ANN'S ANGEL

by

CQB

CHAPTER 1

THE CHAPTERS

INTRO

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

EPILOGUE

The two girls sat down at the kitchen table, drinking milk and nibbling on fresh baked oatmeal raisin cookies, still warm from the oven.   They had spent the cold December afternoon baking cookies for a Christmas social at church the next day.  

Both were sixteen, but very different in appearance.  The girl that lived in the two-story clapboard house was a perky redhead with a round face, freckles and dancing blue eyes.  Her visiting friend had dark hair, a narrow face and serious brown eyes.  

“What’s on your Christmas wish list?” the dark-haired girl asked her friend.  

“I’ll tell you if you promise not to laugh,” the redhead stated.  

“I’m your best friend,” the first girl answered, “Of course I won’t laugh.”  

“Okay.  I want an angel doll,” the redhead spoke softly.  “Not just any angel doll.  She must have hair of golden orange ringlets and eyes as bright as blue can be.  And her dress needs to be all shimmery white.”  

“A doll? Really?”  

“Yes, with wings made of white dove feathers and of course, she needs a golden halo,” the red-haired girl finished.  

“Where did you see an angel doll like that?” the brunette asked.  

The redhead sighed.  “Nowhere.  Just in my dreams…”  

* * *

Joe Hardy walked into his house and sat his school books on the kitchen table.  The house was silent except for the rhythm of the sewing machine on the second floor.  

The twelve-year-old knew it was his aunt busily sewing away.  His father’s sister had lived in their house since Joe was four, and every year, right after Thanksgiving, she’d spend hours sewing in the extra room.  

Joe frowned as he glanced up at the ceiling.  He wished he had x-ray vision like Superman, so he could see what Aunt Gertrude was working on.   

For all these years, and all the time she spent sewing and sewing, Joe had never seen the result of those seemingly endless hours of work.   

When asked, Gertrude Hardy would simply say she was working on her Christmas project.  Joe’s parents, Fenton and Laura Hardy, readily accepted her explanation and let it go.  

Joe and his older brother Frank, however, almost died of curiosity every year wanting to see what the secret Christmas project really was.  

“Aunt Gertrude’s at it as usual, I see,” Thirteen-year-old Frank Hardy stated, walking in behind his brother.  

“Man,” Joe sighed, “I’d give anything to be a fly right now.  I could go up the stairs and creep in under the door and finally see what the big secret’s all about.”  

“Knowing your luck,” Frank grinned, “Dad would probably swat you with a newspaper before you got out of the kitchen!”  

Everyone knew about the younger Hardy brother’s ability to get into the middle of some kind of trouble, even when he wasn’t trying to.  

“Yeah,” Joe agreed with a chuckle.  “But, don’cha wish just once, she’d let us in on the secret?”  

* * *

“No, it has to be a doll,” the dark-haired sixteen-year-old told the store clerk.  “These are all figurines and they are all blond.”  

“I’m sorry, missy,” the clerk sadly replied.  “These are the only angels I have.”  

“Thank you anyway,” the girl said.  She walked out of the store with a heavy heart.  This had been her last hope.  

She had searched all over her home town of Bayport for the angel doll her best friend had dreamed of, but no such doll could be found.  

She began the long, cold walk home.  It was only a week until Christmas.  She would have to settle for some other gift for her friend.  

As she passed the little shop just past the library, something caught her eye.  On display in the window, was a bolt of shimmering, white fabric.  

She looked up.  “Spencer’s Sewing and Notions Shop,” she read aloud.  She smiled.  ‘Why not?’ she reasoned.   

With a step of confidence, she walked into the little store.  

* * *

“Joe,” Laura Hardy handed her younger son a tray laden with food, “Take this up to Aunt Gertrude, please.  Just knock on the door and leave the tray to the side, she’ll get it when she’s ready.”  

The blond boy raised his eyebrows questioningly.  Aunt Gertrude never skipped mealtime.

“She’s behind schedule on her project,” Laura explained with a smile.  “Christmas is only a week away, you know.”  

Joe obediently carried the tray up the back stairs and set in on the floor beside the door.  He tentatively knocked.  

“Yes?” came a voice inside the room.  

“Ah, Mom sent up some food for you,” the twelve-year-old replied.  

Joe heard the sewing machine stop and was surprised when his Aunt Gertrude poked her head out the door.  

“Thank you, Joe,” Gertrude Hardy said.  “Please thank your mother for me.”   

Assuming he’d been dismissed, Joe nodded and headed down the stairs.  He glanced back and watched his aunt lift the tray and carry it inside the room.  Moments later, the whir of the sewing machine resumed.  

* * *

She smiled at the results.  The cloth doll was dressed in a gown of shimmering white fabric, trimmed with white lace.  The hair was made of red and yellow spun wool, giving it a golden orange color. It was carefully styled in curls around the head.  The attached wings were meticulously covered with white craft feathers. The face was finely embroidered with rosy lips and bright blue eyes.  A braided gold ribbon formed a halo on top of the angel’s hair.  

Humming to herself pleasantly, she placed the angel doll in a shoe box that she had lined with the extra gown fabric.  She closed the box, wrapped it in Christmas paper and tied a red yarn bow on top.

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