She went back out onto the balcony.
“What is it?”
“Look.”
She looked, following the direction of his gaze. There was a glow of light in the densely-forested cleft of the Canyon. It looked as though it had settled in the fork of a tree.
“I guess Raphael must have got bored.”
“Is that his name? Raphael?”
“I don’t know. It’s just the only angel’s name I know. Angels aren’t my strong point. His real name’s probably Marigold. The point is: it’s wandered off. We should go while we’ve got the opportunity. It may not stay down there very long.”
“Right. I’ll go and find Maxine.”
“Wait,” Todd said, catching hold of her arm. “Just one thing before you
“What’s that?”
“I want your honest opinion … ”
“On what?”
“Do you think she’s right? Am I screwing with my immortal soul, trying to escape this thing?”
“You know, I was wondering about that when I was eating my hot-dogs. My Aunt Jessica was a church-lady all her life. She used to go and arrange the flowers on the altar three times a week. And she used to say: God sees everything. This was when I was a little girl and she thought I’d been naughty. God sees everything, she’d say, wagging her finger. So you can’t ever hide from Him. I think He can hear us right now. And at least she would have believed He was.”
“And you?”
“Who knows? I used to believe her. And I suppose there’s a little part of me that still thinks wherever I am, whatever I’m doing-good, bad or indifferent-God’s got His eye on me. Or Her eye.”
“So … ”
“So if He doesn’t want something to happen He can stop it.”
“Oh, we’re back to that. If God doesn’t want me to get out of here, He’ll make sure I don’t.”
“Right.”
Todd allowed a little smile to creep onto his face. He looked like a mischievous six-year-old. “So what do we think when we see that … ” He nodded to the light in the distance. “Isn’t it like it’s looking the other way?”
Now Tammy smiled.
“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe God’s saying: I’ll give you a chance. Just this once.”
Todd leaned forward and kissed Tammy on the cheek. “Oh I like that,” he said. “Just this once.”
“It’s just a theory.”
“It’s all I need right now.”
“So you want to go?”
He paused a moment and studied the light in the Canyon below. The angel had apparently paused down there, either to contemplate the loveliness of Creation, or to fall asleep for a while. Whatever the reason, it was no longer moving.
“If we’re going to go,” Todd said, “this is the time. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“I’ll go get dressed.”
They found Maxine (who had in turn found a bottle of vodka, and had drunk a third of it on an empty stomach, which wasn’t perhaps good for her state of mind, but what the hell? It was done). Tammy explained to her what she and Todd had seen from the balcony, and that it was time to try and make a getaway. Pleasantly lubricated by the vodka, Maxine was ready for an escape, in fact she was first to the door, bottle in hand, remarking that the sooner they were all out of this fucking house the better for everyone.
Tammy led the way, clutching Maxine’s car-keys tightly in her palm, to keep their merest tinkle from reaching the ears of the angel. The Canyon was now completely dark. Even the few stars that had been lit overhead earlier were now covered by cloud, as though-Tammy thought-the angel had extinguished them. It was the kind of notion she wouldn’t have given room to on any other night but this, in any other place but this; but who knew where the bounds of possibility lay tonight? It was ridiculous, in a way, to imagine that an angel could blow out stars. But wasn’t it equally bizarre that there should be a dead man walking in her footsteps, planning to outrun heaven? Incident by incident, wonder by wonder, her adventures in the Canyon had escalated in outlandishness; as though in preparation for this night’s excesses. First the ghosts and their children then the Devil’s Country; now this.