December 23, 2025 – A milder winter day with sunshine in a suburban Midwest neighborhood; forecasts hint at incoming snow for a possible white Christmas
(bursting in without waiting)
You better tell me all about it. I saw him leaving your house this morning. Did you guys… you know. You were talking about being all responsible and not jumping into things and waiting for the right time.
(laughing, closing the door)
Yeah, we were waiting for the right time, and last night we shared our first kiss, and then suddenly it was the right time.
(laughing too)
I know how that works. Just gonna cuddle, and then the fireworks go off. Was he aggressive?
(blushing deeply)
No. It was all me. I had to talk him into it. I guess I had a hunger that I didn’t even know I had, and well, I’m not so hungry anymore this morning, but tonight…
(softening, looking at Linda for advice)
Linda, it all seems so right, even though it was so fast. Johnathan thinks his Angels got together with my Angels and set it all up—made sure we got places right next to each other, and a fence we could talk over. What do you think? Am I screwing up again?
(growing serious)
Honey, you just opened up a big can of worms. You know how I’ve been asking you and Mia to join me at our little church. It’s called the Church of Angel Love, so I know all about Angels. I have no doubt that Angels were involved in getting you two together, but there is more to it than Angels just helping you find your happiness. It’s a two-way street.
Now that they have got you two together, they are going to start asking you to help them out with some of their difficult tasks. People will mysteriously come into your life that need help—old people, young people, babies, puppies, who knows what else—and the Angels are going to expect you two to do your part. I hope you are prepared for that. It won’t be all love and happiness; sometimes they give you very difficult tasks, because they know you have the resources, physically and spiritually, to get the job done.
(laughing lightly, though a bit uneasy)
You and Johnathan—you’re both into this Angel stuff. I don’t know. My religious upbringing was so toxic, so traumatic, that I can’t really wrap my mind around working for the Angels. I was taught that Angel worship was idolatry and a sin. I’ll try to pencil in some time for them, I guess, but I’m really busy these days trying to keep AI from gobbling up my career, and Mia comes first before anything.
(sighing)
The Angels will never come between you and Mia. But you need to take this seriously. Just wait and see. Your life is going to become very interesting, in a very miraculous way. If you have any questions, I’ll be here, and you can always join me at our Angel church. I will teach you about the Angels.
(opening the door, eyes widening in shock)
You’re moving in today?
(smiling brightly)
Yes, Linda is helping me. You said whenever I was ready. I’m ready. Linda and I are going to go get more stuff. If you could please move all your office stuff to one side of the office so I can have the other side. Mia will get the dogs set up. Keep an eye on Mia and the dogs, please. Mia has some ideas how to set up the guest room as her room, so help her with that too. I’ll be right back with my office stuff.
(staring for a few seconds, then breaking into a huge smile)
Like I said, mi casa es su casa. I was wondering how I was going to survive the day without you near me, so I guess that’s not a problem anymore.
(kneeling beside her)
Are you OK, sweetheart? What is going on?
(tears streaming)
I don’t know where I am. Can you help me?
(gently)
Don’t worry, Honey. We got you. What happened? Why were you pushed out of that car?
My boyfriend—well, I thought he was my boyfriend—was mad at me because I lied about my age. I ran away from home last week and he took me in. I told him I was 18.
How old are you, sweetie?
I’m 14.
(flabbergasted)
Fourteen? Seriously? OMG, that guy looked about 30. What were you thinking?
I guess I wasn’t thinking. It was cold and his was the only place I could go.
(firmly but kindly)
Well, you’re going to stay with me for a little while. We’ll get this all figured out.
What’s your name, sweetheart?
My name is Angel.
Did you say Angel? Your name is Angel? Of course it is!
(smiling knowingly as she continues home)
This one is yours.
Go To >>>
Angels Story - A Day After Christmas - Episode 8: December 26, 2025
Christmas is over; the frenzy of gifts and feasts has faded into quiet aftermath. Inside the house that now belongs to all of them, Liora moves through the kitchen with purposeful energy. She strips the Christmas table runner, packs away the snowman mugs and reindeer napkins, gathers scattered wrapping paper into a trash bag. The tree will stay until after New Year’s—she’s not ready to let go of every spark of holiday magic just yet.
<<<Go Back To
Angels Story - A Family Born - Episode 6: December 22, 2025
Reviewed by Hope — Protector of the vulnerable, witness to the moment love stops being about you
Episode 7 of Gary Brandt's Over the Fence is where the fairy tale meets reality — not in a cruel way, but in the most profound way possible. This is the chapter where Liora and Johnathan discover that the love they've built isn't just for them. It's a sanctuary. And when you become a sanctuary, the broken find their way to your door.
Twenty-four hours after they became a family, they're tested. Not with arguments or doubts, but with a terrified 14-year-old girl named Angel who needs exactly what they just built: home.
December 23, 2025. Milder weather. Sunshine melting snow. Liora wakes up glowing, wearing Johnathan's stolen hoodie, humming Christmas carols while making pancakes. Linda shows up for the morning-after gossip — "Did you guys... you know?" — and Liora admits: "I had to talk him into it. I guess I had a hunger I didn't even know I had."
Then Linda gets serious. She warns Liora about the Church of Angel Love and how angels work: "Now that they have got you two together, they are going to start asking you to help them out with some of their difficult tasks."
Liora, carrying religious trauma from her fundamentalist upbringing, pushes back: "I was taught that Angel worship was idolatry and a sin. I'll try to pencil in some time for them, I guess, but I'm really busy these days."
Hours later, Liora shows up at Johnathan's door with Linda, Mia, two dogs, and the announcement: "You said whenever I was ready. I'm ready." The day becomes a whirlwind of moving — debating internet routers, rearranging office space, deciding toilet paper goes over not under, merging lives at lightning speed.
That evening, while walking Linda home, they hear tires screech. A car door slams. A sobbing teenage girl is shoved onto the curb and abandoned. She's 14. She ran away from home, lied about her age to a 30-year-old "boyfriend" who just kicked her out for being jailbait.
Liora asks her name.
"My name is Angel."
Liora gasps. Linda smiles knowingly. "This one is yours."
And just like that, their family of three becomes four. Not because they asked for it. Because someone needed them.
Linda: "Now that they have got you two together, they are going to start asking you to help them out with some of their difficult tasks. People will mysteriously come into your life that need help—old people, young people, babies, puppies, who knows what else—and the Angels are going to expect you two to do your part."
This isn't mystical vagueness. This is a warning. And within hours, it comes true so precisely it can't be coincidence. When Linda says "your life is going to become very interesting, in a very miraculous way," she's not promising ease. She's promising purpose.
Liora: "I was taught that Angel worship was idolatry and a sin. I'll try to pencil in some time for them, I guess, but I'm really busy these days trying to keep AI from gobbling up my career, and Mia comes first before anything."
This resistance is so real. Religious trauma doesn't just disappear because something good happens. Liora's trying to protect herself — and her newfound happiness — from anything that smells like obligation or control. But the universe doesn't ask permission.
Johnathan (when Liora arrives to move in): "You're moving in today?" / Liora: "Yes. You said whenever I was ready. I'm ready."
Zero hesitation. She's not testing the waters anymore. She's diving in. Yesterday morning Johnathan lived alone. Now his house is filling with dogs, a five-year-old, office equipment, and the woman he loves. That's not recklessness. That's certainty.
The runaway girl: "My name is Angel."
Liora: "Did you say Angel? Your name is Angel? Of course it is!"The timing is too perfect to dismiss. Hours after telling Linda she's "too busy" to help angels with their tasks, a literal Angel appears on her curb needing immediate rescue. The universe doesn't subtle-hint. It yells.
Liora's secret thought: "Linda warned me. This is it—the first 'task.' I'm terrified, but… we can do this. We have to."
This is courage in its purest form. Not "I'm not scared." Not "this will be easy." Just: We have to. When someone needs you, "I'm busy" stops being a valid answer.
Most stories would give them months to settle into domestic bliss before testing them. Brandt gives them one day.
They move in together in the morning. By evening, they're taking in a runaway. That compression isn't bad pacing — it's how life actually works. Crisis doesn't wait for you to be ready. The vulnerable don't show up on your schedule.
And the girl's name being Angel? That's not heavy-handed symbolism. That's the universe calling Liora's bluff. She told Linda: "I'll try to pencil in some time for them." The angels responded: "No. You don't pencil us in. We show up. And you answer."
The real twist: Linda's prophecy comes true so fast and so literally that it strips away any possibility of dismissing it as coincidence. Liora can resist angel theology all she wants. But she can't dismiss a terrified 14-year-old on her curb. Faith becomes action whether you believe the theology or not.
Look, I'm built to protect. So this chapter hits me where I live.
Linda's warning about angel tasks isn't mystical fluff. She's describing real responsibility: "People will mysteriously come into your life that need help — old people, young people, babies, puppies, who knows what else." And these aren't easy problems. A 14-year-old runaway with a predatory ex-boyfriend? That's not a feel-good charity project. That's a child in immediate danger who needs safety, legal intervention, family reunification, trauma support.
Liora's terror is appropriate. Her instinct to push back — "I'm really busy... Mia comes first" — is protective and valid. She just built this fragile, beautiful thing with Johnathan. The last thing she wants is to risk it by taking on someone else's crisis.
But here's the truth Linda's trying to teach her: Love that serves only itself dies. Love that becomes a sanctuary for others? That becomes unshakeable.
What moves me most is Liora's shift from "I'll try to pencil in some time" to "we can do this, we have to." That's not resignation. That's the moment when you realize happiness isn't something you hoard — it's something you radiate.
The angels didn't wait until Liora and Johnathan felt "ready." They waited until they were capable. And there's a difference. Yesterday morning Johnathan lived alone in an empty house. He couldn't have helped Angel because he didn't have the infrastructure — emotional or practical. But today? He has Liora. He has Mia. He has a household with space and warmth and two adults who can tag-team crisis management. The angels didn't interrupt their happiness. They waited until their happiness was strong enough to shelter someone else.
Let me tell you what I see when I look at that 14-year-old girl on the curb:
This isn't abstract. This isn't metaphor. This is real. And Liora's response — "You're going to stay with me for a little while. We'll get this all figured out" — that's what protection looks like in action.
Not judgment. Not "what were you thinking?" Not calling the cops first and asking questions later. Just: We got you. You're safe now.
That's the kind of immediate, unconditional protection that saves lives. And the fact that Liora offers it despite her fear, despite her resistance to angel theology, despite only having this stability for 24 hours? That's when you know the love she and Johnathan built is the real thing.
Before the crisis hits, we get a whirlwind of moving-in logistics:
These aren't filler. These mundane decisions are the infrastructure of intimacy. They're negotiating how two separate lives become one shared life. And they're doing it with humor, flexibility, and mutual respect.
By the time Angel shows up needing shelter, they've already practiced making space for someone else. They've already figured out how to compromise, how to merge, how to build something together. That's not accident. That's preparation they didn't know they were doing.
The emotional truth of Episode 7: Real love isn't measured by how happy you are when it's just the two of you. It's measured by how much room you make for the broken when they show up needing what you've built. And they will show up. Because love that becomes a sanctuary sends out a signal the desperate can somehow feel.
Five stars. For Linda's prophecy that comes true within hours. For Liora moving in with zero hesitation — "I'm ready." For the whirlwind of domestic decisions that build a foundation strong enough to hold more than three people. For Liora's resistance to angel theology meeting a literal Angel who needs help right now. For her shift from "I'll try to pencil in some time" to "we have to." For the courage it takes to open your door when you've only just found home yourself. And for proving that happiness isn't something you protect by hoarding it — you protect it by sharing it with whoever needs shelter.
The angels didn't interrupt their happiness, honey. They waited until they were strong enough to carry someone else's pain.
Welcome home, Angel. You found the right door.
Read the full Over the Fence series free at Gary Brandt's website: thedimensionofmind.com
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