My Boyfriend Has Wings

A "Thank You" From Heaven

"You promised, Jax," said Faith. "You promised to pay the electric bill."

"I said I will--and I will. Get off my back!" After their parents died a year ago, it had been incredibly difficult. They were struggling just to get by and look after their little brother, Sawyer.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"What does it look like? Getting firewood." Jax pried off a piece of plywood with a hammer.

"You can't rip up the porch to use as firewood! Are you insane?" She could hardly believe what she was seeing. 

"No, dear sister, I'm not insane. Tonight is the coldest night of the year, and we have no electricity, no heat. I'm not about to freeze to death."

"Stop! Stop demolishing our front porch!" Faith tried to stand between him and the porch railing but he shoved her out of the way. Half the porch was gone. There was a pile of plywood in the corner.

"The boards are rotted anyway. So stop bitching and give me a hand."

"You're crazy if you think I'm going to help you. A rotting porch is better than no porch. Sawyer won't have anywhere to play."

"Fine then. Freeze your ass off! See if I care. I'm not going to die of hypothermia because you're a fucking tree hugger crying over a few rotting boards."

Faith watched in horror as Jax kicked the rickety railing down with a swift kick of his boot. Had it really come to this, destroying their own home? Yes, they were dirt poor. Yes, they had no electricity. Yes, they were desperate. But this was permanent! Did Jax understand that? This was the same porch she gave Biscuit a bath on every Saturday as a kid. But she needed to remain calm. "Why don't you just chop firewood? That's what a real man with any sense would do."

He flinched at her implied insult. "I'm not going out there, in the woods, in zero-degree weather. YOU do it."

"Fine. I will. Give me the axe."

He ignored her.

"Are you deaf? Give me the axe."

"I wish I were deaf and didn't have to listen to you run your mouth."

Where was the axe anyway? Then it dawned on her. "Wait, you don't have the axe, do you? ... DO YOU? Jax, answer me!"

He turned his back to her.

"You didn't pawn it like you did everything else, did you?" His silence confirmed it. "Oh my God, you did. You pawned our axe so we have no way of chopping firewood, which means we have to tear apart our front porch and burn it to prevent freezing to death on the coldest night of the year! I can't believe this!"

"So what if I pawned it? I'll get it back! How was I supposed to know it would get so cold so fast."

"You could have at least chopped wood in advance. What did you spend the money on?"

"None of your fucking business."

Faith started crying, despite her best effort not to. It was hard enough not having electricity. When she thought things couldn't get any worse, they did.

"Shut the fuck up and stop being such a useless girl!"

Faith took a deep breath. "I pay the mortgage, Jax. I have no money left. All you had to do was pay one bill, the electric bill."

Jax threw a board in her direction. Faith ducked. "Fuck this shit," he cursed. "I'm leaving."

"Leaving where?"

"To a friends place. It's too damn cold in this house."

"You can't leave," she called after him as he fled down the driveway. "What are we supposed to do?"