Third Time Lucky - Prologue
For the Gabriel BigBang 2012.
It was just meant to be something to pass the time, a little amusement in a long dull week. Gabriel had stacked his dominoes carefully and it just needed a tiny little nudge. He flagged down the next cab that came past and gave a random address. It didn't matter really where they went, just they were heading in the right direction along the road.
The cab headed towards the next intersection, the driver speeding up slightly to make the lights. Gabriel clicked his fingers surreptitiously and the flower stall at the side of the road teetered as one of it's faux wheels cracked down the centre with a snap that was audible inside the vehicle.
Even though the wheels were only for show they provided support for the cart and it shuddered dramatically. The careful arrangements of buckets and pots wobbled and swayed. Just as it looked like everything would settle into place, a small potted cactus gave into the siren call of gravity and tumbled over.
It smacked into the bucket below it, sending heavy headed camellias and water everywhere. The camellias sent two lots of roses flying, the flower seller jumping backwards in dismay, before rushing forwards, hands flying towards the remaining flowers.
He managed to settle the rest of his cart but could not stop the large plastic bucket of camellias from rolling into the road. Gabriel's cab swerved to avoid it, screeching to a halt halfway into the intersection. He watched as a soft-top Bentley Azure came rapidly towards them, the driver concentrating on the conversation he was carrying out on his cellphone. Gabriel listened in.
“Of course I love you baby. You're the only girl for me, you know that.” The blonde next to him giggled vapidly and ran her hand up the man's thigh. “No, no. Just business baby. Yeah, me too. See you soon, baby.” He hung up the call just in time to see the cab stalled halfway across the road in front of him, and jerked the steering wheel hard. The Bentley spun in a graceful circle, sliding to a halt just behind a truck parked at the edge of a construction site.
Gabriel watched as the man sucked in a long breath of relief; the girl beside him, having sunk her $100 dollar manicure into the fabric of the seats, held up her hands to check her nails. Gabriel turned his attention back to the truck and more specifically the skip that was slowly swinging on to the back of it. He watched as one of the heavy chain links stretched like toffee, the edge of the skip tipping towards the open-top car beneath it.
He laughed out loud, clapping his hands and startling his driver as the skip slowly emptied a stream of contaminated soil and muck into the car, splattering across the tan leather seats, dripping over two shocked and disgusted faces. The truck driver quickly corrected for the tip, landing the skip carefully onto the bed of his truck, but the damage was already done.
The blonde girl leaped upwards, a torrent of abuse falling from her pretty mouth. She sucked in a breath to continue just a glob of dirt dripped from her hair. She seemed to freeze for a moment before her body contracted and she vomited all over the dash of the car. The driver just stared in horror at the ruins of his car. He had just picked it up from the showroom, the insurance papers weren't even signed.
Gabriel smiled happily, slipped his driver a twenty and exited the car. He strolled slowly over to the pavement, a jaunty whistle trailing on the air behind him. He was just figuring out what kind of ice-cream to treat himself to for another job well-done, when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
Time froze around them as Gabriel turned to find a very angry Cupid standing behind him.
“Look what you've done! How could you? I've spent months, months, planning this. And you come along with your stupid little slapstick routine and ruin it all. You have no idea how hard it is to co-ordinate this kind of stuff. See that man there? He was going to buy flowers from the stall there and hand them to the next girl he saw, just a random act of kindness.”
Gabriel blinked, following the Cupid's wild gesticulations. “See, there she is! And she would have been so surprised. She's never had anyone buy her anything before and she would have thanked him and asked him why and then with the talking and the coffee and a dinner date. And you know where I'm going with this. But now he won't, and it's going to take me ages to get these two in the same place at the same time again.”
Gabriel raised his hands, patting at the air in a bid to calm the Cupid before he exploded or, Father forbid, lost his tenuous grip on what little clothing he was wearing.
“Come on Kewp, it can't be that hard. Just have the guy go up to her, ask her out.”
“No, no, no! It doesn't work like that. She's far too shy to say yes. I have to get her in a position where they can get to talking first, something that makes him feel relaxed too. What do you know of love anyway? Stupid Archangels swanning around being all superior and smity, no idea what we poor grunts have to do, rushing around behind you, cleaning up your mess.”
“Hey! It's not like your job is that hard. Find a boy, find a girl or even another boy, shoot one of your stupid little arrows, watch them fall sickly and stupidly in love. Big woo! It never lasts. Couple of years down the road and he'll be just like that guy over there, lying to his wife while he bangs a younger, prettier model.”
“Oh, so you think you know it all do you? Bet you can't even match one human with his true love.”
“Oh come on. One? Sure, with one hand tied behind my back.” Gabriel smirked widely and hid a hand behind himself, curling the other one in a bring it on gesture. A brief sense of unease flitted through him as the Cupid's mouth curled in a slow smile, but he's not going to back out now. No way is a low-level angel like this one going to get the better of him.
The Cupid turned and fished into empty space, before pulling out a sheaf of paper. “Okay. You find one person's true love. I'll give you three shots. Each time you fail you have to give up some of your powers. I'll place you into his life at three points where he will be ready to accept his true love. All you have to do is fire the 'stupid little arrow'.” The Cupid produced a dart gun and three arrows.
“So you up for it, Archangel?”
Gabriel frowned at the Cupid's mocking tone and bit back the urge to singe the tips of his absurdly fluffy and cute wings. He grabbed for the papers and scrawled the Enochian symbols for his name across the bottom of the sheet. The Cupid bundled them up and passed Gabriel the small package of darts and the dart gun.
“Three chances Archangel, or you have to stand up in front of the Host, say you're sorry and admit that a Cupid knows better.” Gabriel scoffed mockingly and then the Cupid was reaching towards him, two fingers brushing against his forehead.
On to Part One
It was just meant to be something to pass the time, a little amusement in a long dull week. Gabriel had stacked his dominoes carefully and it just needed a tiny little nudge. He flagged down the next cab that came past and gave a random address. It didn't matter really where they went, just they were heading in the right direction along the road.
The cab headed towards the next intersection, the driver speeding up slightly to make the lights. Gabriel clicked his fingers surreptitiously and the flower stall at the side of the road teetered as one of it's faux wheels cracked down the centre with a snap that was audible inside the vehicle.
Even though the wheels were only for show they provided support for the cart and it shuddered dramatically. The careful arrangements of buckets and pots wobbled and swayed. Just as it looked like everything would settle into place, a small potted cactus gave into the siren call of gravity and tumbled over.
It smacked into the bucket below it, sending heavy headed camellias and water everywhere. The camellias sent two lots of roses flying, the flower seller jumping backwards in dismay, before rushing forwards, hands flying towards the remaining flowers.
He managed to settle the rest of his cart but could not stop the large plastic bucket of camellias from rolling into the road. Gabriel's cab swerved to avoid it, screeching to a halt halfway into the intersection. He watched as a soft-top Bentley Azure came rapidly towards them, the driver concentrating on the conversation he was carrying out on his cellphone. Gabriel listened in.
“Of course I love you baby. You're the only girl for me, you know that.” The blonde next to him giggled vapidly and ran her hand up the man's thigh. “No, no. Just business baby. Yeah, me too. See you soon, baby.” He hung up the call just in time to see the cab stalled halfway across the road in front of him, and jerked the steering wheel hard. The Bentley spun in a graceful circle, sliding to a halt just behind a truck parked at the edge of a construction site.
Gabriel watched as the man sucked in a long breath of relief; the girl beside him, having sunk her $100 dollar manicure into the fabric of the seats, held up her hands to check her nails. Gabriel turned his attention back to the truck and more specifically the skip that was slowly swinging on to the back of it. He watched as one of the heavy chain links stretched like toffee, the edge of the skip tipping towards the open-top car beneath it.
He laughed out loud, clapping his hands and startling his driver as the skip slowly emptied a stream of contaminated soil and muck into the car, splattering across the tan leather seats, dripping over two shocked and disgusted faces. The truck driver quickly corrected for the tip, landing the skip carefully onto the bed of his truck, but the damage was already done.
The blonde girl leaped upwards, a torrent of abuse falling from her pretty mouth. She sucked in a breath to continue just a glob of dirt dripped from her hair. She seemed to freeze for a moment before her body contracted and she vomited all over the dash of the car. The driver just stared in horror at the ruins of his car. He had just picked it up from the showroom, the insurance papers weren't even signed.
Gabriel smiled happily, slipped his driver a twenty and exited the car. He strolled slowly over to the pavement, a jaunty whistle trailing on the air behind him. He was just figuring out what kind of ice-cream to treat himself to for another job well-done, when a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.
Time froze around them as Gabriel turned to find a very angry Cupid standing behind him.
“Look what you've done! How could you? I've spent months, months, planning this. And you come along with your stupid little slapstick routine and ruin it all. You have no idea how hard it is to co-ordinate this kind of stuff. See that man there? He was going to buy flowers from the stall there and hand them to the next girl he saw, just a random act of kindness.”
Gabriel blinked, following the Cupid's wild gesticulations. “See, there she is! And she would have been so surprised. She's never had anyone buy her anything before and she would have thanked him and asked him why and then with the talking and the coffee and a dinner date. And you know where I'm going with this. But now he won't, and it's going to take me ages to get these two in the same place at the same time again.”
Gabriel raised his hands, patting at the air in a bid to calm the Cupid before he exploded or, Father forbid, lost his tenuous grip on what little clothing he was wearing.
“Come on Kewp, it can't be that hard. Just have the guy go up to her, ask her out.”
“No, no, no! It doesn't work like that. She's far too shy to say yes. I have to get her in a position where they can get to talking first, something that makes him feel relaxed too. What do you know of love anyway? Stupid Archangels swanning around being all superior and smity, no idea what we poor grunts have to do, rushing around behind you, cleaning up your mess.”
“Hey! It's not like your job is that hard. Find a boy, find a girl or even another boy, shoot one of your stupid little arrows, watch them fall sickly and stupidly in love. Big woo! It never lasts. Couple of years down the road and he'll be just like that guy over there, lying to his wife while he bangs a younger, prettier model.”
“Oh, so you think you know it all do you? Bet you can't even match one human with his true love.”
“Oh come on. One? Sure, with one hand tied behind my back.” Gabriel smirked widely and hid a hand behind himself, curling the other one in a bring it on gesture. A brief sense of unease flitted through him as the Cupid's mouth curled in a slow smile, but he's not going to back out now. No way is a low-level angel like this one going to get the better of him.
The Cupid turned and fished into empty space, before pulling out a sheaf of paper. “Okay. You find one person's true love. I'll give you three shots. Each time you fail you have to give up some of your powers. I'll place you into his life at three points where he will be ready to accept his true love. All you have to do is fire the 'stupid little arrow'.” The Cupid produced a dart gun and three arrows.
“So you up for it, Archangel?”
Gabriel frowned at the Cupid's mocking tone and bit back the urge to singe the tips of his absurdly fluffy and cute wings. He grabbed for the papers and scrawled the Enochian symbols for his name across the bottom of the sheet. The Cupid bundled them up and passed Gabriel the small package of darts and the dart gun.
“Three chances Archangel, or you have to stand up in front of the Host, say you're sorry and admit that a Cupid knows better.” Gabriel scoffed mockingly and then the Cupid was reaching towards him, two fingers brushing against his forehead.
On to Part One