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Hannah's Angel, Women of Valley View, book 7

By Sharon Lynne Srock

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Chapter 1
The angel hovered on an updraft of warm air for several seconds before landing face down in a basket of french fries. Terri Evans yanked it out of the ketchup and wiped red sauce from the pristine white wings. She looked up to the second level of the mall. From their table in the food court, the large Christmas tree, hung with similar paper angels, was barely visible.
“What have you got there?” Callie asked.
“Looks like one of the angels from the tree upstairs,” Terri said. “It must have blown free or gotten knocked loose.” She pushed her food aside to better study the renegade angel and flipped it over with a frown. The information written on the back was unusually sparse. Hannah Price, Garfield OK. Weird. She passed the angel across the table to Karla McAlister. “Take a look.”
Karla took the ornament. Pam Lake and Callie Stillman twisted in their chairs to read over her shoulder. The sight of her three best friends huddled together brought a smile to Terri’s face. Karla, her silver hair styled in an attractive bob, her green eyes filled with sixty-five years of wisdom. Callie, a short, blond, blue-eyed grandmother whose temperament could change from scolding to compassionate in half a heartbeat. And Pam, a dark haired beauty who’d just celebrated her forty-sixth birthday but could pass for thirty. They represented a combination of kindness, insight, and strength that always amazed Terri. Together she was pretty sure they could clear up a rainy day if the situation called for it.
Pam’s perfectly arched brows rose over her brown eyes. “That’s odd. Just a name and town. No age, sizes, or wish list.”
Terri glanced at the stack of paper ornaments resting in front of each of them. They’d taken six apiece. She and her three friends had plucked those from the tree earlier in the day before coming down here to eat lunch and make some notes in anticipation of their annual shopping spree.
Terri had begun the Christmas Angel tradition for herself several years ago, before she’d married and grown a family of her own. Back then, she’d been the only one of the four friends still single. With no kids to dote on, the opportunity to play Santa for a handful of needy children served to fill a bit of the void. The practice quickly spread to her three friends, and now each year on the first Saturday in December, they came together and selected six names apiece from the tree. In dozens of Christmas angels and the kids they represented, this was the first time she’d seen one so incomplete. How could you shop for gifts with so little information to go on?
She held her hand out when her friends looked up, obviously as puzzled as she was. “Let me have it. The tree is just across from the toy store. We’ll hang it back up for someone else to harvest.”
Keep it.
Terri shrugged the errant thought aside as she gathered her trash and folded her six angels inside her note pad. She’d take every one on the tree if she could. But she had her quota for this year.
The four friends headed for the escalator that would take them back to the second level. A moment later, Terri secured the angel to a branch of the tree with its attached ribbon. She tilted her head. That’s weird too. All of the others have red or green ribbons. Why is this one white? She brushed the question aside, blew hard, and fanned it with her hand in an effort to dislodge it. Hannah’s angel fluttered but clung tight to its branch. Satisfied with its stability and confident that someone would pluck it soon—for all the good it would do them—Terri crossed to the toy store where the others waited. She surveyed the glittering stacks of potential gifts, rubbed her hands together, and grabbed a cart. “Come on. This is my favorite part.”
Hannah’s angel faded from Terri’s thoughts as she pushed the basket through narrow aisles crowded with Christmas shoppers. There were four girls and two boys on her list this year. She studied dolls and stuffed animals, tested remote control cars, and read the warnings and specifications on an assortment of skateboards before adding one to the cart. When she rounded the final counter she saw her friends huddled at the end of the checkout line.
Karla’s silver hair glinted under the florescent lights as she shook her head to a question Terri hadn’t heard. Callie’s face held a serious look of suspicion, while Pam gestured at something in Karla’s hand. Terri hurried over. “What’s wrong?” she whispered.
“I’m not sure,” Karla answered. “I was going through my notes to make sure I had everything and…” She shook her head and held out her hand to Terri. “Look what I found tucked inside my notebook.”
Terri lowered her eyes to Karla’s hand and felt her breath catch in her throat. Hannah’s angel stared up at her, ketchup stain and all. “You snuck out and picked that back off the tree.”
Karla shook her head. “That seems to be the general consensus, but”—she sketched an X across her heart—“I haven’t been out of the store.”
“Then how—?”
“Oh good grief, ladies, get a clue,” Pam said. “Someone’s playing a joke on us and we’re falling for it. Where was your notebook?”
Karla motioned to her cart. “I left it in the cart so I wouldn’t have to dig for it every time I wanted to check something off.”
“Well there you go. You know what pranksters our husbands are.” Pam waved at the bustling throng of shoppers out on the walkway. “I’ll bet they’re all four lurking out there somewhere. They saw us put the angel back on the tree and figured they had a chance to get our goats. I, for one, refuse to give them the satisfaction.” She held out her hand. “Give me that thing and watch my purse.” Pam left her basket and marched out of the store.
They watched as the angel was secured to the tree a third time. There were grins all around as Pam tugged on it and brushed against it to insure its firm attachment to the tree. Obviously satisfied, she dusted her hands together and returned to her friends. “Ok, ladies. Let’s finish up in here. We have clothing stores to visit.”
They had a formula they used for each name they drew. A toy, an outfit, and a winter coat with matching hat and gloves. Half a dozen stores later, Terri stood to the side while Callie paid for her final purchase, a purple hooded jacket for a teenage girl on her list. Callie dug in her purse. “Anyone got extra pennies. I really don’t want to break a twenty for three cents.”
Pam reached into her basket and pulled out the sweater she’d abandoned earlier. “I do. I’ve been dropping change in my pockets all afternoon. What the…” She pulled her hand out of her pocket. She had pennies all right. Pennies wrapped up in a wrinkled paper angel. “I don’t believe this.”
The harried sales clerk frowned as the four friends gathered around Pam.
Karla laughed. “They’re persistent, you have to give them that.”
Pam spread the angel out on the counter and pointed to the red stain on the wing. “Yep, same angel.” Her eyes roamed the crowded store and the corridor beyond. “They’re good. I haven’t seen a hint that they’re following us. Have any of you?”
Headshakes all around.
Callie plucked pennies and the angel out of Pam’s hand, paid for her purchases, and headed out of the store.
“Back to the tree?” Terri asked.
“Nope. Whoever’s doing this has had their fun, but enough is enough.” Callie paused in the middle of the walkway next to a trash can.
Terri frowned at her friend. “Callie, you can’t throw it away. Hannah—”
“Hannah what?” Callie asked. “You were the one who noticed how incomplete the information is. If someone picked it off the tree, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it. This is someone’s idea of a practical joke.” Her blue eyes met each of theirs in turn. “Agreed?”
Pam and Karla nodded their heads while Terri hesitated. She really could see the guys messing with them. If any of the ladies gave any indication of being spooked, it would be Easter before their husbands let them live it down. But…how had the angel landed in her fries in the first place? The men were good, but were they that good? Callie sent her a questioning look. Terri’s shoulders lifted, and a sigh puffed out her cheeks, there wasn’t another logical explanation. “Agreed.”
“Great.” Callie balled the offending paper up and tossed it in the can. “Joke over. Let’s get all this stuff out to our cars. Last stop of the day, Chili Mac’s for dessert and coffee, my treat.”
Terri trailed her three friends towards the exit, but she couldn’t keep herself from looking over her shoulder at the trash can in the distance. She couldn’t ignore the small niggle of doubt, guilt, at the discarded angel or the muffled keep it that echoed in her heart.
The restaurant was as packed as the stores had been, but the lure of warm chocolate cake topped with vanilla ice cream proved to be a strong incentive for patience. When presented with dessert menus, eyes quickly grew bigger than stomachs.
Terri pushed her half-eaten dessert away, stuffed but unable to resist the urge to swipe her finger through the chocolate that remained on the plate. “If I eat another bite, I’ll pop.”
Karla stuck her spoon in Terri’s leftover mound of ice cream and helped herself to a bite with a wicked grin. “Wimp.”
Callie pulled out her wallet. “The perfect way to end a perfect day. Good friends, shopping, and chocolate.” She gave a startled squeak and dropped her wallet on the table. Her pointed finger drew everyone’s eyes to the piece of paper that rested between the leather folds.
Pam lifted it and slowly spread it out in the center of the table. Hannah Price, Garfield OK. Four puzzled pair of eyes stared down at the bedraggled angel.
“How are they doing this?” Pam asked.
“I don’t think this is a joke, guys,” Terri said.
“Spooky is what it is,” Karla said. “I’m going to assume that none of you pulled it out of that trash can.” Three heads shook in response.
“I don’t think this is a joke,” Terri repeated. “I’ve had the oddest feeling in my heart ever since it landed in my french fries. Like maybe God wants us to do something with it.”
Callie met Terri’s gaze. “And we’re just hearing about this now because…?”
Terri stirred the remains of her soda with her straw. “We had our angels, and it did seem like a great joke, totally something our husbands would pull…until now.” She looked at Pam. “Will you take it?”
“Me? Why me? That thing gives me the creeps.”
Terri inched it towards her dark haired friend. “We’re obviously supposed to do something with it, or about it. We need more information, and you have better computer skills than the rest of us combined. You know how to navigate public information sites. Take it home, see what you can find, and let us know at Bible study Monday night.”
Pam shook her head, dug her phone out of her bag, and snapped a picture of the front and back of the paper angel. “That thing is not going home with me. As far as I’m concerned we need to call Pastor Gordon to exorcise it.” With the tips of two fingers she slid it back to Terri. “You keep this.” She waved her phone. “I’ve got everything I need right here.”
Terri laughed with the others as she folded the paper and tucked it into her bag. But, in the wake of her having obeyed that inner voice, she couldn’t ignore the peace that settled over her heart.
* * *
Terri bent over the table to grab the edge of the wrapping paper. She jumped slightly when she felt Steve’s hands on her waist. She turned, nestled into his arms, and lifted her face to accept her husband’s kiss. “You got three kids into their pajamas, their teeth brushed, and a bedtime story read in less than an hour? I’m impressed.”
He smiled down at her. “They were asleep by page two. You aren’t the only one who had a busy day. While you melted the credit cards we went to the park and had lunch at McDonald’s. While we were eating someone brought in some flyers about a live nativity scene with a petting zoo, so I took them there as well. We rode camels.”
Terri inhaled deeply. “Is that what I smell?”
“Hey.” Steve took a step back. “I was going to offer to help you wrap, but if you’re going to insult me, I’m leaving.”
“You’re the most amazing man I know, a considerate husband, and a great father.”
“That’s better. Now, tell me what I can do.”
She waved her hand at a pile of wrapped gifts. “Can you put those little ones under the tree for me? The six big boxes are for the angel kids. They need to be stacked to the side.”
Terri watched him from under her lashes when she mentioned the angels, looking for any sign that he’d been privy to today’s mischief. His expression gave nothing away. She looked up when he came back for the second load, still unconvinced of his innocence. “Did you talk to any of the guys today?”
“Guys?”
“Harrison, Benton, Ian…”
“No.” He turned to face her, arms loaded. “Should I have?”
“I guess not.” She studied him, certain that if he were in on it, she’d be able to see it. Nothing. “I just wondered what they did with their day…thought you might know.”
“Nope, sorry.” He hefted the gifts. “I’ll put these under the tree, and then I need some time in my office.”
“Thanks.” Terri finished up the few gifts she had left. Through it all, she reflected on the mystery of Hannah’s angel. It really had seemed like a practical joke until Callie opened her wallet to pay for dessert. She smiled when she remembered her friend’s startled expression and Pam’s promise to have the thing exorcised if it kept turning up where it shouldn’t. Weird seemed to be the best word to describe her day.
Kids down, gifts wrapped, her husband locked away in his office, Terri finally settled on the sofa and pulled out her Bible. Tears filled her eyes as she read 1 Kings 19:11-12. “And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”
The small keep it she’d heard in her soul since the first appearance of the angel still echoed in her heart. Had she missed a God thing? In this season dedicated to celebrating the biggest miracle of all, why was it so hard to accept the fact that God might use a paper angel to accomplish a smaller one?
“Father, I’m sorry. I heard You and I ignored You. Help us understand what You want us to do. Guide Pam’s search. Open all of our hearts to Your will in this. Because as sure as I am that You spoke to me this afternoon, I’m sure this is something You’ve given the four of us to accomplish together.”

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