Angels at the Table (Angels Everywhere #7)(2)

“Well …”

“Do we hear the humans’ prayers?” Will asked.

“Oh, no,” Shirley explained. “Only God hears their prayers, and then He talks matters over with Gabriel and then …”

“Then Gabriel passes along those requests to us.”

“And we assist in answering them.”

“One of our roles is to help humans realize how much they can do for themselves with God’s help,” Goodness clarified.

“We try as best we can without interfering in their lives,” Shirley added quickly, glaring at Goodness and Mercy.

This was a warning and Mercy recognized it the instant her friend spoke.

“But first, and this is the most important part,” Goodness emphasized, “it’s our duty to teach these humans a lesson. Then and only then are we able to help them with their troubles.

“The real difficulty comes when they don’t want to learn.” Goodness shook her head because this aspect of the job was often a challenge. “Some people seem to want God to step in and do as they ask without making a single contribution to the effort.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” Mercy said, although she’d done a fair bit of finagling to help these poor witless souls. In theory, answering prayers didn’t sound the least bit difficult. Unfortunately, humans were sometimes completely dense.

“They can be so stubborn,” Goodness said, shaking her head again.

“Strong willed,” Shirley agreed.

“Oh, yes, and once—” Mercy snapped her mouth closed. It was best not to reveal their past antics for fear it would mislead their young charge into thinking that perhaps he should follow in their footsteps. Gabriel would take exception to that.

“Once?” Will pressed. “What happened?”

“Never mind,” Shirley said, reading the situation perfectly. “Some things are best laid to rest and not discussed.”

“Can I go down and be with the crowd?” Will asked again. “I won’t say anything to Gabriel.”

“He isn’t the only one,” Shirley blurted out. “I mean, we shouldn’t mutter a word of this to anyone in heaven.”

“Or Earth,” Goodness reminded them all.

“We can’t speak to humans?” Will frowned as though confused.

“We can but only …”

“But definitely not tonight,” Shirley said so fast her voice rose an entire octave.

Mercy took Will’s hand. “There have been times over the last two millenniums when we have spoken directly to humans.”

“Those occasions have been rare, however.”

“Yes, very rare.”

“But not as rare as they should have been,” Shirley found it necessary to add. She crossed her arms over her chest and seemed to be wavering about the best way to handle this training session.

“I don’t think it would hurt for Will to go down in the crowd,” Goodness said again. “It is a very special night here on Earth.”

“I promise not to say a word to anyone, human or otherwise,” Will assured them.

It was hard to refuse him when Mercy was itching to mingle herself. It’d been quite a while since she’d visited Earth, and humans had long fascinated her.

“Let’s do it.” Goodness rubbed her palms together, as eager as Mercy.

“I … don’t know.”

Mercy ignored the former Guardian Angel. “I’m off. Will,” she shouted, “follow me and stay close. Do what I do.” She zoomed down toward Times Square with Will on one side and Goodness on the other.

“No, no … this could be a mistake,” Shirley shouted before speeding off to catch up with them. “Do as I do,” she added.

The four landed behind a concrete barrier with several people pressed up against it. Policemen stood on the opposite side, patrolling the crowd, looking for any signs of a disruption.

“Can they hear us?” Will whispered.

“Only those with spiritual ears who are attuned to God,” Shirley answered. “And even then they will doubt themselves.”

“No one is listening now.” Mercy was fairly confident the crowd was too caught up in the excitement of the moment to notice their presence, which was for the best all around.

“How come they’re bundled up with coats and scarves and gloves?” Will asked, looking around.

“It’s winter.”

“Oh.”

“Everyone is staring up at the giant clock,” Will observed.

“Yes, it’s only a couple of minutes until the new year arrives.”

“And that’s important?”

“Oh, yes. In two minutes this year will be over and a new one will begin.” This would be a hard concept for Will to understand. All their young charge knew came from heaven, where there were no clocks or calendars. In heaven, time had no meaning; the past, present, and the future were all one and the same.

The restrictions of time had always been problematic to Mercy. Gabriel generally gave them a limited amount of time to help humans with their prayer requests, and staying within such a condensed time period often seemed impossible. Although, through their many experiences, Mercy had learned that with God all things were possible. That had been a powerful lesson and one she hoped to pass along to Will when the opportunity arose.