WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

 

Major Richard Blaine thought he was dying to save his men, but instead is rescued by an angel whose perfume was that of his lost love, Helen Mayfair.

Was it her ... and what does it mean for Helen's fate? Is there a future for a human and an angel?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

“Life is the tumultuous duetbetween the murmuring light within and the riotous light without. It revealsthe world, its materiality, and its mystery. It is up to us to discern themelody and make it our own.” 

- Helen Mayfair

 

I was lying on tickling grass. Ididn’t open my eyes. I had seen more than I wanted in that hellish tunnel. Thedarkness of closed lids was comforting.

Sentient huffed in my mind,

‘There is only one world. Thingsoutside only exist if you go to meet them with everything you carry inyourself. As to the things inside, you will never see them well unless youallow those outside to enter in.’

‘I am sure that is quiteprofound, but I am simply too battered to parse it out. Was that Helen just now… with wings?’

‘I do not respond to nonsense.’

Taylor, being Taylor, intrudedwith a question asked of the world in general, “What the hell was that?”

Link said, “You just answeredyour own question, Stew.”

Rough fingertips prodded into myneck. From a distance, André asked, “Is he alive?”

Doc Tennyson said, “His pulse iserratic but still there.”

“Good, that means I can killhim!”

There was a sound of a blow andthe thud of a body hitting the grass beside me as Cloverfield snapped, 

“Getover it, mate! Stone the crows! We all just went through hell. The Major didn’tcause it. He saved our hides from it.”

“Your Major dragged me into thathell! I want to kill him.”

Above me, the Rabbi, Lt. Stein,sighed, “You dragged yourself into this mess when you became a warcorrespondent.”

Opening my heavy eyes, I weaklypropped myself up on my right elbow, and to derail all the hostility withconfusion said, “Vita contin gi. Vive cum eo.”

Nurse Reynolds, despite extremewobbliness, moved with her inerrant grace up to me.

“Life happens. Live with it?Rather I would have said: Stercus accidit. vive com eo.”

Refusing to be outdone in eruditeobtrusion, Dickens smiled wearily and translated, “Shit ….”

He saw Theo’s glare and hastilyamended, “Sorry, ah, lady present, dung happens, so live with it, right?”

“Too right,” I sighed and then, Ispotted André working himself up to lunge at me.

I plucked up a hefty stone thatjust fit my left hand and squeezed.

There was a crunching groan, andI opened my throbbing hand to pour out the powdery corpse of the rock from my palmonto the grass between me and André.

“You really want to see wherethis dance leads?”

He wisely edged away, and I said,“This living moment … in which we touch life and all the energy of the past andfuture is precious. Don’t throw it away on foolish rage over something you havealready survived.”

Nurse Reynolds scowled at me. “Youwanker! Why did you sling your rifle back over your shoulder?”

“Because that Thing was acreature of Darkness just as the rifle was a weapon of Darkness. Bullets fromit would have only strengthen that monster.”

She looked as if she didn’t buymy explanation. “Well, you scared bloody hell out of me when you did it.”

“Don’t worry,” I smiled back ather. “There’s plenty left.”

Glaring at André, Cloverfieldhelped me to my shaky feet and whispered in my ear, 

“We all saw that angelwhisk you away to safety and seal that tunnel behind you.”

Ashamed at my not noticing theclosed tunnel, I flicked a quick glance and was stunned to see no indication atunnel had ever been there.

“Yeah, mate. We ain’t nowherenear Omaha Beach anymore.”

I turned to Theo, “Are thesurroundings safe?”

My loyal sergeant breathed a sighof long-suffering from my not ever expressing myself as a trained officer.

“Yes, Major, theperimeter is secure. I was waiting for you to recover before I had the men formup against that knoll and recon the area beyond and behind.”

Cloverfield whispered next to my ear.“I would rather have you as my officer than any textbook cadet. You sure youtaught at West Point for a year?”

I shook my head. “Have no memoryof it, but I’ve been hit on the head a lot.”

He drawled a lean smile. “Me,too, but I remember all too well things I’d rather not.”

Cloverfield leaned in closer. “Weall saw that angel hoist you out of that tunnel, but only I saw that sketch ofyour Helen Mayfair you did for Rommel.”

“So?”

“That angel’s face was a twinimage for your Helen. Do you think that means she’s dead?”

I squeezed my eyes shut tight.“Merde, I hope not.”

Link loped up to the two of us.“Haven’t either of you boys been to Sunday School?”

I forced my face to be stone.“Sunday School wasn’t exactly on the curriculum at St. Marok’s.”

Cloverfield shook his head. “Mumwas afraid to send me as it might give me an idea or two for sins I hadn’t yetcommitted.”

Link said, 

“Well, angels werecreated before Man. They’re a different breed entirely from us. When we die, wedon’t become angels or demons. We become citizens of the Hot Spot or the NiceOne.”

André sneered, “And of course,you know exactly how we get to either locale, right?”

Link’s face brightened, “Youreally want to know?”

The rest of the Spartans made hisface fall when they unanimously shouted, “No!”

I clamped a friendly hand onLink’s shoulder. “You have to let each person find their own way to theafterlife.”

Cloverfield chuckled, “That waythey have no one to blame for the scorching but themselves.”

Link glumly nodded. “That makessense I guess.”

He turned to me. “Well, at leastyou know your Helen can’t be an angel since she had a human father.”

My stomach sank at his words, andI shook my head. 

“Her father, the police commissioner of New Orleans, adoptedher from St. Marok’s when a mobster tried to kill him and insteadmortally wounded his wife.”

I drew in a deep breath. 

“On herdeathbed, his wife made him promise to adopt a girl so as not to become a monsterout of grief, not knowing he already was one.”

Earning a glare from Evans forhis friend’s ignoring my unease, Taylor frowned, “Where to from here, Major?”

I made a face as Sentientmurmured the answer to me.

“Oradour-sur-Glane, the MartyredVillage.”

Cpl. Sam Wilson snorted, “Oh,that tourist attraction.”