Noel

                                                        (Inspired by the song "Noel ")

            People call me in different names. Sometimes ‘Angel of Death’, ‘Ripper’, ‘Soul Fetcher’, ‘The Judge’ and so the lists continues. But I do not care of the names, I am who I am. In the breaking of the dawn, St. Peter assigns me in a new mission. He wears white robe and his hair is all white.

            “Here is the folder… there you will find the child.” St. Peter states while swinging the golden key in his fingers. With the snap of his finger I find myself under a manga tree. As I stand beneath the mango tree, I twirl around as I smell the fresh air. I am wearing an ordinary clothes. Plain tight blue shirt, jeans and black leather shoes. St. Peter wants me to teach the musical choir of the orphanage center at Antipolo City for their incoming Christmas mini-concert.

            A Spalding blue ball bounced at my feet. “Sorry mister.” Cried a skinny boy who was seen losing his balance from whatever cause. I reached for the ball and handed over to him. “Here you go.” As the tip of our fingers intersect a sudden blurred image appear. I saw a crying delicate boy and I cannot hardly move.

            “Are you okay mister?”

            “Of course I am fine.” I snap.

            An old Chinese woman calls me and say “Oh Mr. Jonathan Fajardo, we are very pleased that you came.” She cheerfully addresses as she use usher me inside the orphanage center. This lady is shorter than I am.  Probably around five feet and one inch tall. The two-storey house is enough to accommodate the thirty children. There are sixteen girls and fourteen boys.  There are some who needs special care. “Young souls are very energetic and noisy.” I utter.

            She assists me inside a quite small office. Once you open the door you would notice picture frames hanging from the four walls. Her table is fully varnish is at the center of the room. She sees that I am looking at the pictures. “Those are the children that we have for almost three decades now.”

            “I see Mrs. Ang. They are adorable kids. Each picture has something to convey.” I reply as I give my compliments. She smiles and then asks me further if I am willing to teach music for the mini—concert for free. This is my mission so I give my precious “Yes.” Through her squint-chinky eyes, I can see her blissfulness. When we head out of her office, there is a slight commotion. “Mrs. Ang, hurry…. He collapsed again!” cried out the limpy young boy who is the playmate of the skinny boy. I sense my assignment is here.

            “He is epileptic. He probably suffers from seizures again.” Mrs. Ang warns me. Without hesitation, my hands touch his face to pretend I am checking the child, a first-aid I mean. But the moment my hands touches his face visions sets in again. I do not know if these are mine or his.

During the first day of the class he sits in front. It is Mrs. Ang’s request, she proudly informs me about the magnanimity of Karl’s voice, the epileptic. When Karl’s solo act begins, he stands in front of the stage, thus facing me. When our pupils stare at one another, haunted memories flashes back. It gives me chills. In the vision, a young boy is very frightened. In his eyes I see terror. I am awake by the call of these orphans. “Sir Jo is there something bothering you? Is our performances not good?” They exclaim all at once.

“Everything is fine. I am contemplating on your voices. The blending is excellent.” I insist so that my cover will not be exposed. As Karl joins his limpy friend, Sebastien, I see their closeness. They are watching each other’s back. During breaks Sebastien, this almond eyes boy; is being bullied by Joshua. Joshua is the quadruple sizes of Karl and Sebastien. He bullies those who are smaller than him. “Hey Limpie!!! Move jerk……”

“We got here first.” Karl defends his buddy. Joshua grabs the torn t-shirt of Karl. “Boys fighting is not allowed. They came here first. There are a lot of chairs out there, so find your own place.” I recount as I withhold Joshua’s fist.

At night my invincibility power is put to good use. I am sitting at the edge of Karl’s bed. Unknowingly to him, I am listening to his prayers. As he is pouring his heart to the Lord, silence swallows me. The visions this time is the same like the previous days but it signify that we are very close.

*********

            The longer I stay with this boy, more scenes are recurring in my head. I see flashes of events which I am not so familiar. There are times I wonder if these are mine or his. The scene which I cannot erase from my mind is the part I am saving a four year old boy from an abusive adult man. I do not who the hell they are. Moreover, I am the one receiving the blows of his fists. We are in a semi-cemented house and I am crying intensely due to the massive pain I have. In one point, I fight back and defeat the abusive person till the young boy and I escape from the wooden old house and find ourselves in the high way. My body is shaking relentlessly. The four year old boy is crying as he is trying to help me get up. My body cannot move, I am in severe total loss. There in the dark asphalt road, my body collapsed then the vision stops. As I ask myself this question while rejuvenating under the mango tree. Karl calls me out.

            “Here Sir Jonathan the guitar. Let us practice the song Noel.” Karl exclaims as he is so excited to sing in solo. Though I want to avoid him or say ‘no’ but I cannot. I have to face him since he is my mission. For whatever reasons, I have to stick with him. I need his trust.

            There are times which I wanted to resign. Just surrender this assignment and leave. But I can’t. The blood in my nerves tell me to hold on and wait. Wait for what? This ‘thing’ is killing me! My blood knows him somehow but my damn neurons cannot. This ten year old boy how come he could irritate me this way? An orphan ...no…. he is just an innocent child. He knows nothing about me, the past of a ripper! Yes! Damn soul like mine indeed is cursed!

            Karl has a magnificent voice. His sings from the heart and can give chills yet soul-striking performance.  Gosh! He is really preparing for the concert. As my fingers run through the guitar strings, his endearing voice is able to play along. At one note, I stop so he can have his acapella. With or without music, his talented voice is enough to capture your ears. Right before he could hit the final note, I rise from where I am seating. Karl gazes at me since it is so rude of me to cancel the practice.

            “Sir Jonathan….” He calls me but I did not look past at him.

            “Karl let us continue this tomorrow.” I demand.

            “But Sir the concert is tomorrow night.” He recalls as he is trying to stop me.

            Nevertheless, I left him alone. He lower down his head and when he calls my name once more I am gone from his sight. Unknown to him, I am watching him from where I stand. I pity him. Like me he has no one. I do not care for a minute if St. Peter will double kill me because of my behavior. For me, I need to be alone with myself. I need to figure out why I feel this way. I touch my chest as I cannot control the emotion which I do not experience since becoming an angel of the damn. I am a bit worried since he is epileptic, that’s why he is so thin, sickly and sometimes bullied by other orphan kids. His seizures left him a mark of 360 degrees confused species. St. Peter appears from my back in shining light.

            “Jonathan be kind to the child.” He reminds as he refrain me from protesting. “Look at the first folder I have given you. Read it my dear boy.”

             I read the folder, on the bottom part it is noted that we are half-brothers. We have the same mother but different father.  “What?! St. Peter this boy is my brother!? How!?” It is quite a shocking news to me that the boy which I will be fetching is my little brother.

St. Peter nods and he place his two hands on top of my shoulder. My heart cannot outweighs my current mission. Now I know why he is so familiar to me. He is the brother which I saved six years ago. For almost a decade I never shed tears to the souls, this is an exception.

            “Do as you are told, Jonathan.”

            I did what I am asked. The concert night is coming, all the participants are preparing for their performances. “This would be the last evening before the concert.” I said before taking a deep breath. At the second floor of the orphanage center at the farthest bed in the right side just two steps away from the door, it is Karl’s bed. He is staring at the night sky through the shattered window while praying. My hazel brown eyes and his deep dark eyes meet.  

            “Dear Lord, I want to say thank you because Sir Jonathan taught me how to sing. Lord, I know I am so young when I lost my big brother, but with him I think my brother is back. It may sound unpatriotic to the brother who save me which happened to be with you now. But please guide my brother and Lord make sure no one beats him there. He had absorb so many blows from the mean man.” Then Karl cries as he remembers me. I, for the past four days ignoring him because I lost the precious memories. Although he cannot see my spirit, I can see him. I am standing right beside him. My cold translucent hand affectionately wipes the tears falling from his innocent – loving eyes. I am crying too. In each stroke of my fingers from his pale cheeks a slight hint of our pasts unfold.

*****

            The day of the concert has finally arrived. All of the children and staffs are preparing for the concert. I am at the basketball court surveying the scenes. Though I am an angel of death, I cannot predict the death of my assignments. It is the job of the big boss to know. I am wearing my best black suit ever. After two performances, it is now Karl’s turn to perform solo. He will sing Clay Aiken’s Noel version. I notice he is looking in the crowd, probably searching for me. He is wearing a simple jeans and red shirt to match the theme for Christmas. The disco light ball has a size of a full-grown man is placed on top of the center stage, parallel to where he stands. The audience really paid attention to his singing. If given by chance he could be another Josh Groban.  In each step I make at the aisle, haunted memories are playing in my cerebral hemisphere.

            There I am receiving every blows from the fists of the cruel old man. Our wicked mother left us for another man. My nuero-muscular-skeletal systems receive the tremendous attacks. Karl and I are stuck with him. Now and then he would beat us to death. Karl bite his leg to set me free from his evil clutches. He kick Karl, my brother’s head hit the cemented floor. My elbows help me to get up and so I reach for the Vodka bottle place on top of the center table. I hit his head with the bottle and stab him on the armpit using the shattered remains of the bottle. It gives an ample time for us to escape. Though my body is aching I carried my brother on my shoulders. I bear all the pain not minding if my body is overflowing with blood and reddish dark spots are all over my body. No one in the neighbor bothered to help us, they turn deaf-mute to our calls.

            Suddenly, when we are in the highway, my body collapse to the ground. I am motionless. Karl is crying aimlessly and telling me to get up. He is scared from the look in his innocent eyes. Then a light hovers in. An old man comes out and calling me. He is wearing a white dress with keys on his brown belt. I follow his lead. When I lean on my brother, he is crying over my depose body. “There is nothing we can do. Spirits are not allowed to interfere with the living.” The key keeper tells me. 

            “Who are you by the way?” I asks.

            “Apologize if I forgot to mention my name. I am St. Peter. Do not fret God heard your prayers.”

            Then out of the darkness a black Ford car appears. A gentle old woman together with her driver take us in. The woman is Mrs. Ang.

            As soon as Karl hit the final note “King of Israel…” our eyes meet. Tears are falling from our eyes. I am a proud brother since I am the one who taught him how to sing. I am glad that he still remembers that song. I sang that song to him when our mother gave birth to him on Christmas Eve. Since then Noel is his lullaby song. Fate plays along. The disco light ball begins to disintegrate from where Sebastien is standing. Every one panic.  I close my eyes since I am powerless. Sebastien has a difficulty in going down the stage since he has a weak leg. Karl runs toward him and saved his best friend. Due to great force or impact, my baby brother breathe his last air. I kneel down beside him, my fingers stroke his hair down to his chin. “I am here. You and I will be together.” I whisper in his ears.

            “Brother I am coming with you.” Karl replies as his soul departs from his body. He looks back to those who matters to him. All of them are mourning over his early departure. We squeeze our hands and say “Let us go.” Both us enter the paradise.

            As the breaking of the dawn closes in, I am standing in between the clouds. Breathing the freshness of the cold morning wind and staring at the earth. I fix my hair, jeans and fitted blue shirt. I put on my brown coat. I check my Omega wrist watch if it is properly secured in my fair skin. This is the career which God gave me.  I am ready to embark in this journey so Hollywood ready yourself for me. I could be the Next American Top Model, you know. So whoever would be my next mission, we will meet face to face. As the sun shines over Los Angeles, my wings spread out as I raise my arms up and fly. 

PS: Please find time to read the story i composed. You may give your own opinion but you are not allowed to cite foul comments. Thank you!