Truth Trek... pg 5
Monica said a quick "help me" prayer, the kind she often heard her assignments saying in their times of desperation. She soon found out that it's the simplest and quickest way to get God's attention in a crisis.
Suddenly, they were no longer in the Convention Center. Monica, Angus and Andrew were transported to an ethereal place, white fog surrounding them on every side. Nothing else could be seen and there would be no interruptions.
"What the..." Angus fell backwards, instantly releasing Andrew from his grip. "You... you're both aliens! I've been abducted. Oh...oh... wait til I get home. I'll phone Barbara Walters.. Ok... maybe not Barbara Walters. I'll call Jerry Springer... yeah... I'll be famous. How do you make the white fog?"
"Angus," Monica said gently, reaching out to touch his arm.
He pulled away, terrified. "No! Don't touch me! Are you going to probe me? Please... don't hurt me! I won't call Springer... I... I won't tell anyone if you just take me back..."
"No one is going to harm you," she said, still softly, still emanating God's incredible, unconditional love. "It's not what you think."
Angus looked up into their faces. They shone with a radiance that just couldn't be of this world. "I don't believe you. If you're not aliens, then how... how did you do this?" He pointed all around to the other-worldly surroundings. "It's like a David Copperfield magic trick."
The angels couldn't help smiling. For all his delusional behaviour, Angus was an endearing soul.
"I know you're an alien," Angus insisted, pointing at Andrew. "I've seen you before." He grimaced at the memory.
Andrew nodded. "Yes. Yes you have," he agreed. "I remember you Angus."
Thirty years of bottled up pain began to uncork and tears began to spill from Angus' eyes. He tried to fight it, but in the end, it was too late to stop the dam from bursting open. "You..." he fumed, teeth clenched in anguish-filled rage. "You!" He lunged at Andrew, tripping over his own feet as he did so, falling and taking Andrew with him as they both tumbled down to the misty ground. He wanted to punch Andrew, but his strength was all but gone. Instead, he just wept and wept in a crumpled heap.
Monica ran to his side to comfort him. Her own heart was wrenching within.
"You took my mother away from me!" Angus accused, venom hurling from his lips towards Andrew. "Where did you take her? Don't you know you left me without the one person in my life I loved? I had no one else... no one..."
Tears trickled down Andrew's cheek now. He opened his mouth to speak, but the accusation stung. The angel of death was not an alien monster trying to separate mothers from their children. It saddened Andrew beyond belief. He knew he shouldn't, but he felt responsible for Angus' state of confusion.
"Andrew," Monica said, surprised at his sudden outburst of emotion. "Andrew, you go on, go someplace else and let me handle this."
Andrew shook his head. He would not let Monica tidy up his mess. He had to face Angus, here and now, and face down this ugly lie that was trying to tarnish his reputation.
"Angus," he said, after a long pause. "You're absolutely right."
"I am?" Angus asked, perplexed. He was used to opposition, not agreement.
Andrew smiled. "Yes... yes, you are. We are aliens."
Monica opened her mouth to protest, but that still, small voice within her told her to let it be.
"I knew it! I knew it!" Angus yelled. "And you took my mother away!"
Another pause, and then Andrew looked Angus straight in the eye. Whatever strength he had lacked moments earlier, now surged through him from the very source of strength, the joy of the Lord. "I did come for your mother that night," he continued. "But, you've got it mixed up, Angus. We're not aliens in a spaceship, but we're not from this world. We're angels... sent by God to tell you that He loves you."
Angus just stood there, dumbfounded. It was so easy to believe in mythical green men, yet he struggled to wrap his faith around this truth. It was something he had never dared to consider. Angels... God... Spiritual things. "A-a-angels? Real, heavenly angels?"
Monica nodded. "Yes... yes... Angus... we weren't sent to harm you. We were sent to help you. God loves you more than you know. And He knows the pain you have suffered since you lost your mother. He wants to heal that terrible open wound and give you new hope and a fresh start."
Angus opened his mouth to reply. He wasn't sure if he should be so bold with angels, but what the heck! He had come this far. "I... uh... I just have one question. Why? Why did God send you to take away my mother from me?"
Andrew's eyes portrayed pure compassion and identificational grief. "I was there that night," Andrew said. "I had been watching your mother for over a week because I had been sent ahead to be with her, to make sure she didn't pass from this world alone. It was a terrible night..."
"I remember," Angus said, with that faraway look that suggested he were somplace else. "It was windy, so windy that the bare tree branches scratched against my window like bony fingers trying to get into my room and grab me from my bed. I trembled and burrowed under the covers."
"Your mother had been weakening for some time," Andrew said. "She had endured the chemo treatments and the radiation and still the cancer came back. It was vicious and heartless and it was slowly draining the life out of her."
Angus grimaced. "I didn't even know she was ill," he said. "Nobody told me. They wanted to protect me, I guess. So, when she would lie down more and more every day, I just thought she must be very tired and I would creep into her room and pull the covers up over her shoulders."
"That night, even the morphine wasn't touching her pain," Andrew continued. "They tried to suggest she go to the hospital, but she didn't want to waste away in an "antiseptic environment", as she put it. She stayed in her room that night, the special guest room where she went on those nights when she couldn't bare to have her husband sleeping beside her. The pain was too great."
"I couldn't sleep that night," Angus mused. "The wind... the branches... a feeling of terror like I had never felt in my life. I just lay there for a while, fighting off the fear, but it wouldn't go away. Sleep wouldn't come. I decided..."
"You decided to go for a walk down the hall," Andrew finished.
"Yes... yes, I did." Angus replied. "I tiptoed down the hall and, I don't know why, but I decided to peer into my mother's room. I opened the door a crack and noticed a strange light coming from inside. It wasn't the night light by her bed. It was brighter and it was a warm light, as if the sun were shining, but there was no sun.... oh... just like that!" His eyes grew wide as Andrew lit up, shining with the glory of His Creator. "I opened the door wider and... there you were. You were leaning over my mother, talking to her. The light was so bright and, she had been wearing this red kerchief around her head for a long time. The red kerchief was gone and my mother was smiling. She got up out of the bed to go with you. I remember thinking, ‘How can you leave me? I need you.' But, she just kept on going until..."
"Just before we left, she looked at you to say goodbye."
"Yes... yes... I remember. And you turned around and saw me standing there. You looked... "
"Surprised?"
"Yeah.. Yeah... surprised. Like you didn't expect to see me there."
"I didn't," Andrew stated, matter-of-factly. "Humans usually don't see those things. It's a different realm from this three-dimensional world."
"Then... you disappeared through the wall," Angus said. "I ran to the wall to try and follow you, but, but it was too late. I started screaming and screaming and screaming..."
"What happened next?" Monica asked. This story was sad, but also intriguing.
"Someone... wait... it was my aunt. Aunt Tilly came into the room and saw me screaming like that. She tried to comfort me. She... she didn't even acknowledge that my mother was missing. She just... she just took me downstairs and got me some warm milk. I wasn't going to drink it, but, well, Tilly had a way of getting me to do things even when I didn't want to."
"She sounds like a wonderful aunt," Monica said.
Angus nodded. "She was, but, but she took me back to bed and when I saw my father going into that room and... and... Grandpa going in there. I just knew they would report the kidnapping to the police, so I let Aunt Tilly sing me to sleep. I knew they would figure everything out, and that milk made me so tired." Angus frowned. It hurt to remember. For so long, he had avoided these memories by escaping into his fantasy world. It was time for a reality check. "I never saw my mother again. The next morning, there were no police, no FBI agents working on the case. I had witnessed my mother's kidnapping and no one was doing a thing about it. They just acted as if nothing had happened."
"They tried to keep it from you?" Monica asked, puzzled.
"Yeah, I guess. They thought they were protecting me, but I had already seen enough. I asked Aunt Tilly where my mother was and she just turned away from me. I think she was crying."
Monica touched his shoulder gently. This time he didn't flinch. "I bet they were so grief-stricken that they didn't know how to comfort you. I'm sorry that they weren't there for you when you needed them, but God was there. He was with you and He's with you now."
Angus shrugged. "Do you know how they explained her disappearance to me? Five days later they told me she was away on a trip to Heaven. They said she would be there for a long time and that one day I would go to see her there. That's all they said. But, I knew the truth. I knew that she had been kidnapped by aliens... just like on Star Trek."
Monica gave Andrew a knowing glance. "So," Andrew said. "You were a big fan of Star Trek?"
Angus' eyes lit up. "Boy! Was I! Captain Kirk zipping around the universe, getting girlfriends, fighting bad guys, exploring! It was like... space cowboys... only, I didn't know it was for real. I didn't know there were really aliens out there until... until that night. I had seen shows about Roswell and people were talking about abductions on TV, but most people thought it was about as real as Santa Claus."
Andrew had to go for broke. Angus was still clinging to his fantasy world. "Angus," he began, keeping eye contact whenever he could. Angus still liked to dart his gaze from side to side. "I'm not an alien like on Star Trek... and your mother didn't get kidnapped that night."
"But, I saw you!" Angus insisted.
"Yes... you saw me," Andrew agreed. "But, what you saw was not an alien abduction. Your mother died that night. I am the angel of death. I escorted your mother to the waiting arms of her Heavenly Father, where she has never experienced another moment of pain or sickness. She's happy and full of life. She is looking forward very much to seeing you, but not yet. Your work here is not finished."
"The angel of death?" Angus chirped. "That's a good cover, but..."
"No buts!" Andrew said, emphatically. "Angus, look at me."
Angus squirmed and tried to look away.
"Look at me!" Andrew insisted, grabbing his shoulders firmly.
"Ow!"
Andrew wouldn't let go. "Look into my eyes. What do you see?"
Angus squirmed for a moment, but eventually, his eyes were drawn in, compelled to look into the depths of Andrew's eyes. These were eyes that regularly beheld the face of God. These were eyes that conveyed the very heart of God.
Angus' whole body grew still and relaxed. All the anxiety could not function in the sweet presence of God. It began to free Angus from his confusion and he could see. It was miraculous and awe-inspiring, the blind receiving sight.
"You... You really are an angel," Angus conceded. "I see... I can see... I can SEE!"
Angus jumped up with the excitement of a child. He embraced Andrew, then Monica, then Andrew again. "I can see! God is real! He's real! He's real!! And... and..." He looked into Andrew's eyes again, to be sure it wasn't his imagination. "It's like a window of Heaven opened and I can see Mama. She... she's with God. She's happy and she's... she's so young."
Andrew nodded, smiling. "Yes. You see? She's with God. You can stop chasing phantom spacemen. Your search is over, Angus. You have found the pearl of great price... a relationship with God Himself. It's waiting for you if you want it. He loves you... He really does, and His perfect love will cast away all your fear."
Angus laughed, the laughter of innocence restored. His heart bubbled over with a joy he hadn't known in a lifetime. "Yes! Yes!" he raved. "I want to know God! I want to know this... alien from a foreign land. I've been waiting for Him all my life. I've... I've been searching for Him and I didn't even know it. I've kinda been lost in space. I've been... angry with Him... God... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being so angry. You were doing what was best for my mother and I... I just didn't understand. I'm sorry that I've wasted my whole life like this! Can you ever find a place in your kingdom for a loser like Angus McCloud?"
Angus' eyes glistened with tears and anticipation. Now that he had found God, he couldn't bear to be rejected by Him.
Andrew patted Angus on the back. "God accepts you, Angus McCloud, and it's never too late. He has a plan for your life... a plan for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
"Thanks," Andrew said.
"For what?" Andrew replied, puzzled.
"Thanks for being there for my Mama. I'm so glad she didn't die alone. And... and I won't be alone anymore either. It's... too good to be true, but it is, it is true!"
The ethereal scene faded away and Angus found himself standing alone in the lobby of the Convention Centre, next to a cardboard cutout of Lieutenant Montgomery Scott. His angel visitors were nowhere to be seen, but he knew they probably weren't far away. He looked around at the crowd of costumed conventioners. He looked down at his own costume. He looked at the cardboard cutout.
"Ah... I don't need this anymore," he said, then turned to Scotty. "Beam me up, Scotty." He laughed and exited the Convention Centre, with a heart full of joy, fresh hope and a sense of purpose.
It was no small miracle, though amongst the crowd of onlookers, no one knew what great things God had done in their midst this day. No one, except a young actor who looked up from his red-lettered edition long enough to see a short, portly balding Romulan walking... no, skipping his way out of the Convention Centre. "Ah..." Rich Stevens said aloud. "Father, that's the man I felt led to pray for earlier in the auditorium. He doesn't look so distraught now. Well... thank you for answering prayer!"
Epilogue
"This was a tough one," Andrew said, glad to be out of his Vulcan costume. It made him itch behind the ears. "But, in the end, truth prevailed."
"You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free," Monica quoted one of her favourite verses from the book of John.
Tess smiled. "You're both right and, just for being good angels and all, I think we should all go and have... oh, maybe a mocha latte?"
Monica's ears perked up at that. "Oh... that would be lovely. I promise I'll only have one."
Tess' face looked more stern. "I'll hold you to that, Angel Girl. Don't you be foolin' Tess."
The elevator door opened and Rich Stevens stepped into the lobby, on his way back to his home and family after a job well done. He could have been anyone, really, when dressed in his normal t-shirt and jeans. The crowd didn't even notice him.
"Isn't that that actor..." Monica began.
Tess smiled widely, interrupting. "Yes... yes it is! That's Rich Stevens... and a fine, upstanding young man too. I think he's a wonderful role model... er... don't you?"
Silence. Could this be the same man that had sent Tess into a tizzy the whole time they were on this assignment? Andrew and Monica looked helplessly at each other, wondering how to tiptoe around the issue.
Finally, Monica spoke. "Ummm.... I agree. But, then... isn't that what I said all along?"
Tess glared at her. "Say what?"
Monica backed off. "Never mind. I just... agree."
The smile returned to Tess' face. "Now, how about that mocha latte?"
The End
Disclaimer: Touched By An Angel is the property of Moonwater Productions. No copyright infringement intended.
The characters Angus McCloud and Rich Stevens are mine.
story concept by Webangel Hazel
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