Leslie, the Guardian Angel
--------------------------

Terry was sitting at his desk, rolling a stick of marijuana when
his guardian angle first popped in.

"Hi! My name is Leslie! I'm your guardian angel!" she piped in an
annoying soprano that was halfway between a standard cheerleader
voice and a heavily New York secretary who wore long pink nails.
Of course she looked nothing like either, being a miniature cutsy
little thing with light curly hair. White-winged as expected, she
hovered in the air in a standard, though belted, white dress
(and bloomers).

"Great. I'm halucinating already," Terry remarked to himself in a
dead voice.

"No you're not! I'm really here! And you really have to stop smoking!"

"Well, who the hell cares?"

"I do! And you're stinking up the whole room." She flitted through
his bedroom, ruffling some papers scattered over the floor. "Besides,
you have to do your homework. Your grades are terrible; there's no
way you'll get into the honors track at this rate!"

He watched her apathetically. "Why would I want to be in honors track?
It's more work!"

"Because you have to save your girlfriend, you dummy. And you'll
never meet her if you're not in Honors English senior year.

"Of course none of this would've been necessary if Matthew hadn't messed
up and her uncle had broken his leg in that accident like he was supposed to..."

He humors her, moves into honors track, brings a friend of his along
with him who was inspired to try focusing on schoolwork a bit too,
meets up with his girlfriend and it's almost the end of senior year.

"Hey, Leslie."

Leslie popped in.

"Didn't you say I was supposed to save my girlfriend's life?"

"You already did."

"Whaddaya mean?"

"Three years ago, Jeana was on track to commit suicide on April 10th.
 But then she met you."

"oh" Terry didn't say anything, struck silent

"BTW, don't be too upset when she dumps you."

"Dumps me!?"

"Yeah. Hey, I'm done here. Have a great life! Oh, and remember -- these
things start, and they end. What's important is what's in between."

She disappeared.

"what's important is what's in between" he repeated to himself.

Jeana came in. "who're you talking to?"

...

"Tell me a story, please" she asked, looking into his eyes dreamily.
And how could he refuse?

"Once upon a time, there was a guardian angel named Leslie".

(c) 2001 Fyrna Ela'eren
All rights reserved.