of clothes. She had one "classic look", and one "opposite-of-classic look" and she didn't know which one she liked the best. Now she had more clothes to the "classic look", and she was very glad for it. She picked a brown undershirt with silver veins on the front. She drew on some pants made out of linen and combed her hair. To get her hair out of her face, she put a headband into it. She looked at herself in the mirror. The makeup on the bruise was still on; Theo's sister was really good at this. Now all she had to do was to follow the group of people, her family, out on an evening that probably would be a lot of fun, or not.

"Ángel, are you ready? We're going soon," she heard Iona say with a loud voice. It was kind of late, but that was it with Spanish people; the evening had just begun.

"Sure," Angela replied and went to the hall. Her father was standing there, as well as Andrew. They looked bored; they wanted to do something, and now. Theo came out of their bedroom and Iona came after with Emanuel in her arms.

"Are you guys ready?" she asked with happiness in her voice, and a smile that you could describe like it went from one of her ears to the other. Andrew nodded and rushed over to the door, opening it.

"Let's go, let's go, and let's go," he chanted, giving them mental commands.

"You'll only get bored, you know that, don't you," Angela preached with folded hands. Andrew threw her an evil look and then ignored her, just as good. Theo gave her a pat on the shoulder and led her out of the house.

"Should we take the perambulator, sweetie?" Iona asked Theo.

"Of course, he will probably fall asleep again, and if he wakes up...then Angela will just have to play with him," he replied and shrugged his shoulders. Angela didn't have anything against it. Playing with Emanuel, and a Coca-Cola can, it wasn't that bad. She cleared her head and started to walk down the street, not making any notice if the others were following her or not. Suddenly, she realized that they weren't. She stopped, took a few steps backwards, cursing herself for not waiting, and then glared back at them.

"I'm in need for some company here, people," she announced and cleared her throat. Her father reacted, like he had been in his own world, like her, until she had woken him up. He rushed over to her, and grabbed her arm.

"I'm not letting you out of my sight tonight, you know that, right?" he made clear.

"It's obvious, and I know," she sighed. "I'm starving."

"Tell me about it. Let's go and meet the angry barman now," Stephen said.

"The angry barman?" Angela frowned. That sounded weird.

"Yes. He doesn't serve anyone unless they're Spanish."

"But we're not Spanish." Angela said after half a minute, it took her a while to figure that out.

"No, we're Rumanian. But we've got Theo. He's our hero," her father replied. Angela shrugged. After another minute she reacted to what her father just had said.

"We're what?!"
-
There was a special thing between Rumanians and Spaniards. The thing was that the Spanish people in that village didn't know so much about the world outside Spain. One country they actually knew about was Rumania, because many Rumanians came to the village to work on the fields. So, if you told an old Spanish man that you were from, say...Germany, they would go like: "tss...Rumania". Angela found that story kind of hilarious, and the way Theo told it made it even more fun.

"So, we're all from Rumania? Except Theo of course," she asked.

"You've got it right," Stephen said and nodded.

The angry barman had been out and taken their orders. Angela and Andrew just wanted coke, but their father and Theo took a beer. Iona was content with a diet coke. Angela was actually right about another thing as well. Andrew got bored kind of quick. He sat there, drinking his coke, not having a discussion with anyone, except Angela once in a while. Every time a person that Iona knew came over they had to get up and give the person a kiss on one cheek each (because that's how they do it in Spain), to say hello, because now Iona got a chance to introduce her family, and that was one thing she was eager about. Angela could handle it, and so could Stephen, but it was harder for Andrew. One of the things he had to pull off with was that everyone commented his height, because he was really tall for his age.

When the people had left, they went back to talking about stuff like Spain, about Emanuel, about Iona's childhood and so much more. The only problem was that the two younger children felt kind of forgotten, because they found it difficult to comment and give opinions and tell their own stories. Angela tried, and managed some times, and when no one paid any attention at her she just looked at Emanuel who had fallen asleep in his perambulator. He would probably wake up any minute now. And so he did. The eyes, which had started to turn out brown, or hazel, opened and stared at her. He tried to take in the information around him, so much was happening. Angela emptied her Cola-can and handed him it and watched him as he got overexcited.

"Take it easy now, E, it's just a can," she said and laughed. Emanuel just made a gargling noise at her and continued to play with his toy. Angela rolled her eyes.

"The youth nowadays," she sighed.

The angry barman came and wondered if they wanted another round, and of course, they wanted that. Angela and Andrew had coke, Stephen and Theo had another beer, and Iona had a diet coke. They talked and drank, and talked and suddenly Angela felt for a trip to the ladies-room. She caught Iona's attention.

"Where's the toilet's in this bar, you know that?" she asked. Iona looked through the window into the bar, since they had a table outside.

"I think it's just straight ahead when you get in, dear," she answered. Angela nodded and got up, but Stephen quickly grabbed her hand.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To the toilet, last time I checked," she said without difficulty.

"Five minutes, nothing less," he said with determination. Angela pulled her hand away and went inside, looking around her all the time. The bar had some game-machines and three guys seemed to be surrounding one of them, yelling in Spanish, to make the one that was playing do better. The angry barman gave them a furious look when they peeked at him, which made them calm down a bit. Angela tried to find the funny thing about the situation and giggled, but kind of failed. One of boys looked her way, she saw it, made eye-contact with him, and then looked away quickly. She did NOT want to have anything to do with any of these Spanish guys anymore. Her steps moved toward the toilet again. She made her visit and unlocked the door to wash her hands in the sink just outside. She splashed some water in her face, which was both nice, and proved that the make-up actually was watertight. She glared at herself in the mirror.

"Okay, let's have a chat, you and me," she said, and was very clear about that it sounded weird.

"How do you feel?"

"I don't know."

"You must feel something?"

"Disorder?"

"It's a good start at least."

She couldn't do anything but smile. If she couldn't have a sensible conversation about this kind of problems, then who was the better person to talk to than herself? Okay then, she knew it didn't make any sense, but she continued anyway.

"Do you really want to sit out there and have no attention at all?"

"It works, and you know it."

"Do I?"

"Yes, because you wouldn't want to be all by yourself. The best thing is to just enjoy the company"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then I guess you're right."

"Of course I'm right."

She took another break, just to get some air. This was really creepy, but yet very comfortable. She thought for a while.

"Do you think that I'm going mental?"

"Why would you say such a thing?"

"Because of that thing that happened; that hand, goofing around with my hair, that felt so safe. It wasn't Billie, I know that for sure. But who was it?"

"Your guardian angel?"

"But I thought that was Billie."

"He's only human you know."

"Tell me about it, but he still is, one part of him"

"Whatever you say, dear."

She had to put an end to this, she had to stop talking to herself. Well, no one would understand of what she said if they walked in, but they would understand that she had a conversation with no other but herself. They would probably think she was crazy, which she kind of was.

"Now, get out to the rest of the people," she told herself with a strong voice. A sudden glance in the mirror made her freak out.

"Oh shit!" she yelled. She was certain, she had just seen his face, that sick face, that psychopath face in the mirror, staring at her, just looking. She drew back in reaction and hit her head in the wall behind.

"Ow shit!" she cried, holding her head. "That's gonna be a bloody bump."

She looked back into the mirror; nothing, nothing was there, beside her own horror-struck face staring back at her.

"Get away from me! Get the fuck away from me!" She said the same thing to the mirror that she had told Billie earlier that day, but this time she really meant it.

"You're making me loose my fucking mind," she whined to the mirror. She told herself in her head to get out to the others.

"Gather yourself and walk out for another coke. I bet there's been five minutes already."

As she said that to herself, Iona walked into the room, facing her little sister who was still rubbing her back head.

"Are you okay, sweetie? You were supposed to be back like five minutes ago. Does your head hurt, or what?" Iona rambled.

"It was an accident, and sorry about the time. Can we just go back now?" Angela answered.

"Sure," Iona simply said and put her arm around Angela's. The two sisters walked out to the others, and their father gave the younger one a strict look.

"Do you have something to say to your defense?"

"I accidentally bumped my head against the wall, dunno what happened. I kept me there. Sorry," Angela said quickly, because it wasn't like she could really tell them the truth. Stephen regarded her, and then nodded.

"It's fine. But look who joined us."

"I told you we were gonna met up tonight," she heard a man's voice say. She looked his way.

"Charming," she said and smiled at him, and she meant it. For a while, she considered telling him about what she had seen, but, nah, he wouldn't understand. Or...would he? Angela kept herself busy with thinking about that for a minute and made up her mind at last.

"Billie, can I have a word with you?" she said and gave him a pleading look. She frowned but then shrugged his shoulders.

"If the beast approves," he said and looked Stephen's way. Angela giggled and her father nodded, not caring about the insult. Angela took Billie's wrist and led him a few meters away.

"Now, what is it, Ángel?"

"His face, Billie, I think he's haunting me..."