If only.

“I don’t think she has long at all.”

Kanesha nodded, looking at me across a bowl of pasta. “And her parents?”

“Are fighting tooth and nail against hospice, because that’s acknowledging that they’re giving up. God’s will out of one side of their mouth…but out of the other.”

“She’s probably an only child.”

I mused on that for a moment. “I sympathize. I want to save her too. At least they aren’t likely to try anything really stupid like a deal with the devil.”

“Can you make deals for other people?”

I thought about it. “I think it would depend on the specifics of the deal. You can’t sign over somebody else’s soul, but…”

“I suppose you could do one for somebody else to get their dream job.”

“Right, that you might get away with. But I think they know better.”

I frowned. “You know what I want to do?” I added.

“What?” Her eyes sparkled. “You’re up to something.”

“Set Sarael on them.”

She grinned. “He’s the one…”

“…with the actual sense of humor. Yup.” Sarael would have some fun with them, I thought. “I’ll ask Will if he’s around. If they were Catholic…but they don’t seem to be.”

“They’re probably some fringe sect of protestant.”

“No, if they were that, they would be trying to pray Monica better. They seem to believe in modern medicine.”

“Or they just believe in it when it’s their daughter.”

We finished dinner and I headed home. Kanesha headed to study, but she promised she’d be back. I would be glad when I got out of school and had more flexible times.

But still, we’d got our noodles, which she’d been craving, and even as I headed back towards home…then I shook my head and changed course to Will’s church.

It was still open, and I slipped in the back. An old woman was praying. I waited until she’d finished and then said. “Hey, I want to talk to Sarael.”

There was no immediate answer, but I was pretty sure I’d been heard.