Gideon

New York in winter was pretty cool. No pun intended. Snow piled up on sidewalks, dusted buildings and covered garbage cans. It took a normally dirty city and made it look clean for a while.

Of course, it’d been snowing in Muddy Gap for a month already so the excitement of a storm was lost on me.

We dropped into the middle of the street in Chinatown, just me and Anna. Duffy wanted to come, but Duffy and a big city would not be a good mix. I could just imagine all the mayhem he’d cause. I asked for leave for one last trip to The Big Apple and was granted. Transportation for First Class wasn’t much better than for Second Class and I got dumped from the headlights of one snowplow into the insanity of a taxicab barreling down on us.

Anna whipped out a crackler bomb and detonated it before I could take one step to get out of the way. The sparks flew in a spray of white and one second we were in the street and the next, safely on the sidewalk.

Anna was awesome like that. She was a Miracle Worker. Duh.

“Remind me why we are doing this?” she said as I cut a path to a glorious smelling Chinese restaurant. “Didn’t The Boss pass you off for mental soundness?”

“He did,” I said as I held the door open for her. Being a gentleman never gets old, even if I had been stuck at fifteen for fifty years. “But unless you’ve been to a shrink, there is nothing quite like attending your final visit.”

“Whatever you say,” Anna said. Then the full force of the divine smells emanating from the kitchen hit her. “Whoa. I think I’d become a head case, just to eat here.”

“The bean buns are literally made in heaven. I’d swear on it.”

“I was considering dropping a bomb in here, but these cooks don’t need it.” Anna breathed in deeply. “The food already smells miraculous.”

We headed to the back of the kitchen, through the side door and up the stairs. I took them two at a time, anxious and ready to meet with the ginger-haired shrink I had loathed visiting with for decades. On the fifth floor, the last door at the end of the hall was closed and folding chairs were still set up along the wall. Light struggled to get through the dirty window. I bypassed sitting and waiting and went straight for the door.

I knocked once and opened.

“Pardon me,” I said swinging the door open wide. Ms. Shrink was there and so was Stan, the trigger-happy A.O.D. “Oh hey, Stan. Still in trouble for trying to knock off my Mortal early?”

“Yep,” he said glumly. “Good thing I used that Banisher on Edward or I would have gotten my wings stripped.”

“That’s rough,” I said and I meant it too. “I feel for you, man.”

Ms. Shrink cleared her throat pointedly and shot me a stern look.

“Gideon, you are intruding most impolitely,” she said crisply.

“Sorry,” I said, contrite. “Look, I just wanted to pop in for my final visit.”

“Really? You’ve gotten control of your—”

“Anomia Aphasia? Yeah, totally cured.”

Ms. Shrink looked skeptically at me over the top of her thick-rimmed glasses.

“I’ll even prove it. This is Stan,” I said pointing to the glum A.O.D. “He’s a really good Angel of Death and a decent shot, so go easy on him. This is Anna.”

“Hello,” she said with a wave.

“She’s my girlfriend and a totally butt-kicking Miracle. I left my best friends, Duffy, Phil and Min, back in Muddy Gap, Wyoming, but I assure you, they’re doing great. We have about five hundred students we take care of at the high school. Would you like me to start naming all of them?”

“No, I think you should be just fine,” Ms. Shrink said. “Congratulations, Gideon. You have done very well.”

“Thanks,” I said. I saluted lazily with a grin. “Shrink on.”

I started to close the door when I was struck with one last name. I poked my head back into the room and said, “By the way, you are looking exceptionally well today, Tabitha.”

I shut the door on her gasp of surprise.

“That felt good,” I said.

“I can tell,” Anna said as we trotted back down five flight of stairs. “Though it’s probably a good thing you didn’t mention what you did to Becca.”

“Best. Shot. Ever,” I said. I reveled in the memory of blasting mean-girl Becca with a fresh Epic Epidermal mere moments after we touched down in Muddy Gap.

“She’s still laid up with a rash on her… well, an unpleasant area and the zits have traveled down her neck and arms.” Anna scolded me, but she made no effort to reverse what I had done, so I don’t think she meant it.

“How was I supposed to know that Angel Corps ammunition is more potent?” I said with mock innocence.

I was finally free. We picked up some bean buns on the ground floor and headed out. Anna tossed a Multiplier bomb over her shoulder on the way out the front door and I blasted the fuse with a Longevity bullet. Blessing the owner and chef with a hundred years of prosperity may seem excessive to some, but I was good with it.

I was an Angel Corps Guardian, First Class. That was what we did.