Here, music was just another language. We all heard it in our own way, just like the humans could speak one language and all hear their own native tongues.
“Laila,” Shahar called out, jumping up from his seat at the table to greet me. Like almost all human spirits in Heaven, he looked like he was in his midtwenties and there was a translucent quality to him. It was the only indication that his body was temporary, less than it could be. The humans could touch and feel, but really they were a projection of the soul. None of them would have true and perfect bodies until death met its final end.
“How could you not tell us about your birthday?” he asked.
I shot a glare at Jonah. I didn’t want a big to-do about my birthday. Eventually I’d have hundreds of thousands of them, but Jonah insisted that the first hundred must be celebrated.
Jonah just grinned and pulled out a chair for me at the table. He wasn’t sorry, and it wasn’t worth getting into it. I dropped into the low-backed chair designed to accommodate wings while Jonah filled the goblets in front of us.
“So did you hear about the ambassador coming to the palace?” Shahar asked, taking the seat across from me.
“Ambassador from where?” I asked. We didn’t get a whole lot of visitors in God’s court. The occasional archangel of the third order came to report to the Father and pass along His wishes to the rest of the angels, but I’d never heard of an ambassador before.
Shahar shrugged. “I don’t know. The Father wouldn’t tell me, but He’s been handing out tasks to a bunch of us to prepare for the ambassador’s arrival.”
I frowned in confusion. Preparing for visitors sounded like something the angels would be tasked with, not the humans. “What kind of tasks?”
“Can’t say.” It was an answer I was used to hearing from the humans, but it always made me feel like I was being excluded from a club. The humans had their own special relationship with the Father, and I’d never be a part of that. My own work was different since I’d never gone through the test that was the earthly experience to earn my responsibilities.
“Hey.” Shahar reached across the table to lay his hand over mine. “You know I’d tell you if I could, right? I’m not withholding the information just for fun. I’m not allowed to talk about it with most people.”
“I understand.” And I did. It was just that understanding didn’t take away the disappointment. “What can you tell me about this upcoming visit?”
“I honestly don’t know much beyond what I’ve been told to do specifically, but I get the impression that the Father’s really looking forward to this visit. I think whoever this ambassador is really matters to Him.”
“Everyone matters to Him,” Jonah pointed out.
“Well yeah, but sometimes that’s more noticeable, you know? Like the prodigal son story—the father loved his older son just as much as the younger one, but the return of the younger son was special and called for rejoicing.”
Jonah’s brows lifted. “You’re calling this ambassador the Father’s prodigal son?”
“No, I’m just saying that the Father’s reaction is similar to the father in the story. Totally different.”
“Back to this visit,” I said before they could get too far down a rabbit hole. “Do you know when he’s coming?”
“Soon, probably within a human week. The Father said seven sunrises from now, but I think He’s planning on having close to twenty-four-hour days so we have an easier time judging how much time we have left to get everything ready.” It didn’t seem to matter how many years it had been since a human lived on Earth, they never lost their earthly sense of time.
“What’d I miss?” Noah, one of Shahar’s closest friends from their time together in life, slid onto a chair and reached for a plate of food.
“It’s Laila’s birthday,” Shahar told him.
“Really?” Noah glanced up at me. “Happy birthday.”
“I am really getting too old for this,” I muttered under my breath. It was one thing when I was a legitimate child, but now it just felt like a reminder that I was still so much younger than everyone around me.
“Hush,” Jonah replied.
“Noah, have you been enlisted to help with these mysterious preparations for our upcoming visitor?” I asked, trying to turn the attention away from my age.
Noah nodded before looking toward Shahar. “Did the Father seem particularly excited to you?”
“Yeah,” Shahar answered. “I was just telling Laila and Jonah that He’s acting like this ambassador is His long-lost son.”
“You don’t know where he’s an ambassador from?” I asked Noah.
“Nope. I’m not privy to that kind of insider information. The Father plans to meet with him in private. I don’t think He wants anyone to know exactly who the ambassador is or what he’s here for.”
Shahar said something else, but it sounded like gibberish to me. I’d been born able to speak every human language, but there were still many occasions I couldn’t understand the words being spoken around me. The same power that allowed humans to speak one tongue and hear another also worked to ensure we couldn’t understand words not meant for our ears.
