Earth Angel
Chapter Three
Chloe
turned her head back to the mirror, hoping that she would see a different image
in front of her. She blinked her
eyes in shock and tried pinching her arm to see if she would wake up from this
nightmare. She groaned and flipped
off the bathroom light and headed back into the hospital room.
She turned
and shouted at Keyes, "No, this is NOT good.
I can't look at that face in the mirror every day for the rest of my
life. This is insane."
Keyes
furrowed his eyebrows together in confusion.
"I uhhh... don't see the problem here.
She's young, attractive and comes from a wealthy family... should be just
fine."
"Yes,
yes, yes... I know that. But do you
know WHO she is?"
Keyes
nodded and checked his palm pilot briefly.
"Yes, Janet Lorraine Spears, otherwise known as 'Jan', age
seventeen, student at Salem High School."
"Lorraine?
Hmm, interesting. Anyway, that's not the POINT, Keyes. The point is, this girl is a detestable human being.
She's done some really rotten things, and most of them were to *ME* and
my friends."
"And
so? You get to live. You don't have to live the way she did, just be grateful that
you're alive."
Chloe sat
down on the bed with a dejected sigh. "It's
just that... this completely blows any chance I had of being close to my friends
again. Nobody will be able to
accept that Jan is suddenly more like... me."
Keyes sat
down beside her and laid a comforting hand on her leg.
"Are you sure about that? I
doubt that this Jan character was so irredeemable that your friends won't
believe she can be good. If she
were really evil deep down to the core, she wouldn't be going up where we just
came from."
"So,
Jan goes to heaven, then?"
"Yup.
This is as close as we can make it to the way it was supposed to turn
out. Jan was supposed to die in
that accident, not you."
"This
is just RIDICULOUS. I don't know if
I can do this. It's JAN.
This is like some great mystical irony, isn't it?
God is probably having a pretty big laugh about this right now."
Chloe
crossed her arms and stared at the ceiling, shouting towards heaven, "I'M
GLAD YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY! I'M
GLAD YOU HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR! AT
LEAST SOMEONE'S LAUGHING ABOUT IT! BECAUSE
I DON'T THINK IT'S FUNNY AT ALL!"
Chloe
wiped a tear from her face and looked back towards Keyes.
He looked into her eyes with nothing but sympathy and spoke softly,
"I'm sorry, I really am. But,
this isn't a joke. God isn't
laughing at you. I promise... none
of us are laughing about this."
"Then
it's some kind of punishment, right? What
did I do that I deserve to be punished like this?"
Keyes
shook his head vehemently. "No, it's not punishment either. I had no idea that you knew this girl that well.
This is just a coincidence, a VERY strange coincidence, but that's all.
You've done nothing wrong."
Chloe
frowned at Keyes. "And you
can't find me another body?"
Keyes
shook his head sadly. "Sorry,
this is the best we can do for right now. I'll
try to find you another one if I can, but until then just give this one a spin
around the block."
"Maybe
I should have just stayed up there."
"Oh
no, definitely not. You don't
belong with us, Chloe. You belong
here. There's a greater purpose to
be served by you staying on Earth."
Chloe
raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Ohhhh...
really? And what is that?"
Keyes
pointed a finger at her in warning. "Oh no you don't, I can't tell you
that. That's for you to figure out
yourself."
"Well,
thanks for being cryptic. So, now
what do I do? Does your little
celestial palm pilot tell you what's in store for me next?"
Keyes
tapped a few buttons and looked back at Chloe.
"Well, not in great detail. It
looks like you get out of here tomorrow though, and you'll be staying out of
school for about a week to rest, and then it's physical therapy."
Chloe
nodded slightly, "Great... sounds like fun.
And what about Jan's parents?"
"Jan's
mom is in Australia and her father is in Europe."
"Sounds
like a great couple of parents. No
wonder she has issues."
Keyes
nodded in agreement and continued, "Well, now YOU are the one with issues.
A driver will come pick you up tomorrow afternoon and take you home.
Just you and the servants."
Chloe
rolled her eyes. "Oh, right,
the privileged life. How
nice."
Keyes
shrugged slightly. "Could be
worse."
Chloe
sighed sadly and nodded. "Keyes,
what happened to Phillip? He is
okay, right?"
"Yes,
he's fine. He's in this hospital
right down the hall, as a matter of fact. He's
pretty banged up, but he should be going home soon.
He came out the luckiest of everybody in this accident."
"He
did? What about the driver of the
car that Jan was in? Was it
Jason?"
Keyes
nodded sadly. "Yes, it was. Jason Welles, Jan's boyfriend.
He was drinking that night, and Jan had tried to stop him from driving,
but got in the car anyway. It's
such a shame... poor kid didn't make it. Died
at the scene."
"So
now I'm completely alone... Jan's parents could care less about her, and the
only person that pays attention to her at all was killed in the accident."
"I'm
sorry, Chloe. But, if you ever need
me for something... I'll be checking in with you on a regular basis, making sure
you that you're handling the transition. So,
you're never really alone... I'm up there listening, and so is God."
Chloe
leaned forward and embraced him gently. "Thank
you. I mean that.
I'm sorry for all the yelling."
Keyes
smiled widely at her. "You're
welcome. And you don't have to
apologize for the yelling, I understand, it was completely expected."
"Can
I see Phillip? That's allowed,
isn't it?"
"Of
course it is. You just can't tell
him that you are who you are. As
far as he or anyone else is concerned, you ARE Jan.
You can't tell them that you're Chloe."
Chloe
chuckled softly. "That's okay, nobody would believe that anyway."
Chloe
stood and grabbed the pink bathrobe lying on the chair.
She wrapped it around herself and suddenly laughed.
Keyes
raised his eyebrows at her. "Something
funny?"
"Not
funny exactly. Just weird.
Cause, I feel like myself, but this isn't my body."
Keyes
nodded understandingly. "Yeah,
that will take a little while to get used to."
Chloe
nodded and walked towards the door. "Definitely...
Anyway, I'm gonna go look for Phillip. I
guess I'll be seeing you...?"
Keyes
smiled and winked at her. "You
will. And, your friend Phillip is
four doors down on the left. It's
past visiting hours, so he should be alone."
"Thank
you." Chloe briefly smiled at
him and stepped into the hallway dragging her IV stand with her.
When she looked back into the room, Keyes was already gone.
She stepped lightly down the hallway until she reached the door to
Phillip's room. The door was
cracked open, and she peeked inside at a sleeping Phillip.
He was bruised and banged up, but looked like he was all right. She sighed softly at how handsome he looked even like this,
and whispered his name under her breath.
"Phillip..."
She paused and smiled sadly, before turning around. Chloe had taken two steps away from the door when she heard
Phillip's voice call out.
"Chloe..."