Keeping it Real (9 page)

Outside, it was totally pitch black.

“Are you sure this is dawn?” I asked doubtfully.

Jools quickly checked her watch. “No, but it will be in exactly ten minutes!” She grabbed my hand. “Hold on tight!”

“But where are we—?”

The Universe went unexpectedly rippley. When it finally firmed up again we were on snowy parkland high above north London.

City lights sparkled below us like scattered jewellery. From here you could see the night was starting to fade. My eyes could just make out vague shapes of tower blocks.

I’d never been on Hampstead Heath this early. It seemed just like I remembered from family outings -except for the angels.

There were hundreds and thousands of them, and more were beaming down every minute.

Like any normal crowd of Londoners, the earth angels came from different age groups, and every walk of life. Some chatted quietly to their friends, others just waited peacefully for the dawn vibes to begin.

It was like a beautiful, but v. surreal, painting: Angels on Hampstead Heath.

“Does this happen every day?” I breathed.

“And at sunset,” Jools said. “Dawn and dusk are the optimum times to send vibes to the planet.”

I made a mental note to insert the word ‘optimum’ into my vocabulary first chance I got.

“So is Hampstead Heath the local energy hot spot?”

I was half joking, but Jools said seriously, “It’s one of the hot spots, yeah. London has about seven. This is my favourite though.”

The idea of seven well-known London landmarks filling up with angels twice a day sent me reeling.

When you take a time trip to ancient Rome or whatever, you expect the odd cosmic surprise. But this was my time, and I felt like I was having to run to catch up!

“So why do you do dawn vibes again?” I asked.

A young EA in torn trainers joined in our conversation. “I can’t speak for the other EAs,” she smiled, “but when you work with street kids twenty-four-seven like I do, you sometimes forget you’re in the bizz. Some days I’m the only earth angel at King’s Cross. The vibes remind me that

I’m not alone - that I’m connected to every earth angel in this city—”

She suddenly dropped her voice.

“We’re starting!” she whispered.

I didn’t need anyone to tell me the vibes had begun.

As the first streaks of dawn appeared in the sky, there was this incredible hush, then I heard faint but unbearably lovely musical chords which seemed to come from out of thin air. Before today I’d never heard those sounds outside of Heaven. Then I noticed how each tiny blade of grass was starting to shimmer and I thought, ohh, but this
is
Heaven! In a few minutes it’ll go back to being grim, grimy London, but just now it’s Heaven!

It seemed that my senses had become more sensitive since the upgrade. I could actually see unearthly colours streaming from the centres of our palms, and whooshing dramatically into Earth’s atmosphere. Then zillions upon zillions of tiny gold stars rained back down.

Go vibes
, I willed them silently.
Humans really need you
.

I totally understood now why that angel girl came here on her day off.

At last only a sprinkling of gold stars was left to drift slowly back to Earth. Winter birds twittered all around us. The sun was hidden behind woolly grey clouds, but London skies are almost always grey, and you could see streaks of other, softer colours, mixed in.

“Look at you,” Jools exclaimed. “You’re all pretty and glowy!”

“I was thinking the same thing about you,” I said shyly. “That was amazing, Jools. I’m going to remember it for ever.” I gave her a quick hug. “I’ll catch up with you later, yeah?”

That’s one thing about dawn vibes. They totally let you know what you need to do next.

Chapter Eleven

I
‘d seen this sitting room so many times in my dreams. Not the bad dreams - my sad, homesick dreams.

In my dreams my mum was always asleep on the sofa, just like now, and, like in my dreams, I didn’t feel able to go over to her straight away.

I softly prowled around my mum’s flat, trying to make myself believe that I was really here. It felt almost like there were three Melanies in the room - the human girl I used to be, the dream Melanie in her PJs and the angel girl in her borrowed parka. But gradually it sank in that this visit wasn’t a dream or just a memory, but for real.

That vibe - that warm, sweet, homey vibe - was just the same.

There were hyacinths in a bowl on a small table. There’s something about the smell of hyacinths that always gives me a sad-happy ache inside. Mum had forgotten to take the price sticker off the bowl: special offer, PS2.99.

You usually don’t smell flowers in a dream, you probably don’t notice price stickers and you definitely don’t see your little sister’s half-finished dress hanging off your mum’s sewing machine, with all the tacking threads dangling down.

My mum had fallen asleep in a really awkward position; she was going to get a crick in her neck if she didn’t wake up quick-smart. She’d probably been waiting up for my step-dad. Des fixes pumps: those totally massive pumps they use in power stations and sewage plants. I’m telling you, if one of those breaks down, you’d better hope Des gets to you fast!

I was gradually tiptoeing closer to my mum. Finally I dared to crouch down beside her. As an angel, I normally love watching humans sleep. Their daytime disguises fall away and you actually see who they really are; but this time, for the first time I felt like I was intruding.

There was something in my mum’s face that I felt like I wasn’t supposed to see; a sadness so deep, it had marked her for ever. Even when she was really old it would still be there.

Next to the TV was a picture of me in a heavy silver frame. I’d seen this photo in my dreams, plenty of times, but until now I’d never seen it in real life. Des had taken it on my thirteenth birthday just hours before I died.

“Weird,” I whispered.

Without realising it, I had started stroking my mum’s face, softly smoothing out her new worry lines. For the first time I noticed silver hairs glinting among her trendy new highlights and I felt this terrible pang. She was my mum. Mums are supposed to stay the same for ever.

Our old satellite box was madly flashing zeros. Mum and Des never could get the hang of that Sky box.

Then eighteen months of tears suddenly welled up, and I put my head down on the sofa and howled. “Oh, Mum I’ve missed you—”

Then I gave up even trying to put so much pain into words, and just cried and cried.

After a few minutes, I covered my face with my hands. I wasn’t supposed to be doing this! This was supposed to be beautiful, like in movies!

I quickly wiped my eyes. “I had it all planned out - no, I did!” I told her half laughing, half crying. “I was going to be incredibly calm and bathed in light and you’d be like, totally awed but at the same time really,
really
happy to know I’d gone to a better place. And I have, Mum,” I sobbed out. “I have such a beautiful life - this is just so much harder than I ever…”

I had to stop to take deep breaths.

“Guess I just wanted to impress you, huh?” I said with a teary giggle. “Guess I’m not quite as angelic as I thought!”

I blew my nose. After a while I said, “I see Des got round to repainting the flat. He did a good job.”

I didn’t care if I was wittering. Why would you need to impress your mum? It was enough to be with her, smelling hyacinths and nattering about nothing. Finally I felt able to leave her, but only because I knew I’d be coming back.

Holding my breath, I tiptoed into the room I used to share with my little sister. This room too had been freshly repainted. Our old twin beds had gone. Jade was asleep in one of those smart pine cabin beds with built-in shelves underneath. Her bed covers were pastel pink, like her curtains, with a cute fairy motif.

I completely understood why they did it. It must have been painful for them coming into this room every day, seeing that empty bed. Humans don’t live for ever. They have to find a way to move on.

I softly climbed up the short ladder and lay down on my side next to Jade, so I could look into her face.

“Hi, Fluffyhead,” I whispered. “I bet you feel like the princess of Park Hall in this bed, yeah? I love the fairies.”

With her elfin eyelids and little pointy face, Jade looked quite a lot like a fairy herself. She’d grown in the eighteen months I’d been gone. She was going to be a daddy-longlegs like her big sister. Yet just now she seemed touchingly small and vulnerable.

Her limp little hand still smelled of warm wax crayons like I remembered. I stroked it gently. “I can’t stay now, Jadie, but I’ll be around for a few days, so I’ll come and see you again, I promise.” I plonked an angel kiss on her cheek. “Love you!”

“Love you, Mel,” Jade murmured in her sleep.

I gasped. I was so shocked, I beamed myself straight down into the street without even trying, and just started walking.

A guy was trying to start his rusty old banger. Across the road, the Minimart was open. A van was delivering bread.

I walked past everything in a daze.

First Sky, now Jade!

Two humans had heard me talking. OK, Jade was my sister, so there was a strong link, but Sky was wearing headphones!!

Suddenly it was like I’d been struck by lightning. I literally looked up at the sky, as if this amazing revelation had been dropped from a passing plane!

“So
that’s
why the Agency couldn’t send me till I’d had my birthday,” I breathed. “Omigosh, I’ve got to tell Lollie!”

I fumbled in the pockets of my parka and called her on my dinky Agency mobile. There was a click and a hiss and I heard Lola’s singsong message. “Talk to the phone cos the face ain’t home. Please leave a message after the tone. BEEP!!”

“Lollie!” I shouted into my phone. “I’m outside my old flats! I know! Listen, I’m going to road-test our survival guide for real. That’s my mission, Lollie! Michael said I’d figure out what I had to do when I got here and I just did! I’m going to teach my mates every cosmic survival technique in our book! Woo-whee, isn’t that totally amazing!!”

When I got back to the house, I went to fetch myself a bowl of cereal and came back humming. I found Brice and Jools in the TV room.

“You’re perky, angel girl,” Brice commented. “You were in the depths of despair last night.”

“I feel great!” I bubbled. “I’ve figured out why Michael sent me. I was just walking along and - I totally saw what I have to do!”

“Let me guess!” he said in a sarky tone. “You’re going to flit between your mates, beaming pretty vibes, until all of a sudden they rush to one another’s homes, kiss and make up. And little Mel goes back to Heaven tired but happy because her work on Earth is done.”

I felt like he’d hit me. For a moment I just stared at him in shock, then I just saw red. “Ooh, silly me, wanting to help my friends!” I flashed. “Brice, you do realise those girls are in
bits
!”

“So?” he said coldly. “You’re an angel, not their agony aunt.”

“And you’re a heartless pig!”

“At least I’m not living in La-la land! You might want to at least stop and think, darling, before you flit off to play good fairy.”

“Brice, what the
sassafras
is there to think about! Michael sent me here to help my friends!”

He’d got that pale, pinched look he gets when he’s angry. “You’re absolutely sure about that? There couldn’t possibly be any more to your mission than saving your precious girls?”

He finally noticed Jools frantically shaking her head and abruptly walked out of the room. Jools went after him and I heard them arguing in low voices.

I was trembling from Brice’s attack.
This is so typical of that boy
, I thought shakily. You just decide you can trust him then he publicly humiliates you. OK, so his good-fairy crack had come a teeny bit too close, but did he have to be so mean.

I decided I wasn’t going to talk to Brice again, ever.

When it seemed like the coast was clear, I ran up to get my bag.

On my way upstairs, I glimpsed Delphine watching the TV monitors with a glazed expression, but as I hurtled back down, I saw the door had been closed.

I heard Jools’ worried voice. “How do you tell someone something like that?”

“You can’t,” Delphine murmured sympathetically. “I’m sure you’re doing the right thing.”

I didn’t like to barge in on a private EA chat, so I left without saying anything to anyone.

Outside it was sleeting again, and I quickly pulled up my furry parka hood.
I don’t care what that creep thinks, I told myself, shivering. I feel really privileged to be on such an unusual and exciting mission
. And I beamed myself smoothly through space.