Chapter Seventeen: A Job Well Done

As he sprints off in the cold brewing morning of Ellenstein with every breath taken clouds materialize, a sign of warmth as it goes cold. He ran in a pair of leather boots. White moisture-wicked socks were below the boots that he designed himself. In fact all he wore was water-repellent compression gear which his sisters helped stitch and craft for him. He got the material and did the wicking, and they did the patch-up work. It was a factory in the making right underneath the poor boy’s roof back at home.

The general store was opening up ahead and the owner saw Lucifer waving to him. He was halfway across town to get where he was going, and he wasn’t stopping now. Lucifer cordially waved back passing several markets and antique shops. Passing the wiry trails where dried-up prairie patches that were dewy but in dire need of being weeded resided. In his arms he cradled a stack of papers. They were properly wrapped by a string of rope and with the bundle he barged into the postal office in the middle of town.

"Is it true?"

There were several male workers looking at each other confused by this young boy. One out of the bunch had asked, “Is what true?”

The kid eagerly presented a newspaper advertisement, untying the bundle and pointing at the section in the paper where it listed job openings at the postal office paying $10 per hour.

The mailman said, “You seem excited, kid. I don't want to ruin this for you, but how old are you?”

A woman barged in from the back rooms and reprimanded the group of workers saying to them, “What are you all standing around for, are you waiting for Miss Sally?"

“Who’s Miss Sally?”

“Exactly!”

“Look, we’re on it. A kid came in, he’s asking for work.”

She glanced over toward the kid. He was a runt, good looking, not many of the angels then looked like him, but he was still a cutie the boss thought to herself. He looked like he hadn't shower today nor he did the day prior, and his odd choice of attire she had also never seen before. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she enjoyed the kid's presence. “You want the job, huh?” she asked, “How old are you, anyways?"

Feeling unmasculine, he said, “That’s the same thing I asked him.” He looked towards his co-workers for approval,t and they nodded their heads agreeing with him but not so far to disagree with their boss. “I could have handled it boss, calm down.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down. My husband says the same thing to me!”

"I would never tell you to calm down." The kid cleared his throat and, in a presentation-like manner, verbally, he said. “My name is Lucille Morningstar and I love mail. I open up my sisters’ mail all the time. I'm in search of employment at this time...how do I put it?" Lucifer rubbed his chin in contemplation. When he figured out the words to say he said his eye lit up and he pointed at the ceiling, “Fine establishment!”

She loved the words ‘fine and establishment' being used for the broken-down postal office, but then thought about it and said, "You can't do that kid? You’re not allowed to open up other people’s mail. It’s against the law."

“I know. It’s my sisters though.”

The boss woman moved away from the side conversation, saying to him again, “How old are you?"

“Fourtee-."

He noticed her face squinted unattracted by his age.

“I’m sixteen.”

She made the same face.

“Eighteen?”

She said she was surprised, “You’re eighteen huh?”

Lucifer felt a sensation over his shoulders from workers like they were the phantom troupe right behind him. It was an eerie chill caused by scrutiny.

“Yes.”

The group of employees fell over. Their entire worlds were turning upside down because of a clear and obvious lie.

“Yes, I’m eighteen years of age."

She scratched her nose and picked at it.

She rested her hands back at her hips and said, “I like your spunk kid. You know what? I might have something for you to do. Consider this a test of sorts, and maybe then you'll be hired. Only part-time though. As a paper boy. It’s a pretty important job, so don’t screw anything up. I got no one else. "

The mailmen all shook their heads.

"What about us?"

"You all have routes. I need you four out there pronto." She went into the back room and returned with a brown papered package. She tossed it at Lucifer.

“Here," she said as he barely caught onto it.

He turned over the thick lightweight packaging around and saw there was a label. An address and name were attached: 447 Calanstine Road, to a one John farts a lot.

Lucifer asked bewildered, “Am I reading this right? This is returning to one. Umm, John farts a lot."

“It’s pronounced Fartzla, I think it comes from the Icelandic continent north,” She elucidated.

The kid turned the package upside down which didn’t help and then back to the way it was.

“You made that up. No, it doesn’t. It's literally right here, Farts-a-lot.”

“Can you do it or not?!” She said fed up.

He stared at the package, lifted his eyes towards her and spoke.

“I was born ready.”

“Then go!”

She refers to everyone looking around the room and yelling yet again, “All of you, go, get back to work!”

The mailmen passed the kid. Grabbing satchels in cubbies and coats off racks by the door. He did the same. They left out and he admired his new work attire.

He said, "There is no way this is better than what I already have on.”

He put the package into his newly acquired satchel.

447 Calanstine Road: Lucifer thought. He knew the area pretty well and knew that Calanstine Road wasn’t a road at all. It was the bridge into the forest. Where the water running from the mountain passes down through the valley, and the pathoma provides what tutelage of geography you need. Just follow the roadways. It wields the dirttrails that lead onto the systems of networking routes that one might take to, either get lost, or enter back into civilization. Those were your only two options. Go back or stay. You could easily get lost going too far out. There were too many trees, a healthy green and oxygen levels so high, you could light the forest ablaze with a single stroke of stone to stone.

Stolen novel; please report.

The kid passes the water rapids and forestry station, ignoring the caution tape and signs posted on the trees that mark the boundary but funny enough, this is where he was supposed to be. And people went into the forest, just not for long. There was nothing to stay for—nothing but miles and piles of dirt and trees. It sounds appealing, but it really wasn’t. It was cold. Not the good shiver too like the shires. No, here, the air could sting you. It felt prickly—a small puncture from a syringe— it was so potent.

The forest seemed to have elongated. This must happen to everyone, he thought.

When staring back the way he came, it tapered off into the distance. The vastness, vaster, it was if a fisherman casted and his line flew faster. It was almost surreal. Why I use the words 'almost' is because the only thing breaking this illusion was that the boy knew what he was doing. He’s been down these this way several times now and into the heart of darkness before. Somewhere not quite like here, but to the kid, this place wasn’t too bad in comparison. He kept his composure because he's been through similar if not worse.

Hearing noises from hundreds of yards away, laughter especially deep in the woods. He passed from shoulder to shoulder, from boulder to boulder to see who it might be. He got closer, and the noise got significantly louder. The laughing's acoustics seems to have resonated with the forest, echoing into the void. Sound waves bounce off what surfaces they can, leading to reflections that may make the sound closer than it actually is. He could use the laughs to pinpoint their location, but that was also the problem.

He realizes that in order to deliver the package he must make contact with the recipients.

They had a fire crackled, and you could hear it from ways away. It was a very poor decision to have a fire in the forest that could be turned to sunder in seconds. It is against the rules of Ellenstein, therefore, against the law, and against God to have this fire up but here was a bon of it.

He wasn’t exactly sure where he needed to be since, 447 Calanstine road wasn’t really plastered anywhere. He assumed the crowd was where the light-weight package was being delivered to. After several minutes of trekking through the woods, he placed his hand on a tree near a small camping site and took a peeked. What he saw were people he recognized. He had the sneaking suspicion of who this was all along. No one else in heaven would have a fire out here and write, from: (undisclosed name) to: John-fart-a-lot.

Besides Herald.

Lucille let out a breath of relief, wiping his sweaty forehead with the back of hand. He stopped his hiding by the tree walking up to the fire.

“Where have you all been?!”

The group was startled at first, but then realized who it was.

“Hey! it’s Lucifer, everybody!” Jeremy calls for everyone. The tents surrounding them open up with more people coming out of them to say hi. They met by the fire and Lucifer sat on a log nearby.

“How has it been? Is everything going well over there?

Lucifer raised his left eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Jeremy looked at the person sitting next to him and worriedly asked Lucifer, "Back in town. I mean, not everyone is really dead, are they?”

Lucifer said confused, “Back at home? Everything’s fine. Where did you hear that?”

Jeremy looked around the fire and told Lucille, “Herald.”

“Yeah, me too." Another said by the fire, "Herald said the same exact thing to me. Apparently, the kingdom is taking its hold. The totality of society has finally arrived at our doorstep."

Another added blatantly, “I’m scared to go back.”

Lucifer explains, chuckling, “Everything is fine, guys.”

He reassured them by saying, “It’s actually more than fine. I got a job, I feel good, I think I grew an inch and I have somewhere to be later today. I'm going to meet a buddy of mine. I might have a few drinks. I might not. You never know.”

“You can’t drink yet? How are you going to do that?" Jemery said.

“I know... you know what? This is what I get for making a joke. I’m not drinking, but I am open to the idea.”

They peered back at Lucifer.

“He asked..." he said pointing at Jeremy.

Lucifer shook his head changing the subject, "Where’s Herald anyways? I know he’s here.”

They all, beside Lucifer, pointed to a tent at the back.

Jeremy stated, “He wants to be alone.”

“He always wants to be alone.”

Lucifer walked toward the tent ignoring what Jeremy had to say. He lifted the flap to Herald's tent. Hot boxed smoke left like a small fire had also been started inside. The kid held the flap open, making sure it was clear for him to come in.

“I’m guessing this is you.”

Lucifer went inside his work satchel grabbing the package that was given to him to Herald throwing it onto Hearld desk.

Herald relaxedly said, “Ah, Lucifer, may dear boy... Where could you have gotten this?”

“You’re looking at the official paperboy of Ellenstein.”

“That’s great, that's just great.”

Herald leaned his head back resting it on the chair he was sitting on.

“That’s really great...” He propped himself back up, urgently grabbing the package. \

“Have you seen what’s inside here?! Did you open this package!"

“No.”

"Do not lie to me."

"I promise I didn't touch it, sir."

“I wouldn’t mind if you saw.”

He took a knife from a drawer inside the desk he was sitting at, cutting the package and digging into it. His entire being was relaxed.

“It’s a…”

He put maximum effort into peeling the package and throwing it away. There were better ways to open the package, like reading the top of it and stripping the seal away, but Herald seemed to be managing.

“It’s a… a gambit of sorts.”

“Can you speak normally? You don't sound sane when you speak in riddles.”

“Not riddles.”

Herald finally managed to get out what was in the package.

“Literals,” he said, “I have a friend who works on the inside. Within the castle walls, he smuggled this for me."

He smuggled it in through the regular old postal system. Real smart, Lucifer thought.

He had in his hands an orb.

Herald asked the boy, “Do you know what this is?”

The orb radiated and lit up the entire tent.

The diaphanous glow of pure light through the folds of the tenting structure outside, was similar to a gigantic light bulb embrace. Everyone by the fire saw the spectacle. Herald quickly put it back in its seal and said, “Plastic keeps it stable.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Lucifer said it curiously.

“If you're thinking it’s a modulator containing a massive amount of energy, you'd be right.”

Lucifer took three steps back. “That's a weapon that could destroy all of Ellenstein, you know.” Lucifer was chattering his teeth, now realizing what he was carrying around unknowingly. "I could have died."

Herald stood up past the boy, opening the flap. “We all could have. Come along.” Lucifer followed him out and towards the fire, but kept a safe distance, like that was going to help anyone. “This device can also be used as a large battery, it contains-”

Lucifer interjected and said to Herald, “The energy source of a sun. I know. Why would you need that for walking around? To be put in the mail?”

“Plastic keeps it safe.”

“You already said that."

"And I'll say it again, the neutralizer for the great reactor is plastic! It's harmless. Only in the wrong hands is this dangerous. Don't worry my dear boy Lucifer, I've handled these many times before." Herald couldn't keep himself stable, like a drunk man was about to fall asleep while walking.

"Are you okay, Herald? Have you been drinking again?"

"What? I only drank a little bit."

The two join those already by the fire. No one really said a word. Their heads were down real low, shameful, like they all had done something they shouldn’t have. He didn't see it before, but it was obvious now. He felt the ever-growing gloom.

Maybe that's what led to the mistakes Herald decided to make that day. Was feeling like this. Gray, unbridled fear, all of them scared of something not there. It was time for Lucifer to say something here and now, by the fire, in the woods with people that he now knows aren’t who they say they are.