The Chosen Family

                             Chosen Family

“Ezekiel, there’s no logical reason to use this family or this baby in this situation. No reason at all. This should not be a chosen family, and what could this child do or not do!”

Ezekiel sat three feet above Corinth behind a glass desk placed on platform. He held a feather quill made from one of his own feathers. He closed the large tome he’d been writing in, and looked down at Corinth.

“It makes no difference my friend. There is nothing I can do anyway. It has been forecasted, and you…”

“Wait!” Corinth said, interrupting him. “Just look at what is happening between them right now!” And he waved his oversized hand with a certain twist. He had put the Branden family right in front of Ezekiel in full color. Suddenly on display in the main hall, like a TV channel in real size...

           Pieces of pumpkin pie with lots of whipped cream on them sat on four plates. Lilly, six years old, had a lot of whipped cream on her fork, and she threw it at her older brother. He was eight. It landed slap-dab over his right eye. Trying to get it out with his napkin, he screamed at his sister, “Lill, what! Why did you that!”

Lilly was small, yet her cackling was loud, overpowering the high-pitched mosquito buzzing coming out of her father’s cell phone. His wife and their mother currently in the hospital, since her doctor had told her he’d induce labor the day after Thanksgiving if she doesn’t do it naturally. She was busy ‘explaining’ her problems to her husband with stridency. The power in Wanda’s voice had made Harry move the phone away from his ear to avoid going deaf in one ear.

Meanwhile, Billy picked up his own plate of pumpkin pie. He threw it  straight at Lilly and it landed on her chest. Harry kept ignoring his children, as his own mother swung into the dining room through the kitchen door.

“Billy stop it, right now!’” Grandmother Emily took the plate off Lilly chest, putting most of the pie on her granddaughter shirt back on the plate. Then she put the plate back in front of Billy, “You eat what’s left on that plate right now!” She then walked back into the kitchen, knowing there was a local dealer waiting for her at the back door. Emily gave him a fifty dollar bill and he gave her a silver foil package. She put it in her pocket, drinking her third glass of wine before going back to the dining room again.

Billy was not eating his crushed pie. Lilly was crying and laughing at the same time. He picked up his own fork, about to plant it into Lilly’s forearm. Dad saw the beginning of that action at the last minute and he grabbed the fork away from his son. He came up with a growling order. 

“Okay! Everybody shut-up and stop it. Be good. I have had it with this screwing mess. No more. NO MORE OF IT!” He slammed his fist on the table and it jump an inch off the floor. His wife kept on screeching in his phone, and in his mind he’d get to that in another minute. Harry was still distracted and off-kilter by his own gambling debt. It had to paid off by the first of the year, and the threats his bookie had given him…

Corinth waved his hand again. The bickering unstable family, the chosen family vanished from the heavenly hall.

“You can see the problem here? You have to stop my insertion in that baby tomorrow!”

Ezekiel shrugged.

“I have no power over this. I told you. What shall be done will be done. Amen. At least I don’t have to listen to your endless whining for the next 73 years anyway.”

At 5:25 PM the next day, Wanda had her baby boy, naming him Peter. Over the next few weeks, the baby’s dark brown eyes would sometimes flicker into a bright blue when no one was looking when Corinth looked out. He was still wondering over his placement in this chosen family, hoping the mystery will be resolved soon.