Status: Complete. :)
She Talks to Angels
She Talks to Angels
Never mentions the word addiction
In certain company,
Yes, she’ll tell you she’s an orphan,
After you meet her family.
I winced as the silver cut through my skin again. Some people might call it an addiction, I know my older sister does when she’s with her friends. But to me, cutting isn’t an addiction. It’s something I do to make me feel better. The rush it gives me is incomparable. Some people think I started cutting because of grades, or for attention. Some think it’s because of guys, or that I’m trying too hard. But I know the real reason, and if you’d met my family, you’d know why.
My dad, six foot five, blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect skin, perfect body for the head of a law firm. My mom, the perfect blonde haired, blue eyed trophy wife, who just happens to be mayor of the city. My older sister, eighteen, size 2, 36D cup, long legs, the perfect body, perfect skin and hair, perfect eyesight, valedictorian, already accepted into her college of choice for pre-med. Then there’s me. If you saw us together, you’d make the same conclusion I have. I’m adopted. Me, short, thick, freckles and acne, mouse brown hair and grey eyes, barely scraping by with a C average in school.
I’ll never fit in with my family, even though they say they love me, they all act ashamed of me in public. I try so hard to be someone my parents and sister are proud of, but every time I try, I fail. They put me down while trying to help me. They got me a private tutor, my grades didn’t change. And it isn’t because I don’t try. I just can’t keep their expectation of the perfect daughter. My mom makes it a kind of sob story to her friends. I can hear it in my head whenever I look at her.
“Where did I go wrong as a mother? Her sister turned out just fine. I just can’t seem to place my finger on what went wrong with her. She can’t try to make herself pretty, she refuses to let me dye her hair or get her contacts, and I think she might have a cutting addiction,” mom cried to her group of book club friends. I had hid in the hall listening in on their conversation. I fell to the floor and wept into my hands when they started talking about me. When she mentioned my cutting I stood up using the wall for support and ran upstairs into my room, grabbing my Bible before I fell onto my bed.
I flipped to the back to 1 John 5:14, 15. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” I read through the verse a few times before closing my Bible and setting it gently on my bedside table. I closed my eyes and pulled my pillow under my head to pray for a bit before I slipped into sleep.
Paints her eyes black as night now,
Pulls those shades down tight.
Yeah, she gives a smile when the pain comes
The pain gonna make everything alright
I did my black eyeliner, which if you asked my sister was way too dark and thick. She kept saying I looked like a raccoon, but I could care less what she thought, or what anyone thought, actually. I liked what the black did to my grey eyes, making them almost black. They looked like my favorite time of day, night. I put my sunglasses on, solid black that covered my eyes completely. I sat my black fedora on my head, grabbed my keys and left the house, ignoring my mom as she asked if I was ok. Of course I’m not okay. And it’s her fault, she just doesn’t realize it.
I pulled the sleeves of my hoodie down over my hands to keep the cold northern Minnesota December air from chilling me. I squinted across the snow covered sparkling yard toward my dark blue Ford Ranger truck. I pushed the button to unlock it electronically. I opened the driver’s door and stepped up into my truck. I pulled the door shut and laid my head on the steering wheel for a moment before putting the key in the ignition and letting my little Ranger come to life. I sat up and drove away from the house where I wasn’t accepted.
I parked in front of Lance’s house. Lance was one of the few people in my little town I could trust with anything. And his little baby boy was one of the few people who could make me smile without trying. I went to Lance’s whenever I needed a smile, or whenever I needed a hug, or whenever I felt even more not at home when I was ‘home’. I locked my truck and walked to the front door. The door opened and Andrew was sitting on the floor just inside, Lance standing above him. Andrew saw me and jumped up. I smiled at Lance and walked in the house, wincing slightly as Andrew grabbed my wrist, opening the newest cuts.
I picked Andrew up and walked into the living room with him tugging at my hair.
“Auntie Beth. Auntie Beth.” He screamed in his high pitched 1 year old voice. I smiled at him in my arms, even as his shoe hit my wrist and caused the pain to rush through me again.
“So did you need anything specific today, or just…?” Lance let his question trail off, both of us knowing what he was thinking, as Andrew pulled my sunglasses off my face.
“Just…” I said, sitting down on the overstuffed couch.
“Ok. Well, you’re always welcome here.” I smiled at my friend.
Says she talks to angels
They call her out by her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels
Says they call her out by her name
“So are you still having those dreams?” Lance asked as Andrew hopped off my lap and ran out of the room.
“Yeah. I don’t know what they mean, but it’s always the same dream.”
“What’s your dream about, Beth?” Lance’s wife, Arin, asked as she came in and sat down next to Lance.
“Angels. They talk to me. They keep telling me I’m coming home soon. They look at me and say, ‘Beth, you’re coming home with us one of these days.’ I’ve been having this dream ever since I can remember, and it’s kind of comforting, but I’ve had it every night for the last week.” I sighed and leaned back into the couch and closed my eyes for a moment. I could still see the angels there. Every time I closed my eyes I saw them. Every time the wind blew I could hear them whisper my name.
“I don’t know what to tell you, sweetie. Hang on a second. I have something for you.” Arin stood and left the room gracefully. I looked questioningly at Lance and he just shrugged. Andrew ran back into the room and jumped onto the couch next to me. I smiled as I grabbed him around the waist and pulled him down into my lap. Arin walked back into the room carrying a box. She handed me the box after I sat Andrew down next to me on the couch and then she sat on the other side of Andrew. I opened the box and a small chunk of hair tied with a thin white ribbon fell out of it.
“Andrew had his hair cut this week, and I saved a curl for you since I know how much you love him.” I picked the hair up from the floor and put it in the pocket of my hoodie.
“Thank you. He is kind of my little angel. As much as he’s yours.” I smiled at Arin and Lance. “I should probably head out, though.”
“No! Auntie Beth stay!” Andrew screamed, grabbing my arm and holding onto it as tightly as he could. I smiled down at him and kissed the top of his head.
“I have to go, I’ll be back. I will see you again.” I smiled and he let go of my arm. I stood and said my goodbyes. I left the little house with a smile on my face. I pulled my sunglasses back down over my eyes and looked to the sky. It looked like there would be a storm. I needed to get back to my house, even if it wasn’t a home. The wind started to blow and I heard my name whispered on the cold breeze. I got in my truck and headed home, noticing before I reached the end of the block that the streets were becoming icy and slick.
She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket
She wears a cross around her neck
Yes the hair is from a little boy
And the cross is someone she has not met
not yet
{3rd Person Point of view}
“Mrs. Adams?” A female voice asked when Beth’s mom answered the phone.
“Yes. This is she. Who is calling?”
“Mrs. Adams, this is Lori. I work at the hospital. Your daughter Beth was in a car accident. She hit a patch of black ice on the highway and her truck ran off into the ditch and rolled three times before coming to a stop.”
“Is she alright?” There was worry in Mary Adams’ voice.
“She’s got a concussion and a broken leg. Other than that, we see no problems. She’ll have to be in the hospital for a few days.”
“Ok. I’ll be right there. Thank you for letting us know.” Mary hung up the phone and hung her head in prayer for a moment, asking God for Beth to be safe. “David! Jessica!” Mary yelled through the house for her husband and eldest daughter. They both came into the living room and went straight to the mother of the house, seeing the tears coming down her face.
“Honey, what happened?” David asked his wife.
“Beth.” Mary choked over the name. “Beth was in an accident. She hit the ice wrong and went into the ditch and rolled her truck. She’s in the hospital.” Mary wept into her husband’s shoulder. Jessica stood and left the living room stunned. She went up to Beth’s room and looked around her desk for a sign of anyone to contact.
“Lance.” Jess whispered, pulling out her cell phone. She dialed the number under the name and a woman’s voice answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hi. This is Jessica Adams. I’m Beth’s sister. Beth was in a car accident.” Jessica’s voice caught in her throat.
“Oh no. She was here not even an hour ago talking to us. She can’t have had an accident.” Arin sank onto the couch in disbelief after hanging up the phone. Lance came in and sat next to his wife.
“What happened?”
“We need to go to the hospital. Now. Beth was in an accident after she left here.”
“Ok. She’ll be fine. Let’s go.” Lance took hold of his wife’s hand and called his son.
The two families arrived at the hospital at the same time and walked into the Emergency Room together.
“Ah. Mrs. Adams. Your daughter will be okay. She just needs her rest. But here are her belongings that were loose in her pockets or that we had to remove.” The nurse handed Mary a plastic bag. Mary passed the bag to David and turned back to face the nurse.
“I need to see my daughter. And, Lance, would you come too? I know you’re close to her. Probably closer than I am.” Lance nodded his head and passed Andrew to Arin. Lance and Mary walked into the ER behind the nurse and the small group of people remaining in the hall turned and walked to the little waiting room.
They sat around the table, Andrew running to the corner where the toys lived. David dumped the contents of the bag onto the low table. Arin grabbed Andrew’s hair and hugged it to her. Jessica looked questioningly at her and Arin smiled a weak smile in return.
“It’s Andrew’s. She says Andrew is her little angel and when he got his hair cut this week, I saved a chunk of it for her, to always have him around. It’s kind of cheesy, but I knew it would mean something to her.”
“I remember giving her that necklace. It was a confirmation present that I had gotten from someone and never wore, but I knew how much she had liked it, so I gave it to her. I don’t think she ever took it off.” Jessica chuckled slightly through the sobs.
“It was her little piece of Heaven wherever she went. If she was having a bad day, she’d take hold if it, bow her head, and pray for a minute for the strength she knew she had.” Arin’s weak smiled stayed on her face as she remembered Beth sitting on their living room floor playing with Andrew, constantly taking the small Black Hills gold cross out of his small hands.
Arin wrapped her arm around Jessica’s shoulders and Jessica curled into Arin’s motherly embrace. Arin rested her head on Jessica’s and David took his daughter’s hand.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Andrew’s small voice whispered as he tugged at Arin’s pant leg.
“Beth got hurt. She’ll be ok. But here,” Arin unwrapped herself from Jessica and leaned over to the table and grabbed the necklace, “wear this,” she said putting the thin chain around the little boy’s neck. Arin put her arm around Jessica again and her other arm around Andrew as he climbed onto the couch and sat by his mom, wrapping his arms as tightly around her as he could.
Says she talks to angels
Says they all know her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels
Says they call her out by her name
“Beth, baby, how are you feeling?” Mary Adams asked her daughter who was lying on the ER bed, already hooked up to IV’s pumping more blood into her.
“Mom?” Beth’s weak voice was barely even a whisper. Mary squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Who else is here?”
“It’s me. Lance.” Lance gently grabbed her other hand, to show her he was there.
“I know he’s close to you, so I asked him to come in with me.”
“Mom, I’m fine.”
“No. You’re not fine.” Mrs. Adams smiled weakly at her youngest daughter, amazed at her ability to convince herself she wasn’t in pain. “Your leg is broken.” Beth turned her face away from her mother to face Lance.
“Lance, they’re calling me. They all know me. All of them. They’re trying to lead me somewhere, but I can’t follow. Something is holding me back.”
“They who, honey?” Mrs. Adams questioned. Beth’s words meant something to Lance, but not to her own mother.
“The angels.” Lance whispered over Beth’s body.
“Angels? What angels?”
“Angels. She’s been having dreams that the angels call to her for years.”
“I see them. They’re calling to me. One’s standing in the corner of the room, waiting for me. She says she wants to take me home.” Beth whispered, her voice weaker than before. Understanding dawned on Mary’s face as her daughter spoke.
“No. They can’t.” Mrs. Adams was almost to the point of hysterics.
“Mary, come with me. Please.” Lance said, holding his hand out to her as he walked around the bed. Mary took the proffered hand and followed Lance out of the Emergency room. They walked to the waiting room. Arin stood and walked to her husband as Mary sat with her family. Lance took Arin’s hand after picking Andrew up off the floor.
“Did you know she saw angels in her dreams?” Mary whispered to Jessica and David.
“Angels?” Jessica asked quietly.
“Angels. That call her by name and say they’ll be together soon.” Jessica and David shook their heads and stayed quiet.
She don't know no lover
None that I ever see
Yet to her that ain't nothing
But to me it means, means everything
“How are you holding up?” A teenage boy asked, coming over in a set of brown scrubs, labeling him as hospital employee.
“Who are you?” Jessica asked, escorting the boy back out of the waiting room and closing the metal door behind them.
“I’m Zach. I’m in Beth’s small group of friends at school. I work here as a housekeeper because my mom is an RN. I was wondering how she was doing.”
“I don’t think she’s doing any better.”
“It’s all the talk at school and has been since it happened three days ago. It’s really got some of us really beaten up.”
“So are you her…boyfriend?” Jessica never knew her sister to be in relationships, but they weren’t exactly the closest of sisters.
“No. Although if she’d open herself up to it, she knows that I would. She knows it hurts me everyday she can’t face it.” The door opened behind them and Lance came over to Jessica.
“We need you in there. The doctor has something to say.” Lance wrapped his arm around Jessica’s shoulder and led her back into the waiting room with their families and the doctor.
“We need to move Beth to the Twin Cities. Normally she should be getting better, more responsive, but she isn’t. We have to fly her to the Twin Cities. They have better facilities and will be able to help her better. Her condition hasn’t changed at all since she arrived. If anything, she’s gotten worse. Her voice was stronger when she got here, and now it’s barely a whisper. We can’t do anything more for her here in Bemidji.”
“Ok.” David said.
“Who’s going in the helicopter with her?” The doctor looked toward David and Mary. The adults looked at each other for a couple seconds.
“I will.” Arin spoke up.
“Are you related? The person traveling with her has to be family.”
“Then I’ll go. I’m her older sister. I’m eighteen.” Jessica said from her seat.
“If that’s ok with your parents, I see no reason you couldn’t.”
“Please.” Jessica looked at her mom with pleading eyes.
“Ok. Jessica will go with Beth.” Mary told the doctor. The doctor held his hand out to Jessica, who stood and followed him out of the waiting room.
She paints her eyes as black as night now
She pulls those shades down tight
Oh yeah, there's a smile when the pain comes
The pain gonna make everything alright, all right
“Who knows, sis, maybe this will make us closer. Maybe all this pain you’re going through will help us reconnect.” Jess whispered to her sister as they got the helicopter ready to fly to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Jessica looked miserable. The black bags under her eyes showed that she hadn’t slept in days.
“Jessica?” Beth’s weak voice startled her sister. Beth hadn’t spoken in two days. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a helicopter. They’re taking you to the Twin Cities. How do you feel?” Jessica quickly took hold of her younger sister’s hand.
“Eh. Bad. I have a stomach ache.”
“I’m sorry. For everything. For ever being a bitch to you, or talking behind your back. I’m sorry I haven’t been a good sister.”
“I haven’t really done any better, Jess. Tell mom and dad I love them. Give Lance and Arin hugs for me. Give baby Andrew a big hug and a kiss and tell him he is my little angel. But it’s time for the angels to take me. They said so. They gave me one last conversation, and I can feel them pulling at me. They already know me, Jess.”
“Angels, what angels? Where are they taking you? Why do they say you only get one conversation?” The questions stumbled out of Jessica as fast as she could think them.
“THE angels, Jess. They’re taking me home. Now. I love you.” Beth’s voice left her, her last sentence barely a whisper on the air.
“I love you, too, Beth.” With that said, Beth closed her eyes and breathed her last breath. Jessica let her head fall to her sister’s chest and let the tears fall. For the first time in years, Jessica folded her hands and prayed to the one God that could hear her. “Lord, it’s been so long, but thank you for everything. And I know somehow that Beth is with you now, and I know that you will make her better and take good care of her. Amen.” Jessica whispered the short prayer into her sister’s hospital robe between her own sobs. The door of the helicopter opened with a jerk and Jessica lifted her head to look at the medic entering the aircraft. The medic motioned to Beth’s limp body and made eye contact with Jessica as she shook her head. The medic took a look at the machine that showed Beth’s heartbeat. The flat line said all it needed to.
Says she talks to angels
They call her out by her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels
Says they call her out by her name
“’Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’” These words come from John chapter eleven. They give us comfort in this hard time, but we know that through everything, God has the power to answer every prayer.” Jessica said, standing in front of the church filled with people at Beth’s funeral. “This verse gives us comfort, but so does one that Beth had marked in her Bible. 1 John 5:14, 15. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” Beth said she talked to angels, and that they knew her. I was with her in her last moments, and one of the last things she said to me was that the angels were finally calling her home. I couldn’t fully comprehend what she meant at that time, but after going home and into her room and having her Bible fall open to the passage from 1 John, I knew that she wasn’t kidding or hallucinating. I knew then after reading it, that she was called home by God’s angels. Some people wouldn’t believe her when she said the angels were talking to her, and I’ll admit, I didn’t believe her until too late. Her faith was always so strong, and she never missed a week of church or youth group. She always cared more than anyone else in our family. She always had more to say. And you could always count on her to have her Bible with her, and the cross she wore around her neck that I gave her because I didn’t want it, could give her comfort when no person could. Let’s bow our heads.” Jessica blew her nose before folding her hands and closing her eyes to lead the prayer. “Lord, thank you for giving Beth such a strong faith. We know she’s with you, and that gives us comfort above and beyond anything else. We know that you have saved her, and while no person could look into her heart, you have. Thank you so much. Help everyone here to take Beth’s example and have a strong faith in you, so that everyone here that ever cared about Beth can see her again in your eternal home. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
“Elizabeth Natalie Adams died on December 13, 2010 of internal bleeding in her abdomen. The doctors at the local Bemidji hospital could do nothing to save her as they didn’t know she had been bleeding. Jessica, Beth’s sister, was the only one with her in her final moments waiting in a helicopter to be flown to Minneapolis. Beth was only 16 years old, and is survived by her parents, David and Mary Adams; her older sister, Jessica Adams; her grandparents, Lisa and Brian Seimonk, and Steve and Tommy Sue Carpenter; her close friends Lance, Arin, and Andrew Carpenter; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Beth was an active member of St. Mark's, the WELS church located in Bemidji, Christian Keuther presiding over the congregation and pastor at Beth’s funeral, held December 20, 2010 at St. Mark's.” Jessica read the obituary and grabbed a scissors to cut it out and tape to the refrigerator. Beth would be remembered in Bemidji for years as a hopeful spirit in Heaven.
“Thank you, Lord. We all know she’s with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” Jessica whispered into her hoodie.
In certain company,
Yes, she’ll tell you she’s an orphan,
After you meet her family.
I winced as the silver cut through my skin again. Some people might call it an addiction, I know my older sister does when she’s with her friends. But to me, cutting isn’t an addiction. It’s something I do to make me feel better. The rush it gives me is incomparable. Some people think I started cutting because of grades, or for attention. Some think it’s because of guys, or that I’m trying too hard. But I know the real reason, and if you’d met my family, you’d know why.
My dad, six foot five, blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect skin, perfect body for the head of a law firm. My mom, the perfect blonde haired, blue eyed trophy wife, who just happens to be mayor of the city. My older sister, eighteen, size 2, 36D cup, long legs, the perfect body, perfect skin and hair, perfect eyesight, valedictorian, already accepted into her college of choice for pre-med. Then there’s me. If you saw us together, you’d make the same conclusion I have. I’m adopted. Me, short, thick, freckles and acne, mouse brown hair and grey eyes, barely scraping by with a C average in school.
I’ll never fit in with my family, even though they say they love me, they all act ashamed of me in public. I try so hard to be someone my parents and sister are proud of, but every time I try, I fail. They put me down while trying to help me. They got me a private tutor, my grades didn’t change. And it isn’t because I don’t try. I just can’t keep their expectation of the perfect daughter. My mom makes it a kind of sob story to her friends. I can hear it in my head whenever I look at her.
“Where did I go wrong as a mother? Her sister turned out just fine. I just can’t seem to place my finger on what went wrong with her. She can’t try to make herself pretty, she refuses to let me dye her hair or get her contacts, and I think she might have a cutting addiction,” mom cried to her group of book club friends. I had hid in the hall listening in on their conversation. I fell to the floor and wept into my hands when they started talking about me. When she mentioned my cutting I stood up using the wall for support and ran upstairs into my room, grabbing my Bible before I fell onto my bed.
I flipped to the back to 1 John 5:14, 15. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” I read through the verse a few times before closing my Bible and setting it gently on my bedside table. I closed my eyes and pulled my pillow under my head to pray for a bit before I slipped into sleep.
Paints her eyes black as night now,
Pulls those shades down tight.
Yeah, she gives a smile when the pain comes
The pain gonna make everything alright
I did my black eyeliner, which if you asked my sister was way too dark and thick. She kept saying I looked like a raccoon, but I could care less what she thought, or what anyone thought, actually. I liked what the black did to my grey eyes, making them almost black. They looked like my favorite time of day, night. I put my sunglasses on, solid black that covered my eyes completely. I sat my black fedora on my head, grabbed my keys and left the house, ignoring my mom as she asked if I was ok. Of course I’m not okay. And it’s her fault, she just doesn’t realize it.
I pulled the sleeves of my hoodie down over my hands to keep the cold northern Minnesota December air from chilling me. I squinted across the snow covered sparkling yard toward my dark blue Ford Ranger truck. I pushed the button to unlock it electronically. I opened the driver’s door and stepped up into my truck. I pulled the door shut and laid my head on the steering wheel for a moment before putting the key in the ignition and letting my little Ranger come to life. I sat up and drove away from the house where I wasn’t accepted.
I parked in front of Lance’s house. Lance was one of the few people in my little town I could trust with anything. And his little baby boy was one of the few people who could make me smile without trying. I went to Lance’s whenever I needed a smile, or whenever I needed a hug, or whenever I felt even more not at home when I was ‘home’. I locked my truck and walked to the front door. The door opened and Andrew was sitting on the floor just inside, Lance standing above him. Andrew saw me and jumped up. I smiled at Lance and walked in the house, wincing slightly as Andrew grabbed my wrist, opening the newest cuts.
I picked Andrew up and walked into the living room with him tugging at my hair.
“Auntie Beth. Auntie Beth.” He screamed in his high pitched 1 year old voice. I smiled at him in my arms, even as his shoe hit my wrist and caused the pain to rush through me again.
“So did you need anything specific today, or just…?” Lance let his question trail off, both of us knowing what he was thinking, as Andrew pulled my sunglasses off my face.
“Just…” I said, sitting down on the overstuffed couch.
“Ok. Well, you’re always welcome here.” I smiled at my friend.
Says she talks to angels
They call her out by her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels
Says they call her out by her name
“So are you still having those dreams?” Lance asked as Andrew hopped off my lap and ran out of the room.
“Yeah. I don’t know what they mean, but it’s always the same dream.”
“What’s your dream about, Beth?” Lance’s wife, Arin, asked as she came in and sat down next to Lance.
“Angels. They talk to me. They keep telling me I’m coming home soon. They look at me and say, ‘Beth, you’re coming home with us one of these days.’ I’ve been having this dream ever since I can remember, and it’s kind of comforting, but I’ve had it every night for the last week.” I sighed and leaned back into the couch and closed my eyes for a moment. I could still see the angels there. Every time I closed my eyes I saw them. Every time the wind blew I could hear them whisper my name.
“I don’t know what to tell you, sweetie. Hang on a second. I have something for you.” Arin stood and left the room gracefully. I looked questioningly at Lance and he just shrugged. Andrew ran back into the room and jumped onto the couch next to me. I smiled as I grabbed him around the waist and pulled him down into my lap. Arin walked back into the room carrying a box. She handed me the box after I sat Andrew down next to me on the couch and then she sat on the other side of Andrew. I opened the box and a small chunk of hair tied with a thin white ribbon fell out of it.
“Andrew had his hair cut this week, and I saved a curl for you since I know how much you love him.” I picked the hair up from the floor and put it in the pocket of my hoodie.
“Thank you. He is kind of my little angel. As much as he’s yours.” I smiled at Arin and Lance. “I should probably head out, though.”
“No! Auntie Beth stay!” Andrew screamed, grabbing my arm and holding onto it as tightly as he could. I smiled down at him and kissed the top of his head.
“I have to go, I’ll be back. I will see you again.” I smiled and he let go of my arm. I stood and said my goodbyes. I left the little house with a smile on my face. I pulled my sunglasses back down over my eyes and looked to the sky. It looked like there would be a storm. I needed to get back to my house, even if it wasn’t a home. The wind started to blow and I heard my name whispered on the cold breeze. I got in my truck and headed home, noticing before I reached the end of the block that the streets were becoming icy and slick.
She keeps a lock of hair in her pocket
She wears a cross around her neck
Yes the hair is from a little boy
And the cross is someone she has not met
not yet
{3rd Person Point of view}
“Mrs. Adams?” A female voice asked when Beth’s mom answered the phone.
“Yes. This is she. Who is calling?”
“Mrs. Adams, this is Lori. I work at the hospital. Your daughter Beth was in a car accident. She hit a patch of black ice on the highway and her truck ran off into the ditch and rolled three times before coming to a stop.”
“Is she alright?” There was worry in Mary Adams’ voice.
“She’s got a concussion and a broken leg. Other than that, we see no problems. She’ll have to be in the hospital for a few days.”
“Ok. I’ll be right there. Thank you for letting us know.” Mary hung up the phone and hung her head in prayer for a moment, asking God for Beth to be safe. “David! Jessica!” Mary yelled through the house for her husband and eldest daughter. They both came into the living room and went straight to the mother of the house, seeing the tears coming down her face.
“Honey, what happened?” David asked his wife.
“Beth.” Mary choked over the name. “Beth was in an accident. She hit the ice wrong and went into the ditch and rolled her truck. She’s in the hospital.” Mary wept into her husband’s shoulder. Jessica stood and left the living room stunned. She went up to Beth’s room and looked around her desk for a sign of anyone to contact.
“Lance.” Jess whispered, pulling out her cell phone. She dialed the number under the name and a woman’s voice answered the phone.
“Hello?”
“Hi. This is Jessica Adams. I’m Beth’s sister. Beth was in a car accident.” Jessica’s voice caught in her throat.
“Oh no. She was here not even an hour ago talking to us. She can’t have had an accident.” Arin sank onto the couch in disbelief after hanging up the phone. Lance came in and sat next to his wife.
“What happened?”
“We need to go to the hospital. Now. Beth was in an accident after she left here.”
“Ok. She’ll be fine. Let’s go.” Lance took hold of his wife’s hand and called his son.
The two families arrived at the hospital at the same time and walked into the Emergency Room together.
“Ah. Mrs. Adams. Your daughter will be okay. She just needs her rest. But here are her belongings that were loose in her pockets or that we had to remove.” The nurse handed Mary a plastic bag. Mary passed the bag to David and turned back to face the nurse.
“I need to see my daughter. And, Lance, would you come too? I know you’re close to her. Probably closer than I am.” Lance nodded his head and passed Andrew to Arin. Lance and Mary walked into the ER behind the nurse and the small group of people remaining in the hall turned and walked to the little waiting room.
They sat around the table, Andrew running to the corner where the toys lived. David dumped the contents of the bag onto the low table. Arin grabbed Andrew’s hair and hugged it to her. Jessica looked questioningly at her and Arin smiled a weak smile in return.
“It’s Andrew’s. She says Andrew is her little angel and when he got his hair cut this week, I saved a chunk of it for her, to always have him around. It’s kind of cheesy, but I knew it would mean something to her.”
“I remember giving her that necklace. It was a confirmation present that I had gotten from someone and never wore, but I knew how much she had liked it, so I gave it to her. I don’t think she ever took it off.” Jessica chuckled slightly through the sobs.
“It was her little piece of Heaven wherever she went. If she was having a bad day, she’d take hold if it, bow her head, and pray for a minute for the strength she knew she had.” Arin’s weak smiled stayed on her face as she remembered Beth sitting on their living room floor playing with Andrew, constantly taking the small Black Hills gold cross out of his small hands.
Arin wrapped her arm around Jessica’s shoulders and Jessica curled into Arin’s motherly embrace. Arin rested her head on Jessica’s and David took his daughter’s hand.
“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Andrew’s small voice whispered as he tugged at Arin’s pant leg.
“Beth got hurt. She’ll be ok. But here,” Arin unwrapped herself from Jessica and leaned over to the table and grabbed the necklace, “wear this,” she said putting the thin chain around the little boy’s neck. Arin put her arm around Jessica again and her other arm around Andrew as he climbed onto the couch and sat by his mom, wrapping his arms as tightly around her as he could.
Says she talks to angels
Says they all know her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels
Says they call her out by her name
“Beth, baby, how are you feeling?” Mary Adams asked her daughter who was lying on the ER bed, already hooked up to IV’s pumping more blood into her.
“Mom?” Beth’s weak voice was barely even a whisper. Mary squeezed her daughter’s hand. “Who else is here?”
“It’s me. Lance.” Lance gently grabbed her other hand, to show her he was there.
“I know he’s close to you, so I asked him to come in with me.”
“Mom, I’m fine.”
“No. You’re not fine.” Mrs. Adams smiled weakly at her youngest daughter, amazed at her ability to convince herself she wasn’t in pain. “Your leg is broken.” Beth turned her face away from her mother to face Lance.
“Lance, they’re calling me. They all know me. All of them. They’re trying to lead me somewhere, but I can’t follow. Something is holding me back.”
“They who, honey?” Mrs. Adams questioned. Beth’s words meant something to Lance, but not to her own mother.
“The angels.” Lance whispered over Beth’s body.
“Angels? What angels?”
“Angels. She’s been having dreams that the angels call to her for years.”
“I see them. They’re calling to me. One’s standing in the corner of the room, waiting for me. She says she wants to take me home.” Beth whispered, her voice weaker than before. Understanding dawned on Mary’s face as her daughter spoke.
“No. They can’t.” Mrs. Adams was almost to the point of hysterics.
“Mary, come with me. Please.” Lance said, holding his hand out to her as he walked around the bed. Mary took the proffered hand and followed Lance out of the Emergency room. They walked to the waiting room. Arin stood and walked to her husband as Mary sat with her family. Lance took Arin’s hand after picking Andrew up off the floor.
“Did you know she saw angels in her dreams?” Mary whispered to Jessica and David.
“Angels?” Jessica asked quietly.
“Angels. That call her by name and say they’ll be together soon.” Jessica and David shook their heads and stayed quiet.
She don't know no lover
None that I ever see
Yet to her that ain't nothing
But to me it means, means everything
“How are you holding up?” A teenage boy asked, coming over in a set of brown scrubs, labeling him as hospital employee.
“Who are you?” Jessica asked, escorting the boy back out of the waiting room and closing the metal door behind them.
“I’m Zach. I’m in Beth’s small group of friends at school. I work here as a housekeeper because my mom is an RN. I was wondering how she was doing.”
“I don’t think she’s doing any better.”
“It’s all the talk at school and has been since it happened three days ago. It’s really got some of us really beaten up.”
“So are you her…boyfriend?” Jessica never knew her sister to be in relationships, but they weren’t exactly the closest of sisters.
“No. Although if she’d open herself up to it, she knows that I would. She knows it hurts me everyday she can’t face it.” The door opened behind them and Lance came over to Jessica.
“We need you in there. The doctor has something to say.” Lance wrapped his arm around Jessica’s shoulder and led her back into the waiting room with their families and the doctor.
“We need to move Beth to the Twin Cities. Normally she should be getting better, more responsive, but she isn’t. We have to fly her to the Twin Cities. They have better facilities and will be able to help her better. Her condition hasn’t changed at all since she arrived. If anything, she’s gotten worse. Her voice was stronger when she got here, and now it’s barely a whisper. We can’t do anything more for her here in Bemidji.”
“Ok.” David said.
“Who’s going in the helicopter with her?” The doctor looked toward David and Mary. The adults looked at each other for a couple seconds.
“I will.” Arin spoke up.
“Are you related? The person traveling with her has to be family.”
“Then I’ll go. I’m her older sister. I’m eighteen.” Jessica said from her seat.
“If that’s ok with your parents, I see no reason you couldn’t.”
“Please.” Jessica looked at her mom with pleading eyes.
“Ok. Jessica will go with Beth.” Mary told the doctor. The doctor held his hand out to Jessica, who stood and followed him out of the waiting room.
She paints her eyes as black as night now
She pulls those shades down tight
Oh yeah, there's a smile when the pain comes
The pain gonna make everything alright, all right
“Who knows, sis, maybe this will make us closer. Maybe all this pain you’re going through will help us reconnect.” Jess whispered to her sister as they got the helicopter ready to fly to Minneapolis/St. Paul. Jessica looked miserable. The black bags under her eyes showed that she hadn’t slept in days.
“Jessica?” Beth’s weak voice startled her sister. Beth hadn’t spoken in two days. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a helicopter. They’re taking you to the Twin Cities. How do you feel?” Jessica quickly took hold of her younger sister’s hand.
“Eh. Bad. I have a stomach ache.”
“I’m sorry. For everything. For ever being a bitch to you, or talking behind your back. I’m sorry I haven’t been a good sister.”
“I haven’t really done any better, Jess. Tell mom and dad I love them. Give Lance and Arin hugs for me. Give baby Andrew a big hug and a kiss and tell him he is my little angel. But it’s time for the angels to take me. They said so. They gave me one last conversation, and I can feel them pulling at me. They already know me, Jess.”
“Angels, what angels? Where are they taking you? Why do they say you only get one conversation?” The questions stumbled out of Jessica as fast as she could think them.
“THE angels, Jess. They’re taking me home. Now. I love you.” Beth’s voice left her, her last sentence barely a whisper on the air.
“I love you, too, Beth.” With that said, Beth closed her eyes and breathed her last breath. Jessica let her head fall to her sister’s chest and let the tears fall. For the first time in years, Jessica folded her hands and prayed to the one God that could hear her. “Lord, it’s been so long, but thank you for everything. And I know somehow that Beth is with you now, and I know that you will make her better and take good care of her. Amen.” Jessica whispered the short prayer into her sister’s hospital robe between her own sobs. The door of the helicopter opened with a jerk and Jessica lifted her head to look at the medic entering the aircraft. The medic motioned to Beth’s limp body and made eye contact with Jessica as she shook her head. The medic took a look at the machine that showed Beth’s heartbeat. The flat line said all it needed to.
Says she talks to angels
They call her out by her name
Oh yeah, she talks to angels
Says they call her out by her name
“’Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’” These words come from John chapter eleven. They give us comfort in this hard time, but we know that through everything, God has the power to answer every prayer.” Jessica said, standing in front of the church filled with people at Beth’s funeral. “This verse gives us comfort, but so does one that Beth had marked in her Bible. 1 John 5:14, 15. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.” Beth said she talked to angels, and that they knew her. I was with her in her last moments, and one of the last things she said to me was that the angels were finally calling her home. I couldn’t fully comprehend what she meant at that time, but after going home and into her room and having her Bible fall open to the passage from 1 John, I knew that she wasn’t kidding or hallucinating. I knew then after reading it, that she was called home by God’s angels. Some people wouldn’t believe her when she said the angels were talking to her, and I’ll admit, I didn’t believe her until too late. Her faith was always so strong, and she never missed a week of church or youth group. She always cared more than anyone else in our family. She always had more to say. And you could always count on her to have her Bible with her, and the cross she wore around her neck that I gave her because I didn’t want it, could give her comfort when no person could. Let’s bow our heads.” Jessica blew her nose before folding her hands and closing her eyes to lead the prayer. “Lord, thank you for giving Beth such a strong faith. We know she’s with you, and that gives us comfort above and beyond anything else. We know that you have saved her, and while no person could look into her heart, you have. Thank you so much. Help everyone here to take Beth’s example and have a strong faith in you, so that everyone here that ever cared about Beth can see her again in your eternal home. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”
“Elizabeth Natalie Adams died on December 13, 2010 of internal bleeding in her abdomen. The doctors at the local Bemidji hospital could do nothing to save her as they didn’t know she had been bleeding. Jessica, Beth’s sister, was the only one with her in her final moments waiting in a helicopter to be flown to Minneapolis. Beth was only 16 years old, and is survived by her parents, David and Mary Adams; her older sister, Jessica Adams; her grandparents, Lisa and Brian Seimonk, and Steve and Tommy Sue Carpenter; her close friends Lance, Arin, and Andrew Carpenter; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins. Beth was an active member of St. Mark's, the WELS church located in Bemidji, Christian Keuther presiding over the congregation and pastor at Beth’s funeral, held December 20, 2010 at St. Mark's.” Jessica read the obituary and grabbed a scissors to cut it out and tape to the refrigerator. Beth would be remembered in Bemidji for years as a hopeful spirit in Heaven.
“Thank you, Lord. We all know she’s with you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” Jessica whispered into her hoodie.
♠ ♠ ♠
This is technically late for the contest, but I wanted to post it anyway. I put alot into this story, and am personally kinda proud of it. :)