Guardian Angel

Everyone has a guardian angel that follows them all the days of their life, to protect them as best they can. Sometimes we don't even notice them, or realise that they are there. Yet they too have their dreams, desires and loves. This is their story.

Guardian Angel

I was called when you were born; called to your side helplessly. At first I saw this companionship as a burden, something that tied me down, never to allow me to fly freely again. Ashamed though I am to say this, I hated you before I even saw you. But then I saw your face. I saw your face, and I fell in love.

I had flown around the world twenty times over, seen everything beautiful there was to see, but I had never seen anything as beautiful as you. It wasn't your appearance, not just those angelic blond curls, those intelligent blue eyes that seemed to see everything around you – including me –, or even the chubby fingers that grasped at nothing. It was your very essence itself. You had a longing to be free, a desire to do the impossible, and yet at the same time, a heart of love for everything around you. In those sky blue eyes looking up from the cradle, I saw a shadow of myself.

From then on, you were the greatest joy in my existence, a shining beacon of light and hope to my heart, my love. And I was going to do everything in my power to make sure you stayed right there by my side.

When you were one, you rolled out of your cradle and almost landed on your head. Right before you reached the floor, I caught you, letting loose a fluttery sigh of relief that my insubstantial hands had been enough to catch you and put you gently down on the floor. You smiled up at me and laughed, little gurgles of baby laughter that made everything right in the world. I smiled back – your face made it hard to remember that anything had ever gone wrong. Ten minutes later, your mother returned and never found out how you had managed to roll onto the floor unscathed.

When you were five, you got a tricycle for your birthday. In your opinion, it was the best present you could ever receive. Your (slightly longer, now) legs pushed at the pedals, and all the time you giggled merrily, making the sun shine ever-brighter in the sky. Three days later, you decided to venture into more dangerous territory – the road. Oblivious to the danger, you never stopped laughing and smiling – not even when the giant oil tanker lurched up the road towards you. I pushed your tricycle with all of my strength in the other direction, missing the tanker by an inch. I doubt the driver even noticed the bright red tricycle he almost smashed, and the beautiful life he almost took away.

When you were seven, you entered school for the first time. For the first time, I saw you frightened by the strangers around you, for the first time, I saw you cling to your mother's skirt, unwilling to let go. And for the first time, I didn't know what I could do. For that one day I watched you draw into yourself, watched you lose that beautiful smile and laughter I had adored since your birth. Then I knew what I had to do. I nudged the pretty girl with the two pigtails, the one with a face full of smiles and laughter towards you. She smiled and the two of you clicked instantly. When you returned home, your mother asked, "So how was your first day at school?"

And you answered, "It was the best day ever!"

When you were twelve, you failed on a math test. As you lay on your bed, that same bed that you had lain on for the last ten years, the bed that had shared your joys, your pains, that had given you comfort and love, and sobbed your heart out, for the first time, I felt helpless. What could I do? The hurt and pain came from within you, not without, and there was no way I could ease your pain. As you hurt, I hurt – your pain was my pain, through and through. I saw it in your eyes. Those beautiful, ocean-blue eyes were now filled with tears, and I could not reach out a hand to wipe them away.

Slowly, though, your pain faded. In time, you studied and improved, and the light came back into your eyes. For the first time I could remember, you had saved yourself. It was a strange feeling, this independence of yours, but I put it out of my mind and vowed never to let you feel such pain again.

More years passed, the incidents too many to count. Many things changed. You shot up suddenly, too fast for me to notice. Your face changed too, eyelashes somehow becoming longer and thicker, hair blown glass-straight, cheeks a little too rosy red. You thought you were beautiful, with this 'makeup', but I preferred the old you. But you seemed happy to me, though there were some sad points and moments in your life, but I had come to expect and accept those as well. In some ways, I was growing just as much as you, though I had been in existence far longer. Yet at times I felt that you were growing too fast for me, that I did not understand you anymore. But you were happy, and that mattered more than anything else to me.

Then all of a sudden you were seventeen, and the innocent child of days long gone had been blown away like a flower in the breeze. You lurched home late at night, alcohol on your breath, and though I tried to deny it to myself, there were many things wrong with you. Your clothing changed, too, becoming more and more like those of the bad friends you were making. You swore, cursed, rebelled. Screaming matches with your mother became more than common, but your father thought it was just a stage.

He was wrong.

When you were seventeen, you went out again with your wild and crazy friends. You went drinking and dancing and smoking, killing your bodies with every puff and every gulp. You told coarse jokes and laughed your head off at every little thing. I couldn't believe you were the sweet little girl I first met in the cradle, but when I saw no pain in your eyes, I thought everything was going to be all right. What you were doing may have been wrong, but you were happy. And so it was all right with me.

But I missed the shadow that flitted over your face, just for a moment.

You finally left the bar with your friends, heading out to the car. "Let me drive," you begged, though you were license-less and drunk. They were drunk too, and they laughed and threw you the keys. And then you were off, spinning and howling in a whirlwind of delight. There was no place you would rather be, at that moment. And then

Keenin

Screeching

Splintering

Crashing

Screaming

And I was brought back to that moment ten years before – you on your tricycle, the oil tanker missing you by an inch. But this time I had been too late.

It wasn't possible. I couldn't be too late. I was never too late. You were too important to me, I had protected you till now, it simply couldn't be happening. I loved you too much for this to happen. No.

But there you were, lying there in a pool of your own blood, mascara smudged, lipstick making a blood red stain on your cheek. But you were alive. Somehow, just barely alive, I could tell. Oblivious to all who stood around, I bent down and touched your cheek. You opened those sky blue eyes, unchanged since the first time I saw you, and seemed to see me clearly for the first time. Your broken lips curled up into a gentle smile, trying to form words, but nothing came out. Then I noticed the tears. As tenderly as I could, I placed my hand upon your forehead and took the pain away.

Then you closed your eyes for the last time.

When I first saw you, I hated you, for you tied me down to this earth, leaving me unable to fly free.

And when you closed your eyes, the chains broke, and I was finally free.

But I would rather have been with you.

Suddenly there was a glowing figure standing next to the girl, a figure so beautiful it hurt to look at it. The angel lifted a hand and placed it on her forehead, and the girl's smile turned peaceful, and her eyes closed forever. A single tear, clear as crystal, fell from the angel's cheek, and left a sparkle on the girl's heart.

Then the chain binding the two shattered into a million shards, and the angel spread her wings and drifted to heaven.

author's note: This idea came to me randomly in a dream, and I'm not really sure where the inspiration came from. Review please!