“And what happened to her?” Ali was looking for a confirmation.
“I don’t know... I don’t know anything about her but both received a punishment”.
It was Charlotte, there was no doubt. Ali hadn’t been wrong. Kaliel wasn’t avoiding her but his own drowned feelings. She had no further doubt that he was an angel. She felt an unexpected uneasiness.
“And it’ll be the same now” Sabrina added in a warning. “Don’t waste your time with him: I wouldn’t want to see you with an even more broken heart” Sabrina stroked her hair and her look was sweet and understanding. Then she made a knowing smile and handed her the notebook with the pen. “Come on, make the list. Order everything absolutely everything you want. Don’t think about money because it costs us nothing. If you want a yacht, you ask for it! I immediately come...” said Sabrina standing up. “Oh, and remember: forget I told you what I told you, okay?”
Ali nodded but it wasn’t true. She wouldn’t forget it.
“Sorry!”
A book had fallen from a pile that leaned against the old trunk. Ali jumped up to pick it up. She had apologized countless times that evening with Kaliel. When she had finally returned to the room, Sabrina had managed to run the trunk and put in place one of the beds from one of the rooms below. Kaliel didn’t seem very comfortable with the change, especially with the new location of his books. He behaved as if they were more fragile than ancient Egyptian papyri.
“I'll order them tomorrow” Ali promised embarrassed turning the book she had picked up to see it. It was a copy of Oscar Wilde's The Portrait of Dorian Gray, beautifully bound in leather and with golden trim. “I didn’t know you liked novels...”
“As if you knew a lot about me...” he snapped, looking out the window from his place in the sill. Ali always had the feeling that he longed to throw himself out the window and fly out of there.
“I mean, I didn’t imagine you reading fiction books...” she answered, stifling the urge to throw the book against his face.
“Sometimes fleeing from reality is the only way to survive in it” explained Kaliel, somber. He looked at her with a defeated expression. “Did you read before you finished here?”
“Sometimes. My father wouldn’t let me read the books that I liked because he said that their content was pure satanic apology” said Ali drawing quote marks in the air with her fingers.
Kaliel's lips twitched in a grimace of disapproval that bordered on disgust.
“Have you read The Little Prince at school, at least?”
“No...” Ali muttered thoughtfully. “They say that the fox chapter is incredible, is that true?”
“Read it and then you tell me”.
One more thing she could add to the list. Ali opened the notebook on the second page and wrote down the name of the book under all the other things she had requested, most of them at Sabrina's suggestion.
“Is there anything else I need to know about you other than that you're a bibliophile?” Ali asked.
“I'm also obsessed with music. Write it down, it's said to be a meloman” Kaliel replied waving his hand at her with disdain.
“I don’t write about you!” She answered irritated. “Anyway, if you like music why don’t you ever listen to it? Do you play any instrument?”
“I can play any instrument...” he presumed. Then he turned back to the night sky. “But music requires a sensibility to which I have renounced…”
This time it was Ali who made a face of disapproval.
“Which instrument do you like the most?”
He thought about it for a moment.
“Those of string... Lute, violin, lyre...”
Ali scribbled the word violin on her list and smiled contentedly. He didn’t notice it, he seemed lost in dark memories.
A knock sounded at the door at that moment. The clock read eleven thirty. Sabrina came in with the promised bowl of soup.
“You take it and we go” she said and then corrected herself with her hands on her hips when Ali protested. “We're not leaving until you drink it”.
After that, the three sneaked down to the painting of the angel for whom Ali remembered returning to the cathedral the night Kaliel had taken her to Mikah's secret library. Kaliel made sure no one had seen them and then sneaked through the secret door. The tunnels that went under the cathedral were in perfect condition, as Ali remembered them. Surely someone was responsible for keeping them clean. This time, Sabrina took a very different path than Kaliel had used that time. He climbed up and down a series of stairs until the corridors widened and the ocher from the stones on the walls was replaced by gray.
“We got to the street” Sabrina murmured.
Both followed. They tried to make as little noise as possible. After all, they were no longer protected by the cathedral and there were very dark creatures down there. In the occasional light of torches, Ali noticed many thick wooden doors studded with huge metal nails. They looked like old prisons. Some even had posters that said the professions of those who lived behind them: Succubus exterminator, astrologer, Madame Giuffré's herbs and strange things like cosmic intercomunicator. Sabrina passed Ali's list of items under a door that read requisitions. Finally, after entering a kind of abandoned and wet alley, Sabrina stopped in front of a black door.
“Did it have to be right here?” Ali protested.
Sabrina knocked on the door and it creaked, followed by the sound of the hinges squeaking open. However, they could barely notice that it had opened because the dense darkness was blacker inside than outside. It was like going in front of a tar pit. Ali swallowed. The silence was such that she could hear her heart hammering in her head. Kaliel stepped forward and hid her behind him, sticking her behind his back with one hand. With the other, he clutched a hilt that jutted from his belt.
Sabrina was the first to enter. Several seconds passed.
“Let's go!” She shouted from inside. “It’s not bad!”
“Don’t get away from me. It could be a trap” he warned.
Ali took him by his jacket and followed him inside. At first it was like walking through a wall of jelly. When Ali came out from the other side she touched the wall again and found it firm as ice.
But what was more impressive was what was on that side: an immense flowery meadow stretched itself to lose itself in a horizon of hills. In the sky, the sun was at its zenith and there was a spring breeze that carried the scent of a nearby lavender field. Here and there, the butterflies fluttered peacefully. There was the song of the birds in the treetops and a distant stream. At a distance of what would be three blocks, Ali saw a giant tree full of apples and, at the same distance, in the opposite direction, another tree filled with a kind of golden oranges.
“Eden...” Kaliel murmured in astonishment. “It has to be a trick...”
“More or less” whispered a hoarse voice.
Ahead of them, a shadow rose from the ground and unfolded to take the shape of a threadbare shroud. The man under the hood couldn’t be seen.
“This is a memory of Eva” he told them.
“Kalo?” Sabrina hesitated.
“The very same” he murmured. “Come with me...”
The shrouded figure slid forward as if floating. The edges of the fabric swung as if it were made of smoke. This time, Kaliel led the march. Ali released his jacket but stayed close while observing what Paradise had once been.
“I built this dimension after the Fall” explained Kalo as a tourist guide. “I didn’t like Lucifer's. He is brilliant but his sense of decoration is lousy... All that about the flames, the screams... It's not my thing”. Kalo turned towards them but nobody was able to articulate a word. “Just kidding”, he said at last. “But it’s true that I built this dimension for me. I was too lonely so I filled it with the happy memories of others... I didn’t have any. This is one of my favorites. Eva gave it to me”.
Ali had the impression that Kalo was smiling although they couldn’t see his face. Then, he sighed.
“All right. What has brought you here?”
This time, Ali came forward.
“I need you to contact me with my father” she requested.
“Okay, but first you must pay me the price” Kalo anticipated.
The earth shook beneath their feet and a circular platform surrounded by white columns rose from the earth. They climbed three large stone steps and found themselves in an open gallery with a huge fountain of still waters that almost merged with a mirror.
“This is the Oracle of Delphi. Some Aisopos brought it to me. The source is an addition of mine” Kalo counted. “Great, right?”
“It depends...” Sabrina mused surrounding it.
Kalo went to Ali, took her hand gently and tried to take her away but Kaliel interposed.
“What are you going to do?” He asked with a defiant look. Ali saw that he was holding the hilt again.
Kalo addressed Ali.
“We’ll look for your happiest memory and you’ll let me see it so it will be mine too”.
Ali nodded. It seemed an insignificant price in exchange for finding her father. She looked at Kaliel indicating that everything would be fine and he pulled away, though he followed them to the source. Kalo's hand was languid and thin as bones, white as a ghost. Kalo guided her and they both went into the fountain.
“Lie down as if you were going to sleep” he said.
She obeyed and lay down to float in the water. Then Kalo placed his hand on her neck gently. The water began to vibrate as if it had been electrified suddenly. Ali could see the snakes appear from the edges, swimming towards her and grasping her head like wires. Everything will be fine, she told herself. Sabrina covered her mouth with her hands and Kaliel seemed ready to jump towards her as soon as the situation got out of control.
“Close your eyes” Kalo ordered “and breathe...” he added at the same time that she obeyed and he sank her in the water by the neck.
Scared, Ali opened her eyes but she was no longer in the fountain. It was the backyard of her house. The floor was covered by a thick mattress of snow and the entrance to the garden was closed by a double door of white bars that reached about ten meters high. Something in that memory was wrong. They had never had a door of that size, typical of a palace, in the backyard of their house. Its usefulness was apparently useless since there was no wall on either side. Ali tried to pass and realized then that she couldn’t. Enraged, she kicked the grate and it simply gave way, letting her fall from the other side, face down in the snow.
Ali sat up and noticed red spots sticking out in the whiteness of the snow. It was the blood dripping from a wound in the palm of her hand. She remembered that wound, she had done it at fifteen but she had forgotten how. That must be the memory. Suddenly, Ali was running. She didn’t know where. She hadn’t even proposed it to herself. It was as if someone else was handling her body. She ran desperately, looking for something and her heart felt oppressed, as if something important had been lost... No: it was as if she had escaped. She stumbled back into the snow and got up crying, frustrated. It didn’t seem like a very happy memory.
The memory shook and blurred as if it were a television channel with the signal failing. Someone behind her back said something but the interference didn’t allow her to understand. In the next scene, she had already turned towards some trees. Again the scene was cut and in the next picture he appeared. Ali smiled. She could feel her smile was so big that her cheeks ached but she couldn’t help it. Her chest burned with happiness. It was just a warm moment when she felt full, as if she didn’t need anything else, even the air she breathed. She felt light and her legs trembled. She ran to him and threw herself into his arms. He shook her and rested his head on hers, rocking her gently as if trying to comfort her. He mumbled something in a muffled, distant voice. Ali couldn’t understand a word. She also spoke but only felt that her lips moved independently. She looked at him. Her white skin gave off a golden glow and his golden hair was ruffled around his face. His feline eyes were like two emeralds blazing. Slowly she saw his rosy lips articulate a phrase: a word bit his lower lip and released it with anger; then, they widened into a poisoned smile as the tip of their tongue protruded between two rows of perfect teeth; the last word closed like a kiss. Three words, she didn’t know which, but its meaning comforted her. A thought crossed Ali's mind, dictated by her own voice: you are sublime. Suddenly, she recognized him.
“Kaliel?” It was Kalo's voice.
Ali realized that she was now about ten meters from the scene and continued to see it from outside.
“I couldn’t recognize his soul until you showed me this memory... When we return, I’ll greet him properly”.
Ali turned to the voice and found a boy with dark hair and harmonious features sitting on the branch of a tree.
“Kalo?” She was surprised.
“Yes” he said jumping towards her. “This is my true self, I’m beautiful, don’t you think so? Don’t be surprised: I am an angel” he smiled.
“This is not a memory... This never happened”. It was true that she always had the vague feeling of having seen Kaliel before but she wouldn’t have forgotten someone who had embraced with such happiness. “Maybe it's the memory of a dream I've forgotten”.
“Negative; it’s as real as we are in your head...”
“I would remember it if it were so!” Ali protested.
“See that there?” Just when Kalo pointed out to them, Ali noticed all the other white gates. The same sentry guarded every gate. “It’s an angel guarding the entrance to different memories so that nobody can enter, especially you...”
An unusual fury invaded her upon hearing that. Her memories were hers and no one could steal them. She felt outraged and ran to the nearest gate.
“No!” Kalo yelled but it was too late.
Ali hit the gate and received a kind of electric shock that made her fly kicking in the air, which suddenly became increasingly dense and humid. She heard Sabrina screaming and something pulled her up. She opened her eyes as Kaliel took her out of the electrified water. The panic was visible in his eyes as he watched her as close as in the memory and Ali touched his cheek, unsure already of what was real and not about him. Charlotte's words echoed in her head again. Kaliel might no longer have that brightness and yet, she thought, he was still sublime and proud.
He stepped out of the fountain and deposited Ali on the ground gently. She was completely soaked like him. Kalo was sitting in an awkward position that showed he had been pushed out of the water. The angel stood up slowly while Kaliel glared at him.
“Sorry, I hadn’t been able to recognize you until now, dear Kaliel”.
Kalo got rid of his shroud and appeared before them as Ali had seen him inside his memories.
“I think we owe ourselves a talk” he smiled then enthusiastically.
“I don’t owe you anything” Kaliel snapped. “We are leaving”.
“I haven’t spoken to my father yet!” Ali protested walking determined towards Kalo.
He took her by the hands and closed his eyes in a gesture of concentration.
“Do you also touch men so much?” Kaliel asked peevish.
“Especially men...” remarked Kalo apparently amused by the reaction of Kaliel, who snorted and remained crossed arms.
While Kalo remained with his eyes closed, the world around him began to blur as if keeping his current configuration consumed resources at his concentration. Then, the four were affirmed on the same nothing that became a black dotted with millions of stars of all colors.
“Tell me his name and think about him” Kalo said.
“Jonathan James Elliot...”
Kalo seemed to try harder and then the universe of colors began to spin. Thousands of lights came and went, approaching and departing at abysmal speeds. At times, Ali could recognize silhouettes of people formed by layers of light of various colors. She also thought she could hear some talking when they were passing. She was looking for the
light of her father's soul. But the process was taking too long. After five minutes, the speed doubled in a desperate crawl. Ali scrutinized Kalo's face for clues of what was happening. Her hope was beginning to fade. Kalo finally opened his eyes.
“Something is wrong... I couldn’t find your father”.
Ali put her hands to her mouth. Her eyes burned to the point of bursting into tears but she didn’t give up. It wasn’t like that. It couldn’t be like that.
“Is he dead? Can you look for him in the world of the dead? Can you?”
“That's the weirdest thing: I already did it...” Kalo widened his eyes. “I looked for him in all possible worlds and in those that theoretically it would be impossible for him to be... It's as if he had never existed!”
“That's impossible!” snapped Kaliel. “Are you losing your touch? Or were you never so good after all?”
“Yes, maybe that's why they threw me out of Heaven...” Kalo replied without losing his good humor. He took Ali's hands and tried again with the same results.
“Then look for that Patrick guy” suggested Sabrina.
“I can’t imagine him. I don’t know him” Ali warned Kalo. “I've never seen a picture of him either...”
“No matter. Tell me his name and think of a memory that involves him. I don’t know... Maybe someone telling you something about him... Tell me anything you know about him”.
“Well...” Ali decided she could think about the day her father received the letter. “Patrick... France...”
The universe turned again and this time it stopped near a galaxy of more matted lights.
“Hauts-de-Seine... 33 rue Saint- Charles... Lucien...”
With each data, the selection was filtering the souls until at last there was only one left.
“Bingo!” Kalo celebrated, even with his eyes closed. “Now tell him what you want as if you were writing a letter with your mind”.
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