by August Arrea
CHAPTER TWENTY
First Night
W
ith the long, often contentious meeting ended and the fate of Jacob’s stay in Eden finally decided, Gotham excused himself for the night leaving Anahel to take the boy on a tour through Havenhid. They strolled at a leisurely pace with Jacob listening intently as Anahel recited the history of when angels worked with the trees to create the deceptive-looking palatial dwelling.
“You’re having a hard believing that which your eyes are doing their best to try and convince you is true,” said Anahel when he glanced over at Jacob and noticed the skeptical look in the boy’s eyes as they studied the towering architecture surrounding them.
“I’ll admit, it’s a tad much to take in all at one time,” Jacob replied.
“The trick is to cast free from your mind the fact you’re up in the trees,” offered Anahel. “Otherwise you will wander the halls of Havenhid for as long as you’re here with a spellbound look upon your face struggling to render possible what is seemingly impossible.”
Jacob did his best to follow the angel’s advice, but it often proved difficult as they meandered their way down many delusory long halls and turning corridors leading the way through several large fire-lit sitting rooms cozy with plush furnishings. Numerous verandas circling outside Havenhid offered places to spend a quiet moment indulging in the beauty of the surrounding Garden. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, there was even a church chapel nestled in the corner of Havenhid. It was quaint in size, and yet more exquisite than the most opulent cathedrals preserved in the old world. Even though the darkness of night had long settled itself over the Garden, the large stained-glass windows encrusting the towering walls were illuminated like sparkling jewels, as if the sun was still shining its bright light through their rainbow-colored prisms. There were no statues or other religious figures shaped from either stone or wood as found in other churches, but floating overhead in the center of the chapel were still more panes of stained glass levitating horizontally in such a way as to form what looked to be the numerous steps of a spiral staircase. Like the windows, they too glowed in a brilliance of color as they wound their way through a large circular opening formed in the center of the impressive Gothic-vaulted ceiling shaped by the tree limbs and continued endlessly upward into the blackness of sky beyond.
“Is that what I think it is?” asked Jacob.
“That all depends on what you think it is,” Anahel replied coyly.
“When I was little, every night before I went to sleep my mother would come and read me a story. No matter what, it was always a story from the Bible. The one I liked best was when Jacob dreamt of a ladder with which he could see angels climbing to Heaven from Earth and back again,” recounted Jacob while staring fixedly at the sparkling steps of colorful stained glass overhead. “I never believed it would be a ladder, but rather a stairway...you know like the song.”
“Your mother was wise when she chose your name,” said Anahel with a smile. “Now come, and let us see where you’ll be staying.”
~~~
Leaving the chapel, their steps found their way to the main foyer where Jacob first stepped foot from inside the hollow of the tree trunk. They proceeded up one of the winding staircases to the arched landing above. Making a couple quick turns down a last few short corridors, they came upon a hallway leading to several rooms.
“The excitement of settling into a new place,” noted Anahel when they were greeted by the rowdy voices of boys heard coming from behind the row of numerous closed doors they passed.
They continued until they reached the last door situated at the end of the hall. When Anahel went to reach for the door knob Jacob stepped in front of the door to prevent him from opening it.
“Is something the matter?” asked Anahel.
“While I have a moment alone with you…I just wanted to say I appreciate you taking the time to show me around and all, and I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve spent here so far,” said Jacob.
“I’m glad to hear it,” replied Anahel, though he could see by the noticeable bit of hesitation coming from the boy that there was more to be said.
“It’s just…am I…that is, are you sure it’s okay for me to be here?”
The question formed a frown on Anahel forehead. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“What I mean is…I heard you and the other angels in your room earlier.”
A grave expression surfaced in Anahel’s face. “You heard our discussion?”
“Not specifically. Just a lot of arguing and raised voices,” said Jacob. “I take it, it was about me.”
Anahel forced forth a light smile. “Nothing to concern yourself with, I assure you. Just a brief, er, disagreement, which we managed to put to rest.”
“It’s just…well…I sorta feel like I’ve crashed a party I wasn’t exactly invited to,” continued Jacob clumsily. “You’re like the third angel I’ve come in contact with who’s had the same reaction when first meeting me—as though you’re a bug and I’m a can of some kind of deadly repellent. And, frankly, I’m starting to get a slight complex from it.”
Jacob’s eyes suddenly grew round when he realized the words he had let slip from his tongue. “Not that you’re some kind of insect or anything like that,” he quickly added apologetically. “That wasn’t—I mean, I wasn’t mocking you just because you have wings or anything like that. After all who am I to talk, right?”
Anahel listened to the boy as he continued in his bumbling stammering. It had taken them two thousand eighty seven steps to walk from his own doorstep through Havenhid to where they now stood, and by that final step Anahel knew he had made the right decision in allowing the boy to stay. The long corridors had allowed him time to converse with Jacob and instead of sensing a seed of darkness one would expect to be lurking inside the offspring of Samael readying to sprout, Anahel found a genuinely kind spirit he rarely recognized even amongst other Nephilim brought to the Garden, despite the fact it resided beneath a hardened shell of skepticism. Yet there was something else, something that was unlike anything he sensed from the many offspring of his brothers who had come before to Eden. What exactly it was, however, resided far beyond anything he could recognize outright or put his finger upon. It lay cloaked behind the deep pools of Jacob’s eyes, like a burst of light that comes with the birth of a star in the heavens, of which even his own angel sight was unable to spy a glimpse. Stranger still, Anahel found in the short time he had so far spent with Jacob that he had inexplicably come to understand—share in, even—the same protective fondness Gotham had for the boy.
“It would appear even us angels aren’t immune to the act of rudeness, and for that I apologize,” said Anahel, in the sincerest of voices. “We here at Havenhid are very protective of this place, and of those who reside here. I admit your arrival was…unexpected. But I assure you will find the rest of your stay here pleasant and enlightening.”
Jacob gave a relieved smile. “There’s just one more thing.”
“As there always is,” replied Anahel with a sigh.
He then followed Jacob’s gaze downward to where the wolf, who ever since meeting Jacob in the Forest had never strayed far from the boy’s shadow trailing along the floor, quietly lingered.
“For some reason, she took a liking to me when we crossed paths in the Forest,” said Jacob. “And now, I have to admit, I’ve kinda taken a liking to her.”
“I see. And you want my permission allowing her to stay; within Havenhid’s halls, that is,” said Anahel.
“If it’s no trouble.”
“We’ve never really had a need for a rule regarding Fledglings keeping animals in their rooms.” Then speaking to the wolf, Anahel asked, “And why do I have the feeling this is more your idea than Jacob’s here?”
With its piercing eyes fixed on the angel, the wolf cocked its head and gave two loud barks before sitting back obediently upon its hind legs.
“Just as I thought,” said Anahel with a
chuckle. “Alright, I see no reason why she may not stay, so long as the other boys don’t mind.”
“Why would they mind?” said Jacob. “She’ll be like a guard dog.”
A grin came to Anahel’s face. “I doubt you’ll find much use for a guard dog in Eden. Now, shall we go meet your roommates?”
When the door was opened, the four boys inside the room leapt to their feet at the sight of Anahel as though they were buck privates in the army about to undergo a surprise inspection by their commanding officer who had just entered the barracks.
“Good evening, Fledglings, I’m sorry to pop in on you unannounced like this,” said Anahel. “I trust you have found the accommodations to your liking?”
The four boys expressed their approval in unison.
“Good, good! Well, then, I have with me here Jacob Parrish, who arrived here just today, as you all know. He will be staying here with you, so I’m hopeful and more than confident you will not only make room for him but make him feel welcome as well.”
Jacob gave the boys a nod while quickly sizing them up as they, likewise, did him, and at first appearance they looked to be a friendly, though messy bunch.
Giving Jacob a final pat on the back, Anahel turned to leave, but before closing the door behind him he paused. “I would advise each of you to get a good night’s sleep so that you will be up and ready first thing in the morning. The Guides are not ones to be kept waiting.”
~~~
Once Anahel was gone, Jacob spied a bed in the corner of the room that didn’t appear to be taken and carefully stepped his way around the numerous articles of clothing strewn across the floor toward it. When he reached it, he found it piled with a couple open nylon bags and more clothes.
“Sorry about that,” said one of the boys who quickly hurried over and cleared them away. “We’re still unpacking, as you can see by the mess.”
“No problem,” Jacob replied as he shrugged his own bag from off his shoulder and sat himself heavily onto the mattress. He then looked around the room. It was decent in size. Enough to fit five beds in various niches and recesses and allow for a few sparse furnishings.
“I’m Max Kelly,” said the boy once he had freed his arms of the stuff he’d cleared from Jacob’s bed and was able to extend a free hand to shake.
“Jacob. Jacob Parrish.”
“You’re a yank.”
“A what?”
“Yank,” Max repeated. “Y’know, American.”
“Oh, right. Is that a problem?” asked Jacob, not sure whether Max was making a friendly or judgmental observation, even though his demeanor seemed inviting enough.
“Are you kidding? I love Americans,” came the answer. “So where’n America are you from Jacob Parrish?”
“Cain’s Corner.”
“Fancy that! I’m a cane toad, myself,” said Max.
“Come again?” Jacob queried with a cock of his head, thinking for a moment his hearing had picked up some kind of static.
“Cane toad,” repeated Max. “Just a ’lil pet name given to those of us who hail from Queensland.”
“So you’re from the land down under. I thought I caught an accent.”
“That noticeable, is it?” The sincerity with which the inquiry was posed in a voice thick with the twang of Max’s homeland tickled Jacob’s ribs.
“Only slightly,” he answered with a snigger.
Max stood tall and wiry with a dark mop of hair falling thick across his forehead. His green eyes, hooded beneath a pair of pronounced eyebrows which curved near the bridge of his nose like the front of two facing skis, held an unmistakable glint of mischief-making; something which appeared to be supported by a half-inch scar freshly set in the otherwise unblemished skin of his left cheek. And despite the few moments of having just met, Jacob knew as the two shared together the light-hearted moment that he had found himself a friend.
Max then proceeded to introduce Jacob to the other three boys in the room. First there was Kairo, a lean, sinewy black boy from Lagos, Nigeria with a clean-shaven scalp and a wardrobe of brightly colored clothes detailing his passion for soccer—or rather football, as he was quick to correct when Jacob inquired. Next, there was Leos, a tall, blue-eyed Slavic boy from Prague who sported a head of spiky, white-blonde hair. Lying on his back across his bed, he glanced away from the baseball he was absentmindedly tossing in the air to offer his welcome in an accent even thicker than Max’s. Then there was Ethan, a fellow American hailing from a small town nestled in the beauty of Colorado’s snow-capped mountains. Sitting motionless on the edge of his bed with his straggly head of chestnut-colored hair peeking out from beneath a thin, gray knit cap pulled down over his ears, his brown eyes were unblinkingly fixed on the snow-white canid who was sitting at Jacob’s feet.
“Um…I’m sure this is a stupid question…but is that a wolf?” Ethan, holding between his molars a large wad of gum he had long-ceased chewing, inquired.
“It’s alright, she’s harmless,” said Jacob, reaching down to give the wolf a ruffling of its fur on top of its head to prove the point.
“But…it’s a wolf,” pressed Ethan insistently.
“Yeah,” said Jacob. “You don’t mind her staying with me, do you?”
“You mean here? In this room? Where we close our eyes when the lights are turned off?”
As though sensing the boy’s unease by its presence, the wolf rose to her feet and slowly approached him.
“AHHHHHH!” The noise escaping Ethan grew louder and more pronounced, as if he was suddenly in a doctor’s office with a tongue depressor probing his mouth, and his body slowly began leaning back away from the wet nose prodding his hand for a pet.
“Don’t be such a wuss,” said Leos, tossing aside his baseball and kneeling next to the wolf to offer up the head scratch she failed to coax from Ethan. “Can’t you see she’s just trying to make friends?”
“Or checking out what’s in the deli case for her next meal,” Ethan muttered quietly while continuing to eye the animal suspiciously.
“So, what’s her name?” asked Kairo.
Curiously, Jacob had never thought to bestow a name on his new-found friend, and for a moment or two stared at the wolf who returned his blank look as though she, too, had been patiently waiting for a moniker. As the room drew quiet with the boys waiting to know the name, Jacob’s mind retreated back to the moment he first saw the wolf moving through the Forest at the head of her pack with her brilliant white pelt giving off the appearance of vapors of some fast-moving ground fog.
“Uh, Mist…her name is Mist,” said Jacob finally. And it seemed as though both his new roommates—and more importantly Mist, herself—approved of the name.
“So, I hope my getting dumped on you like this isn’t too much of an inconvenience,” said Jacob, feeling some kind of an apology was in order to the other boys for being forced to clear some space for his late arrival.
“Well, that all depends,” said Max. “Do you snore when you sleep?”
“Not that I know of,” answered Jacob.
“Do you engage in other rude and inappropriate bodily noises?”
“Uh…not if I can help it,” said Jacob with a grin.
“Hmm...maybe it’s you then who is owed an apology for getting stuck with us,” said Max before quickly adding, “especially from Ethan, here, which you’ll unfortunately discover for yourself soon enough.”
“I think what Max is trying to say is the more the merrier and welcome,” said Kairo.
“Who says I snore? I don’t snore,” said Ethan defensively.
“Notice how it’s only snoring he claims not to engage in,” said Max, throwing Jacob a wink before dodging out of the way of an incoming pillow hurled his way by Ethan.
“It could be worse. You could have found yourself rooming with Creed,” said Kairo. “Not that you would have ever been considered for such an honor.”
“Who’s Creed?” asked Jacob.
“Creed Maggert,” answered Ma
x with a noticeably snide tone. “He thinks just because his father is an AA that he’s above all the rest of us regular Nephilim.”
The reply caused Jacob’s brow to furrow with bemusement. “His father’s in Alcoholics Anonymous? Seriously?”
Jacob’s guess drew a grin of warm approval from Max.
“Archangel.”
“He’s not just any Archangel, but one of the Angels of the Plague,” said Ethan.
“You’re joking right?” said Jacob, glancing at each of the boys for some sign of leg-pulling. “Plague? As in pestilence?”
“For starters,” said Kairo. “There’s also swarms of locusts, frogs falling from the sky, turning rivers to blood, fiery hail…he’s got lots of tricks in his bag, that one.”
“Sounds pretty old school Old Testament,” said Jacob.
“Creepy is more like it. Seriously,” said Ethan who looked uncomfortable with even having the subject of Creed Maggert’s father brought up in conversation.
“You should have seen Creed when he arrived here at Havenhid. He thought he owned the place. Even demanded that he have his own room. But Anahel put the squash on that quick enough,” said Kairo.
“Yeah, but his father still made sure he got first pick of rooms, as well as the choice of who he roomed with,” Ethan was quick to note.
“You should have seen his face, though, when Jacob walked into the Hall of Light tonight,” Leos piped in from his bed where he resumed in tossing his baseball. “It was like somebody went up and swiped his pedestal as top dog right out from underneath that pompous butt of his.”
“I don’t get it,’ said Jacob with noted confusion.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to be modest around us,” said Ethan.
“No, seriously,” said Jacob, “what are you talking about? Why would this Creed Maggert kid care anything about me? He doesn’t even know me.”
