As the souls marched their way up to Heaven, a few could hear the sound of a lone banjo. Picking away was a lonely angel, or the departed thought her so. She had a face that had seen at least a century, hair as white as the driven snow, wings that shook to the beat, feathered and black as coal.
~"Too good for hell and too bad for heaven,
Spent my time on the mortal plane.
Came back up and now I'm a hangin'
Guardin' a-round the gate...
Fallen angels can't keep-on a-fallin,
Sooner or later, we all must rise.
Been a mortal but I'm still a paying
For now I just bide my time....
Been a long time gone,
Lord, I ain't pitched a fork since I don't know when,
Long time gone...and I ain't goin' back again...."~
Asma sat, her legs tailor-style beneath her robe, plucking away at a banjo whose strings glistened like spiderwebs in morning dew. As she sang, she thought about her existence thus far. Coming into existence, the times before the Battle, feeling sorry for those who had Fallen... and then being pitched out of Heaven by a group of overzealous Powers who hadn't had a millennia to calm down yet. Her wings ruffled a bit at the memory. They had been white..once. The heat of her fall from Heaven had charred them a sooty black. She thought they looked better this way and launched into a feisty instrumental solo to calm down a smidge. Her time out of Heaven had not been all weeping and gnashing of teeth, but enough of it had.
~"They ain't all perfect but they ain't all evil,
Mortals come and mortals go.
I take care of those a-waitin'
To go Home or down Below.
Now, I know I have been forgiven,
But I can't come back Home just yet.
But the Lord is smiling on me
And you can bet I won't forget...."~
She had spent time in the mortal realms, bouncing from this life to that. In her last mortal life, she had finally been so good that her companions had prayed and pleaded that she be admitted to sainthood. Boy, had the Dominions been surprised to see her at the Gates! Unfortunately, to accept an Angel defined in the Books as Fallen, even one that Fell by mistake, back into Heaven would cause a celestial Paradox and rip the mortal planes apart. So she had to be content to sit outside the Gates. For now.
She whiled away the time playing her banjo, talking with the souls who had come to that particular Gate. She passed along the intercessions that floated up to her in prayers and greeted the Angels coming Home from Duty.
She also protected the souls from Those who would steal the newly released souls before their Judgment. The first time They had attacked, the evil and her banjo were the only losses.
Peter had given her a new banjo the next day as she moped about, calling forth rock after rock to sit on instead of the comfy clouds. He said that Someone had missed her playing and could she please use a sword next time? Asma had hugged him and immediately launched into a Dixieland version of "Precious Lord." After, he had left the sword and, chuckling, went back to his own Post. Later she had quenched the flaming sword in her glass of water (singing's thirsty work, you know!) and hidden it in the clouds nearby. After all, why encourage evil by showing firepower? And enough of the souls arriving were nervous enough about Judgment without having to deal with an black-winged person holding a flaming sword. Some of them would probably sink down Below just at the sight!
So Asma continued to play and sing and guard, waiting for the day when her Lord would open up the Gate for her and opening up His arms, welcome her Home.
~"Long time gone,
Lord, I ain't strummed a harp since I don't know when,
Long time gone...and I ain't goin' back again....
Long time, long time, long time go-on-one
I'm guardian angeling the gates,
till I can go Home agaaaaain......"~
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