Where The Angels Hide

This story is about a girl who's mother died and comes to visit her every year on the anniversary of her death. She brings presents and gifts every year, but this year is different.

1

Kyra Johnson stared at the outside of her new school. She wondered if she could make friends as easily as she did last year at her old school. It seems like Kyra’s father is always getting new jobs out of state. She misses her old friends that she had, and doesn’t want any new friends for the new school years. Kyra is kind of weird, if someone goes near her she won’t make a sound. If someone talks to her, however, she can blab all day.

Kyra gasped. She turned around and the principal was standing right next to her. Staring. If Kyra hates anything, being stared at has got to be it. The principal looked very welcoming.

“Are you…” He paused and looked at his attendance list. “Kyra Johnson?” Oh no. Kyra couldn’t answer that. Instead, she burst into tears.

The principle didn’t ask any questions. He lead her into the girl’s bathroom where she washed her face with cool, refreshing water and took a drink from the water fountain. She startled when she found that the principle was waiting outside the bathroom door. He held out his hand. “My name is Mr.  McCarey, the school’s principal. Would you like to see the guidance counselor?” Kyra shook his hand.

“Ok,” The principle, after making a quick phone call to Kyra’s new teacher, showed her to the guidance counselor.

“Hello,” She welcomed Kyra in a calm, cheerful voice. The principal and her exchanged whispers and then she brought her attention back to Kyra. “So, Kyra, Mr. McCarey says that you have trouble hearing your last name. Is this correct, Sweety?”

“Yes, I get upset by it.”

“And why is that?”

“Um,” The principle was now out of the room and she was alone with the guidance counselor. She doesn’t like to talk about why, so she just changed the subject. “Hey, I never got your name!” She said with a smile.

“Sweety, I don’t think you’re really gonna like my name.”

“Well, I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“Kyra, I’m… Mrs. Johnson.” Kyra couldn’t help it. Tears rolled down her cheeks and onto the floor. “Honey, I am here to help you. What’s wrong? What happened?” Kyra had no choice but to tell her.

“Oh, Kyra, I am so sorry.” She said after hearing the whole story. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Can you just bring me to my classroom?”

Kyra had two seat choices. One next to a sweet, cheerful girl. Another by a dirty, grumpy boy. She chose the girl.

“Hi! Do you want some bubblegum? It’s Johnson brand!” Everybody stared. Kids whispered, “Why is that girl crying?” People asked the girl what she did. The girl just looked helpless.

“Is it something I said?” She whispered to Kyra. Kyra shook her head under her hands.

“No, you’re fine.” She said in a teary voice.

“My name is Kiki, short for Kate, which is short for Katherine. What’s your name?”

“Kyra.”

“Kyra, what’s wrong?” She asked.

“Nothing you need to know right now.”

The teacher took attendance. “Joey Brown? Katherine Densin? Daniel Smith? Kayla Kild? Jackson Marey? Andrew Dans? Charlie Laurd? Darik Lands? Iggy Dale? Rudey Dew? Kyra Johnson?” Kyra couldn’t take it. She exited the room, the teacher screaming at her. She heard the phone call to the guidance counselor. She heard the teacher repeating everything to the class. Why would she tell the class?

Everyone had lovely things to say to Kyra when she finally returned, but nothing soothed her.

Kiki had just returned from the bathroom. “What’d I miss?” She asked with all of the commotion. When nobody answered her, she just shrugged and got back to work.

2

Within the first hour of school, through texting, gossip, and locker time, everyone in 7th grade knew Kyra’s secret. That is, everyone except Kiki. Some people whispered under their hands as she walked past, others pat her on the back and said sweet things. Out of all of them, only one person was really mean to her. And that person was me.

I was a mean child, I admit. I had a lot of trouble with my parents. I had a lot of my own problems, and I thought nobody else mattered. So, when it was my turn for her to glide her way past me, my mind took over.

“Hey, Kyra Johnson, what’s up Kyra Johnson? My best friend’s last name is Johnson!” Kyra stopped. She turned. She looked up at me with her big, blue, watery eyes. Everybody glanced at me and I swear their eyes turned to fire and smoke flew out of their ears.

I just stood there laughing. I laughed when people yelled at me. I laughed when Kyra ran down the hall crying. I laughed when the principle grabbed my arm and took me away. I only stopped laughing with the 4 words that came out of the principal's mouth.

“I’m calling your parents.” He said with devilish eyes and a stingy voice.

“N-no please don’t! I’m sorry, I really am. I was just kidding! I swear I was! I will apologize to her. Please don’t call them!” But it was too late. The phone was already to his ear. I fainted before I could hear what he was saying.

I came to school the next day with a black eye and a broken arm. Anyway, enough about me.

After the whole situation, Kyra was struggling to find the lunch room. She squinted at her schedule, but there was nothing to inform her where the room was. She decided to follow the commotion in the next room over. 7th graders. Awesome. She sat next to Kiki and took out her orange and white lunch box. She began eating half of a tuna sandwich.

“I’ll trade you this brownie for the other half,” Kiki offered, holding a chocolate chip, M&M brownie in front of her.

“Sure,” She agreed,  taking the brownie and exchanging it for the tuna sandwich. After Kyra was done eating her half of the sandwich, she started on her bag of potato chips. Crunch! Her teeth clacked on the first bite of the delicious over-baked potato.

“Can I have one?” Kiki asked, her mouth full of food. Kyra did not like saying no.

“Here” She said, handing her a chip. She looked up and around. “Oh, no,” She whispered to herself.

“What’s the matter?” Kiki asked her.

“Everyone’s staring at me,” She answered with her face under her hands.

“So?” Kiki questioned. “Just don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t like being stared at.”

“Like you don’t like your last name.” Kiki quickly reminded her of what happened long ago. “Look, I’m your friend. Friends tell each other everything. What happened? I don’t judge.”

“Trust me, you’ll judge.” Kyra told her. “And didn’t the teacher tell you?”

“I was in the bathroom.”

“Gossip?”

“I don’t have many friends.”

“Fine.” So the story began.

3

“It all started when my dad went out with his friends to hang out. He always had a lot of friends. So, they hung out and chatted for a while. Then, one of his friends offered a paintball day. Everyone agreed.

The date was August 17th, 2000. Everyone showed up. Even friends who weren’t at the hangout were there. When the game began, it was a color shootout between blues and greens.”

Kiki interrupted. “What’s a color shootout?”

“Color shootouts are when both teams line up across from each other. When the time came that they were aloud to shoot, everyone has to try to hit each other until the person right across from you passed out. My dad was the one who lost, but he did a lot worse than pass out.

He went to the hospital. His enemy hit him straight in the face with his mouth open. The paint, highly toxic, went down his throat. He fell in shock, fainted, and didn’t wake up until 3 weeks later. He opened his eyes to see his doctor, Dr. J-J-” She took a deep breath. “Johnson. My mom. He was under a lot of pain medicine, so he was a little drowsy. ‘You’re the beautifulestest person I have ever laid my eyes o-on.’ He said. She laughed. ‘Mr. Dinly, it’s time for your hourly medicine,’ She smiled.

A few weeks later, my dad was all better. He asked my mom out. ‘Uh, I’m actually not aloud to go out with patients.’ But her head took over. They went to a very nice restaurant where they stayed all night long. The next day, my mom had to go to work. She was very tired. Her boss had a thought. ‘Hey, Dr. Johnson!’” Then the bell rang.

“Continue the story tomorrow?” Kiki asked.

“Ya got it!” Kyra answered. “You know, it feels good to get this story out of my head.” She said.

The next day Kyra was absent.

What happened, was the night before, her mom walked through her window. She hugged her and kissed her and told her she loved her. This was not the first time this happened, it happened every year since the day she died. But this time, this time was different. Her mom seemed really upset about something, and instead of giving her a present like every other time she came, she took all her presents and made them better. Then she left.

Kyra jumped out of her bed and looked at her approved presents. The ripped wing on her stuffed bird was fixed, all of the missing puzzle pieces in her puzzle returned, and the batteries in her stuffed singing bear was renewed. She smiled and thanked her mom in her head. Then she found a note. It read:

Kyra, I will not be visiting you anymore. I love you and I’ll miss you very much. This is not my choice, and if it was, I would be there for you every day forever. I am not leaving you, I will stay in your heart as long as you remember me, and I’m sure that will be a long time. Please, for your safety, Only tell who you really trust that is outside of your family. It is top secret and I am only permitted to write one to you. Believe it or not, everybody who has a loved one die gets one of these, and now it is your turn. Your father got one, so did your grandma and grandpa. I hope to see you when your time comes, and live your full and happy life until you see me again. Send my love to everyone, and goodbye. ~Mom

Tears filled her eyes and she clutched the note tightly in her hands. The next day, she felt horrible. She felt like she couldn’t even get out of bed. Her father knocked on the door when he didn’t hear her soft singing as she did every morning when she was getting ready for school. When she didn’t answer, he cracked open the door and peeked in. He didn’t know what to think when Kyra wasn’t in the room. He screamed her name and dialed 9-1-1 as quickly as he could.

“Hello, my daughter is missing! Yes, Kyra. No, I can’t reach her mother. Ok. Ok. Thank you so much.” As soon as he hung up, he looked outside, in her room, in the bathroom, and even under her bed and in her closet. She was nowhere.

Kyra sat in the bus shelter at the bottom of the road, the one place that she never went. She remembered the last time she sat here, with her mother, the day she died. In fact, this was the exact location her mom died, but Kyra wasn’t there to see it. She closed her eyes. Then she heard a voice. “Kyra Johnson?” She opened her eyes to a policeman.

“No, my name is -uh- Kayla.” She replied, trying hard not to cry. The policeman looked at a piece of paper.

“Oh. You fit the perfect description of a young girl who went missing not too long ago. Do you know anyone with the name?” She thought about what to say.

“No.” Finally, the policeman walked away and left her alone.

Kyra sighed and lay down on the bench. I’m gonna have to change my name. She thought. She wondered what her name was going to be.

“Kayla!” She said a little louder than she intended. She smiled. It was perfect. Then she heard a familiar voice.

“Kyra?” Kyra quickly sat up.

“Shh! I’m Kayla now.” She winked. Kiki stood in the bus shelter entrance, confused.

“Well, um, ok…” Kyra hugged her friend.

“I ran away.” She whispered. “Don’t worry about it.” Kiki looked up at her.

“Well, I’m still gonna call you Kyra.” Kyra thought about it.

“Ok, just not when other people are around.”

“Ok.” Kiki replied. “But Kyra?”

“Yeah”

“I am worried.”

4

A week has passed since Kyra ran away. She was doing pretty good, as far as food and water went. She missed her dad, and she was sure he was worried about her. She had Kiki. Her phone rang again. 22 missed calls. Her dad was worried. Maybe she should call him back. She sighed and pushed the call button.

“KYRA!! WHERE ARE YOU?” A relieved voice asked.

“Dad, I need time. I’m not coming home for a while. Don’t come looking for me.”

“DON’T HANG UP, KYRA!” Kyra closed her eyes.

“Hey Dad,”

“Yeah”

“My name is Kayla”

The call ended. She felt bad for scaring her father, but what else can she do? After all, she left out the fact that she was never coming home. She dropped her phone in a puddle purposely, and continued walking.

“Hey, Kayla!” Kiki called.

“Hey Kiki.” “Kyra answered.

“I saved you a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich,” She said as she opened her lunch box.

“Oh, and my mom packed you a juicebox.”

“YOU TOLD YOUR MOM??”

“Well, yah, Kyra I tell my mom everything.”

“KAYLA!”

“Oh yeah, Kayla, sorry.” Kyra sat down on the curb and covered her eyes with her hands.  “Why would you do that, Kiki?” She said in a teary voice. She sniffed.

“I’m sorry, Ky-I mean-Kayla. I didn’t know it would get you this upset.”

“She knows my dad’s phone number! She’s going to tell him!”

“Tell him what, Kayla? That you ran away, because I think he already knows.”

“You’re right. I’m just overreacting. I’ve been through a lot.”

“What is it, Kayla. Why did you run away. You can trust me.”

“You need to tell me a secret you have first.” Kyra answered, regretting running away.

“Kayla, I already told yo-”

“No you didn’t” Kyra interrupted. “We knew each other for 3 days, Kiki.”

“Ok. Kayla, this may get you upset.” Kyra nodded.

“The reason you moved here was, well, my mom and your dad are…”

“WHAT?!” Kyra screamed. “NO! HE PROMISED.” Her words were interrupted by crying. “

“Promised what, Kayla?” Kiki said in a soothing voice.

“Maybe I shouldn’t tell you. I CAN’T TRUST YOU ANYMORE!!” Kyra ran away, crying.

5

“Hey, sweetheart” Kyra’s dad said to Kiki’s mom when she came over to tell him what happened with Kiki and Kyra.

“Hey, I need to tell you something.”

“You found Kyra. Please tell me you-”

“Yes.”

Yes?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk about, but this isn’t a good talk,”

“Uh oh.”

“Kiki told her about you and me, and she ran away crying. Is there something you need to tell me, John?”

“Oh, geeze. I told her, when her mom died, that no one could replace her. She made me promise to never go out with anyone again. But that was years ago, Janet. I need a change.”

“Hey, you say that like I’m going to be mad. I completely understand. I was in a very bad relationship before I met you, abusive, even. He punched me when he found out I got pregnant with Kiki’s brother, and even worse when she was born. He said he would change when I threatened to divorce with him, and, well he did for a while. But then, Kiki accidentally broke his new computer when she was 5. He broke her nose, and I broke our marriage. He’s in jail right now, probably plotting a way to find us.”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”

“You had no way of knowing.”

“Hey, we should team up, you know, to find Kyra.”

“John.”

“Yeah?”

“I forgot to tell you, Kiki said that- Kyra changed her name. She doesn’t want to be found. I’m sorry.” Kyra’s dad looked worried.

“What’s her name? Please, tell me.”

“Kiki told me to not tell you.”

“Janet, PLEASE!”

“I’m sorry, John, but I can’t. You have to accept that fact that she’s gone.” He started crying. “I already lost my wife. I’m not losing my daughter, too.” He got up and walked out the door. “JOHN! SHE DOESN’T WANT TO BE FOUND!” She called after him. But it was too late. He was already on his way.

Kyra ran all the way to the forest. She stopped to catch a breath. Something startled her and she jumped. It was the most beautiful singing she had ever heard. She went toward the music and saw the unbelievable. Beautiful woman with white dresses and sparkling wings. Angels! And in the middle of them all, with the loudest, prettiest voice, her mom. “Mom?” She cried. The angels stopped singing and looked at her with a fright. “Kyra! How-why can you see us?” One of the angels asked.

“How do you know my name?”

“Well,” One of them laughed, friendly. “We know everyone’s name.”

“Girls, girls. She sees us because of me!” Kyra’s mom explained.

“Sarah, you can’t enhance the notes! You know that!”

“I had to! She’s my daughter, for goodness sake! I went over it with Him, it’s ok.”

“That’s not fair!” A tiny angel said. “I asked Him many times for the power.” Kyra was confused when her mom winked at the angel and the angel seemed to completely understand.

“Now, girls, let me speak to my daughter, alone.” Suddenly, the angels swirled all their hands and disappeared.

“Kyra, what are you doing here?”

“Well,” She started to explain.

“No, Kyra. I know what happened. That’s not what I asked.”

Kyra hung her head low. “I don’t know, mom. You just sent me the note, and, well, I got upset.”

Her mom hugged her. “It’s okay to be upset. But your father needs you.”

“Ok.” Kyra agreed. “But mom?”

“Yes, sweety.”

“Why did that angel look so understanding when you winked at her?”

“Oh,” She laughed. “I am the most powerful angel in heaven, and one of my powers are winking. If I wink, than people will drop the subject, even though they remember what they were talking about.”

“Cool! What other powers do you have? How did you become that powerful? Can I be that powerful? What about-” She was interrupted by her mom’s wink. She blinked twice.

“Woah.”

“I can’t give that information out right now, but your time will come. I have to go, He’s calling me. But we will talk again soon, ok?”

“Bye, mom.”

6

“Kyra!” Kyra’s dad screamed as she ran toward him. His relief turned to anger. “What is wrong with you? Do you know how much worry you gave me?” Kyra looked down.

“Sorry dad. But you have something you have to apologize for.”

“What, falling in love? Kyra, it’s been 7 years. Give it a break. She will never replace your mother, you know that. Why did you run away?” Kyra gazed into his eyes then quickly looked down again. “I-I got the letter.” Kyra’s dad suddenly looked at her with sorrow. “Honey, nobody can be with us forever. Although you may never see you mother for a long time yet, you will always remember her, won’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess.” She refused to mention that she just saw her a few minutes ago. She hugged her dad. “I really am sorry.”

“I know. Now let’s go home. I have a date. We can invite Kiki if you want.”

“Ok.”

“Ugh, Mom! Do I have to go?” I yelled at my mom when she told me to come with her on the ‘date’ with Kyra’s dad. Yes, I’m Kiki’s brother. We pretty much hate each other, especially when she found out about the “incident”, as my mom calls it. “Yes, it’s good for you to see Kyra again, and to apologize to her.” Ok, maybe I was exaggerating when I said both my parents were abusive. The truth is, only my dad is. My mom probably told you that he was in jail, but we made a deal. If I go to him every time I am bad so he can hurt me, when he comes out of jail he’ll leave me and my family alone.

She stared at me, right into my eyes. For about 4 minutes straight, with the same blue, teary eyes as the ‘incident’. I sighed. It was time. “Look, I was a jerk. Can we just let the dang thing go?” I screamed in her face. “JARED!!” Cried my mom. Ok, maybe I didn’t say dang. She pulled me by the ear outside. I didn’t hear a word she said. “Mom, can you speak louder?” It took a moment before I realized I couldn’t hear myself. “I CAN’T HEAR!! I CAN’T HEAR!!” I screamed, even though I couldn’t hear myself. I fell on the ground, crying. My mom ran inside, screaming something, and Kyra’s dad grabbing the phone dialing 911. Kiki, Kyra, Kyra’s dad, and My mom all ran out. Kyra kneeled down beside me. She didn’t say a word. She mouthed “It’s ok.” Well, at least I think she mouthed it.

At the hospital, the doctor wrote me a letter. I glued it to this book.

So, Kyra visited her mom every day. And I took a class for hand language, and mastered it. I do miss sounds, and listening to music. But I dream in sound, which is a good thing. A few years later, Kiki, Kyra and I were all siblings. Then my mom got cancer. We were all very scared, and hoped for the best. Then the best happened. She dealt with chemo for 2 years, and then she was better. There’s not really much else to say, other than, be nice to others, no matter what the reason.

About the Author

Maddie Fischer is currently 13 years old living in Byram,

New Jersey. She lives with her 2 brothers, mom, step dad, dog, cat,            

hermit crabs, rabbits, and a beta fish. Her biological dad lives in

Randolph. She loves animals, and has

two amazing best friends. She also loves nature, hiking, and fishing. She is good at singing, writing, and drawing. Maddie hates animal abuse and strives to stop it everywhere. She is funny, creative and sensitive.  

Author's Note

What do you think?