by D. J. Holmes
***
Several days later, the village is buzzing with word that Jehanne talks with angels. The village priest was angry with what Jehanne had told him. He told a friend of his, who then told several of his own friends, who then told others. Finally, all of the girls in the village heard of Jehanne’s angels.
“Who does she think that she is? Only a Priest receives messages from angels.”
“She’s always so nice. It makes me sick!”
“All of the boys of the village look at her. They never look at me.”
“She always goes to the church to take flowers, and to pray every day! She never does anything mean!”
“Why does she always have a smile on her face? All of this just makes me sick! Ooooooo, she is just too sweet.”
For several months, the village girls turn their noses into the air anytime that Jehanne walks their way. Of course, their behavior is nothing new. From the time that she was a little girl her village sisters have ostracized her for one reason or another. She learned long ago, that she didn’t need their friendship. God and his angels were by her side. That is all that she needed.
Soon, bands of marauding English begin ravaging nearby villages taking several of the village girls as slaves. Now in her village, they stop by Jehanne’s cottage and yell, “We have come for your daughter, Jehanne.”
Walking out of the cottage door, Jacque says, “You will not take my daughter!”
“And who is going to stop me?” the soldier questions with a gruesome smile, his hand resting on the top of his sword as a warning.
Looking out of the cottage window, Jehanne adamantly says, “MY ANGELS.”
“What did you say?” he questions, looking in her direction.
Walking out the door and standing by her father, Jehanne repeats, “My angels will stop you!”
“You talk to angels?” he asks with apprehension, looking down from his horse at Jehanne.
Looking up to him, Jehanne says with confidence, “Yes, they have told me that you will not take me today, but that I will see you on the battlefield.”
“…You, on the battlefield?” He laughs.
Undeterred, Jehanne answers him. “That’s what my angels have told me!”
“Do you always talk to angels?”
“Actually, they talk to me. I just answer them.”
Looking at her, wondering if he should believe her or not, he begins to see a bright light surrounding her as she stands straight and tall, full of courage and strength. On each side, standing next to her, he sees an angel standing with a sword drawn.
Looking at his soldiers, he asks, “Do you see anyone standing by her side?”
“Just her father, Sir….”
The soldier is intimidated by what he sees. Knowing that it is meant to be a warning, he says, “Come on. We don’t need a crazy girl like this. We have plenty of others from this village.”
To get his attention, Jehanne begins walking toward the soldier. Looking up directly at his face, she says as a matter-of-fact, “Once again, Sir, if you don’t want me, then you won’t want them either.”
“Why won’t I want them?”
“They talk to angels also….. Everyone in this village talks to angels.”
Looking at all of them strangely, and with a bit of fear, he gives the order. “Leave them all. This seems to be a haunted village.” Looking at the horizon, he notices that the sun is going down. “I don’t want to be here while it’s dark. We don’t have any time to take a bunch of witches anyway, they’ll only be trouble,” he says while looking at the group of girls he has already collected.
The Sun sets a little lower making it darker and instilling more fear into his heart. Trying to defuse the terror that is boiling up within his body, he yells, “Leave them. It’s time to meet the rest of our troops.”
Hitting his horse with the heels of his boots to make it gallop, his soldiers follow behind him riding as fast as they can toward the setting sun, and out of Jehanne’s village.
Out of gratitude, one village girl says, “I’ve never been so glad to be called a witch in all my life.”
“I think of witches in a different way now. Thank goodness they’re afraid of us,” another village girl says.
Laughing and giggling, all of the village girls gather around Jehanne.
“You saved all of us, Jehanne.”
“I just talked about my angels.”
“Yes, and we’ve always made fun of your angels. We believe in them now, Jehanne. Will you ever forgive us?”
“There is nothing to forgive. If I didn’t hear them, and see them myself, I would probably feel the same way that you feel.”
“From this day forward, let us all become sisters,” Jehanne’s neighbor says.
“Yes, we are all sisters now,” they chorus.
“Actually, we have always been sisters, since before the day we were born,” Jehanne added.
“You are right, Jehanne. Every human being is either our brother or sister.”
“And just think…those brothers will never come here again,” Jehanne’s neighbor states with a giggle.
All of the girls continue laughing at the joke that has been successfully played on the marauding English.
While Jehanne is laughing with her new found village sisters, in her heart she is wondering if they would still be as accepting of her, if they knew what her angels had asked her to do.
In the distance the sounds of small bells can be heard as Pierre brings the sheep home. Jehanne runs to tell him of the joke that has just been played on the English.
