Stairway to Heaven
Wings
God was furious.
She paced back and forth, her brow furrowed to the point of no return. For thousands of years she had been planning this masterpiece of hers, making it ring out with the bells of perfection. She fashioned it with as much love and tenderness as she had when she made Adam; she made it glow with the brightness of every single star in the night sky combined. She even made reference to its unveiling nearly forty years ago, in 1971, when her muses planted the idea in Led Zeppelin’s mind. All this, and still not one person had even come close to using it.
The Stairway to Heaven was God’s new most loved creation. It enabled the whole human race one opportunity throughout their lives to climb up and see the glory and magnificence of where they belonged, with her. The mere idea of this should drive some people insane with longing, or so she thought. In her state of fury, she called upon Levi, her newest Angel. He was always blunt and honest with every utterance he made, not bowing down with grace before her like all the Seraphim, the highest choir of angels.
“Levi! Come here! At once! I need to speak with you!” she shouted.
“Lady…cut me some slack here, it’s Monday,” a low voice rumbled from afar. He shuffled in from another cloud, most likely having been abruptly awakened from a peaceful slumber. The voice belonged to a generally skinny specimen, with dark black hair and piercing steel eyes that churned with the fervor of liquid metal. His whole back was covered in permanent scars that knew all too well the crack of a whip, and his wrists both bore the markings of the eternal curse of the fallen angel.
“Levi, don’t push me. Every day I question my decision to let you stay, even as a member of the lowest sphere of the angels.” She began to get nostalgic as she continued. “Your father was my favorite Angel of all the Angels. He always knew exactly what was needed of him and exactly how to get it. If only he hadn’t fallen for that damned daughter of Eve…I swear I heard the sound of the demons ripping your father’s wings off all the way from Hell.”
Levi was silent.
After a moment, he said, “What do you want from me, God?”
“I want to know why not one single human has even gone about the course of the day thinking, ‘Why is there a huge staircase in the middle of Central Park?’ I want to know why—why my creations don’t love me. Why they don’t want to see me.”
He looked up through thick eyelashes, unable to speak at first. Being speechless was so unlike him. “I don’t understand my part in this.”
“You are my messenger. You are going to redeem your father’s mortal sin by completing this simple task for me. For it has been said, as I have decreed, that all fallen Angels can be saved, if the task performed is deemed worthy of saving one. If you succeed, he may come back from Hell and rejoin the ranks of Angels where he belongs.”
Levi bit his tongue and shut his eyes. He wished for nothing more than to have the burden of the consequences his conception brought about off his weary back. Every night he dreamed about that same bloodcurdling sound God had just spoken of. To see the true pain etched in every agonized face his father made was the worst curse of all.
“What is my task, God?” He knelt before her, silent and waiting, desperately wanting.
“You must travel down the Stairway to Heaven, until you reach Earth, and find one person who wishes to come up the Stairway of his or her own accord. Bring that one person up, and you shall be successful.” God’s voice boomed with the power of a decree. “Go forth, Levi, and remember: your father’s fate is in your hands.”
}*{
Levi was perplexed.
He watched, from a lonely park bench just next to the bottom of the Stairway, as people passed by, completely unaware. It called out to them, beckoning them to come and see its wonders. No, he saw, their heads were far too engrossed in a business call or an email on their phones or counting their money even to notice.
He grew tired of watching and waiting and wanting as the moon rose, shining brightly over Central Park, coating everything with the iridescent grandeur of the night. The businesses and banks finally sat silent, and sleeping citizens lay still in their beds, breathing in and out all as a unit. He understood, now, why God would be furious. How could they not see what was plainly right in front of them? But deep down, he knew the answer, even if God didn’t. None of them even believed in God anymore, let alone Angels and Heaven. They were too blind to see it.
As the night closed in ever further, Levi ran out of the park, just as angry with the people as God had been. The longer he waited, the longer he had to have those nightmares. He wished to give up and return, but God had treated this as a punishment and refused to allow him back until his task was complete.
That Stairway is merely mocking me now… he thought bitterly as he came across a building. There, on the corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West, stood the famous building where John Lennon was shot. With his Angel hearing, he could detect someone crying from one of the higher floors. He decided that to investigate he would scale the side of the building, because even though his arms were weak and tired, a weak angel is still stronger than the strongest human.
When he reached the whimpering cries, a girl no older than sixteen sat on the floor, her body crumpled over from exhaustion. Her dark red curls hung in front of her mascara smeared face and her green eyes shimmered with fresh tears. He walked quieter than the drop of a needle until he stood over her fetal form. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder.
“Crying can’t do you much good, can it?”
The girl lifted her head, eyes wide and startled. “Who—who said that?”
“No need to worry. I’m here to help you, not hurt you.”
She shied away from his touch and tried to create a curtain of wine red hair between the two of them. “I’m just…afraid I’ve gone off the deep end.”
“How so?”
“I looked out the window at my Central Park view just now, and I saw a gigantic staircase coming out of the clouds and landing right in the center of Strawberry Fields. And people just walked on by. I rubbed my eyes, and still I saw it. It won’t go away. I’m doomed to be crazy just like my mother.”
Levi’s face lit up, heating the grey metal in his eyes. “Wait—you believe in Angels?”
“I, uh…I do. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Take my hand.”
Levi stretched out his hand, wrist up, offering it to her. She took it, questions filling her eyes.
He gently pulled her to her feet and walked her out to the window. “Do you see it still?”
The light of the Stairway intensified, glowing wistfully for this girl, calling her. She merely nodded, afraid to say anything else. After a pause, she whispered, “I want to see it closer. I—I want to touch it.”
“I can bring you there, if you trust me.”
Again, a nod, though this one was slightly more hesitant.
“Hold on to my shoulders as tightly as you can. Whatever happens, do not let go, and don’t make a sound. Promise?”
Her answer was her arms gripping his shoulders and neck for dear life.
“One…Two…Three!”
On three, he jumped out of the window of the Dakota, letting the adrenaline of the free fall rush over him. Within seconds of touching the ground, his wings shot out of his back, and they were airborne. They flew up, up, up, higher and higher, soaring on his wings. The city was her oyster. She laughed, enjoying herself as if in a dream.
“This is why you asked me if I believed in Angels? Because you are one?”
He rolled his eyes. “No, I wanted to know if you wanted some chicken.”
She laughed at his biting wit. “I want to be an Angel.”
“Well, either you die, or you come to heaven with me and convince God to give you wings.”
“I'd rather not die.”
"Well, I guess that makes two of us."
He smiled, racing them down to the bottom of the Stairway. He flew them up along the stairs, and as they reached the highest clouds, Levi swore he saw his father smiling down at him from God’s side, wings and all.
}*{
God was pleased.
She paced back and forth, her brow furrowed to the point of no return. For thousands of years she had been planning this masterpiece of hers, making it ring out with the bells of perfection. She fashioned it with as much love and tenderness as she had when she made Adam; she made it glow with the brightness of every single star in the night sky combined. She even made reference to its unveiling nearly forty years ago, in 1971, when her muses planted the idea in Led Zeppelin’s mind. All this, and still not one person had even come close to using it.
The Stairway to Heaven was God’s new most loved creation. It enabled the whole human race one opportunity throughout their lives to climb up and see the glory and magnificence of where they belonged, with her. The mere idea of this should drive some people insane with longing, or so she thought. In her state of fury, she called upon Levi, her newest Angel. He was always blunt and honest with every utterance he made, not bowing down with grace before her like all the Seraphim, the highest choir of angels.
“Levi! Come here! At once! I need to speak with you!” she shouted.
“Lady…cut me some slack here, it’s Monday,” a low voice rumbled from afar. He shuffled in from another cloud, most likely having been abruptly awakened from a peaceful slumber. The voice belonged to a generally skinny specimen, with dark black hair and piercing steel eyes that churned with the fervor of liquid metal. His whole back was covered in permanent scars that knew all too well the crack of a whip, and his wrists both bore the markings of the eternal curse of the fallen angel.
“Levi, don’t push me. Every day I question my decision to let you stay, even as a member of the lowest sphere of the angels.” She began to get nostalgic as she continued. “Your father was my favorite Angel of all the Angels. He always knew exactly what was needed of him and exactly how to get it. If only he hadn’t fallen for that damned daughter of Eve…I swear I heard the sound of the demons ripping your father’s wings off all the way from Hell.”
Levi was silent.
After a moment, he said, “What do you want from me, God?”
“I want to know why not one single human has even gone about the course of the day thinking, ‘Why is there a huge staircase in the middle of Central Park?’ I want to know why—why my creations don’t love me. Why they don’t want to see me.”
He looked up through thick eyelashes, unable to speak at first. Being speechless was so unlike him. “I don’t understand my part in this.”
“You are my messenger. You are going to redeem your father’s mortal sin by completing this simple task for me. For it has been said, as I have decreed, that all fallen Angels can be saved, if the task performed is deemed worthy of saving one. If you succeed, he may come back from Hell and rejoin the ranks of Angels where he belongs.”
Levi bit his tongue and shut his eyes. He wished for nothing more than to have the burden of the consequences his conception brought about off his weary back. Every night he dreamed about that same bloodcurdling sound God had just spoken of. To see the true pain etched in every agonized face his father made was the worst curse of all.
“What is my task, God?” He knelt before her, silent and waiting, desperately wanting.
“You must travel down the Stairway to Heaven, until you reach Earth, and find one person who wishes to come up the Stairway of his or her own accord. Bring that one person up, and you shall be successful.” God’s voice boomed with the power of a decree. “Go forth, Levi, and remember: your father’s fate is in your hands.”
}*{
Levi was perplexed.
He watched, from a lonely park bench just next to the bottom of the Stairway, as people passed by, completely unaware. It called out to them, beckoning them to come and see its wonders. No, he saw, their heads were far too engrossed in a business call or an email on their phones or counting their money even to notice.
He grew tired of watching and waiting and wanting as the moon rose, shining brightly over Central Park, coating everything with the iridescent grandeur of the night. The businesses and banks finally sat silent, and sleeping citizens lay still in their beds, breathing in and out all as a unit. He understood, now, why God would be furious. How could they not see what was plainly right in front of them? But deep down, he knew the answer, even if God didn’t. None of them even believed in God anymore, let alone Angels and Heaven. They were too blind to see it.
As the night closed in ever further, Levi ran out of the park, just as angry with the people as God had been. The longer he waited, the longer he had to have those nightmares. He wished to give up and return, but God had treated this as a punishment and refused to allow him back until his task was complete.
That Stairway is merely mocking me now… he thought bitterly as he came across a building. There, on the corner of 72nd Street and Central Park West, stood the famous building where John Lennon was shot. With his Angel hearing, he could detect someone crying from one of the higher floors. He decided that to investigate he would scale the side of the building, because even though his arms were weak and tired, a weak angel is still stronger than the strongest human.
When he reached the whimpering cries, a girl no older than sixteen sat on the floor, her body crumpled over from exhaustion. Her dark red curls hung in front of her mascara smeared face and her green eyes shimmered with fresh tears. He walked quieter than the drop of a needle until he stood over her fetal form. He placed a hand gently on her shoulder.
“Crying can’t do you much good, can it?”
The girl lifted her head, eyes wide and startled. “Who—who said that?”
“No need to worry. I’m here to help you, not hurt you.”
She shied away from his touch and tried to create a curtain of wine red hair between the two of them. “I’m just…afraid I’ve gone off the deep end.”
“How so?”
“I looked out the window at my Central Park view just now, and I saw a gigantic staircase coming out of the clouds and landing right in the center of Strawberry Fields. And people just walked on by. I rubbed my eyes, and still I saw it. It won’t go away. I’m doomed to be crazy just like my mother.”
Levi’s face lit up, heating the grey metal in his eyes. “Wait—you believe in Angels?”
“I, uh…I do. But what does that have to do with anything?”
“Take my hand.”
Levi stretched out his hand, wrist up, offering it to her. She took it, questions filling her eyes.
He gently pulled her to her feet and walked her out to the window. “Do you see it still?”
The light of the Stairway intensified, glowing wistfully for this girl, calling her. She merely nodded, afraid to say anything else. After a pause, she whispered, “I want to see it closer. I—I want to touch it.”
“I can bring you there, if you trust me.”
Again, a nod, though this one was slightly more hesitant.
“Hold on to my shoulders as tightly as you can. Whatever happens, do not let go, and don’t make a sound. Promise?”
Her answer was her arms gripping his shoulders and neck for dear life.
“One…Two…Three!”
On three, he jumped out of the window of the Dakota, letting the adrenaline of the free fall rush over him. Within seconds of touching the ground, his wings shot out of his back, and they were airborne. They flew up, up, up, higher and higher, soaring on his wings. The city was her oyster. She laughed, enjoying herself as if in a dream.
“This is why you asked me if I believed in Angels? Because you are one?”
He rolled his eyes. “No, I wanted to know if you wanted some chicken.”
She laughed at his biting wit. “I want to be an Angel.”
“Well, either you die, or you come to heaven with me and convince God to give you wings.”
“I'd rather not die.”
"Well, I guess that makes two of us."
He smiled, racing them down to the bottom of the Stairway. He flew them up along the stairs, and as they reached the highest clouds, Levi swore he saw his father smiling down at him from God’s side, wings and all.
}*{
God was pleased.