An ambulance raced along Sherman Way in Van Nuys and pulled up in front of The Church on the Way. Two EMTs hopped out of the front seats and quickly made their way to the back of the medical bus. They whipped open the back doors and pulled out a stretcher, its wheels dropping to meet the pavement as it emerged. Churchgoers were milling about like ants in sugar. One of the EMTs addressed a bystander in a suit, “We got a call about a head injury. Do you know where the guy is?” The churchgoer looked surprised. “Really? I have no idea. Let me find an elder for you.”  The suited man ducked into the nearest building to seek a church official. Next to the doorway was posted a flyer:

Church Bazaar Today!

Once inside the room, the churchgoer spied an old lady looking down at a pink velvet loveseat and yelling, “What in tarnation is wrong with you, boy? Are you asleep? Get up!” It took the interested bystander only two seconds to determine that Rodney was probably the head-injury in question. He called the EMTs over.

“Son? Can you hear me?” the emergency medical tech asked Rodney while pulling open the young man’s eyelids. He shone a small flashlight into Rodney’s green eyes to check whether or not the pupils dilated in reaction to the light.

“Wha? Huh? Who?” mumbled Rodney, coming back to consciousness after his fainting spell. “I, uh, hit my head. A couple of times actually,” Rodney managed.

“He’s really clumsy, that kid,” Mrs. Snipperblister snorted. “I’ll get his parents so they can spank him.” Kirby pointed and chimed in, “I think they’re over there.”

Mr. and Mrs. Simplessohn reached the ambulance just as Rodney was being loaded inside. “Oh honey! What happened this time?” Sheryl Simplessohn asked, her forehead creasing with worry. A glowing female angel dressed in a full-length white linen tunic leaned toward her and whispered, “He’ll be fine. God will protect him.” Another glowing angel stood behind Mr. Simplessohn.

“Mom! Dad!” Rodney was genuinely glad to see their familiar, comforting faces. Usually he felt like they were nosing around in his business too much, but at this moment, he was grateful they figured out what was happening. “I had this super-wicked accident with a trampoline. You should have seen it. I hit the ceiling and then the floor. I wish someone had caught it on video. And now I’m seeing things—weird things, freaky things. So, these dudes want to take me to the hospital to get checked out. They think I have a concussion. Dad, who’s your friend? And why is he wearing a white dress? Is there a play going on later today at church? What’s the deal with all the costumes?”

Sheryl looked around and then over at her husband, David, and frowned. There was no man in a dress, white or otherwise, near them.  She began to fear for her son's sanity. She ran to the front of the ambulance and told the driver to take her son to Providence St. Joseph in Burbank. “I work in the brain imaging center. I’ll follow you there.”

Rodney stared at the closed ambulance doors from his stretcher inside the bus. Suddenly he saw a radiant heavenly being with six wings fly through the doors and settle beside him.

“Rodney, you have been given the gift of spiritual sight. You have been allowed to see me, a seraph angel and Barook, your dominion angel there,” spoke Adoram just as Barook materialized through the ambulance’s metal double doors. “For the Lord of Hosts has purposed it, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back? He alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea. He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the constellations in the skies to the south. He does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number!”

 “Wow, this hallucination is soooo real,” Rodney muttered to himself. “Those wings are so detailed. The feathers are even shimmering. It’s blowing my mind.”

“O man, greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you. Be strong, yes, be strong. For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard,” Adoram continued. Just then the EMT assigned to the back opened the door and jumped in. “Off we go, kid. You’re gonna be just fine.”

“I’m having some excellent hallucinations right now. I wish you could see them,” gushed Rodney. “There’s this super-chill angel guy with six wings.”

“Six wings” the EMT repeated, letting out a low whistle.

“Yeah. It’s awesome. He’s saying all sorts of Biblical-sounding stuff. And there’s this other dude with two wings who mostly just stares at me with a weird look on his face. It’s really funny.”

Adoram looked at Barook and said, “This just might take some time.”