It only took her a moment to spot the desk pushed up against a wall in the dining room. “There you are. Now, let’s see what secrets you hold.” She pulled open the middle desk drawer, surprised to find there were no papers in it at all. “Well, that’s odd.” All of the other drawers were empty as well. “I wonder....” Helen snapped her fingers and moved herself into her upstairs office.
Stacks of papers sat on every surface, and she quickly realized her family had taken every piece of paper they’d found in the entire house and brought it here to look through. She glanced around and noticed old checkbook stubs, tax forms, car loans, and other important documents she would’ve had in her downstairs desk sitting on top of the desk in this room. This was where she kept papers for the store—personal papers had been kept downstairs, for the most part. Not that she never mixed things up.
Recalling that the life insurance policy was an off-white color with a green border, Helen started to dig through all of the papers, giving each one a quick glance and dismissing it when she knew that wasn’t the right one. “Why did I have to be such a packrat?” she wondered aloud.
After several minutes of searching and coming up empty-handed, she grew frustrated. “Stella, wouldn’t it be possible for you to just put me where the policy is? You know where it is, don’t you?”
“I’m afraid it doesn’t work that way, dear,” Stella replied. “Besides, I told you to leave well-enough alone.”
Helen pressed her hand to her forehead and thought for a moment. How long had it been since she’d seen that paper? Probably ten years. “I know it was in that desk. And it was folded up. In the middle drawer.” If it had been in there when she passed, she would’ve found it just now when she looked through all of the other papers she knew had been in that drawer, though, wouldn’t she have? “Come on, Stella. Give me a clue.”
Once again, Stella’s breath was loud in her head. “Fine. Go look in the desk.”
“I did,” Helen reminded her, wondering if she was just being difficult. “It wasn’t there.”
“Look better.”
“It was empty.”
“Do you want my help or not?”
Now it was Helen’s turn to sigh. She transported herself back downstairs into the dining room and pulled open the desk drawer. Empty. Growling, she opened all of the others and still had no luck. “It’s not here.”
“Look. Better.”
Helen glared up at the ceiling as if she could see straight to heaven. “What do you mean look better?” she mumbled to herself. “I don’t need glasses to know when a drawer is empty.” She opened the middle drawer again, giving it a good yank. Something was different this time. She heard an odd sound toward the back of the drawer. Helen got down on her knees and worked the old drawer out of its slot. There, folded up in the back, was a familiar off-white paper with a green border. “Well, I’ll be. Did you do that?”
“No, you did. Ten years ago. It slipped down inside the last time you put it away.”
Pulling the paper out, Helen stuck the drawer back in and then unfolded the form. Sure enough, it was the life insurance policy Memory had been looking for, worth $150,000. “Thank God,” she mumbled, closing her eyes and lifting her face to the heavens.
“He says you’re welcome.”
Trying not to roll her eyes, Helen leaned on the desk. “But I can’t just hand it to her. What am I going to do with it? I could mail it to her. Or... pop into her bedroom while she’s at work tomorrow and leave it there.”
“She’d know it couldn’t have gotten there from here. And if you mailed it, who would you say it was from? Think harder.”
“You don’t have to be so negative.” Helen took the paper with her and walked toward the parlor. She always did her best thinking in her favorite chair, by the large window in the front of the house. Even though it was dark and she wouldn’t be able to see Joe’s prize plants, maybe it would help her come up with a solution.
She settled back into the plush comforter and smiled. “Nothing like being back home.” Closing her eyes, she rested her head and tried to come up with a solution. Seconds later, a flutter at the window caught her attention as familiar chirping and pecking noises greeted her.
Opening her eyes, Helen smiled at the pair of cardinals by the window. “I thought you two looked familiar. Hello, Joe. Hello, Ann. That was fast thinking at the snowball fight the other day. Oh, yes. Lorelei told me all about it.” She’d always thought cardinals visiting where angels from heaven—until she’d gotten to heaven and found out that wasn’t quite right. It was more like a visitor on behalf of a loved one who’d passed on. But this was different. These two little birdies were definitely her family. Happy for their help, she asked, “Now, what should I do about this paper?”
The cardinals chirped and fluttered their wings, and even though Helen had never been able to understand them before, when she was still a human and not an angel, she gathered their meaning easily enough now. “Put it on the chair in the ballroom so Dak can find it tomorrow? But... what if he overlooks it? You’ll make sure he sees it. Hmmm.” She considered the possibility. “Won’t he question how it got there?”
The brown cardinal, Ann, flew even closer to the window, as if she were emphasizing the message. Since Memory wouldn’t be the one to find it herself, her granddaughter might not believe Dak’s story, that it had just been sitting in the chair when he arrived, but at least she would have it.
“You make a good point, dear,” she said to her daughter in bird form. “All right, then. That’s where I’ll put it. But... what if he doesn’t hear you? What if he doesn’t come inside?”
One way or another, she knew Joe and Ann would take care of it. Helen decided to trust in them and do as her bird family recommended. As difficult as it was to pull herself out of her favorite chair, it was time. She looked around the parlor one last time, praying, if she should ever get another glimpse of this house—in bird form or as a person—she’d see Memory and Dak living here with a family of their own. And that cute dog from the shelter Dak loved so much.
Her eyes roamed across the pictures on the wall, memories coming to mind with each piece of furniture, each area of this room and beyond. Voices from the past seemed to echo around her, and a solitary tear formed in her eye. It was hard to think she may never see this place she loved so much again, but she knew when she made it back to heaven, she wouldn’t miss it at all. “Goodbye, dear house. May you be a home again, soon. One filled with love and happy memories for a new generation.” She lifted her fingers to her lips and kissed them and then waved her hand across the room, spreading her love in a way she hoped would linger long after she was gone.
With a deep breath, Helen closed her eyes and popped into the ballroom. She didn’t want to linger next to the chair in the place where she’d passed, so she dropped the policy into the seat and then transported herself out of the house, knowing she could go home now, and everything would be okay—everything would be wonderful, just as it should be.