(no subject)

[xiphias]

So this story just popped into my head. It's really just a first draft, so if anyone wants to offer any suggestions, feel free.

I guess a lot of people don't realize this, but the Rapture already happened. It was a couple weeks ago, a Tuesday morning, about two-thirty, three o'clock in the morning. I only know about it because I had insomnia, and had gotten kind of stir-crazy, and gone for a walk.

I was just kind of wandering around downtown, and then there was this angel, about twenty, thirty feet tall, glowing bright enough you couldn't look at it directly, and it really hurt your eyes even if you squinted and looked away. Its voice was like an entire symphony orchestra, all tuning up at once, but kind of good. When it spoke, all the car alarms around went off.

I started going through every religion I knew -- the Sh'ma, Lord's prayer, Hare Krishna -- Hare Rama -- anything I could think of. Just, y'know, to be on the safe side.

It was being subtle, see. That's really about as far as an angel can dial itself down, y'know?

It wasn't talking to me, but I just happened to be there. But then there were a whole bunch of other people there, too. Not THAT many, and I only recognized a couple of them.

Now, when I say, "the angel said," you have to understand -- it didn't really SAY anything. It's just that, you kind of knew what the idea was, and you kind of knew that it was the angel's idea, and all the glass around the neighborhood rattled in the windowpanes when it did that. But the glass didn't shatter -- like I said, it was being as quiet as it could manage.

Anyway, it told them -- not me, but I could listen in -- that they were the "elect", and would be taken up to Heaven bodily, now, and be spared the tribulations that would follow.

The woman next to me -- she was about forty, and had some pretty amateurish dental work -- said, "For THAT, you woke us up? Listen, I got to be at work in, like, five hours. I'm going back to bed," and she started to walk off.

The angel spoke again, telling her that she had earned a place in Heaven with the angels, and it was time for her eternal reward.

"Yeah, right. Now I'm going home. My daughter's still at work, so I gotta be home if my granddaughter wakes up."

Another fellow began to walk off. Maybe sixty, Chinese or maybe Korean, kind of stringy gray hair, kind of overweight.

And the crowd began to break up.

I never seen an angel look nonplussed before. Actually, I never seen an angel before, but I could tell what was happening. Angels really don't get the whole "free will" thing, so it was totally unprepared for this.

I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but, frankly, angels are totally unprepared for anything unexpected. Because, for them, everything is expected. Y'know, they know what is going to happen, so what's to unexpect? But, of course, free will messes with that whole thing.

Angels can't beg, and can't express uncertainty. They can't feel uncertainty, but this one seemed to be trying to figure out how. A black kid, maybe sixteen or seventeen, had a nose ring and an earring connected by a chain, turned back to the angel. "I don't want you to think I'm ungrateful or anything. I mean, thank you for the offer and all. It's just, I got stuff to do."

A woman who looked as much like a yuppie as someone possibly can at two-thirty in the morning said, looked uncomfortable. She didn't look like the kind of person who liked to have to explain herself. "You said tribulations would be coming." She shrugged, and walked off.

Comments

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

I can see that it needs polishing, but it's a great idea and a pretty good first draft!

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Hey!

There is *definetely* an awesome idea in there, and good language too. I like the description of the angel.