Cyril Rum was an angel and an angel on sabbatical.

Cyril was not as you might imagine an angel to be. Rather than the magnificence and wonder the storybooks tell us of angels, Cyril was more your middle-aged, portly shaped, balding and for the most part non-descript human man.

He chose this appearance as he basically didn’t want to stand out and appearing in his true form would do nothing but attract a lot of attention he didn’t need for in reality he was a shy divine entity, and his true form would be far too much for the human brain to comprehend.

Cyril was sure he could carry off the appearance of normality, in earth terms at any rate. He chose to live in a town where not a lot happened, in a house on a very average street and was fortunate to find his neighbour, Mildred Thrupp, the ideal mentor in terms of guiding him through the complexities of being human.

Mildred thought Cyril was a visitor from another country as his ignorance of so much was obviously in her opinion the result of cultural differences.

Cyril loved his life on earth. He found he had a diversity of neighbours, mostly good, and only once or was it twice did he intervene in the lives of the people around him.

It was important to Cyril that when he did act that his actions drew little attention upon himself.

Over time he did begin to miss his home. Being an angel was relatively stress-free compared to life on earth. Having spent an eternity in angelic splendour, it had a lot going for it whereas life on earth where he had to cook for one thing was always going to be a challenge.

Mildred had been a great help in this regard, and she seemed to have an endless supply of recipes to tempt him with. Her ‘Beef in Red Wine’ was beyond delicious in Cyril’s opinion, then again eating had never been an issue for Cyril for as an angel it wasn’t something he needed to do. As a human, however, he discovered the pangs of hunger, and he was grateful for Mildred’s rescuing him.

Tonight, Mildred had promised to make him a “Tangy Chicken Curry’, and Cyril had quickly discovered the mouth-watering qualities of curry.

On his back veranda, Cyril had two wooden chairs, painted white and facing west. Part of his sabbatical was his reporting to his superiors on his progress and discovery of all things human.

His mentor was the Angel Trevor, who would appear regularly and offer Cyril deliverance from where he was. They would sit in the wooden chairs, and Cyril would regale Trevor with what he had observed during the past week or so. Trevor was impressed with Cyril’s resilience and left him each time with reassurances he would be welcomed back when he requested it.

A little later Mildred would appear with cookbook in hand and the ingredients for the evening’s meal.

Smacking his lips, Cyril thought there were some good things about being human, eating being one of them.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/tale-weaver-262-carry-february-13th/