“Oh God.” Oh no! Was she even allowed to say that? “Oh Gosh” she thought to herself. She was going to be late.
And they had warned her in orientation. “Don’t be late” they said. “It counts as a verbal warning, and you don’t want to start your new role with a blemish on your record.”
But here she was stuck in traffic. It really didn’t make sense. She once would have thought she was now beyond all that. But it turns out there are rules. Even for angels. Well, rules of a sort.
The car she was hitching a ride with, was slowing down again. She didn’t mind the two squabbling children on either side of her, strapped into their car seats. But in their futile attempts to hit each other, she was getting rather a beating. Not a solid flesh on flesh beating, but each little fist that went through her newly incorporeal form did have a kind of nervy electric buzz to it. Sort of like foil on fillings. Not unpleasant, but not wholly pleasant either.
She nudged the radio station right. A little Puff the Magic Dragon came out, which perfectly distracted the two little terrors long enough to keep their hands to themselves. Sighing she saw that they were going to be stuck in this lane for some time, and jumped two cars over to the fast lane, which, while not moving fast, was at least moving.
The old lady driver was hunched over the wheel staring fixedly at the road in front. The thick glasses she was wearing may or may not have been making any difference to her ability to see how far away from the bumper in front she was. The newest angel winced as they came with inches of a nose-to-tail, and in an effort at self-preservation gave the driver’s glasses a quick spirit clean. Jumping back in her seat, the old lady couldn’t believe the world she now saw. A little frightened at the number of cars she saw around her, she indicated and moved over to the slow lane.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures”, thought our newest angel. Taking a breath she stepped out of the car and started walking. All she needed to do was to get through training and then she would have wings of her own. No more hitching. No more walking.
Written to a writing prompt (A Guardian Angel in Training) this was a piece of fun. I felt like I’d like to hang out with this newest guardian angel.
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Ursula Hoult 