The Angel stood under the rain, and as the storm swept through the vastness of the valley, he pondered his next course of action. In those rare times when he allowed himself to be seen by mortal men and women, he favored the appearance of a six-foot-tall, good-looking, light-skinned Black man in his early twenties. A long time ago, during his first assignment on the planet Earth, abode of God's man and woman, he looked after a people who closely resembled the ordinary young man he pretended to be. The ancestors of Arabs and sub-Saharan Africans did mingle a lot in those early days, in that beautiful desert world. Sometimes, he shuddered to think that it had literally been thousands of years since he left Home.
Home, he mused. According to the mortals, home was where the heart was. He scanned the world beyond the flooded valley, and his gaze focused on one particular dwelling. A beautiful house in the suburb of Gosford, in the New South Wales region of Commonwealth of Australia. A chubby, dark-skinned man sat a table with his wife, a slender blonde woman and their two caramel-skinned daughters. The father and head of household, an Aboriginal Australian man, led the family in saying Grace. Afterwards, they happily died on the tasty dishes which the wife and mother, a lovely European woman, made for the family. In the hearth, a warm fire burned. It wasn't cold outside, the Angel knew, but something about gathering near a cozy fire appealed to humans. Even in the twenty-first century they still retained the instincts of their primitive ancestors. The need to belong, to feel welcome and to gather with family and friends was one of them. They seemed really happy, and during that moment, the Angel allowed himself to feel a slight twinge of envy.
An Angel's existence was one of solitude. Even though Angels were never truly alone. They were extensions of God's Will. All of them. Even the Fallen Ones. The Angel shuddered, and it wasn't from the cold. He wished he hadn't used that word, fallen. Among his kind it held so many negative connotations. It brought back so many painful memories. Folding his magnificent white wings closer, he picked up a small rock and tossed it. It flew for about a hundred feet before falling. Falling indeed. Why did everything that rose eventually fell? He thought of his brothers and sisters. The beautiful, winged sons and winged daughters of the Almighty. First among His creations. The Lord made them beautiful, powerful and immortal. He gave them the entire Universe to look after. And all He asked in return was their love and obedience. And yet, some of them couldn't give the Old Man even that.
The Angel didn't want to think about the War, and how his brothers and sisters slaughtered one another in heavenly battlefields. He preferred to think of before. Back when everything was alright. He basked in His Father's eternal love, and didn't lack for anything. It was a wonderful time. So much better than now. For his present wasn't something he cared to dwell on. Once one of the most loyal and devoted Princes of Heaven, he now numbered among the Forsaken. The Forsaken were even worse than the Fallen in the eyes of the Lord. The Forsaken came to Earth and taught forbidden knowledge to early man and his mate. For that, the Lord punished them.
The Angel allowed his gaze to sweep the earth, and he looked at another scene unfolding in the City of Johannesburg, South Africa. A dark-skinned young woman, her sharp-featured, dark-eyed Asian lover and his dog played near the statue of one of the European founders of Africa's most technologically advanced country. They seemed perfectly content to be with one another. The Angel smiled. So much bloodshed had occurred on this country's soil. Now, the sons and daughters of the indigenous African population were at peace with the descendants of European settlers. The nation was ruled by an African leader of great wisdom and power. There was hope for this country yet. The Angel looked a little further, to another land where division and marginalization threatened the fabric of a floundering yet fascinating society.