Dolce's Story Chair: A Bridge Constructed Part II

Dad: Dolce! Are you ready for the rest of your story?
Dolce: Yes Dad. But could you speak really slowly.
Dad: Why do I have to speak really slowly?
Dolce: Because you have to go away once you are done telling me this story.
Dad: And if I talk really slowly?
Dolce: You won't go away as soon.
Dad: Dolce, Dolce, Dolce.
Dolce: Dad, Dad, Dad.
Dad: You tell Mom, Magoo, Bella, and baci that I'm going to start the last part of the story now.
Dolce: Okay.
Dad: And let Mom know that she has to give a certain Tabby from Singapore some tummy skritches.
Dolce: Won't Magoo get jealous?
Dad: Magoo will just have to learn to share when he's at you Story Chair.
Dolce: If he doesn't learn to share, can I make some Kibble money takes side bets?
Dad: No. let your furriends know I am about to start the story.
Dolce: EVFURRBODY! DAD'S STARTING THE LAST PART OF THE STORY! SO COME ON OVER!
Dad: Dolce, you are incorrigible.
Dolce: That means cute right?
Dad: Sure.

Dulcinea walked the edge of the Boundary between Heaven and Earth. She could now see the countless animals that were waiting for their human friends to cross over into Heaven. Her heart trembled at the faint cries and lonely wails she heard.

Antonius was right. She had to find a way to bridge the Boundary between Heaven and Earth for these lost animal souls. The meadow he had shown her was exactly what she wanted for those lost souls; a place for them to rest and to play and wait for their beloved Humans to join them in Heaven. She had tried to create the meadow on this side of the Boundary, but the flowers and the grass faded away as soon as she turned her attention away from them. In Heaven, Dulcinea could create whatever she wished but it would only last as long as she concentrated on it. As soon as she thought of something else, her previous constructions would disappear.

Dulcinea went back to the meadow that Antonius had shown her. She sat amongst the flowers and the grasses and the plants. She breathed the earthly perfume of the mint plants and the summer flowers. This was want she need to recreate. But this was God’s creation, as an Angel she would never be able to match this. At best it would be a poor mockery of the original. Dulcinea was crestfallen. One of her feathers dropped from her wing as her melancholy took its toll on her spirit. It slowly drifted to the ground and came to rest on a small patch of grass.

Dulcinea watched as a windblown seed from a dandelion plant landed on her fallen feather. She tried to pick up the dandelion seed but it passed through her hand once again. Frustrated, Dulcinea picked up her feather that had fallen to the ground. She suddenly drew in a surprised breath. There on her discarded feather lay the dandelion seed.

“I cannot touch you.” Dulcinea realized. “But my feathers, once fallen can.”

Dulcinea reached towards her right wing and pulled another feather out. She used this second feather as a tiny broom and she swept some dirt onto her first feather’s shimmering white surface. The dirt did not pass through. Dulcinea’s heart beamed as she discovered how to bring the essence of the meadow back to the Boundary.

Dulcinea swept as much dirt onto the feather as it seemed to be able to hold. She flew back to Heaven as quickly as she dared, for fear of the dirt blowing off her discarded feather.

Dulcinea stood at the hazy edge of the Boundary and looked hopefully at the dirt that laid on top of her wing feather. She closed her eyes and gave praise to God as she deposited the dirt on the feather onto the firmament of Heaven at her feet. The firmament swirled like smoke as the dirt from Earth struck it. Dulcinea looked down where the dirt had landed. It passed right through the swirling haze.

“It is gone.” Dulcinea observed, as her heart sank.

Dulcinea flew back to the meadow with her two feathers clutched tightly in her hands. She swept more dirt from the Meadow onto their surface and carried them back to Heaven. She looked at the two feathers with the faint traces of Earth on them. Simply dropping the Earthly matter onto the Heavenly firmament did not work, Dulcinea thought.

She reached down and laid the two feathers side by side onto the Firmament. This time the dirt did not disappear through the heavenly ground. Instead the dirt deepened and thickened and a small patch of flowers and grass sprang up. Dulcinea did not have to recreate what God had created on Earth, she simply had to give it some angelic support.

Dulcinea flew back to the meadow. She reached back and pulled two feathers from her wings and swept more Earthly matter onto them. She took them back to Heaven and laid them next to the other two feathers. Once again the dirt deepened and thickened and more flowers and grass sprang up on the tiny space. Dulcinea rejoiced at the sight of the small patch of flowers and grass. Already, several creatures at the Boundary had begun to show up, drawn by the scent of the Earth they had left behind.

Dulcinea began making trips from Heaven to Earth and back again. Each time carrying two of her feather covered in Earthy matter from the meadow. She soon had a small plot that was covered with plants and flowers and grass. It was also covered with animals that were waiting for their human masters.

Dulcinea looked at the small plot of ground she had made and the numbers of animals that mulled at the edge trying to find a spot where they could rest. She looked at her wings. She had not realized but both were thin and bloody. In her zeal to create this spot, she had pulled feathers faster than she was able to replace them. If she kept this pace, she would not have any feathers left in her wings, and once that happened, she would no longer be able to move about Heaven as an Angel. Dulcinea dropped her chin to her chest and softly cried at her failure.

Antonius saw his sister as she stood at sobbed at the edge of her tiny meadow. He hestitated but a moment as the recently winged kittens within his robed struggle to be free. Antonius smiled and took his charges to their new heavenly home. Once his work was done he returned to his sister’s side.

“Dulcinea.” Antonius said sharply. “Why have you stopped? I see that you have found a way to bring the Earthly meadow to Heaven, but it is far too small for all the creatures that need it.”

“I cannot do any more, Antonius.” Dulcinea motioned towards her tattered wings. “To do even this much is more than I can handle. I will have to wait until my wings grow back. Then I will start again.”

“Then what will you do with all this?” Antonius motioned towards the immense pile of angelic feathers.

Dulcinea looked up a saw an immense pile of angelic wing feathers. She had been so lost in her grief at failing at her True Purpose she had not seen the pile grow.

“How?” Dulcinea asked.

Before Antoinius could answer, Dulcinea watched as four Guardian Angels flew past. As they passed the great pile of feathers, they each tore a handful of their own feathers from their wings and cast them onto the pile. Dulcinea smiled as she saw a group of Cherubim also pull several of their tine feathers and add them to the pile.

“I told the Angelic Host of your True Purpose.” Antonius said. “And of the lack of wing feathers you had. Your brothers and sisters have chosen to help fulfill your True Purpose.”

Antonius reached towards his wings and was about to add his own feathers to the pile. Dulcinea reached over and stopped him.

“Your feathers have another purpose.” Dulcinea stated with a smile. “As you have provided a heavenly path to the Unwanted and Lost Ones, I will provide the path for Those Who Wait.”

Dulcinea took each and every feather in the great pile and used them to produce an earthly Meadow that stretched as far as the human eye could see across Heaven. It was a piece of Earth supported on the wings of Angels. Dulcinea looked at the meadow and the countless creatures that now moved freely in the flowers and grass. Some limped, some moved very slowly. Dulcinea knew her True Purpose had one more price.

Dulcinea took the last two feathers that she had brought from Earth and held them in front of her. Two tears fell from her eyes and landed on the feathers. The dirt began to shimmer with a multitude of colours. Dulcinea set one feather down. Unlike before, this feather did not immediately become part of the meadow. Dulcinea took the other feather a small distance away. She set it down on the firmament of Heaven. She looked at the vast meadow she had built with the help of the Angelic Host.

She felt a twinge of sorrow as she knew she would never set foot on it again. Dulcinea reached back and pulled her left wing from her back. She gasped with pain and fell to her knees. She reached back and pulled her right wing from her back. Dulcinea took her two wings and stretched them out. She laid them so that they touched the two shimmering feathers.

As the angelic wings touched the feathers, they began to arch and harden. They took on the appearance of stone. This was not earthly stone for it shimmered with the colours of the rainbow due to Dulcinea’s tears.

“Fear not Beloved Ones.” Dulcinea spoke softly to the animals playing in the vast meadow. “On the wings of angels, you shall wait without pain or discomfort for your beloved human friends. And on the wings of an angel you shall cross together into Heaven, for this is your Rainbow Bridge.”