Mercy for the Fallen (22 page)

“I think it’s pretty,” Eve volunteered.  “And the rain tastes good.”  Her head tipped back as she caught the raindrops on her tongue. 

“There are souls here, you cannot see them from this height.  We are nearly there, and you shall see.”  That was all he’d say, but he did swoop lower, leading me through a break in the trees to thread through the massive things, going at a much slower pace.  It was darker under the canopy of trees, but also a lot less wet as the leaves sheltered us from the worst of the rain.  Following his glow of Grace proved easy enough though, and soon we came to land in the open arms of a ginormous tree, the limbs twisted and shored up with hand hewn boards to form an elaborate tree house. 

The large chamber was well protected by a dense layer of thatching in the branches above, leaving the floor smooth and dry, as well as the possessions he kept in the tree house.  Michael kept Eve in his arms as he shook off the worst of the water and tucked his wings away, lighting a series of oil lamps while I got my bearings. 

There were plenty of chairs, mostly next to end tables covered with books and writing implements, but no kitchen, no bathroom, and definitely no beds. 
This was going to be fun. 

“
You live here?” I asked.

“I do.”

“Super.”  I set down my pack, wringing the water out of my hair as I pulled my hoodie off and draped it across the back of a chair to dry. 

“You… do not approve?”  Michael looked puzzled.

“No, I think it’s peachy keen, jelly bean.  I guess I was expecting – I don’t know – walls, indoor plumbing, a front porch that didn’t involve Eve plummeting to her death…”

His chest puffed out a little.  “It hath served me well all the years of my life.”

“And I’m sure it’s great for someone of your interests.  But for a small girl, I’m afraid this is an accident waiting to happen.  Is there any way we can keep her someplace safer?”

“There is no other place here.”

“I thought you said there were people.”

“There are souls here, but they lead a simple life.  There is no other dwelling here.”

“So they live out there in the rain?  Man, I thought Heaven would be cooler than that.”  What a disappointment.

“This is not the final stage of ascension.  Those here are working for the right to move on.  Creature comforts are not part of His plan.”

Fair enough.  “Okay, then how are we going to keep her safe?”

Michael’s expression turned earnest as he looked into Eve’s eyes.  “Eve, you must not stray to the edge of the tree or thou wilt surely fall.  Does this stand to reason?”

“I understand, Michael,” she replied, just as solemnly.  “What about toys, do you have any toys?”

He looked at me helplessly, and I remembered my pack.  “I have a few things here, Bunny.  Your penguin…”

“Puffy!” she cried with delight, snatching the fat plushie out of my arms. 

“A few books.  Your ponies.”

Ignoring the plastic ponies entirely, she looked at the books with interest that quickly faded.  “These are baby books.  Do you have any books I can read here?”  Her head craned to get a look at the stack on the table nearest her, but Michael quickly nipped that in the bud.

“These books are not meant for human eyes.”

“Where have I heard that before?” I muttered.  Not that either of our eyes were strictly human, but… “I’m sure you’ll find these kind of boring, but I could tell you some stories, or maybe you could share some of the ones Isobel used to tell you.  We can write them down and make our own books if you want to.”  I didn’t care what we did together, I only wanted to get to know the little girl my daughter had become. 

Over the next couple of days
Michael provided food for us – fruits and nuts, and the occasional breakfast burrito when he took a quick trip back to Earth.  I thought Eve would balk at the simple fare, but she took to it with relative ease.  I didn’t want to ask what passed for food in Githa. 

I knew I had to start working on a plan to camouflage her Grace, but every time I mentioned leaving, Eve attached herself to my hip and wouldn’t let go.  I didn’t have it in me to leave her behind, not when she was barely getting used to me again.  After a while she stopped clinging to me at every turn, and I learned to sleep again without the need to hold her in my arms for every second of the night. 

Michael left us alone for the most part, but I caught him looking in our direction more than once when he was holed up with a book or a sketch pad.  After
Eve complained to me that she liked Hell better than his realm, a few interesting books began to pop up after his supply runs to Earth.  Content with a stack of the Narnia books and a case of Scooby Snacks, she stopped complaining and a comfortable truce settled between the three of us.  Michael was still crazy formal, but the more time he spent with us, the more I noticed the thees and thous dropping from his vocabulary. 

I woke up once to find him dangling her off the side of the platform, offering small words of encouragement before he let go.  After my heart jumped back into my ribcage, I realized there was a network of branches below, forming a cradle of sorts.  After handing her down, he crept in beside her, the tree swaying slightly as they rocked, safe in its embrace.  In soft tones, he explained to Eve that if she was patient, she would spot the penitents below.  So far beneath us, the only things visible were the soft glow of souls, moving in the night. 

They lay among the branches together for hours at a time, watching the souls like colorful fireflies in the distance.  Sometimes he explained what the colors meant, and sometimes he was silent as she chattered on about some completely random thing, the way kids do.  

Eve grew to enjoy the quiet solitude – that was slowly driving me kazoo.  Not that I didn’t enjoy spending time with my daughter, but the idle pace was killing me.  Every day we spent there was another day away from Parker, another day for Lucifer to figure out where she was and scheme how to get at her. 

It was easy to lose track of time when each day was exactly the same as the one before.  When I realized that nearly a month had passed I had to draw the line, I couldn’t put it off any longer.  After discussing it briefly with Michael and making sure he had enough supplies to last for a few days, I sat down with Eve to say goodbye.

“
I don’t want you to go again, Momma,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck. 

“I know, I’m sorry, Bunny.  I don’t want to go either.  But I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Why can’t you stay a little while longer?”

“Because it’s already been a long time and everybody’s got to be pretty worried about us.  This was only supposed to be temporary, remember?  I need to let them know we’re okay, and figure out how to keep you safe in the real world.  You don’t want to stay here the rest of your life, do you?”

Eve looked over the open air tree house that had become her home.  “It’s not so bad.  Especially when Michael brings more books and hot dogs.”

“Ah, but there are all the books and hot dogs you can eat waiting for you back home.  That’s worth figuring this out for, isn’t it?”  

“You can’t eat books, Momma,” she said solemnly before breaking into giggles as I tickled under her chin. 

“You know what I meant, silly rabbit.  But you miss Daddy, right?  And Uncle Adam and Nelo too.”

That sobered her up.  “Oh… I almost forgot about Nelo.”

“I promise, I’ll be back as soon as I can.  In the meantime, you behave, and only go to the edge of the tree when Michael is right there and can watch over you.”

“He’s always watching me, or he’ll get fired from being my guardian angel.”

“Well, make sure he’s paying attention.  Sometimes he’s too sucked into his books.  You know how he gets.”

“I will.”

“I will keep her safe at all costs,” Michael pledged, his face solemn. 

“You’d better.  Or God help you when I catch up to you.”  It was more of a promise than a threat, angel or no angel.

I gave Eve a long hug, and waved goodbye, doing my best not to cry until I left the tree house behind.  The rain enveloped me as soon as I pierced the canopy of trees, the gray drizzle matching my mood perfectly as I felt my way to the gate high in the sky. 

There was nothing obstructing my way as I left Michael’s domain, but as soon as I reached the corridor to Heaven, as I’d started to think of it in my mind, I felt the pull to rise higher. 
Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…
the same mantra got me through the worst of it, my determination to return to Earth forcing the urge to rise aside.

Then it was as if I’d passed through some unseen barrier.  The celestial light dimmed, the yearning to chuck it all and visit the great beyond disappeared, and I cut through the sky like a hot knife through butter.  I fell, plummeting faster and faster, so that my eyes couldn’t track what I saw.  I’d only traveled this fast before with Adam or Michael to guide me, but I trusted my instincts to carry me safely home.

Sweet Jesus, were they way off.

Chapter Twenty-Two

When I opened my eyes (previously squinched tightly shut out of self preservation at the cloud of dust that arose once I hit the ground), I found myself standing in the middle of a barren vineyard.  The plants were stunted and black, the ground around me sunken in a shallow crater from the force of my impact.  My clothes were covered in a thick layer of dust. 
I guess I should’ve slowed down.
 

As far as I knew, there were no old vineyards like that near Seattle, and the weather was way too hot for that time of year anyway. 

And that’s when I remembered the time difference. 

In the weeks that had passed up on Ma’on, months must have passed on Earth, which made the stifling heat understandable. 
Man, Parker was gonna kill me.
  There wasn’t anything I could do about it now though, except get to him and apologize with plenty of awesomeness.  Stripping off my hoodie, I found a scrunchie in its pocket and pulled my hair up before taking to the sky again, searching for a familiar landmark. 

Nothing looked familiar though, no sign of Seattle’s high rises, or the Sound.  Nothing but rolling hills, and in the far distance, the ocean, on the wrong side of the land.  Where the hell was I?

Making sure I was hidden from sight, I flew higher, aiming for a small town in the distance.  It was dinkier thank I’d thought at first, with a single main street, and nothing above three stories high.  The most activity I saw was around a drive through liquor store boasting a sale on West End beer.  Linke’s Central Meat Store didn’t give me much of a clue, neither did Barossa Betta Electrical. 

The smell of hot, greasy food derailed my investigation of where I was, as my mouth started to water.  Nuriootpa Chicken Barn and Deli beckoned to me, diverting me to the glass door which opened with a jingle.  There was no way to mask the sound, so I quickly tucked away my wings and stepped inside, offering a big smile to the red faced man behind the counter. 

“G’day, miss.  What do you reckon?  Chicken and chips?  We’ve a new Asian salad if you’re wanting something lighter.”

Holy shit, I was in Australia? 

Chips was fries, right?  “Um, chips please,” I smiled, my stomach rumbling with a vengeance.  I know, I should’ve had something more healthy, at least with some protein in it, but after roughing it in the tree for weeks, I craved some good old fashioned grease.  

“Good on ya, I’ll have her for you straight away.”  As he turned to the deep fryer, I studied the posters on the wall with interest.  If the cheap prints could be believed, I was somewhere in the Barossa Valley of South Australia.  Talk about taking a wrong turn…

“That’ll be two dollars fifty,” he smiled, pushing a newspaper wrapped parcel across the counter at me. 

“Right,” I smiled, pulling out my wallet.  The trouble was… I didn’t have any Australian currency.  “I don’t suppose you’ll take US dollars?”

The smile grew more forced as I could see his natural helpfulness warred with his business sense.  “Not really.  There’s a bank can change it for you, round the corner.  You’d best hurry though, they close in fifteen.”

I really wanted those chips. 

The next thing I knew, I’d frozen him in place, and I stood, standing over the counter, stuffing my face with hot fries.  They were greasy and salty and just about the best thing I could remember putting into my mouth, maybe ever.  Ravenous, I ate every last chip before the newspaper had a chance to soak through with grease.  Only when I stood mopping my hands and face up with napkins, did I start to breathe normally again, the food frenzy over.  

I felt bad about dining and dashing, so I stuck a twenty dollar US bill into the tip jar before I made myself dim and snuck out of there before the guy unstuck.  Don’t judge me, it wasn’t one of my proudest moments. 

My stomach pleasantly full of fried potatoes, I flew out of there, going much slower this time as I tried to orient myself.  Seeing as how my instincts sucked ass, I relied on basic geography to lead me in the right direction.  The trip was much slower this time but I gladly sacrificed speed for the security of knowing I was headed for home this time.

It was many hours later that I first spotted the familiar sights of Mount Rainier, then the Puget Sound, and finally the sweet stench of urban decay – the unique smell of Seattle in the rain.  I was heartened to find it nice and cold in Seattle, I must not have missed all that much time after all.