Amber In Venice

"So where did you guys go?" Bailey asked Amber.

"To the movies," Amber replied.

"Cool! What did you see?"

"What movie have I been wanting to see for so long?"

"Magic in the Moonlight?"

"That's the one!" Amber didn't really like being dishonest with her new friend and foster sister, but she felt that the only option available to her at this point was to be deliberately evasive. Otherwise, what could she say? I'm dating an angel? Certainly Mrs. Anderson would send her to a psychiatrist, and she definitely didn't want that. Word would get around the school, and she'd be considered a 'nut case' and ostracized.

"How did you meet that guy, anyway?" Bailey continued. "He doesn't go to our school, does he?"

"No. He dated my sister Jade for awhile, but three years ago...he had to move away. He just now moved back."

"Oh yeah, now I remember. But Jade has another boyfriend now, doesn't she?"

"Yeah. Danny had only been gone for a couple of months when she met Gideon."

"Boy, that sure was fast!"

"I know!"

"She sure seemed keen on getting him back, though."

"Yeah. Jade can be pretty fickle sometimes."

"I'll say! So she's back in California now, huh?"

"Yes, thank goodness, and I hope she stays there."

After composing the message to Danny, Jade turned the computer off, went back to bed, and was soon asleep. A short time later, Gideon woke up and went into the kitchen to look for a snack. Jade's been acting a bit strange lately, he said to himself. I wonder what's up with her? After fixing himself a sandwich, he sat at the computer and turned it on. On impulse, he checked the 'history' tab to see whether Jade had been looking at any dating or pornography sites. He saw that the 'find-a-grave' site was listed first.

That's weird, he told himself. A thought occurred to him. Danny. Within seconds he'd pulled up the relevant page and was looking through the messages. He found Jade's with ease. He's nothing to compare with you.

Gideon finished his sandwich and began to pack. He was about halfway through when Jade awakened. "Gid?" she asked. "What's going on? What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing? I'm leaving!"

"But why?" Jade wailed.

"You know damn well why. Why are you sending messages to some guy who's been dead for three years, telling him he's better in the sack than I am?"

Jade felt as if all the air had just been knocked out of her. "Oh, you found the message."

"Damn right I found it! If you've got a problem with my bedroom performance, why didn't you tell me to my face instead of sniveling to your dead former boyfriend about it?"

"I don't have a problem with your bedroom performance at all, Gideon!" Jade whined. "It's just that..."

"Just nothing!" Gideon exploded, tossing a pair of worn sneakers into a suitcase. "If you don't appreciate me, I'll find someone who does!"

"But I do appreciate you, Gideon!"

"Yeah, right! Sure you do! That's why you're writing messages to some dead guy, telling him how bad you miss him and want him back?"

"I swear to you, Gideon, I didn't mean a word of it!"

"Why did you write it, then?"

"I don't know!" Desperate, Jade struggled to find the right words. How could she ever diffuse Gideon's rage? "I guess...I just got to feeling all sentimental and thinking about the way things used to be, but that doesn't mean I'm not happy with the way things are now!"

"You mean the way they were. They're not anymore!"

"Please, Gideon!"

He ignored her and finished packing. "Where are you going?" she asked.

"Anywhere to get away from here. I'd imagine Noah could probably put me up for a few days until I can find a place of my own."

Jade threw herself across the bed and cried until there were no more tears left.

Sunday morning, Amber awakened and thought of the church she'd been required to attend while she'd been staying at Our Father's House. She hadn't returned to it since her miscarriage and wasn't sure why it had suddenly come to mind.

As she went about her usual morning business, memories of the few services she'd attended there still lingered in her mind. After eating breakfast, helping with the dishes, and getting dressed, she was just about to sit on the sofa watching television with Bailey when she noticed how sunny it was outside and decided to go for a walk. She was only mildly surprised when she saw that he was walking beside her.

"Nice day for a walk, isn't it?" he asked her.

"Gorgeous." It was crisp and cool but very bright. The leaves were changing colors and falling from the trees. It was a perfect autumn day.

"Hey, I just wanted to tell you what a great time I had last night," he told her. After seeing her home, he'd squeezed her hand as he'd said good-bye to her and, after making sure that she'd gotten inside safely, had disappeared.

"I had a great time too!" she said with a smile.

He grinned. "I'm glad you did."

"What is it?" asked Maggie.

"Are you sitting down?" asked Bailey.

"Yes!" Maggie exclaimed impatiently.

"Your brother's back," Bailey told her. She heard a moment's silence, then the soft 'click' of the connection being terminated. She doesn't believe me, Bailey told herself. I suppose I'll have to get Danny to contact her himself.

But how will I do that? was her next question. I've never even really spoken to him. She went to Amber's room and knocked on her door. "Come in," said Amber.

Bailey entered the room to find her foster sister sitting at her desk, busily scribbling words on lined paper. "Homework for Creative Writing," Amber explained. "Mrs. Williams liked my poem so much she wanted me to write a longer story about it. How I met Danny and what happened to him and all."

"I know the truth about him, you know," Bailey remarked.

Amber gasped. "How did you find out?"

"I met his sister, Maggie, in a sibling loss support group," Bailey explained. "I just talked to her on the phone. She told me he'd had a girlfriend named Jade who had a younger sister named Amber. That's how I found out it was the same Danny. I told her he was back, but she didn't believe me and hung up on me. I was wondering, isn't there some way you could get Danny to convince her it's really true?"

Amber remembered what Danny had said to her once, about how he didn't want to disrupt the new lives his family members had made for themselves. "I'm sure he'll do that when he's ready," she told Bailey.

Just then Bailey heard her telephone and answered it to hear Maggie's voice. "I'm sorry for hanging up on you," Maggie said. "But when you told me Danny was back, at first I thought you were playing a mean joke on me. Then I got to thinking, what if it really is true, after all?"

"I swear to you, Maggie, it is true," Bailey replied. "Amber can vouch for me. She's right here. Want me to put her on?"

"Yes! Please do!"

Bailey handed the telephone to Amber. "Maggie?" said Amber.

"Amber!" Maggie exclaimed. "I haven't heard your voice since..."

"I know," Amber replied. "I should have stayed in touch, but I didn't. Anyway, it's true about Danny. He is back. He took me to a movie Saturday night."

"Where is he now? Can I talk to him?"

Suddenly Amber heard a knock on the door and opened it to find Susan standing there. "Danny's here to see you," Susan told her.

Amber handed the telephone to Danny, who was standing in the hallway. "Your sister wants to talk to you," she told him.

"Hey!" he said. A moment later he laughed. "Of course it's me! How are you, Sis?" Sensing that Danny would appreciate some privacy while speaking to his sister for the first time in three years, Amber glanced at Bailey, and the two of them went into Bailey's bedroom. After what seemed like a very long time, Danny returned Bailey's telephone to her.

"Tomorrow after school, we're meeting Maggie at Deelite," he told the two girls.

"But that's so far away!" Amber exclaimed.

"Don't worry. I'll get you there." Danny winked at her.

"What's Deelite?" asked Bailey.

"It's a frozen yogurt place in my old neighborhood," Amber told her. "It used to be a coffee shop called Breezy. Jade worked there when she was in high school."

Danny was waiting for Bailey and Amber after school the following day. He took Bailey by one hand and Amber by the other, and instantly they were standing just outside the door of Deelite.

"Wow!" Bailey exclaimed. "How did you do that?"

Danny only grinned and held the door open for the girls. "Shall we go inside?"

He bought frozen yogurt cones for the three of them and they found an empty booth to sit in. Less than five minutes later, Maggie entered the store. Instantly forgetting his frozen yogurt, Danny jumped to his feet and rushed to embrace his sister. Never before had Amber ever seen such a joyous reunion. Danny bought a frozen yogurt for Maggie, and they joined the other two girls, where Maggie greeted Amber warmly and was introduced to Bailey.

"I told Aaron about you last night," Maggie told her brother. "I was up until past midnight trying to persuade him that it was really true. He can't get any leave time until the holidays, but he really wants to see you again."

"I'll visit him soon," Danny replied. "I know he's ready."

A week passed, and Jade heard nothing from either Danny or Gideon. As the days went by, she grew more and more desperate. Then an idea came to her. Of course! Surely Danny would have been back in touch with his parents by now, wouldn't he have? Of course he would have!

Eagerly she dialed Danny's home telephone number, only to hear a recorded message that the number had been changed to an unlisted one. With a sigh of frustration, she got ready and went to the library. Gideon had taken the computer with him when he'd moved out. She was still friends with both Aaron and Maggie on Facebook. When she reached the library, she found an available computer, logged on, and went to her Facebook page to see whether either of them were online and available to chat. Maggie was there, so Jade clicked on her profile.

Have you been in contact with Danny? she wrote.

Amber and I met up with him at Deelite last Monday night, Maggie wrote back.

Is he there now? Jade wrote, her fingers pounding the keyboard furiously in desperation. Can I speak to him?

He's in Virginia spending the weekend with Aaron, Maggie wrote. I'll tell him you want to talk to him next time I see him.

Jade sighed and left the library. I guess there's nothing else I can do but wait some more, she told herself.

"It was really awesome to see you again," Aaron told Danny as the two brothers were saying good-bye to one another. "That's something I thought would never happen."

Danny grinned. "Life's full of surprises, isn't it?"

"It sure is," Aaron agreed. "What's amazing to me is that you're still the same little brother I had as a kid, only you're a lot more mature now."

"Of course I am." Danny laughed. "What were you expecting, some kind of freak?"

"To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect, but I'm awfully glad you're still you."

A few moments later, Danny materialized inside Jade's apartment. "I'm going to have to ask you to please stop contacting my family members," he told her. "All you're doing is upsetting them. I've already told you it's over between us. No amount of begging and pleading is going to change that."

"You love her now, don't you?" Jade's voice was sullen.

"We've become very good friends," Danny acknowledged.

"I guess it'll make you happy to know Gideon left me," Jade replied.

"Only because you refused to let go of the past and insisted on hanging on to it."

"I thought that if I left you a message telling you how I felt, you'd realize how much I still love you," Jade whined.

Danny shook his head. "All it showed was how stubborn and childish you can be."

"So there's no hope that we can ever be together again?" Jade asked forlornly.

"I already told you that once, Jade. It's time you accepted it."

"But I don't know what I'll do!" Jade wailed. "I miss you so much!"

He vanished, leaving her to wallow in despair.

"Amber?" Mrs. Williams asked as the students left to go to their next class. Amber obediently stopped by the teacher's desk.

"I just wanted to tell you that a girl named Annabelle Schneider won the district poetry contest," Mrs. Williams continued. "But your poem came in second place, which I thought was pretty good, considering the number of contestants there were. I'm proud of you. You did really well."

"OK, well, that's great...I guess." Amber gave a half smile. The only cash prize had been the fifty dollar award for the first place poem.

Swallowing her disappointment, Amber shoved the poetry contest to the back of her mind and went on with her day. Danny was waiting for her when school let out. As he'd spent the previous weekend in Virginia with Aaron, she was really happy to see him.

"I'm sorry your poem didn't win first place," he told her. "I really liked it a lot."

Amber sighed. "Just the breaks, I guess."

"Hey." Danny gave her a quick embrace. "Second place is something to be proud of, girl, and one day, you're going to win first place at something."

"That would be nice," Amber replied. "So, how did your weekend with Aaron go?"

"Really swimmingly, thanks. I'd forgotten how much fun we used to have together. Say, since you were such a good sport about last weekend, how about if I take you somewhere really special this weekend?"

Amber thought of something. "Can you take me to heaven and introduce me to those guys you hung around with up there?"

Danny looked amused for just a minute, then sadly shook his head. "Sorry. Has to be somewhere on earth."

"Hm." Amber propped her chin on her fist, deep in thought.

"Hey, no pressure. Just think about it and let me know later."

"Is Gideon here?" Jade asked Noah.

"He just went to the store to pick up a couple of things," Noah told her. "He'll be back in a minute or two, if you want to wait."

Jade sat down on the sofa, which was strewn with dirty clothing, and watched whatever random reality program was on the television. She was just becoming interested in the show when Gideon appeared.

"What are you doing here?" His voice held a note of unmistakable hostility.

"I just wanted to tell you that I realize now that I made a horrible mistake," Jade replied. "I swear to you, Gideon, you're the only man I'll ever love. What I had with Danny was nothing compared to what you and I had together."

Gideon held his palm up to her. "Talk to the hand."

"Please, Gideon, I really mean it!" Jade's voice held a note of desperation.

"Forget it, Jade." Gideon turned and walked away. "There's nothing left to talk about."

"This is so romantic!" Amber exclaimed as she and Danny floated down the Grand Canal in a gondola. Remembering a book report she'd done about Venice, Italy in middle school, she'd asked Danny to take her there.

"Sure beats Disney World, doesn't it?" laughed her otherworldly companion.

"Oh, no contest!" Amber replied. "Just look at all these ancient buildings! And I love the bridge!"

"It's called the Rialto Bridge," Danny told her. "We'll walk across it after the canal tour, if you'd like."

"Oh, I'd love to do that!" said Amber. "But right now I'm just happy to be here on the canal, looking at all the interesting things on the shore." She leaned back against the gondola's plush interior and sighed with contentment. The sun was setting, bathing the scene in an orange glow. Danny put his arm around her and held her close, and a ripple of excitement passed through her.

After the canal ride, they walked along one of the inclined covered ramps of the bridge and went into some of the shops. One was a flower shop, and Danny bought Amber a dozen red roses. She was too thrilled even to wonder where he got the money.

When they reached the portico, they walked to the side and stood looking down. "It's beautiful," Amber sighed.

"You're beautiful." He lifted her chin with his fingers, and suddenly his lips were on hers, warm and moist and urgent. His arms wrapped around her and held her tightly, and she felt an electric shock as the tip of his tongue touched hers. Then abruptly it was over, he'd let go of her and turned away.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled in a low voice.

"Sorry for what?" asked Amber. "That was great! I enjoyed it!"

"You're only sixteen," Danny replied. "I should have been more responsible than to have let that happen. It won't happen again."

"But all we did was kiss!"

"Which can lead to much more."

"So?"

Danny was solemn as he turned and began to slowly walk down the other inclined ramp. Amber got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She wondered whether the entire weekend was ruined now. "I don't think what we did was wrong," she said.

"I care for you a lot, Amber," he replied. "Too much to make the same mistake twice." He smiled and held his hand out to her. "Come on. There's lots more to see in Venice."

Jade wept as she stumbled back to her own apartment. Never in her life had she ever felt so utterly alone. Having been rejected by both Danny and Gideon, she had no idea what to do next. If only Gideon hadn't taken the computer...

Absently she opened her closet door and began to look through her clothes, and an idea came to her. She chose what she thought was her sexiest outfit, took a good half hour to apply her make-up, and then, when she finally judged her appearance to be acceptable, left to go to the bar down the street.

As she got closer, she saw that a policeman was standing by the bar's entrance and cursed under her breath. She knew she'd never be allowed in without being asked for her driver's license. Disappointed, she turned to leave when she heard someone call to her. "Hey, baby! Where you headed?"

She turned to see a strikingly handsome man who was wearing expensive clothing. He had longish dark brown hair and wore a gold chain around his neck. She knew that he was at least twenty-five, perhaps thirty.

"I can't go in there," she told him.

"Why the heck not?"

"I'm not twenty-one yet."

"Sure could have fooled me." He smirked. "Screw this place. I know of a place that's way cooler that won't even ask for your ID."

"Really?" In normal circumstances, alarm bells would be going off in Jade's head about now, but in her present state of mind, she wasn't even aware of that part of her psyche.

"Yeah, sure. Come on. It's only a couple of blocks from here." He nodded toward a shiny new red Corvette, and all doubts instantly vanished from her mind.

"He took you to Venice?" Bailey was incredulous. It was Sunday night, and the two girls were in Bailey's bedroom. "Does he by any chance have any angel friends?"

Amber giggled. "I'll ask."

That night she lay awake in bed for a long time, thinking about how much fun she'd had with Danny over the weekend. He'd seemed so alive, so enthusiastic, so full of joie de vivre. It was just so hard to reconcile that memory of him with the image of his body lying cold and still in his casket.

The following day after school, she took a walk to the cemetery where he was buried. She'd come here a half dozen times or so during the first year after he'd died but hadn't been back since then. She was filled with guilt when she saw that the marker was now partially overgrown with weeds. She reached to sweep them aside and cried out in pain as a thorn pierced her flesh.

"Here, let me see that." She turned to see the loving concern in Danny's eyes. He reached for her injured hand and kissed the wound, and it healed instantly.

"I should have come here more often," she mumbled.

"Why? I'm not here anymore."

"Well, something's still down there." She recalled once reading an article about a body that had been exhumed after having been buried for six years. New evidence had come to light that the man might have been deliberately poisoned. The article had described his body as being covered with mold and partially decomposed. Was that the condition of Danny's mortal remains now?

Amber shuddered involuntarily.

"It doesn't matter, you know." Danny's fingers softly caressed her cheek. "That isn't really me anymore. It's only the empty shell that I used to live in."

"Yeah." Amber's voice was almost a whisper.

Danny reached for her hand. "Come on. I'll walk you home."

Jade was surprised when the shiny red Corvette pulled into a parking space at a convenience store. "What's your poison?" her new companion asked.

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Beer? Wine coolers? Vodka? Schnapps?"

"But I thought we were going to a bar!" An icy finger had begun to creep along her spine.

"Nah, I don't feel like doing that anymore. I've got kind of a headache. I thought maybe we could just hang out at my place instead."

"I don't like the sound of this." Jade opened the car door on her side.

"Where ya goin', babe?" asked the man.

"Anywhere to get away from you." She slammed the door shut and stalked into the convenience store, where she was faced with a dilemma. She was now too far away from her home to walk back, and she had no money for a taxi.

"I'll take you home." She turned to see Danny standing beside her.

"Oh, Danny..." She tried to hug him, but he stepped aside. At the same time, he extended his hand to her. She took it, and instantly they were standing outside her apartment. "Oh, thank you!" she exclaimed. She thought of kissing his cheek in gratitude but decided that he probably didn't want her to.

"I don't mind helping you out this one time," he told her. "But if you ever do anything that stupid again, you're on your own."

"But how will I ever find anyone else? I've lost both you and Gideon now."

"Not like that." He vanished, leaving her alone and desolate.

"I had to bail your sister out of a bit of trouble she got into over the weekend," Danny told Amber as he walked her home. "She did something silly and almost ended up in a very bad situation."

"What did she do?" asked Amber.

"She accepted a ride from a stranger who offered to take her to a bar. For the sake of what she and I used to have together, I just couldn't let her be taken advantage of. I knew that guy was only trying to get into her pants."

Amber frowned. "That doesn't sound like something Jade would do."

"Desperate people do desperate things," Danny replied. "Now that Gideon's out of her life, she's all alone for the first time, and without a man in her life, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She needs some time on her own to figure out that she's enough by herself before she'll be ready for another relationship."

"I used to admire her so much," Amber reminisced. "I always wanted to be just like her. She was so smart, so advanced, so...together. She could do things I could only dream of. When..." She looked down and blushed deeply. "When you started coming around a lot, I used to watch you two together and wonder what you did when I wasn't around. I must have been a terrible pain in the butt," she muttered.

Danny laughed. "It never bothered me when you hung around us. I always thought you were kind of cute. And I know exactly how you felt, because I was the same way about Aaron. I always wanted to be just like him. I remember how tired he used to get of my always tagging along after him."

"I'll bet he felt terrible about about getting annoyed at you after...well, you know," Amber said softly.

"He used to cry sometimes. I used to watch him and wish so badly that there was some way I could tell him that I was OK, that I was better than OK, that I was just fine. Then I finally thought of a way. There's this rose bush right outside his window that had never bloomed before, until I made it bloom. My Mom and Maggie were really happy about it, but he just brushed it off and didn't pay it any mind."

"Do you suppose you'll ever let your Mom and Dad know that you're back too?"

Danny grinned. "I'm sure it will happen some day."

For Halloween, Amber and Bailey dressed as red and blue M & M's respectively and handed out candy to the kids who rang their doorbell. "I remember the last time I handed candy out with Brittney," said Bailey. "We were dressed up as Raggedy Ann and Andy. We had so much candy left over that it was months before it was finally all gone."

"How did she die?" asked Amber.

"She was coming home from a Christmas party, and the car she was in got broadsided," Bailey told her. "She was already brain dead before she got to the hospital. I'll never forget the phone call my parents got in the middle of the night. They didn't want me to go to the hospital with them, but I blocked the door and refused to let them leave the house without me."

"When I finally saw her lying there in the emergency room, she looked so peaceful it was hard to believe she was really gone. She had a thin little trickle of blood running out of the side of her mouth, and that was all."

"Her funeral was beautiful, but I was in so much pain that I barely noticed. I felt just like I'd been ripped in half. I never imagined anything could ever hurt as bad as that did."

Amber thought of Danny and wondered whether he'd known Brittney in heaven. She decided to ask him the next time she saw him.

He hadn't met her after school that day as he usually did on Fridays, but she hadn't really expected him to, as she'd told him that she planned to hand out candy to trick-or-treaters that night. When she still hadn't heard from him by late Saturday evening, however, she started to worry.