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Once upon a time lived a little girl who believed in heaven. There was no particular reason why she believed. The local priest was far too old to be preaching as zealously as he used to and the town that she lived in was almost entirely Baptist, so there wasn't any religious rivalry. With no real controversy, she never questioned her faith. The little girl believed in heaven and she was happy. One day the little girl looked into a mirror and discovered that she was beautiful. Her body had developed into a woman's seemingly overnight. Her face had grown more mature and her eyes no longer seemed too large, nor her nose too small. When she smiled, she saw the woman in the mirror smirk seductively. The little girl was still a little girl, but only in the same way that chocolate is part of an M & M, covered by a fragile candy shell that changes the appearance of the sweet entirely, yet not the taste. She still believed in heaven with all her heart and when she looked in the mirror, she thought she saw an angel. She told her father this the next morning and by afternoon she was crying. Her father had hit her five times on each cheek, ten times in all. One for each of the commandments, he had told her as he struck. In between blows he had called her a whore and a slut. He had called her a blasphemer. The little girl did not understand why her father had done this to her. She had simply told him that she had thought she'd seen an angel when she looked into the mirror. It had occurred to her that since she believed in heaven, she believe that God had created everyone in the entire world from His own self. Being part of God, everyone was an angel in some form or another, for what state is higher than being part of God himself? Her father hadn't believed her though. As he beat her, for every blow a bit of her faith in heaven broke, like a delicate statue that rolls down wooden stairs, breaking off a small piece for each step. After the last blow, it shattered completely. The little girl faded like the summer morning's mist. A twisted woman with large, hollow eyes took her place and went through each day like a zombie, empty and brittle. Both the little girl and the hollow woman were still angels, though. They were still part of God in the most intimate and enigmatic of ways. The only difference between them was their perception of the world; the little girl saw radiant angels, but the hollow woman could only behold sin. |