Durian Angel

His assignment, it seemed, was in the land of Asia.

“Hmm, I have never been to Asia. I wonder how it looks like,” Stanley thought to himself as he headed for Earth.

He soon entered the Earth’s atmosphere but he was coming in too fast, like he always did.

“Oh no! Not again! Too fast! No!”

Crash! Crack! He crashed head first into a tree. One thing that Stanley was bad at (besides completing tasks) was landing. He did not know why he was the only one in heaven who had that problem. He had tried his best to improve but to no avail.

“Oh great! Wonderful landing Stanley… “, he muttered.

Now that he was stuck in a tree, he struggled to free himself. He flapped his wings, trying desperately to escape from the branches and twigs that caught his wings but it was no good. The more he tried to free himself, the more it got worse. He was starting to lose his feathers.

“Argh, how am I ever going to get free! Ah, I could use my magic!”

Stanley started to dig his nose to initiate his magic. After some time, he was finally free. He fell to the ground. Standing up, he then started to look for the tree. He needed to find the tree so that he could complete his task and head back to heaven.

“Where is that tree?”

According to the head angel, Stanley’s duty was to start the first fruit season of a new fruit. This was a simple job - too easy for any angel to carry out. While searching for the tree, Stanley hoped with all his heart that the assignment would be a success as all of his previous tasks were major failures. It made him feel as if he was useless, of no value and help to the Heavenly Father.

“Man, I sure need got to buck up and show the rest I am capable of something. I have to prove my worth. I will complete this assignment. Now, where is my objective? Where on earth is that arrow?”

As far as Stanley could remember, he always had the help of the arrows in all his assignments. Ever since his first few tasks, the International Board of Angels decided that Stanley be given “special” aid. The International Board of Angels or I.B.A, in short, was responsible for solving problems concerning angels. The arrows, which could neither be seen by the human eye nor by the devil and his minions, were introduced specifically to help Stanley. Without the arrows, he would take ages to find his objectives on his own. On the contrary, other angels did not require the help as they could easily find their objectives.

“There it is!” Stanley exclaimed.

Between the obstructing trees Stanley could see a huge shining arrow pointing downwards in the night sky. Its light shone radiantly, lighting up the sky and the surrounding area. Stanley prepared to take flight. He kicked off the ground and spread his wings wide.

“Up, up and away!” he cried.

He lifted off the ground, soaring up gloriously into the sky, heading straight towards the big bright arrow ahead, picking up speed along the way. As he approached, he circled around the targeted tree, slowly descending in circles upon the ground. As he got closer to the treetop, he looked around for a place to land. He turned his head to the right. Suddenly… Bang!

The side of Stanley’s face bashed right into a tree branch while he was looking around. He fell on his bum. Stanley stood up and rubbed his face gingerly. Dusting himself, he walked to the tree.

“Now, how did the head angel said I was supposed to do this?”

He walked around the tree and started kicking it. The tree turned pink.

“Ah, the spell is working!” shouted Stanley.

For Stanley’s spell to work was like an event of a lifetime.

“Hmm, I think that should do”.

As he turned to leave, he accidentally farted.

“Oops! Excuse me!”

He left the place without knowing he had just made a big mistake. The next day, the local news of Heaven reported the existence of a weird looking fruit. It was a green fruit with thorns with a pungent smell. At first, Stanley thought he was going to be in hot soup but the locals loved it! They named the weird fruit ‘durian’ which means a new rambutan. Stanley gave a sigh of relief and was glad that his clumsiness turned out good this time and Stanley was happy to know that he had created a new fruit. Ever since that day, he had been named ‘The Angel of Durian’.

***

by: Joseph and Kai Liang

This story will always be in my memory. =)