Mer Tales 01 - Everblue

because you need clothes? Seriously? You have some nerve. Funny you’d have time to come home, joke around with your family when I almost got myself killed because of you two!” She waved her hands frantically. “But oh no. You two are living it up with your relatives like nothing ever happened.”
    She fumbled to open the door but her hands shook too violently to get the lock open.
    “ Whoa,” I said, holding my hands up in surrender. I should have known that after the initial surprise of seeing me again wore off, she’d lash out. “We’ve had a death in the family and had to leave abruptly. And Tatiana isn’t even here. She’s still back . . . East.”
    “ Pschtt,” she said venomously. “I’d contact my best friend before I did anything else. I find this whole story a little fishy.”
    “ They’re Amish. It’s complicated.”
    She let out a forced laugh and opened the door. “Get out, Fin. Go back to your weird Amish cousin and beg for him to let you inside. You can freeze for all I care.”
    When I didn’t move she yelled, “GET OUT!”
    “ Okay.”
    I walked past her and turned once I got outside. She slammed the door in my face. Not only was my heart breaking that I’d hurt her so deeply, I didn’t think Tatch made it out in time.
    I stood on the porch calling Ash’s name for several minutes and then finally left to hide in the bushes again.

36
ASH

    I leaned against the door as tears poured down my cheeks. I could hear Fin calling my name, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t ever going to speak to him or Tatchi again. Part of me wanted to crumble to the floor and cry my eyes out, but I knew I’d never be able to get up without help.
    Instead, I limped to Gran’s room and curled into the fetal position. Hopefully, the two pills I took would numb the emotional pain whirling in my heart. My best friend never had any intention of going away to college with me. How could I not see she was never going to break free from her family? I rubbed my chest. It felt like they’d stabbed me with two knives and twisted in opposite directions.
    I closed my eyes and drifted off to the sound of squirrels running across the roof. Minutes later, a rustle in my room woke me up. I rolled over and groaned, twisting myself in the sheets again.
    “ Sorry, dear,” Gran said softly, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
    “ No,” I said, shifting to a sitting position. I glanced over at the clock, amazed to find I’d slept three hours. “I should probably get up.”
    She walked toward me with a grimace and pushed my hair from my puffy eyes. “How are you feeling?”
    I exhaled as the fog cleared and my sweet dreams dissipated. Remembering Fin’s visit reopened the wound in my chest. I needed to talk about something good, or I’d start crying again. “Gran, do you believe in angels?”
    She smiled. Her entire face lit up. “Why of course I do. Who else is going to help God perform all those miracles?”
    I felt the corners of my lips lift. “Do you think we can see them sometimes?”
    “ I do. The Bible does say to be hospitable to strangers because you might be entertaining an angel instead.”
    A small memory about that verse tickled my mind. Sometimes, when we drove as a family, Dad would give a bum all the change from the car ashtray. Mom worried Dad was encouraging their behavior, giving them money to buy booze or drugs. He’d look back at her and remind her about this verse.
    I looked away and bit the side of my cheek. “It’s not a coincidence the boat magically showed up.”
    Gran sat down next to me on the bed and watched me with gentle eyes. I took a deep breath and confessed what happened.
    “ I see,” she said after I finished, no judgment in her tone.
    “ But what I do remember about the person who saved me, in a dreamy sort of way, they might not have been entirely human. Even in the freezing water, he was very warm and glowed a little. I’m pretty sure he flew me out of the water into the air.”
    Gran studied me for a moment with pensive eyes. “Have I ever told you my angel experience?”
    I shook my head.
    “ Well, when I was newly married to your grandpa, I got very sick. My heart would start beating fast for no reason and the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me. It got to the point where it happened all the time. In fact, one time it raced so hard and wouldn’t stop, they had to hospitalize me. I remember shivering uncontrollably because the blood wasn’t