She died the other night and her guardian angel received word from God via text message–modern age. She was a sad angel because she was always there to protect her for over seventy human years–angels are eternal. Now she had to go and find a new human to protect, but there was time and she always had time–angels are good at that.
She went to the funeral disguised as a breeze and watched the woman’s family worship and pray for her eternal soul. Tears were shed and songs were played in her honor. A young preacher came and offered comfort to the family. She watched the father and two sons place her into the earth and place the soil over her simple casket. They laid a cross made of wood upon her grave where eventually a engraved headstone would lay that had MOM carved into the pine home-made cross. The Guardian angel saw all of this and she cried too.
“I will miss you human, but now somewhere in heaven you are meeting God for the first time and someday I’ll introduce myself to you.”
Some days later, A recently released spirit came to the guardian angel’s door of her house. There was a tentative knock, then a slightly more forceful knock as if this spirit thought she was hard of hearing. She answered. “Yes? Oh you! How marvelous I finally met you! I was your guardian angel, but I guess God told you that or you wouldn’t be here.”
“This isn’t a social call,” she replied in a terse, unapologetic arrogant voice. “Some a..hole–wait I can’t curse in heaven?”
“Oh goodness no, that’s one of the rules in our bylaws. Never ever curse a human. Instead you will become all tongue-tied as you just found out. Now, tell me what happened over tea and scones.” The guardian angel led her inside and they sat on a divan where a tea service sat on a coffee table in front of them. “Lemon or sugar?”
“No thank you. Look, obviously you know who I am. I just found out something horrible–someone stole the cross that my son in law made and my family placed upon my grave. My son and daughter went to visit and discovered it was taken. I want revenge for that!”
“Oh my word, that is unfortunate. I have just the spiritual being that will do you the justice you seek. It does cost you though.”
“What could it cost?”
“One of your chuilden will not be here when there time comes.” She sipped on her tea and waited for the new spirit’s response. “I would suggest you think long and hard before you answer.”
“You mean if I seek out this avenging angel, the payment is that one of my children don’t go to heaven? Where do they go then? Hell?”
“Nothing that drastic, no. It’s complicated. The place is called Neverland.”
“You mean like Peter Pan?”
“I wish. If you agree to this you can never see that person, and he or she can never see you. Nor will that person ever be here, thus the disillusionment that all they were taught on earth regarding the greatness of heaven and the beauty of God, will be for nothing. They will be stuck in a limbo, like inside a bubble, forever.”
She chewed on her scone with a thoughtful expression on her ethereal face. “There is no way to go around this? Like a loophole?”
“Well, there is always a loophole, but that too requires some form of payment. My suggestion to you is to forgive this lost soul for his moment of weakness. After all, he can’t gain anything from it. No amount will be provided where he could possibly profit from. The Golden Rule was preached to you from Jesus’ mouth for a reason. It is a good rule to live and die by. Aren’t these scone just divine?”
“Yeah, sure, whatever. So, you aren’t going to help me on this?”
“I’m more than happy to help, but there is always a cost to everything. My question is, how much are you willing to pay for the satisfaction that you got your revenge?”
“Damn, I want to see all my children and grandchildren and great grandchildren here when their time comes. I don’t want to leave anybody out!” She started weeping bitterly.
“Then, the way I see it, is your mind is made up to forgive this person who stole that cross from your earthly grave.”
She wiped the tears from her face and nodded. “I supposed that’s what I’ll have to do then.”
“More tea?”
Jerry Schellhammer 