Chapter One

Harold is introduced & his friendly yet curious demeanor is revealed.

Chapter One

Zipping in and out of, and around and over the clouds, Harold the angel flew through the heavens without a care in the world. Harold was a little smaller than most angels. Ok, he was a lot smaller than every angel. Truth be told, he was a lot clumsier than most angels too. Alright, alright, he was a lot clumsier than every angel since angels are not clumsy at all. However, what Harold did not have in size and agility he made up for with a cheerful personality that could not be beat. The only thing that was missing in Harold’s angelic life was being able to fit in somewhere.

There was no question that Harold was the happiest of all the angels. However, he had never quite been able to fit in anywhere. Many times he tried to find a place to fit in, but each time something went wrong. Once Harold tried working in the angelic kitchen that served all of the meals to all of the angels of Heaven. He really enjoyed helping to prepare food for all of his brothers and sisters. However, his kitchen experience ended in tragedy.

One day the head angelic chef was making everyone’s favorite soup for lunch. He had to leave the kitchen for just a moment to ask the Charge angel what kind of bread he would like to be served with the soup. Harold happened to be the only angel anywhere near at that particular moment.

Even though it was against the head chef’s better judgment he asked Harold, “Would you please watch over my soup while I step away for just a few minutes. I will be right back.” As the head chef left the kitchen he stuck his head back around the corner and told Harold, “Please, do not touch anything.”

The thing about Harold, the angel, was that he always meant well. He never intended for things to go wrong. However, something always happened and things never turned out the way he wanted them to. In fact, they would go terribly wrong. Harold’s attempt at watching the head angelic chef’s soup was no different.

Harold watched the large pot of steaming soup simmer. He closed his eyes and took in the smell of its wonderful aroma. If he were not already in Heaven, then the smell of the delicious soup would have taken him there for sure.

Now, Harold was as tall as the stove in angelic kitchen, but not quite as tall as the large stockpot that the soup was cooking in. So, Harold said to himself, “If the soup smells this good from down here, then imagine how much more delicious it would smell if I were up there smelling it.” With that thought, Harold ran to get a chair to stand upon so that he could smell the delicious aroma of the soup even better.

Now, you may be asking yourself, “Well, why didn’t Harold just hover above the soup with his angel wings?”

I would have to say to you “Don’t be silly. Everyone knows that angels are not allowed to fly indoors.”

Harold found a large wooden chair and pushed it in front of the stove directly in front of the big pot of steaming soup. Next, he climbed up on the chair, placed his face over the simmering pot and breathed in the wonderful smell of the soup. Immediately, he began to feel happy.

Harold smiled huge as the delicious aroma filled his nose. The smell of the soup made him feel warm and happy inside. The amazing smell made Harold feel happier than usual and for Harold that was really saying a lot. Harold then thought to himself, “This smells so very good. I am quite sure that if I were directly over the pot that the smell of this yummy soup would fill my senses so much that I would feel warm and happy for days.”

Harold stood upon his tip toes as far as he could stretch, but he still was not directly over the big pot. Then, Harold said to himself, “I know that I’m not supposed to use my wings indoors, but just this one time shouldn’t hurt anything. Besides, no one is here to see me do it.”

If you remember, I told you that angels are not supposed to use their wings indoors. Well, Harold knew that rule too, but decided that it would be OK just this one time. First, he looked around to make sure that no one was watching. Then, he slowly began to flutter his wings. He then flapped them a little quicker. Next thing he knew his feet were lifted up off of the chair and he was directly above the large pot of delicious smelling soup. Unknown to Harold, his wings were about to cause disaster. His wings were fluttering dangerously close to the head chef’s rack of special spices.

Now, the head angelic chef did not use just any spices. They were special spices that made everything that he seasoned with them taste absolutely amazing. No one knew what his spices were or quite where he got them from. He kept that a secret. However, they seemed to make everyone feel happy and content when eaten in the head angelic chef’s recipes. The one rule that the head chef had about his spices, other than no one else was to touch them was never to use too much. Too much of a good thing, no matter how good that thing is, is never good.

As Harold hovered above the large soup pot his wings flapped closer and closer to the special spices. With each swipe of his wings the spices teetered and tottered closer to the edge of the rack. Eventually, every single spice sat weaving back and forth directly over the soup. Then, it happened. Harold leaned his head a little further almost inside of the pot to get a better smell. One final swoop of his wings knocked all of the spices into the large pot.

Many small, colorful explosions escaped from the pot like a miniature firework display. Flying backward away from the exploding pot, Harold let out a small yelp. With a terrified look, he flattened himself against the wall farthest from the stove. When the explosions stopped Harold hovered back over to the soup pot and looked inside. It did not look any different than earlier and it smelled even more amazing than before.

Just as Harold was about to sample the soup for himself he heard the head chef coming down the hall. Quickly, he put the chair back where he got it from and stood well away from the soup pot so not to look guilty. As the head angelic chef walked up to the stove Harold stood with his hands folded, whistling and looking around. He was doing his best to look innocent and avoid eye contact.

The head chef suspiciously looked at his soup pot, then at Harold and back at his soup pot again. Not seeing anything out of the ordinary the head chef took the soup pot off of the stove. He then took it into the dining hall to serve to the angelic host.

Eventually, several angels had full bowls of the most delicious soup that they had ever tasted. All of the angels began to cheer the head chef aloud for the tremendous meal. The head chef greatly appreciated their applause, but wondered what made this soup any more wonderful than any other soup that he made. Soon, he had his answer.

One by one each angel became more and more happy. They each began singing loudly. Normally, this would have been a glorious sound to hear except that for some reason every angel sang out of tune. This made for quite a terrible noise throughout the great dining hall. What happened next can only be described as, well…colorful.

As the dining hall full of angels sang loudly out of tune they each turned a different color. I do not mean that their robes simply change in color. I mean they turned different colors. Their faces, hair, wings and robes all began to change in color.

There were so many colors in the great dining hall that the room looked like one big room full of crayons. There were blue angels, red angels, purple angels, greens angel and orange angels. There were so many different colors and shades of angels that I do not believe all of the colors have even been named yet.

Suddenly, the head chef realized what had happened. He ran to the kitchen to check his rack of special spices and sure enough, it was empty. Now, angels are usually very patient; however, at that moment the head chef was beginning to lose his patience. So much so that his face was beginning to turn red and that was without eating any soup.

“Harold!” the head chef yelled. Harold had been standing just outside of the kitchen door listening to all of the terrible singing and watching the pretty colors. Slowly, Harold shuffled back into the kitchen.

With hands folded, looking down at the floor and standing with one foot on top of the other Harold answered, “Yes Chef?”

Trying his best not to explode, the head chef pointed at his empty rack of special spices and asked, “What did you do?”

Harold lifted his head and looked at the head chef with an innocent smile said, “The soup smells really, really good chef!”

Author's Note

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