Angel Unawares

Dekker

"Very good, Amber. I could tell you worked hard on choosing your best pieces to include in your compilation." Mrs. Williams smiled as she handed the compilation back to Amber. Amber saw that the teacher had written a big 'A+' in red ink on the front cover.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed.

"Yours was the best in the entire class," Mrs. Williams continued. "I hope you'll consider a career in creative writing. I just know you'd be a huge success."

"So how did you do?" Trendi asked Amber after school. Amber proudly showed her friend the compilation.

"Wow, that's great! I only got a B+ on mine."

"A B+ is still a good grade." Amber didn't want her friend to feel bad.

The following morning, Amber simply couldn't get out of bed. Every time she sat up, a wave of dizziness forced her to lie back down, and her throat was so sore that she could barely swallow. "Mom, I'm really sick!" Her voice was so weak that she could barely hear it. Helen came and quickly felt her forehead.

"My God, you're burning up! Get dressed. I'm taking you to the clinic right away." Amber was so weak and dizzy that Helen had to help her dress and walk out to the car.

The clinic was very crowded, and they had a hard time finding a place to sit. When they finally did, Amber was shocked to discover that the boy who was sitting beside her was someone she knew. "Dekker!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

She hadn't known him very well at all. He'd been Danny's best friend and the driver of the car he'd been riding in when he'd been killed. Jade had kept in touch with him until she'd left for California, but Amber hadn't seen him since Danny's funeral. "I have to come here now when I get sick," he told her. "We lost our insurance when my Dad lost his job. We lost our home too, and had to move into a smaller one."

"I'm sorry," Amber replied. "Well, at least you're not in a wheelchair anymore."

"I'm not completely better, either." He glanced down at his brace-clad legs. "I never will be. How's Jade? Are she and Gideon still together?"

"They broke up before Christmas. She's with a different guy now."

Dekker was shocked. "But those two were inseparable!"

Amber didn't say anything. How could she possibly explain to him all that had happened? It struck her how ironic it was that Danny, who'd been killed in the crash, was now healthy and whole, while Dekker, who'd survived, was still crippled over three years later. "What about you?" Amber asked. "Are you seeing anyone?"

Dekker scowled. "What woman would want to hang around with a crip like me?" Amber thought about Trey and how badly he'd been injured, much more so than Dekker had, yet how much Jade seemed to care for him.

"Some girls are willing to look beyond all that," she told Dekker.

He snorted. "Well, I sure wish you'd introduce me to one of them." Amber thought of her friend Trendi and wondered whether or not she was seeing anyone. She decided to ask her the next time she saw her. "So are you seeing anyone?" asked Dekker.

Amber smiled. "Oh, yes. I'm seeing someone very special."

"Oh yeah? Anyone I know?"

She nodded.

"Who is he?"

"If I told you, you'd never believe me in a million years."

"Try me."

Amber was still debating how to answer him when he was called back to be examined. Feeling tired and weak, she tried to nap but couldn't get comfortable. After a long wait, she was finally called back and examined. "Looks like mononucleosis," the physician on duty told Helen. "We'll just have to let it run its course." He prescribed fever and anti-inflammatory medications and sent her home. By the time she got there, the only thing she felt like doing was going to bed.

Amber could hear a baby crying. She knew that it was her son and that his name was Nathaniel. "Nathaniel! Where are you?" she called to him. She realized that the street on which she was walking was made of gold. I must be in heaven. For some reason she wasn't one bit surprised. Danny!

Right away she saw him, making love to Jade on a large, fluffy bed with a leopard-print coverlet. Her sister's head was thrown back, her eyes closed in ecstasy, and Danny thrust into her ever harder and faster, and tears filled Amber's eyes as she recalled the pain, the horror, of being pinned helplessly beneath Bruce's body, completely at the mercy of his perverted demands...

And suddenly he was there, dressed in sackcloth, his body burned and ravaged, reeking of sulfur. "Our son, Amber," he sneered. "You're neglecting our son! What kind of mother do you think you are?"

She gasped and opened her eyes to look into Danny's and instantly realized that she was lying in her bed and he was holding something cool and moist to her forehead. "Oh, Danny, you'll never believe what I just saw!"

"It's all right." His voice was ever so gentle and soothing. "You were hallucinating. Your fever went up pretty high, but it's a little lower now." She heard a trace of worry in his voice that she'd never heard before.

"How did you get in here?"

He smiled. "How do you think?"

"Does my Mom know you're here?"

He shook his head. "She fell asleep watching a soap opera. I knew you needed me so I just came on over." His fingers brushed moist hair back from her forehead. She closed her eyes. It felt really nice. Then she remembered and opened them again.

"I met up with Dekker at the clinic."

If the news disturbed him at all, he certainly didn't show it. "Sh. Rest now. We'll talk about it when you're feeling better."