“So hold my hand and I’ll walk with you, my dear,” was all he
said to her. She didn’t know what
say. After all the hell she has been
through, here he was, a simple gentleman offering his hand out. As he helped her up, she took the man
in. Young, mid to upper twenties maybe. Short, black hair, clean-shaven.
“Don’t you want to know why I was lying there?” she asked
this stranger. He simply held her hand
and walked with her out of the back alley to the street, then guided her to the
left.
“Not really.”
“Or why I look like I’ve been beaten within an inch of my
life?”
“Who is to say that I don’t already know?” he replied kindly. She noticed his black jacket matched the
color of his hair.
“I’ve never met you before, so how do I know I can trust
someone who says he knows me already?”
she asked him in an interrogating fashion.
“For the simple reason you trust complete strangers with your
back when you walk among strangers, but you can’t bring yourself to trust those
you know,” he told her.
That is true, I suppose, she thought to herself. “But if you know me already, how can you
trust me?” she asked him defensively.
They walked past a couple people as they passed storefront after
storefront, continuing down the sidewalk.
A solemn smile crossed his face as they neared a street
corner. “Because I know you’ve lost
everything,” he said quietly, “and don’t have a drive to keep going
anymore.” His fair complexion betrayed
nothing of his past, of who he really was.
Yet, she couldn’t help but notice how soft his sky blue eyes were.
They crossed the street and continued their journey, almost
without notice by the passing cars and people walking the streets. “So is that why you’re helping me? Because you pity me?” she asked in a
persecuting tone again. Despite his
kindness and his fair looks, life has taught her that she can’t trust anyone,
as everyone has a personal agenda.
Everyone.
“Isn’t it possible that for once, someone is just trying to
help you out?” he asked
questioningly. No, almost teasingly.
She responded quickly and definitively, “No.” The young man smiled and continued walking
with her, though not once giving off an air of superiority, malice, or
ill-intent. Even when she looked to his
eyes, they seemed calm. Peaceful
even. They continued on in silence for a
while, passing a couple more intersections and making a turn or two. At this point, his peaceful demeanor was
becoming infectious. She stopped caring
where they were or where he was walking her to.
She was much more entranced with this feeling of peace he was giving
her.
She finally decided to break the silence, now that she had
calmed down enough. “Why then?” she
asked him. “Why are you here right
now? Why help me out when I have nothing
to offer in return?”
“Unfortunate circumstance is what brought you down. You weren’t meant to take a fall like that,
let alone not complete your task.” The
buildings and storefronts have disappeared now, replaced by a quiet park. The leaves of oaks and maples moved softly in
the light breeze this evening, and the scent of moisture clinging to the short
green grass added to her trancelike state.
“No,” he continued as they made their way through the park, “your
destiny goes beyond these city streets.”
Now she was confused.
“I asked you why you’re helping me,” she asked quizzically.
“Indeed. My dear, you
were in a dark place. All of the helping
hands that were supposed to cross your path never did. Needless to say, you lost your faith in the
world around you. You felt as though you
were alone, and after failing to complete your task, you had resolved to die
alone and give up the struggle.” She
looked at him sternly, trying to figure out how he could know a secret like
that. “In regards to your question, I am
here tonight to guide you home.”
Home? She looked around, her
senses now working to make order of what he was saying. They had come upon a large stone structure in
the middle of the park, one that had the graceful architecture of a cathedral,
but the quiet simplicity of an old stone watermill.
Where are we?
She thought to herself.
“Somewhere safe,” he told her comfortingly, almost like he
read her mind… again.
“Who are you?” she asked, a sense of fear nowhere to be
found.
He smiled. They
approached the cool stone steps of the place, and for the first time she
realized how big the structure was. The
large stone pillars did a wonderful job at framing the massive wooden doors at
the top of the many steps before them.
She gazed over every feature of the place, taking it in with the fervor
of a small child on the first day of school.
“This is the Iglesia del Ángel
de la Guarda. It’s a place where you can
find peace.”
Iglesia? She thought to herself. “This is a church?” This wasn’t adding up for her. She turned to face him, this mysterious man
who had picked her up and guided her to this place. “Why?
Why here of all places?” she demanded of him. He looked down at her, making eye contact for
the first time. As she looked deep into
his sky blue eyes, she found in them a softness and kindness she had never seen
before. He smiled to her.
“To teach you, my dear Elena, that you are not alone.” He turned her around to face the cathedral
steps and, for the first time since he had taken her from that dark alley, he
released her hand from his. He spoke
softly to her ear, “and now the rest is up to you.”
She took her first couple steps up, not really knowing what
to expect. Her mind was racing. Just who was this man? And what did the rest of the name of the
place mean? Church of the Angel… angel
what? Guarda… what did ‘guarda’
mean? It dawned on her that she had not
once since he had taken her hand felt any pain.
I mean, we did walk for quite a
while, she thought to herself, and I
was almost beaten almost to death. I
could have sworn I had a few broken bones as well. She took a few more steps before she realized
something else: she had not once spoken her name. How did
he… finally the last piece of the puzzle fell into place: Church
of the Guardian Angel. She wheeled
around to face the man who had only moments ago whispered into her ear, but her
eyes found nothing but a long deserted sidewalk in a quiet park on the edge of
the city.
