Guardian Angel Academy (3 page)

“Yes, Angel Persephone. I’m so sorry.”  Bertrand gazed at the floor.

“Nevertheless, you will go to the study hall this evening during free time from nine to ten o'clock and memorize this.  We can't have anything but the sound of angelic voices coming from our choir.”

“I’m so sorry,” Bertrand said once again, shaking his head back and forth, rubbing his fingers through his light brown hair as he clutched his music in his other hand.

“You are forgiven,” Angel Persephone smiled.  “All right, we will run through it one more time and then we will give you your schedules for the week.” Angel Persephone resumed her starting position with her baton in the air.

Persephone's tiara sparkled atop her head as she waved her baton.  Her eyes lifted with glee, her smile radiant as the beautiful music filled the air.

After the music, Angel Angelique, one of the two assistant directors, floated up to the front of the great room and called out the classes for the first week freshmen. 

First hour: Thought-Instillation

Second hour: Controlling the Elements

Third hour: Glowing

Fourth Hour: Suicide Prevention

Lunch

Fifth Hour: Evil Spirit Confrontation

Sixth Hour: Choir

Seventh Hour: Floating Techniques

Eighth Hour:  Invisibility

“Freshmen will start with Thought instillation 101.  All other students will go to your registered courses.  Your schedules can be viewed from your message box in your hand-held devices.  You are excused.”

Angel Angelique floated back to speak with the other two directors.  Her long shimmering black hair was  secured by a sparkling jeweled headband.  Although she had much experience as a guardian angel, she appeared about the age of twenty-nine, as did the other directors.  Angel Persephone, Angelique and Crystal discussed their plans.  Crystal, the other assistant director's medium-length blond hair shimmered as she smiled warmly at the others. Her beads and jewels sparkled from her necklace and belt of her shimmering white gown.

Felix, Kevin, Journey and I walked out of the great hall towards our first class.

“I feel sorry for Bertrand,” Felix mumbled.  “Tonight while we have free time he’ll be in the study hall memorizing the Hallelujah Chorus.”

“Yes,  too bad for him,” said Kevin, looking at his schedule.  “We’re going to be playing a game of flotationball, whatever that is, and having angel food cake at the Eatery.”

Too bad Bertrand has to miss it,” Felix frowned.  Then he smiled.  “I can't wait to find out what flotationball is.

Chapter Four

“Welcome to Thought Instillation 101.  I am professor Walter.” The sash around Walter's waist and the lapels of his white robe glistened. He looked to be in his thirties with white hair and a firm athletic build. I tried to count the sparkling jewels to estimate how many life-saving instances he accomplished as a guardian angel.  I guessed two-hundred.

After he had everyone's attention, he addressed the class.  “First I’d like to ask you to think, why thought instillation.  What is the purpose of thought instillation and when might it be useful?”

Felix raised his hand.  Angel Walter nodded.

“We can save a person by instilling an idea in their mind.”

“Okay.  Can anyone give me an example?”

I raised my hand.

“Yes, Josie?”

“You could use thought instillation to give a person the idea not to cross the street at an unsafe time.”

“Yes, Josie,” acknowledged professor Walter.  “Good example.”

Kevin raised his hand confidently.

“Yes?”

“You can give a person an idea to call a doctor, or take a certain medication or go to the hospital to have something checked.”

“That’s good.  All of those things could save a person's life.   Any other ideas?”

Journey slowly lifted her hand.

“Yes, Journey?” Professor Walter asked.

“I think that in a life or death situation, such as say, someone drowning, you can put the idea into another person’s head to grab a branch or log for them.”

“Yes, all very good ideas.  Now, however, is the difficult part that we are going to explore.  How we go about instilling thoughts into people’s heads.  Please turn to page nine in your textbooks where it reads, How to begin the process of thought instillation.”

As we opened our textbooks, Professor Walter looked out upon his class.  The soft seats were in a semicircle starting with the bottom row and gradually ascending until the top row overlooked them all.    The seats all had desk attachments.  Only the freshman classrooms had seats.  The higher levels were expected to float in place without any chairs and use air formed desks.  Freshmen, however, had not mastered floating or firming air, and were allowed to sit on seats.

All four of us sat in the same row.  I, teasingly whispered into Kevin’s ear, “I’d like to use mind instillation to get Angel Walter to give me an A.”

“I heard that,” Angel Walter exclaimed, not in an angry or disapproving way, but rather in an amused sort of tone.  “Just so you know,”  he continued, “I have excellent hearing.  It is a fact that our senses develop and become stronger the longer we serve as guardian angels.”

“Oops,” I giggled.

“So,” he paused, “As some of you may have heard, we do not give letter grades here such as A's and B's, it is only pass or fail, but since Josie wants an A so badly, we’ll start with Josie reading the first two paragraphs.”

I grabbed my textbook and as usual, I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth.

I began reading aloud. “Mind instillation requires a great amount of focus.  You must clear your mind of all other thoughts.  Think only of the person you are trying to help.  If you have any personal thoughts or desires, extinguish them immediately. Selfish desires only interfere with the process and cause you to fail. 

Focus on the problem at hand.  Think of the thoughts that you want to instill.  For example, if you want the subject to think, I do not wish to cross the street right now.  Think that over and over in your head.  Put yourself in the constituent’s place.  I do not wish to cross the street right now.  I do not wish to cross the street right now.  I do not wish to cross the street right now.  Paralyze yourself as you wish them to be paralyzed.  Do not move a muscle.  Finally say the words, As Guardian Angel, I command it. To add a little umph you may get out your baton and wave it after you say the words.  This is not required, but many like to do it.  Sometimes a guardian angel's 'magic' flows better through the baton.”

We all received batons upon arrival to be used when directing the choir.  I was relieved to learn that freshmen weren't required to direct the choir.  We kept our batons in a special pocket in our robes and gowns.

“Okay,” Angel Walter spoke to the class.  “What is the significant component of the passage Josie just read?”

One of the freshmen in the back raised his hand.

“Yes?”

“I think the important part is to only think about helping your assignment.  Don’t think about yourself.  It isn't about you.”

“Exactly.  We are here to help others.  Eventually you will find that as you help others, you help yourself.  It is an important lesson to learn.  Evil spirits work in just the opposite way.  They wish only to help themselves and in so doing, they destroy themselves.”

Felix asked, “Will we get to practice this?”

“Indeed you will.  We are out of time for today, but tomorrow we will begin the practicum. The practice rooms are the only place you are allowed to use your powers while here at the Academy.  We will go there together as a class tomorrow.  Please read the remainder of the chapter tonight and come back prepared to try it out.  You are excused.”  As soon as Angel Walter got the words out of his mouth the bells chimed.  Unlike the blaring of the school bell on Earth, this bell sounded like church bells, a sweeter more heavenly sound.

I walked with my new friends along the golden pathway lined with perfectly trimmed hedges and sweet smelling flowers of all colors and varieties; some varieties of flowers I hadn't ever seen before.  We walked toward our second hour class, Controlling the Elements.  I watched in awe as the upper classmen floated effortlessly by, not on the path but in the sky.

“Don't you guys wish we could fly like that?” Felix asked.

“Yeah, it’s much quicker than walking,” I said.

“It looks a lot more fun than walking, too,” Kevin said, looking up at the passing angels.

We entered an ornate building with golden spires on top.  As I entered the lobby of the vast building, I could see a staircase winding up to the second floor.  Green-robed angels walked up the staircase.  Other angels floated up.  The lobby contained a few chairs and couches which were occupied by freshmen.  Other students were float-sitting in the room and the walls were adorned with beautiful paintings.  A large skylight filling almost all of the ceiling, opened to the view of the heavens.  We walked down the hall, looking at the room numbers as we passed each room.  Finally, we found room number seventy-six.

Professor Angel Addison, a red-head with sparkly blue eyes had her hair tied back in a white ribbon adorned with many sparkly jewels.  The bodice and hem of her gown were covered in pearls.  She stood by the door and welcomed us in.  “Good day and welcome to Controlling the Elements 101.”

After greeting everyone, and we were all seated, she floated to the front of the room and float-sat comfortably in the air in front of the class.

“I believe this will be one of the most useful classes you will take,” she stated after everyone was seated.

“There will be many times when you will find that you will need to control the elements to save an assignment’s life.  Why, just the other day I used it to save a young college student from a crash.  His car was at an intersection and he thought it was his turn to go, but as he was entered the intersection, another vehicle came zooming through.  I put the brakes on quickly in the other vehicle using methods of Controlling the Elements and both cars swerved, but they missed each other.  It was not either person’s time to go.”

Journey raised her hand.

“Yes, Angel Journey?”

“Are you still a working Guardian Angel?”

“Yes, I’m a part-time teacher and part-time Guardian Angel.  I have more hours to put in as a Guardian Angel.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Please take out your textbooks and turn to Chapter One,”  Angel Addison began.  “Who would like to read first?”

A girl in the front row raised her hand.

“Amanda, go ahead.”

I was amazed at how each teacher knew every student’s name.  But they were Guardian Angels and knowing names came with the territory.

“Chapter One.  You must not only concentrate your mind and thoughts toward the action at hand, but you must use the forces of nature.  Wind can be summoned to push down a car’s brake.  Sunshine can heat up something.  Water is a powerful source.  But whatever you do, you must focus on helping the person.  Any selfish thoughts or desires will cancel out all of your efforts.”

“Thank you for reading, Amanda.  I would show you how it is done, however, our powers do not work that way.  If we do not have a guardian angel cause, we have no power.  Therefore, if you wish to use your powers to show off or have fun, your powers will not work.”

Felix raised his hand.

“Yes, Felix?”

“How do we practice then?”

“We have practice rooms at the Academy.  There, and only there, will our powers work for the sake of practice.  You may go there whenever you'd like, but you have to check in at the front desk.”

After Controlling the Elements, we took our seats in Glowing class.  When all were seated the teacher turned out the lights, making the room pitch black.  Darkness engulfed us until a small light flickered in the front of the room.  The light slowly widened until it grew in size and luster filling the entire room as if the sun had risen in the sky.  Looking forward, I realized the light was emanating from the teacher.  One angel's brightness exceeded the usual classroom's lights.

Angel Jeremiah let his glow out and turned the lights back on.  “This is what I expect you to be able to do by the end of this one-week class.  As you advance to red, yellow, and blue, you shall learn more about controlling your glow, the length of time you glow and the various levels of light.  But you should be able to glow steadily for a few minutes by the end of this course.”

Unlike the powers courses, glowing could be practiced anywhere.  One by one, each student came up to the front and practiced the techniques Angel Jeremiah described.  Some could sustain a glow for a few seconds, others' glow flickered on for a second and then extinguished.  Some had trouble getting it started.  When it was my turn, I was able to sustain a glow for only a second.

“Like most things,” said Angel Jeremiah, “glowing takes practice.  I expect you to practice for a few minutes each day until you get the hang of it.  We will also learn when glowing is necessary and when to use your glowing skills.  That’s all for today.”

The rest of the day continued as planned.  The professor for Suicide Prevention was Angel Agnes, an aged wrinkled, short and pudgy woman.  She was purplish blue in the face and she had worked at her job for many years, the nature of the work taking its toll on her.  She informed us that when she completes her work, she will return to her beautiful and cheery self.