The Guardian

Chapter Eight

"Hello", said a man as he entered the hospital room. "I'm Dr. Michael Asher, but you can call me Michael."

"Hi, I'm Julianna."

"I was reading your chart, and it sounds like you went through a traumatic event yesterday evening", said Michael. "Would you like to tell me about it?"

Julianna tried to decide whether she wanted to talk to him and whether she trusted him. Reading her thoughts, Michael waited for her to make up her mind and, a few minutes later, she said, "I don't know what Dr. Seth wrote down on the chart, but apparently I was drugged with something when I was at a party, and it made me feel drunk. But I wasn't drinking." She felt like she needed to proclaim her innocence. She had been trying so hard in the group home and she didn't want to ruin her streak.

"I know you weren't", he soothed her. "You didn't have any traces of alcohol in your blood at all."

"Does my home coordinator know that?" she asked worriedly.

"Seth talked to her, and told her what went on. She's planning on coming by to see you as soon as she's off work this afternoon. She was having trouble getting someone in to cover her shift so that she could come to see you earlier."

She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God. She trusted me to not drink, and I would hate for her to be mad at me. I worried when I hadn't seen her yet." The tension left her body.

He sat on the chair next to the bed. "Mad because she'd think you were drinking?"

"I wanted to do it right this time."

"I know", he comforted her, "and you did. What do you remember about what happened?"

She told him what she remembered and about her guardian angel saving her.

"Your guardian angel?"

She looked defensive. "That's what I call him. I've had dreams about him."

He sat back and watched her. "Your guardian angel?"

"Yes. When I was younger, I used to hear him all the time. He would talk to me every night before bed and, if I was doing something particularly dangerous or stupid, he would tell me that it was a stupid thing for me to do. Now I don't hear him any more."

"Why do you think he stopped talking to you?"

"I'm not sure." She looked frustrated, and as though she was about to cry.

He crossed his ankle over his knee as he leaned back in the chair. "Did he give a reason?"

She nodded. She told him about thinking she was going insane and her guardian's subsequent decision to stop talking to her.

"Sounds like he's a smart fellow. Did you ever worry you were going nuts?"

Julianna considered the question. "I guess so. I knew then that most people didn't have guardian angels talking to them."

Michael bobbed his head in agreement. "True. That isn't very common. You say he no longer talks to you?"

She looked down at the blankets sadly. "No, but when my guardian angel came down and interrupted Jason last night, I heard him talk to Jason. He was the same person who used to talk to me at night."

"Are you sure? You were pretty confused when you were admitted to the hospital."

"No, I'm not sure. But that's how it seemed." Julianna sounded frustrated, and a tear tracked down her face.