Sisterly Chat

Angelica folded her wings and sat before the Pool of Communication.  She brushed her black hair out of her eyes and asked "Asmodea are you there?"

The water shimmered and the image of her twin sister Asmodea grinned at her from just below the surface.  Asmodea brushed her own hair away from her shining red horns and waved.

"Hi Sis," Angelica said.  "How is it going on your side of the veil?"

"Beastly hot," Asmodea replied, fanning her legs with the skirt of her red velvet dress.  "How are things up there?"

"The weather is perfect and boring as always," Angelica sighed.  She smoothed her white gown and grimaced as she touched her ankle.

"What's wrong?"

"Last night I sprained my ankle dancing on the head of a pin.  Don't you dare laugh!  It hurts like hel--well, you know."

Asmodea threw back her head and laughed.  "How many of you were up there this time?"

"A hundred and fifty.  A new record."

Her sister laughed again and shook her head.  "I'd rather dance on a bed of burning coals.  It's less dangerous."

"How's your job going?" Angelica asked.

Asmodea sighed.  "I'm really getting tired of roasting sinners.  I'm so sick of hearing them scream, 'Why me? I don't deserve this!'"

"You think that's bad?  I'd rather hear sinners scream than listen to saints sing hymns all day.  Most of them don't sing any better now than they did in life.  And the harps--how I hate harps!  What I wouldn't give to hear an electric guitar or even a banjo."

"Sorry," Asmodea laughed.  "All the best musicians are down here."

"I'm afraid the Boss might send me out in the field again,"  Angelica said.  "Trying to keep humans out of trouble is such a waste of time.  The last one I was assigned to insisted on driving without a seat belt while talking on his cell phone.  When he wrapped his car around a tree, guess who got blamed."

Asmodea nodded sympathetically. "Tempting them to do evil is a lost cause too," she said.  "The good ones won't listen and the bad ones don't need me to convince them.  My Master likes being blamed for all their problems, but he can't take credit for most of them."

Angelica leaned closer to the water and whispered, "Rumor has it that my Boss is getting fed up with the human race. Even he has a breaking point. I heard that he's talking about destroying them all and starting over again."

Asmodea snorted.  "Tell him not to bother.  They're doing a good job of that all by themselves.  I wonder which species will take over if the humans are gone.  Cockroaches maybe?  Nah, they would never be the same if their main source of garbage was gone."

"Maybe none of them would take over," Angelica said. "What if all the species learned to work together and none of them tried to dominate the earth?  The world might actually be peaceful for a change."

"I can't see that ever happening, but it sure would be nice.  Your Boss wouldn't need you to protect them and my Master would finally have to give up on causing trouble.  We could both take early retirement!"

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