When He Calls Us Home | Chris Evans FF ✓

ANGELS, FEATHER DUSTERS, AND SNOW

THE night felt more like autumn then the morning had, with its warm glow of sunshine that had peeked through the clouds. Crisp leaves that curled back and crumpled like the pages of an old book, fell when the wind blew through the tree's branches. Adeline and Chris stepped out of her small car and onto the sidewalk. At the same time, a curtain of leaves tumbled down on them, and as they walked on the dried leaves they'd leave a loud cccrunch! in the air.

The sound reminded Adeline of someone biting into a toasted tomato sandwich.

Adeline truly wished to embrace the whole scene, and temperature, but had a difficult time doing so when her teeth rattled, and cold fingers turned numb. She loved what fall weather gave and most of all, the colorful leaves that adorned the bushes.

A shiver sliced down her spine, when she looked up at Chris and muttered, "I thought you s-said it wasn't that c-cold out?" Her teeth chattered as she spoke.

Chris turned to her, and smirked. "Well at the time it wasn't so bad," he said successfully without a stutter. Although his shoulders rolled inward, and hands dug into his jacket's pockets.

He had been surprisingly hiding his chill from the nippy air quite well.

Suddenly her eyes wandered slightly to the right, across the road, and saw a light dusting of frost on everything. Or perhaps that was snow? Adeline squeezed her eyelids to slits, looking closer in the distance, and saw in pure amazement little snowflakes drifting by. For her own amusement, she immediately thought of angels dusting in heaven, and the little clusters falling from the sky then emerging as snow down on earth.

I'm such a child, she thought, and without intending to, giggled as she walked on with the movie star. Chris, hearing her slight laugh, quickly gazed down at her with a bright, and amused smile. "What?" he asked, curious.

Oblivious of his presence for but a second, she sobered up and realized what she had done. The tips of her ears tingled red and the sides of her cheeks bled a light pink. "Oh," she said, her voice a little too high. "Nothing. Is this where Jasper lives?" she asked abruptly, not wanting to stay embarrassed in the moment, and pointed up at a tall apartment building.

Chris stopped and looked himself. "Yup. We're here."

____

Inside the building Adeline got an eerie feeling, the same feeling she received when she had a bad notion that she missed her bus after gym class. That day her gym class was out canoeing, and her teacher hadn't watched the time, it got late, and the kids having walked to the waterfront, had to walk back to school. By the time she reached school, breathless from running and heart pounding wildly with fear, she saw all the buses leaving the parking lot, one by one.

That was one experience she dreads not to have again.

Adeline and Chris stopped in front of Jasper's apartment door, and Adeline being the impulsive and slightly courageous one, leaped forward and rapped twice. A few seconds felt like eternity to the journalist until the door opened, and she was ready to fire away an introduction and some important questions. But her mouth immediately closed upon seeing an older lady on the other side.

"Good evening youngins. Shouldn't you both be in bed, it's nearly ten o'clock," the grey haired woman said, glancing at her small wristwatch, then sending her clear blue eyes full of suspicion towards either of them.

Adeline, whose mouth bobbed like a fish, looked from Chris, who looked at her, then both gaped back at the older lady flabbergasted. "Well—I," began Adeline. She cleared her throat. "Ma'am, is Jasper Collins around?"