Part 2 (1/2)
”I was Lucifer is a cherub”
With soed children in diapers and practically heard his answering scowl ”It isn't what you're thinking,” he said, hest of our order, the most powerful of us all Know that on Lucifer's creation, El called hi hih cheekbones The angular lines of a short moustache exactly delineated the curve of his upper lip, which was perfectly matched to the lower one A hint of stubble sreat, sood reason Lucifer was his masterwork He was powerful, anointed by God, and so very beautiful”
I thought I heard hih
”Then what about seraphie ofto literary lore, CHERUBIM and SERAPHIM had once been the license plates on Anne Rice's two lihters, but the cherubiels You've heard of Gabriel and Michael-”
There was a slight, just-perceptible intonation to his words when he spoke these names, as well as the name of Lucifer, and even his own naue, as though the pure naht be unpronounceable in ours Hearing it now, I remembered it in the speech of the woman in the bookstore and of the o into detail about all the various kinds of cherubim and seraphim It may be best that I not describe thes, you think us a spiritual freak show”
Beyond his profile, a stained-glass saint stared out upon us both with hollow, fractured eyes ”And you? What about you?”
”Ah, hter colored on the inside, the creases in them dark The calluses on his palms struck e of his cuff ”I was a ht, e, I mean?” The question tasted surreal on my lips
Lucian reached up to rub the back of his neck I had seen Sheila do the saraines ”I should tell that story fro”
”Because of the crosses?”
”No, because the praying of those people is giving me a headache”
”The crosses don't bother you?”
”They should bother you a great deal ht of that
”Stay if you like, but I'th of the pew to the side aisle where he'd entered Teeks ago I would have gladly let hio I would have ca in But now I needed to knohat this, any of this, had to do with led at me these last teeks, was helped not at all by his cryptic answers
We stepped out, blinking, into the cold afternoon light Now I could see the wiry gray hairs above his ears, the dark spots dotting his cheeks, betraying his age He had a presence about hi He was casually dressed, his pants not dissimilar to mine that day in the bookstore, albeit softer around the knees To any other eye he ht have been a local academic out for a casual weekend An accountant on his day off A tourist
”So you popped up from hell to meet me in church” I shoved my hands into my pockets
”I've never been there”
”To church?”
”To hell”
I squinted at hi, Clay Your conventional wisdo: wisdom None of us have been to hell”
”So it doesn't really exist”
”Not now, no”
”So you mean you haven't been to hell yet yet”
He flashed lance that my heart tripped in my chest I started down the street, stiffly,risen toward my ears in the chill A moinpredates yours by a brief infinity”
”You're notof the world is only the beginning of tiin at the point where you enter history Butbefore”
”In heaven, I suppose”
”No, Eden”
”What, the garden of Eden?”
”Yes That garden, the green one, was in Eden And Eden is here This” He spread his hands out toward the expanse of sidewalk in front of us ”Eden preexisted that garden and the first of your kind It was Lucifer's-and ht the world was full of nothingness before your creation?” He gave a short laugh ”Rather ethnocentric of you, isn't it? Do you believe the earth is flat, too? Listen to me: Elohim created Eden He also created us And that includes Lucifer-which is important because no creation is equal to the creator What that means for you is that, contrary to popular ht Lucifer was God's nemesis”
He stopped ”Clay, for this to work you have to let go of that This is not your so-called classic huood and evil Hades, but you hu utterly simplistic and banal-not to ain, and for severalbut the steady sound of our heels on the sidewalk and the occasional brittle leaf that skittered across it, joined from time to ti pedestrians and the cars on Massachusetts Avenue In the distance a church bell chith he said, ”Elohim was hty God and Creator'-though the name implies so much more I say this for you because the fearful names we have known since those first days cannot be forain of the barely perceptible lilt of his words that I had noticed earlier
”El -all government, total power He lived there like a favorite first son, the hawk to our sparrows, the jewel to our quartz”
”So why did he make you? Especially if he knew you would turn outlike this”
”I could ask you the sa” But he didn't ”Why El made us, I've never known One could surmise that El was lonely, but the fact is that he didn't really need us You, created in his iht into that question than I do We're not so privileged as you in that way As for reat scheme was clear to me from the first: to fall down, to worshi+p, to praise, to wait upon the word of El”
”That sounds really boring”
”Really? I one's created purpose”