perhaps some man had gotten in there, maybe because he was ill. And naked? She had no idea what events could have transpired to bring this scenario to pass but she did know one thing, and that was, apart from pictures in magazines that her friends brought to school, she’d never seen a naked man before. Once again that flash of excitement went through her.
Suddenly she remembered the men in the grey suits, asking her dad if the house had been broken into, or if anything was missing. Abruptly it all fell into place; they must be the FBI or something, out looking for an escaped convict. That’s why they asked about the clothes off the line, he would have discarded his prison attire as soon as he was free, he’d somehow eluded the authorities and was now hiding out in the playhouse. It all made sense. Even the angel part, he’d probably told Ninah that to make her trust him and told her not to bring anyone back. Or maybe it wasn’t that at all, maybe he was sick and it was just fever induced rambling, and her sister’s imagination had done the rest.
“I’ve told you everything now okay, I’ve got to go and take the medicine to the angel. Please don’t tell Mom and Dad,” Ninah, whispered, begging. Donna looked at her, concerned. She couldn’t very well let Ninah go down there now; hell knew what sort of a desperado the guy might be. She really ought to tell her father but then she wouldn’t be able to go down there either and she really wanted to see him for herself. Naked? Besides he hadn’t hurt Ninah so far, had he? She supposed they’d be all right.
“Okay, but we’re coming with you,” Donna whispered back.
“We are?” Cassie asked in surprised amusement.
“Just come on!” Donna hissed and Cassie, sighing, roused herself off the bed.
“He told me not to bring anyone else,” Ninah persisted, looking worried.
“Don’t worry, he won’t mind if we come,” Donna said, doing up the laces on her runners.
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m older and I know more about angels than you do!” Donna snapped.
“You promise?” Ninah asked, not really convinced.
“Yes I promise,” Donna sighed. “Now let’s go.”
“Okay, but just remember, he’s mine.”
10
The three girls crept downstairs, past the living room where the TV burbled softly, and into the kitchen. Immediately Ninah set about filling a bottle with water and gathering some food together, her idea of sustenance consisting of more cookies, a piece of cake, a jam sandwich and two oranges.
Donna and Cassie stood by impatiently while Ninah rushed about, quietly urging her to hurry up. Eventually Donna helped, just to speed things along. As Ninah was putting the jam back in the cupboard, her grip on the handle slipped causing the door to slam shut on its spring lock hinges. All three girls jumped.
“Donna, is that you?” Her mother’s voice sounded from the living room.
“Yes Mom, Cass and I were just fixing a snack, okay?”
“Okay honey,” her mother answered absently.
“Sorry,” Ninah whispered, she could see her sister’s annoyed look in the dark. They waited a minute to see if her parents would say anything more before making their way out the back door, careful not to let it creak too loudly. A full moon was out and led the way down toward the back of the yard until they reached the trees and started in.
“God, there’s probably spiders everywhere in here,” Cassie moaned as they picked their way along the little path. Shortly they approached the playhouse. Ninah had closed the door the last time she’d left, and it was still closed and the windows were dark beyond their panes.
“It looks pretty dark in there and we didn’t bring a torch, how are we supposed to see?” Cassie asked.
“Don’t worry, my dad put a ‘lectric’ light inside,” Ninah whispered.
“Who’s worried?” Cassie muttered sarcastically under her breath.
They reached the door and Ninah stopped and turned to face them. Speaking softly she said “Just wait outside for a second, I want to go in and tell him you’re here otherwise he might get scared and fly away.” She looked at them defiantly in the moonlight.
Donna and Cassie exchanged glances. “Okay, but only for a second, then we’ll come in,” Donna said, playing along for the sake of minimal fuss and readying herself to pounce through the door at the first hint of trouble.
Ninah nodded and opened the door just enough to slip through, disappearing inside. A second later the light came on and Donna could hear her sister speaking softly. “Hi, it’s only me again, I brought you some food and medicine.” She paused. “I brought my sister and her friend too, they wanted to meet you, please don’t be afraid”.
Donna looked at Cassie in the light from the doorway. Either Ninah was having one major hallucination or there was definitely someone in the playhouse with her. Enough was enough. Donna pushed the door all the way open and with Cassie behind her, stepped into the lighted room. Immediately her eyes went wider than ever before and her mouth fell open. For a full ten seconds she couldn’t speak and when the words did finally find their way up from her throat, all she could manage was to feebly croak, “Oh my God!”
11
Standing in the playhouse, Donna simply couldn’t believe her eyes. Ninah hadn’t been lying and hadn’t been hallucinating; everything she’d said was true. There was an angel in the playhouse but this was not one of Raphael’s winged cherubs.
“I don’t believe it,” Cassie whispered, shaking her head slowly in awe.
Lying on his side on the floor beside Ninah’s kneeling form and partially covered by a white sheet was without a doubt the most beautiful boy, creature, whatever, that Donna had ever seen and he didn’t look any older than she was. Put simply he was perfect, gorgeous despite his disheveled condition, and the large, powerful wings that sprouted from his shoulders only added to his overall beauty in an alien but eye catching way. Rather than folding back against themselves his wings stuck up straight into the air. Perhaps it was to help dispel the heat of his fever, he was obviously very sick.
Donna supposed, in some foggy part of her mind, that she should do something, but for now she just couldn’t drag her eyes away from his wings. There was no doubt that they were real and functional, they were so big. They were uniformly white with the main flight feathers at the tips and far trailing edges showing color, yellowy gold fading to blue around the edge of each feather. Abruptly she noticed one wing was damaged and bleeding and the sight of the blood brought her back to earth, well, sort of.
“This is incredible,” Donna murmured as she knelt down beside Ninah, who was smearing water on the angel’s forehead. He, it was unconscious and this close she could smell his perspiration and sickness, intermingled with the coppery richness of blood. She saw that beside Ninah was an empty glass and a partially nibbled cookie.
“Donna what should I do? I can’t get him to wake up so he can take the medicine. What's wrong with him?” Ninah asked and Donna could tell she was upset and close to tears.
“I don’t know,” Donna whispered as she stared down at the angel’s beautiful but fever strained face. The strong yet slightly feminine jaw line, the small nose and unblemished skin framed by the shortish golden blonde hair caused butterflies in Donna’s tummy. To think she’d thought Billy Kennedy was attractive, but compared to the sight lying before her, ill and fever racked as it was, Billy was positively plain! It was the equivalent of comparing a Monet original to a preschooler’s finger painting.
Donna let her eyes travel appreciatively down the rest of his body. It was muscular, well toned and perfectly proportioned along the lines of classic Hellenic sculpture. His skin was that bronzed color that Donna would kill to be able to attain herself. The only difference, apart from his wings of course, was that he had no body hair at all, and no facial hair, not even stubble. His chin was as smooth as a prepubescent male.
The sheet Ninah had put over him now covered only his hips and buttocks and Donna
found herself wishing it wasn’t there at all. Ninah said he’d been naked when she’d found him and thinking of this made Donna’s body flush hot and cold.
“Donna, look.” Ninah’s voice snapped her out of her less than pure thoughts. She looked at his face, noticing that his eyes had opened. They moved and focused, first on Ninah and then on her. They were the strangest, most incredible eyes she’d ever seen which, she supposed, was in keeping with the rest of him. They were a wide, incredibly light blue, with tiny speckles of silver, like mercury, around the edges of the irises.
His eyes locked onto her own, staring at her unblinking, so beautiful yet seemingly so full of pain and despair. As Donna looked, she lost herself in their depths and the emotions that dwelt there within. There on the playhouse floor, bathed in the yellow light of its single low watt electric bulb, Donna fell in love with him. She couldn’t help it and didn’t even try.
As Ninah worked to get an aspirin out of the box, the angel, and there really was no other way of describing him, let his eyes close again. Donna lent forward and felt his forehead, drawing her breath in sharply at the heat coming off him. It must have been well over a hundred, and although Donna was no doctor she knew that if fevers got that high they were dangerous. Instinctively she realized that this was beyond the capabilities of a couple