Fallen Read Free Page B

might wander across my
father’s body still lying in the mud where he’d been left
murdered.
    Lightning illuminated the alley before me.
Seeing no one, I walked inside and found an overhanging doorway.
The little porch happened to be just large enough to keep the
downpour off me. I settled in as close to the door as possible and
sat down upon the cold stoop. I shook as the chill overtook me. My
teeth chattered loudly. I tried to draw my small coat around me,
but it too was soaked with cold rain and did little good.
    I fixed my eyes ahead and drew my cap down
close to my eyes. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the
cloudy sky. I huddled, waiting. I did not know for what—death
perhaps. Without my father, it seemed inevitable now.
    I soon became acutely aware that I hadn’t
eaten in some time. My belly groaned with desire for a few morsels
of anything. I observed garbage strewn here and there in the alley.
Rats weren’t even out bothering it here in the rain. I had
difficulty imagining myself actually going over and eating anything
I saw. I wasn’t that hungry yet.
    A faint light caught my attention from the
direction of the street. I peered through the rain washing off of
the overhang. The light emanated from what I could only call a
window of sunshine within the storm. It appeared as though another
place sat wrapped inside a bubble where the rain could not
fall.
    I wondered at the sight fully convinced I
must be hallucinating. Perhaps I had grown just hungry enough to
begin seeing mirages. I had heard of such things from my
father—tales of men crawling across desert wastes thirsting so
badly for water that their desires materialize in visions only to
disappear as they prepare to fill their bellies.
    The rain had strengthened in intensity and I
remained reluctant to run toward the oasis. Then I saw what
appeared to be a human figure, blurry at first, but then coming
into sharper focus. I could not be sure, but this person appeared
to be wearing a white robe with gold glinting from his middle. I
knew I must be imagining it all, so it did not disturb me so much
when I perceived two great wings unfurl with light emanating from
them. He lit upon the ground in his strange world and immediately
appeared altogether different—more like a normal person.
    The man of the vision ran toward me,
carrying a bundle under his right arm. I waited for the vision to
fade. Instead, the man passed from his place into the alley with
me. I started upon his arrival, cringing into my coat, trying to
bury my head completely beneath my cap. He came upon me in a moment
and when I looked back to the place where he had emerged, I found
the oasis of light gone.
    The man stopped in front of me dripping wet
with rain. He wore a fine quality brown suit though it had soaked
through already. Rain poured off the brim of his tall silk hat.
“Pardon me, young sir,” he said, “would you mind if I joined you in
the dry?”
    I sat there against the door like a mute.
Was he actually speaking to me? He asked again, and I found the
good sense to at least nod.
    The man stepped up onto the porch. When he
did, the overhang stretched out to cover him, growing two feet
larger on every side just to take him in. I looked down at the
concrete pad and found it enlarging too, although I hadn’t felt it
move in the slightest beneath me.
    My eyes grew wide as saucers staring at him,
but he seemed not to notice. “There now, that’s at least a little
better, eh?” he said. “If you’ll pardon my saying, this is not the
best place to make your bed on a night like tonight. You’ll catch
your death out in this weather.”
    I nodded dumbly and started to shiver again.
My teeth chattered loudly. I wasn’t sure if it was from the numbing
cold or the shock of seeing this strange visitor. “Ah, you see?” he
said. “You’re already headed for a sick bed.”
    The man removed his bundle, which he had
brought with him cradled under his arm. It appeared to be a