3 O'clock

3:00 O’clock?

“You awake?”

“I don’t know, am I?”

“Did you hear that?”

“Hear what?”

“That sound. Sounds like a drip. Did you not turn the faucet handle on the kitchen sink all the way off?”

“I always do, now that I know it bothers you so much.”

“Did you bring your phone?”

“Why? Expecting a call?”

“No, just thought I’d see what time it is.”

“It’s dark.”

“Yes, I know it’s dark but I don’t want to get up and then have to sit and wait for hours for it to get light and then feel like I didn’t get any sleep. You know how you feel when you don’t get enough sleep?”

“Yes, I know how I feel. Maybe you should just try and go back to sleep and avoid having to sit at the kitchen table waiting for daylight.”

“Easy for you to say. You are able to go back to sleep. I can’t seem to do that. What do you do to be able to do that?”

“I don’t do anything. Well I do something, but I don’t know if you’d be able to do it or not.”

“Try me.”

“I think up stories about things I’d like to hear about. I was involved in the most interesting story about me being chased by an avenging angel who thought it was my fault the environment was on the verge of, “bursting into flames;” its exact words. I was about to answer when you asked if I was awake.”

“What were you going to say?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t gotten that far.”

“Are you talking about Ralph?” 

“I might be. He visits me from time to time, usually upset in general about something to do with humanity, or our lack of it. I’ve tried ignoring him, but he’s persistent, and you might just as well tell him what he wants to hear. You know the type; people who hear only what they want to. They don’t seem to be able to look at the facts and make a decision without referring to some talking head on a TV or radio show.”

“I don’t know the name of the angel that visits me. I suppose I should ask, but I really wasn’t all that interested until now. How do you know, he, she, or it is an avenging angel?”

“What other kind of angel would visit me? You know how you are always going on about my obsession with Familia? Well, angels happen to be part of, what you would consider to be my Familia. 

Did you know we can only see about 14% of the life forms that surround us? I think that’s why most people can’t see them. As far as Ralph being an avenging angel, I just assumed because of his attitude he was attempting to make things right as far as he sees them. He didn’t come right out and say so, but he or she or it inferred that humans may be on the way out. Then he laughed and said, they can’t even see it coming, because they don’t want to. I found that a rather disturbing prognostication.”

“Prognostication? Big word.”

“Why yes It is…and purposeful.”

“Did he give any reasons, or is this just another one of those Armageddon exercises? You know, we were supposed to be gone, all of us, and I think even the animals last Tuesday. I’ve become so unsensitized by the news that I wouldn’t know if I was gone until someone pointed it out to me.”  

“I understand. That’s why I quit watching the news or even listening to it. You know when they say no news is good news? I think we are living it, today. When’s the last time you heard anyone say anything good about anything? The stock market is up, and then it’s down…worse than inflation; except inflation never reverses. We will always keep being charged more for less, until we quit paying. It would take a participatory effort, and I don’t think we are up to it.”

“Does this angel of yours, Ralph…did he tell you his name was Ralph, or did you give him the name? Kind of like when you call something, something, so you don’t have to refer to it as it.”

“I named him. I asked what he wanted to be called but he wouldn’t say. Well he did say, “if you don’t know, what good would it do for me to tell you? I suppose he’s right about that. I don’t think my memory is what it used to be. What time did you say it was?”

“I didn’t, but I could look, but then as Ralph says, would it really make any difference?”

“It might I suppose. I’d like to know if this Ralph, your avenging angel, is the same angel who visits me? I have never thought of him as looking avenging though, but then I don’t wear my glasses to bed, so it is possible. If he didn’t give you a reason we are going to disappear, what makes you think he knows anymore than those who continue to deny that the earth is changing and we are helping to change it?…and I might add, for the worse.”

“Does your Ralph have wings and a long white robe that matches his hair perfectly? Like designer hair, possibly a designer robe?”

“NO! My angel wears a suit. His hair is white, as well as his suit. He appears as though it doesn’t matter much to him weather it is after Labor Day or not. He has the most wonderful tan for an angel; that Hollywood look if you know what I mean. I always assumed they would look rather pasty, from the lack of sunshine and real skin of course.”

“Would you mind checking the time. I feel like I should get up, but the rest of me seems to stalling. That ever happen to you?”

“Usually only when I have to go to the bathroom. You know how the floors are always cold and once your feet get cold it seems impossible to get them warm? Well, that is why I try not to get up unless it is absolutely necessary or I absolutely can’t wait any longer.”

“I guess what bothers me the most about your Ralph, is that if he is a real angel, not just some devil practicing for the “lights,” he would have to be a spirit of sorts; one of the 86% of those we can’t see. I would assume they are spirits as well. If they are spirits they would have no interest in whether the earth continues to exist or not. Do you think that the other 86% knows something that we don’t?”

“I sure hope so. I’m hoping that if they do, they’d let us know before it’s too late, if it isn’t already. Seems like every day there’s another flood or fire. You’d think given the laws of gravity that one would cancel out the other, but they don’t. You ever wonder why everything is looking for balance, but never seems to find it? Wouldn’t you think we’d quit looking after a while? Oh, and it might just have something to do with being unemployed.”

“Did you check the time. I’m feeling like I should get up. That drip sound seems to come and go.I don’t hear it when you are talking, but I do when you aren’t. It’s beginning to get to me. I think I’d better get up and see. Water ain’t like it used to be. We are running out of that too; at least the kind you can use.”

 “Remember, the floors are cold and if you find you are imagining a drip and there isn’t one, you are going to have to live with the consequences. How bad can a drip be, even if we are running out of water we can use. We still got a skink don’t we?”

“You are probably right, but then again if you get up and turn on the faucet and nothing comes out, don’t blame me. I tried to warn you.”

“Oh, I see where this is going. You want me to feel guilty about us not having water, and If I don’t get up and see for sure it will be my fault. Well, I’m not falling for that. I’m the one who brought up the cold floors if you remember. You are the one who brought up Ralph.”

“I don’t mean to change the subject, but it occurred to me that your angel Ralph and mine, aren’t the same avenging angel or even the avenging types, when you look at the two side by side. Yours seems to be more of a salesman, while mine seems to be more of a weather man with an attitude.”

“Now that you brought it up, why would an angel be vengeful about something he or she or it, never experienced, other than perhaps from the vantage point of a disinterested observer who just happened to have the job of being an angel. Do you know if they are making new angels or have all the angels there are ever going to be, already be amongst us? It seems to me that if the population of our country has more than doubled in the last 60 years, and unless Ralph is right, it will double again in the next 60 years, that to me means that each angel has had his, her, or its workload triple. Do you think they have like an angel union? Otherwise they aren’t any better off than we are.”

“I see your point, but what would they need money for? Unlike us they don’t have to eat or stay worm or cool. Even if they live in the 86% lighted area we can’t see they still got it made. That’s why I can’t understand why Ralph would be upset because we are ruining our planet?”

“I don’t think he sees it that way. He knows, as do we, if we are honest with ourselves and not trying to persuade ourselves for the befit of an idealism we don’t understand, that we are consuming ourselves into extinction. It is more I think, for him, her, or it, that we are destroying something that is not ours, just for the satisfaction of doing so. We all know that you can’t grow forever as all capitalistic economies demand, and once you reach the slippery slope of not being able to continue to expand and begin to slide backward into oblivion, there is no stopping it. Some call it recession, some depression, I call it the fear of not being able to continue wasting everything for the sake of nothing. 

First comes food shortages, then housing shortages, then mass migrations to places where you might have a chance to survive, only to be stopped by those afraid to share, for practical or selfish reasons. Once our spinning ball of nebulous string starts to unravel, it unwinds quickly, not leaving you time to compensate. I think that is where the doom and gloom comes in. I can’t really blame him for being morose. I feel that way too. It’s like being given perfection and spending your entire existence making it unperfect just to spite yourself.”

“I’ve got to get up, can’t wait any longer, cold floors or not.”

“Yah, me too. Too the bathroom! We should consider getting a pair of slippers, but then what would we have to complain about? Perhaps we will become avenging angels someday, if the angel union ever needs to expand to accommodate the growing mass of consumers.”

“Perhaps?”

“Do you think angels sleep or are they too busy visiting people who can’t?”

“You know better than to ask me questions like that when I’m dreaming.”