Page 31 of Heaven on Earth

We walked among the pink and white blossoming trees for a little while, admiring the little deer trails that branched off and the nests birds had made last year that were still visible in some of the barer branches.

I half-expected a squirrel or a raccoon to scurry out of the bushes, but with all our laughing and chatting, we were too loud for any animals to stick around once they heard us coming from miles away.

We stopped at a nice little clearing surrounded by trees. In the middle was a bed of fir needles matted down from something stepping or lying on it — a deer, maybe? My knowledge of wild animals was limited at best. Ciel, bless his soul, would know much better.

“This looks like as good a spot as any,” I said, sitting down cross-legged and spreading the food out.

Mom and Dad joined me, though it took them a little longer to lower themselves to the ground and get comfortable. We were able to eat in relative peace, but toward the end of the meal, the question came up:

“So, tell us about your Ciel.” Mom smiled and waited eagerly for me to say everything that I couldn’t possibly say.

“Ciel?” I feigned ignorance.

“Yes, isn’t that her name?” She turned to look at Dad. “Sean, that was her name, right?”

Dad shrugged. “That’s what Ryan told me.”

“Oh,thatCiel!” I acted as though I had an epiphany. “Yeah, Ciel’s actually out of town this week.”

“She is?” my parents’ faces fell.

“I’m sorry, it was unexpected. H–Ciel will be back next week.”

“That’s too bad,” Dad said. “We were really looking forward to meeting her.”

I smiled. “I know, and maybe someday you will. It just wasn’t meant to be this time.”

“It wasn’t an emergency, was it?” Mom asked.

“What?”

“Her having to leave so quickly. Everything’s okay, right?”

“Oh, yeah, everything’s fine. It’s not like h–Cielhas anyone to worry about like that.”

My parents furrowed their brows, exchanging confused glances. I should have elaborated, but I preferred to leave things there and let them guess what I meant by that. I couldn’t tell them the truth, which was that Ciel was a fallen angel and obviously had no family to speak of.

I began cleaning up the remnants of lunch, but Mom stopped me. “Let me do that for you. Sean, now’s a good time to…you know.”

Dad cleared his throat and pulled himself up off the ground. “Right. Ryan, why don’t we take a short walk while your mom is busy?”

I hesitated. “Okay. Is something wrong?”

“Not at all.” He took my arm and led me away from the clearing, back down the path we came from. “I just want to give you your money before I forget.”

“Oh, that’s not necessary. I mean, it can wait till later.”

“No, let me do it now.”

He pulled out his checkbook and a pen and scribbled some information onto a check. When he handed it to me, I almost didn’t want to take it.

“That’s too much,” I told him. “I won’t be able to pay it back for a while.”

“We don’t want you to pay it back.” He pushed the check into my hands, closing my fingers around the paper.

“But won’t you and Mom be dipping into your savings?”

“We’ll be fine; don’t worry. What’s important is that you’re able to take care of yourself. Now, how about we head back and stop in at the quaint little library we passed by? I’d like to get an idea of the sorts of people around here, and that seems like the perfect place.”