Guardian Angel
Mark Warner coughed harshly and rolled out of bed. Glancing up, he noticed the billowing clouds of dark gray smoke. As he gasped for air, Mark stood up long enough to turn the doorknob and force open the door to his bedroom. Waves of intense heat scalded his face and burned his exposed, squinting eyes.
He crawled out into the hall and reached for the rail on the stairs next to his bedroom. The burning floor began to collapse beneath him and he pitched forward. Mark rolled down the stairs and landed in a heap at the bottom, unconscious.
Mark woke up outside, lying on the cool, green grass with a light drizzle splashing on his face. Glancing around, he spotted his burning house thirty feet away, and leaning over him was a stranger.
The man had on an all-white suit and white shoes, smudged with black, presumably from the fire. He had a slight hunchback and wore a yellow visor, like a golfer or bank-teller.
“I saved you from the fire. Are you hurt?” the stranger asked in concern. His soft voice sang and rippled like a harp, but was decidedly masculine.
Mark sat up, and after a moment of dizziness, he examined himself. The burns he discovered were no worse than a sunburn and were only on his arms and face.
“I should be fine, unless I broke something when I fell,” he replied.
“Good. Let me help you stand up,” said the stranger, extending his hand.
As Mark took hold of the hand, his fingers brushed against the fabric of the man’s apparel. It was incredibly soft, exceeded only by the touch of a lover. Along with its softness it brought feelings of purity and wholesomeness. After he had stood up and released the hand, Mark’s fingers felt numb without the contact, so he touched the cloth again.
“Who are you?” Mark asked as the man smiled.
“I am Paul, your guardian angel,” was the answer.
“Well, thanks for pulling me out of there,” Mark said gratefully. He released the fold of fabric he had been caressing, and stepped away. He’s a lunatic, Mark thought to himself.[1] He probably dressed like that to keep himself convinced. He must have been just waiting for a chance like this to attach himself to someone and complete the illusion. I’ll probably never be able to get rid of him.
A section of the roof collapsed and Mark turned around in horror.
“My family is still in there! You have to do something, please!”
“I’m sorry,” Paul explained morosely, “the Lord has need of them. I have been commanded not to interfere. I am only here to protect you.”
Then Paul’s body slowly faded away and was overpowered by the glare of his bedroom light.
“Wake up, Mark, breakfast is ready!” cried his mother as she opened the door. His brother, Alex, was already up and getting dressed.
“Hurry up, Mark. We’re supposed to go on our hike today!” urged Alex.
“Hike?” Mark asked in confusion, still caught up in the dream.
“You two are going up on the mountain for the day,” laughed his mother. “Unless you want to stay and help me clean at Grandma’s house.”
After Mark and Alex got ready and ate breakfast, their mother drove them across town to their grandmother’s house. She began mowing the lawn while they started hiking.
Hours later, as Mark wiped the sweat from his eyes, he noticed an old, rusty car, up the next hill, almost straight up the mountain from the sheer cliff they had just hiked around. He pointed it out to Alex and they agreed to hike up and take a look at it.
“I wonder how it got here,” Alex remarked as they arrived near the car.
“Probably rolled off the service road up there, and no one bothered to come get it. Look how rusty it is, must have happened years ago,” declared Mark.
Alex climbed into the front seat and began bouncing around, pretending to drive at high speeds.
“Let’s have lunch. I’m so hungry, I nearly bit you on the way up,” said Mark as he removed his backpack. As he set it down, his canteen fell out and rolled under the car.
Mark laid down on his back, pulled himself under the car, and retrieved it. The ground was close to the bottom of the car, so Mark had to use his feet to push on the car’s innards to get out. But as he tried to pull his foot out it caught on something and nothing he did would release it.
“Hey, Alex, my foot is stuck. Come and help me get it loose, and then we can eat.”
All of his bouncing had dislodged the car, and as Alex leaped from the car, it started to roll. Mark grabbed onto the car and pulled himself up to keep from dragging on the ground.
“What do I do?” yelled Alex desperately as he ran next to the ancient vehicle as it gained up speed.
“Get in and push on the brakes! Stop the car!” Mark returned.
“I can’t! The pedals are missing!” Alex cried.
Mark screamed and began pulling desperately on his caught leg. Glancing up he could see the edge of the cliff racing towards him. With tears streaming down his face, Mark tried pulling on his leg again, but it was futile.
Looking up again he stared at the onrushing ledge and began to pray. With seconds to spare before going over, strong hands grabbed Mark under the arms and pulled him easily to safety.
After laying in the grass for a moment, Mark looked up and saw Alex running as hard as he could over the top of the hill. Upon seeing him okay, Alex began yelling happily. Mark waved to Alex, to show him he was uninjured, and tried to find his rescuer. But there was no one in sight, except Alex, and he was too far away to have done anything.
Mark crawled over to the cliff and glanced down. A fireball sought its way lazily upward through the atmosphere. Above the smoking flames, floating down through the air, slowly spinning, was a yellow visor.[2] And echoing back and forth through the small side canyons was the musical sound of a harp.
“I saved you from the fire. Are you hurt?”
Notes:
[1] This is a rookie mistake. Unless you can project your thoughts, of course you think things to yourself!
[2] This is the only part of the dream that I still remember: the yellow visor floating down the side of the cliff.
Image attributions:
Obsidian Cliff, Yellowstone is by Bryant Olsen (Foot-On-The-Hill), available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/22837563@N08/2779915922.
Grose Valley cliff is by freeaussiestock.com, available at http://freeaussiestock.com/free/New South Wales/bluemountains/slides/grose valley cliff.htm.
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