The Snowstorm: Sunday and the Rest

The angel appeared around 3:30 AM that Sunday morning. Aaron wasn't a religious man, but he knew it was an angel. He knew it as sure as God made little green apples.

And while he was on the topic of God, after Aaron's angel appeared, Aaron recalled a story from his days in Sunday School about a man who wrestled all night with an angel. The story was a sordidly juicy affair about deceit and cheating, disguises and theft, flight and pursuit, ultimately, reconciliation and redemption. It was a strange little story, and it hadn't moved in him any particular way, and he didn't really understand every part of it. Aaron simply remembered that he had enjoyed the story and thought it the story would make a great movie.

He recalled that the main character of the story was the second son of a patriarch of some kind. As the second son of the patriarch, the man's destiny was to forever be in second place behind his older brother, who would inherit the patriarch's wealth and status. Apparently, the man wasn't content to always be in second place, so he and his mother schemed up a plan to change his destiny.

When the patriarch was blind and near death, it came time for the patriarch to bestow his estate on the older brother with something called a "blessing". That's when the man enacted his scheme, which had two parts. First, the man cheated his older brother out of something called a "birthright" by withholding food from his starving older brother. Then the man went to the patriarch disguised as his older brother, which had something to do with a strip of sheep's wool on his neck, and somehow stole the "blessing". However it went, the scheme worked, and it deceived the patriarch into giving his "blessing" to the man instead of the older brother.

This part confused Aaron. He didn't know much about the law, but he did know something to the effect that a contract obtained by coercion, fraud and deceit was void. However, that didn't seem to apply to the case in the story. Maybe the law was different back then, or perhaps it was because this particular contract was something extra special called a "blessing" and, in that time at least, a "blessing" was not as easy to undo as contracts. In fact, when the scheme was uncovered the old patriarch said as much to the older brother, and, in the ultimate "a-nice-case-of-Turtle-Wax-and-a-hearty-thanks-for-playing-along-you-loser-handshake" door prize moment, the old patriarch gave the elder brother the second-place blessing that should have gone to the man. Regardless, everyone's hands were tied somehow, and the man got what his older brother deserved, and the older brother got what the man deserved. A holy mess promptly ensued.

Predictably, the situation served to royally piss off the older brother, so much so that the older brother decided that the best response was to kill the man. Faced with the prospect of a murderously irate older brother, the man absconded with the "blessing", only to find that his murderously irate older brother was not so easily dissuaded. The older brother gathered a posse and set off in pursuit of the man, who, despite all the previous, scheming and lying and cheating and stealing, was still legally "blessed". Maybe the older brother thought if the man was killed that would undo the "blessing", or maybe it was simply that, like any older brother that has been wronged, cheated or insulted by a younger sibling, his thought process was he would beat his younger brother's ass.

Whatever the older brother's motivations were, they weren't spelled out because he was the antagonist of the story, and his job was to provide a conflict for the legally "blessed" but morally suspect man to overcome. In the final analysis, what was important was the older brother and his posse were out to do violence to the man and, which caused the man ran for his life.

This aspect of the story also confused Aaron. Could a life on the run pursued by a murderous irate older brother really be considered a "blessing"? In Aaron's experience the word "blessing" had a positive connotation and certainly did not require one to go on the lam with a posse in hot pursuit. Surely a "blessing" as Aaron understood it couldn't result in all this trouble. Could it? Perhaps people in those times had an ass backward understanding of the word "blessing", or perhaps Aaron didn't really know what a "blessing" was. Again, regardless of the answer to those questions, the man had to haul ass and his brother chased him.

The story was vague about how long the chase went on, but it eventually the chase culminated in a night when the man found himself camped across the river from his older brother. Come the morning, the older brother would cross the river with his posse and apply his angry foot to the man's morally bankrupt posterior. The older brother would get whatever it was he came for, and the man would get his whatever it was he deserved for his theft of the "blessing". It didn't answer all the questions, but that potential resolution presented a simple kind of moral ratio that Aaron could understand, which was, lying, cheating, and stealing will lead to an inevitable ass whipping.

However, that night things took a supernatural turn towards the bizarre and this part left Aaron baffled. While everyone got a good night's sleep before the older brother opened an early morning can of righteous whup ass on the man, an angel appeared to the man. That in and of itself was sufficiently strange, but the situation got even stranger. For some reason the man and the angel wrestled all night and just before dawn, after the angel dislocated the man's leg with some kind of angelic finishing move, the man and the angel finally got around to some conversation.

The angel asked the man to end the wrestling match and let go because dawn was coming, but the man said he wouldn't let the angel go until the angel gave the man a "blessing". It seemed an exceedingly odd request since this whole mess started because of a "blessing" and up until that time, the results of a "blessing" seemed to be rather on the harsh side of fraught. Again, the story was a little vague about the whys-and-wherefores and some of the details were sketchy, but the upshot was that the angel gave the man a "blessing" that included a new name, which when translated meant, "He who struggles with God". Aaron was never sure why the new name was necessary, but it was part of the story, and the story was good, so it didn't bother him too much.

After the "blessing", the angel went his way, the man bowed seven times to his older brother in apology, the older brother told the man that they were cool hugged the man, and the man gave back the "blessing" he had stolen from the older brother because now the man another "blessing" from the angel. All's well that ends well it seemed, even if, truthfully, the details didn't make too much sense. The ending presented Aaron with a moral symmetry he could appreciate after all was said and done: Own up to and atone for your sins, let by-gones be by-gones, and move on.

Now an angel appeared to Aaron in the night and the story came back to him in a rush. Aaron's angel had long blonde hair with a hint of strawberry scent that tumbled down over her naked shoulders to frame her oval face, and a kissably cute nose. Her soft and supple skin tasted of vanilla body wash, and her powder purple toenails aligned perfectly. Her deft feminine curves fit easily and naturally into the masculine angles of his body and her full red lips whispered sultry rounded "ahs" and "ohs" into his ears.

Aaron and his angel didn't wrestle exactly. Instead, they rolled and clung and moved together in unspoken harmony in the shared warmth of the blankets that covered his full-sized bed. He had thought there wasn't enough room for two in his bed, but their bodies worked in sympathetic unison to share the space. He caressed her reverently and gently, like a fragile sculpture of femininity come to life, and in return her ethereal touches and strokes sent little spidery ripples of pleasure skittering across his skin.

Aaron dared not speak for fear that he would somehow undo this magic concurrence.

After a sweet eternity of discovery, the angel sat astride Aaron and possessed him inside her with a wide and innocently sensual gaze of her hazel eyes. Their mutual pace was relaxed and intuitive as if they were empathically tuned to each other's desires and needs. In that union of infinite moments, they melded into one being, body, mind. Scant seconds later the angel's body trembled to a crescendo, and she sighed his name in his ear as her juices ran on him like a benediction. While she moaned out the final spasms of joy, Aaron clutched her to him, so that his heart felt the surge of her heart and the synchronized rhythm throbbed in his chest. In response, Aaron's body shuddered over the precipice, and he gifted himself, his entire self, to the angel through the conduit of togetherness that linked their bodies. With their union complete, Aaron finally allowed himself to speak the angel's name in a quiet and adoring whisper.

"Celeste."

A gentle embrace, a contented sigh and an exhausted kiss later Aaron slipped into a naked and victorious sleep, safe in the arms of his angel.

Early Sunday morning, pink sunlight around the shades combined with the scent of strawberry and the tickle of blonde hair to wake Aaron. While he could feel a naked body next to his, it was not until he opened his eyes that he was sure that he had not been dreaming.

Celeste's body molded itself to him, encircled by his numb arms. They were a little crowded on his full-sized mattress, and they shared a pillow. Her long blonde hair spilled like a halo around her head and a few strands of it teased at his nose as he inhaled her soft scent. Her hands pressed together like a silent prayer against his chest and her powder purple toenails rested against his shins. Aaron had never experienced such a pleasant warmth of togetherness in his life, and he couldn't resist placing a soft kiss on her forehead. Still asleep, Celeste murmured and snuggled closer. He stroked her hair to still her and drank in the sight of her. Nothing in Aaron's life up until that moment had ever felt so right and comfortable.

He glanced at the clock and noted it was 8:00 AM. It was well past his usual wake up time, but then again it was Sunday, and he didn't really have anywhere to go. After a few more minutes of blissful silence, Aaron began the arduous task of extracting himself from the tangle of their bodies. It took him ten minutes of clumsy floundering with numb arms, but he finally managed to extricate himself and stand. Celeste slept on, small and warm, with a look of placid contentment on her face that made Aaron smile so broadly that it hurt his cheeks. He quietly retrieved some clothes and slipped out of the room to have a shower.

While he showered, he thought on the story of the man who wrestled the angel. Something about last night had spawned a new idea in his head about the message of that story, but he couldn't yet call it into focus. Vaguely Aaron thought that he might have a new understanding of what a "blessing" was, but he couldn't yet be sure. However, one thing was for sure. It was time to have a serious conversation with Celeste. The obvious change in their relationship could no longer be winked and, under the light of a new day, the evil little fear fled before the sweet sensation in Aaron's heart. It was time to tell her what was in his heart, whatever the outcome.

As he headed to the kitchen to make coffee, Aaron's half-forgotten cell phone buzzed in his hand. When he looked down, the name on the phone stopped Aaron in his tracks. It was a number that he hadn't expected to see ever again and while he stared in disbelief, the phone buzzed insistently in his hand. Before he could stop himself, an old and reflexive habit answered the call and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hello, Aaron," came a voice from his recent past. "It's Tina."

Aaron's chest felt tight when he heard that name. Until that terrible text message seven weeks ago that unmade their relationship, Tina was the woman Aaron believed he would share the rest of his life with. Old damned up and denied emotions oozed forward as freshly scarred wounds opened at the sound of Tina's voice. Aaron froze in confusion.

Over the course of their eighteen-month relationship, Aaron had developed a plan of how their life would be and scrimped and saved his nickels to put that plan into action. They had joked about it together, giggled about it together, endured the ribbing of friends about it together, and had even discussed it together right down to Tina's ring size and her preferences on shapes and settings. Up until seven weeks ago, it seemed an absolute, sure-fire lock of a bet that they would become Mr. and Mrs. happily married couple with a suburban life on two acres complete with two SUVs in a two-car garage, and two kids. It was practically a done deal, only to have it fall short of the finish line, tripped up by pair of bulging biceps over six pack abs. The memory stabbed a thin icy needle into Aaron's paralyzed heart. Unable to organize his thoughts against the rush of raw emotions, Aaron could only mumble in reply.

"Oh. Hi."

An awkward silence.

"How have you been?" Tina's voice from the past prodded.

Aaron silently pictured the way Tina always played with that thin gold necklace around her long neck when she spoke on the phone. He pictured the way she crossed her legs, always right over left, and lazily kicked her foot in a sultry rhythm. He pictured her soft body wave of caramel hair, and her bee stung red lips. He pictured the way she held his hand, and kissed his cheek, and the way she pressed her hands down on his chest as she ground her body against his while she possessed him inside her. As he pictured her naked body and the way she hissed her passion at him, Aaron's body stirred in an old familiar way. His mind swam with salacious memories of the way Tina's full breasts jiggled when she laughed, and how artfully she popped her hips when she strutted in high heels. Then, with a shake of his head, he recalled that she had asked him a question.

"Ummm... good. I've been good."

What else could he say really?

"That's good," Tina repeated politely. "I'm glad."

Aaron nodded stupidly into the phone, while he tried to formulate some kind of cogent reply.

"How have you been, Tina?"

"Oh, fine I guess..." Tina lilted with a little emotion in her voice. Tina had always known how to hold Aaron's attention with the tone of her voice, and Aaron felt himself slip into that semi-expectant mode that always came when Tina hinted there was more to come. After eighteen months together, it was so automatic it almost qualified as a Pavlovian response.

"Fine," Aaron repeated like an addled idiot. He felt like slapping himself out of this autonomic haze, but Tina pressed on before he could.

"Yeah, well, maybe not so fine."

"Oh?" Aaron heard his own voice answer as if he stood outside his body.

"Aaron," Tina ventured in such a way that Aaron could picture the delicate crystal tear that stood on her cheek when she got emotional. "I just called to tell you... Aaron, I made a huge mistake. I should have never left, and I ended it so badly. I was a total ass and I know it. I want you to know how sorry I am for what I did. For how I hurt you."

Aaron felt himself nod, but he didn't agree or disagree out loud because he was too shocked to reply. The silence drew out long enough to grow awkward, so Tina spoke again.

"I've had a lot of time to think lately, and, well Aaron... you were the best thing that ever happened to me and..."

Aaron drew a quick, sharp breath. Could this really be happening? Did he want it to? The reflexive and Pavlovian part of him did, and it sure would put a band-aid on his ego, but his brain revolted at the idea on general principle. Uncertain, Aaron listened to Tina's next lines like an eavesdropper, not really a participant.

"Could we try again, Aaron? Do you think you could see your way to giving us, giving me, a second chance?" Tina emoted with a few sorry tears in her voice. "Please. Can you forgive me and take me back? I know I don't deserve it, and I treated you like shit in the end, but we were so good together and, well,... you're the only man I ever loved."

Love. That word slapped Aaron back to himself. Yes, Aaron once thought he loved Tina. He had even told Tina that he loved her. That word had led him to make his plans and save his money. But at that word, Aaron's heart rebelled, and he knew that he had never loved Tina, no matter what he had previously thought, said, and planned. In fact, as he emerged from the confused haze of Tina's phone call, the reason he knew he didn't love Tina stood before him, small and adorable in his pajama tops, with tousled blonde hair, neatly aligned purple toenails and kissable nose between two wide, hazel eyes. An electric thrill shot through Aaron and a thousand-watt silly smile spread on his face as he looked into Celeste's beautiful hazel eyes.

"Tina."

"Yes, Aaron?"

"You're forgiven. Delete my number."

"What? Wait Aaron...."

Aaron hung up and put his phone down on the kitchen table, so he didn't get distracted when Tina inevitably called back. Tina didn't take "no" for an answer, but he didn't care. He felt flushed and free, and he knew exactly why.

"Who was that?" Celeste asked in a small, frightened voice.

"Nobody important," Aaron smiled. "My God, Celeste, you are beautiful."

An uncertain hand went to Celeste's face and her eyes hid shyly beneath her bangs.

"No, I'm not," she pouted. "I'm ugly."

Aaron's heart skipped a beat as he looked at her in the morning light. Gently he took her face in his hands and Celeste's eyes went moist as planted a soft kiss on the tip of Celeste's nose. All doubt was gone from Aaron's heart, and he no longer cared to hold in what he had known since he placed that first exploratory kiss on her ankle. Come what may, it was time to open himself to Celeste and the rest was up to her. Aaron took a deep breath, looked deep into Celeste's hazel eyes, and confessed what he had felt since Friday night.

"Celeste... I love you."

Celeste uttered a sob of disbelief and relief from her diaphragm and flapped her hands as if to dissipate her tension. Aaron didn't wait for an answer. He didn't need to really. He knew the answer like God made little green apples and his lips tasted salt from Celeste's tears as he kissed them off her flushed peach cheeks.

"I love you," Aaron repeated to her. "I love you, and that's all there is to it. My only regret is that it took me so long to tell you."

Celeste broke out into a genuine "boo hoo" cry that made her look even more beautiful and Aaron kissed her lips as gently as he could to try and still her.

"Oh, God. Oh, God!" Celeste sobbed heavy and loud into his face as she tried in vain to kiss him back through her emotions. "Oh, God... I can't breathe! I'm going to faint!"

A breathless Celeste collapsed against Aaron's chest, and he wrapped her in a hug to anchor her.

"I love you," he whispered into her hair with a kiss to the top of her head.

"Ooooooooooh... I wanted this!" Celeste bawled loudly. "I wanted this so much for so long, and I was afraid it would never happen and now...Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh, Aaron!"

The neighbor downstairs thumped in protest, but Aaron ignored it.

"Shhhhhh. It's just us," he reassured Celeste. "It's just us and I love you."

"Aaron... Aaron..."

"Shh shh shh," he cooed in her ear. "Are you OK?"

"I'm just so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...... ooooooooh!"

And then Celeste cried. Long pent-up emotions flooded out and somewhere between wracking sobs she stuttered to Aaron that she loved him back and suddenly Aaron's knees were too weak to hold them up. He drew her over to one of the kitchen chairs so he could sit down, and after he sat, Celeste piled into his lap, threw her arms around his neck like he was the only thing that could save her, and bawled into his shoulder for all she was worth. Finally, the storm of her emotions passed, and Celeste sniffled gamely and wiped her kissy nose on the sleeve of his pajamas.