Fallen

Chapter Ten: Billy To The Rescue

"You're Miss Flen?"

"Yes."

"The one who helped me?"

"Yes."

"Are you evil?"

Angella froze. Thought. She thought about the question. And the answer. Then she looked Billy directly in the eye and said "I was hoping you could tell me."

"I don't think you're evil." Angella almost smiled. "At least I didn't."

"Billy, a long time ago, I did a bad thing, and now I think I've become a bad person, but I want to be good again. Billy... I don't know how."

"Yes you do." Angella looked at the small boy sitting before her. She wondered what he was thinking. What he was seeing. She wondered why he wasn't frightened of her. Had he seen a different personality and decided they couldn't possibly be the same person, or did he understand what Satan had told Angella about her subconscience? She wanted to know what was going through this child's mind, and why he believed the she knew how to be good. "You do know how to be good." Billy told her again. "Just remember."

"Remember what, Billy?"

"Remember me. And all the other children you helped. And God. And hope. Remember hope."

In that moment, Angella remembered something she'd said to Billy before: "Hope is the root of all goodness."

"And God." Billy said again. "Because you told me... God forgives your badness. So if you remember hope and God, then you will remember all the good you did, then you will remember how to be good. So you do know, you just forgot a little bit, but you still know it." Billy waffled on, but it was good waffle. Sweet waffle. Helpful waffle. Angella felt happier; nicer; calmer than she had before, and she liked that feeling. It was a good feeling.

"Billy..." she said "you are my new hero."

Billy smiled up at her, and seeing his buck-tooth smile made her feel good. "You have always been mine." He told her. "We can help each other." Billy reached into his pocket, and pulled out a piece of folded paper. "It's for you." He said, holding it out towards Angella. "Look at it." Angella unfolded the paper to reveal a drawing. Not just one drawing, though. It was a story board. There were four sections.

The first had a child. He was sitting on the floor, crying. There was a cut on his knee, and the caption was "when a child falls and scrapes their knee"

The second section had the same child, now standing up happily, with a plaster on his knee. Beside him was a woman dressed in a long white robe. She had wings, and the caption was "an angel is right there beside them"

The third section was very different. A winged woman in a short black dress was lying on the floor. The caption to this section was "when an angel falls and loses their dignity"

The final section was plain. There was nothing drawn there. The caption was "what is there but empty air?"

Angella looked up from the paper. "It's your story." Billy told her. "Look on the back." Angella turned over the page, and sure enough, there was the end of the story.

"Angella Flen was an angel who helped children who were sad. Even when they only scraped their knee, she was always there. One day, she fell from the sky and landed on 5th Broad Street. She stayed with the Carpenters for a while, but she had to leave. She had no-one. When she fell and lost her dignity, there was nothing there for empty air. This was the story for every fallen angel. But hers would be different. She did have one friend in the world and within the friend, she had hope. And her story, would end with dignity."

Angella read the writing with a tear in her eye. She saw the picture Billy had drawn below the writing. It was a boy and his angel. They were holding hands. She was dressed in a long black dress and had black wings. The boy was dressed in blue jeans and a white shirt. On her chest, the angel had a silver pin. It was a feather, and across it, there was gold writing that said "dignity" and at that minute, Angella knew how her story would end.