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IN THE BLINK OF AN eye, it's back to business as usual. Ben and I are standing in a kitchen with a tall, middle-aged lady in a black turtleneck and jeans. She towers over Ben, who can't be more than 5'9”, which makes him marginally taller than me. The woman's skin is a bit darker than mine, and her black braids are wrapped in a headscarf.
Sometimes you can look at someone, and before they say a single word, you know they're friendly—in the same way you can look at Ben and know he's going to be trouble. This woman has a rare, welcoming, friendly face. She looks like the type of lady who would invite a stranger to supper and send them away with leftovers.
I check my LightTab to learn more about her, and I summarize to Ben, “Candice Hayes is a fifty-year-old bank teller from—”
“Alaska,” Ben finishes, pointing at the window in front of Candice. Constant snow is swirling around the glass, but that's not what has Ben's attention. “There's an Alaska flag outside. That one is easy to recognize. It's the big dipper.”
My eyebrow shoots up so far and so fast, I'm surprised it doesn't fly from my face. “How do you know about flags?”
“When I was a kid, I had a weird thing about flags,” Ben says. “I memorized pretty much all of them.”
“All the state flags? I ask.
“State flags, country flags...you name it, I learned it.”
“Really?” I know I sound incredulous, and frankly, I'm not going to believe it 'til I see it. I pick a random flag on my LightTab and give him an impromptu quiz. “What's this one?”
“Vietnam. That's an easy one,” Ben says. “You should give me one that a lot of people wouldn't know.”
I pick another flag at random. It looks like it has Poseidon's trident in the middle of it.
Ben quickly answers, “Barbados. That's a cool one.”
“So... you've memorized every flag in the world?” My head shakes with disbelief. “Nuh uh. No way.”
“You're surprised... obviously. Well, believe it or not, I wasn't always a dumbass,” Ben says. “I was a smart kid... not the smartest, but still smart. I knew a lot about presidents and historical battles too. I stopped caring about school after life kicked me in the ass a few too many times.”
Ben is geeking out about flags, and I find it strangely cute. It adds an unexpected dimension to his personality. “What's your favorite flag?”
“Bhutan... or... maybe Wales,” Ben says. “I can't think of anything better than having a dragon on your flag.”
“Your obsession with flags is... wow. Weird. What else don't I know about you?”
He answers with a shrug, “Probably a lot. What don't I know about you? Tell me something about Kaylene that a lot of people wouldn't know.”
We should probably be focusing on Candice, but Ben looks genuinely interested, and I don't want to disappoint him. “I... collect teddy bears.”
Ben chuckles at my confession. “Seriously? The world's toughest Archangel-in-Training is a doll collector?”
“Not a doll collector. A teddy bear collector,” I correct him. “There's a big difference.”
“Oh, well... pardon me.”
Ben winks at me. I wish I didn't think that silly wink is cute, but it is.
“So, I've been listening to Candice's thoughts,” Ben says—which might be a bigger shocker than his love for flags. For once, I didn't have to twist his arm to get him to work. “She wants a dishwasher.”
That isn't a surprise. At the moment, Candice is washing dishes. Her sink is a swamp of suds, and every now and then, there's a loud clink as she flings a fork into her dish drain.
I tell Ben, “Getting a dishwasher can not be our mission. That would be way too lame.”
“I guess. It sounds easy, though,” Ben says. “We don't always have to be rescuing kids and saving the day, do we?”
“Speaking of kid...” I lean against the kitchen counter, close my eyes, and peek into Candice's mind. This is the third time I've been in her head, and she's always thinking the same thought. “Candice is worried about her son.”
“Her son, Sebastian. Yeah, I heard his name too,” Ben says. “Do you think that's anything we should be concerned about?”
“Yeah, maybe...” I lean closer to the window and watch the falling snow. Since we've been here, the flakes have gotten fuller, and now they're coming down en masse. “Apparently, Sebastian left a couple hours ago, and she's getting a little worried.”
“He's out in this snow?” Ben shakes his head and whistles. “Yeesh. I wouldn't want to be out there. Hopefully he's bundled up.”
“He went sledding. but he was supposed to be back an hour ago. It might be too soon to freak out, but...”
“This isn't another missing kid mission, is it?” Ben asks.
I answer his question with a shrug, which is probably insufficient, but I can't say for sure. This wasn't marked as a Code Red mission, so I doubt he's in any kind of danger, but you never know.
“Could locating Sebastian be our mission, or is that as lame as finding a dishwasher?” Ben asks. “Like... how do you know when a charge's wish is worthy of mission-status?”
His question is oddly phrased, but I think I understand what he's asking. “I don't know. I guess you just feel it in your gut?”
“What if Candice just wanted a loaf of bread or something? You can't get credit for a mission like that, can you?”
“If your gut is saying that, your gut is probably right,” I reply. “Every now and then, you'll hear about a guide who tried to fudge their rating by accepting simple missions. The Archangels review people at random, so I wouldn't recommend doing that. If your last twenty missions were bread loaf missions, someone would find out eventually.”
It's good that Ben is asking questions. For the first time, I feel like he actually wants to learn something.
Ben's jaw twitches as he asks, “So, what's your gut telling you about Sebastian?”
“My gut...” As I stare at the snow, my answer becomes clear. Candice is worried, and so am I. “My gut says we need to find him.”