#russey

That day hadn’t started in a good way. He didn’t hear the alarm and now he was late to work. He was upset muttering and cursing. Then his phone rang, he just got distracted for a second to check it, and he didn’t saw the truck. He just heard the noise of the impact.

Lars tried to move, but he felt dizzy, then he put a hand on his head, it hurt so much and he faint when he saw blood. Minutes later a sweet voice woke him up. He opened his eyes, he blinked twice, and he saw a young woman who was looking at him with concerned eyes.

He wasn’t badly injured; so she helped him to get out of the car to move him to a safe place. He noticed she was very tiny, but strong enough to help him to walk, she was wearing a white dress and then he saw she had wings. Was this woman an angel? No, she couldn’t be, he thought.

“I called an ambulance. Resist, please” she asked him.

“I’m fine” he said, but he fainted again.

When he woke up, he was in the hospital. He didn’t understand what was going on, he barely remembered the accident, and he was so confused. The only thing he could remember was those pretty eyes. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen…

“Lars, you were very lucky” his sister said, and then she explained him what happened, but he wasn’t paying attention.

“She saved me” he murmured.

“Who?”  His brother asked.

“An angel…”

Both siblings looked at each other. Lars was about to tell them about her, but how to explain that? How to explain that an angel helped him if he still couldn’t believe it? How that had been possible in the first place, he wondered. It was more than evident that this was nonsense.

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Mei arrived to school as fast as she could. She was still thinking about the man she just helped and she hoped he was fine. It had been a fortunate coincidence that she was walking by there, he was alone and who knows when someone would find him.

She would have been by his side, but she couldn’t let her students alone, they needed her too. Also that was a very important day, as every year the school had a Halloween festival and she was in charge. She had decided to dress up as an angel, the reason was that her students appreciated her because she was very kind and optimistic; she always encouraged them and had nice words to tell them.

“Mei, you look so pale, what’s wrong?” Monique, her friend and coworker, asked her. “You have some blood in your dress” she noticed.

She explained what happened in her way to school. Her friend looked at her in surprise, thinking that after all the costume suited her. Mei didn’t mind about the blood, she was very worried for that man. Then she thought that maybe she should visit him later, but she didn’t know his name. At that moment she was too nervous and scared to ask him his name.

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A couple of days passed from the accident, Lars’ injuries weren’t too serious; he just needed some stitches on the cut of his head so he could go home soon. He had been really lucky, his siblings’ told him. And then he wondered if it was because she helped him. He wanted to know who that mysterious woman was. Was just his imagination? Or was she a real angel?

He felt so naïf just thinking about it, how an angel could be real anyways. It was illogic. He didn’t talk more about the topic with his siblings, he was sure no one would understand it. However he wanted to share these thoughts with someone. So he talked with his best friend, he’d laughed at him for sure, but Mathias was still such a childish guy, maybe he could understand.

“An angel? You said” Mathias asked, after Lars told him his story.

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but… I saw her. I really saw her” he said, embarrassed.

“It doesn’t sound ridiculous, maybe she’s your guardian angel. Besides, some people see this kind of things when they have a near death experience”

“But what is the logic on this?”

“Lars, not everything in this world has to have a logic explanation, and even if this has one, then you don’t have to overthink about it. Take it easy” he said, patting his shoulder.

For the very first time, Lars thought that Mathias was saying something that made sense. And at the same time it sounded too crazy to believe it. The worst part was that very deep in his heart, he had hope; he knew he’d see her again, at least to express his gratitude.

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Meanwhile, Mei sighed, she had a lot of work, grading exams and correcting essays. She needed a break, so once she finished everything, she accepted her neighbor’s invitation to have dinner with her and her fiancé. She was a great cook, and even though Mei was too, she was too tired to think on what she wanted to make.

They were talking for a while about work and other topics, and then Michelle said:

“You should meet Ivan’s new coworker. His name is Lars Janssen”

Mei looked at her in surprise and raised an eyebrow. Michelle told her he liked gardening, he has a bunny as a pet, that he was very handsome, well, they told her almost all his biography.

“I think you’d make a nice couple” she said.

“He is very serious, but he is nice” Ivan commented.

None of them mentioned Lars’ accident, but even if they had told Mei about it, she wasn’t paying too much attention to their words. Maybe this was because they thought she was feeling alone and sad, or because what happened the other day. Besides blind dates weren’t her thing. Who knows what kind of guy was this person.

Michelle mentioned that man a few times more when they hang out together. She didn’t understand that insistence. Mei felt uneasy, even if her intentions were good, she didn’t want to meet a new person. So she put off that “special” dinner with “a couple of friends” as much as possible.

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Months passed and his injuries disappeared. But the memory of that beautiful girl was still there. Thanks to her his boring life had at least an interesting anecdote. He still felt ridiculous, but maybe as Mathias said, he shouldn’t look for an explanation. It was tiring. He sighed. If only he could see her again… but probably it was moment to let go that illusion. Even if she were a real angel, their love would be impossible.

“You are invited to have dinner at home tomorrow” Ivan said.

Lars looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Nothing special, but Michelle invited a friend too. You know, the girl she was talking about the other day” he said.

Lars wasn’t really sure about wanting to meet a new person. And also, he was so tired of the insistence of his friends to meet this girl. What does this person have that made her so special? He wondered, annoyed. Anyways, it was just a dinner, and knowing his luck with girls, what if she didn’t like him; also it wasn’t as if they were obligated to get married or something. So he accepted.

He arrived earlier to Ivan and Michelle’s house, he wanted this dinner to end up soon, go home and feeling miserable again. His friends looked happy when the bell rang; it meant that that Mei girl was there. Lars rolled his eyes, but he felt nervous when he heard her voice, he knew it.

“Let me introduce you. Mei, this is Lars. Lars, this is Mei”

Both looked at each other in surprise. It was her, the girl who helped him, the girl of the sweet voice and beautiful face, the angel.

“You… you are the angel” he said, confused and embarrassed by such comment.

Mei didn’t know how to react, but she was glad to see him again, and know that he was fine. She sat next to him on the couch. None of them knew how to start a conversation; there were so many things they wanted to say.

It was the moment to get the explanation both were waiting for. He told her everything about the hospital and his injury. Then he asked her why she was an angel. She told him she was dressed up like that, because she had a Halloween festival at school and by chance she was walking near the place of the accident.

“Thank you” he said.

“It’s ok, I’m glad you are fine” she said, smiling.

“Somehow I’m relieved to know you are not a real angel” he said, suddenly.

She giggled, and he blushed because he thought that was a very stupid comment.

The rest of the dinner passed calmly. Ivan and Michelle smiled at each other, feeling excited about the chemistry between their friends. Lars and Mei couldn’t stop looking at each other and smile. At the end of the dinner, he asked her for her telephone number and she did the same.

All that still seemed as a very crazy situation, but also as a very fortunate coincidence, and he didn’t want to ruin it. What he didn’t know was that she had just arrived to his life to stay.

A year later, when both went to Michelle and Ivan’s party, Mei had decided to wear another costume, one that matched the one that Lars was wearing. It was a pleasant surprise for her to see his enthusiasm about this day, but she knew his reasons, even though they would have met in very bad circumstances.

“Do you think that if I would have worn a scary costume you would have fallen in love with me anyways?” she teased him.  

“Of course, I would have still looked for my ghost or monster girl everywhere” he said, seriously.