An Angel Feather.

It was going to be one of those days. I knew it the moment I realized that the alarm hadn't gone off. I had little time to shower, dress, grab a bite of breakfast and run to the bus stop. The queue there was halfway down the street. "Tube strike" someone muttered. The result of all this was that I was late for work. My boss, who had suffered the same trauma, was in a foul mood. That morning, or what was left of it, was filled with phone calls from tetchy and fractious clients who needed soothing.

By lunchtime I was shattered. Things did not improve when I found that my favourite sandwich shop was unaccountably closed with a strange note stuck up in the window, "Open tomorrow" it said. This meant a trek halfway across town to buy another and to me inferior sandwich. The afternoon was filled with more fretful clients. At 5pm I geared myself up for the battle to get home. To cap it all it started to rain.

I trudged along the road to the bus stop, muttering to myself about my bad day. I was then I saw a white feather on the pavement in front of me. In this built up area there seemed few possibilities that a bird had left it there. Even the pigeons had migrated to the square in the heart of town. Intrigued I bent down and picked it up. It was pure white and perfect. I held it in my hand for a moment, then slipped it into my coat pocket. I suddenly remembered an article I had read long ago on angel lore and I seemed to recall that there was something about white feathers. Not that I believed a word of it nor had I ever seen one before. I mused all the way to the bus stop. Honestly, why would angels bother about me?!

To my amazement there were only two people waiting for the bus. "The tube strike had been settled" they told me. The rain stopped as I got off the bus and I walked home in the dry. Just as well as I had forgotten my umbrella in my haste this morning. Once home I treated myself to a glass of wine, found a favourite meal in the freezer and settled down to watch television. The bad day had become a good one and I felt calmer than I had felt all day.

Copyright Jacqueline Hastings 2010