Part Fifteen – Where the truth is hard to swallow
Lisa woke early and needed to shower to shake the nervousness off. Her angel stood before her bed when she came out of the bathroom.
“What do you want?” Lisa had a bitter tone to her voice.
The angel smiled at her.
“I am coming to ensure you are okay and to see if you need my help. “Her voice was silky smooth as always, reminding her of the Tinkerbell queen.
“I am angry and sad that I have lost the war again. I wanted to be ordinary and normal, nothing more. Now I am again losing it all and left alone to work and do nothing else but work.”
The angel was not smiling anymore.
“I am sorry you feel it is a war and that you are losing. We need you, and people need your help”.
Lisa stood up from the bed where she was putting on her pants. With one leg in the pants and the other half in the pants, she tilted onto the bed again and started kicking her pants off.
“I don’t care about other people. I don’t give a shit; they can all go….” Her voice trailed off.
“I don’t want bad things for others, but I want to be me. I want to love and be loved. I want to be ordinary and simple and me. I don’t want to travel the world to help others every day of every year and never be able to plan anything. I don’t want this ability.”
The angel listened very carefully and then said.
“I understand your mission in this life is hard on you, and it can be difficult to be one of us and in human form, but we cannot take it away.”
Lisa was not getting up but stayed there for a while, thinking about the whole thing. She realized that she could do nothing but get to work and be fired.
At least she had tried, she thought while getting ready to eat a chocolate mousse on her way out the door.
She walked more slowly to the café than on the other days. It felt like she had to drag herself there because she was sure this was her last day.
Once at the café she went in the back and saw Theo and Emily already at the table.
“I am just getting tea,” she said when she saw them and went to the counter.
Emily got up to tend the cakes, and Theo sat looking at Lisa.
This is it, Lisa thought, once she had made her tea and Emily was back. I am prepared, and it is okay if they fire me.
Theo started by saying
“We want to know everything, so don’t hold back.”
Lisa laughed on the inside because she could never say everything to anyone. That was why she was always alone in life because people had left her alone the few times she had tried to explain.
“So,” Lisa began.
“The thing is, my previous work followed me here. I have been challenged by people from my last job while working here.” Emily nodded in agreement.
“So what I did in my old life was to talk to dead people and message living with words from the dead.”
Theo looked like he had just seen a money fly. Emily smiled but looked a little surprised. For a split second, Lisa wondered why she did not look astonished like Theo.
“So I helped Juan, the officer, find dead bodies and things. I helped the two old ladies with life decisions, and whatever came. I passed on messages to the man from the incident the other day, and he wanted more words from his wife. I decided to stop all that and be here instead.” She tried to speak quickly so they would not interrupt.
Theo looked like his face was stuck in a surprised expression.
“What about the spirits that tease me? They have not been there since yesterday.”
“Well, I had a very harsh talk with Albert and Jen about their behavior, and they will no longer be a problem. That was a matter of correcting them.”
Theo got up so fast his chair fell over.
“WHAT!!” he gasped.
“WHAT are you saying?” he now looked like he was going to faint.
Emily got to her feet and held on to him in case he fell. She saw the fear and surprise in his eyes.
Lisa told him to sit so she could explain.
“Please sit down,” she said three times before Theo sat down again.
He looked genuinely scared.
“You what?” He was shaking to the point where he could not hold on to his cup. He was trying to calm himself, but it seemed impossible.
“Albert had gotten it into his head that you were responsible for something, and I set him straight. Jen was just a follower. I told them in strong terms that they were wrong, and they promised not to touch you again. Dead people are rarely that stupid, but Albert was.”
Theo was shaken to his core.
“You are telling me you talked to the spirits who have been teasing me for over a decade, and it is over?” Theo had tears in his eyes.
“I am telling you I send them off to another part of the universe.”
Lisa smiled and took a sip of her tea.
Theo got up and started walking in between the chairs back and forward. He was shaking his head and mumbling to himself.
Emily smiled at Lisa and said
“I think you just changed his life today.”
“Yesterday, actually,” Lisa laughed.
“I can understand why you would want to fire me and why this is going to make it hard to handle having me here,” Lisa felt sadness roll over her.
Emily completely ignored her.
“So what you are saying is we have dead people coming in this café to talk to the living, and you have been trying to balance out talking to both.”
“No, I have ignored the dead people and only focused on the living. My problem has been the living wanting to connect to the dead and then my little spat with Albert and Jen.”
Emily smiled.
“My mom used to visit an old woman who had some connection too, and my childhood had a lot of spiritual things in it, so it does not scare me, but Theo there,” Emily pointed at Theo, still walking around. He was freaked out big time.
“He looks pretty freaked.” Lisa agreed.
“Theo,” Emily tried to get his attention.
“Theo, come sit with us,” she tried again.
“THEODORE,” Emily was louder and firmer in her tone.
“COME!” Theo stopped, looked at her, and said, “You don’t have to yell at me.”
“I did have to yell at you and come sit down.” Emily smiled. “Come sit, sweetie.”
Theo sat down but was still shaken.
“What did you do to Albert?” he said, looking at Lisa with a confused expression.
“Kicked him in the balls,” Lisa laughed.
“The dead people have balls?!” Theo looked even more shocked.
“NO! I told him what he was dealing with had nothing to do with you, so he should leave you alone and that I would go crazy on him if he did not leave you alone.”
“You did that for me?” Now tears were running down Theo’s cheeks.
“Of course,” she replied, “He was being childish, petty, and stupid. So he had to be told to behave. In the universe, they are very peace, love, and harmony, but sometimes a soul needs to be told everything more harshly and straightforwardly. That is where I come in. I am a very straight-to-your-face kind of person. It was no big deal, really.” Lisa smiled.
“It is a huge thing,” Emily cut in.
“This has been a problem for Theo for years and years. You have fixed it.”
“If you put it that way, I have fixed it, but only because that was how it was supposed to be.” Theo cut her off by getting up and rushing to hug Lisa.
“Thank you,” he said in such a soft voice Lisa could almost not hear him. “Thank you.”
The smell of cake came to their noses.
“Cake!” shouted Emily and ran into the kitchen. Lisa and Theo laughed out loud.
“Always the cakes,” Theo found it hilarious.
“I have tried giving her a timer, but she never uses it.”
“Maybe it was not big enough,” Lisa laughed.
After two minutes, Emily came back and sat down.
“I saved them, and now they are cooling.”
“I thought I was getting fired, so my question is, are you going to fire me?”
“Fire?” Theo had no idea why she was saying that.
“How, what, why did you think that?”
“I just thought the dead people thing would be too much. They will keep sending people to me and try to make me go back,” she knew how overwhelming it could be. “It is a lot to handle.”
“It might be a lot to handle,” Theo looked very serious.
“I am forever in your debt, and we think you are doing a great job anyway.”
“Maybe we could get it to work with both things in the café?”
Emily looked amused and said
“So coffee and dead people? Spiritual coffee?” she laughed.
“How do you think?” Emily looked at Theo.
“Not like that,” Theo was annoyed.
“If she could keep at a minimum while she is here and not to the point where they scare people. I don’t want cops crowding the place or anything like that. Maybe like now, but with the knowledge we three have now.”
Lisa smiled and loved the idea. Emily was not entirely sure it would work and said
“I will have to think about it, but maybe.”
Theo, who had now snapped into his old self, came up with many ideas about handling things.
“We won’t tell people that is what you do, but it could be a great idea if they are old clients. They pay for cake and coffee, after all.”
They all agreed that it would have to be a trial, and even though Emily said she would think about it, she agreed to the plan.
“A game-changer,” Lisa thought to herself.