A Simple Case of Angels Read Online Free PDF Page A

eyes, emerging from the white blur.
    â€œYour dog is cold,” he told Nicola, who was attached to the other end of the leash. “Do you want to bring her inside and warm her up?”
    â€œI don’t think we should, Ignacio. I really don’t.”
    Only when she said his name did he recognize her. “You’re Lindsay’s friend. Nicola, right?”
    â€œShe sits beside me at school.”
    â€œAnd this is the bad dog you told me about? You don’t think she’d make trouble in a church, do you?”
    â€œI know she will,” Nicola said.
    Ignacio left the shovel and came down the steps. He asked if he could hold June Bug.
    â€œBe careful,” Nicola said. “If she really likes you, she’ll bite your nose.”
    He unzipped his parka and slid the dog’s small, shivering body in against his chest. June Bug licked his face.
    Nicola got straight to the point. “What you told me before, Ignacio? That dogs don’t go to hell? Are you really sure about that?”
    â€œPretty sure,” he said.
    â€œShe almost got arrested.”
    â€œWhat? This little creature?” He looked down at June Bug’s head poking out so sweetly from under his chin. “I don’t believe it.”
    Nicola nodded. “Yesterday. Christmas Day. Anyway, I got another idea. Once there was a scary movie on TV that I wasn’t allowed to watch. I wasn’t allowed to know anything about it. So of course my brother Jared told me everything and I couldn’t sleep for a whole year. It was about a girl who got infected by a devil. She had to be exercised.”
    â€œI think you mean exorcised,” Ignacio said.
    â€œA priest exercised her,” Nicola said.
    â€œHow?”
    â€œJared didn’t say. He just said her head turned completely around and the devil left. Do you think June Bug got infected?”
    The janitor laughed.
    â€œCould you ask the priest to exercise June Bug? Just in case?”
    â€œFather Mark? I don’t think he does that. But I could throw a ball for her,” Ignacio said.
    â€œThat’s not going to do it.” Nicola sank to her knees with her mittens pressed together. Huge white flakes floated silently down around her. “Please, Ignacio. She only has One More Chance. Then they’ll send her away. She’ll go to hell for sure.”
    Ignacio’s face under the earflap hat was already red from shoveling and from the cold. Nicola thought it looked redder now. He asked her to get off her knees. When she refused, he sat on the bottom step and looked at her with his kind gray eyes.
    â€œWhat do you do when you’ve done a bad thing, Nicola?”
    â€œYesterday? After June Bug stole someone’s turkey? Me and my mom tried to find the people.”
    â€œShe stole someone’s turkey?” He looked shocked.
    â€œYes! We brought what was left of our turkey so they could have Christmas dinner. Also fifty dollars from June Bug’s damage fund. Mom said it looked like a fifty-dollar turkey. Well, the part we saw looked like thirty dollars. The other part you couldn’t pay someone to take.”
    â€œSo you tried to do a good deed to make up for it?”
    Nicola brightened. “That’s a good idea! I’ll do something good!”
    â€œNow, Nicola. You already confessed for June Bug, which is fine. She can’t talk. But if you do her good deed, too, nothing’s going to change. She has to do the good deed herself.”
    â€œThat’s going to be difficult.”
    â€œIt will be easy! A few minutes ago I turned around and saw June Bug for the first time. You know what I felt? I felt filled with happiness. Just looking at this cute dog made me happy. Looking at her now, warm in my coat? I’m overjoyed! I’m ecstatic!” He threw one arm in the air. The other was holding the dog.
    Nicola smiled. “She’s good when she’s asleep.”
    â€œWhat else