Monday, March 17, 2014

The Angels: Cold-blooded humans?

I stepped out into the fresh sunlight, smiling and tilting back my head as I felt the light warm my exposed skin.  "Oh, this feels good," I commented out loud, luxuriating in the light.

Behind me, I heard Otriel clear his throat.  "You know, we tossed around the idea of making humans cold-blooded for a while," he commented.

I spun around, opening my eyes again to stare at my guardian angel.  "Wait, really?" I asked.  "Aren't we supposed to be made in God's image?"

Otriel snorted at this.  "Really?" he asked, lifting one eyebrow.  "God made everything in the universe, and can create anything you can imagine and more.  You really think his true form is limited to a bag of fleshy meat?"

I waved off this comment.  Otriel had never quite mastered the ability to understand the impact of snide remarks.  "Cold-blooded, huh?" I said, pulling the conversation back a step.  "So what, like lizards?  We'd have to carry around heat lamps if we wanted to work indoors?"

"Or spend a lot more money on heating, I suppose," the angel remarked.  "To be honest, it was one of those ideas that always pops up at the eleventh hour of brainstorming, you know?  When the coffee's run out and everyone just wants to go home."

I nodded.  I definitely knew that moment.  "I'm glad we dodged that little addition," I said with feeling.  The sunlight was still warm, but I decided that it was time to start walking down the street.

As always, my guardian angel floated along, just above my right shoulder.  "Of course, the changes to ears and noses were thought of at that same time, and those went through," he said.

"Wait, what?  What about our noses and ears?"

"Oh, they keep growing!" Otriel pointed out, a hint of surprise in his tone.  "Yeah, even I don't remember the reasoning behind that, but it sounded great at the time.  So we pushed that through, the design went gold, and we all took a couple millenia of vacation time while the administrators bickered over budget costs."

My hand had already rose to self-consciously rub at my schnoz.  "This thing's going to keep growing larger?" I repeated in shock.

"Oh yeah," Otriel chuckled.  "That's the best way to spot age on you humans, I'm convinced.  Like counting rings on a tree.  Just check the ear diameter."

That was enough conversation with my little guardian angel, I decided.  I lengthened my stride, hurrying along the sidewalk.  I heard a faint voice squawking as the little angel had to work his wings to keep up, but I just grinned to myself.  Serves him right, I thought to myself with just a hint of vindictiveness.

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