Banished

by Billie Sue Mosiman

  “Hello, Diane. It's time for us to go.” Angelique stood, setting the empty cola bottle on the bench. She took Diane's hand and dictated the woman return to the car.

  “Of course, my dear,” the silly woman replied, letting herself be guided to the car at the curb. “I love ever so to go for long drives.”

  “Isn't that lucky.” Angelique moved to the front of the car, an old jalopy from Ford. “Let's get going then,” she said. “We don't have all day.”

  Diane finished settling her purse on the seat next to her, then put her hands on the wheel and her foot to the gas pedal. Angelique spun the crank on the front of the Model A Ford by force of thought alone and the car came to life, spitting smoke.

  “Do we have enough gas?” Angelique asked, once inside the car and settled in the passenger seat.

  “I filled it this morning, dear,” Diane said, backing into the street.

  The dusty little town dwindled behind them as Diane drove the child west. She didn't ask where they were going or why she should go at all. She was little more than a mechanical person, following instincts and impressions embedded deep into her mind.

  By morning of the next day they had reached Phoenix and Diane waved good-bye to the little girl she had let out in front of a rooming house. “Good-bye, good-bye, dear!”

  It was not until she was entering the town she'd left the day before, that Diane came to herself and began to shake as if she had palsy. She pulled over to the curb, let the car idle, and sat, hands gripping the steering wheel. She shook her head, tried to clear it. All she could remember was that she had meant to buy cloth, but had never purchased it, in fact she had never even entered the general store. She had...she had driven away and gone on a trip far away. Gone for what reason, she couldn't recall. Gone alone or with someone, she couldn't remember. But now she was back and thanking all the heavenly hosts she was home again. Her husband would be beside himself with worry over her disappearance. She must get home as quickly as possible!

  She must have lost her mind. But she would tell no one. No one, ever!

  On the way home she thought of a lie to tell her husband. She was still shaking. She wondered if she would ever trust herself again, trust her mind. Because now how could she?

  #

  Angelique entered the rooming house where Nisroc had stayed. She took a room, explaining her mother would be along shortly. She demanded to have the room she knew Nisroc had occupied. Once inside, she sat still on the bed, her legs dangling over the side. He had been happy here. If something terrible hadn't happened, he would be here even now.

  After a nap she would walk around and find the area of town where that terrible thing had happened. It might help point her in the direction he had gone when he left here.

  First she would strip and bathe herself. The long ride overnight left dust on her new clothes, lodged in her hair, and a film of it covering her black shoes. Once cleaned, she would lie on the bed in her underwear and rest. It was tiring to hold onto a human's mind for so many long hours. Diane had been an empty-headed woman, but still she had a will of her own. Keeping her under control and heading north to Phoenix hadn't been the easiest thing to accomplish. Angelique had only perfected this ability to control humans in the past year. She had had to practice and work at it endlessly, trial after trial on human after human. Still she couldn't hold onto them forever—or even for any certain length of time. It was a drain on her energy and it meant she had to concentrate with every particle of her being.

  And it was so boring! She cursed Nisroc for putting her through all this aggravation and annoyance. If only he hadn't fallen for that woman, Mary. If only she had intervened. She could have forced him to obey her. Truth to tell, she had been too busy trying to build a following among the Haitians, too busy trying to bring down more angels into lifeless bodies. Frustrated, angry, too full of her own priorities to deal with Nisroc, she had let him go his way—have his woman, love her if he could, stay in that doomed relationship until the human died on him. She even thought that would teach him a valuable lesson. He'd know then how fruitless it was to love these pitiable cretins.

  But something changed Nisroc and it had to be the woman. The woman she let him have for all those years. She didn't understand it, not for a minute. And she would not abide this disobedience if she had to spend a lifetime to scour the world to find him and make it right.

  CHAPTER 30

  THE TALL AND THE SMALL

  From where Jody swept the front sidewalk in front of Harper's General Store, he could see Nick down the street working on a two-story building that would become a casino. For some reason he felt better when he was with Nick or kept him within sight.

  Josh Harper, the son of Kendrick Harper, the store owner, was a tough, angry boy of nineteen. He was supposed to be shelving stock, but he had come to the doorway just to bully the midget his father had hired.

  “The broom's bigger than you are,” he said, standing stiffly, his thumbs hooked into pockets. He glared down at Jody.

  Jody had been beset by bullies all of his life. He knew the best thing to do was to keep silent. Aggressive boys like this could cause a lot of trouble.

  “You hear me, stump-boy?”

  Jody was twice the boy's age, but he only nodded to agree he had heard Josh.

  “I could have done the sweeping and cleaning up. I don't know why we needed you around here.”

  Jody moved down the sidewalk, hoping to put distance between himself and the boy. He glanced down the street and saw Nick standing, watching them, a hammer hanging loose in his hand near his thigh. I got this, Jody thought, wondering if the angel could read his thoughts.

  Finally Josh grew disgusted that he could not get a rise out of the little man and stomped back into the store.

  Jody smiled to himself. He saw Nick return to work, his back to the street.

  Before Jody could finish up his sweeping outside the store, a little girl about his own height skipped up the sidewalk toward him. She carried a short length of rope in one hand and swung it in a circle as she skipped. She stopped in front of Jody. He looked up from his work, a smile coming to his face, but when he saw the girl's eyes the smile died. She was angrier than Harper's son. She was so angry it was possible her mind was as tilted and spinning out of control as a falling ferriswheel.

  “Don't look at me that way, you monkey.” She deliberately swung the rope so that it struck him on the shoulder. He straightened, frowning at her.

  “What's wrong with you?” Jody asked. This was not the child from his nightmare. This was a true human. A defective one, to be sure, but no fallen angel.

  “What's wrong with you,” she countered, mimicking his voice. “I never saw such a little bitty man.”

  “I'm a midget. I was born this way.” He almost added, What happened to you and what's your excuse? Then decided not to.

  “I hate midgets,” she said. Again she swung the rope, stinging his shoulder. He stepped back.

  He realized this might not be a good town for him. Some places were that way. Most people had a prejudice against little people, but some towns had a disproportionate dislike for them. It seemed Reno might be one of those places.

  Beyond the girl Jody saw how once again Nick paused in his work and had turned to stare at the store. He wanted to send the thought of I've got this again, but he couldn't because he wasn't sure he could handle this evil little child.

  “I have work to do,” he said, trying to sidle past the girl to the open door of the store.

  The girl blocked his way, the rope swinging faster and faster in her hand. “Our preacher says demons walk the streets of Reno. The whole town is going to hell for letting gamblers have their way. Are you a demon?”

  “No, but I think maybe you are.” Oh, he shouldn't have said that, he knew it the second the words left his mouth. Had he not been heckled by Josh before being confronted by this mean child, maybe he could have kept his silence, but there was only so much a man could abide.r />
  The girl's response was immediate and furious. She struck him across the face with the rope, but didn't stop there. She hit him over and over, throwing back her arm and putting as much force into the blows as she could manage.

  Jody dropped the broom and crossed his arms over his face. He couldn't even think. The attack was so instantaneous and brutal that all he could do was try to protect himself.

  As suddenly as the blows began, they halted. Jody lowered his arms and saw Nick standing over the girl, holding back her arm that had wielded the rope in such a vicious manner. “Stop it,” Nick said, twirling the girl by her arm to face him. “How would you like to be struck with this rope? Don't you know you're hurting someone?”

  The girl's lower lip went into a pout. “I don't care,” she said. “He's just a midget.”

  “And you are a bad girl,” Nick said, snatching the short rope from her hand. He threw it into the street. “Where is your mother? I need to report you.”

  Now the girl grinned evilly. “She's busy and you can't find her. Let me go.”

  Nick pushed her away from him and took a wide-legged stance in front of Jody. “Go away,” he said. “Go now before you get what you deserve.”

  The girl stood her ground for just seconds, glaring back, but this was no small man she faced, not someone she could dominate and terrorize. She turned and hurried off down the sidewalk away from the store.

  “What a brat,” Jody said, picking up the broom. His face still stung where he'd been hit and he expected there was a red stripe of flesh swollen there. “I'm having a bad day.”

  Nick turned to him once the girl disappeared into crowds in the next block. “I've noticed that. Do you want me to hang around?”

  “No, I've...I've got this.” He smiled a little and stepped quickly to the door of the store.

  He saw Nick hurry back down the street to his own job. He wondered how a creature as full of heart as Nick could have ever fallen from God's grace. He might be unholy in one sense, but in what mattered, this fallen angel was truly a fine, sympathetic being. Why he, Jody, had been directed to team up with him, he hadn't a clue. What he did feel in his bones, however, was how much his safety depended on the angel.

  What began to frighten him was the thought of the girl in his nightmare. She necessarily was darker and more of a threat than the child who had just beaten him with a length of rope. She was no child at all. She possessed powers he couldn't imagine. If she caught up with him, she would be bringing something much stronger than rope and she'd have in mind a far more lethal action than a beating.

  Jody ignored the hateful gaze of the Harper boy as he moved past him in the grocery aisle. He had been instructed to clean the back storage room and that is where he was headed. Old man Harper wouldn't be paying him a dollar a day for standing around while being bullied.

  This was one tough town.

  #

  Angelique didn't like Phoenix. It was dry, hot, and full of dust that got into her nostrils, making her sneeze. She rose from the bed where Nick had slept and knew where he had gone every day when he rose in the mornings. She dusted off her shoes, straightened her dress, and slipped out the door and down the stairs.

  Peeble's grocery was not far from the rooming house. Angelique walked slowly down the long aisles, stopping here and there to stare at the shelved foods. Crackers. Canned soup. Bagged sugar and flour and beans and rice. She felt Nick everywhere in this store. When she rounded a corner and saw the produce bins against the wall, she stopped and her heart skipped a beat. Death here. The scent of gun powder and blood. Reckless disregard for life. The sudden murder of someone who had stood before that produce.

  And Nick too late to prevent it. Because now Angelique knew Nick had changed and murder was not something he could allow if he had any way to prevent it.

  This knowledge made her close up, like a night blooming jasmine flower closing in the first rays of sunlight, folding in upon itself. Had loving a woman done that to him, too? Given him a conscience? Given him other human frailties like empathy and caring and the saint's duty to preserve human life?

  Disgust filled her as if she were a lake filling from heavy rain and a million run-offs. How could one of them—the angels--ever feel these human characteristics? Or had he always felt them and she hadn't known? That thought infuriated her even more than the idea he had changed.

  Of course they all still had free will. She supposed if she wanted to, she could love again too, but why would she, for what purpose, what could she hope to achieve by loving again? Love had failed her. It was destruction that mattered in the universe, not love, how had Nicroc failed to understand that? Tornadoes mattered. Floods. Fire mattered. Murder and war mattered and changed the course of humanity. Thunderbolts mattered and bombs and guns. Love was of very low status among those things.

  Another thought struck her. Had he even felt this way when she'd sent him to Rome to animate Caesar's body? And had that flaw led him, as Caesar, to his own murder that ruined all their plans?

  Once she caught up with him, she'd have to find out. If it were true then he was like no other fallen angel and she'd made a terrible mistake trusting him and a more terrible mistake bringing him to earth as her partner.

  She moved away from the produce aisle and picked up a small jar of peanut butter which she took to the check-out. The woman there took her money and gave her change. “Could you tell me what happened to the tall, blond man who used to work here?” Angelique asked sweetly. “I think he's called Nick.”

  “Oh, him,” the clerk said. “he left after...ah...he left a few weeks ago.”

  “Do you know where he went? He's my uncle, you see, and my mother, his sister, is looking for him.”

  The clerk shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said.

  Angelique plumbed the woman's mind and found she was telling the truth.

  Outside the store, the alley across the street drew her attention. She walked toward it and the closer she came, the colder it seemed in that shadowed place. More death. This is where the killing involved Nisroc. He had been here and dispatched a human to hell. Then he was not against murder if it seemed to him the human deserved it. At least that was something. At least he was not a true pacifist. He was no saint.

  She turned away and headed for the bus stop. Maybe he'd left town that way. It seemed to her that he had. She paused in her walking and closed her eyes. It seemed he was going North from here. North and West.

  His constant movement told her he knew she was coming, she was in pursuit. Why else keep going? When he got to the Pacific, would he take a steamer or cruise ship and continue, leaving the continent? How long would he evade her? It was making her lose her temper to a degree that scared even her. She didn't want to make a mistake and do harm to someone in her way that might get her into serious trouble. Her success lay in nefarious dealings, keeping everything under the radar.

  If only Nisroc hadn't ruined her life! If only she could bring down another angel to take his place, which she couldn't yet. If only she could let Nisroc go and bribe another human to stand in as her parent. But no, she wasn't going back to that. She wanted to hear what Nisroc had to say for himself. She needed him to tell her why he thought he could turn his back on her and disappear. He had no free will. She owned him.

  CHAPTER 31

  FOLLOWING THE RIVER

  After a week in Reno and paychecks cashed, Nick and Jody sat in a hotel restaurant sharing dinner with a bottle of red wine. “How long we staying here?” Jody asked. “I fear my first impression of Reno was wrong. I like the weather, but that boy at Harper's is getting to be a problem.”

  Nick sipped at his wine. “We can leave in another week. One more paycheck. Do you want me to have a talk with the boy?”

  Jody shook his head. “I don't know that it will do any good. He hates me. Maybe I represent what's so little inside him.” He laughed. He loved joking about his own smallness.

  “If he does anything...well, if he trie
s to hurt you, let me know.” Nick set his glass on the table and took up a knife and fork to cut his steak.

  Jody nodded and popped a chunk of roasted potato into his mouth. He chewed with relish, noting the cook had added rosemary and garlic to the dish.

  After dinner the two men strolled down the street toward their room. Two gambling establishments had already opened and from their open entrances streamed raucous laughter and raised voices. Lights twinkled from gaudy signs, prostitutes sallied by in suggestive clothing, and people clogged the sidewalks even though it was nearly nine at night.

  “Let's go to the river,” Jody said. He started across the street. Nick followed.

  Past the main street and behind the buildings going up, they could see the moon-dappled stream. Along the banks grew thick green, spongy grass dotted with the stems and blooms of wildflowers that in the faltering light looked like black polka dots. The night smelled cleaner here. The Truckee River gushed past as if in a hurry to flee the city. Jody stooped near the water, his hands on his knees. Nick also hunkered down. They stared into the dark, rushing waters. Across the river they could see the strip of highway that led up into the mountain pass. It had little traffic, only an occasional pair of headlights moving along it. Overhead a million stars dotted the black sky.

  “It smells new here,” Jody said. “Reno already smells old.”

  Nick didn't comment.

  “We ought to go fishing here some time,” Jody said.

  “Maybe.” Nick pulled a stalk of grass and stuck the end into his mouth to chew. It tasted green.

  “Or we ought to find a ride on up that way pretty soon.” Jody pointed up the highway and toward the forested mountains that rose up, seeming to block the sky.