Hww.part/2/of/5-The Kingdom of eden

And so it was, that with slight coaxing, Father Lucas lost the virginity he had saved up all through his life. Considering it was his first time two things can be concluded, one, is that he was terrible, and two, is that Heaven took on a whole new meaning.

From what he had been shown of the kingdom of Eden, which was very little, Lucas decided that it was big. After having sex, Angel had taken him down two levels to a massive public bath with hot springs and diving boards and waterslides all completed around a twenty foot tall Victorian statue of Neptune which spewed mist over the aquatic oasis.

Once they were both clean she showed him how, since certain people here had the power to contrive unlimited amounts of food thanks to the principle, all one had to do was ring one of the small bells hung frequently along the hallways and he would be furnished with a gourmet delicacy.

Both of them ate their fill of brochette and prime roast hog, which were the day’s specialty and exquisite to Lucas’s conservative upbringing.

Even though they had walked extensively, Lucas hadn’t seen a single person other then Angel in the building, a shame because the building itself was big enough to fit hundreds of people comfortably inside of it. It was structured classically, like a roman palace, but taller but more stable then the tallest skyscraper in St. Peters. Every time they came by a window Lucas had to catch his breath for fear the slightest exhalation would cause him to topple over into oblivion.


Being naked, as well as unaccustomed to his youthful form, Lucas felt self conscious about meeting anyone besides the girl who clung to his arm and guided him knowingly to where he could become a registered servant of the principle.

“What if I don’t want to be a registered servant of the principle?” Lucas asked out of curiosity.

“Don’t ever say that again!” Angel cast an anxious glance around the halls and pulled harder on his arms. “We owe everything to the principle; it is our greatest privilege to serve him! Without him we might never have come together.”

“Why’s that?” asked Lucas, feeling more like a child by the second.

“Eden’s not like earth which is hiked up by disease and mutations and viruses and things that disfigure people. Here everyone is beautiful, and old age has no importance because everyone is always healthy. But people are beautiful in different ways, and people have different passions, so the principle decides who would be best suited to each other and he brings them together.”

“It almost seems too good to be true,” Lucas confessed, glancing half ashamedly at a girl he would never have dreamed of back in Russia.

“But it is true!” She said; letting a smile split open her face, “It’s been a hundred and eighty nine years since I was freed from earth, and I’ve waited all that long for the principle to assign me a soul mate, and now finally you are here.”

They had left the classical building, which Angel informed him was home to a few dozen earthlings plugged into their boxes. They didn’t exit on ground level however; instead they left out of a window still higher then the clouds. The weather was pleasantly cool against Lucas’s bare skin, a surprise considering he was so far above the ground where the atmosphere was supposed to be colder. There were no railings unlike where he had sat with Angel earlier; instead there were two strange vehicles.

They looked like scooters, except they had no wheels and to Lucas’s astonishment they floated above the pavement, not attached to anything. With confidence Angel mounted one of the cushioned seats. She beckoned for him to do the same.

The vehicle was so stereotypical of something out a science fiction movie Lucas was immediately wary of it, and with good reason. No sooner had he gotten on and gripped the handlebars then a small motor began to vibrate ferociously between his legs and before he could think to jump off, it zoomed out into the open air.

Lucas let out a feminine scream and then he was falling towards the ground. With a joyous shout Angel dove after him.

As Lucas plummeted he noticed changes in his surroundings, all the buildings in heaven were ancient, but the lower he went the more decrepit, the less cared for they seemed to be, often overgrown with ivy or moss. The temperature too became hotter until he was sweating profusely.

Angel sidled up next to him and shouted over the rushing wind, “Pull up!” And with a yanking motion of her upper torso she rose back into the clouds above him.

Lucas followed her lead and with shaky motion his vehicle straightened itself and then began to wobble out a rapid ascent after its fellow machine.

Before long Lucas had worked out the controls and was able to fly alongside Angel at speeds that would have terrified him had he still been old.

All the skyscrapers were equally beautiful, he reckoned, but as different as apples and oranges. Many were classical Roman or Greek like the one he had come from, also some appeared to have themes like ancient Egypt, or Middle eastern, or Aztec, Chinese, even some extensive towers that looked to be from the late middle ages, or possible the early renaissance. And then beyond the earthlike towers were ones totally alien in appearance, a great number looking like the epitome of modern architecture with curving walls and smooth metal surfaces. By far Lucas’s favorite was the mosque tower, which reminded him of his home back in Russia.

When they stopped the sun had given way to the thousands and millions of stars which inhabited the night sky; if Lucas had been an astronomer he would have realized these ones were quit different from those on earth.

The only thing equal to their splendor was perhaps the building they were now paused in front of, the church they now circled.

But to call it a church was an understatement, this was the lord of all cathedrals, taller then any of the other towers, and more radiant then the sun itself. Lucas now understood that all the other buildings had been modeled after temples to all the different religions and cults, and that now they were at the byproduct of all the religions, Christianity. It wasn’t the most expansive building, the Mosque itself had seemed to Lucas like the largest establishment, and the Hindu temple was large as well as grand, but this Vatican tower was more splendid then even the moon.

It was dark mahogany but inlaid with gold and studded with gems that lay in every panel of wall, depicting scenes of his lordships gracious sovereignty. On the top was red oaken cross, but instead of Jesus being crucified it held a pure black diamond eye in the center. It was startling to look at, mostly because the pupil of the eye was etched with some gem the shined brighter then any star in the sky.

As they approached Lucas began to see other people, people like him with their mentors guiding them every step of the way. Lucas saw that not all of them were guided by their soul mates, actually, most seemed to be guided by far wiser angels of their same sex, as Angel’s guide had probably been. The ones who were already a couple were obvious, because like Lucas and Angel they flew close together with the confidence of equals.

Landing was a scary prospect; Lucas was still perfecting the flying operation, and considering they gave you a plateau big enough for a small airplane he foolishly decided his contraption was meant to land on a runway. In his fear he aimed to bring it down on the very edge of the balcony so that he wouldn’t run out of space as he slowed down.

Being inexperienced Lucas over judged and came down squarely on the edge of the overhang, teetering dangerously; but Angel swooped down to the rescue and pushed him onto solid ground.
There he stood, blending into the lines of beautiful people. Since everyone was equally perfect, and none of them wore anything at all, Lucas no longer felt embarrassed; or turned on, heaven forbid how humiliating that would be.
The line diminished and he was admitted into the grand hall with Angel. There Lucas was left alone with some of the other recently deceased.
He didn’t talk to anyone, but Lucas paid close attention, he noticed that many of the guides were on the verge of nonhuman, sprouting wings or other animal parts on their bodies, many of them performed strange feats like floating down the isle instead of walking.
Angel had left to talk to the principle, give him an account of Lucas’s behavior and determine what position he would be best at. Now she returned with a grimace of displeasure.
“What’s wrong,” Lucas reached out for her hand, amazed at how quickly he had come to care for this stranger.
“They’ve assigned you, to paladin work.” Her face had pale glow about it.
“What’s a paladin?” Lucas asked, suddenly wary.
Angel slumped down in one of the pews, “I think its time I told you, about the people who don’t behave.”