Despite the Angels - By Madeline A Stringer Page 0,126

the whole point was that they could have a baby together, and allow Moonsong, Dawn, to spend a life with them.” He rolled onto his back and looked at the sunlight, shining out of a clear sky above him. Really, his friend was very skilled at making Earth facsimiles. This one was quite like France. He closed his eyes and listened. Yes, he could even just hear the hum of insects. Clever.

“I don’t know, really. David is available and still very interested in women. I mean, he’s only forty-one. But that vasectomy does seem to spoil it all. Lucy is hardly going to go for a man who can’t give her a baby, is she? Or is she happy to stop at one?”

“Two. Did I not tell you, she had a son too, just over two years later. He’s one and a half now, a cute little thing. She still has quite an urge to have another, but she’s uncertain about it. She thinks it’s because she has to work so many hours, but it’s really because her soul knows she’s not meant to have them with Martin. Her Aisling and Robbie are both good kids. Souls she knew already, so they can work through some small issues together.”

“Did they know Martin?”

“No. Roki says children were ‘surplus to requirements’ this time, so we used souls who knew Lucy. None of the ones who knew Martin were free, he wasn’t really meant to have any children this time.”

“Did Roki say what he is meant to be doing?”

“Learning honour and self-reliance, apparently.” The two guides sat quietly after this, for a long time. Then Jotin caught Trynor’s eye and asked “Did he say how he was doing?” and they both burst into peals of laughter. Bits of energy broke free from them as they laughed and floated up, shimmering in the sunlight, before drifting back down to coalesce again with them, as they lay on the grass, holding their sides. Trynor was hiccoughing.

“Oh dear, it would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic!”

“They have some good sayings, the humans, don’t they?”

“Yes, it’s a good school, Earth.” They lay quietly again. Trynor broke the silence.

“She’s twenty-nine. That is young these days, apparently. Plenty of time to meet another man and have a good relationship. David isn’t too old, either.”

“I wonder what Mohmi thinks?”

“I think you should go for it,” said Mohmi, joining them on the grass.

“Mohmi! Welcome. Were you listening to all that?”

“No, only the last sentence. But I assume ‘what Mohmi thinks’ is about getting David and Lucy together?” The two others nodded. “Because I have had an idea. And I have talked out my idea with Dawn and a couple of other guides and we think we have a plan. Care to hear it?”

The two guides nodded, very enthusiastically and Mohmi started to explain. After a few minutes, she sat back and looked at the others, a slightly smug expression on her face. “So, what do you think?”

“And you say Dawn is happy with this idea?” Trynor asked, “Because if everyone is in agreement, I can’t see any reason to hold back. It would work.” He got to his feet and did a little dance of hope and triumph, then found his feet tracing some ancient moves across the grass. Jotin joined him and together they dipped and circled in the old moves of the earth walk, which they had danced so often beside Alessia and Danthys. They smiled at each other, hopeful that they might soon dance again together with their beloved people.

“Well, it’s over to you, really, Trynor,” said Jotin as the dance ended. “We’re ready, we’re free. I can be wherever you say, just keep the flowers handy for her breast.”

“Yes,” Trynor said, sitting down heavily, “but I still have to get her to see that she shouldn’t be with Martin. I wonder would Roki get Martin to leave, like Kathleen did.”

“We won’t be lucky twice, I don’t think. If you can’t get it through to her, we can just try the more dramatic way and throw David into her arms. He’ll get her away from Martin if you can’t. Sometimes humans are better at these jobs than we are.”

“More persuasive, more sexy, more cruel, more passionate. It’s hard to be as passionate about things when you know you have eternity to get it right,” Mohmi interjected, “that’s why it’s so useful having lives. Puts a sense of urgency on things. Well, usually. I wonder about that sometimes,