Blue Angel

Heaven sat on the living room floor with the old droid’s chest cracked opened. She had just found the malfunctioning circuit that had caused the stupid thing to started jerking and twisting in a bizarre mechanical seizure.

It had been funny at the time, until Grandma Hada came in. She saw Heaven and her husband dragging the crashed robot to the corner, and began her usual tirade. “What’s she done now?” Her grandfather, torn between his love for both of them, tried to calm Hada the best he could.

Heaven sighed. She should be used to it by now. Her grandmother hated her since she was born and always would. At least she was “she” now. Usually it was “freak of nature”, “blue alien”, “blue freak”, and much worse. The only thing that made her visits over the years bearable was reuniting with her beloved grandfather.

She sometimes wondered if there wasn’t a mix up in the lab when they were storing the embryonic cells that would become her sweet mother. How could this cruel, hateful woman spawn such a kind, loving daughter?

Thinking of her mother brought tears to Heaven’s eyes. The horrid disease had won last week, stealing her mother from the universe forever. It was actually quite common for Earthen beings to develop cancer after living in the moon’s biodome for too long. Most Earthlings avoided this by just coming for vacation or on a year’s work visa. But not her mother.

Her mother, Abella Jenkins, arrived on the moon for “Spring Break 3008.” A week before, Halldor, fresh from his military training on his home planet, Duna, arrived for his two year duty. They meet and within minutes fell black-hole-deep in love.

They were a striking couple. Abella was fairly pale on earth, but in the moon’s glow, she was luminescent. Halldor’s skin was such a deep royal blue, that in the presence of Abella he seem to absorb the very light and life that she reflected. A baby completed their family a year later. Her mother said when she was born, her skin shown blue like the earthen skies so they named their newborn angel Heaven.

Halldor was heartbroken with Abella’s passing and decided not to go on without her. It was then that Heaven learned the unique way Dunan’s died. They would disintegrate into a tiny pile of ashes, which were then collected. When the time came for one generation to move on, the elder would ingested the ashes stored in a small metallic bottle. Clasping hands, the soul and all it’s memories would be forced out of the body and, with a burst of electrical energy, transferred to the younger generation.

Heaven tried to talk her dad out of deserting her, but the next night, as she slept, her father swallowed the ashes, grabbed her hand, and vanished into a pile. Heaven was jolted awake when his soul merged with her own. But by then, it was too late.

It wasn’t as bad as she had imagined though. As she filled the bottle back with all that was physically left of her father, she was comforted by the weight of his soul and all his memories in her. She was even getting to know and love some of her ancestors. She only wished her mother had been able to do the same thing.

The next few days were a whirlwind, Heaven flew to earth to bring back Abella’s ashes, but she would be flying home tonight. With her fathers’ soul in her, and soon surrounded by the home her mother made, Heaven was ready to leave her hostile grandmother’s house and peacefully grieve.

But first, the stupid robot. As she watched her grandfather bend over to show Hada what had caused the malfunction, she quietly left the room and went in search of her tool kit. Once out of sight, but not sound, she could hear her grandma complain, “that worthless blue alien has to go!”

Tool kit in hand, Heaven sat down on the bed, not wanting to deal with that shrew for the moment, but then she heard her grandfather screaming “Hada! Hada! Please! Heaven! Help!

Startled, she rushed to the living room and saw her grandmother lying gray and unmoving on the floor. Her grandfather looked up and begged, “Heaven! Please! She not breathing!” The anguish in eyes that pleaded with her, so full of love and fear, tore at her heart. Heaven was unable to witness her grandfather’s desperation any longer, so she turned and ran back to her room…

****

Hada Jenkins opened her eyes abruptly. She wasn’t sure where she was, why she was laying on the floor and why she felt so…full, so…heavy. Hada shook her foggy head and saw the robot her careless granddaughter had broken beside her. The last thing she remembered was reaching out to touch one of the wires.

She felt a touch on her hand, and looked over to see her husband leaning in with concern in his eyes and something else. Shock. What could have brought that on?

Now there was a rapid stream of thoughts, each more bizarre than the last, of strange places, strange people, and stranger rituals. She even saw flashes of Abella, full of life and a pale luminescent blue child laughing and singing.

A terrible scene followed next, leaving Hada shaken to her core. She saw herself, reaching into the robot’s chest, followed by a flash of light. She heard Tom yelling. He looked terrified and so devastated. A glimpse as Heaven saw the scene and fled. But just as quickly, Heaven was back, dropping to her knees and grabbing Hada’s lifeless hand. She opened a small metallic bottle, said, “I love you, grandpa” and dumped the contents down her throat.

Hada watched in horror as the beautiful blue shine began to fade from Heaven’s face. Then a jerk, like a bolt of lightening struck, and Heaven vanished into ashes.