Angel Unawares

Thanksgiving

"So, how has it been going for you girls?" Aunt Maria asked her nieces. It was Thanksgiving, and the family had just sat down at the dinner table.

"I just met a new guy," Jade replied. "His name's Trey, and he was wounded in Afghanistan. I met him at the rehabilitation center. Some friends and I had gone there to cheer the veterans up, and we started talking and really hit it off. I've been back to see him a couple of times since then. He's supposed to go home in a couple of months."

"What will he do then?" asked Aunt Maria.

"He wants to start training for a desk job soon. You know, it's funny. I never before imagined that I'd ever be attracted to someone like him, but he's just so nice and so easy to talk to. I feel so comfortable around him, like I can tell him almost anything at all."

Aunt Maria frowned. "What do you mean, 'someone like him'?"

"Well, his face is badly burned, and he lost both legs."

Aunt Maria looked shocked for just a minute. "Well, it's good that you were able to look beyond all that."

"You know what? I'm not sure I would have been able to a year ago, or even six months ago."

"And what about you, Amber?" asked Aunt Maria.

"Mom and I had kind of a disagreement and I had to move out for awhile. I'm staying with this nice family, the Andersons, now." She blushed slightly. "Danny and I have been seeing quite a bit of each other, too."

"Danny?"

"Danny Green."

"But didn't he used to be Jade's boyfriend? The one who..."

"He came back a couple of months ago," Amber explained.

Aunt Maria nodded in understanding. As she claimed to have a special relationship with the spirit world, the news didn't shock her at all. "And Jade wasn't interested in resuming the relationship?"

"I was already involved with Gideon by then," Jade said. "I had no idea he was gonna come back. I thought he was gone forever."

"Oh," Aunt Maria said awkwardly. "Well, that usually is the case, isn't it?"

"He came back to keep me from doing a really stupid thing," Amber told her.

Aunt Maria's eyes widened in shock. She glanced from Helen, who was staring at the table top, to Jade, who looked puzzled. "Well, I'm glad that things seem to be going all right for you now."

"It was Bruce, wasn't it?" Jade asked Amber when the two of them were alone. "I knew that guy was bad news the first time I set eyes on him. I never should have gone to California and left you alone with him."

"It wasn't your fault," said Amber. "It was his."

"Well, I still feel bad that that happened to you," Jade replied. It occurred to her that it had been a very long time since she'd actually had a heart-to-heart chat with her younger sister.

"It's all right," said Amber. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask what it had been like to make love to Danny, to join their bodies together in the ultimate act of intimacy, but every time she thought about it, her heart began to beat faster and she just couldn't.

"Did you girls have a nice Thanksgiving?" Suddenly Danny was there, smiling at them. With the image of Danny and Jade, their bodies molded together in passion, still in her mind, Amber blushed deeply.

"What is it, Amber?" Danny laughed.

"Nothing," she said, shaking her head emphatically.

"Are you sure?" He smiled gently as his eyes sought hers.

She nodded.

"It was nice to see Mom and Aunt Maria again," said Jade, as if there never had been any awkwardness between herself and Danny. "How was your Thanksgiving?"

"It was wonderful," Danny told her. "Aaron was able to visit. It was the first time all five of us had all been together since...you know." Watching her sister chat comfortably with her former boyfriend, Amber began to feel left out. Danny reached for her hand and took it, and she felt a little bit better.

"So how's it going with Trey?" Danny asked Jade.

"Fine." She was surprised. "I didn't know you knew about that."

"Of course I did. I was the one who sent him back."

"What?" Jade and Amber were both startled.

"At the time of his accident, his soul briefly left his body. I was there to meet him, to tell him that it wasn't his time to cross over yet, that even in a crippled and scarred body, he could still accomplish a lot and live a happy life. That a very special woman would come along and change his life forever."

"Wow." Overwhelmed, Jade didn't know what else to say.

"Is everything really OK?" Danny asked Amber later, after Jade had left.

"Yeah, everything's fine."

"So it wasn't something you just didn't want to talk about in front of Jade?"

"Not exactly. I was just, you know, wondering what it would be like." She couldn't meet his eyes.

"I think that maybe you spend a little too much time thinking about that." Danny's voice sounded gently reproving. "There will be plenty of time for that when you're a little bit older. No point rushing it. It will get here fast enough."

"But sometimes it just seems like it's taking so long..." Tears of frustration were in Amber's eyes.

"I know. But it will be here before you know it." Gently he kissed her lips. "Come on. Let's go roller skating."