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“And that’s not normal for angels?”
“No. Most definitely not.”
“How did it happen?”
“Oh…” said Gertrude “I forgot. I was going to explain that to you.”
And I bet you thought I had forgotten about that too, right?
Chapter Twenty
Mount Vesuvius and The Broken Wing
Wurgurrawoh and Gertrude were now siting facing Jane. Wurgurrawoh had gone and got two high back dining chairs; Jane had sat in one while Wurgurrawoh moved the high chair and Gertrude round to face Jane and he had then sat on his chair next to Gertrude facing Jane.
Gertrude was staring hard and unblinking at Jane, and as most cats can outstare a brick, Jane was feeling uncomfortable.
“Gertrude?” Jane asked in an awkward type way “Are you alright?”
Gertrude blinked and said “mhumm?” her eyes seemed to refocus, she had been staring at something but not at Jane, cat’s do have a habit of staring at things that are seeming not there, “Yes, sorry I was thinking how to start.”
Wurgurrawoh offered up some help “Benevolence?”
“That’s as good a place as any.” said Gertrude. “But I’ll say this first… as it is best that you know this Jane.” “Brenda and Brendan have been living together in this building since it was built back in Tudor times; they even paid for to be built. But in all that time Brendan has never once step out the door and Brenda only goes outside two or three times a year, four times in nineteen sixty five.”
Wurgurrawoh coughed with slight embarrassment.
Jane ignored this and looked around the ‘Arena’ “But that’s…”
“Yes it is. “ Gertrude said knowingly “But it gets worse.” She took a deep breath, it seemed she didn’t like talking about this. “Brendan and Brenda have not seen each other face to face in…” she looked over at Wurgurrawoh
“Five?” said Wurgurrawoh.
Gertrude nodded and looked back at Jane “… nearly five hundred years.”
The small part of Jane’s mind that hadn’t said anything for far too long, that you have probably forgotten about said ‘Oh, some of the song lyrics make more sense now, in a weird way.’
Jane was gobsnaked. “Five hundred years! But they live together? How have they managed that?”
Wurgurrawoh said to Jane. “They talk kind of, by shouting mostly, but they never see each other. Why do you think this place is such a labyrinth? It’s easy to avoid each other in a place like this with this amount of stuff everywhere, there are private hiding everywhere.”
Jane considered this and she could see how that would work but five hundred years would take a lot of determination to do it. “Why do they hide from each other?”
Gertrude took another deep breath, yup, she really didn’t like taking about this. “Guilt.” was all she said.
“Guilt?” Jane was confused.
“Let me try and explain.”
And Gertrude then spoke thusly:
Hasdiel was, and technically still is, the divine angel of benevolence, but for reasons, that I have never got a satisfactory answer to, Hasdiel shared this duty with another angel named Zadkiel.
Zadkiel and Hasdiel were very close, the best of friends, Zadkiel was never seen anywhere without Hasdiel being there too. As you can probably guess Hasdiel has always been an extrovert and was popular and liked by all the other angels and had lots of other friends including the odd demon or two, but Zadkiel…? Zadkiel was different compared to the other angels. Zadkiel was an introvert, quiet and soft spoken. Zadkiel did a lot of thinking and always wanted to ask questions but never did: thinking is not practically common amongst angels or demons now I come to think about it. Anyway, Hasdiel was Zadkiel’s only friend, when Zadkiel was ever with other angels and demons it was because Hasdiel was there too and Zadkiel barely ever spoken to anyone other than Hasdiel. It was like this for millennia after millennia after millennia.
The problem started one sunny lunch time about fourteen miles southeast of Naples, Italy. Hasdiel, Zadkiel, Apollýōn and Wurgurrawoh, where drinking in a bar and getting depressingly drunk.
The date was the twenty third of August, seventy nine AD and the bar was on a corner of a busy street in a city called… Pompeii.
Jane gasped “Oh no. Was that when Vesuvius…?”
Gertrude nodded “Yes, it… it erupted on the twenty fourth.”
Jane looked at Wurgurrawoh, he was sitting forward on his chair with his elbows on his knees. He was looking at his hands as he rubbed the palm of his left hand with the fingers of his right hand. “You were there when it…? she couldn’t end the sentence. Wurgurrawoh didn’t look at her but he slowly nodded.

Zadkiel and Hasdiel were very close, the best of friends, Zadkiel was never seen anywhere without Hasdiel being there too. As you can probably guess Hasdiel has always been an extrovert and was popular and liked by all the other angels and had lots of other friends including the odd demon or two, but Zadkiel…? Zadkiel was different compared to the other angels. Zadkiel was an introvert, quiet and soft spoken. Zadkiel did a lot of thinking and always wanted to ask questions but never did: thinking is not practically common amongst angels or demons now I come to think about it. Anyway, Hasdiel was Zadkiel’s only friend, when Zadkiel was ever with other angels and demons it was because Hasdiel was there too and Zadkiel barely ever spoken to anyone other than Hasdiel. It was like this for millennia after millennia after millennia.
The problem started one sunny lunch time about fourteen miles southeast of Naples, Italy. Hasdiel, Zadkiel, Apollýōn and Wurgurrawoh, where drinking in a bar and getting depressingly drunk.
The date was the twenty third of August, seventy nine AD and the bar was on a corner of a busy street in a city called… Pompeii.
Jane gasped “Oh no. Was that when Vesuvius…?”
Gertrude nodded “Yes, it… it erupted on the twenty fourth.”
Jane looked at Wurgurrawoh, he was sitting forward on his chair with his elbows on his knees. He was looking at his hands as he rubbed the palm of his left hand with the fingers of his right hand. “You were there when it…? she couldn’t end the sentence. Wurgurrawoh didn’t look at her but he slowly nodded.
Gertrude continued with “Apollýōn was there on official business as the Angel of Death…”
Jane gasped again “She was there to kill all those people?”
Gertrude shook her head. “No, of course not.” Gertrude seemed almost angry now “The whole the angel of death thing is a misconception. An angel that kills? That is not possible. The way humans think of her is something that upsets Apollýōn; she is the second most misunderstood being in the universe. Apollýōn escorts the newly departed to their destination; Polly is a gentle, kind hand of guidance and understanding, not a killer. She is what you would call the grim reaper only she isn’t grim and doesn’t have a scythe. She is also the only angel that goes to hell, she does her job properly and takes the souls to where they think they should be. And she is my friend.”
-What Gertrude knew but left out is far more important than what she said but she was in a hurry to tell the story and she knew that there are things that it is best for humans to find out for themselves when they are meant to find out. The saying that ‘your whole life flashes before your eyes when you die’ is true but only true if you are looking at it from the right direction. The journey from earth to heaven and indeed hell does not take a long time, if your view of time is that of an immortal temporal being like, say, an angel or demon. If however you are a being that sees time in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years like, say, a human, then the journey is a long one: A life time in fact. You do indeed see your whole life run like a film before your eyes while journeying to your next destination but not from your point of view, you see it from the point of view of everyone else you have ever met; what they saw, heard, thought and felt… about you. And as this can be very disturbing it is nice to have a being as gentle, kind, understanding and as sensitive as Apollýōn to hold your hand and pass the metaphorical tissues while you watch your terminal inflight movie. Apollýōn hates her job and it makes her very sad and miserable, she hates seeing people upset but she does what she does to the very best of her kind ability, always. She is thankful that it is her that does it: the reason being is she would hate for any other angel to feel the way she feels and the thought of some being that enjoyed the job while dealing with the confused and grieving newly dead without compassion and kindness makes her sick to her stomach. Death has a soul too. And how did Gertrude know all this? Because nearly two thousand years ago Gertrude died and met Apollýōn, for the first time.-
“I see.” Jane said feeling that she did but knowing that there was more to it than that. “Why where the rest there?”
Gertrude looked over at Wurgurrawoh, he was still rubbing the palm of this left hand with his right hand. He didn’t look at Gertrude but he just nodded. Gertrude took a deep breath and looked back at Jane “Back in those days Apollýōn would ask for support from friends when there was a big event she had to be at.” Gertrude rubbed her left ear with her left paw and sniffed “She doesn’t ask anymore.”
Jane looked at Wurgurrawoh she hadn’t seen him like this before “Because?”
“Because…” said Gertrude sitting up straight and getting ready to tell the hard bits “…Zadkiel vanished that day… without a trace. Nearly without a trace.”