• 2ND OF AUGUST, 12:38. ALEX.
    “Hahaha. Okay, I’ll try to.” Lisa looked at me from under her blonde fringe. I looked over the black table to her with a smirk. “It’s not funny. I try and I try but it won’t open.” She looked down at the locket around her pale white throat. Picking it up she tried to wedge a small nail into the crack between the heart. She pulled a little, but it would not budge.
    I reached my hand out for the necklace. “Here, let me try.” Reluctantly handing it over she looked over to another table were a boy and girl were sitting close and talking in hushed whispers. I put my pinkie nail in the wedge and pulled.....nothing. Looking at the locket itself, it was a silver oval with a white diamond shaped like a heart pushed deep into the centre. Looking close at it I noticed that it wasn’t the whole way in. Lightly pushing down on the small stone I looked at Lisa. She was still staring intently at the young couple with an interest that she only reserved for when she was looking at a school teacher. I faintly heard a click and as I looked at the locket is saw it swing open. “Lisa, it’s open!” She turned her head to fast and instantly winced and said, “Ow! That hurt like a b***h!” I laughed and repeated, “Its open dude.” I looked down into the oval and saw there was a photo already imbedded into its centre. It was a photo of a girl, but there was something different about her. She had big, bright blue pretend wings for one thing and she had flowing black hair that reminded me strangely of my own. She also had big grey eyes that were lit up in a smiling face of a small child. “Weird. It looks like you.” Lisa had made her way around the table and was looking at the photo. “Nah, I don’t think so. The eyes aren’t right.” She looked sceptically at me for a second. “Are you kidding? It looks totally like you!” she snatched the locket out of my hand and held it next to my face. She scrutinized the image and then sighed and said, “Man. I’m telling you. I can’t see anything about it that isn’t you!” I reached up and pulled the locket and chain out of her fingers and stared down at it. “Please next you’re going to tell me I have big blue wings and grey eyes.” I giggled at the image that popped into my head but stopped almost a soon as I had started. The image in my head was pretty much identical to the photo in the locket. I shivered and slowly closed the locket shut and I didn’t stop pushing down on it until I heard another faint click and handed it back to Lisa.
    “Nah man. I don’t want it. It looks like it belongs to you, so you have it.” She handed it back to me and stood up. “I’m going to get another coffee. Do you want one?” I stared out the window next to our table and said, “Yeah. Sure, why not.” Lisa walked away from me and made her way over to the counter where a redhead was already waiting in line behind another blonde. The blonde turned and smiled apologetically to the redhead and Lisa. I turned away and noticed that the couple had stopped talking and were staring intently at me. I gave a small wave and a small smile. They instantly sat back in their chairs as if they had seen a snake or something. “Um, did you want something?” my voice rang slightly higher than usual and I coughed before I started again. “Um, do you want some help or something?” they exchanged a look and stood up and came over to my table. I looked around then at Lisa but she hadn’t noticed this whole episode of weirdness.
    “What’s your name? If I might be so bold to ask.” This time I was the one to feel a little shocked. Okay, a lot shocked. “Umm….What was that again?” I stammered. The boy stared into your eyes and repeated his question again, “What is your name?” I looked over to the girl but she was staring at the ground and wasn’t paying attention to me. I gasped as her eyes flicked up to my own, they were the same grey as the picture. Instinctively I put a hand to my throat and felt the locket burn under my fingers. She gave a small nod. For a few seconds I couldn’t breath and when I finally opened my mouth to answer the boys question I found that my voice broke as if I had a dry throat. “Umm… my name is….is…” I didn’t know how to end that sentence. For a second my mind blanked and I blinked hard before I was able to remember, “….Alex. I mean, Alexandra, but everyone calls my Alex.” My voice had become normal again by the time I finished my sentence.
    The boy snapped his fingers to try and avert my attention back towards him before saying, “About that necklace you have there Al……” he went to say my name but it sounded like there was a blockage in his throat stopping him form saying it. I decided to help him with it, “Alex…?” he sighed but looked relieved that he didn’t have to say it. I felt hurt by that look. I mean how dare him. He didn’t even know me.
    He snapped his fingers to reattach my attention and I shook my head as if to clear it. “Do you know what you have there?” He pointed to the locket and I was amazed again by his voice. Okay, so it wasn’t his voice it was more the way he spoke, he spoke as if from another time. He probably was, like my Aunt always says to me, “you weren’t born for this world, I think you should have been born centuries ago.” I looked down to the locket around my throat and a hysterical giggle escaped threw my lips before I could stop it. I didn’t even know why I laughed, maybe just the shock of the whole situation.
    “Okay, sorry it took so long but I finally got them. Although I didn’t get you a normal coffee, is that okay?” Lisa’s voice brought me back to reality and I look past the boy and shook my head, she walked behind the people and stopped. The look on her face was as if there was nobody standing between me and her. “I got you a cap instead. Careful it might be a tad hot.” She reached through the boy and handed me my coffee, with shaking hands I reached forward but as soon as my fingers touched the cup and she let go, the whole thing fell to the floor. I stared dumbstruck into the boys face and Lisa cried, “Oh come on Alex!” she turned and started to walk away, “Don’t worry ill get you another,” mumbling under her breath, “dumb butterfingers.” She walked away. I could tell she was irritated but at that moment I didn’t care. All I could do was stare at the two strangers standing in front of me as if nothing had ever happened.
    I looked over to the girl again and she nodded. I stood up out of my chair and started to back away. What were these people! They couldn’t be ghosts, because ghosts were pale white and the girl was extremely tanned. Nothing else came into my head until I remembered something my mother used to say to me whenever I got nightmares. She used to say, “Don’t worry Alex, nothing in your dreams can hurt you. You guardian Angels will protect you.” After she had died I sort of accepted that she could be my Angel now but as soon as the word popped into my head he boy walked up to me with careful steps and put his hands on my shoulders and nodded. I don’t remember much after that, all I know is that I fainted and collapsed. I remember hearing Lisa’s voice saying, “Crap. We did she go?” As the boy slung me over his shoulder and walked out of the café.
    TWO HOURS LATER. JARED.
    “How long is she going to be asleep for?” Jess was sitting at the end of the double bed we had laid Alex on after we got her back to the house. I smiled as I watched her impatiently pulling at a stray strand of cotton that had weaved away from the rest of the doona cover. “I don’t want to be here anymore. I want to go home, earth is such a boring place.” The sun came in threw the door and lit up around her hair like a halo. I could see why her mother had taken her now. At first I was against it, but after I saw her walk through those gold gates I knew it was right. The look on her face when she saw her mother again was priceless, and not in the funny sort of way, it was a look of true happiness and love for he mother.
    “Come on Jess. Earth isn’t that bad,” I walked over to her and lay a hand on her shoulder, “just think we could have ended up somewhere else. For example, Hell.” I turned away, but not before I saw the hurt expression flash across her face as I made her remember her father, who upon killing her and himself in a car crash, had been sent to Hell instead of following her towards her mother to Heaven. Honestly, I’m glad he didn’t. He would have been a terrible Angel. He was a cruel man who got pleasure out of hurting Jess and her mother. She stood up and walked over to the window to the left of the room. Putting a hand against the pane she looked over her shoulder at me with a devilish grin. I froze and started to back away, “you wouldn’t,” I started but before I could finish she was across the landing in a second and had her hand on my bare chest. Her hand was freezing; I flinched away from it and ran towards the door. Opening it, I exposed the walk-in wardrobe that was built into the small bedroom. Walking towards a rack at the back of it I pulled a blue t-shirt off a rack and started to put it on as I walked out of the wardrobe. Pulling it closed behind me I walked over to the bed and stared at Alex. The sun washed over her face and hair in a particular way that made me really believe that she could be Jess’s sister. She had that same glow about her, even while sleeping, and the same rose flush in her cheeks.
    I went to a chair under a computer desk and dragged the wheelie chair over to the bed and sat on it waiting for Alex to wake. After a few minutes she stirred before slowly opening her eyes and looking blankly around the room. She looked over to the window and flinched against the glare. I also followed her gaze and wondered why it was sunny when it was so cold outside. Alex managed to sit up and put a hand to her head as if to scratch it but thought against it and rested it across the top with her hand falling limply against her face. The skin tone differences was amazing, her hand was a soft olive tone with a slight whitish look but her face was as dark a tan as Jess’s.
    “How long have I been out?” she asked” in an almost childlike voice. And I replied using a very cautious tone, trying not to scare or startle her, “umm… about two days. We weren’t sure if you were going to wake back up again.” She looked me square in the eye and replayed back what I had told her. “Two days?” She slumped back into the pillow and groaned. I smiled and stood up. “Do you want something to eat? You look hungry.”
    3RD OF AUGUST, 10:10. ALEX.
    “Okay, so let me get this straight. You two are Angels and apparently I’m her,” I pointed towards Jess with my spoon, dripping with milk, “sister, and I’m also supposed to be an Angel but instead of dying, the doctors managed to bring me back to life?” I smiled at how silly I sounded. I looked back at Jared and he looked back at me and nodded. “But,” I swallowed, “How come I don’t remember any of this?” Jess decided to answer this time, “Because you hit your head. The doctors said that they didn’t expect you to remember any of the crash or your past life.” She looked down, “even me.” I looked down at my bowl of Crunchy Nut and swallowed, I hadn’t realised just how much seeing me again had affected Jess until now. I couldn’t possibly imagine the heartache that she must have felt all those years ago when she was told, on the same morning, that her mother had died and her only younger sister wouldn’t even remember her face.
    Jared looked very out of place in the moment of deep emotion and he coughed and said, “Well, we should probably get going.” My head snapped up. What did he mean? “Go where? I’m not going anywhere.” I dropped my spoon and as it splashed back into the bowl, I crossed my arms across my chest. “Look, there isn’t any discussion about this.” Jared said almost too forcefully. “We are going back to Heaven. Its where you belong.” He stared me straight in the eye. “Even you know it’s true. Just look at the photo in that locket around your throat. I reached up and held it in my curled up hand. I didn’t want it to be true, but even I couldn’t argue with the small child dancing, almost flying, in the photo. Jess had shown me the same one in her own locket, except hers was a heart with a blue circle stone in its centre.
    Jess reached over the table and put a hand on my arm. I looked into her eyes; they were so familiar to my own I felt like I was looking at my own reflection. “Please Alexandra.” Nobody had called me that in years, “you know what? I do remember a little about my childhood,” I looked to Jared who had stopped dead, “Yeah. I remember that when I was a little girl my mum would come into my room whenever I had a nightmare and she would sing to me until I fell asleep.”