A VOICE FROM BEYOND
The angels ... regard our safety, undertake our defense, direct
our ways and exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befalls
us.
JOHN CALVIN
Margaret walked the dog every morning; her husband, Paul
(not their real names), did so at night. There was a small park
across the busy street in front of their house, and Paul usually
took the dog there. He was a reserved man who enjoyed solitude
and rarely showed his emotions.
About nine one April evening, Paul and the dog started out
on their customary jaunt. "I'm never in the garage after dinner,"
Margaret relates. "But that night, I happened to go there for
something. The garage door was open and even though it was almost
dark outside, I had a perfect view of Paul going down our
driveway to the sidewalk."
Paul had to wait a few moments until there was a break in
the traffic. While he was standing there, Margaret heard a voice
calling. "Paul!" it said. That was all. "It was a male voice, the
kindest-sounding voice I'd ever heard," she says. "There is
shrubbery alongside our driveway, and I assumed our next-door
neighbor, hidden from my view by the garage wall and the foliage,
was calling Paul. But I know his voice, and this wonderful voice
was not his. A second later I remembered that the neighbor wasn't
home."
Paul did not appear to have heard the voice. Maybe it had
been her imagination. Or the sound of the wind? But there was no
wind. Someone in a passing car? But the voice had been coming
from her direction, as if the caller was near.
Puzzled, Margaret wondered what, if anything, she should do.
Again, as her husband started to step down from the curb, the
kind voice called his name. "Paul!"
Now Margaret saw Paul stop. Had he heard the voice this
time? Incredibly, a large tree in the park started to fall. Down
it came, almost in slow motion, until, with a loud crash, it came
to rest across the park path, its highest branches lying almost
into the street. The spot was where Paul always walked, where he
would have been at that moment had a voice not delayed him.
Stunned, Margaret stared at the tree. Paul, in his usual
unemotional manner, crossed the street, went around the tree,
looked at it for a moment, and continued on his way. But by the
time he returned he had had a chance to think.
"Someone called my name," he said to Margaret. "It happened
twice. Did you hear the voice?"
"Yes. I wondered if you had."
"But there wasn't anyone around. Unless you saw someone."
"No, I didn't," Margaret told him. "And from the garage, I would
have had a good view." They looked at each other.
"Well, then;" Paul said in his usual calm fashion, "it had to
have been my guardian angel."
Margaret replayed the episode in her mind many times, and
her husband told several neighbors and relatives about it. But
neither of them ever found anyone to thank.
.................
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