Belated Advent Blog Day 10: Angels

 

Carrying on the theme of Irish and other-worldly, touched upon in the Day 9 post, I have for you the following abbreviated version of something which happened a few years ago.

I offer it in this incomplete sketch form on the basis that I may still be able to expand and craft it into a CNF for submission somewhere at some time in the future. 

I also have a longer term ambition to complete a psychological thriller novel which features an Angel-obsessed main character, so once again it’s best not to give too much away.

In any case I don’t expect many of you believe in Angels, and if you tend to think of them as always taking the traditional form of ethereal winged creatures, that may be understandable. In any case, it cannot be denied that Angels in that form have a place in an Advent Blog, however belated that may now be.

This particular tale of encounter, and I do have others, took place on a Mediterranean cruise holiday during which my late wife and I visited a particularly busy, traffic-dominated Italian city. Getting about with my wheelchair-bound spouse wasn’t much of a problem at first but that situation changed when we tried to make our way back to ship on time by taking a shorter return route.

This involved negotiating the busiest road with a footpath so narrow it could just accommodate the width of the wheelchair. At one point halfway along its length the footpath had planted in it a street light, an obstruction which made it impassible for the wheelchair.

The motorcycles, scooters and cars zoomed past at such high speed we judged it wouldn’t be safe to take the wheelchair onto the road to get past. We decided that we would have to retrace our steps, which would take much longer and risked the possibility of not getting back on time to board the ship but it was the safer option…Then the Angels appeared. 

I won’t say too much more about them here, except they took the form of an Irish couple, husband and wife. We had not seen them before, and they said they hadn’t previously noticed us, but they were making their way back to the same ship as we were.

The husband told me to ready myself to push the wheelchair onto the road, around the lamppost and back onto the footpath as quickly as possible.

He then walked out onto the road, facing into the oncoming speeding traffic, and waved them away from the inside lane allowing me to complete the necessary manoeuvre.

No one was injured thankfully, though this has to be said; if Italian swear words could kill we’d all be dead.

Now I don’t expect this on its own will convince many readers of the existence of Angels, and the only additional information I can give is that this brief encounter has a sequel which took place some days later. That will only be disclosed in a fuller version which hopefully will be accepted for publication elsewhere and so reach a larger audience. 

Apologies if that sounds like a tease, but for the moment my lips must be sealed.

If you have experienced any difficult situations which became resolved by the sudden inexplicable arrival of a stranger, please feel free to tell me your story in the comments.