11Lament of the Angel
As the sunrise stretched across the sky and the Morning Star glinted like ice trapped in pastel silk, he sat on a park bench that was encrusted with ice and watched the world awaken. He used to be on the opposite end of that sight to behold. He used to reside in heaven, land of beauty and of peace. But all he felt was turmoil.
She had been his charge and her name was Stasha Quenlan. She had hair as golden as rays of sunlight woven and pulled to silk, eyes like the greenest fields in early spring and a heart that could love a murderer and a mother all in the same beat of her heart.
She was one of the Almighty's children and he never should have fallen in love.
A woman sat down beside him, jarring him from his thoughts. She smiled a lovely, carefree smile that seemed to melt the ice and sow around her. She seemed familiar some how, like Stasha. Like one who could see the goodness in anyone. He became bitter at the thought.
To him, it was all his fault that Stasha had died. If he hadn't been her protector, if he had had more training, then maybe it wouldn't have happened. He heard a bell tinkle somewhere close, delicate with the sound of a small glass figurine smashing as it falls to the floor. he gazed in wonder at the women who sat beside him. Then he realized who she was.
"Yes, young angel." She smiled and the bitterness disappeared in the onslaught of love, "I couldn't just throw one of my children away to survive on their own, could I?"
He gazed at her in astonishment, eyes blinking back tears, "My Lord?"
"She brushed fingertips across his cheek lovingly, "Yes. It is."
His emotions broke loose, tears trailing down his face in the frigid air, "I'm sorry," He blurted, " I should have listened. You told met hat angels weren't allowed to experience emotions because they were human weaknesses. But I didn't listen. And then when I became a mortal and was allowed to experience it, i ...i couldn't handle it." He wiped his face, "Stasha's dead. "
The women nodded slowly, "I know, my child. It wasn't your fault. She was mortal, as are the ones you watched last night. All mortals experience love, companionship, a sense of bonding with their true mate for only an instant in the eternity that is this world. We are eternal, and therefore must be as such without humanity. Humans live for only a time, a wink if you will, and can experience the relationships denied us more fully than we can." She sighed, "It was her time."
They sat there for a moment, then the women, The Lord turned toward the angel, her eternal child and said softly, "You have a choice, young one. You have experienced mortality and immortality both. All my children are able to leave Heaven, the eternal Palace of Eden, to experience this joyous world. And I give them each a choice." She looked away, "Would you like to stay here, as a mortal, or take on another charge and return to me in heaven?"
The angel looked at the ground for along moment. Then he answered, his voice full of sorrow, "If I return to Heaven, I would like to remember this pain as a testimony to my time here on earth as a mortal."
The Lord nodded solemnly, "It shall be done."