Monday part 3
When he reached her, he asked quietly:
"Is there anything I can do for you, dear Liz?"
She snapped out of her thoughts and almost whispered:
"Your incredibly kind words made me think Alex."
"You will have to be a little more specific, dear because I am always so incredibly literary with my words. I heard that one of my essays in elementary school made Shakespeare cry. I don't know if they were tears of admiration or pure horror, but still."
This brought the beginnings of a small smile to her face and she said:
"You told your father to look into the souls of Domino and me and he would see that we are little sisters of Elise.
"Right girl. You three will have noticed this without special gifts. We Celestials may see it on a deeper level, but the result is the same. Why?"
"Did Maggie tell you what my parents did when they found out I was pregnant by that bastard?"
He didn't say a word, just nodded:
"I had a little brother Tim, Timothy, two years younger than me. We were everything to each other. After they threw me out on the street, they forbade him to have any contact with me. Meanwhile, I was in this rotten child welfare system and cut off from him. He started to rebel at home and eventually got kicked out as well. He wasn't even fourteen, Alex."
Alexander began to suspect where this story was going and had trouble controlling his temper.
"What happened to Tim on the street Liz?"
"You could say the usual. Crime, drugs, and from what I heard later, prostitution to get his fix. The police think it was a deliberate overdose to escape that life. He only lasted about six months out there. There is an Angel in the Garden, some Demons, the Antichrist, and the Devil himself. If all that exists, then people's souls have to go somewhere. Timmy has always had a hard time and has been severely punished without having done anything wrong. But on the street, he did things that were not okay. When I think about it, I almost get nauseous that he could be in Hell and continue to be punished there."
Alexander lit a cigarette and took a few deep breaths. He looked into her eyes and said:
"Liz, souls go to heaven or hell based on what they have done in their lives. I can assure you that no one goes to Hell for stealing a pack of chewing gum. Are you sure there is nothing in his past that would really shock you?"
"Yes Alex, I know he will have done certain things that shouldn't be done, but I'm also sure he won't have done inhumane things."
"Good, I'll ask for his file right away. If he is in hell, I will have it delivered and read it after everyone has left. However, I can't do much for him while he's in hell, because I can't possibly smuggle him into heaven. Depending on which circle he stays in, I can have him transferred to a lesser circle and adjust the pattern of his punishment. However, if there are things in his record that are not acceptable, then..."
She hugged him tightly and said:
"I understand Alex, thank you for checking."
"Don't thank me too soon Liz."
He walked back to the terrace and looked at Rae Rae and Bearus:
"You two go away for fifteen minutes, check out my cabin in Aspen for all I care. I need an Angel-free zone for a while. And for animals like you, fifteen minutes is enough to have some fun."
They looked at him strangely for a moment and he said:
"NOW!"
Then they got the hell out of there. Alexander fired off a prayer to the archives in Hell:
"Morax, come here immediately and bring the file of one Timothy Bush, died of an overdose in Baton Rouge, about fifteen when he died. He should be in Hell. NOW MORAX!"
Less than a minute later, a large, corpulent demon with six arms appeared in the garden. He bowed to Alexander as far as his body would allow, and the burden he carried in his six arms did not get in the way. Alex looked at him dryly:
"I asked for the file of a teenager, Morax, not the files of all members of the Senate..."
Morax looked around and Alex said:
"Just put them all over there on the pool bar. And some explanation please!"
The Demon did as he was told and took a thin file from a pile and handed it to Alex:
"This is the file you specifically asked for, Mylord."
"Okay, and what is the other pile?"
"The files General Belios asked for."
"Are you telling me that all these people are walking around with a marker that they are destined for Hell without any actual reason that they belong in Hell?"
"Yes, my lord. I don't know exactly how the judging process works up there and how they decide who goes where. But every soul in that pile would probably get nothing more than a good talking-to and a slap on the wrist with a warning to be good souls in the afterlife and be on their merry way. They definitely don't belong with us."
Alexander took a deep breath and said wearily:
"I almost dare not ask, but this pile, how big is the radius around Baton Rouge?"
"Fifty miles so far, and we haven't filtered them all out yet. Let alone the full hundred miles you asked for."
"This was obviously done on purpose. This can't be an accidental stupidity in the system, I suppose?"
"No, absolutely deliberate and also damn clever. As soon as a soul arrives with the right marker, it is sorted and processed according to the marker, and there is no second check against the file. The person is dead, the soul arrives, has a marker, the soul is processed, end of the story."
Alexander lit a cigarette, and you could see that he was having trouble lighting it. That he had to suppress his anger really damn hard.
"Morax, how many people do you have at work right now looking for such files as General Belios ordered you to do?"
"Five, my lord, the general and I thought it could be a few at most. But this is systematic."
"Okay, keep those five on the job for now. Any Louisiana files I want to see will appear on my desk, and any others you come across will be reclassified. Copy the file so that the original is back in place and the copy will be in a completely new secure workstation. Bearus will do this tomorrow. I would also like to see these files split, if possible, based on who gave the marker, Demon or Angel. And furthermore, NO WORD about this to anyone!"
The Demon bowed to the Crown Prince and disappeared. Elise and Liz joined him at the pool bar, and the rest of the patio left them alone for a while. Liz saw a storm in his eyes and said quietly:
"I'm so sorry, Alex."
The expression in his eyes immediately softened and he asked:
"Why should you be sorry Liz?"
"I asked about my little brother and all of a sudden all of this landed on your plate. I may not have heard what you said to the Demon, but your body language was clear!"
"True, but that's a concern for tomorrow. First a nice dinner with the family and then, as promised, this file on Tim and those on Tess and Franklin."
It was almost midnight. The children had gone to bed around ten after giving everyone, and especially the Devil, a hearty goodnight hug. It had been a particularly successful and enjoyable evening. The topics of conversation had stayed away from the supernatural as much as possible. At least as far as possible when you have four Demons, an Angel, and the Devil among your guests. Alexander had taken the opportunity to really talk to his father, something they hadn't done in far too long. The whole Antichrist thing had put a damper on things for years. If he was honest with himself, his own temperament was largely to blame. It was too easy for him to explode, and he was grateful to Elise for anchoring him so that his short fuse didn't catch fire right away. Alex did notice that throughout the evening, Domino and Argo were having an extremely good time and couldn't be moved away from each other. The same happened to Bearus, Rae Rae, and Liz. Finally, the Devil stood up and that was the sign that the evening was coming to an end. Before he left, the Devil and the Antichrist allowed themselves to embrace each other, something they both desperately needed and had been missing for far too long.
Alex walked over to the pool bar and plopped down in a chair. He lit a cigarette, grabbed Liz's little brother's file, and made the files of Franklin and Tess reappear. Elise came to sit beside him and laid her head on his shoulder:
"Did you have a nice evening, love?"
He smiled at her, planted a kiss on her head and said:
"Very nice babe. I had almost forgotten what it was like to talk to my father instead of the Devil."
"Was it like that when your mother was alive?"
He thought for a moment:
"Yes. He and Mom, well, we're very often to use the words of the little ones eeuww. The love between them was immeasurable. He always had time for me and his patience was endless. I often caught him playing the stern dad when I'd pulled some stunt or other, and he really couldn't wait to see what I'd come up with next. He and B&B seemed to have a betting pool. A sort of bingo card, you might say, with a whole range of possibilities of things I could get into trouble with.
"And did any of them ever manage to call BINGO?"
He smiled mischievously:
"No, apparently my fantasy of getting into trouble was greater than their fantasy of making bingo cards. Especially after Rae Rae came into the picture. If Bearus was my accomplice, then little sister was just the amplifier of my urge for mischief..."
"So you and Dad are not so different. The Lightbringer and his light."
He nodded and got a very wide, mischievous smile:
"According to Grandma, when everything was still rosy in Heaven, Dad wasn't afraid to make a fuss from time to time."
Now she also had a wide smile:
"Tell me..."
"Let us say that certain mythical and not-so-mythical animals originated in the imagination of a certain young Angel who had far too much free time on his hands. Unicorns, Pegasus, Phoenix, dragons, well, you get the picture, I think. These creations, of course, were at odds with Grandpa's master plan and regularly caused chaos on Earth. Grandfather had to remove them from Earth and dispose of them somewhere. Since they were living animals, he would never want to defy Grandmother's evil eye by simply wiping them out. So he had no choice but to invent an island like Eden to house them. There, they could live out their existence in peace, without humanity coming into contact with them, since they are, after all, perfectly peaceful creatures. So Avalon was created. Grandma is not completely innocent either. Together with Dad, she made sure that there was a back door in Avalon. This allows some of these creatures to briefly go to Earth and quickly return before humanity can do anything stupid. Think Nessie, the Yeti, Bigfoot, and the Chupacabra. One by one, gentle creatures, not at all like human legends, and intelligent. But beware of Chupa, who is always out for mischief, and Sas or Sasquatch is not much better. Nessie, on the other hand, is perfect if you need help meditating. How the name of the island ever found its way into the King Arthur myth, no idea. Most likely, Bearus has struck again. He may be a tough general and a formidable warrior, but his true passion is literature. And lately apparently my little sister as well. If, as Rae Rae herself said, this is more than just an adventure, then B is in for one hell of a wild ride..."
He took a big sip of his mix and said with pride in his eyes:
"Dad's best I always thought was the platypus. Apparently, he and Grandpa were having a very deep discussion one night and he kept refilling Grandpa's glass. Dad very subtly dropped a hint that something was not possible and of course, Grandpa's ego made sure he had to prove it was possible. Before Grandpa realized it, this Frankenstein creation existed. There was a mammal with a duck's beak that laid eggs but also had breast milk. Just gold!"
This brought a warm laugh from her. There was silence for a minute or so, and Alex still had the file closed in front of him. She asked quietly:
"Afraid of finding something you don't want to find?"
He nodded:
"Drug addiction and homelessness sometimes have very unpleasant consequences. People who are normally totally gentle can do things in that situation that show they absolutely belong in hell. Liz is light and warm Elise. She's been through so much, I really don't feel like telling her that the little brother she so obviously loves and adores is a lost soul."
They had been so engrossed in their conversation that they hadn't noticed Liz coming up behind them. She laid her head on Alexander's shoulder and said:
"If he is lost, Alex, then he has done certain things himself and I will never hold you responsible for that. My parents I will. If they had been more human, we would have been spared so much misery."
He nodded and picked up the thin file. Elise and Liz could not read it because it was written in a language only demons could read and speak. It didn't take him three minutes to read through it and close it. He looked into Liz's eyes who looked at him expectantly:
"Liz, Tim is in the second circle. He has done some things, but nothing I say is insurmountable. If I were a judge on earth, I would sentence him to a hefty community service sentence, but with a heavy stick behind the door in the form of probation in case he does something wrong again. And that's what I'm going to do tomorrow. I will have him transferred to the first circle, and during the day he will participate in the new project of Morax that I have started. This is the first part of his community service. Instead of being punished or tortured in his cell, as is the case in the lower circles, he will have to face everything he has done that is unacceptable in his cell. That's the second part of his community service, recognizing his mistakes, accepting that this behavior is unacceptable, and sincerely repenting and wanting to make amends. That's what I can do for Tim Liz. Agreed?"
She flung her arms around his neck and said, crying:
"Thank you, Alex, thank you..."
"Don't thank me, Liz, it's still your little brother who has to do the hard work. I suggest you write him a letter that I can take with me tomorrow when I go to change his situation in hell. I need to be there anyway to see with my own eyes this new shit we found. I will put him under Morax's direct supervision and give him a marker that he is untouchable."
At the word letter, she had gotten a wide smile and said:
"I'll get right on it, Alex. I would love to see his face when he gets the letter."
Alex and Elise were the only ones left in the garden. He had one more thing to do before going to bed with his goddess. He picked up Tess and Franklin's files. It took him less than five minutes to go through them completely, then he closed them and pushed them away from him. She asked:
"Problems?"
"Yes and no. Tess and Franklin are exactly who they say they are. Good people trying to do good. They were sixteen when they thought it was cool to be part of a club around a guy who thought he could become a warlock. Man, that guy really didn't know anything. Some drama, some hocus pocus, a whole lot of weed and LSD, and some minimal real black magic. Until the little group had a one-time encounter with a real warlock. Franklin and Tess got the marker from that encounter because that warlock condemned them to hell. The idiot thought that if he collected souls for Hell, the Devil would reward him for his hard work."
She looked at him hopefully:
"Can you save them both from Hell, Alex?"
He kissed her on the lips:
"Already done babe as I promised this morning. When they get out of bed later they will feel like they are reborn."
She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard on the mouth. With his infamous grin, he said:
"I seem to remember a certain lady who imagined a certain reward if I were a good Antichrist..."
"Hmmm... Then I think you should follow me, my delicious Antichrist, very quickly to claim your reward."
And giggling she ran towards the house with him following closely behind her with a very big smile on his face, this promised to be a perfect end to a very good evening.