Angel in the Library
When the Angelics want to pound something into your head, they do so by orchestrating some kind of "otherworldly" event that turns your head inside out - as was the case with the Angel in the Library.
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My niece, Laura was about to make her First Communion and I wanted to give her a special gift no one else would give her. I decided to write and illustrate a story about angels. She was born on Thanksgiving Day and the surprise ending to the story would be that she was a little angel born on Thanksgiving Day to remind everyone of what they had to be thankful for.
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Now, I never gave a thought to angels apart from the fact they made nice Christmas tree toppers. So I suspect the Angelics were noodling around in my head that I decided to write a story about angels - at their suggestion.
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For three days I sat at my computer with writer's block. I finally decided maybe I should know something about what I was attempting to write about. I decided I'd go to our local library and get some books about angels. I did so the following Saturday and it was just to be a quick in, grab some angel books, quick back out as I had several errands to run that day.
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I looked up angel books in the card catalog and headed to the stacks. As I did, I passed an older gray haired lady in a very bright floral print dress. She smelled like she'd bathed in perfume with a garden scent.
"Good morning, dear" she said as I passed her.
"Morning," I smiled, not wanting to be rude.
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I found the shelf with the angel books right next to her and began looking through them.
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"You really have to be careful which books about angels you choose," she continued. "So much is written about them that isn't true."
Now if I'd been on the ball I would've immediately wondered to myself just how this strange woman knew I was looking for books about angels. But I was in a hurry and "in the zone".
Still, I didn't want to be rude to her so I said "Oh really? Know a lot about angels do you?"
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She chuckled and replied "Well, I certainly hope so, dear! I AM an angel!"
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Oh great, I thought to myself. I'm in a hurry and get into a conversation with some nut case who thinks she's an angel! Well, maybe she has Alzheimer's or something...so be kind, Pat.
I just smiled at her and refocused my attention on the books in front of me, wanting nothing more than to put an end to this conversation.
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At that moment one of the librarians came up and stood next to us, reshelving some returned books. She stood not 3' from this woman and I.
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"Well," she said. "Time for me to go. The type of book you're looking for with the specific style of illustrations for Laura's story is called [insert title] and is in the children's section. And by the way, Patricia...I do not have Alzheimer's."
THUD! The books in my hand hit the floor.
How did she know my name, Laura's name? How did she know I was writing an angel story for Laura? How did she know I was looking for a book with a specific style of illustration in it?
HOW DID SHE KNOW I'D JUST THOUGHT TO MYSELF SHE HAD ALZHEIMERS?!!!
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In the mere seconds it took me to pick up the books I'd dropped to the floor, she was gone.
Our library at that time was the size of a shoebox. You could see the entire library from the librarians desk. I ran up there and scanned the entire library. The woman wasn't there.
There was absolutely no way she could've gotten out of the lobby and exited the library in those couple of seconds - yet she was not in the lobby nor anywhere to be seen outside. WTH?!!
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I went back to the librarian's desk.
"Where's that woman that was just here?" I asked.
The librarians exchanged puzzled glances. "What woman?" the one who'd stood not 3' from us reshelving books asked.
"That elderly woman! Gray hair, real brightly colored floral dress, smelled like a garden! You were standing right next to us while she was talking to me!"
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The librarians again exchanged a glance, this one indicating that I was now clearly the nut job.
"You've been the only person in the library this morning" she replied.
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​I was still a cop at the time. I knew what had just happened, that I had not imagined it.
Then I remember the title of the book the woman had given me with the type of illustrations I was looking for. I rushed to the Children's section. Sure enough, there it was! The title was exactly what she'd told me it was and it contained the exact style of illustrations I'd been looking for.
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Normally, I'm the one with a cool head in a crisis nor am I a crier. I cried all the way home I was so rattled. My husband took one look at me and said "WHAT'S WRONG, Pat?!"
I explained what had just happened to me.
"Sounds like you saw an angel," he said calmly.
This upset me even more. "JOHN, ANGELS DO NOT APPEAR IN LIBRARIES IN THE BOONIES!" I shouted.
"Well apparently this one did," he shrugged.
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It took me the rest of the day to calm down and get my wits about me again. That night I sat down at the computer again to make another attempt at writing Laura's story, The Tiniest Angel.
The strangest thing happened. I wrote that story in 30 minutes, as though it was being dictated to me in my head. The next morning I illustrated the book and mailed it off to Laura with a short note explaining the Angel in the Library encounter.
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The day of Laura's First Communion party my brother phoned me. They had about 30 relatives and friends at her party.
He was crying as he said "We just read your story to everyone here and there's not a dry eye in the house!"
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A couple days later he phoned me again to tell me their parish priest wanted me to get the story published. It had been read to Laura's class and then to the entire school. From there, it traveled to Puerto Rico where it was read to school children there.
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I never published the story because I knew I hadn't written it. My Angel in the Library had so the credit didn't belong to me.
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But that wasn't the end of the Angelics' "You're going to believe in us!" orchestrations. Oh no, not by a long shot.
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The next night I sat bolt upright and fully awake after 2 huge angels appeared to me in a dream. They had their wings wrapped around something, concealing it from my view. They slowly opened their wings to reveal Laura. 'TEACH HER!" they commanded.
That command was so powerful it awakened me from a sound sleep.
The night after that I fell asleep watching TV. Again I was awakened in the middle of the night.
I glanced at the TV screen. It had the pattern on it that signified the station was off the air.
I knew this was correct, our local station went off the air every night at midnight. Yet as I watched this off the air pattern disappeared and the 2 angels who'd commanded me to teach Laura appeared on the screen!
The screen began to scroll down until an image of Mary appeared.
I don't drink. I don't do drugs. WHAT IN THE HELL WAS GOING ON?!!
I stayed up every night that week. Every night the station went off the air precisely at midnight. Therefore, what happened should not have happened.
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Things were to get weirder yet though.
I'd awaken every morning to hear voices giving me messages of encouragement.
Finally I asked "WHO IS THIS?"
"Mikael"
"Gabriel"
"Raphael"...
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Ducky. Now I had Christmas tree toppers talking to me. As if that wasn't bad enough dozens of my psychic friends began telling me "You have 12 HUGE ANGELS surrounding your house, guarding you!" They all told me this independently of one another.
I wasn't sure if my cheese had slid off my cracker or their cheese had slid off their cracker.
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Years later Jmmanuel confessed he'd been my Angel in the Library. I rolled my eyes at him and said "Do me a favor, don't appear in drag again. And lay off the smells like a garden perfume while you're at it."
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He just laughed at me.
