The Love of an Angel

Gabriel first saw her in a little zoo in the outskirts of a small town somewhere in Louisiana. Nothing special about it, the zoo he meant, but they made the best pistachio ice cream he'd ever tasted and he'd tried a lot all over the world but this little booth in this little zoo made the best. So Gabriel popped in whenever he felt the craving for some green, creamy sin in a cone and sat on a bench near the elephants' compound to enjoy the pistachio flavored goodness.

That was where he first saw her. She was shoveling elephant dung into a wheelbarrow. From the distance she could easily be mistaken for a man with the green overall and the cap over her short hair but Gabriel's view wasn't limited to what met the eye. She handled the shovel with ease, had built up muscles from the hard work. Not pretty in a classic way and she didn't wear make-up which would have been impractical considering her work, however, there was something about her. Maybe in her eyes or her soul, Gabriel couldn't place it.

It was a sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded but this woman in her steel-toed boots and working gloves who seemed to be invisible to the other visitors, just a part of the scenery, was the only person around who sparked Gabriel's interest. Not many people could say that about themselves. And even fewer survived that kind of interest.

Gabriel finished his cone and sat back with his eyes on the woman until she disappeared with the wheelbarrow behind the elephants' house.

For a while after he'd first seen her Gabriel could convince himself that he came to the zoo for the ice cream. Grab some pistachio ice cream from Luigi, whose name wasn't Luigi and who'd never been to Bella Italia in his life but people didn't trust someone named Dmitri to make decent ice cream, and sat on his bench near the elephants' compound. And sometimes he saw her.

If he got there early enough he could watch her letting the elephants out into the compound or in the evening herding them back inside. Over the day she brought in branches or baskets with bread and fruits. And she got rid of the dung. For long hours Gabriel just sat there on his bench and waited for her next appearance. One time he even forgot to buy his alibi ice cream cone.

He still hadn't figured out what had caught his interest. People usually interested him only in one of two ways: Just deserts or sex. He knew nothing about her that would justify the first and she wasn't his type for the latter.

He could have stalked her. Follow her home, sniff through her life, entering her mind. He could do all that and she wouldn't even notice but he didn't. The only thing he actually did besides watching her from his place on the bench was to get close enough for him to read her name on her overall – Bessie – and to have a real look at her face.

She was in her early thirties and the weather and the hard work had cut the first lines into her face. It was a cloudy day with the smell of rain hanging in the air and her eyes had the same stormy color as the sky.

Satisfied for the moment Gabriel backed off and went for another ice cream. He needed to think.

"You sure like my ice cream." Luigi said with forced cheer to his first and probably only customer of the day, it was too chilly and the few visitors in the zoo went more for the hotdogs and coffee than ice cream.

"Sure I do, pal." Gabriel slid over the money and on a second thought added some more. "You know what, make that two."

Luigi raised an eyebrow but got another cone while Gabriel started on the first one.

With both hands full he made his way pass the "Employees Only" sign and followed the path to the backside of the elephants' house. In the far corner, out of sight from the visitors, Bessie was unloading the wheelbarrow. She hadn't noticed him yet.

"Hi there." Gabriel greeted her so he wouldn't scare her. She looked like the kind of woman who would swing the shovel she'd in her hand at somebody who would sneak up on her.

She turned at his voice and looked him up and down for a long second.

"Sorry, sir." She said and her gaze shifted from the two ice creams to his face. Her voice was warm and deep but she sounded like she was reciting something she'd said too many times before. "This area is not open for visitors. Please return the public area."

Gabriel licked the melting ice cream from his cone and stretched out his hand with the second one.

"Thought with all the hard work you're doing you could use something to brighten the day." When she didn't take it, Gabriel continued: "Pistachio, best in the world. Trust me, I know."

She looked at the melting ice cream as if she couldn't quite believe that this was actually happening. Then she looked at the cloud-heavy sky and down at her stained working gloves. When she finally looked Gabriel in the eye she did a poor job at hiding the what-the-fuck?-expression.

"Sorry, sir." She turned back to her work but kept an eye on him. "We are not allowed to accept anything from visitors. Please return to the public area."

"Silly me." He shook his head and then licked around the second cone to catch the melting ice cream. "More for me. This is way too good to be wasted. I could go for another one later. What do you say? Nothing better than some pistachio goodness after a hard days work. I'm buying."

He had to alter between the two cones to catch everything before it dropped to the ground but he managed, he was good with his tongue. Bessie just stared at him for a second before she shook her head with a smile.

"Please, you have to return to the public area." She said with a look around but they were alone.

"Is that a yes?" He asked and stuffed half a cone into his mouth. She actually laughed at that.

"That's a yes." Gabriel answered his own question as soon as he'd swallowed and the second half followed immediately. He didn't want to get her in trouble so he turned and walked back to the front of the elephants' house. Before he turned around the corner he looked back to find her eyes still on him. With the last bit of the second cone he pointed at her, then threw it in the air and caught it with his mouth. Behind him he heard her laughing.

Gabriel made sure to be there when she left the zoo hours later through the employees entrance at the side. Okay, he cheated to keep the ice cream from melting but he wanted to do this right.

When Bessie left the zoo she'd changed into jeans and a well-worn jacket and she popped the collar against the chilly wind and the drizzling rain which had started a while ago. Keeping her head down against the weather she nearly ran into Gabriel.

"I can't believe it." She stopped dead in front of him obviously unsure how to react. He stretched out his hand with the cone and this time she took it. More out of reflex than a conscious decision but she took it.

She had to wait half an hour for the bus, after closing time the bus didn't come that often, more than enough time to eat some ice cream.

"This is good." She admitted after the first hesitant lick.

"I wouldn't lie about something like ice cream." Gabriel said in all earnesty. They ate in silence. After she'd finished hers Bessie rubbed her hands to get them warm again.

"You are a weird man." She blew into her cupped hands and eyed him from the side.

"I take that as a compliment." He grinned at her and started to rub his hands as well as if he was cold too. "Next time we should try something indoors like coffee or something. At least as long as the weather doesn't like us."

"Next time?" She asked and for the first time she seemed shy and she looked away with a blush. Gabriel pretended to not notice.

"If you like." He shrugged. "I'd like."

"I'm not very good with people." She said it in a way like she expected him to bolt at that confession. Instead he shrugged again.

"You could pretend that I only look human but underneath I'm something different."

That made her chuckle, a deep and rich sound. He liked that, he'd like to hear that more often.

tbc