Foresight
Christmas looked like it was going to be awful this year. Plans, schedules and activities were dashed as heavy blizzards set in during the night. Snow had begun to fall early that winter and with each progressive day it deepened and the storms worsened to the point that it was futile to do anything about it. And Jennifer had been so looking forward to visiting her mama the next morning.
She stoked the fire a little and glanced wryly at the electric heater. She thought herself lucky – being able to afford a luxury like that by virtue of nothing but her husband's highly demanded and highly paid middle class job as a doctor – but she had grown up in a household that hadn't delivered such luxuries. She had only left it for a little more than a year and she already missed the chilly winter months when the electricity would cut out and she and her brother and her sisters would huddle around the fireplace in a dark room watching the snowflakes sail past the frosty windows almost luminescent against the night. Electricity in this fashionable country house was slightly more reliable but not to be counted on in this weather. So she kept the fire burning bright, if not for an emergency blackout then just for the atmosphere.
An uncomfortable little kick in the kidney. Jennifer rubbed her swollen stomach and heaved herself off of the little stool in front of the fire to go and stand in front of the Christmas tree. Her ankles had swollen terribly and the star-shaped cuts on her feet stung as she moved. The stitches in her left side stretched and ached, threatening to bleed again. Glancing up at the white-robed angel on top of the colourful tree she imagined that it was the Angel Gabriel telling her of God's wish like he did for Mary of Nazareth. She sighed placing her hands gingerly on the branches of the Christmas tree.
"I'm such a child," she whispered to herself. What could mysterious holy wounds prove? There was no immaculate conception and she was certainly no longer a virgin.
Her portrait of Mary was propped up on the mantelpiece just for tonight. Her husband was not a devout man by any means although he told everyone he met that he was a Christian. The virgin was beautiful, dressed in blue and surrounded by the aureole. Just for Christmas, Jennifer had flanked the portrait with two tall, white candles with a base of mistletoe. Their flames burned evenly. She could never be a mother like Mary. She was not blessed and she was so plain with a long face and nose and long copper-red hair.
Eventually she had to look away from the painting as if it was offensive; the perfect woman that her parents taught her to aspire to but at the same time told her she could never measure up to. Despite her own shortcomings she had a feeling in her heart that her baby would be wonderful. Maybe it was something that all mothers felt. At least to her, the baby would be perfect.
She tensed when she felt a tight squeeze around her body. Was it a contraction? But it was too early! She had to find the midwife.
xxxxxxxx
Allen was definitely in better spirits now that he was full and some poor person in the kitchen was left with a pile of dishes a mile high. Timcanpy gnawed on a bone that had been stripped clean. Everyone had already become accustomed to the spectacle of Allen eating and could now ignore it. Link put down his cutlery daintily and dabbed at his mouth with a napkin. Allen was about to stand up and stretch but stopped himself when he heard a familiar voice calling him:
"Allen, you're here early tonight. How'd your mission go?"
"It was fine, Lenalee," Allen replied, pushing his dishes aside so that they were all piled in front of Link now. Lenalee sat down opposite to Allen.
"That's good," she said, looking a bit more serious now. "But why haven't you handed in your mission report?"
"Tell Komui to clean up his desk once in a while and he might find it."
Lenalee laughed. "I'll make sure he gets to it tonight then."
"I guess Miranda and Krory are on a mission right now," Allen said, noticing that they weren't around. Lenalee nodded. "And Kanda too, it seems..."
Oh, but he spoke too soon. When a dark shadow approached him instinct told him that he had to activate his innocence. Crown Clown came out just in time to stop the aforementioned exorcist from slicing through his neck. "What the hell, Kanda. I didn't even do anything yet."
"You're the little worm who brought the old loon back with you," Kanda growled.
Allen sighed. Of course, Kanda would try to kill him before he tried to kill anyone else... either him or Lavi.
"Pay twenty dollars to have an amazing holy experience!" Michael peddled across the cafeteria. Allen and Kanda turned but remained locked in their stalemate.
"Twenty dollars? You offered it to me for five!" Allen yelled at him.
"Yeah, well, I had to return the favour. Who would have thought that Noah's Ark still existed? The Pope's gonna get a kick out of that. I'll sell the info for a fortune!"
"The Pope already knows," Allen replied.
"Oh..."
"Why did you bring him here?" Kanda snarled, renewing his attempts to kill Allen.
"We had to get Hevlaska to confirm if his cup had innocence in it."
"It sure does! That means I get to stick around," Michael told them, just causing Kanda to get even angrier. "Hey, can I wear a cool outfit like you guys?"
"It's an odd shape, though," Lenalee noted, examining the cross that she could see on one side. It was similar to the crosses that some of the anti-akuma weapons bore. "Do you think that it might be the Holy Grail, then?"
"What would the Holy Grail be doing in Canada?" Allen deadpanned.
"Who knows? Maybe thievery and peddling got it there," Lenalee speculated.
"Yeah... thievery," Michael repeated, a bit shifty-eyed. "Speaking of which, look at what I found in the chapel." He reached into the inside pocket of his tattered coat and pulled out a large, round piece of bread with a cross printed in the middle. "At one of the local churches in my area the priest gave out smaller versions of these for free."
"That's called communion and that is a holy item representing the body of Christ," Link scolded. "How dare you steal that from its rightful place!"
"What exactly is it?" Allen asked. Kanda also seemed confused by the appearance of the bread and deactivated Mugen. "Is it edible?"
"Of course it is," Link answered. "The only difference between this bread and ordinary bread is that this has no yeast to make it rise."
"Okay," Allen chirped, plucking the bread from Michael's hands and wolfing it down in three bites. All those who were looking gaped at him incredulously. Kanda growled at him.
"You stupid Beansprout! You didn't leave any!"
"My name's Allen, BaKanda. If you wanted to try it you should have said so earlier."
Link sighed and slapped himself in the face, leaving his hand where it landed. "I can't believe the ignorance of these fools who are supposed to be apostles of God." Allen and Kanda looked at him bemusedly.
"Guys," Lenalee began to explain, "In the Catholic Church you only have the right to eat that bread if you've been baptised. Baptism is a special rite that you have to take before you can have the right to call yourself Catholic."
"Man... I was going to charge you two dollars for that," Michael moaned. "From now on, you owe me two dollars."
"Sorry, I didn't realise..." Allen apologised.
Sensing the atmosphere beginning to tense up the way it usually did when Allen felt guilty, Lenalee added, "So, what do you do with that cup again?"
"This?" Michael held up his goblet. "It gives you almighty visions."
"I'm sure it does when you fill it with ganja," Allen joked.
"Fill it with what?" Kanda asked, genuinely ignorant.
"How do you even know what that is?" Link enquired.
"Cross dabbled once. It wasn't fun... at least not for me." Allen's entire aura darkened when he was overcome by yet another horrid memory of his apprenticeship.
"Nah, nah, it doesn't work like that," Michael said. He swiped someone's water glass and poured the contents into the goblet. "You just drink whatever's inside."
He pushed the goblet to Allen's lips and tipped it. Allen spluttered when water suddenly gushed into his mouth, down his throat and up his nose. He gulped down what he could and snorted up the water in his nose, politely excusing himself afterwards. There was a brief, warm pulse in his belly but after a whole minute of staring into space, he had yet to see anything remarkable.
"What's the vision like?" Lenalee whispered, afraid to break the quiet that had descended upon the room.
"I can't see anything."
"What? You went blind?" Kanda snapped.
"No, moron, I mean I can't see any visions."
"Hm... maybe we need to put stronger stuff in it," Michael suggested, nabbing Link's half-full wine glass and tipping it into the golden cup.
"Excuse me," Link retorted. "Please exercise some self-control. Stealing is a sin after all."
"Yeah, and besides," Allen added, "I'm not twenty-one yet so I can't drink alcohol."
"Come on! The priest also hands out free wine to kids half your age and we are in a building owned by the Vatican. You have an excuse."
"But that's for a religious ritual-" Allen protested but once again found the beverage in the goblet nearly drowning him. He forced it down the same way he had before and gagged at the awful bitter taste of alcohol. The group paused again, waiting for some kind of reaction from Allen. He could definitely feel something this time. Another warm pulse vibrated through his body, followed by another and then another. The continuous wave of pulses made his skin tingle and his head slightly dizzy.
"Allen, are you okay?" he could faintly hear Lenalee. "You're shaking."
Allen lifted his hands and looked at them. His vision swayed but he could see them tremble. "I-I think I sh-should lie d-down," he stammered as his jaw shivered. He tried to stand up but his shaky knees buckled. His ears began to ring and the pulses in his body seared to the point that he couldn't hear or feel anything else even when he hit the ground. There was nothing but blurs in his eyes that twisted everything into an indistinguishable mass of colour until darkness seeped in.
xxxxxxxx
By the time he awoke it was night. Faint moonlight from a half-moon shone through the open window of the infirmary. Allen knew that that's where he was; he could smell the familiar scent of disinfectant and sterility in the air. He felt a bit groggy as though he'd woken up from a long, peaceful sleep. His spine popped when he stretched, causing relief to flood into the stiff joints. After a few minutes of sitting up and rubbing sleep out of his eyes he felt much better; more energised. He flipped the sheets off and swung his legs over the side of the bed. There was no one in here with him, not even Howard Link. That pushy matron had probably ushered him out and for once Allen was grateful for her overbearing nature.
His clothes were folded neatly on the nightstand and his boots were placed at the foot of the bed. Smiling at the thought of someone extending such kindness towards him, he reached for his clothes. He stopped suddenly, noticing something moving within his clothes. A little golden ball with wings popped out of the collar of his shirt. Allen chuckled; really, he should have guessed. He picked up his clothes and put them on, only by force of habit if nothing else.
"Go to the Ark."
Allen gasped and nearly dropped the boot he was putting on. A whispery voice had come out at him from nowhere. Timcanpy didn't seem to be bothered, or maybe the golem couldn't hear it.
"Go to the Ark. Someone's waiting to meet you."
Allen blinked. He zipped up his boot and stood up. The golden golem fluttered up to his shoulder, sensing that its master was about to take a bold action. To be honest, Allen had no idea why he was doing this: reciting the song in his head. An Ark gate opened up below him. The unauthorised use of the Ark at this time was a stupid thing to do but Allen went anyway.
I made an update! Achievement!
btw, glossary points:
ganja: sanskrit word for marijuana.
"you only have the right to eat that bread if you've been baptised" - a reference to Holy Communion, the act of eating bread and wine that represent the body and blood of Christ.
