Opinion

Eris stood in her bed room looking at her assortment of skirts. There was a ‘standard’ now — the skirt had to touch the floor if she knelt. This would be her first real time in the choir, and she wanted to look just right. Not only was it a privilege to help lead worship, but maybe, just maybe, someone nice would become interested. So…. not TOO conservative. Attractive, fashionable, but legal.

“This one?” No. Slits were forbidden unless they were in back. But pleats were so… frumpish.

“This one?” Oh yes, and maybe… she slipped into a moderately tight tube skirt and knelt to check. With a bit of adjusting, the hem did just barely touch the floor when she knelt.

“Well, then, I’m legal” she smiled. “And with these heels…” Eris examined herself in the mirror. No extreme bumps or lines. A perfect combination if ever there was one. And a scarf. Perfect. Smart, attractive, and legal. With the right accessories she might even find her picture with a nice ‘You go girl’ comment under it on the “Do’s and Don’ts ” page on Glamor.com.

“Look out Groundswell, here comes Eris!” She smiled.

—

Smee watched from the ledge of Eris’ bedroom window as Eris climbed into her cherry red sports car and started off to church.

“Good name” he thought. “This will be a piece of cake. Now to get the other ones ready to properly respond.” Buck would be too experienced to fall for this, but Katrina was very jealous of her husband’s affections. And a real fireball. She would be fun. Just the right little suggestions in the right places at the right time. And if he timed it just right, he’d have Katrina dancing before Buck could do anything about it.

—

“Bub bub! Bub bub bub!” implored little Megan as she held onto Cat’s ankle and reached for her skirt. Cat stood in the kitchen, finishing off a few stray dishes before heading out the door to choir practice. “Bub bub bub bub!” persisted Megan.

Cat stopped washing a coffee cup and looked down at Megan. Megan was staring right back up at her, looking very worried. “Bub bub BUB!” she squawked and pointed, as best a 1year old can point, at her twin brother Sean. Sean had found something that was holding his attention too much. Cat looked as closely as she could to see what in the world was so interesting to Sean, and Megan eventually lost her grip on Cat’s hem and sat down with a plop on the kitchen floor.

When Cat finally recognised what Sean was watching so carefully, all the blood drained from her head and she moved on adrenaline fired maternal instinct. “Hyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy YA!” she screamed as she ran directly at Smee, who was dangling a bottle of shoe polish in front of Sean, moving it back and forth and grinning wickedly, as Sean tried to grasp the bottle.

Cat’s boot connected with Smee’s abdomen hard enough that his tattered bat-like wings fell limp around him and his body headed through the temporal wall of the Rodger’s home and straight for the moon like a soccer ball. The bottle of shoe polish was pulled from his hand by the wall as he passed through it: the shoe polish was, after all, corporeal and Smee was not. Sort of. All Smee had time to see was the toe and bottom of Katrina’s boot. “She can see me” he mused as he lost consciousness.

Having seen the small demon disappear through her living room wall, Cat ignored the endangered carpet and scooped up Sean to hold him close. Megan was crawling back to meet her in the living room. She turned a hard eye to both her twins. “They can see them” she thought. “Our kids can see angels too. And the demons are after them.”