He was staring right back at her

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. Her wings stretched wide in eloquent radiance as she tip-toed across the patio banister. This was her time. For only three hours each night, she was free to fly throughout these purple skies sprinkling her magic however she pleases. She would dance among the flower buds whisking her hands about opening each bud into fiery blooms. The night owls would screech in excitement as she brought the colorless and dreary world to life in excited expectation of the brilliant morning sun.

Pretending to fit in with the humans everyday was exhausting. Day in and day out she would practice new ways of blending into the mundane human life, yet never quite mastering her disguise. Angel’s spirit had a constant hunger for a more meaningful and spiritual existence. Occasionally, she would slip up and do something magical in front of the others. Fumbling to cover up all her spontaneous outbursts of mystical powers felt like a lie. She longed for a day when she wouldn’t have to hide who she was anymore. Longing for a day when the world could be okay with magic and accept her the way she was created to be. A beautiful and magical force that was untouchable and unstoppable, spreading so much love energy throughout the planet that darkness, pain, and suffering just ceased to exist.

Until then, Angel would take advantage of these few hours each night that the God of the sky had permitted her to be free. She never tired from her nightly excursions. These outings filled her with so much bliss that her entire body buzzed with electricity for hours beyond the dawn. The animals understood this energy. She could communicate with the trees, the plants, and the animals this way without using language. It was a magical language. It was the only true language Angel ever really knew. She learned to speak to the humans, but to her it was all just words, not communication. Every so often, she’d find a human that she thought might hold a spark and could see beyond the blindfolds that the people unknowingly walked around with. Usually those few were musicians or artists of some sort. Humans who had tapped into their creativity and unleashed the powerful spirit of love.

Angel loved music. When she found it exceedingly difficult to fit into the human landscape, she’d put headphones on and envelope herself into the music. Although she never fit in while dancing down the sidewalks or the hallways at the church, humans never suspected that she was a creature different from them. They just thought she was eccentric and giggled at her passing.

Humans tended to fixate on one aspect of living and do that one thing for the entirety of their short-lived lives. The farmer would grow his crops. The doctor would care for the sick. The teacher would remain in the classroom. As for Angel, being magical, she didn’t live like this. Everyday, she would interact with the world, but she would move about from place to place trying her best to bring the spirit of joy to everyone she encountered along the way. The truth is, she was always searching. She enjoyed bringing happiness to the humans, but deep down she was driven to find others like herself. Even just one. She was the only being of her kind that she knew of. She wasn’t even sure what she was. The moon once told her that she was just like him, made to sprinkle her light where there was darkness, but she certainly wasn’t a moon. She looked more like a human woman, but she could unfold her shimmering golden wings at will appearing more like a fairy or a butterfly.

The God of the sky could whisper to Angel through the wind and the birds. He told her to be patient. A time was coming when she would be revealed to the world and the world would embrace her. The world would remove the blindfolds they thought were protecting them from the evils, which were in fact causing their own calamities. The world would finally see the truth and the beauty that Angel had always seen. They would be ready for her. The people would be excited to finally meet her in her true form without running in fear of her incredible light and beauty. Humans always feared what they didn’t understand, but the whispers promised that they would soon understand.

“Just be patient” she reminded herself.

The hardest exercise she ever had in her immortal life was to wait. Her nature was to always be exuberant and filled with passion. Waiting felt like sitting in a jail cell, but she held onto faith at what the God whisper spoke.

On Tuesdays, Angel always made her way to the old Fig tree on the corner of 7th and Vine street. She would climb amongst it’s craggy branches and peer out at the world moving around her. The tree was a memorial spot within the big city, which is the only reason it hadn’t been replaced by the giant skyscrapers that lined the walks in a marched out grid pattern. Angel would climb up and sit there for hours watching the humans with their strange mannerisms.

Today, being Tuesday, Angel quickly dressed and headed for her favorite tree. She climbed up about midway before she made herself a lounge of one of the widest and most horizontal branches. As she laid about intrigued by the hustle and bustle of city, something fascinating caught her eye. There, just below on the corner, appeared to be a young man. The man himself wasn’t fascinating, but what caught her eye was the subtle glow of glittery light that had formed around his humanoid figure. He seemed to twinkle in the sunlight like the surface of a lake with a slight ripple casting diamonds of sunlight reflection in all directions. He was magnificent. She stared for a good long while before she realized, he was staring right back at her.