Angel Gift

Kateřina Zelená

I'm sitting against a grey wall, grinding my teeth. A few layers of dirty clothes can't protect me from the biting frost, stretching across the city, which is wrapped in December snow.

I observe the street around me, then check my hat for change lying in front of me. It's completely empty. A couple with a small daughter passes me, but at the sight of me they just wrinkle their noses in disgust and move on. The girl who followed them, however, stops and watches me with her sky-blue eyes. "What are you doing here?" she asks me in a sweet, ringing voice. A worried look sits on her face. But before I can answer, her parents turn to her and call out, "Isabell, don't mess with the beggars, you'll catch something from them." Isabell looks at me curiously for a few seconds, but then runs off to her parents. I follow them with my sight, until they disappear.

If I could only have a home, a family, a mansion full of servants, as I'm sure the little girl does. To have only what she has. With visions of a warm fireplace and roast rabbit, I fall asleep.

When I wake up, the sun hasn't fully risen, just lazily rolling on the horizon. My whole body is frozen, and stiff. Suddenly I notice the package in front of me. I quickly scan the street with my eyes, then quickly grab the package and carefully unwrap it. The package is filled with Christmas candy. It's all here. Tiny gingerbread cookies, meringues, and linzer cookies. I immediately bite into the candy. It's delicious.

That little girl, I think. Didn't she give me this stuff? After noon, the younger kids on my street slowly begin to come closer, catching the scent of sweet gingerbread spice. I share the candy with them, and the little bit of warmth. We sit together in a huddle, warming each other up. We tell each other stories, and we fall asleep with full bellies.

The next morning we find not one, but five identical packages next to each other. In the packages are nuts, apples, and even an orange. How much must that blue-eyed girl have given for one such package, nor five? Meanwhile, the kids around me are eating their apples, and arguing about where the packages came from. "The winter fairies sent us these!" squeaks little Tommy. "No, no, this is from Santa Claus." The older Lassie correct him. I know the truth, but I don't want to ruin their hope. I get so caught up in their discussion that I almost don't notice the little blue-eyed girl walking past us. I quickly get up to catch up and thank her, but the girl is already gone. I glance down at the snow, which is covered in fresh footprints, and see a small, shiny thing. I reach for it, and take it in my hands. It's a small, shiny angel of clear material. It's not ice, I can tell. It must be glass, or even crystal. We could buy a real dinner with an angel like that. But I can't do that. It belongs to her.

I don't waste time, and follow the tracks in the snow. Themlittle footprints lead me all through town, forcing me to zigzag through the trees in the park until they stop me in front of a beautiful, big, white house. I'm about to grab the gate handle when a still voice in my head whispers

"Not this way, you can't come in here"

I look around the yard in front of me again when I see a giant black dog lying in a wooden kennel. Alright, I can't go this way. I look around the house when I see the perfect solution. A tree with a branch exactly touching the third floor window. I put the little angel in my pocket, and start climbing. The icy surface of the tree chills my skin, and my hands slide over it. But I climb on anyway, branch by branch. Slowly, the branches begin to thin until I'm standing at the highest one, and more importantly, at my branch leading to the window. Slowly and carefuly, I place my first foot on it, and then the other. The branches I've been holding on to are no longer by my side, so I let go of them. I take one cautious step after another, when the window flies open, and there stands Isabell's mother. "What do you think you're doing?" she shouts at me, panic in her voice. "Get down of the bloody tree, right now!" But I don't listen to her. I just take another step forward and I slide off.

…

I'm falling.

It seems like a long time, like years, but in a moment I'm down, and I hit the stone surface. The snow around me slowly turns ruby red. But I don't feel anything. Just warmth. Slowly, my vision blurs as someone bends down to me. The blue-eyed girl. There are tears in her eyes. She recognized me. She pulls my body to her, and hugs me, whispering words in my ear "It was a pleasure to be your guardian angel."

And the world around me melts away.

I open my eyes in confusion, and blink in disbelief.

What's happened?

But one look at my surroundings, and suddenly I understand everything. I'm sitting under a tree in the red snow, holding the lifeless body of a little girl in my arms. I look at the world with sky-blue eyes.

                                                                                                                                               Edited by Petra Němcová