Mercury Falls

Robert Kroese

Chapters (0)

Published by St. Culain Press. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or other – except for brief quotations in reviews, without the prior permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental. References to the fictional news magazine The Banner are in no way intended to disparage the official magazine of the Christian Reformed Church, which also goes by that name.

ISBN: 978-0-578-03214-6

For Julia, the angel looking over my shoulder.

..……………………………….

With thanks to Teri Ahlstrom, Joel Bezaire, Neva Cheatwood,

Jim deJonge, Jocelyn Pihlaja and John Sellers for their

unwavering support and invaluable assistance.

PROLOGUE

To Your Holiness the High Council of the Seraphim,

Greetings from your humble servant, Ederatz,
Cherub First Class,
Order of the Mundane Observation Corps

The first thing you’ll notice about this report is that it’s written in English. I have to apologize for that; after a few millennia on earth I’m a little rusty in High Seraphic. Also, while the language of the angels is incontrovertibly more melodious than any earthbound tongue, it lacks a number of words which are central to the telling of a story of such epic grandeur, such as linoleum, ping-pong and dickweed.

I have abandoned the anapestic tetrameter form traditionally used for these reports, as it is surprisingly difficult to adapt to English. I got as far as:

White balls bouncing in the house of the one

And the corners of linoleum are peeling in the sun

I think this couplet has a certain epic feel to it, but on the down side it took me three weeks to write. In addition, I’m afraid this account has a bit more moral ambiguity than is really suited for the traditional form. I know, I’m supposed to clear up the gray areas and present things in black and white, but you’d be amazed at how complicated things have gotten here recently. In fact, it’s hard to even know what bits to include in the story. Who’s the main character? What’s the point of the story? Could it be adapted into a TV movie? Your guess is as good as mine. Although it is true that HBO has expressed some interest.