Chapter 5
"Hope please calm down. Do I look as if I'm going to hurt you?" I tried to lower my hands, but she made another grab for the bat, which she then proceeded to stick in my face. "Tell me who you are and what you want, and I'll decide then if you're a threat. " I growled to myself. This was not turning out the way I had planned, not by a long shot.
I raised my hands above my head again, and began to bargain with her. "OK, just wait a second Hope, I really think you should sit down for this. I…" "Nice try, but I think I'll stand. This is your last chance to tell me who you are. After that, you're getting smacked with the bat, and I'm calling the cops." She brought the bat within an inch of my nose, and I closed my eyes, nervous that she's start to swing it if I made a wrong move. I felt the bat tap my nose, and then slide down, and back to her side.
I looked at her. Hope was a least a half a foot shorter than I was, but she had a fiery energy, and looking into her eyes I could see that though she was afraid, she knew that she was the one in control at the moment. I also knew she had every intention of following through on her threat if I didn't cooperate with her. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. A child with a baseball bat was holding up an Angel Academy second year student. How degrading could you get? I debated casting a spell that would give me control of that cursed bat, but I knew that if I did, I'd lose any chance of gaining her trust.
Raising myself from her bed, my hands still in the surrendering position, I nodded towards my bag that was resting on her rocking chair. "Open it. I'll explain as you do." I smiled, and Hope looked suspiciously at the bag resting not two feet from her. "What's in it?" she asked, grabbing the baseball bat and using it to catch the shoulder strap of my satchel, pulling it closer to her.
I smiled at her skillfulness. She was smart enough to use the bat to grab the bag, rather than leaning over the chair where I could quickly have overtaken her, had I so desired. What surprised me even more was that after she had done that, she considered the idea that there could be something in the bag, and that she probably shouldn't just rip it open without knowing its contents. Instead, she dropped the bag gently to the floor, and began to prod it with the base of the bat, making sure nothing inside would come out after her.
She was definitely an intelligent human being, but her actions showed me that she was not at all trusting of others. It was going to be hard for me to win her over, and I still didn't have any idea how long it would be till the first of many demons came after her. How much time would I have to earn her trust before someone else intervened? If I'd been sent to her side so quickly, there must have been cause for alarm. But then why couldn't I sense any evil yet?
While I was involved in trying to decide what my next move would be, Hope had pulled the bag open, and was carefully sorting through the contents, moving each item from the bag onto the floor by lightly applying pressure to each item with the bat. I watched as her eyes hit upon each little thing. My tiny Latin spell book, the golden slip of paper that had allowed me to meld my soul with her own, my pocket bible, a cross, a pouch of golden colored dust, and her life story.
"What the heck is this", she asked, tapping the book that read, "Williams A, Hope: Life Story". She looked to me for an answer while stooping down to pick up the book. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she tilted her head as she looked at me questioningly. "Care to explain this to me?" She asked, more of an order than a request. I watched her dangling the book by its cover. "Why does it have my name on it, and what are you doing with it? Are you a stalker or something? Reading up on your prey?" I tried hard not to laugh. She thought I was stalking her. Was she kidding me? I was the person who was supposed to be protecting her from evil minions like that, not doing their work for them! I looked at Hope's amber-green eyes, and wondered how she could be so ignorant. And then I realized that I still hadn't been able to tell her anything about myself. So, trying not to smile, I began to explain myself.
"If you'll allow me to speak, I'll gladly tell you who I am, and why am here. Does that sound OK with you Hope?" She looked at me, and I saw a flash of anger in her eyes. "Say whatever you want. But don't give me an attitude. Remember, I'm the one with the bat." "As you wish", I said, locking my eyes with hers. "My name is Connery, and I am your guardian angel." "My what?" yelled Hope, drawing back a little while she tried to decide whether to laugh, or to question me again. I frowned, and creased my forehead, as I heard her start to laugh. This was serious. She has already professed that she believes in angels, so what was the problem here? I didn't get dragged all the way down here to be laughed at.
Becoming defensive, I called out, "It's true! Just look at the book in your hands. It's all about you; from your birth till present day. Go ahead. See for yourself." I pointed to the book in her right hand. "At least look at it before you tell me I'm not who I say who I am." Hope hesitantly turned the book around so it faced her, and she began to flip through its pages. Her eyes grew wide as she skimmed each section, and then she began rapidly blinking as if she was trying to wake up from a bad dream. But the fact of the matter was, this was no dream. I had been telling her the truth. She dropped the book to the floor, and began mumbling to herself, something I couldn't quite make out.
"An angel…?" she began, trailing off. Shaking her head, she seemed to come to her senses, and she picked the book up off the floor and threw it to my feet, eyebrows raised. "All right then Colliery. Prove it to me.", she said as defiantly as she could. "It's Connery, and how would you suggest I prove it Hope?" I shot back. The second the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Humans love to bicker. The more you argue with them and try to prove them wrong, the greater the lengths they will go to win, and the more ruthless they become. By giving Hope an attitude, I had facilitated a reaction in her that I wasn't going to like. I had awakened the defiant and determined part of her nature. And she was going to cause me problems unless I could turn the situation around somehow. Can't they teach us something useful? Like a remove- foot- from- mouth spell?
She would now look for the best way she knew of to prove me wrong. And I knew exactly what that was. She was going to ask to see my wings. And that was against the rules. No human was ever supposed to see an angel in his or her true form. No human was even supposed to meet his or her angel! But of course, Hope had to be the exception to every rule. She was not a normal charge by any stretch of the imagination. I had been fooling myself by thinking that I could treat her as I had learned to treat the rest of her kind.
Just as I had feared, the next sentence out of her mouth was, "Correct me if I'm wrong Connery, but angels typically come with a few added features, like a halo and wings. So where are your wings?" She taunted, sure that she had found a way to trip me up, "If you are who you claim to be, then you won't mind letting me see them Connery." I sighed and made the sign of the cross over myself while asking God to forgive me for breaking yet another rule. I had a sinking feeling that I would be doing a lot of that when dealing with Hope. She was, just as I had feared, a most troublesome girl. Just like all the rest of her kind. How had I even gotten into this situation? God knew how I felt about her kind. What had I done to deserve this? I took a deep breath, bringing myself back to reality with the discomforting thought that she was mine to guide, and I'd have to go along with what she wanted.
"As you wish", I said, closing my eyes and dropping my hands to my sides. They ached from being in the surrendering position for such a long time. "Whatever you need me to do, to get you to believe that I'm really who I say I am." I said softly, my eyes downcast. I watched the base of the bat as she fidgeted with it. I could feel a small wave of guilt passing over her at that moment. The binding spell was getting stronger. I had made some progress. She was starting to believe me.
With my eyes tightly shut, I raised my hands up, and my wings began to unfurl slowly, spreading themselves till they could spread no further. I fluttered them slightly, and then opened my eyes, having created a small air current, just strong enough to blow stray wisps of hair behind her elfish ears. She took a sharp breath, and stepped backwards unsteadily, the bat dropping to the floor with a crack as her hands flew up to her mouth. "That's impossible" she mumbled through the gaps betwixt her interwoven fingers. She looked at my wings, tracing their outline with her eyes, their bright white reflecting in her pupils. She mumbled again, but this time, I couldn't make out the words, and her hands fell back down to her sides.
Determined to clear any thoughts of doubt from her mind, I looked at her and fluttered my wings once more, raising myself an inch or two above the floor. Careful not to bump into anything, and trying to acclimate myself to the concept of gravity, I flapped a bit harder, keeping myself floating in the stale air of her room. I hovered there, watching Hope as the shock began to fade away, and the reality of what she was seeing began to set in. Closing my own eyes, I tried to strengthen the connection between her soul and mine, when I heard her whisper, "My God, he's really an angel." I smiled as I felt her entire soul open up to me. Internal warmth suffused itself through my body, starting in the center and reaching out till it touched the tips of my wings. The process was complete. I had full access to her soul now. And things would go a little easier from that point onward.
I smiled and allowed myself to drop gently to the floor. I knew then that I had won that first battle. But I couldn't help but wonder as I began to walk towards her, how many more were there to come?
I raised my hands above my head again, and began to bargain with her. "OK, just wait a second Hope, I really think you should sit down for this. I…" "Nice try, but I think I'll stand. This is your last chance to tell me who you are. After that, you're getting smacked with the bat, and I'm calling the cops." She brought the bat within an inch of my nose, and I closed my eyes, nervous that she's start to swing it if I made a wrong move. I felt the bat tap my nose, and then slide down, and back to her side.
I looked at her. Hope was a least a half a foot shorter than I was, but she had a fiery energy, and looking into her eyes I could see that though she was afraid, she knew that she was the one in control at the moment. I also knew she had every intention of following through on her threat if I didn't cooperate with her. Rolling my eyes, I shook my head. A child with a baseball bat was holding up an Angel Academy second year student. How degrading could you get? I debated casting a spell that would give me control of that cursed bat, but I knew that if I did, I'd lose any chance of gaining her trust.
Raising myself from her bed, my hands still in the surrendering position, I nodded towards my bag that was resting on her rocking chair. "Open it. I'll explain as you do." I smiled, and Hope looked suspiciously at the bag resting not two feet from her. "What's in it?" she asked, grabbing the baseball bat and using it to catch the shoulder strap of my satchel, pulling it closer to her.
I smiled at her skillfulness. She was smart enough to use the bat to grab the bag, rather than leaning over the chair where I could quickly have overtaken her, had I so desired. What surprised me even more was that after she had done that, she considered the idea that there could be something in the bag, and that she probably shouldn't just rip it open without knowing its contents. Instead, she dropped the bag gently to the floor, and began to prod it with the base of the bat, making sure nothing inside would come out after her.
She was definitely an intelligent human being, but her actions showed me that she was not at all trusting of others. It was going to be hard for me to win her over, and I still didn't have any idea how long it would be till the first of many demons came after her. How much time would I have to earn her trust before someone else intervened? If I'd been sent to her side so quickly, there must have been cause for alarm. But then why couldn't I sense any evil yet?
While I was involved in trying to decide what my next move would be, Hope had pulled the bag open, and was carefully sorting through the contents, moving each item from the bag onto the floor by lightly applying pressure to each item with the bat. I watched as her eyes hit upon each little thing. My tiny Latin spell book, the golden slip of paper that had allowed me to meld my soul with her own, my pocket bible, a cross, a pouch of golden colored dust, and her life story.
"What the heck is this", she asked, tapping the book that read, "Williams A, Hope: Life Story". She looked to me for an answer while stooping down to pick up the book. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she tilted her head as she looked at me questioningly. "Care to explain this to me?" She asked, more of an order than a request. I watched her dangling the book by its cover. "Why does it have my name on it, and what are you doing with it? Are you a stalker or something? Reading up on your prey?" I tried hard not to laugh. She thought I was stalking her. Was she kidding me? I was the person who was supposed to be protecting her from evil minions like that, not doing their work for them! I looked at Hope's amber-green eyes, and wondered how she could be so ignorant. And then I realized that I still hadn't been able to tell her anything about myself. So, trying not to smile, I began to explain myself.
"If you'll allow me to speak, I'll gladly tell you who I am, and why am here. Does that sound OK with you Hope?" She looked at me, and I saw a flash of anger in her eyes. "Say whatever you want. But don't give me an attitude. Remember, I'm the one with the bat." "As you wish", I said, locking my eyes with hers. "My name is Connery, and I am your guardian angel." "My what?" yelled Hope, drawing back a little while she tried to decide whether to laugh, or to question me again. I frowned, and creased my forehead, as I heard her start to laugh. This was serious. She has already professed that she believes in angels, so what was the problem here? I didn't get dragged all the way down here to be laughed at.
Becoming defensive, I called out, "It's true! Just look at the book in your hands. It's all about you; from your birth till present day. Go ahead. See for yourself." I pointed to the book in her right hand. "At least look at it before you tell me I'm not who I say who I am." Hope hesitantly turned the book around so it faced her, and she began to flip through its pages. Her eyes grew wide as she skimmed each section, and then she began rapidly blinking as if she was trying to wake up from a bad dream. But the fact of the matter was, this was no dream. I had been telling her the truth. She dropped the book to the floor, and began mumbling to herself, something I couldn't quite make out.
"An angel…?" she began, trailing off. Shaking her head, she seemed to come to her senses, and she picked the book up off the floor and threw it to my feet, eyebrows raised. "All right then Colliery. Prove it to me.", she said as defiantly as she could. "It's Connery, and how would you suggest I prove it Hope?" I shot back. The second the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Humans love to bicker. The more you argue with them and try to prove them wrong, the greater the lengths they will go to win, and the more ruthless they become. By giving Hope an attitude, I had facilitated a reaction in her that I wasn't going to like. I had awakened the defiant and determined part of her nature. And she was going to cause me problems unless I could turn the situation around somehow. Can't they teach us something useful? Like a remove- foot- from- mouth spell?
She would now look for the best way she knew of to prove me wrong. And I knew exactly what that was. She was going to ask to see my wings. And that was against the rules. No human was ever supposed to see an angel in his or her true form. No human was even supposed to meet his or her angel! But of course, Hope had to be the exception to every rule. She was not a normal charge by any stretch of the imagination. I had been fooling myself by thinking that I could treat her as I had learned to treat the rest of her kind.
Just as I had feared, the next sentence out of her mouth was, "Correct me if I'm wrong Connery, but angels typically come with a few added features, like a halo and wings. So where are your wings?" She taunted, sure that she had found a way to trip me up, "If you are who you claim to be, then you won't mind letting me see them Connery." I sighed and made the sign of the cross over myself while asking God to forgive me for breaking yet another rule. I had a sinking feeling that I would be doing a lot of that when dealing with Hope. She was, just as I had feared, a most troublesome girl. Just like all the rest of her kind. How had I even gotten into this situation? God knew how I felt about her kind. What had I done to deserve this? I took a deep breath, bringing myself back to reality with the discomforting thought that she was mine to guide, and I'd have to go along with what she wanted.
"As you wish", I said, closing my eyes and dropping my hands to my sides. They ached from being in the surrendering position for such a long time. "Whatever you need me to do, to get you to believe that I'm really who I say I am." I said softly, my eyes downcast. I watched the base of the bat as she fidgeted with it. I could feel a small wave of guilt passing over her at that moment. The binding spell was getting stronger. I had made some progress. She was starting to believe me.
With my eyes tightly shut, I raised my hands up, and my wings began to unfurl slowly, spreading themselves till they could spread no further. I fluttered them slightly, and then opened my eyes, having created a small air current, just strong enough to blow stray wisps of hair behind her elfish ears. She took a sharp breath, and stepped backwards unsteadily, the bat dropping to the floor with a crack as her hands flew up to her mouth. "That's impossible" she mumbled through the gaps betwixt her interwoven fingers. She looked at my wings, tracing their outline with her eyes, their bright white reflecting in her pupils. She mumbled again, but this time, I couldn't make out the words, and her hands fell back down to her sides.
Determined to clear any thoughts of doubt from her mind, I looked at her and fluttered my wings once more, raising myself an inch or two above the floor. Careful not to bump into anything, and trying to acclimate myself to the concept of gravity, I flapped a bit harder, keeping myself floating in the stale air of her room. I hovered there, watching Hope as the shock began to fade away, and the reality of what she was seeing began to set in. Closing my own eyes, I tried to strengthen the connection between her soul and mine, when I heard her whisper, "My God, he's really an angel." I smiled as I felt her entire soul open up to me. Internal warmth suffused itself through my body, starting in the center and reaching out till it touched the tips of my wings. The process was complete. I had full access to her soul now. And things would go a little easier from that point onward.
I smiled and allowed myself to drop gently to the floor. I knew then that I had won that first battle. But I couldn't help but wonder as I began to walk towards her, how many more were there to come?