And then everything fell

[black_hat]

It was autumn, everything poised to fall, and Molly loved it.

Something special always seemed to come with the falling of the leaves.

She sat in her accustomed place at the foot of the stairs, and waited for one of her parents to remember a thing called school. She had her favorite lunch box, and kicked it with her knee. It rattled but the sound didn’t reach her. Molly was in her own world, and she dreaded the day. Her teacher would announce the parts for the play, and she was scared that she wouldn’t be able to be the Great Pumpkin.

Miss Whittaker had been mentioning Turkey a lot around Molly, and she definitely didn’t want to be the Turkey.

It was a good thing school came each day so regularly, or else she would really hate it. It was like brushing one’s teeth. A nasty toothpaste taste, then the worst was over. The small windows by the front door was always nice though, letting her bake in the sun and get sleepy and lazy feeling before…

She blinked and squinted, peering at the window on the left. She skipped up to it, and peered closer.

A smudge in the shape of a handprint—a rather large one at that—had made the sun blurry today, and she put her hand against the window, for comparison.

She had the image of a Thing watching her, or worse a man (a Stranger!) watching her dance alone around while her parents were in the back rooms, each to themselves, and what if—

“Molly, sweetheart,” her mother called from the kitchen. “Are you ready?”

She breathed in deep and hurried to the kitchen for a pop-tart. “Ready. Is today pumpkin day?”

“It’s too early,” her dad voiced his opinion, coffee cup still clenched in his hand, and she was disappointed. She had wanted to choose a pumpkin before all the good ones were gone. “Maybe after school,” he finished with a wink.

Molly brightened and ran to give him a hug.

“That reminds me,” her mom said, and she looked over Dad’s arm to listen. “The school called yesterday and left a message. You won’t believe this, but they lost Molly’s medical records.”

“What?” Her dad set the coffee cup. Hard. “They lost her information… Do they realize that her social security number is on those papers?”

“I know, they assured me that they would find it. They had been trying out a new system, and I guess her file got misplaced.”

“I’m going to give them a call,” her dad said in that tone. “I’m not paying for stupidity.”

“What’s lost?” Molly asked, feeling a bit of the unease in the room.

“I’m sure it will be fine,” her mother said, looking down at Molly and smiling. “Don’t worry about a thing. You’re going to have a good time on your field trip.”

Molly agreed.

As long as she wasn’t the Turkey.
***

Molly was the Turkey.

Her eyes filled with tears and made the picture of the bird blur on the place card. The bus shook and rattled, and it seemed to be snickering, and the sun through the window was giving her a headache.

“Gobble, gobble,” Tommy said in her ear, having peeked over her shoulder. She covered the card with her hand, frowning. “Turkeys are ugly. That’s why you were picked.”

“Be quiet,” Molly said. “It’s the…” She couldn’t even say it was the best part. “Well, what did you get that’s so great?”

“I’m the Pumpkin.”

“Oh,” she whispered, turning away quickly. She wanted to go home now but that was impossible. She stared out the window, and made a handprint on the glass. Yep, not nearly as big as the other one. Hmm.

“I want everyone to hold on to their place cards!” Miss Whittaker announced. “It’s very important that we keep track of everyone.”

“Yes, ma’am,” the children chorused, though Molly did so a little half-heartedly. The bus pulled up to the playhouse with two big faces on it, one sad and one happy. She knew which one she related to the most. Tommy was the big mean face, and she tried to wait for him to get off the bus in front of her.

Like always, they ended up right next to each other in the line, Tommy kicked her with the back of his foot. Outside, it was a lot different than in the bus. It was a little windy, and her hair whipped around her face. Miss Whittaker was behind this tall man in a dark hat, and hopefully he’d get his ticket so-

“HI-YAH!’ Tommy yelled suddenly and knocked the place card out of her hand. The small white piece of paper danced in place above her before being pulled away by the wind. She thought of Jack Frost from the old cartoons. “Opps!”

Molly glared at him and then raced after it. Miss Whittaker would be so mad at her if she lost it. She kept her eye on it as it seemed to fly higher and higher where it would join the clouds. Molly ran underneath it for a good while, the voices of her classmates having long faded away.

The turkey card flew very well for having a turkey on it but at last, it landed by a garbage can.

“I got you!” Molly said, laughing and jumping on it, pinning it with her sneaker before it could run away again. She looked up and her smile faded.

The alley was long and dark, and when she looked around, she couldn’t see the playhouse at all. There was a man leaning against the wall. He looked like Santa Klaus, is what she thought, and Molly stared entranced, as he walked closer to her. He had on a long coat and a strange look in his eye that made her a little bit afraid.

“Well, well, what have you got there?”

He pointed at the card, and she pursed her lips, not trusting him one inch.

“You lost?”

“No,” she answered, already finding Miss Whittaker in her mind.

“I know your mother, sweetheart, and I can take you to her, come here,” the man said, and put his hand under her chin. His hand was sweaty, and sticky, and rough. She didn’t like it, and moved her head back out of his reach.

“No,” she said, sniffing. “I can find her by myself.” She could never be lost and would never miss anyone because she always knew. There wasn’t problem, and the man still wouldn’t let go of her backpack.

“Now, don’t be fussy. Don’t be loud, just come with me like a good little girl.”

And he started to pull her along, and she was confused because he was going the wrong way, away from her mother, away from Miss Wittaker.

“I don’t think so,” someone growled from behind her, and hands with long fingers and surprising strength took her shoulders and held her away from the older man.

She tilted her head back to look into a pair of dark eyes.

“I thought I had lost you for a minute there,” the stranger said, with a hint of a smile. Well, he wasn’t quite a stranger. She recognized his hat. He was in line at the playhouse. His gaze hardened into something scary when he looked at the old man.

“How about you go…”

He looked down at her again, seemingly amused. Molly recognized the look of adults trying to replace nasty words with other words. “…crawl back under your rock,” he suggested to the older man, and Molly gasped anyway.

They stared each other down, and then Santa Klaus threw up his hands. “Okay, okay, I was only trying to help.”

Suddenly Santa fell really badly, stumbling backwards and then crashing his head on the side of the wall. She gasped for real and continued to stare at him while the stranger took her hand and led her out of the alley.

“Swim with the crocodiles, often?” the hat man asked, and Molly didn’t understand.

“What does that mean?”

“Means you’re testing fate.”

Behind her, Santa was groaning. It seemed like he really had fallen and now couldn’t get to his feet.

“I think he hurt himself,” Molly said, looking up at the hat man.

“We can only hope.”

“That’s not nice,” she pointed out, and tugged her hand away.

“Some people aren’t nice. Besides, that was a very silly thing to do, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Running down a dark alley in a busy city and getting lost. Ring any bells?”

“I’m not lost,” Molly declared, sick of being told this by adults. “I can always find my way back.”

“Really…how about you show me?” His eyes sharpened, and Molly, after a brief catch of uncertainty, was proud of the attention.

“Okay, follow me. Stay close,” she sighed and started to walk back towards her classmates. She could see them each in her mind, and Tommy was laughing. She was starting to really dislike Tommy. “It’s not hard to find a place once you’ve been there.”

“I’m terrible at directions. I’ve been told I lack a certain compass,” hat man said, smirking. Molly could tell when someone was talking over her head.

“Then buy one. Duh.”

He laughed, and something clicked. She had heard that laugh before. Around her house maybe? Or…at her school.

She picked up her pace, and he easily kept up with her. They walked past the large buildings and busy street corners, and as they got closer to the playhouse, the safer she was starting to feel. It was okay. Maybe he wasn’t bad. Maybe there was a reason he had been with her for the entire day.

And the old mean man had fallen backwards without being touched…she turned to walk backwards and stare at him, the question burning on her tongue.

“Are you an angel?” she asked, wondering if angels considered themselves angels. It would be a great discovery if she could figure this one out.

“Why would you say that?” he asked, making a funny face that she couldn’t interpret.

“Because I saw you earlier today, while everyone else didn’t. It was like you were invisible. And then you saved me from that bully.”

“No, no, I’m not. No…” Boy, was that a lot of ‘no’s’, Molly thought. So many that they seemed to outweigh each other, and turn into a definite yes.

“That means yes, right? Because you couldn’t say yes, anyway because it’s against the rules, especially if you’re my guardian angel. But you did say no a lot so-” she said, and before he could refute the truth, she heard Miss Whittaker’s relieved gasp.

“Oh thank god!” Her teacher wrapped her up in a hug.

“It’s okay, ma’am. I got my card back.”

“Don’t you ever…” Miss Whittaker looked angry but then she was patting her head as if she couldn’t believe she was real.

“I’m sorry…” Molly whispered, confused. “I was all right, I had a real live angel with me. He walked me--.”

Hat man was gone, and she felt this miraculous disappearance only proved her suspicions. She hugged her teacher tighter and inside, there was a warm glow that came with being loved.

Autumn was a special time of year when only the most magical things could happen. Deep down, everyone knew nothing bad could happen if you were good.

Especially when there was an angel around.

&&&

And then everything fell.