Trick or treat!
"Mary, Maggie! Mark is ready and waiting for you downstairs!"
Monica's soothing voice had an immediate effect on the two little girls who were checking the last details of their Halloween costumes. The six-year-olds sisters emerged from their bedroom and slowly and carefully climbed down the stairs of their house, joining their equally six-year-old little brother some moments later. The Irish angel smiled broadly, enchanted with the image of the triplets dressed up with their Halloween costumes, secretly picturing her little Angela a few years from now.
"Why do you girls take so long to get ready? Now we'll have less candies to get!" Mark complained. He was wearing a lion costume, while his two little sisters were dressed as a ballerina and a princess.
"Because we wanted to see our costumes a bit more! Mom won't let me go to school dressed up as a princess tomorrow!" Mary replied, in a self-assured way.
"I wanted to wear the ballerina clothes the other days too!" Maggie spoke, somewhat regretfully.
But the children were not the only ones who were wearing different clothes that night. Monica was dressed up in a beautiful fairy gown: her lilac dress went up a bit bellow her knees and its long sleeves, which were white and transparent, make it look even more graceful. She was also carrying a magic wand, with a star on its edge, and one could notice the angel was having fun with that situation. Her auburn hair was loosen and cascading over her shoulders, and she really looked like a character taken from a fairy tale. The only thing Monica resented was the fact that her bright white shoes bothered her a little, and she couldn't wait to remove them at the first opportunity she had.
Highly amused, she caressed Margaret's blond hair, "Who knows you will become a ballerina when you grow up, huh, wee Maggie?"
The little girl turned hopeful blue eyes to her baby-sitter. "Do you really think so?"
"Of course, sweetheart! And what a beautiful ballerina you'd become!" she said, smiling at the girl's own pleased smile.
"Oh, look at them! They're absolutely adorable!" The children's mother exclaimed, as she and her husband entered the living room. They were dressed like Gomez and Morticia Adams and it was possible to notice they were as excited as the children.
Smiling, their father took a picture of the trio and once they were all ready to leave the house, the mother looked at Monica with infinite gratitude.
"I don't have words to thank you enough for accepting the job, Monica!"
"Yes, Kathleen is right. We were surprised when the agency phoned this afternoon saying that they had finally found a baby-sitter who accepted to work tonight!" the father added.
"Yeah, all the other baby-sitters had been hired already. We were so lucky!"
Monica smiled, secretly aware that luck didn't have anything to do with her presence there. "I'm glad I can help!"
They left the house some minutes later but parents and children went into two different directions: while Mr and Mrs Harris went to the club, where a Halloween party was going on, their children went trick or treating in the neighbourhood of that pretty little town, a few miles away from Salt Lake. And little did they know that they were in the company of a real angel - who, that night, was disguised in a fairy costume.
X
"You're kidding me, Tess!" Andrew exclaimed, clearly annoyed with his latest orders. The two angels were at a club, where loud music was playing and only adults were dressed for the costume party that was happening at that very moment.
The angel of death was wearing a simple pair of blue jeans, brown shoes and a green shirt, but contrary to him, Tess was dressed up in long purple dress, embroided with hundreds of pumpkins and a matching purple hat, as she too had a Halloween assignment. "Do I look like I'm kidding?" the supervisor replied; both hands on her hips, eyebrows raised and a very serious expression on her face.
For his own sake, Andrew elected not to reply to that question - even though it was possible to read his thoughts just by the expression on his face. Upset, he shook his head and sighed with impatience and frustration. "Tess, you know exactly how I feel about this... Halloween stuff..."
"Well, and what do you expect me to do? Go up and tell God to pick another angel for the job because this one doesn't feel like working tonight?"
"What you're asking me to do simply goes against everything I believe about this date..." he insisted, leaving the older angel more upset than she already was.
"Oh, really? And who is 'asking' you anything, here, mister? I am giving you an order, that came from the Father Himself, and you are to fulfil it without questioning it because you and I know that if He told you to do it, it's because He has a perfect plan, which will not be ruined by an angel of death who refuses to work on the Halloween!"
"Who is going to watch over Angela?" Andrew made one last attempt to convince her he was not the right angel for the mission.
"Well, when I left there were five angels disputing who would rock her to sleep and you know why? Because she is an obedient little angel, who everybody likes to watch over, contrary to her father who is acting like a five-year-old!"
Sighing deeply, the blond angel gave up arguing with her and tucked his hands in his pockets. "Alright."
"Good! Now move on your angelic butt outta here cause I too have an assignment to take care of!" She grumbled, and walked away from him, leaving a not all to pleased angel behind.
X
"Look! We have so many chocolates already we could save some for the next Easter!" Mark exclaimed, counting the contents of his bag after one and a half hour of trick or treating around the city. He, his sisters and Monica were sitting on a bench, resting their feet a little before resuming their search for more candies (and the Irish angel was secretly thankful that they had stopped).
"We don't have to save it all until next Easter, the Easter bunny will bring us some more chocolates!" Mary retorted, really worried about the possibility to wait until April to eat all the candies they had received.
Her sister nodded her head in agreement. "Mary is right. If the Easter bunny sees we have so much chocolate he'll think we don't need some more and will leave us with nothing!"
Giggling at their conversation, Monica looked around and then at the sky: it'd been a rather chilly night, and now the wind was picking up a little more. The angel wondered if soon it would start raining. "Well, since you all have candies that will last for a very long time, what do you say we continue our 'trick or treating' on our way back home?" she suggested.
"Aw, can't we stay for a little bit more?" Mark pleaded.
"Well, we've gone quite far from home already. We will visit some more houses on the way and still get home in time for your favourite cartoons!" The angel offered, and that seemed to work for them.
"Yes, Monica is right. And I'm getting tired already." Little Maggie agreed.
"Good..." The Irish angel looked around her, not really sure of which street to follow. After some moments of indecision, and noticing the trio was gazing at her and waiting for an order, she sighed and pointed. "... let's go this way then..."
Carrying their bags, the children and the angel walked for some more time and it was possible to notice that Monica was constantly checking every street they passed by, hoping they wouldn't pass by the same corner. All of a sudden, however, it was the children's voices that alerted her for something else: a house had called their attention.
"Quick, let's go to the other side of the street!" The little boy spoke, he and his sisters alarmed at the old house's image.
Monica frowned, finding their sudden fear rather strange. "Go to the other side of the street? But why?"
"Because that house is haunted, Monica! The ghosts live in there and kidnap children every Halloween night!" Mary explained, as another gust of wind blew against their faces.
Tilting her head, and eyeing the old house with typical curiosity, the Irish angel bit her lower lip with a pensive expression on her face.
"Please, Monica, it's true! My friends from school even saw the ghost who lives in there!" the little boy insisted. But the angel kept on thinking, trying to understand the silent message her heart was telling her.
"Hum... And how did they see it if they too are afraid to pass by the house?" That question made them reflect a little and Mark nodded his head. "Hum... I dunno..."
"I don't think there are ghosts in there, children... In fact, the lights are on, so there must be somebody home..." she said, holding the triplets' hands.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, wee Mary, I'm quite sure... Besides, who knows the people in there can tells us exactly the way back to your house, huh?" she said, winking at them and finally convincing them there wasn't any danger lurking around.
Hand in hand, they walked up to the house and climbed its steps, and Monica rang the doorbell afterwards.
When the door flung open, the Irish angel finally understood why her heart was telling her to go to that old house. Standing at its door was her beloved Andrew, who was immediately greeted by the children's joined voices. "Trick or treat!"
Slightly surprised, as he too didn't imagine who would knock at his door, the blond angel let out a small laughter at that "coincidence". And on the following second, his mouth dropped open at Monica's appearance. He could never imagine how amazingly beautiful she would look wearing a Halloween costume like the one she was wearing, and the blond angel felt his heart skip a beat at her image.
"Good evening..." she greeted him, highly amused, and not missing how his eyes travelled from her head up to her toes in pure enchantment.
"Good evening..." he finally managed to put words back at his mouth, and then still not having enough from her appearance, he forced himself to look at the triplets, "Hello, children..."
"Do you have candies, please, mister?" Margaret asked, smiling at him with no fear at all. Andrew's presence always caused that impact on the little ones: they were never afraid of him; instead, their affinity was immediate due to his way with children.
"Yes! I sure have!" he said, but before he could go and fetch the candies, a loud thunder echoed through the sky and caused the children to hold each other with fear. The heavy rain fell less than a minute later, and Andrew quickly urged them to enter.
"Wow, you got a lot of candies in here!" Mark exclaimed, his eyes grown at a bowl full of chocolates and other sweets.
"It's true! You got all this for the kids?" Little Mary wanted to know, looking at him with curiosity.
"Well... y-yes..." he managed to say, a little embarrassed and guilty, as he had initially refused that assignment.
Maggie opened up a broad smile at him. "You're our friend then!"
Not managing to hide her smile, Monica gazed at her dear Andrew and tilted her head, exchanging some secret words and causing him to smile back at her and then at the children. "I am. And while you wait for the rain to stop, why don't you guys sit down in the living room. The fireplace will keep you warm."
"Thank you, mister..." They politely replied, and sat down next to each other in one sofa, while the two angels sat together on another couch.
"My name is Andrew. What's yours?"
"I'm Mark, and these are my sisters, Maggie and Mary. And this is our nanny, Monica."
"Well, it's very nice to meet you all!" He said, visibly having fun with that situation, and not managing to keep his eyes away from Monica for more than a minute.
"We were fortunate to find this house on our way, you know, Andrew. Otherwise, we would have no shelter from the rain that's falling down outside." The Irish angel said, looking deep inside his green pools, both angels now aware of their assignment on that unusual night.
"Oh, I see. I'm glad I was here!"
"Yes! But... didn't you see the ghost who lives here, Andrew?" Mary wanted to know.
"A ghost? Hum... no, I don't think there are ghosts around here tonight, Mary."
"Where's your costume?" The other sister asked, in an inquisitive way. "I'm a ballerina. My brother is a lion, sister is a princess and Monica is the good fairy."
Highly amused, he raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, the good fairy? Really?"
"Exactly." She replied, enjoying the way he was gazing at her.
"You're the only one who doesn't have a costume... Why? Don't you like Halloween?"
"Well, Mark, actually... I'm not much of a Halloween fan..."
"Why not? My teacher told me it's not really a monsters' celebration... Is she wrong?"
"Well, erm... no, actually, she's right, but-"
"Where does the Halloween come from?"
The avalanche of questions was such that Andrew was lost for words for a moment, and it was his beloved Irish angel who helped him.
"The Halloween started a long time ago, children, in England, in Northern Europe and in my beloved Ireland." She said; the thought of her beloved land causing her eyes to sparkle.
"And it was created to honour the dead people." Andrew added.
"Dead people? Really?"
"Yes, but it's nothing to be afraid of. It was a day created to remember the ones we love and who have already made their way back Home, to stay close to God."
"Ohh!" they exclaimed, paying close attention to what they were being told.
"And October 31st also set the end of the summer and the end of the year for the Celtics and the beginning of a new one, so they would light up fires and made a celebration at night, and everybody participated in it."
They remained in the cosy living room, sitting in front of the fireplace for almost an hour. Protected from the storm and the cold, the triplets listened to the angels' words intently. When the rain finally started to cease, Andrew and Monica finished their narrative leaving them with an enchanted smile.
"I like this story!" Mary exclaimed, with a cute smile on her face, after listening to the angels' story.
"I used to be afraid of Halloween stories, but now I'm not anymore..." her sister agreed, equally contented.
"Yeah, and I bet nobody knows where the Halloween started at school. I'm gonna tell everybody that I learned everything here with you tomorrow!"
"You see? Everybody is entitled to change their minds!" The Irish angel spoke, to a very surprised Andrew, who couldn't help smiling.
"You know something, Monica? You're right!" he admitted, "You're perfectly right."
"Besides, look at those wee faces whenever you give them a candy. They have so much fun..."
"Yeah, I know... I never thought about it through a child's eyes, but telling you guys the true story of the Halloween sorta helped me out to see there's nothing bad about it." The angel of death said, and then his lips curved into a mischievous smile as he looked back at Monica, "... and I can see it's not only kids who have fun lately..."
"I guess you're right again, you know?" Once again, they exchanged some silent loving words, and she rose to her feet. "Well, children, I guess it's time for us to go now that the rain stopped."
"It's alright. Wonder if mommy and daddy will be home already." The door bell rang at that moment, and they could listen there were more children asking for candies outside, causing Monica to gaze at Andrew with amusement. "I guess it's for you!"
"I'm afraid so..."
He walked with them up to the entrance door, and the Irish angel looked around them with some embarrassment. "Erm... Andrew... I was wondering if you could tell me which way is the number 52 of Cherry Lane..."
"That way." He quickly informed, pointing at the opposite direction Monica and the children were heading to, and secretly aware that his beloved angel was a bit lost.
"Oh, thank you!"
They bid him farewell and he watched them walk along the streets until the group was no longer visible. Then, with a tender smile upon his face, he turned his eyes to the sky. "I'm so sorry, Father. Please, forgive me... And thank You for the assignment... It was also a lesson."
X
The Harris' car was already parked in front of the house when Monica and the children arrived there. The door quickly opened up and Mrs Harris rushed to hold her kids.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're all fine!" She exclaimed, as her husband also joined them.
"Oh, mom, we are! We got so many candies!" they happily announced.
"I'm sorry, we should be here earlier, Mrs Harris, but the rain stopped us. Thanks to God we found shelter in one of the houses where the children went trick or treating, and waited for the rain to stop there." Monica informed.
"Yeah, there's a guy who lives there, his name's Andrew, and he gave us lots of candies, and he and Monica told us the story of the Halloween. He's our friend now!"
"Then it was really God who placed this man in your way." Mr Harris said, with some amazement.
"I don't think I quite understand it..." Monica said, slightly confused.
"Come with us..."
They entered the house and it didn't take them too long to notice what the storm and the wind had done: the huge tree that grew up in their garden was knocked down and hit exactly the children's room and the master bedroom. If there was anybody home, the pieces of broken glass of the two huge windows, along with the tree branches, would certainly have hurt that family, as their beds were completely covered with pieces of glass.
"We should be here earlier too, I wouldn't mind the thunderstorm as we had a car." Mr Harris said, to a very surprised Monica, "But there was this funny-looking lady at the club..."
"Yes, her name was Tess and somebody accidentally let some sort of red drink fall over her entire dress. I guess it was a mix of wine, raspberry juice and... well, who knows. I ended up helping her to clean it in the ladies' room, and she got a huge stain on her dress." Mrs Harris explained, and then everything became clear to the Irish angel. "When I finished, the rain was ceasing and we could return home. That's when we found it."
X
Monica held each child and bid the family goodbye. It wasn't necessary to reveal herself as an angel of God to them, but she was certain that the incidents of the night would certainly lead them to the conclusion that there was a loving Father watching over them. Pleased that everything had turned out just fine, she walked away from the house and disappeared around a corner.
Some moments later, the doorbell at Andrew's temporary house rang, and when he opened it up he found a smiling Irish angel standing on his doorstep. Not really sure of what to say, but as amused as Andrew, she tilted her head and eyed him with tenderness.
"Trick or treat..."
Her words only amused him even more. Chuckling, he bit his lower lip and gazed at her from head to toes one more time, wondering if he had fallen in love all over again.
"You see... I received many visitors here tonight but none of them were as charming, beautiful and adorable as you..." he said, and then looked deep inside her eyes, "...my pretty 'good fairy'..."
"I guess I earned my treat then!" Her Irish lilt only made her even more precious to him. "And I was wondering if it could be a good cup of double mochalatte!"
Grinning back at her, he offered his hand and she gladly accepted it.
X
"... I like your temporary house, you know..." Monica spoke, minutes later. Holding a big cup of her favourite drink with both hands, she was sitting on the bigger couch, with lots of cushions spread around, and leaning comfortably in Andrew's arms. Contrary to her, he had prepared him some hot chocolate.
Chuckling, he took one more sip of his drink and placed his cup on the coffee table, his other hand permanently stroking her auburn hair. "I have to confess that I learned a lesson today. To see past things in order to do God's work. And from what you've told me, I'm grateful that we both managed to protect that family, using the Halloween celebration."
"Oh, but don't forget Tess!" The Irish angel replied. "I'm only sorry about her stylish dress..."
He let out a small laughter remembering the supervisor's Halloween costume. "Well, she was really... unforgettable." Then, he straightened his body in order to look at his dear angel. "But she wasn't the only one!"
Smiling, she also placed her empty cup on the coffee table and tilted her head, gazing back at him with tenderness and evident love. "Well, I have to confess that I liked it, you know, Andrew!"
The blond angel looked at her fairy gown intently. "Oh, I can see that!" He exclaimed, and then looked back at her, "And... if you ask me... I liked it too..."
"Oh, really?" She spoke, straightening her body and bringing her face closer to his, never breaking their loving gaze.
"Yes..." His green pools travelled from her soft brown eyes to her rosy cheeks and sweet lips, scanning every inch of her meek Gaelic features. Then, he reached up and caressed her face, tenderly and lightly touching her delicate skin. "... matter of fact I was wondering if the good fairy could grant me one wish tonight..."
"And what is your wish, mister angel of death?" she said, leaning on his touch as he cupped her cheek.
"A kiss..." He replied, causing her smile to grow wider.
Hypnotised by his powerful gaze, and gazing back at him with sparkling eyes filled with love, she was the one to gently lay both hands on each side of his handsome face.
"Wish granted..." came the simple answer.
Slowly, their eyes closed and he bent his head down, his warm breath tickling her lips and face, way before she crossed the small distance between them and brushed her lips against his; lightly, as if treasuring the moment. Seconds later, with their hearts beating faster, he was the one who pressed his lips more firmly onto hers, tasting the sweet flavour of her mouth and deepening that sweet caress.
When air became an issue, they pulled away just enough to look at each other faces, even though Andrew continued to lay feather light kisses on her cheeks, nose and lips.
"I love you so much, mister angel of death..." she whispered, smiling and playfully rubbing her nose against his.
"The same goes to you, my sweet angel girl disguised into fairy..." He replied, caressing her face and her hair. "And you know what? It's way too cold for angels and fairies to go out at night..."
"And what do you suggest, then?"
He gently gathered her into his strong arms, cradling her and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Well, happens that the angel of death has got a quite warm and cosy house for a while and I guess you should spend the night here..."
Her tender smile at him made his heart skip a beat with so much love. "I guess I'll accept your suggestion then, mister angel of death!"
Tracing an invisible line along her jaw, he leaned down and kissed her forehead lovingly.
"I love you..."
And then she was silenced by hard lips over hers and he kissed her more firmly and deeper and just as loving as she had done moments earlier.
"I love you..." She murmured in between kisses.
The rain outside started to fall again, and the cold wind soon made everyone in that small town rush to their houses, as one more Halloween night was coming to an end. But inside that cosy little house, the warm fire and the loving atmosphere made it possible for the two angels turned into their human forms to spend a loving and beautiful night.
X
To be continued