Big Love(4)

“No, it’s not that,” Nell snuffled. Zing handed her a tissue from a box on the nightstand. Nell blew her nose and dabbed at her eyes.

“What’s the ‘not that’ then?” Zing asked.

“Oh, it’s a long story,” Nell said.

“We’ve got time. They won’t let you go until you poop. I don’t know if they’ll check or just take your word for it. If they do that then you could lie and you’d get to go home sooner.”

“How do you know that?”

“I overheard the doctors talking in the hall. They seemed really concerned that every patient poops before they can go home. I have no idea why.”

“You want me to lie? I thought angels were against lying?”

“It’s frowned on, that’s true. But I think this is a special case,” Zing said. “Now tell me what you were crying about.”

“Promise not to tell anyone?” Nell asked.

“I don’t know anyone to tell. The only human I know is you.”

Nell smiled at her. Zing had always thought that she was very pretty. Nell had the cutest brown bob hair cut (before the shaving and stitches, that is), a turned-up nose, rosy heart-shaped lips, and large, soulful, brown eyes. Nell’s smile made Zing’s heart sing.

Nell continued, “It’s just that I’m trying so hard to be patient with my girlfriend, but she won’t let me see her. In person. All she wants to do is text. We’ve been ‘dating’ by phone for months. I think it’s time we finally meet in person, you know? She had just backed out on another date with me and that’s why I didn’t watch where I was going and that’s why I fell into the hole.”

“I should have been paying attention to your love life, too, if things were going badly. It’s a guardian angel’s job to step in if it’s a potential safety issue. We are allowed to be proactive up to a point.”

“Safety issue?”

“Like if someone stepped on your heart or something and you stopped taking care of yourself and accidentally lit yourself on fire,” Zing said. “I’m pretty good at putting out fires. I was top of my class in fire safety.”

“Wow, I didn’t realize. . .”

“Since we’re waiting for you to poop, why don’t you tell me all about this woman you’re seeing,” Zing said.

“Well, it started when we met online. . .” Nell began. But that was all she had the chance to say before a woman dressed in all white and smelling like donuts flew into the room. The woman took one look at Zing and blurted, “Who the hell are you and what’re you doing in here?”

Zing recognized the woman right away. She was Carol, Nell’s best friend and business partner. She was well-known for her abrasive demeanor. She was what was commonly referred to as a curmudgeon.

“I’m Zing. Nell’s guardian angel.”

“Yeah, well, where were you when she needed you?” Carol said, jabbing her finger at Nell’s bandaged head. She hovered over the bed.

“I was playing Hacky Sack when I should have been paying attention to Nell,” Zing said, staring at the toes of her pink Crocs.

“Why’d you let this nut job in your room?” Carol asked.

“I was unconscious,” Nell said. She looked at Zing and smiled apologetically. “This is my friend, Carol.”

“I know,” Zing said. Not only did she know Carol’s name but she knew a lot of other things about her as well. She knew Carol wasn’t exactly pretty, but she wanted to be. She also wanted to lose twenty pounds, but blamed working in a bakery for the extra weight. She knew that Carol’s mean attitude and sharp words were mostly an act that covered up a soft, gooey interior, much like one of her jelly donuts.

Zing also knew a lot about Nell’s life, although there wasn’t that much to know. Nell worked all the time, and when she wasn’t doing that she clicked away at her computer. Truth be told, Nell was boring. That’s why Zing didn’t pay much attention to her—Nell wasn’t a risk taker, not like Miracle-the-daredevil that Annabelle guarded. Miracle was always doing something worth watching. Miracle kept Annabelle on her toes.

The one thing Zing didn’t know about Nell was this person she was supposedly dating. Guardian angels had limits and one of those limits was that they couldn’t see anything on earth except their human. That’s why Zing had never seen Dove—because Nell had never actually been in the same room as Dove.

“Hey you, I asked you a question,” Carol said. “I want to know your real name.”

“Real name?” Zing asked.