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gave a painful thump. "Dad?" |
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"I'm here. I was just picturing her as she looked and acted when I first met herthe complete opposite of everything I'd ever known. Happy, free, so beautiful she made my eyes hurt just to look at her. All she ever wanted was to be my wife and your mother. She counted the days until you were born. And then she never even got to hold you in her arms. I don't know if she died thinking you" He broke off with a grimace of pain and his eyes opened. He clutched D.J.'s hand so hard, she thought her fingers might break. "I see her." He stared at a point just behind and above D.J.'s head. |
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D.J. remembered the angel's sudden appearance and odd fading out afterward. Had she returned? Had the barrier between the earth and heaven thinned just enough so her father could see Josie? D.J. snapped her head around and looked up. |
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A breeze from the doorway, carrying the scent of damp earth and burning leaves, wafted through the empty air above her. |
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D.J. turned back to her father with a frown. He nodded and smiled at the same place above D.J.'s head. Whatever he'd seen before he still saw it. |
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"Daphne Josephine." His voice rasped with such love, D.J.'s eyes widened, then filled with tears. He'd never said her name like that before, as though all the joy in his world were contained in two little words. |
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"No, not you. Her. She always hated her name. Wouldn't answer to anything but" He coughed, long and hard, and D.J. had to stifle the urge to |
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