Angel Cloud

Creative Writing Championships 2009
Flash Fiction

Challenge #3 assignment

GENRE - Fantasy

LOCATION - A playground

OBJECT - Binoculars

Angel Cloud

There was an older girl and two younger boys. They were really the same age, just the girl taller than the identical boys. They were beautiful children, gorgeous blond hair with dazzling smiles, and the gold tinted skin of an angel. The girl, Sarah, was the goalie in this ball kicking scenario, the boys were kicking a ball between them, running staggered toward the girl. One boy, Gunner, dribbled then kicked the ball to the other boy, Lincoln, and they moved across the whole cloud that way. They didn’t really touch the cloud – any of them – gliding inches above it, the ball floating between them, not really touching their feet. The boys both stopped - an arms-length apart, a dozen feet in front of the goal. Sarah clapped her hands together and shouted “Watch and Learn,” and she squinted in the hot sun looking slowly from boy to boy and put her hands on her skinny kneecaps. Gunner ran forward at Sarah, and Lincoln kicked the ball toward the far side of the goal, behind Gunner. The ball may have gone in the goal, Gunner may have interfered with Sarah as she lurched toward the ball, but the ball definitely rolled off the edge of the cloud, falling into the sky.
Lincoln ran toward the ball and dove to try to keep it from falling, but he reached over the edge and missed. Sarah and Gunner ran up behind him and they all looked down to see the ball bounce off an airplane and careen into a playground in Mandeville, Louisiana.
“Mooooooooooommm,” Sarah yelled and when she stood up and turned around her mother was standing in front of her.
“What did I tell you kids about playing down here? Is it really that hard to play over an ocean, really?”
“No mom” the kids replied in unison.
“Mom, we kicked the ball over the edge, can we go get it?” asked Lincoln.
“Fine. But dinner is in half an hour and you have to be there for the meal blessings.”
“OK,” the children yelled and they flew off the cloud, arms wide open, falling down toward the Gulf of Mexico.
The three angels leveled out and cruised at about 100 feet. Sarah wanted to splash in the water, go down and flop around with the dolphins, but she knew her mother wouldn’t like it – her brothers would just follow her and they’d all come back wet and have to change. Gunner tugged at Lincoln’s shoe, yelled to Sarah and pointed down to the playground where their ball had fallen. It was a large green field, enclosed by a fence. There was a jungle gym with grayish looking monkey bars and a slide and some see-saws. In the corner of the playground there was also a dirt baseball field and Gunner suggested a quick game of kickball but Lincoln said there was no time. As they flew over the playground a little girl looked up at them for a second then started spinning like a ballerina.
The angels landed a few dozen yards away from the girl and Lincoln ran and picked up the ball. It was an old ball, but still in perfect shape – so there was no reason to leave it on the surface. It would never get worn out, but it likely wouldn’t be appreciated if some child found it and took it home.
The little girl kept pointing up to the sky. Her mother crouched beside her and tried to hand her a pair of toy binoculars, but the little girl pushed them away.
“I see angels,” momma, she said.
“I told you, they are everywhere,” the mother said fighting back tears. “Especially on a wonderful day like this, with you and me under the sunshine. God is in the sunshine baby girl.”
The mother wrapped her arm around the little girl and they both smiled upward, the sun glistening off their skin. The girl told her mother something and they laughed, then the girl ran off toward their car and the mother followed with their picnic basket in hand, crying softly.
The three angels floated back up toward the clouds, hurrying so they wouldn’t miss the meal blessings.
As they sat down in the meal hall with their mother and grandparents and uncle, Sarah asked her mother why the little girl on the playground saw them.
“People don’t see angels, cause they don’t believe or they’re not thinking about angels and what’s above them, but sometimes they are thinking bout that stuff and they catch a glimpse of something divine.”
“The little girl was pointing at the clouds when we flew down,” Sarah told her mother. “Then when Lincoln was getting the ball I heard the little girl say she wanted to play on the clouds, because she thought they’d be super soft.”
“See,” Sarah’s mother said. “The little girl was thinking bout clouds and probably likes angels and when you three flew over she saw you for a second.”
“I felt bad though mommy,” Sarah said. “I wanted to let the girl come up and play with me and Lincoln and Gunner. We could use another soccer player.”
“Sarah I’m sure that little girl is practicing soccer right now and she will be up in Heaven with us pretty soon, and we will invite her over to our cloud.”
Sarah smiled.