highly unlikely, but….well…we’ll see.” And then she was
gone.
* * * * *
The summons came as I was escorting my new client from my
office. As I closed the door behind him I suddenly felt as if my limbs were
lined with lead. I watched my hand slide away from the door panel in slow
motion, my eyes tricking me into thinking I could see movement lines as it
shifted. I heard a whoosh of air and my vision darkened to the point of
blindness. After a few seconds, I realized that there was actually a pinpoint
of yellow light at the center of my visual universe. I squinted at the light
far off in the distance and tried to look down at my hands and feet, which I
couldn’t feel. My head wouldn’t move but the light was moving steadily nearer,
or I was moving nearer to it, I couldn’t really tell. Overall, it was a
crashin’ strange feeling, but somehow I wasn’t afraid.
After what felt like several long minutes, I met the light
and the feeling in my arms and legs returned. I realized I was standing in the
back of a large room filled with warm, golden light. Before my startled gaze
could fully comprehend my surroundings, I felt Myra’s presence beside me and
turned to grin at her. She frowned crankily at me and motioned for me to follow
her to a chair that was placed ridiculously close to a couple of tall, potted
palms. I sank into the chair and realized I could barely see or be seen through
the foliage. It occurred to me that Myra might not want anyone to know I was
there. I craned my neck to view the room as it filled quickly with “people” for
lack of a better word, who didn’t exactly glow, but whose skin was almost
iridescent in the golden light.
I watched Myra take her seat at a long table in the front of
the room. Unbidden, my mind made the connection to that other room I had
recently found myself viewing against my will. That room had also been filled
with creatures from the spiritual world, but those critters had been like photo
negatives of this crowd. From the creatures themselves to the room’s décor, the
two courts couldn’t have been more different. And what really bothered me was
that I wasn’t at all sure I preferred the Angel Court to the Devil Court. A
part of me had been more at home amongst the slavering disgustables in Dialle’s
cement and velvet world.
I shook off these uncomfortable thoughts and turned my
attention back to my angel at the front of the room. Myra glared back at me as
if to warn me not to move or speak. I grinned at her and waved
enthusiastically. She was not amused.
The last seat, located pretty much at the center of the
table, was about to be filled by a tall, hard-faced angel with cappuccino
colored skin and a lean, muscular body. He was dressed, or rather wrapped,
entirely in swatches of cloth that appeared to be woven from gold thread. The
gold cloth was gathered together at his narrow waist with a belt of intricate,
mesh silver and fell to the floor, where it pooled around the spot where his
feet would be, if he had any. I couldn’t see any feet and he seemed to be
hovering above the floor. The stern-looking cappuccino angel with no feet
gaveled the room to silence as he floated into the chair. His chiseled features
panned the room while those who were assembled there settled silently into
attention. Apparently he was in charge. The cappuccino commander. Capcom for
short. Being just a little over five feet tall myself, I’m really into
short. So it follows that, since he was tall, he had one strike against him as
soon as I laid eyes on him. Juvenile I know, but there it is.
Once he’d ascertained that the room was sufficiently quiet
and attentive, the Capcom turned to scan the faces of the other angels sitting
at the council table. When he addressed them, his voice was surprisingly deep
and invasive, insinuating itself under my skin and probing there. I shivered
under the effect.
“We have called this council because we are in crisis. The
spirit world is in an
gone.
* * * * *
The summons came as I was escorting my new client from my
office. As I closed the door behind him I suddenly felt as if my limbs were
lined with lead. I watched my hand slide away from the door panel in slow
motion, my eyes tricking me into thinking I could see movement lines as it
shifted. I heard a whoosh of air and my vision darkened to the point of
blindness. After a few seconds, I realized that there was actually a pinpoint
of yellow light at the center of my visual universe. I squinted at the light
far off in the distance and tried to look down at my hands and feet, which I
couldn’t feel. My head wouldn’t move but the light was moving steadily nearer,
or I was moving nearer to it, I couldn’t really tell. Overall, it was a
crashin’ strange feeling, but somehow I wasn’t afraid.
After what felt like several long minutes, I met the light
and the feeling in my arms and legs returned. I realized I was standing in the
back of a large room filled with warm, golden light. Before my startled gaze
could fully comprehend my surroundings, I felt Myra’s presence beside me and
turned to grin at her. She frowned crankily at me and motioned for me to follow
her to a chair that was placed ridiculously close to a couple of tall, potted
palms. I sank into the chair and realized I could barely see or be seen through
the foliage. It occurred to me that Myra might not want anyone to know I was
there. I craned my neck to view the room as it filled quickly with “people” for
lack of a better word, who didn’t exactly glow, but whose skin was almost
iridescent in the golden light.
I watched Myra take her seat at a long table in the front of
the room. Unbidden, my mind made the connection to that other room I had
recently found myself viewing against my will. That room had also been filled
with creatures from the spiritual world, but those critters had been like photo
negatives of this crowd. From the creatures themselves to the room’s décor, the
two courts couldn’t have been more different. And what really bothered me was
that I wasn’t at all sure I preferred the Angel Court to the Devil Court. A
part of me had been more at home amongst the slavering disgustables in Dialle’s
cement and velvet world.
I shook off these uncomfortable thoughts and turned my
attention back to my angel at the front of the room. Myra glared back at me as
if to warn me not to move or speak. I grinned at her and waved
enthusiastically. She was not amused.
The last seat, located pretty much at the center of the
table, was about to be filled by a tall, hard-faced angel with cappuccino
colored skin and a lean, muscular body. He was dressed, or rather wrapped,
entirely in swatches of cloth that appeared to be woven from gold thread. The
gold cloth was gathered together at his narrow waist with a belt of intricate,
mesh silver and fell to the floor, where it pooled around the spot where his
feet would be, if he had any. I couldn’t see any feet and he seemed to be
hovering above the floor. The stern-looking cappuccino angel with no feet
gaveled the room to silence as he floated into the chair. His chiseled features
panned the room while those who were assembled there settled silently into
attention. Apparently he was in charge. The cappuccino commander. Capcom for
short. Being just a little over five feet tall myself, I’m really into
short. So it follows that, since he was tall, he had one strike against him as
soon as I laid eyes on him. Juvenile I know, but there it is.
Once he’d ascertained that the room was sufficiently quiet
and attentive, the Capcom turned to scan the faces of the other angels sitting
at the council table. When he addressed them, his voice was surprisingly deep
and invasive, insinuating itself under my skin and probing there. I shivered
under the effect.
“We have called this council because we are in crisis. The
spirit world is in an
Similar Books
