Miracle

Alex put the donated groceries on the shelf in the food pantry, getting it ready for the next day's clients. Clients, he scoffed mentally, shaking his head. The words we try to use to make things sound better than it is... They're people, families, wanderers, others... He sighed and let the thought trail off as he worked.

"Pastor Alex!" yelled someone from the hallway.

Alex kept putting cans of beans on the shelf. "What is it Mikey?" he yelled back.

"Someone here to see ya, pastor!"

"Who is it?"

Mikey's head appeared in the doorway. "Dunno. They just said they needs to see ya, but won't say anything else!"

Alex sighed again. "All right. Send them to my office. I'll be there in a minute. And finish stocking in here, would you? We don't want to run out on a Saturday!"

"Will do, pastor!" Mikey replied and disappeared. Alex wiped his hands on his black pants, grabbing his cardigan as he left the food pantry, and trudged up the stairs to his office. It may have been warm in the pantry, but he knew that it would get cold real quick once he was sitting down. This year's winter had been particularly cold, even for a New Hampshire winter, and the heaters in the rectory barely kept the pipes from freezing. Alex sighed again as he saw snowflakes floating gently outside one of the stairwell's windows. I should check the weather again, he thought. I'm guessing need to put more salt on the sidewalks tonight.

When he reached the top floor, Alex adjusted his collar, mostly to make sure it hadn't fallen out again, then opened the door to his office. To his surprise, there was no one in there. Did they get lost? he wondered, then went to the stairwell. "Mikey, did you bring them up to my office?" he yelled down.

"Yeah, pastor! I did!"

"But no one's there!"

"That can't be right, pastor! I brought her up myself. It was barely a minute ago!"

"Pastor!" a small, squeaky voice yelled from the office. What in the world? Alex wondered, and went back in. This time he entered the office fully, and, to his surprise, a mini human was sitting in the office chair. They were about the size of a banana, and if Alex hadn't heard it and now, seen it move to look at him, he would have thought it was a child's doll. "Pastor, I'm sorry to bother you, but I really need to talk to you," she said.

"Oh. Uh. Yes. One moment," he stammered out. Returning to the stairwell he yelled down. "Never mind, I found her!"

"OK, pastor! Heading down to the pantry now!"

"Thanks, Mikey!" he said, returning to his office and closing the door. He skirted around the chair, trying to stay as close to the walls as he could. "Who are you?"

"I'm your three-thirty appointment," she said.

"What?"

"Look on your computer, friend," she said.

Alex sat down at his desk, keeping one eye on the being in the chair, and opening his laptop. Bringing up the calendar he scanned the mostly empty week, and sure enough, there was a three-thirty appointment with a name in the highlighted box. "Your name is Seraphina?"

"It's a name," she said with a shrug. "I have several."

"Who are you?" he asked again. "And why are you so small? I'm surprised Mikey didn't freak out!"

Seraphina smiled again. "He saw what he wanted to see." Her body rippled and stretched, and suddenly she was the size of a nine-year-old girl, with a purple puffer jacket, a pink hat, and matching scarf and gloves. Alex froze in surprise and shock. The girl rippled again, and she was back to her mini human self again. "I can't keep the larger form very long, unfortunately. It takes too much energy." She sat on the chair's seat, looking a bit more tired than she had before.

"Are you of the Devil?" Alex asked, fear finally asserting itself.

Seraphina laughed. "Since when do you believe in the Devil?"

The question hit him like a bucket of cold water. Nobody knows that I don't believe in the Devil, he thought. I've never even written that online! He stared at the being, not even sure what to ask anymore.

Seraphina stared back at him for a long moment, then said, "We need your help, Alex. He must be stopped."

"He? He who? And who's 'we'?"

"You know who I'm talking about, Alex. You feel it. I know you do. It's why we're coming to you."

Alex's mind was racing. This can't be real. I must be dreaming this! Wake up, Alex! he demanded of himself, closing his eyes. He squeezed them shut for a minute, then opened them again. The tiny human woman was still there. "You mean stopped as in dead, don't you?"

"Yes."

The weight of it fell on his mind and body like a lead blanket. "I can't just walk up to someone and murder them! I'm a priest, for God's sake! I took a vow--"

"You took a vow to care for the poor, the sick, the marginalized, the down-trodden, the child, the widow. You took a vow to care for humanity in any way you can. If you do this, you will save millions."

Alex put his head in his hands. He knew, deep down, that she wasn't wrong. "I need to know who you are, before I agree to do anything."

Seraphina jumped onto the desk and sat between his elbows, looking up at him. It was only now that he saw that her hair was silver and she had large eyes that matched her hair. She was wearing dark purple pants and a tunic. "We are watchers. We exist, here, but while we can help humans make the right decisions, we can't, technically, interfere in your world. We have our own vows elsewhere. But it doesn't mean we can't help humans-- the right humans-- to do the right things. It also means we can give the right humans the tools they need. Do you understand?"

"Why me?" Alex whispered.

"Why not you?" she said. "We have watched you for a long time, Pastor Alex Mayfield. We have watched you care for those in your charge, no matter how much you had to sacrifice. You have earned the right to do this a million times over, and you've also earned the rest that will come after."

"But what about my parishioners? Mikey? Mrs. Barton? All the others that I care for? What of them?"

Seraphina smiled gently. "Do you truly think that we would ask you to do this, if we didn't have a plan for that?"

Tears came. Alex wiped them on his sleeves. "But why me? Why not the Pope? Or the Bishop? I'm nothing! Nobody! I just run a dilapidated church in the boonies of New Hampshire! I'm not some damned hero!"

Seraphina laughed, but didn't answer the question. Instead, she said, "You always have a choice, Alex. But I know you can see what will happen if he wins. You are worried for your friends, your people, for humanity as a whole. We will give you the means, Alex. We know you have the will."

"I--" he began, then stopped. She wasn't wrong, and Alex could feel, in his heart, that the choice wasn't really a choice at all.

Seraphina laid a hand on his arm. "You serve with no thought of reward, except for your own peace and for the wellbeing of others. I can't make this choice for you, but just know I will be with you the whole time."

"You have to be some sort of aliens or something-- are you trying to take over the Earth?"

The tiny woman laughed again. "No. But we have always been here."

Alex shivered, and not because the heating in his office was barely functional. In his mind he saw green fields and oceans, peaceful scenes of woods and flowers. He knew this was from Seraphina, and he knew that some of this was the past, but it was also a promise of the future. He could feel her concern for humanity, like a parent for a child, and the sadness she had for the current state of the world.

Alex stared at her again as she gently took her hand away. She nodded, then waited patiently. He took a deep breath. And another. Then a third before he stood, grabbed his car keys, and put on his coat and hat. "Do I need to carry you there?"

She shook her head, then disappeared in shower of silver sparks. Alex stared in awe at the place she'd been, then went to tell Mikey that he was leaving.

Twenty minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of the high school gym where the senator who was running for President was holding a primary rally. The township wasn't that large, but the rally had about a hundred people, some wearing the red hats he'd come to despise over the last few years, and some carrying signs with hateful things written on them. His anger began to outweigh his fear as he walked towards the aisle between the folding chairs.

The senator came up to the podium to start his speech. "It's wonderful to be back in the great state of New Hampshire! Thank you all so much for you warm welcome! All you beautiful, godly people! You sure do have a beautiful town!"

Alex walked down the aisle and glared at the man. All his fear, all his anger, welled inside of him, and he yelled, "Godly? You? You who take away food from the poor? Who take away aid to the sick? You who think the Beatitudes are 'woke' and weak? You who talk of Jesus as if he carried a gun and was a white guy just like you? You don't deserve a warm welcome anywhere!"

"Pastor, you clearly have come to the wrong--"

"NO!" Alex yelled. "I've come to the right place. I've come to-- I don't know-- but you have a choice, senator. Get out of the race. Leave. Don't come back."

The senator pointed to a man in a dark suit and an earpiece who nodded, and pointed to others similarly dressed. The surrounded Alex in order to restrain him, however, when they tried to grab him, they pulled their hands away as if burned. The light in the room grew, and Alex, looking at his hands, realized the light was coming from him. The onlookers gasped and put up their hands against the bright light.

"Security!" the senator shouted, but no one else came.

"NO!" shouted Alex again. "I won't let you destroy the world!"

Suddenly, a beam of light shot out from Alex and hit the senator in the chest. Time slowed down, then the world went quiet, and all Alex could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat. The gym, the crowd, the security agents all faded into a bright, white room, where he and the senator stood, staring at each other.

"You murdered me!" the senator bellowed.

"I gave you a choice, senator. You always had the choice to be, to do, what was right. You always had a choice to show compassion, but you failed every time," Alex said.

"But-- Jesus-- I'm a corrupt man, and I use Jesus for my bigotry!" the politician said, then clapped his hand over his mouth.

Alex's eyes welled up. "Jesus didn't want bigotry! He preached love! For everyone! Why could you never see that you were the type of people he was warning us about?"

"You're just a woke-ass liberal--" The senator clapped his hand over his mouth again. "What's going on?"

"You can't lie here, senator," said a voice behind Alex.

"Who are you?" the man demanded.

Seraphina stepped forward. "We have been watching you senator, and have deemed you a threat to humanity."

"Who are you to decide that?" the man asked. "Are you one of those libtard freaks?" The senator growled in rage. "We should have thrown all of you in concentration camps when we had the chance! Bad enough we couldn't get all the illegals in there!"

"What?!" Alex exclaimed.

"You heard me! You bleeding heart liberals, and trannies, and freaks, and blacks, and Mexicans! All of you!" The senator was foaming at the mouth in his rage.

Alex stared at him, and while he was angry at him, he also felt something else. He shook his head and said, "You are a pitiful man."

"Pitiful?! What the hell are you talking about? I am a senator! I have the power!"

Alex stepped forward. The politician stepped back, and Alex could see fear in his eyes. "I pity you because you don't see the beauty in everyday things or the people around you. You see difference as something to fear, instead of being curious and learning something new. There is no wonder, or awe, or joy in you. What a sad, sorry existence you've been living. No wonder you've been so angry all the time, you had nothing to live for except your greed and hate."

The senator's mouth opened and closed several times. He looked at Alex in confusion and fear, mixed with anger. "You don't know anything about me!"

Seraphina held up a hand. "It's time for you to go, senator," she said. The senator disappeared. The woman turned to Alex and said, "Thank you. You did very well."

"Now what happens?" he asked.

"Now, it's time for you to go home. Come," she said, holding out a hand.

Alex took it, and for the first time in a very long time, he truly felt peace.

In the months that followed the rally, the sunburns that the audience got from the light faded. Many of those who bore witness to what happened, suddenly found themselves doing more volunteer and charity work, trying to better the world. Some went mad and said that they could hear the senator talking to someone in the light. A cult grew around the idea that that someone must have been Jesus, and how Jesus rebuked the senator, saying he was evil because he didn't accept difference. Others just quietly went back to their lives, as if they hadn't witnessed anything at all, and took what happened that night to their graves.

Mikey, though, saw things a little differently. Pastor Alex always said he was special, and something in Mikey's heart urged him to follow Pastor Alex to the gym. Mikey arrived just as the senator and Pastor Alex disappeared into the light. He, too, heard the senator talking, but not to Jesus. He believed with his whole heart that it had been Pastor Alex that had told the senator that he was an evil man. Mikey would tell anyone who would listen that because Pastor Alex had been such a kind and compassionate man, God used him in the gym that day because the senator was a bad man, and that God wanted everyone to know it. A lot of the townsfolk thought that Mikey had lost what little he had of his mind, but when evidence of the senator's corruption leaked six months later, some thought that maybe Mikey might have been right, especially when the senator's party lost nearly all of their races by landslides.

After that, no one doubted Mikey ever again.

The new pastor that came to take over the church was just as kind and compassionate as Pastor Alex, even though the church elders all thought she was too young to have such silver hair. Mikey didn't mind her hair, though, because she treated him just like Pastor Alex had. She let him stay on in the rectory to help out, and that suited Mikey just fine. Every now and again, usually when he stocked the food pantry with Pastor Serena, he always wondered who that girl was who came to visit Pastor Alex right before the miracle happened. One day, he asked, "Pastor Serena?"

"Yes, Mikey?"

"I was wonderin'-- do you think the girl that came in that day to see Pastor Alex was an angel?"

Pastor Serena stood up straight after putting up a can of peas. "What makes you ask that, Mikey?"

"Well, she was really beautiful. A lot like you, actually, white hair and all," he replied, blushing. "She treated me real nice, too. I always believe that angels would be beautiful and kind. I mean, one came to Mother Mary and told her about Jesus, right?" He paused. "And, funny, I never saw her leave, either, after Pastor left. Then again, I went after pastor right away."

Pastor Serena smiled warmly at Mikey. "I don't know, Mikey. God does work in mysterious and wondrous ways. What does your heart tell you?"

"Well, pastor, I think she was, and that she helped Pastor Alex that day," he said. "And you know something, pastor. I don't feel sad that Pastor Alex is gone. Somehow I know he's watching over me and you and the parish and all of us to make sure we're ok." He looked up at the woman. "Is that strange, pastor? Some people tell me that I'm weird for not being sad, since we were friends."

"I don't think that's strange at all, Mikey," Pastor Serena replied, as she finished stocking the canned goods. "I believe that he's watching over us, too." She paused, then leaned over and whispered, "I'll tell you a secret."

"A secret?"

She nodded, and whispered, "I think you're right about the girl, too."

"You think that?"

Pastor Serena smiled, and for a brief moment, she seemed to radiate a bright light, but before Mikey could comment on it, the light went away. Pastor Serena winked, then said, "Why don't you finish up here. I should go upstairs and see if there's been anymore calls about the pancake breakfast."

"Ok, pastor!" he said, and watched her as she left the room. Is she...? Mikey wondered. He thought about it for a moment, then, smiling widely, knowing the truth in his heart, he went back to stocking the shelves.