And the Angel Wept

Chapter 6

By the December break Piet was glad to see that Derek had some friends who seemed happy and relaxed around him.

Meanwhile, Piet had pointed out to Marcus that they had to make less noise at night, reminding him of what Art had said. They were together every night now, and they enjoyed each other’s bodies, though they had not gone beyond oral sex.

One night, Piet said, “Marcus, I don’t get it. You’re an angel and you’re not supposed to feel physical contact, but you do. How does that work?”

“Actually, it’s a problem,” replied Marcus. “I think I told you before that I can feel things if I want to, but that has to be a definite decision on my part. I want to feel the things we do in bed together, so I’ve decided to do that. I’m afraid I may get in trouble with The Council.”

“And if you do, what then?”

“I may be forced to decide whether I want to be an angel or a human. I don’t think they’ll let me go on much longer being somewhat both. If it gets to that point, I don’t know how I’ll decide. I love what we’re doing together, but deciding to become a boy would make me mortal, and at some point I would die and never return. I rather like being an angel and having one life after another, so I don’t know what I’ll decide.”

“You know what I’d vote for.”

“Yeah.”

“On the other hand,” Piet said, “maybe I’m being selfish. I know what I want, but for you to lose your status as an angel might really hurt you, and I don’t want that.”

“I guess we’ll just have to wait until I get summoned to The Council.”

The school held exams just before the Christmas break. Piet studied hard for them, especially the history exam, which would include all they had studied about the American Revolution and the Constitution. Although he didn’t have a computer of his own, Doug and Art always allowed him to use theirs whenever he needed to.

On the day of the history exam, Piet blanked on the first question. “In the Constitution are African Americans considered part of a state’s population for purposes of distributing the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives? Explain.”

He could remember that being discussed but he couldn’t remember what had been decided.

Marcus spoke in Piet’s mind and began to tell him the answer.

“Don’t do that, Marcus, it’s cheating,” Piet thought.

“But don’t you want to pass the exam?”

“Of course I do, but not by cheating.”

“I don’t understand what you mean by cheating.”

Piet sighed. “I’ll tell you later, but don’t interfere with my exams.”

Despite the first question, Piet left the room thinking he had done fairly well on the exam. As he sat on a chair in the cafeteria, Marcus appeared and sat next to him.

“Are you angry with me, Piet?” Marcus asked.

“No, I guess not, because you stopped when I asked you to. You really don’t understand what cheating is?”

“No. I looked it up while you were taking the test, but I didn’t really understand it.”

“Well, in this case it’s taking advantage of a situation so that the teacher will think I know things I don’t. And because of the way he grades, if I got a perfect score, that would set a standard for the rest of the class which they couldn’t meet. All our history grades would be affected.”

“Oh, so you don’t want me to help you with the math exam this afternoon?”

“No. I don’t want your help on any of the exams. I know you can get the answers, but the exams are something I have to do on my own.”

“How about if I found out the questions on tomorrow’s English exam so you could study for them tonight?”

“That would be cheating too. Again, it would give me an unfair advantage. We can’t do it, Marcus.”

Piet worked through the rest of the exams with no more interference from his angel. There were moments when he was sorely tempted to consult Marcus, but he didn’t.

He would not get the results of his exams until after the break, so he tried to put them behind him and enjoy the holidays.

On Christmas morning, there were presents for Piet under the tree. At first he thought they were for Art and Doug as well, but as he looked at the labels, he realized they were all for him.

Looking at the men, he said, “But I didn’t get anything for you.”

“We didn’t expect anything,” said Art.

Piet began opening the presents. Most of them were things he needed, like new clothes and school supplies, but one box contained a new laptop computer. As he looked at it, tears filled his eyes.

“Guys, this is the first time I can remember getting any Christmas presents.” He stood up and hugged them both. “Thank you so much.”

“It’s our way of saying that we love you,” said Doug, “and we’re so glad you came to live with us.”

“We didn’t get you a printer,” said Art, “but with our wireless setup you’ll be able to access our printer any time you need to.”

“This is so great,” said Piet. “Can we set it up now?”

The three of them trooped upstairs to Piet’s room and got the computer communicating with the Wi-Fi. Again, he hugged them, thanking them profusely for the gift.

In bed that night, Marcus said, “They really do love you, don’t they Piet.”

“Yeah,” was all he could say before dissolving in tears again.

After the December break, when Piet received his grades, he was quite pleased with them. The history grade was a B+, but all his other grades were A’s. Marcus congratulated him.

“Would it be considered cheating if I helped you study your history?” he asked. “After all, I’ve lived through a lot of history.”

“No, it’s not cheating if you’re just helping me study. That would be like having a private tutor. I’d like that.”

One night Piet asked Marcus, “So, how does this business of you being assigned to people work? How long have you been doing it?”

“Well, I began in ancient Greece. Too bad you’re not studying that this year.”

Piet was surprised. “You’ve really been an angel for different people for that long?”

“Yup. You see, I was first created in about 411 B.C. I was assigned to a boy who lived in a rather poor family. Angels aren’t really supposed to do anything to help a situation like that, but the boy did manage and became a man and a soldier. Unfortunately, he was killed in a war. All I could do was help him die with little pain. I was sad about that. He was my first boy and I liked him.”

“But you weren’t killed, were you?”

“No. I can’t be killed as long as I remain an angel.”

“So, what happened next?”

“I went through a metamorphosis. It’s a little like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly. After my human dies, my body changes and changes until I become a baby again and am assigned to a new human baby. I know it’s going to happen, but I don’t know how it happens.

“I had several Greek boys, a Persian boy in the days of Alexander the Great, and then eventually Roman boys. Sadly, in those days many people died young. One of my Roman boys didn’t live more than two months. I was sad about that and it was the reason I took his name, Marcus. Another of my Roman boys lived to be ninety. I’ve always wanted to help them in life, but often I’m unable to.”

“So you age as your boy does?”

“Yes, at first I was just a baby when you were born. I’ve been growing ever since.

“But when I die, you won’t?”

“No. I’ll be transformed again and assigned to a new boy.”

“Who does the assigning?”

“I have no idea. Maybe it’s The Council, maybe it’s The Creator.”

“And you’ve literally been with me since I was born?”

“Yes. You are the first of my boys to actually see me and talk with me.”

“Do you remember all of your boys?”

“Oh, yes. And sometimes I visit them in Elysium if that’s where they went when they died.”

“They’re there? But I didn’t see any.”

“No, as a mortal you wouldn’t.”

“Can a mortal ever become an angel?”

“I don’t know. I never heard of one.”

“That’s a lot for me to absorb,” said Piet. “It gives me a whole different understanding of mortal life and the immortal world.”

“I’m afraid that the Biblical writings don’t really get things right,” said Marcus. “But I don’t know how much I’m allowed to tell you about that.”

“That’s okay,” replied Piet, “I’ll just keep my own beliefs.”

Piet’s history class continued with American history and, in the spring, began studying slavery. When he and Marcus were talking about it one night, the angel said, “Did you know that I once was assigned a slave boy?”

Marcus shook his head.

“He was beautiful and so smart. He kept trying to think of ways to escape, but he never succeeded until all the slaves were freed by the government at the end of the Civil War. He was grown by then and had a small piece of land to farm. Unfortunately, one night some white riders came, burned his house, and started to drag him behind a horse. I broke the rope tying him to the horse and he ran into the woods. It was terrible!”

“What became of him?”

“He managed to make his way north and worked in New York as a blacksmith.”

“So, you can help sometimes?”

“Yes, if we don’t give too much away. If you lose something, I can tell you where to look. Or if there’s someone who needs your help, I can tell you that. Of course, people don’t know that’s happening. They simply say something like, ‘It came to me in a flash’, but it’s actually the help of an angel.

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but each human is given a date on which he will die. We can’t tell our humans, and we can’t do anything to stop it, but sometimes we can at least help them with their pain.”

“So, you know when I’m going to die?”

“Yes.”

“That’s kinda scary.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not any time soon.”

Spring and summer passed uneventfully except for the considerable amount of pleasure they had in Piet’s bedroom.

In the fall, Piet was in the ninth grade, a freshman in the high school. From time to time he saw Derek, who always gave him a smile. Derek was on the freshman football squad, and he was enjoying the sport, especially the blocking and tackling and generally hitting people. He was a natural at the game.

Early in the school year, Piet realized he was no longer the shortest boy in the class. He was growing at last.

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