The Angel....

I passed death on the street today. I was crossing the road, and the next thing I knew I was lying innate on the asphalt, seeing stardust behind my closed eyelids. I lay there, wondering whether I can actually feel every part of me. I think except my head I felt everything. I opened my eyes to a slit, and a woman was standing over me looking down at my face. She is so beautiful came the unbidden thought. She extended one soft cold hand towards me, and I reached out to take it. My hand was a millimeter from hers when her face contorted to an ugly shriek and she was pulled away, as if sucked into a vortex. And suddenly standing in front of me was an angel so ugly the only links to him being an angel were the wings and the halo. There was nothing beautiful about this carrier of good. A twisted contorted ugly scarred face, that seemed to constantly sneer. “It’s not your time, child” he said in a voice that could only do justice to horror movies. It was a guttural sound that seemed to emit from the very depth of his being. A growl fierce enough to scare the living day lights out of any god fearing man. In my case it was that voice that pulled me out of the trance. I opened my eyes to see a horde of people collectively release a sigh of relief at my seemingly normal reaction. Apparently I had been unconscious for a long time. I tried to sit up and found that I did not have the will to. My eyes scanned the crowd gathered around me, and I saw that face again. The twisted features trying a smile of encouragement. And at the other end stood the lady, looking at me longingly, willing me to give up. I could feel the emotions emitting from her, the emotions that longed for my soul. With a deep breathe I sat up. It cost me, oh how it cost me to sit up. But I did it. I sat up and saw the woman being sucked back into what seemed to me a swirl that resembled a vortex, I heard her scream of frustration. Strangely no one around me seemed to have heard it or seen her. The man was still there, and I swear I felt a gentle nudge that could only have come from the energy humming around him, and I stood up. And there in front of me the angel took off on his wings, the last glance I got of him was that of his face, which was now a beautiful cherubic face. Sigh…. It was not my time to go he had said, but damn it had felt so nice to just give up and follow the lady. And yet when I got up, I felt more alive than I had felt ever before. It was as if someone had filled me up with positive energy so strong that there was a buoyancy in my step. I brushed my jeans picked up my bag, and walked off through the crowd, ignoring its shouts of concern. I was alive and I was complete. That was all that mattered. The wounds could be looked into later, could be licked later. There was enough time for all that. At the moment I was rejoicing in the feeling of being gloriously alive again. Life is ugly, but a shift in the angle of the kaleidoscope can make all the difference. Death is beautiful, but only from afar. I was alive that is all I cared about. And as if the heavens wanted to send me a sign, it started to rain, torrential rainfall. With a sun blazing down on mother earth, was it just my imagination or was that really the sun in all its glory? I didn’t care. The rain soaked me to my skin, and I was alive!