Seer

Gabe

It’s been a strange day. Horrible earlier, then really nice this afternoon. I’m glad I got to play with the kids around here. Being with them always feels, I don’t know, easier somehow than being with Jonathan. Jonathan is a challenge. It’s exciting to be with him but I always feel like I have to stay on my toes with him. This afternoon I was just playing soccer and stuff. Simple, basic games. It was refreshing, after Jonathan went so crazy this morning at the library.

I still can’t believe any of it happened. I wasn’t surprised that he yanked Timothy’s book away, but I can not wrap my head around him hitting Natalie. Why on earth did he do that? I even understand him fighting me, since I did push him, after all. But hitting my little sister? What the heck?

Almost like she heard me thinking about her, Natalie pushes open the door to my room and pokes her head inside. Mom already said goodnight to us, but since it’s Saturday she lets us stay up later than usual as long as we are just doing quiet stuff in our rooms.

“Hey, Nat,” I say. “Did you run out of books to read or something?”

She giggles. “No, there’s always more books. I was wondering if I could come in for a while?”

“Sure.” I put down my Gameboy and scooch over on my bed to make room for her.

She climbs up and snuggles against me. “Hey,” I say, remembering, “let me see your face.” She lifts her little pointy chin so I can see the bruise Jonathan left there. “That doesn’t look too bad,” I tell her. “I’m really sorry he did that.”

She shrugs. “It’s fine.” She waits a moment. I can tell she wants to say something else, and wonder why she can’t just spit it out. She moves away from me, and sits cross-legged on the end of my bed, facing me.

She squints like she’s trying to remember something, then finally says, “Gabe? I know you’ve been wondering what’s wrong with Jonathan. Well, I think I know.”

“Oh really? More than just he’s being a big jerk?”

“Yeah. I know why.”

“Okay. Why?”

“First, I have to tell you something else. Something that is going to sound very weird to you.”

What? “What?”

“It’s about…” she hesitates again, “... about guardian angels.”

Um, okay. “What, are you reading a story about that?”

“No,” she says, “it isn’t from a book. It’s real. I have to tell you about real guardian angels.”

Oh man. My sister has such an imagination. I don’t know why she has decided to drag me into one of her pretend games, but I suppose I’ll go along. Maybe it’s just that Timothy went home and so she needs somebody else to play with.

Sure, I’ll play along with it. She had a rough morning. I don’t mind being nice to her.

“Okay, guardian angels. What about them?”

She looks at me with a little smirk, like she can tell that I think this is a silly game. “They’re real, Gabe.”

“Sure,” I say. I wonder how long it’s going to take to play this game. “Real. Okay, now do we pretend we can see them?”

She laughs softly and shakes her head. “I know you think this is a game, Gabe. It’s not. I actually mean it. Guardian angels are real.”

“We’re not playing something?” If not, I wonder when I can get back to my Gameboy, where I can actually play something.

“No,” she says, “it is not like a game on your Gameboy.”

She always does that. She has this weird knack for saying exactly what I’m thinking. I suppose it’s because she is super observant. She is always just quietly watching everything that is going on.

“Yes,” she says, “I know what you’re thinking.”

What? “Are you trying to spook me out, sis?”

“No. I don’t want you to be scared. But I do need to make you understand. It might seem spooky, but please just listen. I can explain this.”

This doesn’t feel like a game anymore.

“No,” she repeats, “it’s not a game.”

Okay now she is being spooky.

“I’m sorry, Gabe, I really don’t want you to be spooked out. Everything is going to be fine. But you need to hear me out. Please.”

“Okay, I’ll listen. What is going on?”

She inhales, pauses, then says, “Everybody has a guardian angel. Every single person. Their angel watches everything they do, all the time. Their angel loves them and wants to help their souls grow.”

“Well, that’s nice, I guess. Although I hope they don’t watch EVERYTHING!”

She giggles. “They do, but they try to be polite if you want some privacy in the bathroom or something.”

I still can’t tell if she’s just making this up to play a game, or if she’s trying to be serious about believing in guardian angels.

“Gabe, I am being serious. I told you, it’s not a game.”

“How on earth do you keep doing that?” It’s like she’s answering questions that I’m not saying out loud. It’s a little creepy.

She leans forward, and looks at me straight in the eyes, like she wants me to pay very close attention to what she is saying. “It’s because I can talk to my guardian angel.”

Natalie’s

It is going well so far. Her brother is dubious, of course, but she repeatedly demonstrates that she knows what he is thinking, as I constantly whisper to her the thoughts that are going through his mind. This is her strategy, to show him that she is able to use her Guardian’s knowledge. She and Timothy planned this out, and she considers this to be phase one of this experiment. The experiment to see if she can convince Gabe of the truth.

“Okay,” Gabe says, “how do you learn how to talk to your guardian angel?”

“He still believes that you are playing a pretend game.”

“It’s not a pretend game, Gabe,” she says. “I can talk to my Angel. But I didn’t learn how, I was born this way.”

She thinks for a moment, recalling the past. “I don’t know whether you’ll remember this, but I used to have an imaginary friend. I used to call him Angel, or Big Angel. Do you remember that at all?”

“He does remember it, a little. He was also quite young.”

“Maybe,” Gabe says slowly. “I think it used to be your little Beanie bear, though, right?”

She smiles radiantly at him. “Yes! Except that it wasn’t actually the Beanie bear, I just loved that because it looked like my Angel.”

“Well,” Gabe says, “I do remember you talking about ‘Angel’ all the time. I thought you grew out of that.”

She looks at him seriously. “I stopped talking about it, when I realized that nobody else could see my Angel, and I didn’t want people to start laughing at me. But I didn’t grow out of it. Angel has always been with me.”

“He doesn’t think you are playing a game anymore, but he’s confused about why you imagine you are seeing an angel.”

“I’m not imagining it, Gabe. I can prove it to you.”

“Really?” Gabe asks. “How could you prove it?”

“Angel can tell me anything you are thinking. He’s been telling me this whole time.”

“He realizes that you have been repeating his thoughts during this conversation.”

“I’ve been saying what you’re thinking already, but that’s probably not clear enough for you to believe. Let’s try it a different way, okay Gabe?”

“Um, okay.”

“His perception is shifting. He is starting to feel a little scared, sensing that there is something supernatural occurring. This is not something he has ever seriously thought about before.”

“Gabe, you really don’t have to be scared. I know this is different from anything you’ve thought about before, but it’s something I have lived with my entire life. So have you, you just haven’t known about it before. You’ll be fine.” She leans over and touches his hand, and smiles at him encouragingly.

“He grows more curious, wanting to understand what you mean.”

“Okay,” she says, “let’s try an experiment. Why don’t you think of a number. Angel can tell me what you are thinking.”

Gabe’s eyebrows go up, but he is willing to try.

“He is thinking of the number eleven.”

“Eleven,” she tells him. “Try again.”

“He is surprised, but thinks perhaps it was a fluke. Now he is thinking of the number four hundred and fifty six.”

“Four hundred and fifty six,” she says. “Try again. This time think of any random thing you want, not just a number.”

“He is feeling slightly frightened, realizing that this is really happening. But he feels a dawning wonder as well.”

“It’s okay, Gabe, it isn’t scary, really. I’m just trying to show you. It’s actually really cool. Come on, think of something random. Angel will tell me.”

“He is remembering a moment during today’s soccer game with the neighborhood boys. A boy named Jacob kicked the ball to another boy named Bob. The ball bounced off of Bob’s head, but it was an accident, because he wasn’t actually watching. He was distracted by a sports car driving past. The entire group laughed uproariously, calling out ‘Accidental header!’”

Natalie chuckles at the story. “That sounds like it was funny, Gabe, when Bob made an accidental header because he was watching a sports car when Jacob kicked the ball to him.” She smiles at him.

Gabe’s mouth falls open.

“He sees.”

“This is really real?” Gabe asks.

“It really is. I have more ways to prove it. Want to see more?”

“He would.”

“Um, yes?” Gabe says.

“Okay,” Natalie says, businesslike, continuing with her prepared demonstration. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out two dice. “Here, take these.” She glances around the room and finds an empty cup. “Shake the dice in the cup, then put it upside down on the desk. So neither of us can see what they say. Angel can still see, and he’ll tell me.”

“He grows more fascinated with what you are teaching him, and he is feeling excited to learn more. His sense of fear is turning into amazement.”

“It’s cool, Gabe, isn’t it? See? Nothing to be afraid of. It’s actually really wonderful.” She has planned it this way, to share the wonder, the discovery, long before she mentions the dark truth about Demon. She wants Gabe’s introduction to the concept of Guardians to be very positive.

Gabe shakes the dice in the cup, flipping it over so the dice are concealed within. He looks at Natalie expectantly, but not really believing this is going to work.

“He doubts that this will work. The dice show three and five on the top sides.”

“This really does work, Gabe. The dice are three and five. Check it and see,” Natalie smiles at him.

Gabe removes the cup, sees the three and five on the dice, and his immediate reaction is to laugh in wonder. “No way!”

“Now he is enjoying himself, and feels delight at what seems increasingly real to him.”

Natalie grins at him. “Do it again!”

He shakes the cup and sets it down.

“Two and four.”

“Two and four,” she says.

He lifts the cup and whoops.

“Shh!” Natalie cautions him. “Don’t get Mom in here, she’ll make us go to bed!”

“Ooops,” he says, then grinning hugely, shakes the cup again.

“One and three.”

“One and three.”

He checks, and is delighted. Although he realizes this isn’t a game, it feels like a game to him.

“Ok, Natalie, this is awesome, you’re right. But how is it working? Like, is there actually some angel there telling you the answers?”

“Yes,” she confirms, “that’s exactly what’s happening. I can see my guardian angel, and he talks to me all the time. He tells me whatever I want to know.”

“And you’ve always seen an angel? Even when you were little?”

“Yes, Angel has always been here with me. Every minute, since I was born. It’s not just me, though. Everyone has a guardian angel. It’s just that I am the only one who can see mine.”

“Really? Do you know why?”

“Why I can see Angel? He tells me that I have a special gift, that nobody else has. That’s why I can see him.”

“He begins to wonder about whether he has a guardian angel too.”

“You have one too, Gabe. Your guardian angel loves you just as much as mine loves me. It’s just that you can’t see yours. But he’s there, loving you, right now.”

“Can you see my angel?”

“No, I can only see my own. But he tells me about what the other ones are saying all the time.”

“This still seems unreal to him, but magical. He wants to believe it.”

“It is like magic, I know. But it’s real. You can believe that you really have a guardian angel.”

“Too bad I can’t talk to mine,” Gabe muses. “That’d be a pretty cool dice trick to show my friends.”

Natalie smiles. “It’s a cool trick, I know. But I did it so you’d believe me. It was Timothy’s idea.”

Gabe is surprised. “Timothy? He knows about your angel?”

“Yeah,” Natalie says, “Timothy has known for a long time.”

“I’ll bet Timothy wishes he could talk to his, too.”

Natalie considers what to say next. “Well, actually, Timothy has been working on that.” She waits to see Gabe’s reaction.

“What do you mean? I thought you said you had a special gift and nobody else can do it.”

“Well, that’s true. I’m the only one who can do it easily. I see Angel as well as anything else. But Timothy is working on a way to hear his. It’s really hard, and it takes a lot of practice, but he’s starting to get it.”

Gabe is astonished. “Seriously?”

Natalie has an idea. She says, out loud to me so that her brother can hear, “Angel, can you ask Guardian to have Timothy wave at us out his window?”

She crosses to Gabe’s window and holds back the curtain. Timothy’s window is visible across the way. “Just wait, Gabe, this will probably take a minute, for Timothy to get the message. It’s a lot harder for him.”

Gabe crosses the room to join Natalie in peering out the window.

“This seems increasingly strange to him, but also wonderful. He is excited to be learning about this new aspect of your world.”

After a few seconds go by, the curtains on Timothy’s window are moved aside, and he is seen by the children, standing there, wearing his pajamas, and waving at them.

Natalie grins and waves back at him. Gabe stares open-mouthed. Timothy moves away from his window and the curtain drops back into place.