Fallen Angel
Page 7
of aspirin to fix.
“What is it, what’s wrong?” Ninah asked upon noticing her sister’s reaction.
Donna swallowed. “He’s real sick Neen, he needs more than just aspirin, he needs a doctor. We have to show Mom and Dad.”
“No we can’t, he told me not to!”
“Ninah I know that, but his fever is so high that he’ll die if we don’t do something quickly. You don’t want that do you?”
Ninah looked down at the angel, the misery of this unavoidable betrayal written all over her face; slowly she shook her head.
“Okay, I’m going to get them, you stay here with him alright?” Ninah nodded as Donna, finding it hard to drag her eyes away, took a last look at the beautiful form on the floor.
“Don, just how do you plan to tell your folks about this?” Cassie asked.
Cassie had been so quiet that Donna had forgotten she was there. “I’ll work that out in a sec.”
“Man, they are gonna freak!”
“Tell me about it. Come on,” she finished, and the pair raced for the house.
12
“It’s pretty quiet up there,” Ed said absently, jerking his chin at the ceiling. He stretched and let out a long yawn. “Did Donna and Cassie go back upstairs?”
“I suppose so, I didn’t notice,” his wife answered, stifling a much smaller yawn of her own.
“Hmpf,” Ed sighed, staring at the TV but not really seeing the detergent commercial that was currently blaring out at them. He was concerned about Ninah and mulling over her strange tale and out of character outburst at the table earlier this evening. Felicity had spoken to her but could discern no real root to the matter. She’d been afraid the child might have been molested or exposed to forceful teaching at school, or since Ninah’s story seemed to carry religious connotations, her Sunday school lessons. Ed gave an involuntary shudder at the thought, but Ninah had described nothing even remotely sinister to her mother. Listening to Bible stories, playing games and coloring in pictures of Jesus and his apostles was hardly what could be called damaging. Besides, Ninah loved Father Kelly and Sister Mary.
Ed shrugged it off; perhaps he’d have a chat to his youngest tomorrow. He looked over to his wife. “Fancy a cup of coffee?” She smiled and nodded and Ed was about to get up when the sound of a door slamming came from the kitchen.
They both nearly jumped off the sofa. “What the hell was that!” Ed said, and that was as far as he got before Donna and Cassie, both gasping for breath, charged into the living room and switched on the light.
“Mom, Dad, I think you’d better come and look in the playhouse,” Donna gasped, breathing hard.
Ed was on his feet in an instant. “What, what’s going on?”
“It’s easier if you just come,” Donna said, then added, “And I think someone should call the doctor.”
“Oh my goodness, Ninah, is she hurt, it is her isn’t it?” Her mother said, getting to her feet, her eyes wide.
“Yes, no, I mean yes Ninah’s there but she’s not hurt,” Donna said.
“What, Ninah’s in the playhouse now?” Ed asked, incredulous.
“Yes Dad, please just come!”
“Donna!”
“Dad, PLEASE!” Donna almost screamed. Ed heard the desperation in his daughter’s voice, saw it in both her’s and Cassie’s expressions.
Turning to his wife he said quickly, “Stay and call Doc Parker, tell him to come around as soon as he can. I’m going to go and find out what the hell is going on.” By now Donna was tugging him by the hand toward the kitchen as his wife dug through the drawer in the telephone table, looking for the phone book.
Without pausing Donna led her father, or dragged would be a more appropriate term, down to the end of the yard and the playhouse. He could see the light was on as they approached. He reached the door and stepped through only to stop dead in his tracks in sheer disbelief.
Ninah was indeed there, and lying beside her was what could only be described as an angel. Ninah looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry Daddy, I know I shouldn’t have sneaked out but I had to help him, he’s sick. Please don’t be mad, please help him.”
Ed looked at his youngest daughter then back to the winged figure lying prone beside her. His mind was still rebelling at what his eyes were seeing but he recovered quickly, he’d always been fast to adapt and react and whatever it was he could see it was badly off. The wings!
He knelt down beside Ninah and spoke gently. “It’s okay sweetheart, what have you found here?”
“This is the angel I tried to tell you about,” his daughter sniffled.
“Well I’ll say, he certainly looks like an angel doesn’t he?”
“He’s sick,” Ninah added.
“Yes he is,” Ed said heavily, feeling the heat roll off the poor creature. “But we’re going to see what we can do about that, okay?” he smiled at his youngest. “First though we’ve got to get him up to the house, the doctor will be here soon and he’ll fix him right up.”
Gently moving Ninah to the side, Ed rolled the angel into a sitting position, not an easy task with his wings sticking out awkwardly. Then, making sure the sheet was still wrapped around him, he picked the angel up in his arms. The creature moaned softly and one wing flapped weakly a few times but that was all. “There, there young fella,” Ed soothed, “Everything is gonna be alright. We’re not going to hurt you.”
Ed left the playhouse with his burden, careful not to tread on the wings trailing down between his arms and along the ground, and headed up to the house with the three girls close behind. Ed was surprised at how light he was. For all his formidable build, not to mention his wings, Ed figured he was carrying no more than seventy to eighty kilos.
“Donna, run on ahead and spread some blankets over the kitchen table, hurry now,” Ed huffed and was relived when she quickly headed off to do as he asked without a murmur of complaint. Taking into account her recent attitude, he was actually pleasantly surprised.
Donna had just thrown the third and last thick blanket over the table when Ed, breathing heavily, struggled up the back stairs and into the kitchen with his strange, inert burden. He placed him gently down on the table, laying him on his side once more, as his wife came hurrying down the hall into the room.
“Doctor Parker is on his way, though he seemed a little miffed that I couldn’t tell him what the problem was. He said…” She stopped in mid sentence upon seeing their latest arrival, who looked even more impressive under the bright kitchen light.
“Oh my God!” she exclaimed, then quickly amended it to, “Oh my goodness!” as she realized she was blaspheming in the presence of, what was quite likely, one of the Lord’s own.
“Ed?” she croaked.
He shook his head. “Don’t ask, I don’t have any answers”.
“It’s an angel, Mommy,” Ninah put in unnecessarily.
“Honey,” Ed said, addressing his wife. “We don’t have time to talk. I don’t know what he is or where he came from but he’s got a fever that could heat the whole house, we’ve got to bring it down now or he’ll die. Get ice and wrap it in tea towels, make cold packs, hurry!”
Felicity nodded and, still in a daze, set about doing so. After a second Cassie, feeling useless, helped her.
“Do you think he’s going to be okay, Dad?” Donna asked, moving to stand beside her father. She reached out and gently stroked the angel’s sweat matted hair.
“I don’t know sweetheart, I don’t know how long he’s suffered with the fever this high, I don’t even know what he is!”
“He’s an angel!” Ninah put in indignantly from the other side of the table. She was becoming exasperated at having to state such an obvious fact all the time.
Ed looked at Ninah and sighed. His daughter was only seven and he felt that parental need to argue against her blatant acceptance of that possibility, or at least caution her about it, but in light of the little information they had,
it could well be that she was right. Honestly, who was he to say otherwise? Seven years or seventy, no amount of time on Earth could effectively prepare anyone for dealing with a situation this strange.
Felicity started handing him ice wrapped in towels and Ed began to place them against the angel’s forehead and neck. “Here, hold these here,” he said to Donna. “Cassie, could you hold one against that wrist?” he asked and Cassie hurried to comply. “Ninah, sweetheart, go to the pantry and bring all the flannels and wet them at the sink, quickly now.”
As Ninah hurried off, the angel started to moan and shiver violently. There was something eerie and alien about the sounds he made, they were almost musical.
“Move the packs around, don’t hold them in the one place for too long, dab them about,” Ed said.
“This is a miracle,” his wife said softly in awe from beside him. “He’s beautiful, look at his wings!”
“You should see his eyes,” Donna said somewhat wistfully, and Ed half-frowned at his daughter’s soppy tone.
Ninah rushed back in, determined not to be separated from her angel for longer than absolutely necessary, and dumped a double handful of colored flannels in the sink. She ran the tap on them and brought them over to Ed who started draping them over the burning body on the table. He went to wipe some of the blood off the damaged wing, now startlingly bright in the kitchen light, despite the grime on the feathers. Abruptly he noticed the large flight feathers on the wing tips and outer trailing edge.
“Oh my