Thirteenth birthday

Today was the day. I crawled out of the twin size bed that the agency assigned me when I turned six. I glanced around the large room that I shared with all of the other angels in the same year as me. Most of them were already up and making their beds with the perfect precision the elder angels taught us, and many were roaming the room chatting about the festivities the day was supposed to hold. A few ran straight to the hooks where we placed our uniforms every night before crawling in bed. Sitting upon the hooks were brand new turquoise jumpsuits, and the few who were very modest ran to slip these over their body first thing. The turquoise uniform has a great meaning in our society and up until now we were required to wear lavender jumpsuits, but today is a special day. The air in the room was full of excitement and giddiness, but I just want to go back to sleep. I am not excited about anything the future holds for us in the agency.

Angel Tamara had breakfast made for all of the angels who were turning thirteen today. It was a breakfast full of lemon poppyseed waffles, eggs, cinnamon rolls with raspberry, brightly colored fruit platters, and all of the juice any angel could ever want. Since all angels have the same birthday only the thirteen-year-olds get celebrated, and this is because when we turn thirteen we get to perform our first miracles. We have trained towards this since our second year of life. Most angels love the idea of getting to help people avoid terrible mistakes and accidents, or award good humans with great spouts of luck, but I despise the idea. I think if something was meant to happen to a person than that shall be it. I don’t want to go messing around with some stupid human’s life.

After breakfast, all of the angels who turn thirteen today were supposed to report to the auditorium for our graduation ceremony, but I had no interest in going. So I did the only logical thing. I snuck into the library and picked up where I left off in Dr. Ash’s guide to human medicine. I don’t know why any of the human medicine books are in the library, because angels aren’t supposed to care about taking care of sick humans, we are only supposed to help them avoid getting sick or hurt in the first place. I read thirty-two pages of the guide and then hurried to the auditorium before any of the elders knew I was gone. When I got there the elder angels were just starting to hand out the day’s city assignments. The way our system works is kind of like a human video game. We get assigned a city at random and we know the number of miracles we are supposed to complete in a day, but we don’t know who we are supposed to be performing miracles for or when. Many of the angels think it’s fun to go out into the human world. But I don’t want to even think about it.

Angel Ninata was reading off the assignments. I had decided that the only way I would leave the agency was if I could get assigned to Boston, Massachusetts. I had read that there were a lot of good human medical facilities in that part of North America, and if I was going to be forced to leave then that’s where I wanted to go. I knew she was getting close to my name, and I started to get nervous. Then she said it. How did they know? Somehow I got assigned to Boston and my elder angel was going to be angel Ninata herself. She was never going to let me stray from the mission. I hate angel Ninata, she was probably the main elder who planned this. Why can’t they just pick somebody else to torture? Maybe the elders did this so they could teach me to love our miracle work.

I just wanted out of the stuffy auditorium. The elders knew what they were doing and there’s no way it wasn’t on purpose. And now I had to sit through another hour of congratulatory speeches. Sometimes I really hate that I was designed to be an angel. I wish I was able to control more of my destiny just like a human can. I had my mind made up and I was positive that I wanted to be a medical doctor, and no elder angel was going to stop me. Angel Matting was up for the next congratulatory speech and then angel Romoni, and then there were three more unimportant elder angels after them.

We were dismissed and ordered to report to the portal room for the first time. We all knew where the room was, but we were never allowed to enter before today. I looked around to find my name and angel Ninata’s name on a board above what I assumed was a portal. When I found it I slowly made my way there and found that angel Ninata was already there waiting on me. I had a feeling the elders had a lot more going on here than I suspected. Angel Ninata quickly ran through the ins and outs of using the portals. First, we had to put on the agency assigned touch screen bracelets that are designed to keep track of all miracles performed on the human side of the earth and keep the angels invisible to all other creatures. Then we were just supposed to press a button that is built into the bracelet and somehow the portal would take us to our daily assignment. Angel Ninata told me to go on ahead and she would follow right behind me.

I instantly knew that something about the system was messed up. Were the elders playing a trick on me? I recognized where we were from my years of studying. They must have designed this for me on purpose. We were in the middle of a brightly lit, top-class hospital. I glanced over at angel Ninata and saw a slight grin on her face.

“You are special Sanchik. The other elders and I have watched your interest in human medicine grow over the years, and we decided to see where it leads. Now unlike the other angels who only have a mentor who watches over them for their first four months of miracle performing, you will have a mentor for your entire career. The angels haven’t seen any changes in our day to day miracle performing society for over six thousand years, and we are beginning the change with you. Instead of performing miracles on the streets of your assigned city, you are going to be assigned to performing miracles inside of hospitals. We trust you won’t disappoint us.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing come out of angel Ninata’s mouth. Seriously, how did the elders know? I promised her that I would try my hardest to refrain from disappointing any of the elders.

Angel Ninata led me to an operating room on the sixth floor of the hospital. I will never understand why humans make the layout of buildings so uncomfortable. I knew that I was about to perform my first miracle, and I hoped all my years of studying would to pay off. I was so scared walking into the operating room and seeing a young redheaded girl laying on the table. What if I wasn’t good enough to save her life? Surely I was. I’d been training my whole life for this, and I had a promise to keep. I walked over just as the surgeon was about to make a mistake that would have killed the girl. I gently took his hands and moved them three millimeters to avoid the fatal mistake. Such a small movement could cost so much. It was exhilarating. I couldn’t believe I had just saved this girl’s life, and nobody would ever know I had anything to do with it.

It felt so fulfilling to know that I was capable of helping without getting anything in return for my miracle performing. I don’t want to go home. I don’t want to crawl back into my nicely made twin bed. I want to be right here. This is where I belong.