What is romance? What is true love? How can knowing what is on the other side make such a big difference in our lives? Does romance cross the divide of the living and the dead?
Without further ado, here is the third of the stories in my paranormal romance stories:
Kiernan and Angel
Angel first met Kiernan when she was five. They were on the slides at Marywood Park, a small new spread of playground toys, and shrubbery overlooking the Bay. As a kid she never really noticed the Bay much, except to note that it was an awful lot of "wahwah" as she would often tell her Mom, when she pointed to it. Kiernan was two years older than her at the time, and big enough to push her on the swings, which he did after she slid down the curly slide and landed on top of him the first day they met.
He'd rolled over laughing, and tossed sand at her. She tossed it back. He tossed it back. In moments they were both half buried in sand and the other kids waiting to slide began yelling at them to move or crying. Some parents came over and gently moved them away. Their parents. They were both single. Juliet Stiles was her mother. Henry Moorehead was Kiernan's father. It was a strange thing for them to meet that way, but both were quite shy, so nothing much came of it at the time. They just smiled at each other, said goodbye and took her and Kiernan back to their respective benches where they scrubbed us clean with moist towels, or by hanging us upside down to dump any loose sand in our clothing.
She remembered Kiernan giggling like a madman as Julie tickled him while holding him upside down over her shoulder, him kicking and screaming with pleasure. She didn't laugh much then, or later. She was still sad about her Mom going away. That's all she could understand at the time. After all, she was only a bit over a year old, heading towards two.
She just remembered this warm body that would cozy up to her at night and tell her funny and strange tales about beings that lived on other worlds and would come to earth to make people think and be happy. She called them Angels, just like she named her baby, her, Angel.
It wasn't until about ten years later when she was approaching twelve that she ran into Kiernan again. He was the class nerd. Two grades ahead, one year to go. She was an early bird. Smarter than most and probably going to skip most of high school and go straight to high school. It was the gift her genius father had left for her...an I.Q. that caused eyebrows to rise when they heard it. She didn't care much about what anyone thought about it, or her I.Q. She was interested in only one thing. One day proving that there was life after death and building a machine that would broach the dimensions between mortal man and immortal man so she could see her Dad again.
She had become so obsessed with science and math that she hardly even looked at boys, except when they stuck their faces in front of her and waved their hands, as if she couldn't see them. Which, no shame to them, she couldn't. Her mind was always busy, busy, and busy. She came up with a thousand and one ways to do it. To make the transition machine. Or the Angel Bridge she named it.
She remembered how excited she'd been when she'd run home from school that Monday and shown her mother her design for the Angel Bridge. Her mother had done all the right things, smiled, nodded, said "Yes, Honey, great idea." Then she'd returned to ironing the clothes. She'd put down the artwork and chipped in to get everything done. She wasn't a typical genius who ignored everything but what she was obsessed with. She had a sense of determination, purpose and resolve that also included an open door to taking care of the daily routines expected of a child of her age.
Anyway, she'd become so driven about her project that she had hurried from the library on day, her work in her hands, when she'd collided head on into a young teen backing away from his locker with an armful of books and folders. He went flying one way and her the other. He spilled everything on the floor and she as well. But the first thing he did was not to make fun of her, or to get mad, but instead to say. "Sorry. I'm such a butt!"
He helped her pick up her work, then without another word or expectation of thanks; he went about gathering his own paperwork, folders and books. It was a good time it was lunch time or it would have been a far worse disaster. Finished, he closed his locker and turned to leave. But she was still standing there where he had left her.
She clumsily reached out a hand, managing not to tumble all her work to the floor again in the process. "Thanks!"
He awkwardly took her hand. "I'm Kiernan."
She dropped all her stuff again.
He gave her a blank stare, and then hurriedly began helping her again after setting his own stuff down on the floor. She dropped to the floor and helped him, then broke into laughter. "I'm Angel. The baby that dropped on you at the park."
He frowned, finished helping her, gathered his stuff, and then got up. "Gotta get to class. Nice bumping into you, Angel." He said the bumping part with a big grin, and then hurried off.
Angel noticed he had forgotten something on the floor. She hurriedly scooped it up, and then stuck it into her jeans pocket. She stared after him a long time, until the bell rang, and the kids spilled from the classes for second lunch and the others came pouring back from the cafeteria. She stood there until the next bell and was late for her class, but her teacher didn't notice, she was too busy picking up broken pencils that the rowdy boys had been tossing about the room.
The rest of the day went swiftly. She rushed home to tell her Mom who she had met. Her Mom listened quietly, her face looking strained as she listened. Finally, she'd gotten up and went into her bedroom, after giving Angel a kiss. Angel heard crying coming from the bedroom. What an ass she'd been, she thought to herself. I just reminded her of Daddy. She even felt a little down herself at that moment, but briefly. She worried more about her Mom, who refused to date anyone since the tragic death of her husband.
Angel was dumping the pockets of her jeans to clean them when she saw the piece of paper Kiernan had dropped. She read it. It had an address on it. His address. Wham! Teenage bells began ringing as a plan began to shape in her brilliant mind. No Angel Bridge this time, but something maybe just as good.
Next morning she got up earlier than usual and faked an invitation to a picnic. She stuck it in an envelope, and then mailed it to herself with another address on the envelope to indicate the sender. It was the name of Kiernan. She made a second envelope and addressed it to Kiernan. She mailed both of them on the way to school, smiling the rest of the day after she had mailed it.
That same day she suddenly got worried. What if? So she had carefully done some sleuthing and found out some details about Kiernan's home life. When she got what she wanted, she almost fainted with relief, because her impetuous invitations might have ignited something really nasty otherwise.
Two days later, and on a Friday. She got the letter and ran upstairs excitedly to see her Mom, who was working on an internet website for the company she worked for...Ignatius, Deplorum. A kind of wacky group of nerds who made their living doing crazy designs for personal and commercial use.
"Mom, I just got an invitation to a picnic. Can I go?"
Her Mom read it and smiled. "I don't know."
"Pulleaseeee!" She begged.
Her Mom's face ignited with a big smile. "I don't really have to work then. Okay. We'll do it. Do you have their phone number?"
"No, but I already told Kiernan we were coming."
Her Mom broke into laughter. "You're such a brat some times." Then she snatched
Angel to her and gave her a long hug. "Love you."
Angel wrapped her arms about her Mom and rode the tide of happiness streaming from her and her Mom. Maybe it she hadn't done such a dumb thing after all.
The trolley stopped near the street they lived on and she and her Mom got on. A very nice looking gentleman greeting them. "I'm Mister Corday and I'll be your conductor to the Rose Park."
Her Mom thanked him and they both went to the back of the trolley, adjusting their picnic baskets they had brought to fit comfortably at their feet. Neither said much as the trolley rattled up the hill, occasionally stopping to pick up other passengers, or to let them off. Finally, they reached the top.
"End of the Line." Mister Corday announced on the trolley speaker system.
They both thanked him as they got off. He gave them a smile and said. "I've heard nothing but good things happen in that park."
His Mom gave him a startled look. "Park?"
"Rose Park, Madam. You are going there, are you not?"
"Yes, but how...?
He gave us both a wink as he shut the doors. "Let's just say a little angel told me."
We both watched the trolley turn around and head back down the hill.
Her Mom quickly forgot about the man and we headed towards the road that led into the park. We found the entrance and there about halfway down was a man and Kiernan. Kiernan saw her and waved briskly. He came running up the levels. Breathless, he stopped before Mom and smiled. He put his hand out. "I'm so glad you could come."
"Why thank you, do I know you?" Her Mom asked, perhaps recognizing him a bit.
He didn't hear her question, because his father had finally caught up with him. He interjected himself between Kiernan and her Mom. "I'm Kiernan's father. Henry."
"Oh my God. Déjà Vu!" Juliet cried out. "You're the father of the boy my daughter fell on when she was a baby."
"Guilty as charged." He grinned.
For a brief second the entire rose garden lit up and Angel and Kiernan gave each other startled glances. They had both seen it, but their parents had not. The roses had lit up like miniature suns for a moment, so bright their eyes hurt.
For some reason their parents hadn't seen a thing. Their eyes couldn't leave each other as they descended to where the picnic was planned, both totally forgetting about their son and daughter as they talked, and laughed.
Kiernan fell turned to Angel. "You're good!"
"What do you mean?" She asked. She suddenly realized he might have caught onto what she'd done. Neither her Mom nor his Dad had asked about who sent the letters. Both assumed it was from each other. She could be in deep, deeep trouble. Suddenly, she didn't feel like a genius anymore.
He pointed to their parents. "I haven't seen Dad this happy since Mom..."
He stopped, choking on the last word.
Angel touched his arm and smiled into his face. "Ditto."
She turned and he turned to watch their parents sit down and continue talking on the nicely spread picnic blanket.
As they talked he could see his mother standing in white light behind his father, and she could see her father in white light standing behind her mother. The ghostly figures turned to look at each other, smiling, and then they looked up the layers of roses towards the children.
Kiernan and Angel both broke into tears when the ghostly parents smiled, then waved goodbye and vanished in a tunnel of white light that whisked them away.
Henry and Juliet got married six months later after many happy days of meetings in the Rose Park. As to Angel she and Kiernan became best friends and he even gave her ideas for her Angel Bridge, but somehow that project slid further and further into the back of her mind as time passed by. For hadn't she already created her Angel Bridge. As she and Kiernan watched Henry and Juliet kiss gently, she knew she had built her Angel Bridge and it had worked. Perfectly.
