Winged (Aetharian Narratives) (14 page)

“We must all have faith to trust what we choose to believe,” said Mom.

“When you get to be my age, all you have is the belief that there is something after this mortal life,” Ms. Riley said.

She looked over the side of the balcony. I looked at Mom. She smiled at me.

Ms. Riley turned back to us. “Come with me.”

She quickly started to walk toward the door leading back into the house. Everyone followed her. I half believed that a camera crew would jump out and yell that I had been pranked. The other half was so thirsty for knowledge that it didn’t seem to care how absurd everything sounded.

* * *

“Do you see all those tapestries?” Ms. Riley said when we reached the landing inside the house.

From the top of the stairs she could see the entire entrance hall; it was extremely beautiful even though it did show its age from many aspects.

“Yes,” I said.

“They tell the history of Aetheria,” she said. “Starting from the side of the door you came in and circling into and around the first room, then coming back out onto the entrance hall’s wall, into the next room, and so on. Each tapestry is in order and displays the oldest to the present royal families of Aetheria.

“You see, like we said before, Aetheria is the Garden of Eden that you have heard about all your life. It’s the first land that God or whatever Higher Power is ruling over us created. Unlike what you are used to hearing, Eden is not a garden at all. The Bible should be looked at as an abridgment. It tells of things that have been compressed or changed in ways so that it’s as relatable as it can be to humans. One is never to take the Bible literally in its entirety; if you do, you will find so many twists and contradictions that you would never know what to do with yourself. You’re not supposed to look at the individual colors, but the big picture in general. It only goes to show that you really don’t have to pick something apart to see it for the masterpiece that it is.

“You go to it for its comfort, lessons, and beauty. Not as a
How-To
guide to life. It’s a security blanket, reassurance that there is more waiting for you if you earn it. Looking at the Bible in this way one may come to realize, rightly, that there is something bigger behind it. Eden is Aetheria, and Aetheria is not a garden but a whole country. Most humans find it hard to connect to a world outside their own that they have never seen or that there is no record of, so the author of Genesis put it into terms that a normal person could comprehend. It is much easier to see Eden as a garden in this world than a country in another. It’s easier for a normal person to comprehend the first people God created as just a man and a woman rather than a whole civilization. With hope by this point you’re done thinking that there really was an Adam and Eve; I mean even by simple logic it is clear that is not possible at all—”

“Why?” I said. Everyone looked at me. “What’s impossible about all of humanity starting as one person starts, with a mother and father?”

Arie laughed. “See? She even thinks like one of them.”

“Hush, Arie,” Ms. Riley snapped. “It’s not her fault; it’s the society in which she was raised.”

Mom lowered her head.

“And don’t you dare think this is your fault, either, Cordelia,” Ms. Riley said forcefully.

“Emma, you do realize how very big the Created family gets throughout the Bible, don’t you?” said Mr. Amest.

“I have an idea,” I said. It was at this point that I started wishing I had paid more attention in Theology class.

“And if creation started with just one mother and father, who would their children have for families of their own?”

“Oh,” I said when what she was saying started to make sense. “No one. Or each other.”

“Yes,” said Ms. Riley. “If Adam and Eve’s children were the only people in the ‘garden,’ they would have been forced to commit incest to procreate, and if there’s one thing the Bible really frowns upon, it’s incest. God, being all good, would not have forced anyone to do something He considered a sin.”

“Right,” I said.

“Are you starting to see why I’m saying all of this?”

I nodded. I was amazed by the fact that everything was starting to make sense. I began to think that I was the crazy one for not having thought of these things sooner.

“So Adam and Eve were not the only two people the Creator made at first. They are just used to tell the beginning of the story. They are substitutions for the explanation of the origin of a whole other-worldly civilization—a civilization of which you are a part.”

“Wait,” I said. “The Creation story isn’t the origin of
humans
?”

“Not exactly,” said Ms. Riley.

“Then who are these other people?”

“Us,” she said, raising her hands to indicate everyone on the landing. “
We
are Aetherian—descendants of the Created People, inhabitants of Aetheria. We’re the reality of the Creation story. Or at least what of it is, in fact, reality. Aetheria is the first, perfect world the Creator made for His people.

“We’re not sure if the story about the Tree of Knowledge and the reason why humans were kicked out of Aetheria is completely accurate. We weren’t exactly in a viable state of evolution for recordkeeping. But we do know that a very long time ago they did something that made someone very angry. Whatever it was got them a one-way ticket out of Aetheria. What we know for sure is that it took a very large group of people to make as big a civilization as the human race. But something did happen to get them to the universe you have known all along. And that is where they earned their place in the Creation story. The bare, desolate land Adam and Eve were forced to go to is the world we are in now.”

“So, your—” I said, then stopped myself. I took a deep breath. “So,
our
universe still exists?”

“Yes, of course,” she said. “It’s from where we come, including you.”

“Think about people in your life, honey,” Mom said. “You’ll find some of them have quite a bit in common.”

I thought about her, Viper, and his parents. Then it hit me as I also thought about Arie, even though she hadn’t exactly been in my life for a very long time. I realized why she fit in with everyone else that came to mind.

“What similarities do they all have?” she said.

“The way they look,” I said. “The hair, the eyes…”

“Yes,” Ms. Riley said. “Blond hair and blue eyes are the signature characteristics of an Aetherian. They represent the first things ever created; the sky draped over our land, and the golden sun that shone its light into the world. We can still see traces of Aetheria in this world, though the genes for blond hair and blue eye are becoming exceedingly rare. They are quickly disappearing as dark eyes and hair become the dominant genes.

“The colors of the earth and the night sky are quickly taking over the race in this world. Those are the signature characteristics of this people. Blond hair and blue eyes will become rarer as time passes for these people. It may cease to exist completely one day.”

I looked at her. “You don’t have blue eyes.” I paused. “No, wait, there’s a mistake; I don’t have blue eyes or blond hair, either.”

“That’s because you’re not one of us,” Arie said.

She said it like I had proven a point she had been trying to make all day. Ms. Riley turned around and walked into the room closest to us.

“I’ve been trying to tell all of you,” Arie said. “She doesn’t belong here.”

Ms. Riley walked back onto the landing with a large, framed canvas in her hands. Everyone watched her walk back toward us.

“She is one of us,” she said.

There was a slight hesitation when she reached us. When she had made up her mind she turned the picture around to show everyone what it was.

Arie put her hands over her mouth and gasped. Tears gathered in her eyes.

“No,” she said.

I thought her head would fall off from how much she was shaking it.

In the painting Ms. Riley held was a young girl. After further examination I realized that the girl, sitting elegantly on a chair, was no other than Ms. Riley. She looked much younger, smiling at us while dressed in a beautiful gray dress on which her hands were gently placed. Her light brown eyes glittered from a slightly tilted head and long, ringlets of deep purple hair draped over her shoulders. I looked from the purple-haired girl in the painting to the white-haired woman holding it. There wasn’t much difference between the way the two held themselves.

“I don’t believe it,” Arie said, still shaking her head. “That can’t be you.”

“But it is,” Ms. Riley said.

She walked to a side table and gently placed the painting on it.

“Why have I never seen that before now?” Arie just about yelled.

“Arabella,” Ms. Riley said, “I know you are upset and confused, but please stop yelling. I’m sorry that I’ve never shown you pictures of me in my younger years. I was always very ashamed of that purple hair and hiding it simply became habit.”

She looked at me. Her eyes slid down the red hair draped over my own shoulders.

“I had to learn that I wrongly did so.”

I blushed when everyone else looked at my red hair, too. Arie glared at me before she turned and ran down the stairs.

“Now,” Ms. Riley said, “you can’t doubt that you are one of us. It’s time to see exactly what you do.”

“What I do?” I said. “What do you mean?”

“How are we going to find out for sure, Celeste?” Mom said.

I looked at her. “Find out what?”

“I think you already have an idea,” Ms. Riley said.

She reached into the pocket of my jacket and pulled out the green tissue paper I had placed in it earlier. I had forgotten it was in there.

Everyone stared at it wide-eyed and silent.

“Emmeline,” Mom was finally able to say. “How long have you had that?”

“Not very long,” I said with a shrug. “I found it this morning.”

Ms. Riley smiled. “Emma, what is the most important thing you have learned today?”

I felt an overwhelming urge to stop looking at them and turned to the railing of the landing. I looked down at the tapestries.

“I don’t think I can pick from everything you have told me,” I said. “I’m really still absorbing it all.”

“You are putting a lot of faith in us as we tell you these things,” she said.

I nodded my head. I knew I was putting so much trust into everyone in the room, the majority of whom I didn’t know very well.

“And I thank you for that,” she said, walking behind me. She placed her hands on my shoulders. “Faith is key.”

Her hands slid from my shoulders to my back and she pushed me. I felt a rushing feeling in my stomach and I tipped over the railing of the landing. I closed my eyes and screamed as the ground of the entrance hall sped toward me.

VII

An endowment

My spine curls when my shoulders are next to hit the hard surface. There is a brief moment of egotistical satisfaction when I feel the ground give in and crumble under me. If I feel pain it is eluding me for the moment. But there is no escaping the disappointment I feel with my wings and their failure in my attempt to save a life. At that moment I realize that it is a life that didn’t need saving in the first place. Common sense has a funny habit of hitting at the most inopportune of times.

* * *

There was a sudden whirling around me and what felt like a shock wave pulsed through my body. I opened my eyes and saw a cyclone spin toward me. I felt something push its way into the skin of the lumps on my back. My body was yanked back up a few feet from the floor I was inches away from smashing into. Out of the corners of my eyes I glimpsed green paper swooping up each side of me and disappearing over my head while I was being yanked up. Just as I started to register what the green things could be, the straining stopped and I fell the remaining three feet to the ground.

My fingertips gripped the floor that I had never been so appreciative of before. Once my head had stopped spinning I got up from my knees but kept my eyes fixed on the ground. There was a layer of some sort of powder all over the floor.

“What just happened?” I said when everyone had caught up to me.

Mom ran to me. I was surprised that she was neither angry nor anxious. She was happy.

“Oh, Emma,” she said. “They were beautiful.”

I stared at her. She smiled at me and brushed the same stuff that was on the floor from off my shoulders.

“What just happened?” I said again with a little more force.

Ms. Riley ran her hand down the stair banister.

“Dragonfly wings aren’t very thick or complex normally, but they certainly get the job done.”

I looked around hoping someone was about to answer my question. Somehow the room did look different. I looked back at Ms. Riley.

“You just pushed me off the second floor balcony.”

She smirked at me. I looked around at everyone else again.

“Will
someone
please explain to me what just happened?” I said a third time.

“These,” she said, holding up my green tissue paper.

Mom gave me a big hug. “I was hoping that things wouldn’t come to this. But now that I’ve seen them… Oh, Emma, they’re too beautiful not to inspire hope.”

I was taken aback when tears actually started gathering in her eyes.

“Did you see them, honey?” she said to me. “Did you see your wings?”

“Wings?” I said, taking a step away from her. “What are you talking about?
Wings
?”

When I moved more of the stuff fell from my hair.

“And what is all of this?” I said, kicking up some from the floor.

When I looked up again Arie had reappeared in a doorway. She looked dumbstruck.

“I don’t believe it,” she said.

My eyes wandered from her to the tapestry next to her. Right next to Arie’s right shoulder was my name occupying one of the elegant, woven boxes. A puff of the stuff around my feet rose in the air and floated toward the tapestry. Everyone in the room had noticed it and was watching. When it got to the tapestry and level with my name it slammed into it. A green dragonfly appeared behind the lettering.

Arie’s head turned from the tapestry. She looked at me again.