The Metatronic Chronicles: A Minor Inconvenience

Alice was still sitting in her chair, holding the angel’s hand when the surroundings suddenly faded from the old comfortably beaten up living room of the Wilder house to a beautiful park like setting on a hilltop overlooking a view she didn’t recognize. The sky was fading into twilight as the sun settled over a far off mountain range and the air warmly caressed her skin. The angel was kneeling next to her, his eyes intent on her face. “Are you all right?” he finally asked in his deep voice.

“Where are we?” She looked around, taking in the brilliant colors of the thick forest of maple and pine, a wide river below, the purple mountain range and the gently fading sunlight. It reminded her of photos she had seen of the Pacific Northwest, but somehow, the colors were too brilliant to be real.

“We are in my private dimension,” the angel answered. “I’ve created these surroundings to help you relax. I brought us here so we would not be disturbed.”

Alice trembled a bit as she looked into the angel’s eyes, but relaxed somewhat as she saw nothing but joy in them. “Is it safe for me here?”

“For a short time, yes. We have an hour or two before I have to take you home.”

“What happens then if I don’t leave here?”

“A radiation burn starts to set in for you. It is just uncomfortable at first but can get very painful. Nothing I can’t heal, I assure you, but you will be home long before then.”

“You mean I could wind up like an irradiated lobster.”

“Something like that.” He smiled when he saw her eyes grow wide with concern. “But you needn’t worry. We’ll be back long before you feel even the vaguest tickle.”

She tried to compose her feelings, taking a deep breath, and decided to take his word for it. “All right…I guess this is fine.” She took a look around again. “It’s very beautiful. Like an artist’s painting.”

“Thank you,” the angel nodded.

“So…when you are not joined with my Michael, what do I call you?”

He bowed his head briefly. “My name is Michael also.”

“Wow…confusing,” she said nervously.

“ I agree, but for us angels, using a human name that is similar or the same as our own is often the most convenient. Not all of us do of course, but whenever possible. It is useful when the blend of personalities becomes complete.”

Alice tried to stand up but Michael gently held her in place. “This is not a great time to take a walk,” he explained in his gentle deep tones. “The ground is not exactly solid. You would not fall but it is not easy to walk. It would be like trying to slog through deep mud. I stay atop it because I am weightless right now and can control my movements.”

“Oh.” Alice sank back into the chair. “So how is the chair supported then? And how do I stay in it if there’s no gravity here?”

“I am keeping you in your chair and your chair supported magically.” Michael smiled into her eyes. A gentle touch on her arm took most of her fear away. “I’ve been looking forward to our talk.”

“Me too,” she smiled back. “Though I kind of wish my Michael was here too.”

“He will know everything when we return just as if he had been here. Even as a human I am quite angelic in nature. Of course, I never want to admit to such things.” He gave her hand a gentle kiss. “Such as my love for you.”

Alice savored the touch of his lips on her hand for a moment, but determinedly went on with her planned speech. “Michael, the reason I wanted to talk with you was that I needed to know how much influence you have over my Michael.”

“Are you concerned that I am creating his feelings for you?” Michael asked.

“Sort of, yes. I mean, I think he really loves me but now with you in the picture…” Alice’s voice faded a bit. “I’m not so sure.”

“Michael…your Michael, as you call him, does indeed have deep feelings for you, Alice. Who would know better than I? And angels don’t lie.”

“That’s a lie right there,” Alice pointed out. “Derasthe lied to me about why he was visiting the Wilder house. Michael lies to his parents. Daniel lies to everyone.”

“I don’t lie,” Michael stated firmly. “I would never lie to you even if my life were at stake. And those weren’t lies anyway. They just didn’t tell the truth.”

“How is that different?” Alice shot back, then quickly relented. “Sorry…I just don’t like lies.”

“Michael feels like his whole life is a lie right now,” the angel answered. “That’s part of why he won’t make a commitment to you. He feels that if he tells you the whole truth about himself…about me…that you will feel differently about him than you do now. That maybe you would even hate him.”

“I could never hate Michael!” Alice answered instantly. “I might not approve of everything he might do, but I love him and that’s all there is to it.”

“But what if the truth was very hurtful, even though he doesn’t mean it to be? But it could be hard for you to handle.”

“What truth? What more is there to know?” Alice was growing nervous again, not wanting to hear anything that would jeopardize her future with Michael, no matter how fragile it might be.

“There is much more to know, but what is most important is that no matter what happens in the future, even if events should happen that hurt you terribly, you will still love him. And he will always love you, that much I know for a fact…because I love you.” He suddenly gave her a gentle kiss and that sweet familiar flavor of her baby’s father was present in his lips.

When they parted, Alice was too much in shock to say anything for a moment. She just stared uncomprehendingly at him until he finally touched her hand, jarring her back to life. “Are you all right?” he asked. “I didn’t shock you, did I?”

She was shaking slightly as she nodded. “A bit of a shock, but that’s all right.” Her heart was racing and the baby inside her was cooing with happiness. “After all, you’re the same person, right?”

“Yes,” he said as he gave her another brief, yet more passionate kiss. “We are the same being.”

Alice found herself lost in the kiss for a moment, but when they parted again, she shook herself back to her senses. “Michael, can you not kiss me…at least for now until I understand more about this?”

He bowed his head. “I am your servant.”

“Wow…” Alice looked at him disbelievingly. Here this giant beautiful warrior angel was showering her with attention, calling himself her servant and yet all she could think of was how much she loved the teen she called ‘my Michael’. But at the same time, when she looked at him, she could see quite literally the man her love would become and it was overwhelming. “Michael…I feel like I’m looking at the future when I see you.”

“You are,” he nodded. “I am the Michael you will know in the future just as I am here now.”

“But what does the future hold? Why are you holding back what you think is such a terrible truth that I won’t accept it? If we are really to be together, don’t you think you should trust me to hear the truth and accept it?”

“I do trust you to accept it but my human side doesn’t,” Michael answered. “I want to tell you everything about us but it would take too long and be too confusing for you. But most of that is not what worries me. It is the one truth about angels and love that bothers me and could hurt you so badly. It is the reason that Michael won’t commit to his love and the reason that James Wilder gave up his angelhood so completely.”

“What reason? What? Please, Michael—if you don’t tell me, how can I deal with it at all? It will drive me crazy not knowing!” Alice wanted desperately to go back to a time when she knew none of this but it was now too late and if she was to be with her love, she had to know what it was that hurt him too terribly to tell her.

Michael paused for a moment, searching for the right words. “Angels…” he finally said. “Are capable of loving so much that we will literally destroy ourselves to be with those we love. This is how I feel about you---there is nothing I would not do to be near you, to feel the warmth of your body, smell the sweetness of your breath…” He drew close to her and took a gentle whiff of her scent. “I love you so much that my entire body is in pain when I am not in you. My body prepares itself for you whenever you are near, yet I cannot touch you because you are not mine. But even if I could touch you, be with you…” he looked into her eyes. “It is not in my power to be faithful to you.”

Alice felt her heart jump into her throat. “What do you mean?”

“Angels on planetary assignments…like myself and Michael…have a job to do while we are here. We have no choice and are expected to participate in a project that helps replenish and strengthen planetary populations. It is in our makeup—we can’t help ourselves.”

“In other words,” Alice found herself smiling in spite of his apparent discomfort talking about it. “You screw everything that moves.”

“In a nutshell, yes.” Michael looked into her eyes, trying to see what she was thinking. He didn’t dare intrude on her telepathically. “As a human, Michael can remain faithful. But I am the culprit. When we are joined, we must do what we are designed to do.”

“Designed?” Alice echoed. “So that’s what that big thing is for?” She suddenly realized that she was intimating that she had actually seen his private parts and grew very red. “I mean…I’ve noticed through Michael’s jeans…and when he made love to me in school.”

The big angel realized that she was talking about what had lately been Daniel’s favorite subject and winced slightly. “Among other things, yes. But it won’t hurt you! It adjusts to the space available, I promise.”

“I wondered about that,” she smiled sheepishly. “But of course, you were there---you’d know.”

“Yes,” he smiled. “I do know and you’re right. I was there for every glorious minute.”

Something occurred to Alice and she felt fear rising again. “Michael…who is the baby’s father then? Is it you or…?”

He quickly took her hand and kissed it again. “It is both of us, my sweet girl. The baby you carry inside you is from the seed of the archangel Michael with a little teenage Michael thrown in to give the baby a gentler, more compassionate nature.”

Alice wasn’t sure she wanted it to be that way, but realized that she had no choice. The baby inside her had come from the hardened loins of an archangel. Even though he was obviously the same person she loved, his more mature looks, demeanor and physical prowess placed the two Michaels miles apart. She felt tears begin to sting her eyes and the angel quickly wiped them away.

“Don’t cry,” he consoled her. “The baby is his. He was there—the child will be so much like him in so many ways. Remember—what’s mine is his and what is his is mine. We are the same.”

When she looked up at him, she was amazed to see the face of her young love. “Michael,” she whispered.

“Alice,” he whispered back, his lips closing over hers. “I love you so much.”

This kiss was long and lingering. Alice didn’t want it to stop. The sun that had been sinking behind the clouds finally disappeared completely but she still was kept safe and warm by the angel as they lingered over it. “I wish I could make love to you now,” Michael whispered as they reluctantly parted. “I wish the baby wasn’t so near. I want to be inside you so badly every inch of my body is in pain.”

Alice felt the tears come in rivers now. “I wish we could make love too, my sweet. What happened to your rehearsal?”

“I couldn’t stand not being here so we finished early and Michael let me come back,” he answered, and then began peppering her face with gentle kisses until his face grew pale with the ache of his love. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he withdrew slightly.

“Are you all right?” Alice asked quickly, wanting him so much yet as frustrated as he was.

“The pain is beyond belief,” he said, moaning slightly. “It’s not just in my genitals—it’s everywhere!” He laid his head down on her swollen belly to listen for the baby sounds. He was rewarded with happy gurgling and a foot pressing against his cheek. “The baby sounds wonderful,” he smiled through his pain. “You had a good talk with Michael. He tempted you, didn’t he?”

Alice nodded. “He is you, there is no doubt. He showed me what you are going to become, Michael…and it was incredible. You are going to be so amazing…even more amazing than you are now.”

“Then you don’t mind?” Michael asked, his eyes imploring her. “The project work doesn’t scare you?”

“I can’t say that it wouldn’t upset me at some point,” Alice sighed, “but something in me says that it’s going to be all right. And that if I am just patient and remember our love…it won’t be so bad.”

He groaned once again as the pain overtook him. “How does Michael stand this?” he managed to say. “When I came back and rejoined, this was what he was feeling. He left me in his body—I guess so I can get you back home. But he is in torture all the time!”

“I wish I could help you!” Alice said quickly. “Tell me, is there anything I can do?”

Michael seemed to be listening to someone else for a moment, and then slowly nodded. “He says there is one thing you can do and the pain will go away for awhile.” He looked down at her breasts and she got the idea immediately. Slowly, she unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it back.

An hour later, the two reappeared in the Wilder living room, Alice still in the chair and Michael still kneeling next to it, a look of relief on his face. The clock over the television set indicated that they had been gone perhaps an hour and Mary was sitting on the sofa, a worried look on her face. “You two!” she said, a look of relief on her own face. “David told us where you were going! Why didn’t you say anything?”

“The angel did it,” Michael volunteered quickly. “I just brought her back.”

“We had a nice talk. Really, nothing happened,” Alice added.

“I’ll bet.” Mary rose from the sofa and took Michael by the arm back toward the kitchen where they could talk in private. Once there, she spun around to face him. “Where were you?”

“Michael took her to his private dimension, that’s all. They just talked. We worked things out and told her about the project. It will be fine, she’s all right with it.”

“His private dimension! Why not say he took her to his den of iniquity!” Mary spat. “That angel is going to get you into a lot of trouble, Michael! You have to be careful! What if he had decided to you-know-what with her! She was completely unprotected!”

“Mom, Michael is her protector!” her son shot back. “He would never harm her. I went back into his body and he was in so much pain, I couldn’t believe it. But he didn’t touch her.”

“Let me talk to him!”

“All right,” Michael shrugged. “But not here. I don’t want Alice to see or hear him any more tonight.”

“Fine, out in the garage then!” Mary headed out the back door toward the converted rehearsal space and found Rick and David still in there packing up. Seeing an opportunity, Mary quickly collared David. “I want to talk to Asmodeus!” she growled. “Now!” Seeing what was happening, Rick grabbed his bass and disappeared into thin air.

“Yes ma’am!” David disappeared and in his place came Asmodeus, who moved back a few feet to try to get out of firing range. Michael arrived an instant later and together the two strained yet docile angels faced an angry mother less than half their size.

“You two stepped way over the line!” Mary exploded at them. “Alice is in an extremely fragile state! How dare you haul her off to some subspace bordello, Michael! And you, Asmodeus! You gave them the idea of splitting to do it! What if something had happened? What if there was an attack from those damned harpies? What could you have done to protect her?”

“She was completely safe,” Michael protested. “There is nothing that could get to her in my personal dimension. Every angel has one—it’s like a retreat, a safe place. No angel can invade another’s personal dimension, you know that!”

“No, I don’t know that!” Mary wanted to say more but found that trying to yell at two people who were more than two feet taller and at least four times bigger in sheer mass was extremely difficult. “Dammit, where’s a chair!”

Michael quickly retrieved a sturdy chair and helped her step up onto it. She still wasn’t eye to eye but now at least she could get a more direct shot at her targets. “Thank you. Now…what happened out there? If her parents get wind of some funny business going on, in outer space or here, they could whisk her out of here and put her in a home for unwed mothers.”

“Nothing happened!” Michael insisted. Asmodeus just observed, hoping his silence would keep him out of the main part of the fracas. “We just talked and that was it!”

“Why don’t I believe you?” Mary asked suspiciously. “Maybe you didn’t do the nasty with her, but you did something else. I can smell it!”

“Smell it?” Michael looked shocked. Could she really smell it or was she just using a figure of speech? “Look, whether anything ‘happened’ out there or not, she’s back, she’s fine. It obviously didn’t hurt her and it won’t happen again. She just wanted to talk to me alone and frankly, there’s no place like that in this house. So I took her somewhere warm and safe to have our talk. That’s all there is to it.”

Mary eyed him tensely for a moment. “So…” she finally said. “You’re not going to talk.”

“I have been tortured by the best and still kept silent. She doesn’t want me talking about it, so what more is there to say? I am her servant, her slave, and her adoring serf. I’m not going to tell you anything more when nothing happened.”

Mary turned her attention toward Asmodeus. “You still haven’t answered me. What was going through your head, telling him to split in two?”

“Nothing harmful, I assure you!” Asmodeus quickly answered. “And certainly if somehow there had been an attack—which is impossible as she was in the safest place in the universe—I certainly would have alerted the angelic forces on this planet to protect her and the baby and we would have repelled it. May I remind you---such attacks can easily occur here on this planet, much more likely than in Michael’s personal dimension. In fact, should such an attack occur, that is most likely where she will be sent at least temporarily.”

“All right, all right!” Mary shook her head, knowing she wasn’t going to get anything out of either of them. “But don’t let it happen again. Asmodeus, I want a shield put around this house—I know you can do it. And Michael, Alice is not to go anywhere with you without my specific permission. She can go with your human side, but you are forbidden to come forward alone with her until after the baby is born and she’s recovered. I don’t want this seventeen year old pregnant girl left alone with a fully powered horny angel, do you understand?”

Michael sighed. “Yes, ma’am.” Mary wasn’t his mother but he certainly thought of her as his mom and direct orders from her were not to be questioned in this instance.

“And you, Asmodeus. Next time you get a bright idea, I would appreciate it if you would keep it to yourself!” Mary hopped down from the chair and stormed back into the house, leaving the two angels there alone for the moment, soaking in what she had said. “Well then,” Michael finally dared to breathe. “I’m glad she thinks it was me who did it.”

“Who did what?” Asmodeus asked.

“I’m not talking but I can tell you that I haven’t felt this good in weeks. The pain is gone…at least for a while. I owe young Michael for that one.” The angel suddenly became his young human self again. “And I owe the angel for keeping it to himself.”

Asmodeus became David again and the two young men just shrugged at each other. “So,” David said. “I mentioned that I have some gigs. I just told Rick and Daniel about it, but maybe you’d like to know.”

“Um, right…sure,” Michael nodded, his mind still on Alice.

“Hold on to your hat,” David grinned. “On February 15th and 16th, we are the opening band for the Milwaukee Rockfest.”

Michael looked at him blankly. “What the f is that?”

“It’s only the biggest indoor concert in the entire state. Of course, we play at four in the afternoon but there should be some powerful people there. If we are good enough, we might be able to get a shot at getting some professional management. If it works out and you are going to school in Madison, we might be able to score a lot of gigs from it.”

“I hope it’s a weekend, Dave! I can’t get away from school that early!” Michael seemed a bit perturbed that David had already booked them.

“It is on a Friday and Saturday night. I know you have a study hall late Friday afternoons—we can get you out of that, right?”

“Only with a permission slip from my mom—you know, the one that just bit your head off?”

“She’ll calm down. Anyway like I said, if we’re really good—and face, it, we are good—we might be able to score a professional management deal.”

“With who?”

“Only Davis and Davis out of Chicago! I have it on authority that they will be there!”

Davis and Davis were a well-known management agency who handled at lot of the more well known Chicago area bands, including a few who had scored national hits and tours. “Yeah, well Dave, who says they’ll be there at four in the afternoon!” Michael shot back.

“I’ll make sure of it and you know I can! I don’t even need old Asmodeus for this one—money talks, Michael.”

“You can’t buy these guys.”

“I might not be able to buy then, but I can sure wine and dine them and they won’t even know it’s me. Dietrich Machine is a big sponsor of the event—I didn’t even have to ask my managers to do it—like they pay attention to me. But as it happens they will be putting together a big pre-concert party for VIPs and I got them to invite these guys. They are notorious partiers and there will be free flowing booze, girls and probably drugs too.”

“You know I hate drugs and drug users.” This was true. Michael had always been a bit of a health nut and the escalation of recreational drug use was alarming to him. “I may have long hair but I’m not a hippie, Dave. Are they hippies?”

“Just wannabes—but they do have influence in the music scene and they are good managers. They might even book us out of state if it all works out.”

“So what do Daniel and Rick think about it?”

“Both are all for it. What do we have to worry about? We are all angels—we can get around to these gigs and get home so fast that we could do a major world tour and still be home for dinner every night, do school work and have time for a little fun too. And we know that you can still go to class, study, do research—you can do it all. Come on, Michael. Let’s do it!”

“Even angels can’t put more than 24 hours in a day, Dave,” Michael answered.

“Actually…yes, we can, but we won’t need to.”

Michael shrugged. “All right, as long as it doesn’t interfere with Alice and the baby.”

“You’ll only be gone for an hour or so each of those days. She’ll be fine.”

“Just my luck,” Michael grumbled. “She’ll decide to go into labor on February thirteenth and not have the baby until late on February fourteenth.”

“Even if she did,” David assured him. “You can still be there. The set is only half an hour. You can be home in an instant is she goes into labor!”

An intercom installed to facilitate communication between the garage and house buzzed to life and Alice’s voice came through it. “Hey, anyone out there?”

“Yeah!” Michael answered, knowing she had the listen button pressed. “We’re just cleaning up, Alice. I’ll be back in a moment.” He turned back to David. “So do you have a set list yet?”

“Absolutely. We’re going to do some Stones, some Raiders—no one plays them---and a few of your originals.”

“They’re Daniel’s originals, not mine. He’s the song writer.”

“And a damn fine one. If we arrange them right, we can make a good impression on those guys.”

Michael was about to say something when the fact that Alice had the listen button pushed came back to him. “Oh no…” he suddenly telepathed to David. “You don’t think she was listening to all that was said out here, do you? I forgot about that damn intercom.”

“Did she know about it?” David returned the same way with some effort. “I’m out of practice with telepathy! This is hard!”

“I don’t think so. Mom might have just showed it to her.” Michael hoped that was the case. “I’m going to pull the damn thing out of the wall!”

“Don’t do that or you’ll upset her. She’ll think she did something wrong. I’m going to finish up here and go home, so you just go and see what’s up. I’ll see you here tomorrow at seven.”

“Got quiet there all of a sudden!” Alice’s cheerful voice came back and Michael knew she had been listening. “Michael, I think you ought to do that gig too! And I still haven’t heard your band!”

Michael glanced at David, who just shrugged. “I’ll talk to you about it in the house, Alice,” he answered.