Mor tried to hold onto a tree branch, but the wind picked him off with ease, sucking him into itself. He saw an upside-down Yam, his blond curls waving about, being dragged and swallowed in the eye of the whirlwind.
The clamor of the sudden storm now gave way to silence. White clouds arranged themselves like an arch above Anise’s head. Weirdly, she wasn’t afraid. It fact, she felt fantastic. She looked down. The earth below had disappeared and she was surrounded by the deep blue of the sky. A deep calm settled on her. She had no idea where she was, but it didn’t matter.
She looked at her hands, which were covered with a see-through, flexible coating. She tried touching it. The material was pleasantly warm and elastic and surrounded her whole body.
Then she saw Yam, also suspended in the air. He, too, was covered by the strange substance. She stretched her arm inside the transparent bubble and almost managed to touch it. To her right, she saw Mor and waved, and then all three started to sink slowly back down. Anise looked at the colors around her with wonder: they were changing every few seconds in a gorgeous spectacle.
Then Anise felt her feet slowly touching something solid. Her bubble closed in on her, adhering to her body like a jumpsuit. She spread her fingers, trying to pick the stuff off, but every time she thought she had it, the elastic material again stuck to her.
Her mouth wide open with amazement, she looked at Yam and Mor who’d just landed. Mor gave her a big grin. “This makes no sense at all, but I love it!” he said joyfully.
Yam, too, tried to peel his jumpsuit off, but it attached itself to him again, like a wound scabbing over without leaving a scar. “This is amazing,” he said, astonished. “Hey, where are you going?” he yelled at Mor who was moving away, as if hypnotized, into a thick fog. He and Anise hurried to catch up.
The fog reached their hips. Yam broke off a piece and licked it; it was sweet, reminding him of chocolate, except much better. OK – this is impossible, he thought. “Taste it,” he told Anise.
Hesitating just a moment, she gave in and scratched off a drop of the fog and cautiously licked it. “Nice!” she said, “tart.”
“Mine is sweet,” said Yam.
Anise thought that this was the first time in many days that Yam’s eyes hadn’t projected worry; she thought she could even see the beginning of a smile on his lips. She looked at his tall, muscular form, feeling again the familiar tingle in her body.
“I’m ravenous,” said Mor, shoving a huge piece of the fog into his mouth. “Hmm, peanut butter,” he said, smacking his lips with delight, just before starting in on another large piece. “Whoa – this one’s like hamburger,” he said, making it clear he had no complaints.
Anise felt like pinching herself. This couldn’t be happening. None of what was happening made any sense. I must be dreaming, she thought.
“In that case, we’re in the exact same dream, and I really don’t feel like waking up,” laughed Mor, swallowing more of the fog. “I wonder if food is fattening here too,” he said.
“Dummy,” she answered, wondering how he could respond to thoughts in her mind. She hadn’t said anything out loud. Anise spread her arms to the sides, exulting. “This is so much better than darkness, hatred, and death!”
“Yup. Like the Garden of Eden,” Yam chimed in. Anise was thrilled to see him so happy.
“Of course it’s the Garden of Eden. Like, duh!” A chubby angel in front of them, nervously twitching his wings, interrupted them.
Mor, quickly swallowed the last of the fog pieces. He stared disappointedly at the angel whose unbuttoned shirt showed his white belly. “This is not how I imagined angels looking,” he said. Anise shoved an elbow into his ribcage.
The angel placed his thick hands on his hips, trying to look more authoritative. “You’d better have an excellent explanation,” he said with all the anger he could muster.
“Explanation for what? What did we do?” asked Yam.
“I’ve been guarding that gate for several eternities and nothing like this has ever happened to me. Nobody has ever gotten past,” he said, scratching his scalp somewhere underneath his abundant hair. “Everyone goes up in an orderly fashion. This is the first time anyone’s come through this gate.”
“I’m sorry, but we didn’t do anything. It just happened,” Yam apologized. “But, as long as you’re here, and even though you look nothing like you’re supposed to, please tell us that it means we succeeded in finding the gate, right?”
“You know, it’s not politically correct to speak to me that way. Not all angels are perfect the way they’re depicted in your paintings,” said the insulted angel huffily. “Besides, does it seem as if I’m kidding?” Now he was getting annoyed and his entire body was turning red. “I’m responsible for the gate. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get down from here right away, before management shows up and sends me to sort through mosquitoes for a few long eternities.”
Anise tried mightily not to laugh. “We’d like that too, if only we could. We have no idea how we got here and definitely no idea how to go back. But now that we’re here, we have no intention of going away. So, please, go ahead, call God,” she said in a tone that left no room for refusal.
A surprised Enochio stared at her a moment before cracking up laughing, or rather before he started to hop around in a way that looked like laughter. “Oh really? To see God… That’s what she wants? Sweetheart, God doesn’t have time to breathe these days. There’s too much to do. Personally, I haven’t seen him since… oh, I don’t know, at least several eternities.”
Mor wasn’t following the conversation. As if in a trance, he stared past the angel’s shoulder. Among
