The First History of the Third Angel
Novels have inside stories and outside stories, sometimes more than one. There are stories that reveal themselves all at once, and others that are a puzzle. My new book The Third Angel is filled with secrets. Some characters keep secrets from the people they love best. Some keep them from themselves.
Here is a clue to the identity of the Third Angel. Sign my guestbook and I’ll send out other clues.
I heard something at my window. I thought it was snow falling, or birds calling, or branches hitting against the glass. I had been betrayed by someone I loved. Because of that I was sick of human race. All I could think of was how people went behind your back, lied to you, gave you gifts that looked like gold but were made of straw.
I heard it again at my window. I knew someone wanted to come in. I wondered if I had lost my soul, if someone or something had now been sent to collect it. I had most certainly lost something in being betrayed. I couldn’t find it again because I didn’t know what it was.
I thought I heard someone say my name even though the window was closed. Not the name I went by now, but my childhood nickname, a name I didn’t use anymore. I looked out and saw a man. It was cold. The sky was filled with stars. I had one thing left from the person who had betrayed me. A black coat. When I thought of him I thought of that coat and how he looked in it. Now I grabbed it from the closet and brought it outside. The man in the snow was waiting for someone to save him, so I did. I helped him on with the coat.
When he walked away I thanked him for his gift. Now when I thought of that coat I wouldn’t remember my betrayer. Instead I’d think of the man in the snow and the way he came to save me.