"Matilda's Assignment" Chapter 1

The snow fell gently on the New York City Street adding a touch of holiday magic to the decorated store fronts along Fifth Avenue.

Matilda stood unnoticed watching the crowd of Christmas shoppers jostling each other and grumbling incoherently as they hurried along. She rolled her eyes at their unhappy faces even as she knew she shouldn’t judge them. She wasn’t feeling the season’s happy tidings either, and it was her job to feel the spirit of the yuletide.

She should be projecting joy onto all who were not joyful but at the moment, all she could project was self pity and her aura, if these shoppers could see it or her, was devoid of color. It was a pitiful, pale, indistinct light but it was an accurate reflection of her current state of being.

 

Matilda hovered beneath a lamppost watching a particularly fat snowflake make its gentle landing onto a small child’s outstretched hand. The snowflake glistened and shimmered upon the young boy’s mitten and his little eyes lit with wonder.

Matilda envied that innocence of wonder and wished she could feel such joy again but that ability, along with her confidence, had been lost in her last assignment.

Her last guardian assignment, to quote the angelic council, “had definitely not gone well” and she’d fully expected a reprimand or a return to remedial training but instead, the council gave her a free pick and she was still questioning why.

Guardians were given a free pick as a reward for a successful assignment so it did beg the question, why had they rewarded her failure?

She’d like to believe it was a gift but she knew it wasn’t. What it had to be, what it could only be, was a test, and her spirit didn’t soar with that truth but it did underlined the fact she’d have to choose this next assignment carefully.

Matilda turned her attention away from the child and focused again on the harried and hurried holiday shoppers and zoned in on their conversations. She was hoping to hear someone in need of a guardian’s help.

 

What Matilda heard was children begging for toys and parents telling them to be patient, to wait to see what Santa would bring for them and these discussions were interspersed with adult conversations about holiday parties, family gatherings and what to get for an impossible relative. And threaded through all of those were the low whisperings of couples cooing what they’d like to find under the tree. Before those intimate whispers became too descriptive, Matilda switched her frequency off.

If she wanted to win the council’s approval with this pick she’d have to choose a difficult problem to solve, and solve it successfully. It was well known, the highest achievement was to turn a selfish heart towards love of others and the belief to do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. That was in fact the golden rule. Guardian’s who’d achieved success in that kind of an assignment were granted a level change, a promotion to the upper echelon of celestial existence.

Matilda wasn’t seasoned enough to even attempt that kind of high level assignment so it wasn’t something she should bother to think about or look for but, it would lift her from the failed status she currently held and offer some much needed angelic kudos.

Still, she really shouldn’t consider it. So, why was she still considering it?

She argued the pros and cons, mostly cons, in choosing such a difficult assignment even as she searched the crowds for a cold vibration, colder than the wind. She was searching for an arctic blast from a heart devoid of love.

Matilda’s awareness pinged that a likely candidate was near.

She turned around to see a sleek, black limousine roll up to the front of a famous New York toy store. The arctic chill coming from the limo’s occupant was of the charts even before the chauffer opened the passenger door.

When the occupant stepped out, Matilda’s eyes widened with surprise. It was a well-dressed, young woman and Matilda thought her radar must be off because the woman appeared too young to be as cold hearted as the chill portended.

The woman immediately power walked into the toy store and even with her doubts, Matilda decided to follow her.  

The woman gave a strong vibration of self assurance as she walked with regal posture in her perfectly tailored outfit. That outfit, by its superb fit, appeared to have been made exclusively for her.

Matilda was assessing these facts when the woman’s cell phone began to chime.

The woman pulled her phone from her designer bag and stopped walking to answer it.

 

“Ana here…Why are you calling?”

The clipped no nonsense voice had several shoppers turning in her direction but her eyes gave them a silent reprimand along with an intimidating raised brow and they turned away.

 

Matilda listened to both ends of the conversation and learned that Ana owned a successful design house that afforded her a comfortable life and a very high regard of her own self worth. That self-worth was at this moment keeping Ana from recognizing the tentative tone and abject fear in her assistant’s voice on the other end of the line.

The assistant, Steven, was trembling as he informed his boss of a prestigious buyer who’d asked to change a delivery to an earlier date of arrival than had been contracted.

“Honestly Steven, why would you even bother to ask me that?” Ana’s voice deepened with annoyance as she scolded, “You should already know I wouldn’t consider it. There are no exceptions. We cannot and will not deliver the new line of Ana originals before the date we’d contractually agreed to with that buyer. And if the buyer isn’t satisfied with that date, tell him we can void his order, cut him from the shipping list and he’ll be free to contact another design house…What? No, there are no alternatives!”

Ana ended the call with an exasperated sigh and tossed her phone back into her purse as she resumed her forward motion, her expression implacable. Although she was too sophisticated to mumble under her breath, Matilda heard her silent grumblings.

“How can Steven be so naïve to let that pompous buyer bully him into asking me to bring out my line sooner than the Paris showing? Selling a new line before the dates of a show is not an option and Steven shouldn’t have entertained it. Just because it’s Christmas they think I should jump through hoops because someone wants a new ‘Ana’ under the tree. Unbelievable!”

 

The distinct sound of materialism told Matilda that Ana would benefit from a ‘golden rule’ kind of guidance. But, if she accepted this challenge, she could be tempting another failure. Matilda was unsure of the wisdom of taking on Ana as her assignment but she continued to follow her through the toy store.

 

Ana wandered down aisles randomly pointing out purchase choices to the store clerk she’d commanded to follow her. They walked from the toddlers through to the teen’s section and the clerk noted each purchase Ana made on a sales slip.

Matilda wondered at the lack of thought Ana appeared to have for the purchases and grew curious about the recipients of these gifts. Were they for family, friends or acquaintances?

 

Ana concluded her shopping and gave the clerk a set of specific instructions for the delivery of each item purchased, but she offered no thank you for his help.

Matilda noticed a different address was given for each item and made a note of those addresses to investigate their connection to Ana because she’d decided to accept the challenge. Ana was going to be her free pick assignment.

 

Ana left the store and walked back to the waiting limousine instructing her driver to head to a famous upscale, clothing shop on Fifth Avenue.

Matilda entered the luxury car undetected and even though she couldn’t feel the soft, supple leather seat she hovered over, she understood the wealth it implied.

 

They rode down the busy New York streets and Matilda looked out on the twinkling city outside the car’s crystal clean window.

The stunning magic of Christmas decorated, store fronts finally did fill her with the light and joy she’d been missing. Her aura glittered with the warmest colors of a rainbow and she turned expecting to see Ana enjoying the sites of the decorated city too, instead she found her focused on the screen of her open laptop.

The laptop was poised on a small table that folded down from the back of the front seat and Ana was rhythmically tapping out instructions to someone named Dulcie, telling that person to have the staff Christmas Party arranged, and to advise the staff she would not be attending it. She also directed Dulcie to send back her rsvp’s for all the holiday invites she’d received, accepting only those on the ‘approved list’ of clients and refusing all other invitations. She could use her discretion in making the excuses. Lastly, she instructed Dulcie to verify the dates and times of her next week’s appointments and all of the above was to be done before tomorrow’s staff meeting.

Done with her massive orders to Dulcie, Ana pressed the ‘send’ icon and the message cleared followed by an immediately response from Dulcie.

Dulcie responded simply, she’d comply.

 

Ana didn’t appear at all surprised to receive the response so late in the evening, hours after the end of a normal business day, in fact, she seemed to expect it.

She remained focused on her laptop, sending out emails until the limo pulled up to the prestigious clothing store on Fifth Avenue. Then she snapped her laptop closed and placed it on the seat next to her as she waited for her chauffer to open the car door. When he did she didn’t make eye contact with him as she stepped out from the car and strode with purpose to the store’s front door and waited for the store’s attending doorman to open it for her.

 

Matilda was shocked by the lack of emotional connection to others in someone so young. Ana appeared absorbed in her own self worth and had no concept of the worth of others. If Matilda could pull her out of the power world she lived in and into a caring existence, it might be a near miracle, and for that she’d need some heavenly help.

Matilda pulled a long silver writer and puff of white parchment from the air and quickly documented her reasons for why she’d chosen Ana as her assignment. Then she crushed the fragile parchment and watched its particles ascend to the angelic council. All she had to do now was await their approval.

 

Ana breezed through the store’s many departments purchasing expensive items without a blink at the cost but this time the purchases were going to Ana’s home address.

When she gave the clerk her name and address, Matilda watched his demeanor change from one of professional aloofness to over attentive fawning. It was uncomfortable to watch and Matilda gave them both a look of disappointment, even thought they couldn’t see her.

Ana completed her shopping and returned again to her waiting limo, directing her driver to take her home.