A Simple Case of Angels (2 page)

3

—

At the picnic
table, under the trees empty of birds, Nicola sat drawing. Lindsay Feeler joined her. She didn't ask if Nicola minded. Maybe she thought that since their desks were side by side, she could sit with her whenever she wanted.

“I like drawing, too,” Lindsay said, pushing up her pink-framed glasses.

She opened a huge case of gel pens — 100, the label read — and spread her drawings around. Nicola couldn't help seeing them, though she kept her eyes on her own paper.

Lindsay's drawings were of girls in long white dresses standing against flowery backgrounds. The way Lindsay arranged them on the picnic table made Nicola feel surrounded by the same kind of girls that Mackenzie Stewart now spent every recess and lunch with, trading jewelry and hair thingies on the front steps of the school.

Lindsay Feeler and Nicola Bream drew in silence. Every time Nicola set down her pencil crayon, it rolled off the table and onto the ground. Every time, Lindsay bent to retrieve it, then placed it beside her huge gel pen case so it wouldn't roll away again.

Finally, Lindsay spoke. “That's a really cute dog.”

“She's my dog and she's in so much trouble,” Nicola said.

“What trouble?”

“It would take me a week to explain. Now they're talking about getting rid of her. And not only that. I'm afraid she'll go to hell!”

Nicola felt the sting of tears. She blotted her eyes on her sleeve.

Somehow these two things got mixed together in Nicola's mind — the fear of losing her dog and her fears for her dog. Because if June Bug was sent away, if she didn't have Nicola to help her behave, she would become a force of destruction. She really would.

Without Nicola, she'd end up in a time-out for the rest of her life.

Wouldn't that be the same as hell?

* * *

That night, when Mina came into her room to ask why she was so quiet at dinner, Nicola hid her face in her pillow.

“You must be pretty disappointed not to be in the same class as Mackenzie this year,” Mina said.

“I don't care.”

“At least you have Ms. Phibbs again.”

Nicola let out a loud, watery sniff.

“Well, please tell me if I can help,” Mina said.

Nicola lifted her face out of the pillow and said goodnight.

After Mina left, Nicola cried herself to sleep.

4

—

“
You should
take your dog to church,” Lindsay Feeler whispered to Nicola during gym when they were both dead.

First Nicola got killed because she hated Murder Ball so much. While everyone was running amok, she stood with her eyes squeezed shut, waiting for the death blow. Then she could sit down on the floor and forget about getting hit.

Last year they never played Murder Ball. They did proper things in gym class, like basketball and gymnastics. Things that didn't hurt.

As soon as Nicola got murdered, Lindsay came and stood beside her. Anyone not moving was doomed.

Smack! The ball struck her between the shoulder blades. She grunted and sank down next to Nicola.

“Confess for your dog,” she whispered. “Then she won't go to hell.”

“Really?” Nicola asked.

“I think so,” Lindsay said. “When you confess, it's like erasing every bad thing you've done.”

All around them, their classmates were stampeding from one corner of the gym to the other, screaming and yelling. Ms. Phibbs seemed to have left.

“Do you go to church?” Nicola asked.

“No,” said Lindsay, “but I know a bit about it from the manager in my apartment building. He works in a church near where I live. I'll take you there. You can confess for June Bug.”

“When?” Nicola asked.

Lindsay took a paper out of her back pocket and unfolded it. On it were dates and times in a kid's printing.

“Oh, look,” she said. “You could go this Saturday.”

* * *

“It's nice that you've made a new friend,” Mina told Nicola on Saturday morning as she was straightening the pictures on the living-room walls. She straightened them every few days, but they always ended up crooked again.

“She's not a friend,” Nicola said. “She's the girl I sit beside.”

Lindsay Feeler was hurrying up the walk now. June Bug, standing on the back of the couch watching out the window, started beating her stubby tail at the sight of a visitor.

“Oh,” Lindsay cried when Nicola opened the door. “Is that June Bug? She looks exactly like your drawing!”

Lindsay crouched to pat the wagging dog.

“I just want to call your mother,” Mina said. “To make sure that Nicola is invited.”

“My mom isn't home. She works on Saturday. She's a florist.”

Mina glanced at Nicola. “I'm afraid I'm not comfortable with you girls being without adult supervision.”

“Oh, I'm without it all the time. The apartment manager keeps an eye on me. And my mom's shop is nearby. She's the cutest dog I've ever seen!”

June Bug seemed to like Lindsay, so much that Nicola should have warned her. If June Bug really, really liked someone, she would —

“Ouch!” Lindsay straightened with her hand over her nose.

“No, June Bug!” Mina and Nicola scolded.

“Anyway, we're not going to my house,” Lindsay said, dabbing at her nose to see if it was bleeding. “Didn't Nicola tell you? We're going to a wedding.”

“We are?” Nicola said.

“Yes, and we'd better hurry because it starts at eleven. I want to get there before the bride.”

Somehow Lindsay managed to convince Mina. The church was just five blocks away. There would be plenty of adults at the wedding. Mina knew the church, didn't she? Our Lady of Perpetual Help?

“You can come, too,” Lindsay told Mina.

“Do you know the people getting married?” Mina asked.

“No. I just stand outside.”

Mina laughed. She said Nicola could go if she took the phone. “I might drop by if I get everything done.” She sighed. She was a lawyer, which meant more homework than even Ms. Phibbs could assign.

Nicola and Lindsay headed off, leaving poor June Bug behind.

“But I'm confessing, too, right?” Nicola said, and Lindsay nodded.

For five leaf-strewn blocks Lindsay wondered out loud about the bride's dress. Nicola, who saw no difference between one long white dress and another, didn't say anything. When they reached the old brick church, Lindsay pointed to the marble statue of a lady above the door.

“That's the Lady of Perpetual Help. Perpetual means you can come day or night,” she explained.

The wedding guests were arriving, dressed up and laughing. Lindsay fidgeted until a car decorated with paper flowers and streamers pulled up.

“There she is!”

The bride had trouble getting out of the car, she was so tangled up in lace. She needed all four bridesmaids and the flower girl to help her up the steps and into the church. Then Nicola and Lindsay had to wait around for what seemed like another hour while Lindsay praised the dress.

“Did you see the beading on the bodice? My mom's wedding dress had that.”

“What's a bodice?” Nicola asked.

“The top of the dress. Bodice, sleeves, skirt and train.”

Finally, the wedding march played and everyone came out again, the bride and groom smiling like crazy and kissing everyone gathered on the steps.

“Now,” Lindsay said, giving Nicola a poke.

Nicola squeezed through the crowd. She'd only been inside a church once, for her grandma's funeral when she was four. She slipped through the big carved doors and looked around.

Up front stood a table covered with a white cloth. Light shone through one of the stained-glass windows and painted a picture on it. All around the church there were these pretty windows. One showed a golden-haired angel unrolling a scroll.

Peace Be Upon You
.

Nicola followed a path of flower petals to a bench
in front. She sat and waited, breathing the perfumed air.

After a few minutes, a side door opened and a man appeared, whistling and pushing a broom. He wore jeans and a plaid shirt and, on his belt, a silver knob about the size of a yo-yo with keys dangling from it.

The janitor. He got halfway down the aisle before he noticed Nicola.

“Did they forget the flower girl?”

“No,” Nicola said. “I want to talk to the priest.”

“Father Mark's gone.”

“What?” Nicola cried. “But I came to confess!”

“He just finished a wedding. He's gone for the day.”

Nicola folded forward, pressing her forehead against the bench in front.

“Is it that bad?” the janitor asked.

Nicola looked up again. “Yes!”

The janitor leaned the broom against the wall and came and sat in front of her. His eyes were kind and gray.

“Do you want to tell me about it? Get it off your chest. If that doesn't help, you can come back and talk to Father Mark.”

“Will it count?” she asked. “I mean, if you're not a priest.”

“Why not?” the janitor said.

“Okay. But I should tell you first that I don't even go to church.”

He shrugged. “That's not important. Try to be good. That's what I believe.”

“What should I call you if you're not the priest?”

“Ignacio. That's my name. What's yours?”

“Nicola. Okay, Ignacio. I have a lot to say.” Her eyes got watery at the thought of all the terror and destruction she had to put into words. “I'm not here for myself. I'm confessing for someone else. That's allowed, isn't it?”

“Technically, no,” he said. “But I'm not the priest, so go ahead.”

“I'm here for June Bug. Can you confess for an ­animal?”

He drew back. “You're here to confess for a bug?”

“No, my dog. Her name is June Bug. Because she was born in June. Ignacio, she's so bad. She does so many terrible things. She doesn't mean to. I see it in her eyes. She's as shocked as we are when she sees what she's done.”

And it gushed out of Nicola. All the shoes June Bug had chewed. The television remote controls she'd ­carried away and hidden. Julie Walters-Chen.

Ignacio interrupted. “Keep her outside.”

“She digs holes. She wrecked the lawn. Dad says it looks like an exploded minefield. Also, she ran away. Twice. Do you see how bad she is? Are these sins, Ignacio?”

“Sins? I don't think you could call them sins, no.”

“She steals.”

He frowned.

“She steals Jackson's Matchbox cars and eats the wheels. Then she hides them, too. And she smokes.”

“Your dog
smokes
?”

Nicola could tell by his shocked expression that smoking was a sin for sure.

“Well, she eats anything on the ground, even cigarette butts. When we catch her, we shout, ‘No smoking! No smoking!' Is there such a place as hell, Ignacio?”

He squirmed, like he was sitting on something sharp.

“I'm supposed to say there is. But really? I'm not sure. I think everyone makes his own way in the world as best he can. The real sinners? Thieves and murderers, people like that? I hope they find a way to make amends.”

“For dogs, I mean,” Nicola said. “Is there a hell for dogs?”

“For dogs? No. I say that with confidence.”

“Because I'm worried about June Bug. Jared says that's where she's going.”

“She's an animal. She's innocent of sin,” Ignacio said. “Whatever June Bug's done, Nicola? Consider it undone. Okay?”

“Really?”

“Really. Feel better?”

She nodded, uncertain.

“Good! Now run home and see what that naughty dog of yours is up to.”

“I'm almost afraid to.” Nicola stood up. “Thank you.”

She walked out, following the trail of flower petals down the aisle. When she glanced back, Ignacio had taken up the broom again and was chuckling to himself.

Outside, the wedding crowd had left. Lindsay was waiting by herself. “How did it go?”

“The priest wasn't there,” Nicola said. “Just the janitor.”

“That's Ignacio, the manager of our apartment building. He tells me when the weddings are. The priest would be too busy to hear about a dog anyway. So Ignacio's better.”

Nicola said, “I just hope he's right. About June Bug not going to hell, I mean.”

5

—

Painted in
the entranceway of Queen Elizabeth Elementary School, just above the still-crooked picture of the queen, was the school motto.

IS IT FAIR? IS IT SAFE? IS IT KIND?

In October, the kindergarten teacher put up a frieze of construction paper leaves her students had made by outlining their little hands. Only when the frieze went up did people notice that the real leaves on the trees hadn't changed color. One day it got very cold and the next the leaves were black and shriveled. Fall looked ugly, when normally Nicola thought it was the prettiest season.

The school janitor had already got out the ladder for the kindergarten teacher to put up the leaf frieze. Mrs. Dicky didn't want to ask him to get it out again, except the kindergarten teacher had accidentally covered the school motto. You couldn't see anymore when you entered the school that it was a safe, fair and kind place. Also, Mrs. Dicky wanted to straighten the picture of the queen. Several times a week she asked the janitor to do it, but the queen always ended up crooked again.

So that day, Mrs. Dicky decided just to drag a chair out of the office and stand on it.

Which was when she fell.

Nobody saw it happen. But at recess, while everyone was shivering in the early cold staring at the playground equipment they weren't allowed to play on, they saw the ambulance take Mrs. Dicky away.

For several weeks the students and staff of Queen Elizabeth Elementary didn't have a principal. By the time the temporary one came, he had so much catching up to do that there was no winter holiday concert. Some of the classes didn't even have a party.

Ms. Phibbs' class didn't. Instead, they got extra homework for the winter break.

* * *

Over the holidays June Bug ate or destroyed most of the ornaments on the lower branches of the Christmas tree. She ate the Styrofoam balls that Jackson had pasted with pictures from Christmas cards. June Bug tore apart the Three Wise Men dolls that were Nicola's favorite ornaments, chewing the bead eyes off their wise faces and ripping their stuffing out. Blobs of white stuffing covered the living-room floor the next morning. It looked like it had snowed inside.

Whenever Nicola took June Bug for a walk, Terence, asked — sort of joking, sort of not — for a report on what Christmas decoration had come out the other end of June Bug.

June Bug didn't eat the glass balls because she was a smart dog. Instead she unhooked them with her teeth, dropped them on the floor and batted them around the house like a cat. Nicola checked all the rooms several times a day because her father had said, “Christmas or no Christmas, if anyone ends up in the emergency room with broken glass in their foot, June Bug is spending the holidays at the SPCA.”

So Nicola removed all the remaining decorations from the lower branches of the Christmas tree and hung them up higher. The tree looked funny after that, like it had forgotten to put on its pants. Also, there weren't any presents under it. They couldn't trust June Bug not to rip them open. All the presents were closed up in Mina and Terence's bedroom.

After Nicola moved the decorations, several disaster-free days passed. She started to relax and enjoy the holidays. She helped bake the gingerbread. (June Bug
loved
gingerbread. She would Sit and Shake a Paw and Roll Over for gingerbread.) Nicola even went shopping with her mother and, while they were out, forgot completely that she had a bad little dog. Her stomach only started churning when she got home and Mina said, “I wonder what trouble June Bug got into while we were gone.”

None! Once the decorations were out of reach, she was almost a good little dog as well as a cute little dog — all white except for her black eye patch, and one black ear and the black leather of her nose.

Nicola had asked for only one Christmas gift — Three More Chances for June Bug.

“You're sure about that?” Terence and Mina asked.

“Yes,” Nicola said. The money the family saved by not buying Nicola presents, she wanted put in a special June Bug damage fund, so Jackson could replace any cars June Bug stole, or Terence could buy some grass seed to patch June Bug's holes.

“Ha!” Jared said. “Money isn't going to buy me love.”

He was still mad about Julie Walters-Chen. All the hours he wasn't playing on the computer in the den, he spent shut up in his room listening to rap music and tattooing JWC all over his arms with a ballpoint pen.

On Christmas Eve, after everyone had gone to bed, Mina moved the presents. She stacked them under the tree, making a perfect set of stairs to the higher ­branches.

Then she shut June Bug up in the kitchen so she couldn't get into trouble.

And she wouldn't have, if Terence hadn't got up in the night and wandered sleepily into the kitchen for some gingerbread.

Terence forgot to close the kitchen door.

In the middle of the night, Nicola heard a crash. It sounded like Santa had missed the mark completely and flown into the chimney and knocked it down.

She sprang out of bed. Everyone did. Moments later, the whole Bream family was in the living room, gaping at the tree that lay across the floor like the day it had been chopped down on the tree farm. Little June Bug was leaping over it, joyfully flinging ornaments that, until a minute ago, had been so tormentingly out of reach.

“Now Santa won't come!” Jackson wailed. “Santa won't bring me a present!”

“Look at all the presents,” Mina said. “Santa already came.”

All the presents were under the fallen tree, lying in a pool of water from the tree stand.

Jared stabbed his finger at Nicola. “Two More Chances! Just Two More Chances for that dog!”

“Stop it!” Terence said. “For heaven's sake! Let's all go back to bed! It's three o'clock in the morning!”

Everyone did, except Nicola, who rescued all the wet presents and set them out of June Bug's reach. She wiped up the puddle of water. Then she sank down by the fallen tree and sobbed while June Bug danced around her, pushing a toy soldier ornament against Nicola's leg, trying to get Nicola to chase her. When Nicola wouldn't, June Bug jumped into Nicola's lap and licked the snot and salty tears off her face.

The next morning, Nicola was up first, even before June Bug, who was still tired from her active night. Half an hour later Terence came into the living room, yawning and tying up his robe. He looked around and saw Nicola curled on the couch waiting for the rest of the family to wake up.

“I was hoping it was a nightmare,” he said.

Together, they stood the tree up again.

“Look,” Nicola said.

Not a single ornament remained on the branches. The lights, too, were mostly pulled off, lying in loops at the base of the tree. But at the very top the china angel still perched, unbroken, soundlessly blowing its golden horn.

June Bug hadn't touched it.