Prophecy

She moved like poetry in motion, all the grace of years of dance training making every gesture seem practiced and polished and perfect. The kitchen was bright and sunny. Light gleamed from the clean surfaces, and sparkled in Alice's cerulean eyes. She put two spoonfuls of sugar in each teacup, stirring three times clockwise and three times counterclockwise. She brought the cups to the patio table, handing one to me. "It's my homemade blend." 

"Mmm, my favorite." I smiled and took the cup, breathing the mixed scent of black tea, hibiscus, chai spice, and lemon before setting it down on the floral tablecloth. I admired the way that the sun shimmered and danced in Alice's gorgeous copper-blonde curls. I brushed my fine, mousy brown hair behind my ear and watched her settle into the chair across from me. "You said you had something important to tell me." 

I half expected it to be news of another new lover. Alice was gorgeous, and everyone who saw her seemed to fall madly in love with her. I knew it to be true, because I had been one of them. She always had at least one person she kept time with, and at least one more queuing up to be next. My gut roiled with own brew of admiration, adoration, envy and a pang of guilt. I swallowed deliberately and took a sip of the delicious tea. 

Alice fidgeted uncharacteristically with her cup, her head bowed low. She pulled her hair back from her face and tied it at the nape of her neck with a scrunchie. I could see her eyes darting from her cup to my face and back again. She studied the line of my brows and the bend of my mouth. It was unlike her to be so shy. All at once she took a deep breath and blurted it out. 

"I'm a prophet." 

I could only blink in response to my friend's announcement. Nothing had prepared me for this news. "A … a what?" I stammered. 

"A prophet. I have been channeling messages from a higher power." 

I didn't know what to say. I felt suddenly dizzy. It was as if the world had slipped sideways off its axis and I had suddenly fallen down the rabbit hole. I almost laughed out loud. I caught that urge though, and choked it down, seeing that Alice was quite serious. "You've been … 'channeling'?"

A bit of consternation must have come across in my voice, because her cheeks began to glow a bright red. Tears filled her eyes as she nodded and smiled. "It's hard to explain." 

"Okay. But, can you try?" I reached across and took her beautiful porcelain hand in my own clumsy brown one. 

Alice nodded. "It happens when I'm writing. It's like the world around me stops and there is nothing but my fingers on the computer keyboard. A feeling like lightning starts in my forehead, and spreads through me. My fingers start flying, I'm typing over a hundred words a minute, and I am not thinking them up in advance, they're just … happening … I guess." 

I listened without interrupting, taking note of her unusually self-conscious behavior. 

"It can go on for hours, and when it stops, I'm just so drained. The thing is that when it's over and I read what I typed, it's all brand new to me. Those aren't my words. They're not my thoughts. They're coming from outside of myself." 

I nodded. "Do you know where they come from?" 

She unsettled me further by looking me straight in the eyes. Without blinking or glancing away she said, "An Angel." 

"An Angel?" 

"Yes. Her name is Misthael. I googled it, it means, 'since the beginning'. She tells me answers to the questions that humans have about life and the mysteries of the universe." 

"Okay." I had to buy some time to think. I didn't want to drive her away, but the news was so bizarre to me. "I guess I've never given much thought to how prophecy works. Can I read some of it?" 

Alice lit up like she'd swallowed the whole sun. This was clearly what she was hoping to hear. "Of course! I knew you were the right one to tell!" 

I suspended my disbelief as I read the following words that she had apparently typed in something of a trance: 

I asked my Angel, Misthael, who she was and this was her answer. 

' I am Creation experiencing itself. I am the eyes through which Creation sees itself. I am part of the creation. When God said the word that created a physicality that was like unto itself, I came into being. God created the world through me and nothing was done that was not done by me. I have created all of time and all of reality.  

I am of God and I am God. I am a prophet of the Lord, I am the message, and I am the carrier of the message. I am the universe and I am every single thing inside of the universe and I am a product of the universe. I am the infinite possibility that was created by the creator of all things.  

I am the word of God and I am God, expressed in three dimensions. Because of me, the fourth dimension arises, and time is created. I have a spirit of my own, a soul, but I also hear and communicate directly with God, as everything he creates is created through me.' 

A cold shock flowed through me, beginning in the pit of my stomach. Had my oldest friend lost her mind? I wasn't sure what to do. After all, what do you do when someone you love tells you that they're a prophet of God? 

She nervously picked at her cuticles as she watched me read. I noticed that they had been picked bloody, a nervous habit that was not at all like her. Whatever was happening to her, it was stressing her out.  

I took a big breath and I looked into her eyes. "Honey." 

She tensed up. 

"No, I'm not going to say anything bad. I love you. I don't know what's happening or where these messages are coming from, but if you say that it's an Angel speaking through you to the world, I believe you. You have never been a liar and I know you're not insane." 

We hugged tightly and I read more of the Prophecy that she'd laid before me. It read like every religious text in the world had been thrown into a pot, stirred, and served up in a new bowl. I still don't know if my friend is a prophet, but I will always read every single page of Prophecy that she passes my way.