Daniel Kahn awoke handcuffed to a hospital bed. His chart at the foot of the bed bore his name and his great grandparents, Paul and Pauline Kahn, scrawled in big red letters across the top. His stomach and especially his bladder felt unusually full. There was an IV in his left arm. His feet and legs were free. Daniel looked around the room and nobody was there. He sunk his teeth into the IV line and pulled the needle out of his arm. Daniel clenched the needle in his mouth and brought it to his hand. He struggled to get the needle into the keyhole of the handcuff, as his vision was off; likely from whatever meds were dripping into his arm just seconds before. Daniel furrowed his brow, focused his eyes and after poking his wrist several times, managed to put the IV needle into the handcuff and wriggle the lock mechanism free. The handcuff opened. Daniel picked the needle up with his left hand and used it to free his right hand. He took the pillowcase off the pillow and wrapped it around the open vein in his arm and tied it off to stop the bleeding.
Daniel heard a noise in the hallway. He quickly pulled the cover over his arms, closed his eyes and feigned sleep. Through his barely opened eyes, he saw the person entering the room, a 40 or so year old man, clean cut, in a lab coat. The man picked up Daniel’s chart, scribbled a note, and reached under the sheets. With one swift move, Daniel grabbed the closest thing he could find, which unfortunately for Daniel was his catheter line. He yanked it out, instantly realizing what he had done, let out a muffled scream of pain and twisted the line around the man’s neck. Daniel held it there while the man jerked and said in a shriek of painful amusement, “Now you really pissed me off!” The man lay there squirming, with Daniel’s catheter slowly leaking onto his white coat. As the man’s life was leaving his body Daniel said to him, “Well, better to be pissed off, than pissed on.” The man fell into the bed, on top of Daniel. Daniel jumped off the bed, detached the wires from the heart monitor, removed the man’s shoes, and clothes, and put them on. He placed the man into his gown, thinking he probably deserved some dignity, and covered him up
Daniel quickly took in the room to assess himself, and his surroundings. He was wearing a hospital gown, no shoes or socks. The room had an IV holder, a heart monitor, with leads attached to his chest and lower down on his abdomen, and next to his bed was what appeared to be an ultrasound machine. There was a single chair in the corner of the room. His chart was in the holder on the base of his bed; nothing else. No closets, TV, hospital tray; nothing. Daniel thought to himself, what crappy accommodations. Not even HBO.
Daniel picked up the chart. Inside was his name, age (37), secret service i.d. number, and words that came screaming off the page. Gestation age of fetus- December 25th… Daniel could not grasp the concept of gestation associated with his body, his name, nor the connection with his grandparents. He found himself snickering at the Christmas gestation date, and then thought this must be somebody’s very twisted sense of humor. Daniel grabbed his chart and opened the door to the room. Surprisingly nobody was in the hallway. Daniel saw an exit sign atop a staircase and ran for the door. The door opened at ground level; strong sunlight shut his eyes tight. A combination of the sub-tropical Summer sun and likely whatever drugs he was on, caused his eyes to dilate. He closed his eyes for a moment to focus. He made his way onto North Bay Road, the residential street nearest the Hospital. A summer thunderstorm came out of nowhere. A Ford F150, with the name Gomez landscaping on a magnet sign was idling in the driveway of one of the homes. He saw two men wheelbarrowing a large Sabal Palm Tree into the backyard. Daniel peeled off the signs, slipped into the truck and drove away.
Sam Elliot was levitating from his bed. This time he was traveling above the glass ceiling of the Aventura Mall. From the top of the mall he could see Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. He looked down and saw the shoppers, parking lots, traffic on US1. He felt the presence of the Archangel Gabriel and searched for whom they were going to contact. There she was at the bus stop, a 20 something girl with her earbuds in, texting. Sam flew down to greet her. When she looked up, Opal Cay gazed through him as if he wasn’t there, however her music playlist suddenly changed from The Red Hot Chili Peppers to an oddly familiar sound. It was indistinguishable at first. It was a soothing sound, like a quiet rush of the wind, and in the background, she heard it; trumpet music. It sounded like September by Earth, Wind, and Fire, her grandmother’s favorite, she looked up for what she thought was a reflection of light from the bus, and instead saw a glowing blue-white figure that looked remarkably like a character from the new Ghostbusters movie. A voice spoke to her saying,
“I am the Archangel Gabriel. You will help usher the light onto darkness.”
All at once, Opal felt the most intense experience of her life. Every cell in her body was buzzing with warmth, satisfaction, passion, love, and hope. It was the most powerful connection she ever felt, to anyone or anything. For an eternal second, she felt the presence of the Highest Power in the Universe. It was like, like, like having sex with God. At the same time, it was nothing at all like physical sex. Her entire spirit was orgasming with joy, love, and hope. It was the purest feeling ever. For a second she wondered if she should feel ashamed. She thought to herself, I wonder if this is what Eve felt after she ate the apple. But then the heavenly feeling came back, again, even stronger this time. The Angel/Ghost looked at Opal, smiled and winked. The being communicated to Opal that the feeling she was experiencing, was in fact the highest form of love. It was why sex between humans felt so good. God wanted humans to share the same love and caring that he felt toward them, to be conveyed between each other. The bliss associated with sex was meant to convey the perfect union between beings. This euphoria was to be used as the very fabric that created families, that held humans and tribes together. God’s intention was that humans would eventually transcend the pure physical form of sex, and love each other in the way God loved all; with the highest form of happiness possible. At least it seemed like a good idea at the time, but God was not error free in creation, Mosquitoes being a perfect example of one of God’s misses. But then again, humans not being Gods, perverted the physical feeling of sex. Humans often left love, pure love, completely out of their physical, or frankly any interactions with each other, and instead had a tendency to pervert what was meant to be the highest form of love between each other, and treat it as pure lust, or worse. Opal was pleasantly stunned, and somewhat relieved. She thought to herself, just when I was thinking God was a perve, it was us. Figures!
She quickly texted what the vision told her and sent it to herself, in case she was imagining this. Sam watched Opal get on the bus and followed her home floating over the bus. Sam saw into her home. Opal lived in a small apartment in Buena Vista, a Bohemian area of Miami that, like most of the City, was getting to be unaffordable. Sam could see Opal’s sketch pads and drawings mostly scattered about, with a few small paintings on the wall. He closed his eyes and focused on a blank canvas on Opal’s dining table. Slowly the image of Gabriel appeared glowing on the white background. Opal, who was still feeling surrounded by marshmallows, gazed upon the image and instantly she understood.
A few months ago, Sam Elliot and his wife Sally, were on a trip to New Zealand celebrating his recent retirement from public service. He loved his work and his career, until he didn’t. The toll of running the foster care system in a community like Miami-Dade County, had finally hit him. In the end somedays he was so distraught, he would be frightened just looking at a fallen eyelash in the sink, or found himself starring at the stir fry he was making on the gas stove, too scared to even move a stalk of broccoli for fear it was burning on the other side. At that point he looked at the pan and thought it was better not to stir it for fear that seeing something being destroyed was worse than holding out hope that it wasn’t really ruined. Sam knew that God had given him guidance and some degree of what his friends called talent. He had made so many improvements to this delicate system and knew he had done his best and made a difference, but he also had a gift of knowing when it was time to leave. So, he retired after 3 decades of distinguished public service, and perfect timing for a Bucket List Trip! As he awoke in their motel room near the Franz Josef Glacier on the stunning South Island a vision came to him that was so vivid and pure, he knew it wasn’t a dream.
“I am the Archangel Gabriel. You will shine light into darkness, usher in the child, and eliminate the stones of despair.”
In the background, Sam heard trumpet music. La Vie En Rose- one of the old Louis Armstrong songs his Father’s orchestra used to play, and it transported him to a carefree time. All at once, Sam felt the most intense experience of his life. His entire being was consumed by a force that made his soul smile. It was passionate, but like love, not in an erotic way, yet, he could feel the presence of a higher being. The Higher Being. The connection was more than cerebral, more than somatic, more than spiritual. It was like all of those parts of his body were firing together in little pulses that turned into waves and waves of pleasure. He could feel and see God in his mind’s eye. He could feel God’s presence in each of his cells which all vibrated as if being serenaded by a power at a subatomic, primordial level. He saw every color of the rainbow and his mind lapsed into a trancelike connection of pure pleasure. He never felt such pure love, it was like, like, like having sex with God; but in a pure way. The Archangel looked like Casper the Ghost had fallen into an icy, glowing blue glacier. Sam awoke and closed his eyes to see if the image would reappear or if this was just a crazy dream inspired by the glacier they were going to visit in the morning. Once again, the image of Gabriel appeared. Sam lingered and the incorporeal image finally drifted off. Sam got up. turned on his IPhone and connected it to the Motel’s WIFI. He never heard of the Archangel Gabriel. What Sam found on a Google search felt so intensely right; he knew his new sense of purpose in his life. He also knew it wasn’t just a dream. So much for retirement he thought, and it’s only been 2 weeks.
According to the Google search, the Archangel Gabriel is God’s messenger, often depicted blowing a trumpet. She is the Archangel charged with communication, and helps writers, teachers, journalists and artists convey their messages, and assists during conception, pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing. Gabriel was the Angel who told Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth would bear John the Baptist. Gabriel was the Angel who told Mary that she would bear Jesus Christ. In the New Testament, (which Sam, being Jewish never read), the Archangel Gabriel’s message points to the coming of the Messiah.
“Fascinating!” Sam found himself saying out loud but to himself. Sam lay down and did his morning meditation and prayers. He had meditated for many years in his youth, and when he was given the job as the director of the foster care system in Miami, he added a morning prayer to his meditation ritual. “Dear God, please guide my decisions and my heart to do right by these children and families.” Over the years, his meditation and prayers merged. Pretty soon, he felt as though he was talking to an old and dear friend every morning. This morning as Sam drifted back off, he felt himself levitate from the bed. He opened his eyes. His body was on the bed below him. Floating next to him was the Glowing Blue Casper figure. “I am the Archangel Gabriel.”
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