Angel was woken up from her watch beeping. She sets her watch alarm for when her mother wakes up, so she can get home with enough time to get ready for her lessons. She raced back to her house. When she opened the door she saw a bowl of cereal with a note.
Angel,
Mr. Diaboli arrived on the island and has guests.
He asked me to welcome them and give
them a tour. Go to school.
Love,
Mom
Angel skimmed the note and ate the cereal. She changed her clothes into something clean, grabbed her backpack and rode down to Mrs. Welch's house. Mrs. Welch was the wife of the oldest person on the island, Mr. Welch. The Welches live in a neat little cottage. They are both about eighty years old and still running strong. Mrs. Welch homeschools Angel.
"Angel, dear, sit down." said Mrs. welch as she handed Angel a biscuit. "Your homework was to go to the immigration station and write five hundred words about the poems, correct?"
"Yes Granny Welch" replied Angel as she pulled the paper out of her bag and set it down on the table. Mrs. Welch wanted Angel to call her Granny Welch like she was the granddaughter she never had. "I wrote about a poem a little boy wrote, about his home in China."
"Very good. Today we are going to learn about how the culture in china was brought to california by these immigrants. Can you think of any examples?"
"Uhhhhh... China Town?" said Angel.
"Yes, and don't say your answer as a question. Say it as a statement." Said Mrs. Welch. "Repeat after me. 'China Town'"
"China Town." She repeated.
"Good. Now, let's go over your integers, shall we?"
Angel worked until lunch. At noon, Mrs. Welch let Angel ride home to get her lunch, and then play with Mrs. Welch's puppy. King Welch the second. After lunch they worked on Language Arts. At three thirty she rode home to get a snack, she opened the door and saw Rob sitting in the living room drinking water.
"Angel?" said Rob.
"Hi Rob." She said.
"Angel, how do you know Mr. Michaels?" Asked her mother kindly.
"She ran into me this morning while Mr. Diaboli was giving me a tour of the island." Said Rob.
"Angel, I will talk to you later about why you ran into Mr. Diaboli." Said her mother, slightly annoyed. "For now you can go wait in your room and do your homework."
Angel walked upstairs to her attic bedroom, stopping along the way to pet Mrs. Welch's cat, Miss. Welch, who likes it at the Witton household more than the Welch household. She got started on her homework, which didn't take very long, for Angel homework is easy, especially when she is the only person in her class (like always).
She wandered down stairs and saw Rob sitting on the couch. she checked on her watch. it was five thirty. Half an hour after the last ferry left.
"Didn't you have to leave on the last ferry?" asked Angel.
"I missed it. Your mother said I could spend the night her in your guest bedroom." he replied.
"Rob! Angel!" Her mother yelled from the kitchen. "We're having an early dinner so that you can see the sunset before it gets too cold!"
They walked into the kitchen to eat macaroni and cheese. over dinner they talked about how Angel lives on the island, how she goes to school and other little talk.
"So you've never left the island?" asked Rob.
"Nope, not once" she replied, looking up from the lone pieces of broccoli her mother hid in her Macaroni and cheese.
"Do you have any friends?" Asked Rob. "Sorry, that came out wrong, but still, who do you spend time with."
"Oh! I have lots of friends." said Angel. "Like Jerry and king Welch the third and miss. Welch and-"
She was cut of by Rob. "Do you have any friends your age?"
Angel thought about that for a second. "No, but I have lots of friends, none the less."
"Angel, why don't you give Robert a tour of our house before we see the sunset?" Asked her mother.
"Yes Mom!" replied Angel.
Angel showed him the basic parts first, like the bathroom, the kitchen, the library, his room, and then showed him her room.
She climbed up the ladder, Rob following closely on her heels. She pushed open the trap door and crawled through. She switched on the lights (which were just christmas lights hanging from the ceiling.
"Whoa" said Rob looking around. The walls were covered with books. On top of one of the book shelves there was a bed. But the ceiling was the most breathtaking part. Her father painted the exact constellations there would be on her birthday, right above her, in glow-in-the-dark paint. Labeled with her mother's neat handwriting.
"My dad did it." said Angel walking over to the shelf that had all that she had from her father.
She picked a small paint brush up from the shelf. "This is what he painted it with. I saved everything I have from him."
"My father died when I was five." Rob said suddenly. "He was hit with a car. I saved everything he had."
"Enough sentimental stuff. Let's go see the sunset." She said as she opened the trapdoor and crawled through the opening.
The sunset was beautiful. They walked there because Rob didn't have a bike on the island. When they got home, Angel climbed up the ladder to her attic bedroom.
***
The next morning, Angel woke to Rob lightly nudging her.
"Angel, we're going on a hike today." He said "Your Mom wants you to come with us."
"Okay, just let me get dressed." She said, as she climbed down from her bed. She got dressed into a simple blue shirt, denim shorts, and her purple socks. Angel grabbed her red converse, before she she climbed down stairs, and into the kitchen.
"Hi honey, we left some pancakes for you, want some?" her mom asked, as Angel slid into the kitchen in sock clad feet.
"Yes please!" Angel said as her mother slid a plate of pancakes in front of her.
"Ring!"
"I'll get it!" Angel yelled as she rushed over to the phone.
"Hello?" asked Angel.
"Oh hello, Angel, dear, This is Granny Welch, could you tell your mother that Mr. Welch is sick? And that Mr. Diaboli asked me to call your mother and tell her to lead a group of mexican tourists around the island who were scheduled to be led by my darling husband. Be a dear and tell her that, okay? Thanks! Bye!" Mrs. Welch said before Angel could say anything.
"Who was that dear?" asked her Mother from the stove. Angel explained the news. Her mother sighed. "Looks like you and Rob are going on this hike alone. Have fun." Said her mother, very clearly annoyed.
"Rob, mom has to work, so it's just us for the hike."
"Oh, that's too bad, maybe another time?" he replied with lots of sympathy.
"Come on Rob." She said, pulling him toward the door. "If we leave now we can take Jerry with us too."
"Who's Jerry?" He asked, following him out the door.
"The gardner, and my best friend."
"Huh."
They started in the direction of Jerry's house. Angel texted him.
"Do you want to go on a hike with a new friend of mine?" She texted.
"Sure." He replied. "Just wait for me to get dressed."
In about two minutes, he walked out the door.
"So, Angel, who's your new friend?" He asked casually.
"I am." Rob stepped out.
"Oh, um, uh, hello sir, um, I thought you left yesterday." He said with a little bow.
"Well, change of plans, I am staying with the lovely ladies of the witton household. And none of that "sir" stuff. we can be friends."
"Okay." he said cautiously. "So, Angel, what trail are we going on?"
"Oh, um, I haven't thought about that yet." she replied. "How about if we go to Mount Livermore?"
"Sure."
"Okay."
The trio went on their hike. Along the way, Jerry and Rob talked about sports. Angel was leading the way. She stopped abruptly. The two men ran into her.
"Look!" They looked at what Angel was pointing at on the side of the road. "Banana slug!"
The two men looked at her confused. They had seen plenty of wildlife on the walk, and they couldn't understand what was different about this little slug.
"It's good luck!" Said Angel, swiftly picking up the small creature. She held him up close to her lips, and planted a small kiss, on what the men were assuming was its mouth.
"What did you do that for?! He could be poisonous!" Rob said snatching the slimy creature out of her hands and onto a nearby leaf.
"Banana slugs are both boys and girls. They prefer the pronoun "they". Oh, and banana slugs aren't poisonous. They're good luck." Angel said smartly, continuing on the hike. Rob and Jerry followed.
"How is kissing a slug good luck?" Jerry asked.
"If you kiss a banana slug, it's good luck." Angel replied. "And don't ask me why, I don't know."
They approached two banana slugs. Angel stopped and handed each of them one. "Kiss them."
The first to do so was Jerry, who was used to gross things (but never as gross as this). He held it up close to his face, then kissed the banana slug. Angel observed that it was nothing like how Jerry kisses his girlfriend. He kisses Eunice like he is eating her face.
Next, it was Rob's turn. He held the slug up to his lips and kissed it for a second longer than Jerry.
"Better than my college girlfriend." He said, wiping his mouth and setting the slimy creature back on the leaf. "We better start back down the mountain, Emily will worry if we aren't home by lunch."
They walked back down the mountain talking about little useless things. Then, Angel remembered something.
"So, Rob, what do you do for a living?" Angel asked slyly.
"I knew you were going to ask that at some point, knowing the conversation you listened into." Rob asked, smiling at the memory of their first introduction. "Oh, and I own a change of hotels in San Francisco."
Angel was confused. She expected that the people were restaurant owners or something.
When they got back to the house it was already lunch time, and Mrs. Witton didn't get back in time to make something. So they went to the restaurant near the docks. Angel ordered a sandwich with a coke. Her mother, Bob, and Jerry, all got some type of taco. They talked about adult-y things, like politics, over lunch while Angel read. After lunch, they walked over to the beach, and put their feet in the water. The water was cold, so only Angel, who puts her feet in the water almost everyday, went swimming. Soon after, Jerry used his utility golf cart to drive them back up the hill to the house. Angel's mother made them hot chocolate, with peppermint marshmallows.
"I thought they only sell these at christmas time?" Asked Angel, recalling many memories of her mother coming home from the candy store in Tiburon, with bags of these during Christmas time.
"These are leftover from Christmas."
Angel carefully spooned out all of her expired marshmallows. "Is Rob staying another night?"
"No, he had to get back to his work." Her mother said, clearly disappointed. She and Angel loved company and friends. They got really lonely when Angel's father died. Every week they would have a party and invite friends over. Angels mother threw the most elaborate parties you can imagine. All she did was work, and organize these events. She did it to distract herself from her late husband's death. Angel was confused why her mother was throwing the parties, she was too young to understand grief. Now her mother rarely hosts these gatherings.
"Mom, why don't you throw parties anymore?" Angel asked, giving up and pouring the rest of her hot chocolate in the sink.
"Oh, you know, less time and all." He mother said, frowning a little. Angel grabbed her coat from the coat stand. "What are you doing?" Asked Angel's mother, suddenly standing up. "I'm going out. I'll see you in a bit."
"Where are you going?"
"Out." Replied Angel.
Angel hopped on her bike and rode to Mrs. Gardner. Mrs. Gardner was a woman in her forties. She knows everyone and everything that happens on the island. Her daughter is Eunice, Jerry's boyfriend. Jerry is terrified of Mrs. Gardner, which is one of the reasons Angel loves to go to Mrs. Gardner's house for tea and gossip. She rode fast, trying to beat the setting sun. When she got to Mrs. Gardner's house, she knocked on the door. Jerry opened the door wearing next to nothing.
"Angel? What are you doing here?"
"I need to talk to Mrs. Gardner." Angel pushed past Jerry into the living room. Eunice was sitting on the couch, lips swollen and blonde hair a mess.
"Oh, it's you." Said the blonde, rolling her eyes. "Jerry baby, come back over here, will you?"
"Sure princess. She's downstairs Angel, go ahead." Replied Jerry, walking over to Eunice, or "princess."
Angel walked down the creepy wooden stairs that came with the house. She cracked the door open and looked inside. Inside was Mrs. Gardner's book club.
Mrs. Gardner's book club is like the cool clique on the island. Every woman on the island wants to be in it, except for Angel and her mom. The women who are in it, basically drink wine, complain about their husbands, and try to set Jerry up with some girl.
"Excuse me ladies." Asked Angel, "I need to ask you something." Angel's Mother always told Angel to be as polite as possible to the ladies, incase they need them for something, like in this case.
"Come in, Angel dear. Red or white, sorry, we already drank the rose." Mrs. Gardner asked, grabbing a wine glass.
"Um... I don't drink." She replied.
"I should probably go sober too, better for my health." The ladies laughed at this comment. "What do you need from us Angel?"
Angel sighed and told them her plan. They agreed whole heartedly to help, but in their drunken state, she assent sure that the book club heard what she said, so she sent Mrs.Gardner an email as well.
Angel sneaked back into the living room, seeing that jerry and Eunice weren't there anymore. She walked out the front door, got on her bike, and rode home.
