Darkness

Jack

“You don’t look sick,” I tell him after he closes his door behind us.

He grimaces. “I was though. It was disgusting. I puked right in front of Gregor while he held the basin for me. I was so embarrassed.”

Really? “Ew!” I say, teasing him a little, and he laughs. “I guess whatever it was couldn’t be too serious, though,” I add. “You sure look fine now.”

“He said I had yellow fever,” he tells me.

“Gosh, Gregor was wrong about something? Has that ever happened before?”

He gets up from where he was sitting on the bed, and steps back and forth across the room a couple of times, restlessly. “I don’t think he was wrong. I think I really had it. It was exactly like what everyone says, at first. I puked, I had a crashing headache, I was burning hot. I felt completely terrible.”

I stare at him. This doesn’t make any sense. He is obviously fine.

Jake sighs and sits back down on the bed next to me. “Do you remember what happened when Gregor was whipped?”

Oh, that. “Um, which part?”

“How he got better. How your sister said that an angel must have come to help him, and we all felt it happen.”

I wasn’t there, but we’ve talked about it so much that it almost seems like I was. “Yeah?”

“I wonder if maybe an angel came to help me last night? Gregor promised to take care of me, and stay with me. When I woke up this morning he was still in here, and I felt perfectly fine.”

Woah. An angel? Here helping Jake too? My mouth is hanging open, and I can’t find anything to say.

Jake nods at my lack of response. “Yeah, I feel the same. I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I think that maybe the angel who helped Gregor after he was whipped helped him with this too. Helped him take care of me. I think it must be his guardian angel.”

“His own angel?”

“Maybe. I mean, if he had an angel helping him twice, it makes sense that it would be the same one. Maybe he really does have an angel looking out for him.”

We stare at each other, silently, amazed. I almost feel shaky thinking about such a heavy, important thing. After a couple of minutes, I say, “I think you’re right. It makes sense, that he would have an angel helping him do everything. He is nicer than anyone else, and does more for everyone than anyone else.”

He nods at me seriously. Gregor has done so much for both of us. “I don’t think we should say anything about it to him, though,” he says. “If he wanted us to know he has an angel he’d tell us.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I won’t say anything.” I’m glad to think it might be true, though. I’m glad my sister married a man who has a special secret, and who is so good to her. And to us.

Jake flops down on his bed and sighs. “I sure wish we could go down to our fort today. This is going to be boring, just staying inside all day.”

“Think he’d let you go out into the garden at least?”

“Um, maybe!”

Gregor’s

How extraordinary! These two children have formulated a theory that is almost indistinguishable from the actual truth. They believe Gregor has a guardian angel, staying with him and helping him. And so he does.

The boys come out from the back room and approach Gregor and Rosalind. Jack says, “Um, Rosy, I think that some sunshine and fresh air would be good for Jake, don’t you? Help him recover from his illness? I can go sit with him in the garden, if that would be all right.” He glances over at my beloved, who is trying not to smirk.

Rosalind replies, “Sure, you boys go on out. No roughhousing, though, just sit in the sunshine.” She holds her face straight until she hears the back door close behind the boys, then she turns to Gregor and grins. “Those scalawags will be down the hill stealing flatboat boards within an hour.”

He laughs. “Probably. It’s all right, though, Jake is fine. A day of relaxation would be nice, but he clearly doesn’t really need it. They can do whatever they want.”

“Including philosophizing,” I interject.

“What?” Gregor asks me. I explain to him about the theory the boys have derived regarding his guardian angel. He listens with surprise, then admiration.

“It seems the boys have figured me out,” he tells his wife with a smile.

“What? How so?”

“Do you remember telling Jake that you thought an angel had come to help me the day that Smith whipped me?” I am pleased that my beloved has gotten over his squeamishness about mentioning the incident.

She nods, and he continues, “Well, it seems they have developed an entire philosophy about it. Now that I have healed Jake, they have decided I always have the same angel with me, helping me with whatever I do!”

She smiles. “Smart boys,” she notes.

“Yep. They’re completely correct. They have no idea how right they are!”

“Will you talk to them about it?” she asks.

“I doubt it. Let them think I don’t know they have uncovered my secret!” He thinks it is completely charming.

“Vernon is waking up,” I tell him, and he stands.

“The baby is awake. I’ll go get him,” he says, and climbs the stairs, full of the contentment that he had long doubted would ever come to him.