Chapter Nine; Part Three
“Delivery for Margaret Wang.”
“I’ll be right there.” Another one? Who could it be this time? I went downstairs and peeked outside, seeing a delivery guy with a bouquet of fiery orange and red roses. The colors of the roses were so pure, they almost hurt my eyes.
“Here you go,” the delivery guy said, thrusting the enormous bouquet into my waiting arms. I rushed upstairs, eager to find out who’d sent me such a beautiful arrangement. I hunted for the card before finally finding it. In beautiful penmanship, someone had inscribed, ‘Margaret Marilyn, you are mine. Morningstar.’ They were from Lucifer! I should throw them away. They were, without a doubt, the most breathtaking roses I’d ever seen, and I didn’t even care for roses. I walked slowly into the kitchen trying to decide what to do. In the end, I rationalized that it couldn’t hurt to keep them. They would die in a few days, anyway, wouldn’t they? Suddenly, I wasn’t sure they were real flowers. I mean, Lucifer could have had them specially made if he wanted. I arranged them, anyway, and brought them into the living room where I set the vase besides the orchids from Alan. The two bouquets looked great side-by-side; I could get used to being treated like a queen. Too bad neither bunch was from the guy I was actually trying to date.
I needed to do something about Lucifer. He was stepping up his campaign, and I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to hold out against him. I called Wind who answered on the third ring. Seems I had disturbed her during her meditation time for which I profusely apologized. When I explained what I wanted, however, she agreed to come over and see what she could do. She didn’t sound as confident as I would have liked given that Li Ling had practically promised that Wind could take care of the problem, but I let it go. I thought about calling my mother again, but I resisted. She had to make the first overture. I flicked on the television to watch something until Wind came. It was a welcome respite from thinking. I was so engrossed in the Iron Chefs that the buzzer startled me when it sounded forty-five minutes later.
“Wind?” I asked before buzzing her up. I hugged her gratefully after she breezed into my apartment. She was in a simple gauzy skirt and t-shirt, no accessories or makeup.
“Time for the big guns, I guess,” Wind said briskly, lugging her over-sized bag inside. She stopped as she noticed the flowers on my coffee table. “Please tell me those are from Ted because you had a really great date.”
“We did have a great date,” I said, motioning her in. “However, the orchids are from Alan and the roses are from….” I hesitated because I knew how she felt about me consorting with the devil. “Lucifer.”
“The devil? He sent you flowers?” Wind shrieked, causing me to wince. I had sensitive ears, and she had a booming voice when she so chose. “You have to get rid of them.” Before I could stop her, she grabbed the flowers, strode over to the window and flung them out.
“Hey! What did you do that for?” I protested, rushing over to the window. There were my beautiful roses, lying on the ground. Before anybody could step on them, however, they slowly started rising in the air until they were right outside my window. The funny thing was that nobody paid the slightest attention to the floating flowers.
“Don’t touch those,” Wind shouted, struggling to get me away from the window. “What good will it do for me to seal the portal if you allow those roses in your apartment?” I must have looked confused because she expanded. “As long as you keep something of the devil’s in your apartment, he will always be afforded access. You must cleanse your apartment from his presence, down to the last flower.” She was so engrossed in her lecturing, she didn’t notice the roses tossing themselves through my window and back into their vase. When she saw them sitting as pretty as you please on the coffee table, she made a sound of disgust in the back of her throat. “It appears that you have to throw them out if we want to be rid of them for good.” But did I?
