An Angels Last Fall

The fair was an odd place. Children with spiders and butterflies drawn on their faces as their mothers and fathers held bags of food in their arms. Animals and tall machines made noises that were hard to hear over. Andy had taken me to a quiet part of the fair. There were stalls of games that children and young couples were playing for get prizes like stuffed animals and masks. The men would play and they would give their prizes to the women.

It reminded me of early humans. The men would hunt and bring their prey back to the women to cook and eat. Silly how such primitive culture and survival can still be implemented in such ways today.

I was content with watching the crowd play but Andy took my hand and smiled at me as he pulled me toward a stand with large stuffed bears and three bottles standing on one another. The man handling the stand asked Andy if he wanted to play.

“Four balls,” Andy said reaching inside of his pocket and pulling out a 10 dollar bill. They exchanged items and Andy handed me all of the balls. When I stared at him blankly he chuckled. “It’s fun, I promise.”

I gave him a small smile and took one of the balls. “Knock all three of them down and you could win this.” The handler said pointing toward the largest bear above him.

It was black with glass blue eyes. I looked to Andy and smiled. He met my gaze and I shot away setting my sights on the bottles. I threw one of the balls aiming for the top bottle. I missed horribly and frowned. To my surprise I was embarrassed. Without looking at Andy I took another ball and threw it again with the same response.

He finally said, “you’re getting the hang of it. Here, one more time.” He handed me the third ball and I threw it again and hit the top bottle.

I smiled big and looked to Andy who was chuckling. He lifted the last ball as if asking if he could try. I nodded. He threw the ball and hit both of the bottles knocking them over.

“We have a winner! Which bear would you like?” The handler asked Andy.

Andy turned to me and asked the same question. I looked to the black bear. I pointed and the handler took it off of its rack and handed it to me. I met Andy’s gaze. I smiled and looked away as I hugged the bear close to me. It was silly to now look back at the beginning of time to see that even I, and Angel, enjoyed having the man’s prizes in my arms. For a moment I knew I was not worried about my past morals. This was the most fun I have had while on earth. Maybe being cast out wasn’t so bad after all?

It had started to rain and Andy and I walked to his car. “The movie night is tonight. Would you still like to join?” Andy asked when he started his car and began backing out of his parking space.

I had talked to Juliet about the movie night the evening he first asked me. She had commented the only movie nights that they had together didn’t involve watching movies. I didn’t understand until she explained…in great detail… I told myself that I would not risk such a thing. But he seemed gentle. He did not seem like a man who would do what Juliet said.

“Yes,” I nodded my head still holding the bear in my lap. I glanced to him to see that he was smiling. He quickly looked back to the road and cleared his throat. “Friends.”

The more I said that to myself the more wrong it seemed. I wanted more…

He turned down streets I was unfamiliar with. When he saw my face he asked if it was okay if we went to his house now. That his band mates were there and they had food. I nodded. Rain hit the windshield and for a moment I was excited about a movie night with Andy and his friends.

We pulled into a driveway that was in front of a two story house. Three other cars were parked along the street and one was in the driveway. It was a rust colored house with a black roof. It had five windows in the front with a small porch by the front door. Nothing like Juliet’s house. We walked in to a carpeted living room. To the left was a large kitchen with three men sitting at a small counter in the middle of it eating what looked like pizza. But I could never remember what humans ate or what they called it.

All of the walls were white. The living room had picture frames with pictures of people and words on them. There was a large L shaped leather couch by the wall opposite the front door. A hallway in front of us lead to three doors, that I could see. A stair way was leading up from the kitchen. When I had stepped father inside I could see a large TV mounted on the wall with black boxes and remote controllers beside them. The black boxes had buttons and lights on them.

I saw a man with long black hair sitting on the floor in front of the TV and a box with a remote in his hands. He was yelling at the TV as gun shots quietly sounded from the TV and small speakers that were placed around the room. This was nothing like Juliet’s house. A small object flew past my nose and hit the man on the floor.

“CC shut up!” I recognized Ashley sitting at the counter with a bowl of white puff balls in it. He grabbed a handful and ate it. I scrunched up my nose. “Sorry Ciarra!” Ashley apologized.

“Everyone this is Ciarra. She’s having movie night with us.” Andy said walking into the hallway and into a room.

They all said “Ooo!” in unison.

Andy came back from the room with his jacket gone. In place of it was a loose black shirt. “Shut up,” Andy stood in front of the hallway looking at me.

I could feel my face getting hot and I tucked my hair behind my ear. “You can put your jacket down anywhere...and the bear.” I heard a man from the counter say. “I’m Jinxx.” He said walking over to me, handing me his hand.

I shook it and with it felt a jolt. I stared at him and he did the same to me. I had never felt this before. We continued to shake hands slowly. “Nice to meet you.” It was obvious he had never felt it before.

We let go and I was introduced to the rest of the men after I had set the bear in front of the door way. Andy began to pull out what looked like small paperless books from a self. Everything he named off I had never heard of. When I made a comment as such they all insisted that it was going to be a long night. When Andy had called out a name everyone groaned and Andy insisted that I had to see it. They all agreed and sat at the couch. Andy put the movie in one of the small boxes and grabbed a remote.

When he sat down he offered me to sit next to him and I agreed. They were funny and loud. Eating food and also throwing it at each other. Andy and Ashley yelled at them saying that they were going to have to clean the mess up.

After it had been dark for a few hours I felt my eyes getting tired. I leaned against Andy. He had not rejected and it even felt like he had leaned in closer to me as well. I smiled and for once, I was truly happy...I let my sleep take over and let my mind wonder off.

Notes