SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 6: The Mission
By Patrick Cabello Hansel
Angel dreamt before he awoke. He could hear voices: his mother, Luz Maria, a childhood friend from back in Axochiapan, whose name he couldn”'t remember. The boy was kicking a semi-deflated soccer ball through a lot bereft of grass or flowers and calling out to Angel: “Dále, dále, Cameroon”, the name of his neighborhood team. Angel ran to the ball, as fast as his leaden legs would take him, but he couldn”'t get there. He woke up kicking, his eyes looking east and west for a ball he could not see.
It was early evening. There was a young woman from the reservation sitting by his bed, wrapped in a Mexican blanket. She seemed to be moving something in her hands. At first, Angel thought it was a rosary, the way her fingers moved. But as his eyes adjusted to the candlelight and back to consciousness after three days out, he saw she was moving a few small, smooth stones. He did not know the girl, he could not have known that she had bathed him, changed him, rubbed salve in his temples. And yet he knew enough to call her correctly:
“Sister”, he said, “where am I?”… Read the rest “SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 6: The Mission”
SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 5: Darkness
By Patrick Cabello Hansel
Dear reader,
It is hard to describe evil. Sometimes it carries a bat, sometimes it wears a badge. Sometimes it is a boss, sometimes a prayer gone horribly, horribly wrong. The evil that befell Angel was all of them, none of them. It was all of us, the worst of us, and we were its victims and its helpers.
For three days, unconsciousness became Angel. If he dreamed, if he was visited by memories or spirits, he will not be able to tell us. He dwelled in the land of Morpheus, in the land before darkness was separated from light. Hovering over the waters, hanging between life and death.
Some say that angels and demons converse secretly, right under God”'s nose, in the chasm between heaven and hell, in the moments before dusk becomes night and dawn becomes day.
They are after all, family. Separated not by essence, but by actions. They were all created as the light of God, and if some confirm that light by seeking the darkness, should we be surprised?
Jaime knew better than to take Angel to the hospital, and Ahmed sensed it quickly. Whatever or whoever could beat him that badly, with that kind of impunity, would seek him out to finish the job.… Read the rest “SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 5: Darkness”
SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 4: Down
By Patrick Cabello Hansel
Angel could have turned west toward the shelter; could have, probably should have. But he was too intoxicated by the smell of bread, by the sure knowledge that he now knew her name. Luz Maria: the light, and the mother of Christ. It was enough for him to just stand there in the wind and breathe in the world. If you asked him later””if he could remember anything””he would have told you that at that moment his life was complete. He had heard the owl and heard the voice. He had smelled the bread. But now, he had seen her, talked to her, he could almost feel her breath on his skin.
He stood there for a few minutes, his eyes toward the gray sky, his skin almost singing. He tasted the first piece of bread right in front of the store on Lake Street. Bread, even day-old, tastes better when given by the hand that is love. Coffee sweetened by a word, the hint of a smile, christens the heart. Angel would remember the taste of that food for a long time””not in his mind, but in his body.
But maybe it was his body that pointed him in the wrong direction.… Read the rest “SEARCHING ”“ a Serial Novelle CHAPTER 4: Down”
