JenniAnn woke up with a start. She may have just had the craziest
dream of her life. And she’d had her share of crazy dreams.
But this… It had started out innocently enough. Just a
bunch of Roman ruins. Strange, sure, but nothing special.
But then she’d shown up. Well, dropped down into the middle of
the ruins to be exact. By a… crane?? In a white disco dress
of all things! She looked pretty groovy, if she did say so
herself. But there was no time to think about that. Cause
then Andrew appeared and he… he wasn’t looking his best. Then…
and this is where it got really weird. She’d started to sing in
her dream. Quite well, actually!
And others joined in until
the decrepit arena was filled with Androolers in white, sparkly
costumes.
“Andrew
angel, you’re our star! Did you ever think you’d fall
this far? Andrew angel, you’re our star! Did you ever think
you’d fall this far? Tell me when do you think this madness will
stop? Do you think you’re whole career will turn out to be a
flop? Adam’s not been where you’re at. He’s not where you
are. Can Henry do the things that you’ve done or will we just
have no star? Did you mean to leave like this? Was
this a mistake? Did you know your choice would take you from your
Maker?”
JenniAnn
got up, shook her head, and began to prepare for the day.
That’s what she got for watching musicals right before going to
bed. Strange, glitzy dreams. Her great-grandma was
apparently fond of saying if you told someone your dream with in 48
hours, it wouldn’t come to pass. But this was just too ridiculous
to tell. Besides, Andrew would never fall. The very idea
was unthinkable.
Various
of the Dyelanders were sitting together beneath a tree in the
Fields of Gold. With JABB’s 7th anniversary only weeks away,
planning for the celebration should have been in high gear.
However, being a chatty and fun-loving bunch, they were in fact
recalling previous celebrations.
“I
hope this isn’t a sore subject but remember the year Andrew hosted
it at his house?” Margherita recalled.
JenniAnn
groaned but then smiled.
“Aw
geez, I missed it that year. What happened?” Jess asked.
Margherita
grinned slyly, “JenniAnn, care to share?”
“I
may have stood outside Andrew’s house holding a boom box over my
head,” she admitted, blushing.
“And
what was the boom box playing?”
“Peter
Gabriel’s ‘In Your Eyes’… So may be it was a touch
over-dramatic,” JenniAnn admitted with a laugh.
“Just
a touch, I’d say.”
The
giggling recollections stopped though when the women heard hurried,
approaching footsteps.
“Hey,
Monica!” Audrey called when the angel got close enough.
“How are you do… Hey, what’s wrong?”
When
she also moved beneath the trees, the others could see how close
Monica was to tears. A few moved over and motioned for her to sit
down while everyone looked at her with great worry.
“Monica,
please tell us what’s troubling you,” JenniAnn pleaded.
Monica
took a deep breath and surveyed the faces around her, trying to
find the right words. She wished Tess were there. Or Adam
or Gloria. Or Andrew, especially Andrew. She hated having
to tell them this news but she also knew she couldn’t leave them in
agonizing suspense any longer. “It’s Andrew.”
“Crikey,
he can’t have been arrested again!” Margherita
dead-panned. Monica shot her a pained look. She grew silent
then, knowing this was serious.
“He
walked off his last assignment and…” the angel struggled to
continue.
Karen
looked across at JenniAnn who’d gone completely pale and was
nervously twisting the ring she always wore. She’d told her about
her dream earlier. At the time it had seemed ridiculous and
they’d gotten a good laugh out the way her musical obsession was
effecting her.
“Tess
and I tried to stop him when we heard but… he just walked off and
now we fear… he’s not alone,” she told them gravely.
“Well
of course he’s not alone! God is with him!” Jess exclaimed
hopefully.
Monica
gave her a wan smile and nodded. “Yes, God is with him but
that’s not who I meant. Satan is trying to…” Monica shook
her head, unable to finish the thought.
“Tempt
him,” Margherita finished.
The
angel nodded and then everyone grew very quiet, lost in their own
thoughts.
Soon
after delivering her message, Monica left. She had to go
help Adam finish Andrew’s assignment. Before disappearing, she
asked Andrew’s gathered friends to pray for him. It was all they
could do. So they did. Then they began to share their
favorite
memories of him, hoping somehow their kind words would reach him,
wherever he was.
“I
was going to tell you this earlier, before Monica came and it seems
even more appropriate now,” Margherita began. “It was the
anniversary before last. I hadn’t spent much time with
Andrew. To be honest, when I first met him I wasn’t sure I liked
him. But anyway, the day of the party I’ll admit I was a bit
tipsy. So I said something like ‘The other girls really like you
just the way you are and I just wanted to say… I do also. Well, I
mean you sometimes wear shoes with goofy tassels on them and I really
think you need to pick a length of hair and settle with it. You
clearly have pride issues and you let your friend call you a stupid
nickname you don’t like but… you’re a nice angel and I like you.’”
Despite
their worry, several of the Dyelanders howled with
laughter. Once recovered, JenniAnn piped up. “Poor Andrew,
we’ve certainly exposed him to more than his fair share of…
eccentricities shall we say? I’ll be the first to admit I’ve done
so on a myriad of occasions. But he was never mean, even when I
really, really messed up. You remember when he nearly got
impeached by Eben?”
The
rest of the group nodded. “I was there the day he cleared out
his desk at City Hall actually,” Audrey recalled. “That was a sad
sight. Everyone felt awful. But then something amazing
happened. As he walked through the hallway, people started
standing on their chairs. One by one. Suddenly there was a
din of people shouting ‘O Captain, my Captain!’”
“Wow,
I wish I’d been there to see that,” JenniAnn commented, regretful.
“You
must have a favorite memory of your own though?” Jess queried.
JenniAnn
smiled, already fondly recalling hers. “I do. It
was that semester after I graduated from college and took a couple
classes just for fun. Well, one day I was headed to my campus and
I saw Andrew. Turned out his assignment was one of the star
football players there. Now, the school itself was nice and most
everyone was very professional. But there were a few bad seeds
and for whatever reason they latched onto poor Andrew. So when we
were walking together they just, for no reason I could tell, started
pitching rocks at him. Well I was horrified! So I just
yelled ‘Run, Andrew, run!’ And he did. Boy did he
run! The football coach saw him and ended up hiring him as his
assistant and that’s how he got through to his assignment. Only
time I ever cared about sports…” JenniAnn sighed.
Chihuahua,
the little dog who had sat quietly and listened to everyone
reminisce piped up then. “You just let me at whomever has Andrew
and then I know how to cheer Angel Boy up!” he boasted, tail wagging.
“Oh
and how is that?” Audrey inquired.
“Well
you see a couple years back Andrew was discouraged over some
assignment or another. Oh you know when it was actually?
Remember that phase where Cliff got really creative with the
architecture and we had that big blue elephant shaped buidling behind
City Hall? It was then. I found Andrew moping up
there. I asked him why and he answered that he’d just come from a
divorce hearing in which he was a lawyer,” the dog further explained.
“Aww,
that must have been tough for him,” Jess interjected.
“Very.
So to cheer him up I sang snippets of love songs.
Y’know got some U2 in there. Bowie. He piped in with the
Beatles. And we danced. It was fun!” Chihuahua
pranced around happily at the memory. While everyone else swooned
over the image of Andrew dancing. (Although in their minds it was
with them… not the scrappy lil mascot.)
The
group sighed in unison and there was a moment of silence as they
all thought of their angelic (or so they still hoped) friend.
Andrew
ducked into the cabin and rested against the wall. He took
a deep breath, trying to regain his energy after being chased by the
demon Eben. A scraping noise across the room told the angel he
was not alone. Sure enough just across the room stood Eben’s
partner, Stella. She was mixing drinks and held one out to him
with a coquettish grin. Frankly, if Andrew weren’t a bit piqued
he would have laughed. She looked utterly ridiculous.
“Miss
Robin Sun… you’re trying to tempt me. Aren’t you?” he
asked.
Stella
tried to keep up the act. “I am not Andrew. I hadn’t
even thought of it. I feel…” But the demon’s face turned
bright red and she fled from the room.
Andrew
knew calling her by Tess’ old nickname for her would rattle
her. Tess had bestowed it on her sometime in the 60s when Stella
begged to be called Rainbow Sunshine and be named “angel of
Woodstock”. God had declined on the latter matter and Robin Sun
became Tess’ garbled riff on the former request.
Andrew
peeked out the window and watched her run. He shook his
head when another figure came into view. Eben dashed past but
didn’t seem to notice the angel of death. Andrew whispered a
prayer that Stella might see the light and go back to God. Sure
enough, as he looked outside, Eben stood, his T-shirt drenched, and
gazing upward yelled “Hey Stellllaaaaa!!!!!!
There
was no answer. Even from his vantage point, Andrew could
see the anger flash in Eben’s eyes. He could tell he was now more
determined than ever to make him fall.
“That’s
it. I’m not going to just sit here. This isn’t a
wake! We still have time! We could help Andrew!” Margherita
jumped up and proclaimed.
JenniAnn
shook her head, forlorn. “Margherita, he could be any
where. What are we going to do? Search the whole world?”
“He
keeps a journal doesn’t he? I say we go to his house and take
a peak. We’ll all vow *only* to look at the very last
entry. Hopefully he’ll have mentioned where he was headed.
Then we go there. If it works, yay us. If not… and he
falls… his coming after us for snooping is the least of our concerns.”
This
seemed reasonable enough to everyone and they agreed. But
before they left the field, JenniAnn looked back once more.
Something in all this made her recall walking in that same field.
Debating with herself whether starting Dyeland was a good idea or just
bound to cause problems, if not uproarious laughter at her
expense. Then she heard it…
“If
you build it… he will come,” an ethereal voice whispered.
And
that had settled it.
“June
18th, 2005. I’m headed to a campground called Hamilton
Park. I look forward to being a camp counselor there for a few
weeks this summer. I hope my archery skills are still up to par
but…”
JenniAnn
interrupted Audrey who was reading from the journal.
“Stop! Hamilton Park! I know where that is. Less than
10 miles from my house. Grade school classmates used to go there
and I sometimes did for a day here and there with Girl Scouts!
People used to tell stories about it,” she told them excitedly.
“And… ohh… there was this hill they called Angel’s Slide and another…
Devil’s Slide.” She shivered.
“I
hate to say it but there’s probably dozens of Hamilton Parks…” Cliff
lamented. He’d been called in to help since, having built
Andrew’s house, he best knew its secret areas where private materials
such as journals might be stored.
“That
may very well be but there’s only one that we can find right
off. I say we start there!” JenniAnn insisted. She looked
around at the others who nodded solemnly. “Then we’re off!”
“It’s
dead. Won’t move an inch,” Cliff kicked the jeep he and the
8 other Dyelanders had piled into to get to Hamilton Park.
“Then
we’ll walk. I really, really think Andrew is here.”
JenniAnn hopped out of the car.
“Uhh…
you guys…” Audrey sat in the jeep, transfixed by a glass of water
that someone had put in the driver’s seat arm rest. The water was
bouncing… Everyone was very quiet.
Thump…
thump… thump…
It
sounded as if massive footsteps were approaching. Then there
was a roar!
The
group stared back in horror at a large reptilian creature with
glowing red eyes. They clamored to get out of the jeep and flee
the hell beast!
“Run
towards the bridge! May be we’ll lose it there! And
the Slides are that way!” JenniAnn screamed.
Cliff
led the other eight in across the bridge towards the slides JenniAnn
suspected Andrew was at. But as they ran over the bridge the
beast leapt out from a tree and dashed behind them. Cliff stopped
and turned around. The others bade him to continue but he
answered “No, run you dolts!” Then he turned back to the raging
animal, held his walking stick aloft and yelled “You shall not
pass!”
The
remaining eight looked back and began to fret when they did not see
the magician and saw the bridge had fallen. They prayed he was
somehow safe and continued on through the woods.
The
moment of truth had come. Eben had found the angel in the
cabin. Stella may have baled but he was as determined as
ever. Andrew had gotten away too many times before. This
time Eben was determined to triumph. The two stood next to
each other at the top of Devil’s Slide.
“And
you couldn’t help them, could you Andrew?” the demon asked with
mock sympathy. “You just had to stand there… and wait… As
they cried out in agony. A shame. A real shame.” Eben
shook his head gravely.
“God
was with them,” Andrew insisted, tears in his eyes.
Eben
shrugged. “Still… I imagine they would have liked a little
more help from Him. Or you. But no… nothing.”
“They
had free will. If God stepped in every time someone chose
to do something dangerous, there would be no freedom.”
“Ah
the old party line. Free will! Y’know, we don’t pay as
much heed to that on our side. We do what we like. Andrew,
it’s not as if you’d need to do anything cruel. I mean it could
be very liberating. Getting to help people as you wished…” Eben
explained, temptingly.
“I
say this to you and all the other enemies of humankind. You
may do what you can to try and make my life miserable but I will never
help you to take away their FREEDOM!!” Andrew bellowed the final
word so loudly, the demon looked frightened and winced. When he
opened his eyes, the angel was gone.
After
a while the Dyelanders came to a hill and looked down. A
group of menacing individuals stood around speaking. They knew
them to be demons.
“We
can’t all eight of us go down there. It will be too
conspicuous. Seven women and a Chihuahua come to them, they’ll
know we’re there for Andrew. Someone needs to go… alone and see
what they can find out,” Margherita suggested. Everyone nodded
gravely.
JenniAnn
rifled around on the ground for eight sticks, breaking one so
that it was smaller than the rest. “We can use these to
determine… hey where’d Audrey go?” Everyone turned back to the
valley below them. Audrey was all ready nearly down the hillside
and headed to the group of demons.
The
woman strode purposefully towards the group. They were quiet
and seemed disappointed. It made her hopeful, especially since
she did not see Andrew among them.
“Where
is Andrew?” she demanded, looking one she recognized as Eben
straight in the eye.
Eben
seemed confused but then his eyes glimmered. “Oh but it’s
too late. Andrew has fallen. He’s gone all ready.”
Audrey’s
eyes burned. “Was it you? Did you convince him to?”
Eben
shook his head and cackled. “No, as much as I’d like the
credit for it.” He pointed to a retreating figure about 40 yards
away that Audrey hadn’t noticed til then. “He did.”
Audrey
tore after the figure. When she drew nearer she couldn’t
see his face, it was mostly hidden by a black hooded sweatshirt.
He didn’t seem to know she followed and now stood near the precipice of
what JenniAnn had called “Angel’s Slide”.
“You
made Andrew fall and now you can fall for all I care!” Audrey
shouted and pushed the figure onto the slide.
As
he fell, she heard his voice bellow back “God… loves… you!”
Audrey
was shocked. “Oh! My sweet Andrew! What have I
done?!” Then she began tumbling down the slide herself.
Angel’s
Slide was tamer than Devil’s Slide and they landed soon in a
bit of thick grass. Andrew made his way over to where Audrey
was. “Are you okay? Can you move?”
Audrey
beamed at him, “You’ve not fallen! If you want I could
fly!”
Andrew
shook his head and grinned quizzically at her.
“Right… Well, I didn’t. Well, not in the sense you mean
anyway. And I may not have fallen at all if you hadn’t pushed
me,” he teased. Then he helped her up.
Just
then the other 7 Dyelanders burst through some bushes, having
found a different way down. They all cried and hugged
Andrew. There was a chorus of “I knew you’d never give in!” and
“You’re safe, thank God” and like messages.
“Eben
tried but I know where my place is,” Andrew assured them.
“Like I told Audrey the only fall today was her launching me down that
slide!”
“They
told me you were the demon who had made… well, you, fall!” Audrey
clarified.
Andrew
smirked. “I guessed as much. Eben never does know
quite when to give up. Let’s all get out of here and head back to
Dy…”
Just
then the demons appeared again.
“I’ll
keep them back, go!” Andrew instructed and the women and the dog
dashed off.
Night
had fallen when they found a cabin and all piled into it.
Audrey noticed it had a cellar and pulled up the door, urging everyone
to go below. She hopped in herself and then noticed JenniAnn
standing on the porch.
“JenniAnn,
get in! Don’t let them in!” she hissed.
“Andrew’s
out there… He’ll come to check on us,” she responded
with a wavering voice.
Audrey
tried to coax her in but gave up and closed the door.
JenniAnn
closed her eyes, willing Andrew to come and hide safely with
them. She held her hand out. Strange yet beautiful violin
music started up and she felt someone grip her hand. Andrew
pulled her inside, threw open the door in the floor, and they climbed
in.
The
group huddled there as they heard footsteps walking around above
them.
When
it seemed the coast was clear, everyone climbed out and went
outside.
“Okay,
*now* let’s get back to Dyeland,” Audrey suggested.
Everyone nodded numbly, anxious to get away from the park. Andrew
strode a few steps away, checking to make sure the path out of the
woods was free of demons.
They
all stood and stared upward when they heard a great whirling noise
from above them. It was a helicopter and Cliff shouted down from
it! They cheered that the magician was alive and that they would
soon be out of the place. Everyone climbed in. But then
Margherita looked around anxiously as Cliff rose the copter off the
ground.
“Andrew!
We gotta wait for Andrew!” she screamed. She
looked downward to where the angel stood on the ground, demons coming
towards him as he fell to his knees. But Cliff didn’t
descend. Between the din of the copter and the CD he was blasting
(FYI it was Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”) he didn’t hear her
cries.
“Well,
you‘ve now watched the American Film Institute’s ‘100 Greatest
Movies Lines’. Now let’s go to Janie Dyefan on the streets and
see what Dyelanders chose as their favorite movie moments and lines,”
the newscaster said.
JenniAnn
blinked a few times. She wasn’t sure what was going on and
why she was laying on the couch in the Willowveil TV room. Then
suddenly she remembered and screamed.
Monica,
Karen, Vincent, Chiwawa, and Audrey came running into the room.
“What
the heck is going on? Geez… it was just another of those
AFI countdowns. Nothing too sinister!” Audrey grinned.
Vincent
was less amused by his godchild’s obvious distress.
“JenniAnn, tell me what troubles you.”
“Where’s
Andrew?!” she questioned. She was beginning to hope the
whole horrible saga had been nothing more than a movie-induced
nightmare but she still wasn’t sure.
“He’s
Home. Remember he just finished an assignment and went up
there for a break?” Karen responded with arched eye brow.
JenniAnn
knew all this.
JenniAnn
looked relieved but continued, “I was in a park and you and you… and
you… and you were there!” She looked at each of them.
Her gaze landed on the little dog and she hugged him. “Oh
Chiwawa! Andrew’s Home! And he’s never ever gonna leave
again cause God loves him and he loves God. Oh, there’s no place
like Home!”
And
everyone shook their heads and left the room, having decided it
best JenniAnn relax for a bit. And also she was banned from
watching
any more AFI countdowns.
The
End
Special
thanks to Audrey for suggesting the movie scene she did.
I love that one. :-)
Click
here for the answers to this contest
JABB TOC
Newsletter 168
(Photo Credits: The photographs used on this page are from
"Touched by an Angel" and owned by CBS Productions, Caroline
Productions, and Moon Water Productions. They are not being used
to seek profit.)