I chuckled until it hit me… “And there lies the problem. Nobody truly knows the beginning. There are scientific speculations—” I stopped when her brows pinched in confusion. Simple terms. “Okay, speculation means to guess.” She relaxed with a nod. “Now, try to understand, all this ‘guessing’ started before there were books.” Gasp! “That’s right. Stories were told and passed—” she recoiled. “No. No. Not that kind of passing. Umm… Oh. In the kitchen, has Sal ever asked you to hand him something?”
“Oh, yes!”
“That’s passing. You,” I hand gestured, “passed him a bowl of grapes—” I stopped when she beamed at me. “You like grapes?”
“I do, but that is not why I am smiling. Sal was right and you were wrong.”
Snarl.
“He told me that you don’t spend as much time with me because you don’t believe you are a good teacher.” She shook her head in wonderment. “You were wrong.” Her eyes closed in a beautiful exhale. “You are marvelous, Angel.”
Blink. Blink.
Maybe I won’t kill him.
Ego properly stroked, I readjusted on my seat—toilet. “Thank you for the compliment, Scarlett.”
Her eyes opened, but she said no more. She wanted to grow.
Humbled, I smiled. “Okay, where was I? Oh, yes, so, as the stories were passed along, some of them changed slightly. Some people didn’t agree or believe the stories so they began their own. Over many-many years, these stories came to be known as religions. Most religions believe in a higher power. That means they believe in something that can’t always be seen. It is more like the instincts that you and I talked about. Gut feelings. Love in your heart. Beliefs, known as Faith.”
She touched her chest. “Faith.”
“It may take some time to study and learn all the different religions there are to believe in, but once you do, then you will have a better understanding of where you could go after passing.”
Scarlett, not so much for my benefit as much for her own, moved her hand in front of her as if picturing herself passing grapes to Sal. I watched her gentle fingers grab an imaginary cluster of grapes and reach out to hand them to me. “Passing.” She touched her arms, her chest, her head and face… “Something leaves my bowl, isn’t that right, Angel?”
Stunned. I was completely stunned at how bright she was. I could barely talk. “Y-Yes. That is absolutely correct. Your soul leaves your human bowl.”
As if already touching a sliver of Heaven, her eyes slid shut again. “Who carries my soul like I carried the grapes?”
Maybe it was I who was seeing a sliver of Heaven on Earth. Scarlett was finding Faith right in front of me. It was immensely humbling. “God. I believe God would carry your soul.”
“She sounds wonderful.”
My face lit up with the biggest smile I may have ever experienced. Scarlett referred to God as a female. I, for one, had no desire to change her Faith. “She is. Just wonderful.” I held my chest as Scarlett consumed it whole. “And She is with me, all the time.”
Without opening her eyes, Scarlett’s head leaned back as if feeling God’s embrace. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
Seeing Scarlett like this reminded me of her watching her very first sunrise after being rescued. Light. I may have rescued Scarlett, but I now understood it was she who was rescuing me. Life. My eyes watered. “It is. God is everywhere. Always.”
Her body melted back in such a relaxed manner it was stealing my breath. “Then… I am never really alone.”
A tear fell… “No. Never.”
I will love you until the end of time.
Leaving the bathroom behind, I was as tranquil as Scarlett had become. Witnessing that miracle had my skin tingling with peace.
Sal observed me walking past the kitchen. “Wow. That was some bath.” His body jolted. “Where’s Scarlett?”
“Bathing in something we can’t see.”
Stupefied, he looked down the hallway toward the bathroom. “What kind of candles did Mae bring us?”
In my room, I was lying in my bed, holding my cross, when Scarlett knocked on my door. I knew it was her because Sal never gave me an option of granting him permission to enter. He just did. So, I answered, “Come in.”
Surprisingly, Scarlett was in a robe, her hair now dry. Her fingers nervously twirled around the robe’s belt. “Angel, could I please ask you more questions about God?”
Since I was just in my boxers, I pulled the blanket up to my waist and sat against my headboard. “Of course.”
She approached my bed then sat, curling a leg underneath. “Your necklace is beautiful.”
“Thank you. It was actually a gift from your mother.” I touched it again. “It is a symbol of the religion she and I agree on.”
She stared at it, then the most serene smile appeared as she held her chest. “My mother and you close with the same Faith makes my heart thump. It feels good.”
Her eyes met mine. “It makes me feel even closer to you.”
That had me looking down to my lap because she was right. I felt it. And it scared me. “Umm,” I coughed, “what was your question?”
“Oh, yes.” She resettled on the curled leg under her. “It’s where the grapes came from that is making me wonder more about passing.”
Even though I was a little confused, I stayed quiet and waited for her to process her question.
“Mae brings them from a store. Before I entered,” she gestured to her body, “this bowl, was I at some sort of similar place?”
“A store?”
She nodded, almost as if worried that her theory was farfetched.
I laced my fingers around my cross. “My Faith tells me souls come from Heaven. Not exactly a store. No money is shared, but there is definitely a price to pay.”
Sal had done his best to teach her about money.
I continued, “I believe you came from Heaven and were placed in your bowl that was in your mother’s stomach. I believe your mother kept you safe there so you could grow and then be born.”
When her beautiful lips parted. I knew she was thinking of… “Seth.”
Trying not to think of that child, and that he was once part of Scarlett’s body, I gave one nod to confirm her connection.
Her hand slid down her now flat stomach. “Is that where you are from? Heaven?”
My chest tightened as I thought about how God wouldn’t have someone like me in a wonderful place like that. “No. I don’t think so. But I believe you are from there.”
She blinked. “Why not you?”
I leaned my head back, not even feeling worthy of being in her presence. “Because… I have committed sins.” Since that confused her, I said, “I’ve taken lives. I’ve killed people, Scarlett.”
Her eyes showed her lost in thought until she asked, “Do you think they were from Heaven?”
Knowing those people had hurt others in the ways Scarlett had been hurt, I was barely audible as I shook my head. “No.”
Her fingers tangled with the robe’s belt again. “If you are not from Heaven, where else could you be from?”