Angel by Phil Cummings

feeling Shane’s tired body fold in her grip. ‘They’ve got to find us soon. They’ve got to, Rob.’
    â€˜I’ll carry him,’ said Rob, leaning over Shane. ‘Come on, Shaney boy, get on my back.’
    Rob knelt in the snow as Jenny wrapped her arms around Shane and Rob. ‘What’s going to happen to us?’ she wept. ‘What’s going to happen?’
    Rob turned to her and clutched her arm, straightening her. ‘We’ll be all right. Someone will find us. They’ll be looking now. We’ll find some shelter under a log or rock or something. We’ll be all right.’
    Clambering to their feet, they set off again. This time Jenny led the way.
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    Back at the resort, the clock ticked on to 12:30. The alarm had been raised three hours before but so far the searchers had found no sign of the Hamilton family. The only clue was that someone had seen them skiing away from the chairlift a few hours before the blizzard hit.
    The general feeling was that their chances of survival were slim, very slim.
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    Sue had been notified that the family was lost. She sat in the house, warm and cosy, looking atphotographs, sifting through her memories and expecting the worst. She sat, not being sure whether to wish for the phone to ring or not.
    She thought about calling her psychic friends but worried they might tell her something she didn’t want to hear. A desperate feeling of helplessness pulled her memory back to the day David died. It had been a beautiful spring day, perfect to most people. The sun was bright, the sky a deep endless blue and bees crowded the flowers.
    She had been sitting, waiting for the phone to ring that day too. She knew the day would come, they all knew, right from when the doctors first told them how bad the cancer was. Although they’d all known the end was coming, it didn’t stop them hurting when it did come. Nothing prepared her for the grief she felt that day. She had cried like she had never cried before. She had seen the pain pierceDavid’s body and tried to feel it too. She had seen the hurt grip her brother, and Shane and Jenny and tried to feel it as much as they did. But all she had felt was useless, just as she was feeling now as she sat and waited, listening to the ticking of every second of the clock.
    She looked over at a photo of David standing in his school uniform on his first day at school. Sue knew it was one of Jenny’s favourite memories and photos. He looked so happy and excited with his little round face, puffy cheeks, shorts that looked huge on his tiny legs and his eyes, his sparkling eyes, so big, round and playful — the colour of mud.
    It was her thoughts of the young David of those days that had her jumping to thoughts of David, the angel. With that warm thought came a sudden flash sparking a swing of mood. Sue’s forlorn face changed to one full of hope.
    She smiled broadly to herself. ‘You idiot! It’ll be okay, of course it will be okay. What’s wrong with me! Huh! David will look after them! There’s nothing to worry about. I can’t believe I’ve been so worried. Boy oh boy, what a fool I am sometimes.’
    With that she hummed a happy tune and flicked on the television. She watched the movie about the angel she’d taped for Shane. ‘Just as well we’ve got an angel in the family,’ she muttered as she lay back in her chair and put her feet up.
    But David was far away, seeking advice from his teachers on how best to convince his brother he wasn’t a vision from one of his dreams.

Shelter
    Shane felt weak. His eyes were hardly open when he heard his father say something about shelter. He lifted his head expecting to see lights or a house or even the resort, but all he could see was the snow swirling in darkness. The shelter his father referred to was a rocky outcrop jutting from a steep slope. It wasn’t much but it was better than being