The Windy City was a magical wonderland of glittering lights and sounds. Everywhere she looked, twelve-year-old Bella Rhodes was mesmerized by the epic winter landscape. Store windows trimmed in perimeters of fake snow revealed magical Christmas scenes. Tiny plastic trees were covered with multi-colored ornaments and silver and gold garland. Jolly, life-size Santas and jumbo candy canes filled doorways. Reindeer and elves and gingerbread houses dotted the shelves and display cases.
Her parents had taken Bella and her little sister Eva on a special vacation to celebrate her dad getting a promotion at work. Bella wasn’t really sure exactly what her dad did at the bank, but if it could pay for all of them to be in this awesome place, that’s all that mattered.
“Who wants hot chocolate?” Bella’s dad stopped in front of a Peet’s Coffee & Tea.
“Me!” Eva grinned.
“Me too!” Bella added.
The girls followed their parents into a cool little shop where the brewed coffee smelled so good. Bella loved going into Starbucks back home in San Diego. It was like stepping into a novel. All the people lost in their own worlds doing different things. Some filled chairs around the tables and the stools at the bar. Other morning commuters and students sipped their caffeine concoctions in between snippets of conversations.
Bella saw a lady sitting at a tiny wooden table, hands moving across the black keyboard of a silver laptop. The sight made her feel like she was back home. Bella had her mother’s old laptop and used it to write stories. And she had a small round table that the laptop sat on too.
Her dad’s voice interrupted her musings. “Cake pops?”
Eva shouted, “YES!”
Bella jumped. “Calm down, Eva. You scared me half to death.”
Eva ignored her big sister and pointed to the bakery case. “I WANT THE PINK ONE!”
“Bella,” her dad said, “let me guess. You want the chocolate one.”
“Yes, please.”
While her parents ordered the drinks and cake pops, Bella found the only empty table in the house and sat down. The laptop lady was right behind her. Eva stayed with her parents at the counter.
“God understands what you’re going through. He knows that deep down you’re sad because you don’t have a real friend. At least not a friend who loves Jesus and can help you remember truth when you’re down.”
What on earth?
How does this stranger know how I feel?
She turned around and looked at the lady. But the lady wasn’t talking to Bella. She was on her phone.
“You’re a child of God, whether you feel like it or not!”
Bella shut her eyes. Whoever was on the other end of the line was going through the exact same thing she was.
“Honey, are you okay?” her mom asked. “Sleepy?”
Bella opened her eyes and looked at her mother.
“Uh…yes.”
“Now that didn’t sound too convincing.”
“I’m good. Really.”
Her mom smiled.
Eva delivered two hot chocolates to Bella and her mom and went back for more. She returned with two more drinks, and Bella’s dad arrived with the bag of cake pops.
“Everybody ready for the tower?”
“Yes, Dad,” Eva said. “But let’s just focus on getting those cake pops passed out.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.”
For a while they sat in silence, enjoying the sweet goodness of their drinks and desserts.
When everyone had finished, Bella’s dad pushed his chair back and stood. “We’d better hurry or we’re going to run out of time.”
They hustled through Riverside Plaza until they came to Jackson Boulevard and turned left. Then they went over the bridge and across the Chicago River where the Willis Tower rose over them with its black aluminum and bronze-tinted glass.
Bella and her family found their way to the Skydeck entrance. They patiently waited in line with the other tourists until it was time for the ride up to the top.
After only sixty short seconds, Bella stepped off the elevator and noticed orange, floor-to-ceiling numbers: 1-0-3. The walls were covered with facts about the tower and video touch screens that allowed visitors to learn about different aspects of the construction process and how Willis Tower compared to other skyscrapers around the world.
Eva scampered away from her parents and wiggled her way through the crowd until she found a glass box that extended out past the walls of the building. Bella caught up to her sister and stopped. A nearby sign called it The Ledge. The carpeted floor turned to see-through glass that gave the tourists a direct view of the street a thousand feet below!
Eva smiled. “Come on, Bella! You’re not chicken, are you?”
“No.” Bella shuffled out to join her sister.
Her parents caught up with them.
One of the men on the observation deck had a Cubs ballcap on and held an expensive-looking camera. His cellphone started ringing. “Hello.” A pause. “Oh, hi, Josephine.”
Bella noticed that the man was wearing a T-shirt that had HEBREWS 13:2 in block print on it. Underneath the Bible reference was the hashtag: #entertainingangels.
Entertaining angels?
“Are you still at the coffee shop?”
Eva grabbed Bella. “Look B. Look at how far up we are!”
“It’s crazy!”
The camera man still spoke on the phone. “You’re at Peets?”
Bella remembered that’s where they were just a little bit ago.
Another pause.
“B.” Eva tugged on Bella’s arm. “Look, the people are ants.”
“I know.” Bella’s legs wobbled. Heights were not her thing. She grabbed Eva with both hands.
The camera man looked at Bella. Still speaking into the phone, he said, “Open her eyes.”
Bella’s legs wobbled more and more, and her head started swimming. She felt like she was going to fall over, so she dropped down right on the floor.
“Bella, what’s wrong?”
Bella wasn’t sure if it was her mom or dad who asked the question. The Ledge grew blurry. The camera man knelt beside her. She tried to focus on a red car that was stopped at an intersection all the way down on the street. But her eyes wouldn’t cooperate.
One more blink of her eyes, and Chicago disappeared.
Bella couldn’t believe what had taken its place.