Saviors 101

Chapter 42

Chapter 42

Students were hustling every which way across the University of Washington campus, exactly as you’d expect on a sunny Sunday afternoon in October. Off to labs, libraries, the HUB, whatever.

Dana watched Michelle stride through them as if they weren’t there, and even the most head down, nerdy, I’m-in-my-own-world geeks moved out of her way as she strode across the bricks of Red Square.

Henrietta fluttered about her head like a giant, feathered moth drawn to the Devil’s flame.

And Dana couldn’t keep up with either of them. Nor did she particularly want to.

After all, if she were the aunt of Jesus, she should be doing more than following the Devil and a talkaholic angel across the UW campus.

And if he wasn’t her nephew, she shouldn’t have anything to do with either of them anyway.

She slowed to a halt. The great mass of the central UW campus rose about her. The towering windowless brick facade of Meany Hall to her back. Kane Hall to the left, also in red brick. And the huge Suzzallo Library in full-on Gothic Revival straight ahead. That’s where she should go. Hide from the world. Hide from all these hurrying people and the craziness of what was supposed to be her weekend, her break between classes, her time with Sam.

Dana checked, but neither Michelle nor Henrietta were anywhere in sight. Trying to keep low, she shuffled across the paving bricks. A bug on a windshield couldn’t be more obvious than Dana Murphy skulking across Red Square. Brick beneath her feet. Brick buildings all around. All the students dressed in classic northwest blues, grays and browns, wrapped in heavy, shapeless jackets against the clear but cold afternoon.

Not her. Oh no, not Dana Murphy. No way. She was dressed in brightly new jet-black skinny jeans and a silky red blouse that was intended for Sam to take off last night, but that she’d worn to the planetarium this morning. And she’d left her jacket in the planetarium as well, but she’d be damned if she’d go back to where they’d expect to find her just because she was freezing to death. That, and her keys to the planetarium were in her jacket pocket, hanging on the back of the console operator’s chair.

By the time Suzzallo came up in her sights, the shivers had set in, and she might as well have been a hockey puck skittering across the icy square.

A puff of warm air washed over her as she ran up the expanse of steps and ducked through the door. Once inside she doubled back and peeked out through the beveled window of pearled stained glass beside the door.

A tall woman, the only still figure in all of Red Square who stood in the middle of the crisscrossing mob, slowly turned on her heel. Her dark hair a great mane that splashed down over broad and powerful shoulders.

Small, white, zipping back and forth above the crowd, an angel hurried about seeking Dana Murphy. The Dana Murphy who was now cold and shivering just inside the library doors. Maybe this was a true sanctuary. Like a church was said to be. She was in a temple constructed for books, ideas, knowledge. Not nonsense like a bunch of Gods deciding to invent a second Messiah. Maybe they couldn’t find her here.

She ducked aside as Michelle turned toward the library. For half a second it seemed their eyes met, and a slow smile formed on Michelle’s lips. But perhaps Dana was mistaken. After a pause so brief it might have been imaginary, the Devil continued her slow, circling observation of the crowd.

When her back was completely to Dana. When only her hair was visible above the crowd, she raised an arm and snapped her fingers.

The little angel, after one last circle above the crowd, rejoined her. They walked away together, going north past Kane Hall—but they weren’t going past it.

It was as if the perspective were changing and they simply got farther and farther away, without moving through the crowd.

And then they were gone.

Just before they disappeared out of sight in the impossible distance, Dana could swear she’d seen Michelle raise a hand high above her head.

Without turning, she’d waved.

Then disappeared to wherever Devils disappear to.