Tree halo - Fiction story Angel's Dance

ANGEL’S DANCE: A holiday story

Last updated: March 26th, 2019

Part I

It was a dreary November day, but Cassidy Lemaistre knew things would be looking up soon. It was about a month until Christmas, and she already knew what her main present would be—a brand new blue Volkwagen Beetle. Despite getting her permanent license the month before, 18-year-old Cassidy still didn’t have a vehicle yet. Even though Cassidy was from a wealthy family, she didn’t really have any of her own money so she had to wait for her parents to give things to her. Occasionally she felt bad about this, but she figured she’d have many years of work ahead of her after finishing college (which she’d be heading to during the next year), so she might as well enjoy life now. Fortunately, Cassidy had heard her parents discussing the Beetle when they didn’t know she was standing around the corner. She’d managed not to tell any of her friends yet. She often tried to draw as little attention to her wealth as possible, since her peers were always envious.

As Cassidy rounded the corner from the street into her driveway, she wondered where her father’s car was. Since she’d stayed at school late to watch a basketball game, she’d expected that he’d be home before she was. If he had to work late, he always did so from his home office. Just then, one of the neighbourhood kids, Carter, ran up to Cassidy exclaiming, “Cassidy, Cassidy, your father was taken away by the cops!”

“What?! When?” Cassidy asked, trying not to panic, because the kid sometimes did make up stories.

“About an hour ago!” responded Carter excitedly. “In handcuffs and everything!” Cassidy just stood there and stared at him with her mouth hanging open. Carter’s mother chose that moment to poke her head out her front door.

“Carter Thompson, get inside this instant!” she yelled. Cassidy couldn’t help but notice that the woman gave her a pitying look as she closed her door again.

Filled with trepidation, Cassidy managed to continue walking towards her own front door. When she pushed it open, she saw her mother sitting at the table, not moving, with a half-finished gin and tonic in front of her. She looked like she’d been crying. “Mom, is it true?” Cassidy asked, hoping her mother would tell her it was all a big misunderstanding, but knowing that the expression on her mother’s face and the drink on the table said otherwise. Her mother never drank gin and tonic.

“Yes,” her mother said, her voice barely above a whisper. “He was caught embezzling money from his company. Thousands of dollars. They’ve taken him to jail, and he’ll have to be tried in court, of course. There’s no doubt that he’s guilty— he didn’t protest at all, and he couldn’t even look me in the eye as he was led out the door.”

Cassidy took a moment to let this all sink in. She was relieved that he didn’t kill someone or anything like that, but this was still pretty bad. Not in her wildest nightmares did she ever think her father could do something this dishonest. “Can’t we go get him out?” she inquired. “Can’t we go pay his bail?”

“I don’t have enough money,” Cassidy’s mother said pitifully. “His name is the only one on all the major bank accounts… he said he’d take care of everything after we got married… before today, I’ve never been given any reason to think that he was hiding things from me. I guess all of this is a lie.” She spread her arms out towards everything in the large, beautifully decorated kitchen. “I’m not about to ask anyone for a loan, either. I don’t want the whole town to find out about this.” Cassidy didn’t bother mentioning her interaction with Carter only a few minutes earlier. “Plus,” her mother continued, “He can rot in there for all I care. After lying to both of us, that’s what he deserves.”

Cassidy was struck by the venom in her mother’s voice, since her mother was always such a patient, calm person who seldom showed any signs of anger. Wordlessly, she put her arms around the older woman, who had tears in her eyes again. “You know what? I don’t even like gin and tonic,” she said with a bitter laugh.

Part II

For the next few days, Cassidy tried to go to school and act normally. She smiled when she felt like crying and laughed when she felt like screaming in someone’s face. She also tried to cheer her mother up as much as possible, although occasionally they’d look at each other and both burst into tears. However, when the paper came out the next week, it was game over for pretending nothing happened. Cassidy didn’t know that many people from her school even read the police reports. Nobody said rude things or asked a bunch of questions, but everyone avoided her altogether, which was almost worse. Even people whom she thought were her best friends would duck around corners when they saw her coming down the hall, and if people were forced to interact with her in class, the expressions on their faces and the tone of their voices were incredibly awkward. Even the teachers acted a bit strange. To avoid having to go to her usual table in the cafeteria, Cassidy started eating lunch by herself, under a tree in a nearby park. Two weeks later, her father accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to five years in prison. Cassidy figured she and the tree were going to be getting to know each other a lot better.

Over time, Cassidy became more and more depressed. She couldn’t go visit her father until December, since the jail was several hours away; plus, she hadn’t even figured out if she was angry with him or not yet. She also had no idea whether her mother would want to see her once-beloved husband.

In order to deal with her sadness, Cassidy took long walks. Since everyone was still acting strangely towards her, she no longer stayed after school for events, so she had a lot of free time in the evenings. Just outside town, she ended up finding a hill overlooking a pond; there, she would sit and bask in her solitude, letting out pent-up tears or just thinking about life and the world (since finding out her father was a criminal, she’d began to question her optimistic outlook). Flanked by tall evergreen trees, she felt incredibly safe. Even after the snow began to fall, she continued to go to the hill nearly every night, although she always managed to leave before dark. She didn’t want her mother to worry that something had happened to her, as they were a family of two for the time being.

Five days before Christmas, Cassidy was walking home from the hill, as usual. She guessed she’d no longer be getting that Beetle—she couldn’t believe that less than a month ago, it’d been the only thing on her mind. However, she didn’t expect to see what she did see on her front lawn. It was a “For Sale” sign. Her mother had put their house up for sale!

Cassidy raced into her house and into the kitchen to confront her mother, who was pouring herself a gin and tonic. “Mom! Are we really selling the house?!” she practically shouted. “You can’t! I was born here. This is my home!”

“I have to,” her mother replied gravely. “I can’t afford it anymore.”

Cassidy threw her hands up in the air. “But—where will we live?” she asked incredulously. She still couldn’t believe her mother would give up the house so easily.

“I suppose we’ll have to get an apartment,” was the tired reply.

Cassidy’s spoiled side rose to the surface. “An apartment?!” she exclaimed. “Aren’t those, like, infested with roaches? Where are we going to put all our stuff?”

With that, her mother wheeled around, grabbed her daughter by the shoulders and gave her a firm shake. “Can’t you see that this is as hard for me as it is for you? You’re going to have to grow up!” she snapped.

Part III

Cassidy wrenched herself from her mother’s grasp and ran out the front door of the house. She didn’t stop running until she had reached her beloved hill, where she collapsed next to a large evergreen, crying. “I guess this is my only home now,” she said miserably, running her hands along the tree’s branches.

After lying there for a few minutes, Cassidy had the feeling that she wasn’t alone. She was right—a young man emerged from behind one of the other trees. He had longish hair, covered partially by a toque, and was wearing dark jeans and a black plaid coat. Cassidy was about to jump up, but the young man (who was about her age) said, “It’s OK. I mean no harm.”

“What are you doing here?” Cassidy asked him. She didn’t think she’d ever seen him at her school. In fact, she didn’t think she’d ever seen him anywhere before.

“Oh, I like to come here and think, get in touch with nature a little,” he replied “And you?”

“Oh, same here,” Cassidy said. “I’ve been having a hard time lately. My father’s in jail. I guess there’s no harm in telling you since the whole town knows by now. I just found out my mother put our house up for sale, and we might have to go live in an apartment.”

“Oh, no,” the young man teased. “Not an apartment. You might be scarred for life.” Cassidy normally would have been offended by this comment, but there was something about this young man which seemed genuine and trustworthy. He seemed like someone you could confide in.

“Well, I’m more upset because of all the memories I have of that house. I’ve never lived anywhere else,” she explained. She put her head in her hands. “With this, and what happened to my father, I feel like life, as I know it, is over.”

“Get up,” the man ordered. Cassidy began to wonder if she was right about him being trustworthy; for all she knew, he had a gun behind his back.

“You should have known better than to go to a secluded hill late at night,” she chided herself, without speaking out loud. She began to mentally prepare herself to be raped or killed. Thinking that it would be best for her to do what her potential rapist or killer said, she got to her feet.

“Dance,” the main said.

Cassidy was taken aback, after expecting him to do or say something completely different. “Dance?” she asked, in confusion. “Here? Now? What kind of dance?”

“Whatever kind of dance you feel like doing,” the man replied. “Just let your emotions flow. Move with your mood.”

“OK,” Cassidy replied dubiously. She started shifting her feet from side to side.

Girl dancing - Fiction story Angels Dance

“More effort than that, come on,” the man said. “You’re not 100 years old. What’s your name?”

Having decided again that he probably wasn’t dangerous, Cassidy decided to answer. “What’s yours?” she then asked her new companion.

“Gabriel,” he replied. “Now, put in some more effort, Cassidy.” Cassidy started randomly waving her arms and kicking her legs.

“That’s the spirit,” Gabriel said. He began to dance with her. They leaped and twirled through the snow, and at one point Cassidy picked up a handful of snow and let it fall over her head, feeling each and every flake touch her face and nose, which were both warm from the dancing.

“I love life! I’m happy to be alive!” Gabriel shouted. “Now, you say something positive!”

“Life is amazing!” Cassidy offered, getting into the spirit. Then, she spontaneously decided to roll in the snow. Gabriel rolled too, and they lay beside each other, panting with fatigue. Cassidy closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this happy and carefree, especially after a bout of tears. That was when she realized what the whole point of this dancing exercise had been!

She opened her eyes, about to thank Gabriel, when she realized she was alone again. “Gabe? Gabe,” she called, getting up to look behind all of the nearby trees for him. She didn’t know how he could have disappeared so quickly. She took a few steps away from the trees, back onto the open stretch of snow, to get a better view of the whole area of land. That’s when she noticed the halo-like light shining above the tall tree she’d originally been crying underneath. The light was like nothing she’d ever seen, so bright and vibrant that it almost blinded her.

Although she’d never been particularly religious, it suddenly occurred to her who Gabriel was. Of course, he was the Christmas angel; that was why he had looked so unfamiliar, and there was no other explanation for his ability to defy the laws of physics. Forget cars! This was the best Christmas present ever.

Cassidy stared up at the glowing tree for several seconds more, stepping closer so she too could be illuminated by the brilliant light. “Thank you, Gabriel,” she whispered, then she turned and started to head for home. Her steps were taken without fear or fury, since she knew that, whatever happened from this point on, she’d be all right. After all, she had a guardian angel watching over her.

[su_panel background=”#f2f2f2″ color=”#000000″ border=”0px none #ffffff” shadow=”0px 0px 0px #ffffff”]by Erica Roberts

image 1: maplemusketeer (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA); image 2: lanuiop (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)