But where will the Angels Sit?

Do you ever wonder where the angels sit? When people come to visit with their angels.  The door banging twice. Girl. Angel. Because, really, there is only so  much room in my little house. Angels take up as much room as a person though a lot less air.  Even though an angel can change the atmosphere in the air in the wink of a wimple.  And they must come in,  they do not like to be left out in the weather. Have you ever seen an angel who has been left out in the rain – it is a terrible sight. Crumpled like tissue paper, poor things – it takes an age for them to dry out and puff back up.  And for obvious reasons it is very important not to let your angel get too close to the fire to dry out. So you can’t just leave them outside when they visit. They must come in.

I mean,  when they travel with you they can sit in the back seat very happily – with their legs crossed, their hands in their laps and wings folded neatly.  Sometimes they read a book. Angels are great readers. How often have you lost the book your are currently reading! Often, right?! They nick them when you are busy.  So they can keep up. Angels hate to be left out. They want to know every last thing you are thinking. Nosy buggers. Anyway when you are driving they like to sit quietly in the back seat and  look out of the window. They never get huffy when  you get lost because they will always be able to find you.  Though try to get them out to see the sights with you and they will turn surly. Best to leave them sitting quietly I have always found.

My guardian angel’s name is Alphonsus and he spent  last night in the barn because when he came in after chores he found another angel sitting in his seat. A STRANGE angel just sitting there watching, watching Fede cook, arms folded, wings neatly stowed.  The look on that angels face – you would have laughed! Alphonsus  went and laid on the bed for a while, spent time in the shower, sat glumly in the glass house then gave up and stomped out to sleep in the barn.

But where is an angel to sit? 

Some people have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to their guardian angels.  They don’t realise that there is a huge white feathery presence walking beside them (or behind them in the back seat of the car) moving potholes, hissing at cats and giving the bad people the tiniest of nudges.  Or poking a cow just to see what happens, sleeping in the straw with the calves and perching with the chickens.  (They call that Slumming It.)

Sometimes an angel can make you invisible – have you ever noticed that? This happens to me all the time. I go into a store or (God help me) a bar and no-one sees that I am there. My mother used to tell  me to get the money out of my purse and wave it about -(this has been happening to me all my life) ” that will get their attention.”  she said. But really it is just my angel, standing right in front of me so I am just a vacant space. I have never quite worked out why Alphonsus does that, there must be a reason –  but as you probably know angels don’t like to explain themselves either. You know how to tell when a person is in tune with her angel? She will be wearing sunglasses a lot. It is the glare you know. All those white feathers. And angels are always so clean. I am always deeply suspicious of such cleanliness.

Anyway, I have beds and chairs enough for all my visitors but am still having trouble accommodating all their angels. You would think they could double up. I have known angels who share seats with their people. These are lovely angels.  They will very kindly sit in your chair to warm it up for you on cold days (though they draw the line at warming up the toilet seat so don’t even go there –  my angel will widen his eyes and pinch his nose haughtily at the very thought) and sometimes once you sit down they arrange their wings so you can sit more comfortably. Do you know that feeling when you sit into a seat with a big sigh, and you feel warm and you make that descending aaahhh sound? And immediately your feet feel better. Yeah? That is when your angel has made sure that your seat is comfy. And is probably sharing it with you. Alphonsus shares.

Of course not all angels are good like that. Most of them prefer a seat or perch of their own and if there are not plenty of high perches they can get a bit antsy, and then they will sit on the floor and arrange for tripping. Tripping is a favourite trick of Alphonsus’s. The other night I  turned the lights out to look at the eggs, and then jogged sideways to get a pencil and Alphonsus swiftly shifted a box right into my path. I tripped and heard the snort. Angels snort – did I tell you that?  I don’t think they mean to be mean but sometimes they get bored. I mean angels live a long time – I inherited mine from my Grandmother Dorothy.  She died just before I was born so I guess he waited around. He is good at waiting. He is a waiter.  He holds grudges too. You already know that Alphonsus spends a lot of time tinkering with electrical things, like our dishwasher – on the blink, the washing machine – not spinning, the fridge – drips through the floor onto the washing machine –  he runs the batteries in my vehicles down (sometimes all at the same time) and stands watch at the door when the shower is running in case he feels like turning down the heat.

Poor Alphonsus. He is going to hold a grudge now about the number of angels in the house.

My angel  is very shy and seldom  mingles with other angels but he is good about showing them to a perch and offering them a drink, things like that, just good manners really but after that he puts his pajamas over his fluffy Pan legs and goes out and sits in the car and stares in the other direction until they leave. He is not a very social angel. And he absolutely does not like to share my chair with anyone.

I have a pile of very chatty angels in the house right at the moment. They like to sit high and tend to dangle their feet over the edge of the loft floor, brushing your head with their feet just for fun. They catch text messages in the hands and toss them to each other for a while and they muck around with the time so it goes too fast, and the clocks show all different times. They hide kitchen utensils, which if you ask me is a bit cheeky since they are visitors and all and every pudding bowl in the house has gone missing. Boo has taken to answering back when given a command, a short bark just a little too often for comfort so I am fairly sure that one of these visiting angels is egging him on,  probably making faces or something. Most dogs can see angels, though Ton does not like them as a rule – not the visiting angels anyway and often goes and sits in the car with Alphonsus and sometimes Godot.  He likes Alphonsus. They both like sitting in the car. Godot sits on top.

But what about the visiting angels,  where are they to sit, all these angels?

I am going to have to think on it.

Love your friend on the farm

celi

PS. Good morning. At lunch yesterday I asked a question.  “You are leaving. I am not sure where you are going but you will be gone for a long time and you are probably never coming back.  You have two suitcases and ten million dollars. What would you put in the suitcases?  We had great fun with this.” (Naturally Alphonsus has to carry his own suitcase.)  John looked at us like we were all quite mad and said he would put the Ten Million in his suitcase.  Of course.

I wonder what you would put in your suitcases.

c