Three years earlier

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Pastor William Andrews rushed through the entrance doors of the Chicago Heart of Trust Hospital as fast as his feet would carry him. Rushing to the front desk, he let words tumble out past his labored breathing.

"There was a girl—about early twenties—car accident," he stammered out, trying to catch his breath. "I mean, she was in a car accident. Ah, um, brown hair, and—" He gestured wildly in an attempt to come up with more descriptions.

The woman at the desk listened to him calmly—clearly she was accustomed to this sort of frenzied behavior in her work environment—then scrolled through a list on the computer monitor in front of her. "Yes," she said after a moment of quick study, "They notified me about you coming. Room 106B, down the hall and to your left."

"Thank you." He ran in the direction that she pointed.

His rushing was all in vain though, for he found that when he reached the door of 106B he was barred from entering. So for twenty minutes he paced the floor outside of the room, wringing his hands and waiting. One would have thought it was his own daughter behind that door. As it stood, however, he had no daughters, and this girl was a complete stranger to him.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity to him, a doctor stepped out along with the paramedic from before.

"This is the guy," the paramedic indicated William with a pointed finger. "Glad you made it, man," he addressed William.

The doctor extended a hand. "I'm Dr. Saunders."

William reached out and shook his hand. "William. Er—Pastor William Andrews."

"Thank you for making it, Pastor. I heard about what happened and I understand you'll want to know how the patient is doing. She's still passed out from shock, but all her vitals are stable now. It will probably take her a year or so to recover and rehabilitate, based on her injuries. Do you know if she has any family we can contact?"

"I—I don't know. I never met her before today."

"I see." The doctor stopped to make a note on his clipboard.

William tried to wait patiently but couldn't. "Could I see her?" he asked.

Dr. Saunders looked up. "Yes, but she's still unconscious at the moment…You could come back, anytime during visiting hours."

"Ah." William suddenly felt very heavy and tired from the past hour of frantic rushing and worrying. The girl was safe, and that was what mattered. "I think I will."

"In the meantime, Pastor, I was wondering if you could answer some questions so we can better fill out her patient file. Gary here—" He indicated the paramedic beside him, "Told me the details of the incident already, but if you could confirm…"

William was exhausted but nodded. "Yes." He silently prayed for strength. "Of course."

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Darkness was the first thing that Jubilee was conscious of when she came to. Darkness, and cool air. Then, gradually, the sensation of stiff sheets against her skin also came into her awareness. A gentle, electronic beeping sounded somewhere over her head. An aching in her bones and a dull throb that stretched along the back of her neck and straight into her skull permeated her consciousness.

She groaned weakly.

It suddenly dawned on her that the darkness she was seeing was the inside of her own eyelids. She was about to make the effort to crack them open, when a faint memory flitted through her mind of what she had seen the last time she opened her eyes.

Her breath hitched as she remembered everything that had happened.

Cautiously she cracked one eye open, then the other. Her vision looked fairly normal once more. She was lying on a cot inside a hospital room with plain white walls and white curtains lining a small window. The air looked the way it should—no strange lights or colors. Except…except for a soft glow coming from over…

She glanced to her left where a gentle light was coming from, flinched severely, and promptly squeezed her eyes shut again. A moan escaped her lips from the pain that her sudden jerk had caused.

There was an angel sitting beside her.

This isn't happening, she thought. I'm dreaming.

Peace, said the angel, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder. Be still. The pain slowly eased away.

Jubilee opened her eyes wide and stared at the being beside her. It was seated in a wooden chair by her bedside. Both looked equally authentic. "You're real," she breathed.

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Quite, was all it said. Jubilee could not discern whether it was male, female or neither. Its voice rang through her head in a way that was unmistakable yet inaudible; with a power that was much like the voice that had spoken to her in the realm beyond, but not quite as multi-faceted or resonant—as if this voice speaking to her now was a rushing river, and the other one was the ocean which it came from. Somehow she was sure that this was the same bright being that had been standing beside her back at the wreckage site. When she looked at the creature's face, however, the brightness there no longer scorched her eyes like it did before at the scene of the car wreck. She still couldn't make out its features entirely though. She thought it looked like it might be smiling at her. Glancing about herself, she momentarily wondered why she no longer saw other colors or beings in the air.

The Father decided to dial things down for you a notch, said the angel suddenly, as if in answer to her thoughts. The fullness of true sight was too much for your mind to handle in its current state. And yes…I was the one with you at the wreck.

Jubilee stared at the angel. Could it hear her thoughts?

Yes.

"Okay," said Jubilee out loud. "This is weird. Why—" She stopped, coughing. Her throat was dry.

Water? The angel gestured to her bedside table, where a bottle stood waiting. Jubilee tried to prop herself up on one elbow but couldn't. The angel touched her lightly on the arm, and suddenly she found that she had the strength to easily reach the water bottle. Impatiently she grabbed it, twisted it open and took several big gulps.

At last she set the bottle back down and turned to face the angel once more. "Okay," she said again. "So…I have some questions."

Yes, said the angel agreeably, sitting back as if to make itself comfortable. Please, begin your onslaught of inquiry. Now she was positive that he—it seemed more and more like a he to her now—was smiling.

"First of all," she began, but it was as far as she got before the doors to her room suddenly opened and a man walked in.

He stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw that she was awake. They stared at each other for a long moment in uncertainty.

Finally, he cleared his throat. "Hello." He started forward again unsurely. "My name is William. I'm a pastor."

Jubilee slid her gaze as discreetly as she could to her left, then had to struggle to keep her jaw from dropping. The angel was gone.

"Um, hi," she said to the man, trying to maintain her composure. "I'm Jubilee."

The man's eyes lit up. "Like the year of Jubilee?"

Her tongue caught in her throat and her mouth suddenly felt dry again. How did he—? But of course he knew, she suddenly realized. He was a pastor.

"Yes," she said. "My parents—" Here she paused for a moment, struggling before she could continue, "They named me that because the year I was born, they had just been able to pay off all their debt. Which didn't last long, but they always used to tell me that I brought them a release from all debts, the way a year of Jubilee did for the Israelites." She clamped her mouth shut as she finished, stunned that she had shared so much. The story behind her name was something she had not revealed to anyone since her mother had died.

"Ah." William smiled. "They have good taste."

"Had."

"Oh," said the man after a pause, looking pained, "I'm so sorry." He clasped his hands together nervously. "Is there—do you have any other family?"

She suddenly felt cold out of the covers. She burrowed her hands back under them. "No," she said emotionlessly.

There it was in the man's eyes—pity. How she hated that look. But it wasn't the man's fault, she reasoned to herself. No, she thought, taking a deep breath to calm her thoughts. No, this man simply felt compassion for her. So she ought to extend the same compassion towards him, by not resenting him.

Suddenly the glow appeared at her side again, and she had to refrain from jumping. The angel was back.

"Do you—remember me, by any chance?" asked William amidst the confusion in her mind.

"Remember you?" She shook her head, as much to clear it as to answer him. "Should I? Do I know you from somewhere?" She tried not to stare at the angel. Why had it disappeared and then reappeared? Her first guess had been that it didn't appear in front of other humans. Her next was that she had hit her head much harder than she had thought and the angel was a hallucination. Which could still be the case…

I've been here the whole time, said the angel. You simply stopped seeing me for a moment.

Why? she wondered to herself.

You felt fear when he walked in. It only just started to dissipate. The man was starting to speak again. I'll explain more later.

"I was there…at the scene of the wreck," William was saying. He sounded cautious. "I was there when you…when you came back."

Beside her she felt the angel lift his hand once more and touch a finger to her temple. An image floated into her memory—it was William's face, hovering over her with worry and shock.

"Yes," she said with sudden realization. "I remember now."

William waited a beat, but when she said nothing else, he continued, "I prayed for you."

She looked at him, confused.

"When you died," he explained, looking suddenly nervous and excited all at once, "I asked them to let me pray over you, for your passing. And then…and then you came back."

She stared at him for a moment longer, as the memories of everything she had seen swirled through her head and clicked into place like a finished puzzle. Father, into your hands I commend this spirit, she had heard a voice say, back when she was shooting towards the void. A voice that sounded like this man's voice.

"Oh," was all she could say at first.

Another awkward beat passed.

"Well," said William at last. He gave her a kind smile. "I'm very happy to see that my prayer was answered—albeit not in the way I expected. It was…it was probably the greatest move of God's I've seen yet, and I've seen quite a few." He turned to go.

"I saw my dad," she heard herself say. William turned back.

"I saw him," she repeated shakily, and found that tears were streaming down her face. She didn't know whether they were out of sadness or joy. "I talked with him. He said my mom was there too. And he—he—then He came, and…and I…" She broke down into something unintelligible.

Beside her, the angel glowed brighter.

And then she saw it again…the softer glow coming from the other man. He beamed at her.

"Welcome back to earth," he said gently. "There must be great plans in store for you."