The Ether

by Laurice Elehwany Molinari

  “Am I . . . ?” Vero began.

  The man quickly cut him off.

  “Yes, Vero. You are a guardian angel.”

  9

  THE ETHER AND BACK

  As Vero sat on the ground, his wings smoothly retracted inside his back with a slight popping sensation, almost like when Vero cracked his knuckles.

  “Did I just do that?” Vero asked.

  The man nodded.

  “Where did my wings go?”

  “They’re hidden once again until you learn to handle them better. It takes time. But soon you’ll be able to control them as easily as you move your arm.”

  With his left hand, Vero reached around and felt his back.

  “My shirt’s not ripped!”

  “It mends itself each time.”

  “Are you a guardian angel too?” Vero asked the man.

  The man shook his head and sat down next to Vero.

  “I’m an archangel . . . Uriel.” He looked at Vero expectantly, one eyebrow raised over his violet eyes and a slight grin on his face.

  Uriel? Then it dawned on Vero, and he blushed guiltily.

  “Yes, your paper on Paradise Lost. You pinned the whole expulsion from the garden on me.”

  “Well, I meant . . . uh, I didn’t mean you were like drinking on the job or anything like that . . . ”

  “Gee thanks,” Uriel’s words dripped with sarcasm. “It’s not so easy recognizing the Wicked One. He’s the master of deception.”

  His words rattled Vero back to the memory of the two frightening creatures that had chased him earlier.

  “So who was chasing me?”

  “Those were two of the Wicked One’s minions. He sent them after you.”

  “But why me?”

  “Because you’re good. The Wicked One hates anything good. He wants to destroy all that is good.”

  “But now that I’m dead, he can’t come after me, right?”

  “Yes, he can,” Uriel said. “And you’re not really dead.”

  “But I fell from a nine-story building!” Vero protested. Vero thought of his mom and dad back on earth, probably wondering and worrying over where he was. Then Vero thought of Clover, her face in the bedroom window, the rainy days spent indoors, her mortified look as the bus drove off without him. The thought of Clover all on her own brought a well of emotions bubbling to the surface until Vero felt tears forming in his eyes. Vero held his face in his hands, embarrassed.

  Uriel knelt before Vero and removed his hands from his face. Vero lifted his head and met Uriel’s gaze. His face seemed softer.

  “Vero, you are made of the Spirit. And nothing of the Spirit can ever die.”

  Uriel stood beside Vero as he stroked the lion’s head; his eyes were fixed on the puffy clouds above. Vero watched as they molded into the shape of a lion. Then just as quickly, they changed into a single cloud that resembled Clover’s face. The clouds then shaped themselves into a huge question mark. Uriel chuckled when he saw the perplexed look on Vero’s face.

  “Uriel, how . . . ?”

  “You’re doing that with your thoughts,” he explained.

  “I was thinking it was so cool that I was petting a lion. But then I wished Clover could also pet him, and then I wondered how the clouds knew what I was thinking. Everything here is amazing. How can this not be heaven?”

  Uriel chuckled. “You obviously haven’t seen heaven.”

  “Seriously?” Vero must have looked as astonished as he felt because Uriel laughed again. “Don’t get me wrong. These parts of the Ether are wonderful; but Vero, this is our battleground. The Ether is where we fight our spiritual battles.”

  “I don’t understand,” Vero said.

  “The Ether is the spiritual realm that surrounds the earth. Lucifer and his evil followers also dwell here. They do everything in their power to destroy man, or at least what’s good about man, and we do everything in our power to stop them.”

  “So where’s your sword? Don’t angels have swords?” Vero asked.

  “Only when needed.” Uriel began walking across the field. Vero followed.

  “But guardian angels protect people, right?”

  “Yes,” Uriel replied.

  “Is that what I’ll be doing from now on?”

  Vero watched as a flock of angels flew overhead.

  “You will be trained first,” Uriel explained. “You won’t become a full guardian until you have completed your training. Then, once your training is complete, you will choose your destiny.”

  “I thought this was my destiny?”

  “An angel is who you are. However, your destiny will be determined by the decisions you make.”

  “But . . . ”

  “Vero, you were created with the gift of free will.” Uriel stopped walking, grabbed Vero’s shoulders, and looked very intently into his eyes. “At some point, we all have to choose between the light or the darkness.”

  “But I’m an angel, and angels are always good.”

  Uriel dropped his hands from Vero’s shoulders. “Lucifer was once the most glorious of angels and loved by God. But when he fell, one-third of the angel ranks went with him. One-third chose to live outside the Light.”

  Vero pondered what Uriel said. The idea of the angels falling into darkness terrified him. What if that was his destiny? Would he really need to make that choice?

  “Don’t be frightened,” Uriel said, placing his hand over Vero’s heart. “A pure heart will never lead you astray.”

  Uriel removed his hand. “Now it’s time for you to go back.”

  Vero raised his eyebrows, “Back where?”

  “To earth, of course.”

  “I’m not staying here?”

  “You will return for your training,” Uriel said. “But for now, you are to go back to your family. Don’t you miss them?”

  Suddenly, a wave of homesickness swept over Vero. He looked to Uriel, crestfallen, “I know I was adopted, but I guess now my mom and dad really aren’t my family anymore — ”

  “Your family is the people you love,” Uriel cut him off.

  “Do I have angel parents?” Vero asked.

  “No, angels don’t have children. Just as God is everyone’s Father, so it is the same for us.”

  “But what if I no longer fit in down on earth?”

  “Why wouldn’t you?”

  Vero spread his arms wide and said, “Because after all of this, do you think I can just sit down with my family and have a normal dinner? Should I ask Clover to pass me the milk and add, ‘Oh, and by the way, I just happen to be a guardian angel’? Is that what you expect me to do?”

  “Don’t ever tell anyone,” Uriel said sternly. “I stopped you once already in the psychiatrist’s office. I sent that ambulance when you were about to mention the malture in the car.”

  “You did that?” The psychiatrist’s office seemed like another lifetime ago.

  Uriel nodded, “We can never appear to humans in our angelic form unless God allows us.”

  “What’s a malture?”

  “Maltures are Satan’s creations — the evil fiends that tempt humans.”

  “How could Lucifer create anything?” Vero asked.

  “Well, he can’t create anything good. These maltures are an extension of his own evil and hatred. They have no souls.”

  Vero thought about the bus that day and what he’d witnessed. “That guy in the backseat of that car — he was a malture, wasn’t he? One of them was trying to crash that car into the bus!”

  Uriel nodded. “Yes, he was. I saw him too. And you did well, Vero . . . you have all the right instincts.”

  Vero smiled for what felt like the first time in a long time. I’m not crazy, he thought.

  “You instinctively protected and saved those kids — exactly what a guardian angel is supposed to do.”

  Suddenly Uriel’s eyes took on a faraway look. He was seeing something else.

  What is it? Vero wondered.

  Uriel tur
ned to Vero. “I have to go,” he said. “One of your fellow guardian angels is slacking off on the job and about to cause a ten-car pileup on a bridge.”

  “But I have a million more questions!” Vero protested.

  “Just recall the last normal thing you were doing before all of this happened, and then I’ll be in touch!”

  Colossal wings shot out from Uriel’s back. Uriel’s wings were more elaborate than the other angels’ wings, with outer feathers adorned in gold. A golden glow embraced Uriel as his wings created a gust of wind, knocking Vero to the ground.

  “Don’t worry, Vero, we’ll be watching you.”

  Then the wind stopped blowing, the glow disappeared, and Uriel was gone.

  Vero stood and looked out over the animals grazing in the lush fields. He closed his eyes and turned his face up to the sky, feeling the warmth of the light upon him. He wondered whether he would ever return to the Ether. Would he wake up in the morning and realize it had all been nothing but a dream?

  Vero tried to remember where he’d been before the craziness began. He pictured his mother and father sitting in Dr. Weiss’s office; but when he opened his eyes, he was still standing in the Ether. He closed his eyes once more and saw himself falling from the rooftop. He felt something wet on his cheek and opened his eyes. The lion was licking his face like a faithful dog. Vero stroked his mane.

  “I have to go,” he told the lion. “Hopefully, I’ll see you again.”

  Vero gave it one last shot. This time when he closed his eyes, he saw himself standing in the men’s room holding the Rubik’s Cube attached to the key. When he opened his eyes, he stood before the stall doors and the sinks. Fear gripped him as he remembered the hideous maltures. But when Vero looked under the stall doors, there was nothing there — no hooked claws. He surveyed the bathroom and saw no sign of his previous struggle. Everything was in order, including himself — no bruises, cuts, or scrapes. Even his ripped pant leg from where the malture had clawed him was now perfectly mended.

  Vero walked out of the bathroom and down the hallway. He opened Dr. Weiss’s office door. The waiting room was still empty — except for the fish swimming around in their protected little world. He returned the Rubik’s Cube key to the receptionist’s desk and collapsed in a chair, completely exhausted. He glanced at the clock and saw the big hand click to 11:31. No time had passed since he’d been to the Ether! How could that be?

  He heard his parents’ voices inside Dr. Weiss’s office. They were on their way out. And they had no clue that while they’d been discussing his mental state, Vero had been attacked by two maltures, fallen off a roof, died, gone to the Ether, discovered he was a guardian angel, and returned to earth good as new.

  As his parents opened the door, sweat trickled down Vero’s forehead. Would they suspect anything?

  His mom walked out and glanced at Vero with an odd expression on her face. Vero felt his heart drop into his stomach. She knew!

  But then she smiled warmly and said, “Vero, tie your shoelaces before you trip.”

  “I was thinking we could go get some burgers for lunch,” his dad announced.

  Seeing his parents standing there wearing their sensible shoes and winter parkas, their ordinariness deeply moved Vero, and he realized that ordinary was something he would never be again. He hugged both his parents, afraid to let them go. He feared that if he did, he’d be letting go of the only life he’d ever known.

  “It’s okay, Vero,” his dad reassured him. “You’re going to be all right.”

  But his words were of little comfort. Vero’s father had no idea that the boy he embraced wasn’t even human. And he certainly wouldn’t be able to protect his son from those maltures, should they ever return. All of it terrified him, but what scared Vero most of all was a question — would his parents still love him if they knew the truth?

  Dr. Weiss walked into the waiting room with Sprite nipping at her heels.

  “Hey now, don’t take it so hard,” Vero’s dad said as he ended the hug. “Dr. Weiss says you’ll be fine.”

  “We’re happy you told the whole truth,” Dr. Weiss said, patting Vero’s back.

  Vero caught his mother’s gaze. Her worried expression told him she knew there was more to the story.

  10

  THE BULLIES

  After his return from the Ether, Vero didn’t want to be around anyone. He was still trying to make sense of everything that had happened there, so he told his parents he didn’t feel well. They let him stay home from school the next day. And the next. And even the next. He also kept his distance from Clover — who probably didn’t even realize he was doing it — and he avoided Tack as well, except for a few online rounds of golf on the latest edition of The PGA Tour.

  Vero watched TV and played video games to dull his senses, but they proved to be only momentary distractions because his thoughts would always stray back to the Ether.

  The Ether had been beyond glorious. It was so amazing, in fact, that it was now difficult for him to be confined inside a two-story house. He knew the walls of the house no longer defined his home — his true home was the infinite space of the Ether.

  His parents loved him so much and had given him a wonderful home all these years, but he was beginning to feel like one of those birds in a cage at the pet store. The word confused couldn’t even begin to cover it. Vero was a mess. He eventually retreated to the privacy of his bedroom and spent most of the day lying on his bed and staring at the ceiling.

  His dad assumed he was upset and embarrassed by the bus incident. Being a nurse, his mom knew he had no fever or sore throat. She worried there was something else going on with him. But after a week of seclusion, both parents agreed he should return to school.

  School now felt like an exercise in futility. Vero knew he would learn more in five minutes with Uriel than all his teachers could teach him during an entire year of school. To make matters worse, Coach Randy continued to hound Vero about joining the track team. But he refused. With the bus incident still fresh in everyone’s minds, Vero didn’t want to draw any more attention to himself.

  Most kids avoided him, staying as far away as possible. When Vero walked down the hallway, it was like Moses parting a Red Sea of students. One day poor Nate scurried past him so fast that he wasn’t watching where he was going and smashed his head on the open door of a metal locker.

  When Vero tried to help him up, Nate stuttered, “No . . . no . . . I’m . . . uh . . . all good.”

  “It’s awesome that you have that kind of power,” Tack told Vero during lunch period.

  Vero and Tack were sitting at a table in the cafeteria with noticeably empty space all around them. Vero glanced around the room and met eyes with Danny, who then moved both his fists like he was grabbing a car steering wheel. His friends, Blake and Duff, laughed and pointed at Vero.

  Blake and Duff were big for their ages. They looked more like high school seniors than eighth graders, scruffy beards and all. Lately they seemed to follow Danny everywhere. But Vero rarely had to deal with them because Tack was usually at his side. No one wanted to mess with Tack who was equally big for his age, minus the beard.

  Vero turned back to Tack. “You wanna trade places?”

  “In a heartbeat,” Tack answered. “That’s real power when everyone is afraid of you.”

  Vero gave him a look.

  “Okay, well, at least you’re not being shoved into garbage cans or getting wedgies in the locker room anymore.”

  “Thanks,” Vero said. “That makes me feel so much better.”

  As Danny continued to mock Vero from across the cafeteria, his elbow accidentally knocked over his drink. Water spilled all over the table and onto Blake’s lap. He jumped up and headed for the restroom to get cleaned up. Duff followed him out the door, but not before sending Danny a menacing look over his shoulder.

  “See? It’s Karma,” Tack said. “Danny made fun of you and look what happened!”

  Davina quickly swooped
in with some napkins to help clean up the mess. With her trademark smile, she picked Danny’s cup off the floor and handed it to him. But her hand lingered near his for a split second too long, at least in Vero’s opinion.

  “Thanks,” Danny said. His face lit up when Davina sat next to him.

  Across the cafeteria, Vero watched with a jealous eye as Davina and Danny spent the rest of the lunch hour talking and laughing.

  “Some Karma,” Vero muttered to himself.

  By the end of the day, Vero was more than ready to leave school. Even though he was officially allowed back on the bus, his dad thought it might be better if he waited a few more days. So the buses all left without him. But by four o’clock, his father still hadn’t arrived.

  It was bitter cold outside, so Vero was waiting in the lobby, incessantly looking out the window for his dad’s car, while constantly sidestepping the janitor’s mop. It would be so great if he could just use his wings and fly home. It was totally unfair of Uriel to send him back to earth and expect him to act like nothing had ever happened.

  “Forget this,” Vero said. He shoved the door to the school open and trudged outside. The wintry air swept across his face and instantly invigorated him. He felt powerful. With a fierce determination, Vero walked around the side of the brick building. Scanning the area to make sure he was alone, he placed the palms of his hands against the wall of the school to brace himself. He knew the force of his wings could knock him to the ground. Vero closed his eyes tight, mustered up all his strength, and willed his wings to appear.

  Nothing happened.

  “Come on!” he shouted.

  So he tried even harder and with a fiercer resolve. Sweat dripped down his face despite the frigid air. Still no wings. He let out a yowl of frustration and banged his fist against the bricks.

  “Hey, nut job! What did that wall ever do to you?” Danny yelled from behind him.

  Could this get any better?

  Vero turned around and saw Danny and his two buddies, Duff and Blake, standing there. All three of them were smiling darkly.