Gus sat on the park bench, looking out at the happy people
that walked past him. A part of him
wondered if he would ever feel like them again.
He couldn’t really explain when he had started to feel empty
inside. It just happened slowly,
starting sometime in college. Every day
the world managed to disappoint him a little bit more, and every day he lost
just that much more hope for his own future.
He held a cup of coffee in his hands, the warmth taking the
spring chill out of his fingertips. He
lifted the cup to his lips and blew, watching the hot steam rise off the murky
liquid. This is one of the few things he
still enjoyed. People watching and a cup
of coffee had become his sole joy in life.
He pulled his cellphone from his pocket, checking the
time. He didn’t need to be back at the
bookstore for another thirty minutes.
Good, he thought to himself. He
was going to have peace and quiet for a little bit longer.
Normally his job wasn’t all that bad. It was a bookstore, after all. The place was pretty relaxed, and the
customers usually kept to themselves.
Today, though, his boss, Soul, had decided to run a sale on their
children’s books.
That had been a bad idea.
The store had been a whirlwind of chaos the entire morning,
and when Gus’s break had finally come, he had flown out of that store so fast
he was pretty sure Soul’s head was spinning.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like kids. It as just that he didn’t like being trapped
in a small, cramped book store with about fifty of them, all of whom were
screaming at the top of their lungs for someone to read them a story. If they weren’t screaming, they were getting
that kid slime, whatever it was, all over everything.
Gus was planning on taking a full Silkwood level
decontamination shower when he got home.
“You look sad.” A
woman’s voice seemed to chirp from behind him.
“Huh?” Gus looked around.
There was no one there.
Just a bush, and a trash can.
“I said,” the woman’s voice continued, “you looked
sad.”
Gus’s jaw dropped when he saw the top of a woman’s head peak
out from within the bush. Blonde hair,
pigtails and big blue eyes seemed to come out of nowhere.
“What the hell?” Gus
slowly began to back away from the weird bush lady.
“You know who can help you with your sad, sad day?” The bush began to rumble.
“Listen lady, I don’t have any money, and I’m not looking
for Jesus, or Krishna, or…”
Gus’s heart was pounding now.
“Your Guardian Angel can help, that’s who!” A young woman burst out of the bush. She didn’t land on the ground, though.
No, Gus watched as the young woman, dressed in some retro
80’s cheerleading outfit, seemed to float above him, two small, white wings
flapping behind her.
“Hi Gus!” The cheerleader waved. “I’m Missy.
I’m your Guardian Angel!”
Gus took off running.
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