Dolce's Story Chair - Antonius and Malachi Part 2

Dad: On this blog, I wrote a story about what happens to the Lonely Ones and how they made it to heaven. A while back. I came across something on the web that made me very angry to the point that I could hate someone I do not even know. In my mind they have become evil personified. Whatever good they might have pretended to do has been erased by their hypocrisy. The following story ties together two other stories I have posted here for my beloved cats,Of Memory and Loss, and Antonius and Malachi Part 1

Antonius and Malachi delivered the last of the kittens contained within their hem-frayed robes to the softly breathing calico as she laid in her sheepskin lined bed. The young cat turned her head and regarded the two faintly glowing forms that only she could see. Antonius smiled and he placed a gentle kiss on her head.
"Sleep well, young mother." Antonius gently smoothed the fur on the young cat's head. "Your babies are safe and will be here before the morn. Raise them them as you were raised. Love them as you were loved. And when it is time for them to go out amongst the world, give them the strength they will need."
The young calico blinked once and then settled her head on her paws. She could already feel the life within her stirring and longing to breathe the air of the world.
"Time to go, Malachi" Antonius' face took on a slight grim tone.
"I know, Antonius" Malachi replied, his face grew downcast. "We have brought life to those we carried and now its time to take our friends home."
"Remember." Antonius replied, "There is no greater joy than to return to the glory of heaven."
"I know." Malachi said as his little wings lifted his tiny body into the air. "But I don't seem to find the same joy as you. I don't know why. I feel joy when we bring them to Earth, but I feel sad when we return them to Heaven."
"You are attuned to the human spirit, dearest Malachi." Antonius stated. "You feel as they do. Joy at birth and Sorrow at Death."
"I wish I felt as you." Malachi stated.
"And I wish that I felt as you." Antonius smiled. "Come, we have some furriends to take home."
Malachi nodded and he followed Antonius into the ether.

Malachi looked at the final spot that Antonius lead him too. It seemed too clean and too modern by even human standards to be a place where Antonius needed to retrieve the Lonely Ones. He could hear the voices of other cats and dogs. Until now, Malachi had only followed Antonius to places where the lonely still forms of cats has laid unwanted and unclaimed in deserted and vacant spaces. This entire space felt wrong to Malachi. It felt like a place of hope but it bore the taint of desolation and loss.
"Where are we?" Malachi asked. "This place does not feel right. It feels confused. Torn between hope and fear."
"That is it's curse." Antonius replied. "This is an animal shelter. The humans within try to help those cats who have been abandoned by other humans. But, alas, they cannot save them all."
Antonius lead Malachi to a room. Malachi's small heart nearly burst at the sight that he beheld.

There in the clean sterile room were the still forms of dozens of cats; young, old, once sick or even once healthy, were piled unceremonously near a double steel door. Cheurb had never seen this number of Lonely Ones in a single place. He could not understand how they all managed to end up here. Not one of them bore sign of trauma or injury.

"What happened?" Malachi asked.

"Apathy." Antonius replied. "Indifference, Carelessness, and Thoughtlessness."

"This young boy was loved briefly by a little girl." Antonius said as he lovingly picked the long furred body of a young grey male cat. "But his humans did not bother to get him changed so that he wouldn't spray as his nature said he must. In time, they blamed him for the messes he made instead of their own carelessness, ignorance and apathy. So he ended up here."

"This little girl and her four siblings." Antonius set the little grey cat down and then exposed the still forms of five older kittens. "They were born to a cat that also had not been changed. The humans did not know what to do with them so they were abandoned here in a box during the middle of the night. No one else came to claim them or to give them a Forever Home."

Malachi turned away from Antonius and wiped his eyes on his silken robe.

"Did we not know this when we brought these to Earth?" Malachi asked as he motioned towards all the still forms. "If we knew this, why did we bring them only to face this terrible, lonely end?"

"We bring them in hope that humans will do what is right." Antonius replied as he placed wings on the last still form. "We are not given to question or change what humans do on Earth. They have been given the capacity to nuture and love. We have no power to force them to heed that nature. Come, we have one more place to go."

Antonius and Malachi stood next to a dirty rusty trash container.

"We cannot be here to find Lost Ones, Antonius." Malachi cried. "Even humans cannot be this callous."

"Malachi." Antonius placed his hand on his friend's shoulder. "I am sorry that you have to see this, but to do this task, you will be forced sometimes to see the worst of the humans' handiwork. I have tried to shield you from the worst but I felt it was time for you to see everything."

Antonius lifted the lid for the dumpster. He exposed several plastic bags tossed in amongst the other human refuse. Malachi looked on as Antonius gently lifted the body of a female cat and her kittens from the garbage bag. There were no signs of trauma on the still bodies.

Malachi's wings drooped at the sight of the still forms. They were similar to the bodies he had seen in the backroom of the Shelter. Malachi tried to withhold the tears that threatened to flow down his cheeks.

"Who?" was the only word that could escape Malachi's throat.

"Humans." Antonius stated. "Humans who hide behind the ideal of Ethics and Fairness for all living creatures. But no Human. who understands those two words, should ever be able to do this."

Malachi watched as Antonius attached wings to all the still forms in the dumpster. He tried to stop the tears that flowed down his cheeks. He found that he could not. As Malachi stood and stared at the still forms, he barely noticed the feathers as they fell from his wings and drifted to the ground.

"Malachi!" Antonius snapped sharply, "Mind your wings!"

"Antonius." Malachi dropped to his knees as the last feathers fell to the ground and his wings withered against his back. "My heart is broken. I have no more strength. I was wrong to think that as a cherubim, I could handle your task like you."

Antonius lifted his fragile friend up from the ground.

"I will take you home." Antonius said. "I should never have let you accompany me."

"No." Malachi said softly. "I do not want to go home. Take me to the Rainbow Bridge."

Antonius took Malachi back to the earthly side of the Rainbow Bridge. There were thousands of animals playing and running in the sunlit meadow. Antonius started to set Malachi down. Malachi grabbed and held Antonius' robe tightly.

"Not here." Malachi asked."Take me far enough away that I can still see the Bridge, but no one can see me."

Antonius took Malachi to the limit of human vision away from the Rainbow Bridge. He set Malachi down. Antonius fully expected Malachi's wings to grow back. Malachi stood up to his full height, which barely took him to Antonius's hip. He reached back and pulled his withered left wing from his back. He tossed it so that it was on the far side of the Rainbow Bridge as far away from the bridge as he was. Where his withered wing landed, a small cliff with two empty pools formed. Malachi took his withered right wing and he laid it down on the ground in front of him. As it touched the ground, a dry creek bed grew towards the Rainbow Bridge and the newly formed cliff and empty pools. Malachi sat down on a small rocky ledge on the Heaven side of the dry creek bed. The tears he had tried to hold in on Earth began to flow uncontrollably. Antonius watched as the creek bed began to fill, water flowed under the Rainbow Bridge and two waterfalls started to cascade over the small cliff and filled the two small pools.

"I can no longer help you Antonius." Malachi whispered through the tears that flowed down his cheeks and into the creek at his feet. "The Sense of Loss and the Memories of all those cats and kittens has shattered my heart and destroyed my wings. I am sorry that I could not bear the weight of such feelings like you. Maybe as Humans find the two Pools I have made, they will learn what a precious gift they have been given. I can only hope that they will soon realize what they squander and that they will change their ways."

Antonius left his friend's side and flew to the two pools at the base of the small waterfalls. He dipped his finger into the one pool and he felt the loss that had shattered the cherubim, Malachi's, heart. He then tasted the water from the other pool and he felt all the joyous memories that Malachi felt as he had helped Antonius bring the kittens to Earth. Antonius let a tear fall from his eye into his hand. From it, Antonius created a silver cup and a thin length of chain. Antonius fixed the chain to the first pool.

"This is the Pool of Loss." Antonius stated and then he created a second silver cup and chain from another tear. He affixed this cup to the second pool of water. "This is the Pool of Memory."

He summoned another being of Heaven and instructed it to watch over the two pools.

"These are the Pools of Loss and of Memory." Antonius instructed the creature who sat down between the two pools. "They are God's covenant to any Human that wishes to bring one of his creatures into their heart. In their dreams they shall come to this place and drink from the pools. Only those who can feel and understand what it is like to shatter an Angel's heart are worthy of such a gift."