Angel's Messiah (23 page)

“You can use this one,” he said. “Give it a couple of minutes and you’ll be right to go. Coffee’s over there,” he pointed to the opposite wall. “Help yourself.”

Gina sat down and studied the screen, keyboard and strange looking object to the right of the keyboard. Everything looked so different to Little Mother’s computer, which had the screen and keyboard attached together. Little Mother used to close it, like a book, when she’d finished surfing.

“I’ve seen my mother using one of these, but never paid much attention.”

“Yeah?” the fat man said. “Sounds like you’ve got one cool mum.”

“She’s quite warm actually.”

The two other people in the cafe sniggered and the fat man scowled.

“Are you having me on?” he asked.

“No, my mother told me I should have no one.”

“Huh! That figures,” the fat man sneered. “Look, all you do is type in what you’re looking for, press enter, and
bam
, the search engine does the rest.”

“What would I type if I wanted to reach millions of people?”

The fat man leaned on the counter. What was she planning on doing?

“Personally I’d use social media, but it’d depend on what
sort
of people you’re interested in reaching, know what I mean.”

“No.”

The fat man rolled his eyes and wondered if she was for real. He’d met some dumb women, but this one was something else.

“If you were after something a little
different,
you might try somewhere like Vampirefreaks,” he suggested.

“Vampires have their own place on the Internet?” Gina asked.

“Don’t be stupid,” he snorted, “vampires don’t exist, but they have followers anyway, just like God.”

“You don’t believe in God?” she asked, surprised.

Her father had warned her that not everyone believed in God, and that free choice — the freedom to believe or not — was something their Father had wanted for all His creations. She just hadn’t expected the first person she talked to not to believe. She thought it would take a lot longer to find a non-believer. Perhaps her task was going to be harder than she thought.

“Nuh! I don’t believe in nothin’.”

“Oh well, free choice and all that,” Gina replied.

The fat man shrugged his shoulders. Gina typed
social media
and pressed
Enter
. Thousands of results appeared. She looked for clues on how to view the website she wanted and found nothing.

“How do I get from the search to one of the places listed on the screen?”

“Lady, you really haven’t lived, have you?” the fat man laughed.

“Not much,” Gina admitted. “I’ve only been here for a few months.”

“Use your mouse to click on the website.”

The fat man sat down and lit another cigarette. Gina knew she was asking too many questions and attracting too much attention. She’d need to manage this some other way.

Mouse, show yourself to me,
she thought to herself.

The small box-like thing to the right of the keyboard wobbled slightly, yet Gina didn’t see a mouse anywhere. She looked around and saw the other people moving the little thing with their hand and pressing it, to make the places they wanted to visit — websites, the fat man had called them — open. She rested her hand lightly on what she now thought must be the mouse the fat man was referring to, and moved it from side to side.

Mouse, click on the second website,
she thought.

The pointer moved on the screen and changed from an arrow to a pointing hand as the mouse clicked on the requested site. Within seconds the page had loaded and Gina’s eyes were immediately drawn to the button that said
Sign up now
.

Mouse, click on sign up now.

The page required her to enter certain information to create an account.
Full name
was easy, but the rest of the fields were beyond her.

What is username?
she asked silently.

A new page appeared with the definition of username.

What is password?

A new page appeared with the definition of password.

What is email?

A new page appeared with the definition of email and what it was used for. Gina realised she would need an email account in order to join the website.

Create me an email account.

The words [email protected] appeared on the screen.

Gina went back to the website and filled in the information to create her account. She typed in her first message:
The world is very new to me. I am learning to chat online :),
and clicked
update
.

Gina continued with her foray into the online world by creating accounts on just about every social networking website she could find. She no longer manually typed the information in. Instead she looked at the field and the information appeared, though she pretended to be madly typing.

Better not to make people suspicious,
she thought.

All of the messages she wanted to leave were replicated on each of the sites, based on the first account she’d created. This was how she would conquer the world, or at least let people know she was here and ready to fight for them, in the nicest possible way.

“Hey, lady,” the fat man said. “Your three hours is almost up. Did you want to extend your time?”

“No, thank you. That was more than enough time.”

Gina stood up, stretched and walked to the counter. She handed the fat man the fifty-dollar note, turned and walked away.

“Hey, lady, don’t you want your change?”

“Keep it,” Gina said, “as payment for your help.”

The fat man let out a low whistle. No one had ever given him a tip that large before.

“Anytime you need help on the Net,” he called out after her, “come back here and ask for Joe.”

Gina laughed and kept on walking. She thought she might have made her first friend — the first of many she would need to make if she were going to save the world. It was a wonderful time to be alive.

The sun was rising over the horizon as Gina walked along the streets, looking for somewhere nice to sit and watch the world go by. She happened upon a park with a large pond, on which all sorts of birds were swimming, feeding and preening. She sat on one of the many benches around the pond.

I want something to feed to the birds.

A small brown bag appeared in Gina’s lap, full of bread crusts. She held onto the bag, watched the birds and waited. Someone would come to the park eventually and possibly sit on the same bench, and she would ask them if they wanted to feed the birds.

By mid-morning the park was abuzz with activity. Children brought kites to fly or boats to sail, and men and women jogged past. An elderly couple walked slowly to Gina’s bench and sat down.

“Hello,” Gina said. “It’s a lovely day, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” the old woman replied. “The sun’s warming me through to my bones. I do so hate the cold.”

Gina held out her bag. “Would you like to feed the birds? I have some food for them.”

“Thank you, that would be nice,” the old lady said, as she dipped her hand in the small brown bag. “We used to feed the birds, but life is so tough on the pension. We can hardly feed ourselves.”

“Why doesn’t someone take better care of you?” Gina asked. “It’s not right that you should struggle to feed yourselves.”

“It’s tough all over, I guess,” the old lady sighed. “Everyone works so hard. No one has spare time or money to help those less fortunate anymore.”

Gina twisted to one side, reached into her pocket and pulled out the small roll of notes. Another bag of bird food appeared, hidden from view from the elderly couple, and she hid the money in the bottom of the new bag. She took a handful of bread from the other bag and threw it near the pond, watching the birds swim or waddle over to peck at it. She held out the bag to the elderly woman again.

“My name is Gina.” She extended her hand to the elderly couple and each of them shook it. “I haven’t been here for very long and am trying to make friends.”

“Nice to meet you, Gina. My name is Mae and this is my husband Ralph. I’m sure you won’t have any problems making friends. You’re young, friendly and pretty. A winning combination, isn’t that right Ralph?”

Ralph nodded his head, but kept quiet.

“How long have you been married?” Gina asked.

“Sixty-two years. I was a mere slip of a girl, only sixteen, and Ralph was not much older, at seventeen, but it was different in those days. My parents didn’t approve of Ralph. They said he was bad news, but of course he wasn’t. We ran away and got married.”

Mae’s eyes sparkled. She was still very much in love with the man she’d married all those years before. That they still held hands spoke volumes.

“Do you have any children?” Gina asked.

“Sadly no,” Mae replied, and Gina felt sad for them.

“My mother thought she couldn’t have children. She was badly injured as a child, but God saw fit to give her me, when she least expected it. I’d like to think I made her happy,” Gina said wistfully. “I want everyone to be happy.”

“Your mother is a very lucky woman to have such a well-mannered and pleasant child. Not all children are as nice as you,” Mae said.

“Thank you,” Gina said. “My mother would be very happy to hear you say so. She was always lecturing me about something and she’d be pleased to know some of it has stuck.”

“I’m sorry, I’ve used the last of your bird food,” Mae said.

“That’s all right, I have another bag, but I have to go now.” Gina thrust the bag stuffed with money in Mae’s direction. “Would you feed the birds for me?”

“Yes, Gina, I will, and thank you. It was very nice to meet you. I hope you make some nice friends soon.”

“I already have,” Gina said.

Ralph chuckled and Mae elbowed him in the ribs. It reminded Gina of her parents.

“I meant friends your own age dear.”

“Goodbye, Mae. Goodbye, Ralph. I hope you shall not go hungry for much longer.”

Gina stood and walked away slowly, enjoying the warmth of the sun on her face. The birds squawked and carried on behind her as Mae continued to feed them.

“Oh my,” Mae said.

She showed Ralph what she’d found at the bottom of the bag and he shook his head in amazement. It was more money than they’d ever had in the bank, even when both of them had been working and there was no mortgage left to pay.

“She’s an angel from heaven, that’s what she is,” Ralph said, and called out after her, “
God bless you!
”

Gina smiled as she kept on walking. God had
already
blessed her.

Her walk led her to the library — a fairly large old building in the eastern end of the city. There were lots of people here and Gina talked to a few, asking if they could recommend a good book to read. She was in a library after all. It was a good way to break the ice, and as she didn’t look like a junkie or troublemaker, they were happy to offer their suggestions.

“I haven’t read many books,” Gina confided to a young man who looked around the same age as her, “but I’m keen to change that.”

“What sort of genre are you interested in?” he asked.

“I’m not sure,” she said, “I really haven’t read much at all.”

“Not even at school?” he asked.

“I was home-schooled. Various bibles and histories were my principal sources of the written word. My Father didn’t encourage me to read anything fictional.”

“What about your mother?” he asked.

“Oh, she preferred singing and dancing — mainly dancing — to reading.”

The young man held out his hand. “My name’s John.”

Gina shook his hand. “Pleased to meet you, John. My name’s Gina.”

“Say, would you like to grab a coffee? I’d sure like to hear more about your home-schooling, but a library isn’t the place for that. We’re supposed to be
quiet
,” John said.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise.”

“Shall we?” John asked.

“Yes, that would be nice,” Gina replied.

More money, please,
she thought.

There was a coffee shop a few doors down. They ordered — a short black for him and a hot chocolate for her — and then sat opposite each other, nursing their steaming drinks. Gina took a sip. It was delicious. She was going to enjoy this part of her time in the mortal world — all the new flavours and taste sensations waiting for her, and of course the cake. She would find time to sample as much cake as she could.

John held out a serviette to Gina and she took it, not sure what she was meant to do.

“You’ve got a milk moustache,” he said, pointing to his upper lip to show her where to wipe.

“Oh,” she laughed. “I’ve never had one of those before.”