Falling for Heaven (Four Winds) (5 page)

             
“Taco!”  Heather walked over to the dog, but stopped short when she realized who was petting him.  “Oh!  Hi there.”  Uri watched her guard go up at the recognition of him.

             
“Hello,
Heaven
.”  He said to her, emphasizing the name, hoping she would give him her real name, even though he already knew it.  He could smell her here, without all the other competing odors, and his nostrils flared slightly as he inhaled deeply of her aroma.  Surprisingly, the odors of the night before didn't cling to her like they did to him.  She smelled fresh and astonishingly pure, considering her profession.  Uri had learned to trust his senses and tried to tell himself to not judge her.

             
“You live around here?”  Her body was tense.  She hadn’t come any closer, but  he had felt her coming, and he could feel her still.  His body buzzed with an intense awareness.  The awareness was so powerful, his body felt as if it were almost aflame with the heat of her being near.

             
“Yes.”  He answered vaguely.  “Do you?”

             
“Yes.”  She answered equally as noncommittally.

             
They stood there, awkwardly together, for a minute or two, when finally Heather said, “You aren’t going to preach to me any more, are you?  Because if you are, I’m not going to invite you to walk with us.”

             
He laughed, “No more lectures.  I promise.  In fact, I want to apologize for last night.  I didn't mean to anger you."  He was hopeful, another strange emotion.  He wondered what was going on with him.  He suddenly felt so human around this woman, and he knew from experience that everything happened for a reason.  He just hated being left in the dark.

             
“Okay.  Apology accepted.  Come on.  This is the only exercise Taco gets, and he’s starting to put on a spare doughnut.”  She started walking, and Uri walked next to her, inhaling her scent again.  She smelled like clouds after a spring rain.

             
Looking around him, Uri said, “This park is beautiful.  It’s the only really pretty thing I’ve found about this city.”

             
“There’s other pretty stuff here, but it’s all man made.  Sculpture gardens, stuff like that.  I like it here, because it seems more natural, even though it’s all man-made, too.”

             
“I agree.  This is the closest to nature you’re going to get here, I’d imagine.”

             
“Well, there’s the bayou, but most of it is filled with garbage.  Not very pretty.  The closest to nature you’re liable to get is Clear Lake, and that’s almost an hour away.”

             
“I’ll have to check that out.”  Uri mused.  He would check it out.  This place was depressing, with all of the highways and tall buildings. 

             
“So, Uri. Where are you from?”

             
He shrugged, unwilling to answer her question yet.  “I’ve lived all over.  Sort of a rambling man.  How about you?”

             
“I’ve lived here my whole life."  As if she didn't want to talk about herself, she turned the topic back to him.  "What’s your favorite place that you’ve lived?”

             
He thought for a while, walking next to her.  “Have you read much Emerson?”

             
“As in Ralph Waldo?”  She teased him.

             
“Yes.  I lived for a brief time in Concord.  Walden Pond is beautiful.  It was probably my favorite.”

             
She looked at him, surprise registering in her exquisite green eyes, that looked like pools of molten jade, Uri decided.  “You lived there?”

             
He looked at her squarely, hoping to draw out her trust.  It would make this so much easier  “Yes.  It was lovely.  Simple.  Close to God.”

             
“So, you buy into the whole transcendental theory?  I didn’t get that impression last night.”

             
“I don’t buy into the
whole
theory of transcendentalism, but Emerson had the right idea.  I know that the closer to nature you are, the closer to God you are.”

             
Heather harrumphed at him.

             
“What?” he asked, innocently.

             
She stopped walking and turned to face him, her clear green eyes suddenly serious.  “Look, Uri.  You seem like a really nice guy.  But I don’t date clients.  So, I’m going to go home.”

             
For some reason, Uri felt disappointed.  He could tell that she was leery of him, nervous around him, but he had thought that he was breaking through the veneer. 

             
“I don’t want to date you.  I just wanted to talk to you.”  He said, instead of all that he was supposed to say.  Not that he knew what he was supposed to say.

             
“Well, I’m sorry.  We can’t do that either.  It’s a club policy that we don’t have outside contact with clients, and it’s a good policy.”  She said it with finality.

             
“Yes, it is, I suppose.”  At least he knew now that she probably wouldn’t be seeing
him
outside of the club either.

             
Inside his head, he was screaming, “
But I’m Uriel!  I’m supposed to lead you to your destiny!”
 

             
Instead, he watched her walk away, a strange sadness gripping his heart.

Chapter 6

             
Uri asked to meet with the Boss today, so here he was at downtown diner of the Boss’s choosing.  He was sitting in a back booth, waiting, as the waitress came up to bring him a menu.

             
“You waiting on someone, Hon?”  She asked around a mouthful of gum.

             
“Yes.  Thank you.”

             
As soon as she left, the Boss appeared in the booth across from Uri, wearing a canary yellow zoot suit with a skinny red tie, startling Uri, who stifled a smirk at His appearance.  The Boss didn’t go out in human form very often, but when He did, He liked to think He was making an impression. Although in this part of town, people tended to embrace individuality, so He didn't stand out too much.  Uri preferred His natural state.

             
“How are you Uriel?”

             
“I’m blessed, as usual.  And you?”

             
“Couldn’t be better.  How’s your assignment coming?”

             
“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”  Uri fidgeted with the napkin dispenser sitting on the table.  “Women these days don’t trust strange men.  There’s no faith.  I don’t know how to get her to talk to me, and I'm not sure what to say to her.”

             
“This isn’t your first rodeo, Uriel.”  Colloquialisms made The Boss happy, and Uri caught himself smiling indulgently.

             
“I know, but for some reason, this one’s really hard.  I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do with her.  She’s a stripper, for goodness’ sake!  What is her destiny?  She’s a superb classical dancer, but she doesn’t think she can do that, and frankly, I think I’m barking up the wrong tree there, anyway.”

             
The Boss studied him, silently.  The waitress came to take their order, and Uri ordered a short stack of blueberry pancakes, while the Boss declined anything to eat. 

             
After the waitress left, He looked at Uri.  "She's different from the others, you'll agree?" 

             
Uri nodded, as he ignored the flash of heat at the memory of Heather dancing. He felt something around her that was so totally foreign to him.  Uri wasn't supposed to feel, he just followed orders.

             
The Boss's eyes roamed the diner before resting on Uri.  "You've sacrificed for me, Uriel."

             
"No, I haven't.  It's the nature of the job.  I've only done what you've created me to do, Father."

             
"Yet, you haven't really lived your life, you've only done my will.  That takes sacrifice."  Uri was silent, studying Him, looking for some sort of clue to the answers he was seeking.  “You’ve been working for me a long time.”

             
Swallowing hard, Uri nodded again, a slight trepidation tingeing his limbs.

             
“I appreciate the job you have done for all of us, but aren’t you tired?”

             
Shocked at the question, Uri replied defensively, “Aren’t you?”

             
The Boss laughed, a deep belly-laugh filled with mirth.

             
“Son, I will never get tired of this.  But I sense a weariness in you boys, and I realize that you’re not boys anymore.”  He stopped Himself from continuing, and Uri knew better than to question Him.  There was something else that was bothering him, though.

             
"The Deceiver.  He's here.  What does he want with her?"

             
The Boss looked at Uri long and hard, a sternness in His gaze.  "He knows of my plan for you, and he's trying his usual tricks.  Don't worry about him.  She's an intelligent woman.  One of the many reasons I chose her."  Leaning forward, the Boss grasped his hand.  “Just get to know her, you'll see that she's made sacrifices as well.  Like you, she doesn't see them as sacrifices, she wouldn't have done anything differently, given options.  You’ll find the destiny.  I promise.”  His index finger tipped His eyebrow, and He disappeared.

             
Uri sighed heavily, defeated, and waited for his pancakes.

Chapter 7

             
“How did you get in here?”

             
“I used my passcode, Mother.”  Heather sighed.  They had this conversation nearly every time she visited.

             
“Why did they give it to you?”  Her mother was an older replica of Heather and Tiffany, tall, with dark hair that showed streaks of gray at the temples.  Currently, she was sitting in a vinyl chair in her room at the home.

             
“Because I’m family.  They give the security code to family members to come and visit you.”

             
“I don’t want you to visit me.”

             
“Mom…”  Heather had been expecting this reaction.  She got it most every time she came to see her mother. 

             
“You put me here.  I don’t belong here.  This place is for old people, not me.”  With her dainty fingers, she clutched the lap throw that Heather had given her for Mother’s Day last year. 

             
Heather looked at her own hands, marveling at the similarities between her mother and herself, wondering as always, if her fate would be the same.

             
“Mom, I couldn’t take care of you anymore.  Not the way you needed to be taken care of.  Remember?”  Heather was pleading, hoping that they wouldn’t have to rehash this again.

             
Her mother’s eyes narrowed at her, and she spoke quietly, with deliberation.  “What I remember, is those
people
bringing me here.  Because you called them to come and get me.  How could you?”  Her hands were twisting the throw in her lap, kneading the fabric between her fingers.

             
“Because you set our house on fire, Mama!”  Heather explained in exasperation.

             
“I just wanted some fried cauliflower,” her mother said sheepishly.

             
“I know, Mama. And you could have made some, except you were home alone, and you were naked and you left the gas on and started a grease fire that spread through the house.”  She was trying to be patient, but her mother didn’t remember the fire, or that she was the cause of it.  She only remembered that Heather never let her do what she wanted.  And that she put her in a home.

             
Trying to change the subject, Heather told her usual lie, “I saw Tiffany the other day.  She’s doing really well.”

             
Her mother’s eyes brightened.  “Oh that’s lovely.  Is she still infatuated with that boy?  Daniel?”

             
“No, Mother.  Daniel was ages ago.  She’s single now and loving it.  She’s got a job in the accounting department of one of those oil companies downtown.”  Heather didn’t mind lying to her mom.  The truth about Tiffany would upset her too much, and she wouldn’t remember anything Heather told her, anyway.  This way, Heather hoped her Mother would at least have a good feeling about her visit when she left.