Stranger Angels

* If such a warning is preferred, the final scene of this story hints at a disaster like 9/11. The scene is brief, the details are light, but the premise is almost certainly evident.

Dave often wondered what the possibility of entertaining angels unawares meant. Sure, he was friendly enough to all, but he also gave angels nearby plenty to do at times.

He first heard the phrase in Sunday School as a kid around ten years old. That same evening he was hurrying home from the arcade, trying to meet his curfew. He jogged off the curb of a crosswalk without looking both ways. But in the same second, he registered that an emergency vehicle was about to speed through. Next thing he knew, he felt a yoink backwards and his butt hit the pavement. The transport was inches from grazing him. He turned and met an older man’s concerned gaze.

“Watch yourself, son!”

“Oh!! Thank you!” Dave expressed as he regained his wits and got himself up. He realized he might have been another casualty of the incident in progress if the stranger behind him did not catch him by the shoulder at the last possible moment.

Later, Dave and his friends were hanging out in the park, albeit goofing around just off the hiking trails. They jumped through the brush, monkeyed around on the trees, and broke park rules. But Dave lagged behind, as if riding the fence on what he wanted to do.

“I wouldn’t if I were you,” a passerby hiker recommended, as if reading his mind.

“Three leaves! Leave them be!” A small child with the hiker declared as they continued on their way.

Dave saw what they meant after he returned his focus to his friends. The tree branch Mike was on snapped; thankfully he only fell a few feet, but his friend Chris broke the fall. The two of them sustained some bruises, scars, and a busted limb or two.

“Uh-oh!” he heard Tyler say, who remembered he was sensitive to poison ivy as he stood in the middle of a big patch of it.

Following all that, the park security caught up to them in their various states of mishap. They all got rounded up but Dave was the only one who was unscathed. He wished a thanks to the hiker and kid he saw earlier.

Dave even wondered if he encountered an angel through his dog one time. He spent his lunch break outside one day, wanting to take advantage of some good weather. He was eating a cold cut sandwich and some snacks from home on a bench in the plaza, not burdened by any great cares when a stray, scraggly mutt trotted up and stopped in front of him to plead for scraps. Generous Dave gave the dog the rest of his sandwich and poured a stream of water from his water bottle for it to drink. That led into giving the grateful pooch some scratches; again no heavy cares on either of their minds until they noticed a shady figure stalking nearby.

The figure wore head-to-toe black, concealing a crowbar underneath a coat. A scowl burned through his ski mask down to his stomping sneakers.

“Your money or your life, man!” The shady figure demanded of Dave while wielding the tool toward him.

Frightened, Dave’s hands left the dog and shot in the air. The dog, though, wouldn’t stand for this confrontation against its new friend. It growled, bore its teeth, and maneuvered itself in front of Dave to protect him. Dave himself was certainly surprised, as were several other bystanders who stopped to watch or call for help.

The robber, starting to feel nervous, swore at the dog. As if on cue, the dog barked and lunged at them as they spun on their heels to give chase. The nearby crowds either parted for them or narrowly dodged them. The police intercepted halfway down the block with the humane society not far behind for the dog. After Dave gave a statement to the police and got the rest of the day off from his boss, he decided to adopt the dog who saved his life.

Dave’s stranger angel experiences, as he called them, seemed dormant for several months after that until he was on the subway one evening. Out of the blue, a fellow rider said out loud, “Don’t go downtown tomorrow,” seeming to direct it to him.

“How come?”

“Something terrible is going to happen.”

Dave dwelled on this. The rider did not appear to be a crazy type to him. Nor had any of his previous stranger angel experiences sounded so precautionary. He wanted to get some elaboration but the rider got off at the next stop.

The next morning, everything seemed to get in the way of Dave getting to work. For a while, he wondered if this was what the subway stranger referred to. His power failed overnight, so he missed his alarm clock. The dog was extra ornery for some reason, taking its own sweet time outside and trying to make playthings of Dave’s work clothes and shoes. He misplaced his wallet and workbag.Then every appliance he used decided to malfunction. It was all certainly feeling terrible at the time. Dave was going to call work to account for himself, but as he reached for it--hoping not to curse it too--a call rang through first.

“Oh! Dave!” You’re still home!” A friend’s voice was frantic but fairly relieved at the discovery. “Turn on the news!”

Dave did so without another word. His television screen flashed to life with a live image of black smoke billowing from the skyscraper his workplace was in.

“...the plane impacted somewhere between the eighty-fifth and ninety-second floors...” A voiceover stated as the broadcast cycled between ground and aerial angles of the developing catastrophe. His stomach dropped. His workplace was between those floors... The thought sobered him. He became glued to the footage, seeing the people downtown, staring, stunned, scared, or scattering just before the structure imploded.

Was it this that the stranger angel was warning about? For once, he wished he could find that stranger angel and personally thank them.