“You a gay Angel?” Jason asked the
stranger.
The
stranger raised his eyebrows. “Why do you ask that?”
“Well
I know you’re an Angel, cuz your wings. Mrs. Jenkins got a picture of Angels
hung over her trailer door and they all got wings. Bucept their wings is white and yours is black. And I know you’re a gay cuz your
muscles. Carl says only gays, queers, and fighters got muscles”
“Did
Carl give you that?” The Angel touched the bruise below Jason’s eye.
“Ya.”
Jason pulled away. “I asked for it.
Mom said I asked for it. Cuz we don’t got money for a new bike, but Mom
bought it with her own money and you’re only seven once, and he should mind his
own business and he shouts at Mom and… I asked for it.”
“It
will be alright now Jason. That is
why I have come to take you away.”
Jason
scrunched up his face and looked down at the dirt. “I know you say you’re gonna
take me away, but what if I don’t wanna go?”
“You
would rather stay here?” The Angel waved his hand at the piles of rusting junk
and clumps of dusty yellow grass.
Jason
leaned against the hot trailer, put his hands in his pockets, and kicked at the
dirt. The grasshoppers screeched
and the air shimmered in the heat.
“We
do not have much time,” the Angel said, “the Rapture is upon us.”
“I
know, Mrs. Jenkins told me all about Rapture, but why can’t Mom come.”
The
Angel did not answer but stood up straight and held out his hand.
“Mom’s
not that bad,” Jason said.
“She
let Carl hit you.”
“Is it cuz she’s a harlot?”
“Where
did you hear that?”
“Mrs.
Jenkins said Mom’s a harlot and I’m a bustard.”
“A
bastard,” the Angel corrected, “but that is not your fault, and Mrs. Jenkins is
not being saved either.”
“Who’s
being saved?”
“The
pure in heart. The innocent like yourself.”
Jason
dug his toe deeper into the dirt and smiled. “I’m not all that innocent. Me and Jorge killed a cat. Jorge shot it with his pellet gun and I
smashed its head with a shovel.
All kinds a brains come out.”
“Still,
you felt remorse. You buried the
cat by the creek and even cried over it.”
“Who
told you I cried! I wouldn’t cry bout no dumb cat.”
“Jason. It is alright. Here,” The Angel reach
out his hand again.
Jason
kept his hands in his pockets.
A
rush and a crack. Jason pushed
away from the trailer. A ball of
fire split across the sky. Jason
stood, mouth open, as it tore into the trees beyond the creek.
“Jason!”
his mother yelled from inside the trailer. “Jason what you doing out there?”
“Come
Jason,” the Angel said.
Jason
looked from the Angel’s hand, to the burning woods, to the trailer door.
His
mother looked out. “Jason! ”
“Jason,”
the Angel said quietly.
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