There he was, glued to the thing that they called a Smartphone, right at eight in the morning.  Someone should re-christen it as dumb-phone.

“So much for the effort I took to remove the other one. God...wasn’t he on vacation!?! And here I am spending days confined on this boring cloud as a punishment!” said Isabella, thinking aloud.

“There you go again. When will you grow up Isabella?”

Isabella squirmed, hearing the angry voice of the Matron Angel. She quickly closed the peephole she had created in the cloud.

“How many times have I told you not to spy on earthlings unless you are specifically instructed to?” cried the angry Matron Angel.

Isabella stood with drooped wings, like a child caught red handed, without uttering a single word. She stood through an hour of lecture from the Matron Angel on the things-to-do and things-not-to-do- for -angels. So naturally, she was relieved when a Messenger Angel appeared suddenly on their cloud.

“Archangel Uriel wants to see you. She is waiting for you in her chamber.” Declared the messenger before disappearing again in a flash.

Archangel Uriel provided warning, healing, and love during natural disasters or trauma in the lives of human beings. A message from Uriel to a Student Angel like Isabella was always an honor. The task, sadly, was gruesome most of the time.

Isabella looked at the Matron Angel for permission and when she nodded, started to walk towards Archangel Uriel’s chamber.

“Fly! What do you have wings for? Watching human beings have made you a good- for- nothing –angel,” chided the Matron Angel and Isabella took-off at break-neck speed to avoid further angry words.

“There goes the thief,” shouted the angel children playing on the nearby cloud. Isabella made the most appalling faces possible at them and increased the speed of her flying.

While on her last mission, she had stolen the mobile phone of her subject, Mr. Tom Grande, the handsome superstar of Hollywood. The investigation panel had dismissed her explanation that she had done it for the benefit of the client.  After all, she had messed up with rule no.501 of the angel manifesto.

The reason she gave her friends was that the thing, which had millions of slaves all over the earth, intrigued her.

The real reason was that she had fallen in love with this particular owner-cum-slave and genuinely wanted to help him out of the mess that dumb thing had created. She was ready to face punishment, if it meant that he would be free of the menace. She was late to realize that those horrible things were readily available in markets and her sacrifice had simply gone down the drain.

 “Isabella, I am sending you to earth on a mission, immediately. Go down to the creek there and wait. Something is about to happen that requires the presence of angels. This time I am giving you no specific instructions. Just take care that you stick to the rules,” said Archangel Uriel and dismissed Isabella by turning to speak to the next Angel whom she had summoned.

Isabella flew to the place where the Archangel had directed her. Seating herself comfortably on the huge signpost, over the almost deserted road, she viewed the place with a smile on her face.

The ocean creek had the harbour on the side opposite to where she sat. It was a Xanadu, a great place of idyllic beauty. With the calm waves lashing lovingly onto the bank, the passersby could take in the beauty of the creek and the magnificent line of skyscrapers on the other side of the creek. A side- road led directly to where the boats harboured to enable the offloading of small leisure boats from trucks.

“Was a flash-flood about to occur or something on the scale of a Tsunami or a Tornado?”Isabella thought aloud, looking out patiently for signs of trouble. There was not even a single boat or human being anywhere near as it was just a few minutes past noon and it was scorching hot everywhere.

Minutes later, a car slowed down and stopped, near to where she sat, invisible to all creatures on earth.

“You never have time for me or kids. You are married to your job and that wretched phone of yours. You read scripts on it or you talk to your producers and directors all the time,” shouted the woman in the car as the driver opened the door to get off the car obviously to attend the call in peace.

“We will talk Teresa, just a minute. Let me attend this call. I’ll be right back,” said the man and walked away from the car to avoid the hollering that was continuing from inside the car. Isabella gasped and her heart skipped a few beats as she finally recognized the driver. Tom Grande.

“Can’t he listen to her? Oh God…isn’t it time you taught him a lesson or two? I guess, it is time to snatch that idiotic phone again,” said Isabella looking heaven wards and then hurried towards Tom when the sound of screeching tires and a splash diverted her attention away from him.

His angry wife had taken control of the car and had driven straight into the creek. The car was now slowly sinking into the sea.

“NO...,”With a tortured cry Tom raced towards the creek ready to jump into the deep watercourse.

Isabella flew towards the sinking car with the intention of helping, only to be deterred by the presence of three Death Angels, who rudely gestured her to back off. That meant that the car was to become the watery grave for the mother and the two children. How tragic!

That also meant that she was to help Tom, who by now had jumped into the deep creek to endeavor a heroic rescue of his wife and kids. It would have helped if he had called 911 instead.

She dove in and watched Tom try unsuccessfully to open the locked car doors. The sight was pathetic with his wife now trying hard to escape the water, which was entering and suffocating both the kids and her. Isabella sighed in despair as the Death Angels forbid her to help him rescue them.

After several failed attempts, Tom swam frantically ashore to call the rescue squad. He retrieved the phone and noticed that it was dead with the force with which he had thrown it away. It had become a useless chunk of metal.

A passing car slowed down at his request and the driver immediately called 911 before jumping in together with Tom into the creek.

The rescue team arrived ten minutes later and retrieved the lifeless bodies of the three victims. The detectives questioned Tom, whose incoherent answers only confused them further. Isabella placed her hands on his shoulders to calm him down enough to narrate the incident.

“It is my fault. I should have listened. My poor children…what sort of father am I?” wailed Tom sinking onto the floor and fell unconscious with the palpable anguish and fatigue he had undergone.

That night was terrible for Tom and Isabella tried to ease his trauma by making him fall into a deep slumber, all the while thinking how she could help Tom further.

His team of employees, including his manager had flown in and they were adept in managing his affairs. However, what of his heart? His heart refused to heal. Every hour he woke up crying about his loss. Isabella had to whisper all the calming spells repeatedly to pacify him.

Throughout the funeral and the entire week, Tom was inconsolable. Nights brought in nightmares and poor Isabella was soon at the end of her wits, watching Tom suffer. She could not watch him pine away in front of her. If only she could take away the bad memories.

She could, couldn’t she?

She had learnt that. Nevertheless, performing the charm without permission was forbidden. Archangel Uriel had specifically instructed her to stick to the rules.

A week of watching Tom suffer awakened the asinine rebel in her and she decided to go with her intuition.

Didn’t God, their father, instruct angels through intuition?

 With Tom’s head in her lap, she performed the special charm and very soon, every memory of his wife and kids was wiped out from his brain.

A new day dawned and Isabella was not surprised when Archangel Uriel appeared before her. When an Angel failed in her mission, the Archangel in-charge herself came as far as the legends went.

Isabella waited anxiously, to hear her punishment.

“Memories are what teach the Human Beings the lessons of life. By erasing his memories, you have made a terrible mistake. The regrets and mistakes, which make up his memory was going to make him a better person. You just wronged him in God’s eyes. Your mission ends now,” said Archangel Uriel and disappeared.

Looking towards Tom who appeared to be waking up, Isabella knew it was time to leave. Her mission had ended, truly.

She knew that Angels felt no emotions or pain. What was the heaviness that she was feeling deep inside her being then?

The eyes that were slowly opening did not seem sad. When he went up to the window to watch the garden outside which was bright with the golden rays of rising sun, Isabella found new hopes and happiness shining in his bright blue eyes.

Having witnessed his sadness, she wanted to be near him in his happiness.

The angry Matron Angel appeared by her side then and Isabella accompanied her without a backward glance.

The trial ran for an entire heavenly day, which amounted to six months of earth time. The verdict: She was found Guilty on the charges of violation of Angel Codes and regulations no. 13.

She was to lose her wings. Since she had made the error of committing a sin, she had to atone by losing her status of immortality. She would become an earthling and her wings would burn to ashes the moment she touched earth. The panel allowed her to decide the place where she wanted to live on earth.

Her face lit up with a sly smile on hearing the verdict. This was no punishment. It was a blessing. Moreover, she knew just the place where she wanted to live.

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Six months before something had happened and it had erased the memories of his dead wife and kids. The only thing that told him that he had been married and had been a father was the myriad photos of them that adorned his palatial home. It did not haunt him. It had seemed like looking into the photos of a stranger and he had them removed. The doctors attributed it to selective amnesia, which sometimes occurred in patients after a traumatic incident. He threw himself into work completely and very soon, he was at the zenith of his career.

It was a hard-earned vacation and he had set out on a solitary walk in the serene valley of flowers. The shrieks of a girl coming from the nearby woods made him run in search of its origin. When he reached the spot, he found a wailing girl in the midst of flames. The flames had created most damage on her back and her clothes were almost non-existent.

Tom used the branches from the nearby tree to kill the flames and by the time he was successful, the girl had fainted.

Hours later, Isabella woke on a warm bed dressed in a dressing gown that seemed a few sizes bigger for her.

“So how are you now, my sleeping beauty? And pray, what is your name?” asked Tom and Isabella found that her cheeks had suddenly grown warm. What caused it?

“Bella...Isabella,” murmured Isabella shyly.

“Wow..it suits you and hell …you look like an angel . Just tell me where you come from…Heaven?” asked Tom mischievously and Isabella found that her cheek was growing warm yet another time.

  Isabella knew this was the start and that she had a long way to go. It was time to create some new memories for Tom. She had to invent some story to convince Tom, to be near him. With the kind of snooping she had done on him, she knew exactly what kind of stories he would believe.

Isabella smiled her most angelic smile and Tom found himself falling dangerously for the beautiful stranger on his bed.

It was time to grow new wings for Isabella. This time, Wings of Love...