Daniel and the Angel

JILL BARNETT

1

IT WAS THE PERFECT DAY FOR A MIRACLE.

The shimmering sky above Heaven was as gold as Gabriel's trumpet, and the distant sound of canticles filled the celestial air. Clouds, puffy and white as spring goosedown, created the holiest of firmaments —a place where no angel feared to tread.

Standing just outside the Pearly Gates was a novice angel named Lillian. She glanced left, then right, and, just for good measure, she cast a quick peek above her.

The coast was clear.

With a look of pure determination, she shoved up the sleeves on her flowing white robe, flexed her fingers, and did exactly what she had been forbidden to do: She tried to create a miracle.

The blast was loud enough to crack Heaven.

A backdraft of near hurricane force sent clouds skittering and bumping every which way. Lilli landed flat on her back. For a stunned moment, she lay atop a bouncing cloud with her arms and legs out like a snow angel.

Slowly the dark smoke from the blast settled around her. She blew a hank of silver-blond hair out of her face and blinked a few times, then found herself staring up into the Heavenly sky. She wiggled her toes first, then moved her arms and legs.

No ... Nothing broken.

She sat up quickly. Her halo slipped down over her eyes. She shoved it back into place, then quickly tugged down her robe so her bare legs were again covered.

Like falling snowflakes, three pearlescent wing feathers floated in front of her. She looked over her shoulder and frowned down at her crumpled wings. She rolled her shoulders, shimmied slightly, then fluttered her wings to get the kinks out of her feathers.

She heard a muffled squeal and whipped around. "Florida? Is that you?"

There was another muffled grunt.

"Where are you?"

Nearby, two bare feet suddenly popped out from within a dark cloud.

"Oh. There you are."

The feet kicked in the air a few times, then disappeared in the motion of a somersault. Florie's dark head popped into view, and with Lilli's help she crawled out of the dark cloud, kneeling there for a second, her wings tilted downward while she coughed.

Lilli patted Florie's back gently until she stopped coughing and flung her head up. She stared at Lilli from dazed eyes. "What happened?"

"Nothing."

Florida turned back around and froze, staring horrified toward the west. "Oh, no! Something did happen." She pointed. "Look what you've done now!"

Lilli turned around and almost died—again.

"You've broken the Pearly Gates!"

Lilli covered her eyes with both hands and groaned, then slowly opened her fingers and peered through.

Her stomach dropped. To somewhere near her bare toes. Slowly she stood and walked toward her latest disaster, with Florie "tching" and trailing right behind her. She stopped, unable to think, to speak. She could only stare.

The entrance to the most hallowed place in the universe was in complete shambles. The gates hung at cockeyed angles from their twenty-four-karat gold hinges, which had been shattered in half, their golden pins bent like boomerangs.

The gates, which were originally in the shape of an angel's wings, were meant to meet in the center, where a diamond-encrusted lock held them in perfect symmetry.

"Where's the lock?" Florie whispered.

Lilli stared down at her feet, where diamond dust winked like bits of sand amid cracked pieces of precious pearl. Chewing on her lower lip, she pointed. "I think it's there." She had a sick feeling. "Somewhere."

Florie bent down and scraped together the dust.

"That's all that's left?" Lilli gave the small pillar of white dust an uneasy glance.

Florie nodded.

"It looks like Lot's wife."

"Saint Peter's going to be mad enough to spit lightning. And can you imagine"—she leaned closer and whispered—
"His
reaction? You'll get the worst punishment yet. It might even be worse than the time Saint Peter made you polish all those silver linings."

"Well," Lilli said in a rush, "He can't punish me if He doesn't know who did it." She spun around, gripping her long gown in her fists. "Come on! Follow me!" And she took off at a full run.

"Wait!"

"Hurry, Florie!" Lilli called out over her shoulder. "Or He'll think you did it!"

All the color drained from Florida's face. Quick as a wink, she fluttered after Lilli.

Wings shimmying, they leapt from one cloudbank to another, until Lilli found the perfect hiding spot deep inside a plump cumulus cloud, where glittering icicles framed a silver lining. She grabbed Florie's hand and dragged her inside.

Florie glanced around with an uncertain look. "Do you think Saint Peter will find us?"

"Of course not. This is the perfect place. I found it when I spent those months silver polishing. No one thinks there's a lining in this cloud."

"You're certain?"

"I hid in here the last time."

"Oh." Florie paused, then gave her a knowing look. "The time you were trying to fly and ran headfirst into Jacob's ladder."

Lilli hung her head. "If only all the archangels hadn't been standing on it at the time."

"Gabriel still has a tweak in his halo."

"I know. I've never been able to look him in the eye again." Lilli looked at her friend and after a quiet moment admitted, "Well, you know . .. that wasn't exactly the time I was talking about."

She stared at Lilli with suspicious eyes. "What else have you done?"

"You promise never to tell?"

Florie nodded solemnly.

"Cross your heart and hope to die?"

"I already am dead."

Lilli squirmed for a second, then said, "So am I, but if they ever find out about those ancient scrolls ..."

"You lost the scrolls? The sacred scrolls?"

She nodded.

"How could you lose the scrolls?"

"Well, I didn't exactly lose them."

Florie just stared at her.

"I dropped them," Lilli admitted.

"Where?"

Lilli's face took on a sick look. "Deep in the Dead Sea."

Florie's mouth hung open.

"I just wanted to move them . . . out of the way. Then I tripped." After a long silent second, Lilli raised her chin, a hopeful look on her face. "But someone will find them ... someday."

Florie gave her a skeptical glance, then shivered. She craned her neck around the long frosted icicles that framed the entrance and looked outside. "You're certain no one can see us in here?"

Lilli patted her friend's hand reassuringly. "Trust me. Look: See how our wings blend with the sparkling ice and silver? And our robes are white. My hair is so light blond that it won't show."

She looked at Florie's dark hair and frowned. "Well, in your case, just keep your head down." She shoved Florie's head under her wing.

A moment later Florie sneezed. She sniffed and rubbed her nose.

"Are you that cold?"

"No. It was just one of these." She held up one of Lilli's wing feathers.

Lilli's face fell a little.

Florie gave Lilli's wing feathers a reassuring stroke. Four more feathers fell out. "You can't help it if you're the only angel with a molting season."

Lilli rested a chin in her hand and her wings drooped.

"I believe that's why you have so much trouble flying."

Lilli gave a huge sigh. "But I can't blame molting feathers for the reason I can't sing one heavenly note, or play the trumpet, or perform a miracle."

There was a long lapse of telling quiet, until, in the distance, came the lovely lyrical sound of harp music. It grew louder and louder. And closer.

Florie gasped, and both angels ducked down.

"Glo ... oh-oh-oh ... oh-oh-oh ... oh-oh-oh ... ria!
In ex-cel-seees dey-ohhh," sang a group of clarion-clear voices.

"Shhhh!" Lilli raised a finger to her lips as they huddled closer together. "It's a chorus of archangels."

There was a loud
clunk
and the angels stopped singing right in front of Lilli's hiding spot. Both novices were so still they barely breathed.

There was another
plunk,
then a sharp
boing!

A tall regal archangel named Mesopotamia flinched and looked over her shoulder. "Are those your harp strings breaking, Israfel?"

Another shorter angel nodded, frowning at her golden harp. "Four of them have broken just this moment. Look."

The archangels stared at the harp. One by one, five more harp strings snapped.

There was a long pause, then Mesopotamia glanced around. "If I didn't know better, I'd think that Lillian was around here somewhere."

All the archangels scanned the surrounding clouds while Lilli and Florie huddled in frightened silence.

A second later there was a huge crash of lightning. Then another.

Everyone froze.

"My gates!" Saint Peter's thunderous roar echoed through Heaven. "My
gates!"

There was an eternal moment of silence. Then ...

"
Lillian
!"

Lilli blanched.

"Lill-lee-UNN!
Come here! Immediately!"

"Uh-oh," Florie whispered.

"Shhhhh. He can't possibly find us."

Saint Peter shouted her name again. And again. Louder.

An icicle broke, landing with a tinkle at Lilli's feet. For a brief moment there was utter stillness.

A burst of light flashed through Heaven, so strong, so brilliant it made the sun dim. The walls of Jericho didn't hit the ground as quickly as Lilli and Florie tumbled onto the cloud floor, their arms over their heads. All around them, icicles shattered like broken glass.

A moment later, the entire cloud dissipated.

In unison, Lilli and Florida both uncovered their heads and looked up, right into the censorious and knowing eyes of Saint Peter. Taller than the tree of life, he stood before them, glowering, his arms crossed and one gold-sandaled foot tapping impatiently.

Her lip between her teeth, Lilli raised one hand and waved her fingers. "Hello, sir."

He was rigidly silent.

"You know," she said, sitting up quickly, "I was just thinking about you ..."

His eyes narrowed.

"In fact, I had just said to Florie, 'Florie?' I said, 'I'll bet Saint Peter is looking for us, and he'll
never
find us.' Didn't I?" She jabbed Florie with an elbow, and wide-eyed Florie nodded her head like a woodpecker.

She raised her eyes to meet his. "How did you find us?"

Saint Peter held up a handful of her molting feathers and let them spill from his hand. He watched her from eyes too intelligent for comfort. "Someone has destroyed the gates to Heaven."

"You mean while we were in here, the Pearly Gates—your Pearly Gates, those precious Pearly Gates—were actually broken? How in the name of Heaven could that have happened? Stray lightning? Celestial phenomenon? The Big Bang theory?"

Saint Peter reached out and plucked something from her tangle of blond hair. He held it out in front of her.

It was a piece of pearl. She winced.

Saint Peter clasped his hands behind his back and began to pace. "You have been forbidden to attempt any more miracles." He turned quickly and pinned her with a dark and knowing stare. "I assume that is what you were doing."

She nodded.

He paced again. "I thought as much. Angels are supposed to protect, guard, and educate the human race." He paused in front of her. "Not. . . wipe it out of existence."

Lilli stared at her toes and whispered, "I didn't try to make it rain again. Not after all that lightning . . ." She shuddered. "... And the fire in Rome." She slowly raised her face and looked him in the eyes. "I would never do that again."

He was silent for so long she almost couldn't bear it. She needed him to believe her. He had to believe her. She meant no harm. She never meant to do any harm. She stared at her bare toes again.

After eternal minutes he took a deep breath.

She waited to hear her punishment.

"I'm afraid there is nothing I can do for you this time."

Lilli's head shot up. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," he said.

Florie gasped, "No!"

All the archangels began to whisper and mutter. Lilli stood there, stunned, unable to move, unable to speak.

"Please sir," Florie begged. "She didn't mean to do it. Please."