Annie’s angel hovered over the table, anxiously searching their faces, and then she saw it. Annie’s mother started to smile, granted it was a very small smile, but it was better than that blank expression she’d had all morning.
Annie’s mother touched her husband’s arm, gently.“Are you thinking what I am thinking?” she whispered.
“Do you think it’s Annie leaving us a message that she is OK?” he questioned softly.
“I do,” she whispered, “I do.”
Annie’s angel grinned. It had worked, it had really worked! She still had much to do in very little time, but Annie’s angel knew she could do it…she was an angel, wasn’t she? With a flash of her wings, she was gone, flying along the route that Annie’s family would take tomorrow when they went to the church. She had much to do!
Annie’s mother started dinner, with a tiny smile on her face. It couldn’t really be called a real smile, but it was a definite start. As she went to the refrigerator, she hummed a little. Her husband, who was trying to read his paper in the other room, lifted up his head at the sound of her humming. Maybe things would be OK. Maybe, somehow, this terrible tragedy would have some meaning. He smiled to himself. Maybe there really were angels! He got out of his chair and walked into the kitchen.
“What are you thinking?” he asked his wife.She paused, her knife poised above the vegetables she had been chopping. “What if Annie was trying to tell us not only that she is all right, but that we will all be all right, if only we believe? What if there are angels, or something around us, that watches out for us and protects us when they can and helps us when they can’t? What if it takes a terrible tragedy like this to wake us up that everyone is a ‘gift’ and a precious gift. Even if the ‘gift’ is broken or lost, it doesn’t mean that it is gone, but simply in a different place…a place where we can see it and be with it when it is our turn to go?”
Annie’s father had no answer. His wife had put into words what he had been feeling all afternoon. He set the table and called Tom for dinner. They sat down around the table that night for dinner, and Tom sat in Annie’s place, because no one could bear to see her empty chair. Conversation was hushed. To be honest, they were all pretty amazed by what they had seen that afternoon. They talked about Annie, and heaven and angels, and all kinds of things that they never would have thought about before the snow angels had appeared. They hugged each other tightly after dinner, and they all cleaned up the kitchen together. It was almost as if they were afraid of separating, that the magic would somehow slip away, so they stayed together. One of them would go to the back door and turn on the spotlight, just to make sure the angels were still there, and they were. They headed upstairs, and this night Annie’s mother tucked Tom in as always.
“I love you, Tom,” she whispered.“I love you more, Mom,” he answered. As she walked out the door he called to her again.
“Mom?”
“What, darling?”
“Annie loves you, too, for always.”
Annie’s mother smiled, the tears coming quickly to her eyes. “You’re right, Tom, she loves us all, for always, and she certainly let us know, today, didn’t she?”