The Celestial Gate by Avital Dicker (red white royal blue txt) 📗

the scraps of fog, he could see trolleys in different colors going along color-coded tracks in the air. Some of the cars were full of people, others full of animals. Mor looked at a car filled with white bears. Right behind it came a car full of giraffes whose necks uncomfortably stretched through the ceiling.

Anise noticed several people trying to jump out of the train cars, with ushers in green uniforms immediately putting them back in place.

Not far away from there, a group of angels in white was busy sorting through a heap of broken items. They separated kitchenware from furniture and toys, putting them on different tracks moving at tremendous speed.

“What are they doing?” asked Mor, pointing to the group in white, while licking another piece of fog.

“They’re in charge of the object VIP lounge. They fix things and make sure that, after a life of hard labor, they’re in perfect shape before they rest,” Enochio explained.

Mor stopped chewing. “What? Are you serious? Objects have a soul?” he asked, surprised.

“Of course,” the angel snorted impatiently.

Mor thought of the way he’d treated some of his toys and suddenly felt a twinge of conscience.

“Just wait a second… So why are we here and not in a train car?” he wanted to know.

“I’ve already told you! It’s not your time to come up to heaven. Only God knows how you got in,” grumbled the chubby angel while grabbing Yam by his shirt. “If anyone asks, I did not fall asleep while on duty, you hear? This screw-up is not my fault.” Yam, amused, nodded in agreement, and Enochio let go of him with a sigh.

“All right. Don’t move,” he said. “Wait here. I have to check on how to return you. If the guards catch you – heaven have mercy on me and heaven have mercy on you,” he repeated his threat, and started waddling away on his chubby legs.

A stunned Anise looked at Yam and Mor. “Listen, guys, I remember everything.”

“Remember what?” asked Yam.

“Everything,” she repeated, hugging him with carefree joy.

Yam had no idea what she was talking about but decided that as long as she was hugging him, he wasn’t going to complain.

Anise closed her eyes. Here, now, at this very moment, she knew it all. She’s been looking for God not only in this incarnation but it in many, many incarnations. And, somehow, something always gets messed up, she recalled.

In the meantime, Mor was chasing some hammocks floating among the bits of fog. After several failed attempts, he managed to catch one of them and leap into it, luxuriating in his new spot.

“What in the world are you talking about?” Mor asked from above, stretching his arms lazily. “Why don’t you stop your nattering? Let’s enjoy ourselves. It was pretty damned awful down there on Earth,” he added, swinging blissfully from side to side.

Anise leaped up and overturned the hammock, spilling Mor out. “What the hell?” He was really mad, but Anise ignored him.

“Listen, it’s all coming back to me now. You, me, and him – we’ve always been together,” she said while pointing at Yam. “We’ve had different names and lived in different places, but the three of us – we’ve always been together.”

Mor looked confused, so Anise shook him by his shoulders. “Mor, you must remember. Each time, we get to this spot we’re immediately sent back down. There’s a lottery and, after a short, totally random look, we’re forced to choose one family out of three, and end up making mistakes and living sad incarnations. Every time, we decide to go find God and talk to Him about it, but He’s always busy so we always get sent back down, and then we forget, all over again.”

Mor stared at her without understanding a single word. He shrugged. “Fine, whatever. But you didn’t have to throw me out of the hammock,” he said, climbing into another one.

Anise’s frustration was plain. “Listen up! This is our chance. This time, I’m not giving up. This time, nobody’s stopping me. I’m going to find Him. And you don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” she added, wounded.

Yam didn’t answer. His eyes were fixed on a faraway vision of wild horses galloping freely among the train cars and a bunch of ushers trying valiantly to bring them back.

Anise was furious. Fine, I can do without them, she thought and started moving away.

“Hey, relax! Why do you always have to wreck all the fun?” Mor called after her, unwillingly climbing out of his new hammock.

“Anise’s gone off to look for God,” he told Yam, shrugging again. “She always complicates things. We were told to stay here.”

“Would you just look at that beautiful thing over there… I’m dying to ride it.” An excited Yam was pointing to a black horse whose mane dazzled with silvery stripes.

“I wonder if it can talk!” Mor laughed, “like in the cartoons. Hey – I’d like the white one over there,” he said, pointing enthusiastically at another horse, completely forgetting about God and Anise.

From her distance, Anise watched the two boys chasing the horses. Mor leaped onto the white horse’s back, grabbing its long mane. “My knight in shining armor… As if,” she snorted angrily to herself.

She didn’t need them. She could do this on her own. And if anybody thought she was going to wait around for the chubby angel to return and send her back down, they had another thing coming. No, this was her chance to find God and tell Him exactly what she thought of Him and the way he runs the world, both down there and up here. Yeah. She’d manage on her own.

Chapter 20

Amalia aimed her gun at the head of the pale woman in the doorway armed with an ancient rifle.

Sual motioned for her to put her gun away. “Lena, it’s me, Sual,” she said.

Lena looked at her, and a moment later lowered her weapon. “I’m so sorry, but these days…” she cried out in remorse.

Warmly embracing Sual,