“Young lady, you can’t just walk out of this house…” Vera Wilson started to respond angrily.

“I don’t want to make you mad, Aunt Vera,” Mimi continued calmly. “But I really need to go. I’m not running away. Some adults will come explain, I’m sure, but I’m not sure what I can say to you about it. You remember when Dr. Weaver came to visit that one time and he said it was ‘confidential.’ It’s secret like that.”

“Well, if the government wants you to go, why didn’t they tell me?” Mrs. Wilson asked, confused.

“They don’t know I have to go,” Mimi said. “But Tuffy says that if I don’t, it’s not going to work.”

“What’s not going to work?” Mrs. Wilson said, totally out of her depth.

“The thing I can’t talk about,” Mimi said as the taxi honked its horn. “That’s my ride. I’ve gotta go. I’ll write and I’ll probably be back, maybe soon for a week or so, if you’ll let me come back. But it’s time for me to do the things I’m supposed to do. I think, it’s sort of like being called by God, Auntie Vera. I have a calling. And the first place it will take me is San Diego.”

Aunt Vera looked at the cool looking spider thing on Mimi’s shoulder and sighed. She’d had a very confusing, but interesting, conversation with Dr. Weaver at one point when he visited Mimi to thank her for her help. After that she’d had to wonder: Do angels always appear in a cloud of light? Or, as Dr. Weaver had pointed out, “Well, we got the big light. And the city was certainly smited or smitten or whatever… I don’t know exactly what Tuffy is, but from what I went through, an angel in heavy disguise is a pretty good description.”

But God sure worked in mysterious ways. You just had to have the patience of Job and trust that it would all come out right.