Free Dark Places by Linda Ladd Page B

orphan boy walked behind the Angel Gabriel, it was shady and cool and quiet with lush green ferns and lots of underbrush and baby trees, all dappled and dancing with sunshine. Spiderwebs hung suspended between tree branches everywhere, and looked pretty and sparkled like great nets of silver silk. He avoided them as he trailed his new friend, their feet crackling through layers of dead, brown leaves. When they reached a wide, rushing stream, its clear water gurgling and splashing over flat brown rocks, they sat down together to rest on the bank and dipped up water in their open palms.
    â€œThere’s some great big fish in this little river, kid, smallmouth bass and catfish, too. I’ll teach you how to catch them if you want me to. I like to catch things, you know, trap them alive. I’ve gotten lots of frogs and lizards, chipmunks, too, and other stuff like that, right along here. I get ’em for my experiments.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, experiments, Angel Gabriel?”
    Gabriel turned to him, then he smiled and shook his head. His yellow curls shivered around his face. “Now you gotta quit calling me that, okay? I told you I ain’t no angel.”
    â€œOkay, but you sure do look like one.”
    â€œI wish. Archangels are pretty cool, you know. Especially the one named Uriel. He’s an archangel, like Gabriel. It’s just that more people know about Gabriel, is all. You know there’s seven archangels, but some Bible scholars think there’s even more than that?”
    â€œWhat’s an archangel anyways?”
    â€œThey’re the angels that do God’s good work for him. Dad says only four of ’em are really in the Bible. Gabriel’s the messenger that came down and talked to the Virgin Mary and the shepherds in the field, and all that. Michael’s sort of an avenger kind of angel that cast Satan out of heaven, and let me tell you, we don’t never, ever want to ever mess with the Archangel Michael or he’ll smite us dead right where we stand. He’s the most powerful of all of ’em and the boss over all the other archangels. He’s got special people he blesses, too, and we aren’t gonna ever mess with them either, you hear?”
    The orphan nodded but the idea of Archangel Michael coming down and smiting him with a sword was about the scariest thing he’d ever heard. He looked up at the sky but didn’t see anything on fire and headed at him, just the pretty green leaves tossing in the wind.
    The Angel Gabriel said, “Uriel’s my favorite angel, though, ’cause Dad says he’s the “Fire of God.” He stands at the Gates of Eden and holds a fiery sword so nobody can get to the Tree of Knowledge, and he warned Noah about the Flood, and things like that. And he’s in command of thunder and terror, and stuff. Best of all, he watches over hell.”
    â€œWow. Wish I was like Uriel.”
    â€œWell, I can call you Uriel if you want. We can have some secret names that only we know about. You can be Uriel and I’ll be Gabriel, okay?” The orphan smiled with pleasure and decided he liked having secrets. He’d never had any before, and it was fun!
    Gabriel smiled. “C’mon, now, I’ve got some traps set down in my special fishing hole. Let’s go see if I caught anything. Take off your shoes and socks, and we’ll wade.”
    Uriel followed obediently, and the cold water felt wonderful against his hot feet. The bottom was sandy and felt soft, and minnows darted this way and that in little silver streaks. A few yards upstream, a fallen log had dammed up the water in a big, deep pool with a little waterfall trickling over the top.
    â€œThis here’s my favorite place. I keep most my traps here. I dammed it up all by myself.” Gabriel squatted down, reached up under the logs, and pulled out a glass cage. A thick brown snake coiled up on the bottom.
    â€œLook here, kid, I