Eventually, he reached a picnic area crowded with families. Parents. Children. Pets. The noise, smells, and messy clamor of humanity. The stranger stood off to the side, taking in the spectacle. Husbands staring at other men’s wives. Wives staring daggers at their husbands. Children screaming, running wild. The stranger was delighted. He counted the sins, ran them through a mental calculator and shook his head.

Redecoration.

Of course, it wasn’t entirely their fault, he thought. They were mortals. Simpletons. But after his encounter with Leviathan and Beelzebub, the place was becoming all a bit much. His mood and expression curdled. He imagined fault lines. Wildfires. Freak tornadoes.

A young girl in a blue dress, about five, ran by chasing balloons. Her eyes were red and her face was streaked where tears had mingled with dirt. She picked up her balloons from the bushes where they’d blown and cried even harder. The stranger could see that they were knotted together, a rubbery tangle of colors and shapes. The little girl saw him staring and dragged her balloons to him.

The stranger heard a man’s voice calling to the girl. “Carly. Come away from the strange man, honey.” The stranger looked over and saw a short man with thinning hair. Sure. Let your children run wild, he thought. Run right to a stranger who could make it rain brimstone and ice down on all of you.

The young girl held up her balloons.

“It popped,” she said. “See? Right in the middle.”

He knelt and looked at the knotted mess. The balloons were wound around each other to resemble some sort of dog, but the dog’s torso had a hole in the side. The stranger looked at the father. The father started over.

“Carly. Come to Daddy, honey.”

The stranger took the balloons from the girl and held them up to his lips. Then he blew across them. The dog’s body slowly inflated. The girl’s red eyes grew wide. The stranger put the dog on the ground just as the father reached them. Before he could grab the child, the stranger let go of the balloon dog. It ran a few steps, turned, and barked at the little girl. When she went over to it, the dog jumped into her arms, barking excitedly.

“Thank you! Thank you!” the little girl shouted and waved to him.

The stranger nodded. “You’re welcome.”

The girl set the dog on the ground. It bounded away and she laughed as she chased after it. When the stranger looked up, the father was standing a few feet away, his hands balled into fists. But he didn’t look the least bit dangerous. He watched his daughter running after her new pet.

“How did you do that?” said the father.

“Your daughter is very polite,” said the stranger. “But you don’t spend enough time with her.”

The father turned to him. “Excuse me?”

“I can tell these things. Time flies. People grow old. Worlds end.”