The frog-shaped principality, Scumbert, was still in the tree outside Rodney’s window when Adoram flew out. Something clicked inside Scumbert’s devilish mind. He figured seraph angels wouldn’t hang around earth unless something important was going on. His brain wasn’t huge, but it was big enough to figure out that he should report this up the food chain. He was naïve enough to think this would earn him a reward.

Scumbert hopped out of the tree, across Rodney’s lawn, and into the gutter. He then bounced his way down an alley and into a trash dumpster. He planned to wait there for the garbage truck to make its early evening pickup. Then he would hitch a ride in the truck to the city dump without expending too much energy. Angels and demons could move through air and matter much more easily than humans, but it still took a bit of their energy to get from one place to another. In order to hitch a ride on a vehicle in this dimension, Scumbert would have to materialize just enough to be pulled along by it. He enjoyed the sensation. Demons did it all the time. Angels could do it, too, but they usually preferred flying.

***

“Oh, I found it—the book of Psalms. It’s in the Old Testament,” Rodney declared to his guardian angel, Barook.

“Well done, Rodney,” Barook condescended.

“What was the verse you wanted me to find again?”

“Chapter 32, verse 8.”

“Oh yeah. Here it is: ‘I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.’ Well, that’s comforting,” admitted Rodney.

“Yes, it’s meant to be. The Word is power. Through it you are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for you. The Word gives light, gives understanding to the simple, to you.”

“Hey! Are you calling me stupid?” teased Rodney.

“An empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey's colt is born a man,” winked Barook, quoting a very old saying.

“I don’t know what that means, but I’m pretty sure I should be offended,” laughed the young man.

After a few more hours of looking up verses with Barook which included many, many minutes of taking breaks, snacking, watching some videos, and otherwise dawdling, Rodney heard his mom call out from the bottom of the stairs, “Dinner in ten minutes!”

“Great!” Rodney yelled back, jumping up from the bed and running downstairs with relish.

“What are we having?” he asked as he reached the kitchen, looking over his mother’s shoulder to the stove.

“Your favorite: pasta shells stuffed with a blend of spinach and ricotta cheese.”

“With your marinara sauce?” demanded Rodney lifting the lid off a stock pot to see for himself.

“Naturally.”

“And are you baking it in the oven under a blanket of mozzarella?” he inquired, flipping on the oven light to take a peek.

“Of course. Now set the table,” she said, pleased her son was acting like his usual, food-loving self.

“How are you feeling, son?” asked David Simplessohn as Rodney was pulling placemats out of the sideboard in the dining room.

“I’m alright, Dad.”

“I always knew that knucklehead of yours was as hard as a rock.”

“Yeah, well. . .” trailed off Rodney as he noticed for the first time that a glowing lady angel was following his mother around while a topaz-colored male angel shadowed his father.

Barook followed Rodney’s gaze and introduced Sheba and Nimrod, the Simplessohns’ guardian angels. They both waved hello to Rodney.

“Yep, the Simplessohns are tough, son. We take a licking and keep on ticking!” David said as he slammed his fist on the dining room table.

Rodney just rolled his eyes while Nimrod broke up laughing. Rodney stared at Nimrod in amazement. He couldn’t believe that anyone found his dad funny, much less a higher being from another dimension. That made no sense.

Rodney’s mom yelled from the kitchen “Hey Rodney, tell your dad about your mission from God in the hospital. And then I will update you both on the outcome.”

“There’s an outcome? Is it a good one?” asked Rodney incredulously.

“Oh, yeah. It’s a good one. David, come here and get the garlic bread.”

As David wandered back into the kitchen to collect the bread from his wife, Rodney whispered to the spirits, “Listen. You guys are super distracting. I don’t want to look insane in front of my parents. At least not tonight, anyway. So, can you all just lay low during dinner? Please?”