A Visit to Heck

"Daddy, tell me about the time you went to heck," I ask as he and mom tuck me in.

"Sure, I'll just let Mom give you a kiss, and we'll get started," Daddy says.

"Oh, I'm staying for this one, Jack," Mommy says sitting down on the edge of my bed with a smirk.

"Ok, so Grandpa Jacob got kidnapped and taken to heck," Daddy says.

"By the devil himself," I add helpfully.

"Not exactly the devil," Mommy protests.

"Oh, pretty close," Daddy says.

Mom shuts her eyes, "Ok, yeah, not far off."

"So Mommy's Daddy gets kidnapped and we jump on a magic carpet to save him," Daddy says.

"Magic carpets go to heck?" I ask.

"Oh magic carpets go pretty much everywhere," Daddy says.

"And on the way Mommy had to remember some things Johlinar told her, and she'd forgotten," I said.

"And Marty the fairy CHEATED! Played dirty with the memories," Daddy protests.

"Come on Jack, he was just trying to get me calm after a bad memory," Mommy says. But Daddy glares at her, and she grabs his hand, "I never like Martouf, Jack. That was Johlinar."

"You liked him a little Sammy," Daddy says.

"I've never seen you jealous before, Jack."

"Gracie, should I tell you the story of when Mommy fell for a glowy fairy godfather?" Daddy asks.

"I did not fall for Orlin, Jack," Mommy protests.

"Oh really Sam, you let him hang out in our basement for how long?" Daddy says.

"I did not let him hang out in the basement. Had you believed me you could have chassed his stocker butt out of there. But no, you thought I was going nuts. Too much going on at work and too much time alone with Gracie. Sammy's going nuts. She just needs to go fishing. No, I said, there is an alien in our basement Jack. But you didn't believe me. Now your jealous?" Mommy's actually pretty angry.

"Wait a second, so some guy lived in our basement after I was born?" I asked in horror.

Mommy and Daddy are both staring at me. "Not exactly a guy," Mom says carefully.

"Right like what Sam, a glowly beam of energy? That was more what he was," Jack says.

"How old was I?" I asked in horror.

"Eight months or so," Mommy says. "Look Gracie, we probably shouldn't have told you that."

"Alright," Daddy says, "Back to our journey into heck. Marty is pushing Mommy hard to remember."

"Hey, it worked Jack. I remembered a nasty man Johlinar had to pretend she liked," Mommy explained.

Daddy flinches. "But the nasty man didn't like being reminded of Johlinar, got us thrown in a prison inside of hell, who would have thought they had such a thing?"

"But at least we found Grandpa Jacob down there," Mommy points out.

"Right, and that was just before they took us one by one to drug us up (drugs are bad Gracie) and make us hallucinate. Fun!"

"I didn't say it was fun Jack. We were in heck. Heck is not fun (so say your prayers Gracie, girl). But getting one on one time with the nasty man did mean I figure out how he got off the planet, and thereby how we could."

"Super Sam saves the day again," Daddy points out.

"Wasn't quite that simple, Jack. We had to…uh trick the magic carpet?" Mommy said uncertainly.

"Yeah, this ones pretty hard to explain without using words we can't use," Jack says. "Should have let me leave the original paintings on her nursery wall, and we wouldn't have to be having this conversation now. She'd know what we were talking about."

"What was painted on my wall?" I asked.

"Classified information," Mommy said annoyed.

"Anyway we'd mostly gotten away when we ran into another bad guy," Mommy says.

"Who we thought was dead," Daddy added.

"And who wanted to use us to buy his way out of heck," Mommy added.

"If he was in heck wasn't he dead?" I asked.

"Umm…Yeah, but the bad guys don't always stay dead," Daddy says.

"So lots of people made it out of heck?" I said.

"Sorta Gracie girl, but we were the first good guys to make it out of heck," Daddy said.

Mommy glares at him, "Fine, first none pixie non fairies to make it out. The first humans to get out of heck."

"When did they hit your knee again Daddy?" I asked.

"Always with the knees, why is it always the knees Gracie?" he asks tickling me.

Mommy's eyes are locked on Daddy's, "Your father got that particular knee injury trying to keep some guys from taking me."

"To be tortured?" I asked.

"Drugged and tortured," Daddy says. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you Sammy."

"There were a lot of times when we couldn't save each other Jack," she says, and then she turns to me, "But we will always save each other when it counts. Got it Gracie?" she asks.

"I don't know, Mommy. I don't think Daddy does much saving now days," I say.

"Your father isn't nearly as old as he pretends to be," Mommy says with a laugh, "He can do an awful lot of saving from behind that big desk in General's office. More than once he's chosen keeping me safe over the safety of the world. He'll keep saving me, Gracie have no fear."

"Yeah but after I save Super Sammy she saves the world so it's really a win win." Daddy says. Then they each give me a kiss and it's bedtime once again.