Читать книгу Gabriel's Mission - Margaret Way - Страница 6

PROLOGUE

HEAVEN

TITUS and Thomas came tumbling down the grass, rolling ecstatically across the cushiony emerald sward, hurtling onwards to the stream that flashed silver in the all-pervading shining light. They often played this tumbling game. They loved it. Rolling from the very top of the undulating hill with its thick sprinkling of wildflowers, into the translucent water below. With their wings tucked back they dived to the bottom where gorgeous little fish, lovely little things, came to the hand, and flowers like jewels opened and shut amid the green reeds that grew out of the sand with its rich dusting of gold. Afterwards they floated with the immortal white swans that gently made way for them, bending their beaks to the still water that mirrored their snowy reflections. Afterwards they could ride the silky softness of the clouds calling on the Sky Wind to blow them to heaven’s brink or perhaps play with the cherubs who loved to fly through the great soaring trees of the forest on pretty little dragons, beautifully caparisoned. It was all marvellous fun! But sometimes Titus wished he had a job to do. He was bursting with love and miraculous energy so sometimes his aura flared like the sun.

They were almost at the bottom of the slope and into the crystal fountain when a voice like a golden trumpet echoed across the hillside and a great beam of pure white light approached them at enormous speed.

“Titus, Thomas, I haven’t seen you all day. A meeting at the Archives Building, if you please. Titus, Thomas, hello...hello...”

Mr. Bliss, Titus thought in surprise. Archangel in charge of recruitments for guardian angels.

Immediately Titus popped out his wings. Thomas followed suit, both soaring high in the air above the tops of the eternally blossoming trees.

“Ah, there you are, boys. A busy morning ahead,” Mr. Bliss said as soon as he saw them. Mr. Bliss stayed in place with a whirring of great wings, while Titus and Thomas flitted around him, all of them hundreds of feet off the ground.

Titus’s radiant blue eyes shone with excitement. Just maybe one day he would get to be a guardian angel. “What’s the meeting about, Mr. Bliss?” he asked with an eager inflection.

Mr. Bliss lifted his hands, light streaming from his fingertips. “Surely you can guess, Titus? Guardian angels have to be elected. We have to help our earthly friends. Poor souls, what would they do without us?”

What indeed!

The Great Hall of the Archives Building spired to God’s glory, its walls sculptured of sparkling crystal inlaid with silver and gold. Today it was filled with luminous beings wearing exquisite flowing robes, rose, saffron, azure, rich emerald and crimson and a wonderful violet, so that everywhere one looked there was rainbow upon rainbow of rippling colour. The higher one went through the nine angelic ranks the more the myriad colours gave way to an extreme white radiance like that of Mr. Bliss who now stood before them in a blinding flash of light and a great rushing whirl of majestic white wings. Wings they all had in common, from the cute double and triple wings of the adorable little cherubs to the six-foot splendour of the most awesome angels of all, the Cherubim and Seraphim, the highest-ranking heavenly beings who guarded the Divine Throne. These exulted angels, naturally, did not attend staff meetings.

Mr. Bliss lost no time getting things under way. Angels were encouraged to speak of their experiences; looking after their earthly charges, leading them to the realm of Heaven, a place of such joy and beauty no human mind could encompass it; or sending souls back through the long tunnel between near death and eternity to fulfil their destiny. Guardian angel roles were renewed, legions more appointed in the twinkling of an eye. A few angels spoke of exhaustion, a state rare among their ranks, although it was known. One angel in particular, Lucas, told the most wistful tale of all. For twenty-four years he had been the appointed guardian angel of one Chloe Cavanagh who was proving such a handful Lucas feared he had suffered a temporary burnout. In fact he was feeling a loss of power in his lower right wing.

“It’s not as though Chloe isn’t a fine compassionate young mortal with considerable spirituality, but she’s becoming something of a danger to herself,” he told his brilliant audience. “She has a tragic history you see.” Lucas went on to tell them Chloe had lost a sibling, a brother, Timothy, when she was six and the child barely eighteen months, leaving the family desolate. Then some two years ago tragedy struck again like a lightning bolt. Chloe’s parents were involved in a car crash that killed her father and put her mother into a coma from which she hadn’t emerged for months on end. The mother, still locked in a waking dream state, was now in a nursing home being cared for while Chloe tried to balance her career as a journalist in the high-powered world of network TV with being there for her mother.

Mr. Bliss was faced with a decision. To counsel Lucas and allow him to continue? Or allow Lucas a long rest and appoint a replacement. There were many positive angels he could rely on to do the job. Angels who wouldn’t collapse under the strain.

As Mr. Bliss looked around thoughtfully a glowing young face distracted him. Titus, of course, his garments radiating a flawless blue light. Angels’ beautifully sculptured tranquil features were seen mostly through a luminous haze rather like a vapour, but for some reason Titus’s sparkling face was almost flesh and blood. He glowed, with his burnished rose-gold curls, brilliant blue eyes and a tracery of gold freckles that danced across his nose. Curious to have freckles in this perfect realm where the sun spilled only adoration onto God and His heavenly kingdom. Mr. Bliss had the feeling there might be much to learn about young Titus’s past. Was it possible he had had an earthly life?

Even as Mr. Bliss considered a dip into Archives, Titus spoke up. “Please, Mr. Bliss, can’t you give us little guys a go?”

There it was again. Those unusual words. Guys? Of course Titus liked reading about life on earth. Didn’t they all!

Mr. Bliss folded his long, beautiful fingers together, the expression on his wonderful classic face not without sympathy. “Hmm. Not possible, young Titus, I’m afraid. I’m not saying not ever but not just yet.”

“It could be the answer,” Lucas suddenly interjected in a very deep mellow voice like a gong, reminding Mr. Bliss Lucas must be many thousands of years old. “I do realise Titus has had no experience but he’s so full of pep he just might be able to keep up with Chloe.”

Mr. Bliss’s singular eyes that were very dark but sparkled with light, began to sharpen and glow. “I rarely if ever send anyone so young, Lucas,” he pointed out gently.

“You started young, Mr. Bliss,” Titus piped up.

Another thing that struck Mr. Bliss as odd. How did Titus know? “So I did,” Mr. Bliss admitted.

There were chuckles all ’round, tender smiles for Titus.

“What joy it must be to be a guardian angel!” Titus exclaimed, bright curls abob. His expression was one of radiant hope.

Mr. Bliss pondered. Titus was an extremely helpful and cooperative young angel, given to playful games perhaps but excellent at supervising the cherubs. The experience of taking charge of a mortal life might catapult him into real responsibility, earn him his three-quarter wings. Really Titus wasn’t all that different from himself at the same state of transformation.

“All right, Titus,” Mr. Bliss announced to a rippling wave of applause and a familiar swishing of wings. “The position of guardian angel to Miss Chloe Cavanagh is yours as of now.”

Titus strove to control the great flame of excitement that sent far-distant memories raying through his mind.

While the cherubs played ball with the low-hanging silver stars, Titus embarked on his great flight to earth, accelerating through the vast sea of clouds with a rhythmic swishing of his wings, revelling in the freshness of the wind, the extraordinary smell of earth’s atmosphere as he entered it. While he watched the play of glittering golden sunlight on the near side of the planet, he was conscious of being happier than he had ever been in his experience. Maybe he had overdone the surging speed of descent. Even Heaven didn’t seem real.

“Hold on, Chloe,” he called in a sweet ecstasy, his glowing blue garments suddenly reflecting a white light. “I’m your guardian angel now. You can call upon my power.”

To keep Chloe safe would be his great mission.

A great wave of love engulfed him. Not so much glory, but something of a different lustre; warm, human affection.

The soul remembers.