three. She was a lonely child who always dreamed There was an orphanage in the center of the began her adventure… front of her. Through the conversations, Alice questions until a Christmas; an angel appeared in after her parents died in an accident when she was city. Alice was one of the children who lived there. give her an answer of her life, so she carried all her Way to Heaven By Elven Chapter Six P.26 Chapter Five P.21 Chapter Four P.18 Chapter Three P.14 Chapter Seven P.31 Chapter Eight P.35
Way to Heaven By Elven There was an orphanage in the center of the city. Alice was one of the children who lived there. She was ten and was brought to the orphanage after her parents died in an accident when she was three. She was a lonely child who always dreamed of the outside world. She believed that God would give her an answer of her life, so she carried all her questions until a Christmas; an angel appeared in front of her. Through the conversations, Alice began her adventure…
Transcript
Way to Heaven
By Elven
There was an orphanage in the center of the
city. Alice was one of the children who lived there.
She was ten and was brought to the orphanage
after her parents died in an accident when she was
three. She was a lonely child who always dreamed
of the outside world. She believed that God would
give her an answer of her life, so she carried all her
questions until a Christmas; an angel appeared in
front of her. Through the conversations, Alice
began her adventure…
Way to Heaven
By Elven
Table of Content Chapter One P.1
Chapter Two P.8
Chapter Three P.14
Chapter Four P.18
Chapter Five P.21
Chapter Six P.26
Chapter Seven P.31
Chapter Eight P.35
Chapter 1
It was a cold and snowy Christmas night.
The sky was clear and the Milky Way starry.
The streets were desolate and empty. All stores
were closed. Everybody stayed at home and
families gathered by the fire to celebrate the
season. Only a few streetlamps weakly cast a
misty light around the corner. The street was
wet and covered with snow crushed by
millions of cars and mixed with brown dirt.
Amidst this dim and darkness was an
orphanage. It stood indifferently in the heart of
1
the city. By the building was a wall of shade
trees decorated with little bulbs, illuminating
the fence and pedestrian. The building was a
two-store colonial. The side facing the street
was built with a porch with two entrances on
the side, each of which stretched out a ladder.
One floor up was the bedroom of the children.
Two windows allow air to flow into the second
floor. They were two hollow carves looking
into the street. A little girl could be seen sitting
by one of the windows. A corner of her skirt
was fringing out of the window frame and
2
floating in the air.
Alice lived in the orphanage. She was
seated quietly by the window, murmuring to
herself. The rest of the children were yelling
and shouting in the room, playing with pillows
and carpets. Nobody paid attention to her.
None wondered why she never joined them.
To them, Alice had always appeared to be an
alone, isolated, and sometimes emotionally
inconsistent figure. Since her arrival at the
orphanage when she was three, she had never
talked to anybody. Alice was a mystery, a
3
solitaire understandable to none, probably not
even to herself.
A middle-aged woman came in with
several boxes. Christmas gifts! Kids were
happy and excited. They grabbed the ones they
liked and opened them. Everyone got their
favorites: TV games, sketch books,
second-handed fur toys, or some balls. After
the happy hour, the woman smiled to the kids
and put them to bed one after one. She said
“Merry Christmas” to each, bid everyone good
night, and turned off the light before leaving
4
the big room.
Alice was still awake. She was saying a
prayer as she always did every night. She was
praying to God for revealing her the way of the
world. To Alice, the world was totally new,
sacred, and most of time scary. She always
wondered the world outside of it, but she never
had courage to take a look. The orphanage was
her shelter, mentally and physically.
“What are all those people doing in the
streets? Why does everybody look so busy?
Why must they do what they are told to do?
5
Why is my life arranged this way? Can I have
it the other way around? What is the nature of
life?” Alice constantly asked those questions.
That’s all she had been doing by the window,
and she wondered if all the questions could be
answered someday.
Suddenly, a thing appeared. It startled
Alice, and she got up to have a look. There’s a
thing with wings, floating in front of her and
glowing. An angel! The angel was in modern
dress, wearing black jeans and some Coca-cola
T-shirt. It penetrated the glasses and, without a
6
word, held Alice in her wrist and took her high
into the sky.
7
Chapter 2
“Who are you?” asked Alice. She felt no
fear, only wondering what’s going on here.
They were getting higher and higher. The
houses down there became small, and the
Milky Way just right above them. “That
should have been my question, young
woman,” the angel asked, “Who are you?
Why are you so eager to grow up?”
“I’m Alice. If I may say, this is confusing.”
“What is confusing?” asked the angel
“This!”
“Oh, you mean this. Well, you said some
prayer. The Lord listened and sent for me.”
8
“So, you are my CHRISTMAS GIFT!?”
“Of course I am! And, if I may say, it is not
polite to talk to a GIFT like that, young
woman. For the first conversation you have
ever had with others, I can’t say I have had a
good impression on it.”
“What is wrong with my conversation?”
“People properly compose themselves when
talking to others, but you don’t. You criticized
my presence and remarked that it was
confusing.”
“How do you know I have never talked to
people?” Alice was amazed how much this
creature had known about her.
9
“Oh, I know. We who live in Heaven know
everything. It’s time for landing. We are
almost there.”
“Where?”
Alice found them in another time zone of
the earth, because they are in a daytime area
now. The angel brought Alice and descended at
a park. They landed on a piece of grassland.
“This is a park,” the angel said, “It is the
best place for you to observe the way of the
world.” It was about ten o’clock in the
morning, and there were a lot of people in the
park. Alice felt surprised and excited about the
real world.
10
An old woman was about to enter the park.
She was completely bold. Her face wrinkled
like the curtain hanging in the orphanage’s
living room and dry like sand. She was in a
shabby dress and a pair of broken shoes. With
a pushcart the woman stopped by the crossroad,
trying to get across the busy street. She had
poor eyesight. It was obviously very difficult
for her grabbing a safe window in the busy
stream of cars. She looked miserable and
helpless. Alice watched her about ten minutes
before she finally passed the crossroad with her
pushcart.
“What kind of life do you think she is living?”
11
asked the angel.
“I don’t know”, murmured Alice, “What
should I do if I looked that old, moved that
slow, lived in a city where nobody cared about
me, and led a life close to its end?”
“Where is her Christmas gift? Where is her
angel?” Alice looked up from her toes and
asked.
“You tell me?” said the angel, “What’s the
reason you think God arranges her life that
way?” “Where is her angel to bring her up into
the sky to help solve all her life’s questions?
“Does God want her to suffer, too?” “Did she
do anything wrong?” asked Alice with her eyes
12
wet.
“Nope” “Actually, that’s the way of God, and
that’s the way of the world” The angel replied,
“in His world it’s no use to ask why a person’
life is arranged that way?” “People don’t ask
the reason they must grow up or the purpose of
life. Everybody must live a life, and that’s a
reason good enough for most people to move
on. What you just saw that happened on this
woman was aging, and that’s the way God
loves people”
“Why?”
“Ask ‘How’, not ‘why’”
13
Chapter 3
“Now here is another thing I don’t
understand. Then how do you make of this
poor woman who has to make a living that
way?” asked Alice when she was now looking
at a stretch of the park, in the far end of which
a peddler walked by.
“Come, today’s the last day of this special sale.
Look at these beautiful cups I’ve brought from
Japan, Italy and Malaysia, too many
countries.” She was shouting and trying very
hard to make a sale.
“I don’t get it,” said Alice, “Why must people
do that kind of a thing for a living? And why
14
should people be separated form each other?
Why should people be classified by nations,
races, languages, or religions? Why can’t they
live all together happily and peacefully
indiscriminately? Why can’t people just stop
by and buy everything from this poor woman
so she can have a day’s rest?”
“People thought these were God’s trick, or
better say a punishment caused by opening the
Pandora’s Box.” The angel joked. “Well, in my
opinion, people are just trying to excuse
themselves from unkindness, hatred, and
violence”, Alice complained.
15
A customer came and stopped by the
peddler. She bought one of the sets of seven
cups. Alice saw this, and she frowned. “But,
tell me, dear angel, if everyone has one mouth
16
only, why do we need so many cups?”
“If God has built only one heaven, why does
He need so many angels?” The angel replied.
“Is that anything to do with Hope and
Desire?” Alice asked.
“Fulfilling desires, you may say. That’s what
people think”, the angel smiled, “And that
‘how’ most of people spend their life time.”
17
Chapter 4
“Who is yelling?” Alice turned around.
Three little girls came out from the other side
of the playground. They have toys and dolls in
their hands, and some of them were playing
rudely and chasing with each other. Suddenly,
one of the poor little girls fell down on the
ground, and she began to cry loudly. “Oh God,
Annie, are you alright?” asked one of the other
girls. She ran quickly to Annie and inquired
her situation, “What happened?” She turned to
another girl and frowned to her, “You are
18
chasing her too fast, Sophie.”
“I’m bleeding now,” Annie complained. “I
think we should go home and get a bandage.
Where’s Mom?” said her.
Alice took one step forward. “You see, dear
angel, here’s the problem.” she continued, “I
always feel sad like that little girl on the
ground, and NONE of HIS Miracles has ever
happened on me. I just wonder why I never
feel happy since the world is full of God’s love
like the holly book says.”
“You know, little girl, the world is a mere
19
creativity. You have created by yourself in
your mind, and it changes everything in your
eyes. The manner of reality actually depends
on you attitude toward it,” the angel answered.
“But why can’t we be both happy and sad?
Why can’t we be both chicken and brave?
Why can’t we enjoy both the crowd and
solitude? Why can’t the past or the fact just
died out from our memories? Why can’t we
find the secret path to Heaven?” Alice asked.
20
Chapter5
“Would you like to have something to
drink?” the angel asked. “There is a vending
machine at the entrance of the park.”
“Sure, I would love to,” Alice replied.
“The let’s go look for some”, the angel said and
led the way to the other side of the park.
It was getting hot and the sun had reached the
top of their heads. “It was almost noon,”
thought Alice, “But where’s the orphanage?
Am I not supposed to stay in bed and sleep like
all good girls do? She began to felt uneasy and
21
exhausted. “I am getting sick of this quest.
Which is the reality, the orphanage, or the
park?” she wondered.
While Alice was thinking, an office-worker
who was talking boisterously on her cell phone
passed in front of her. She was talking in a
loud voice, and seemed not to notice that she
had drew the attention of other people. “You’re
right, Mr. Martin. We’ll have a department
meeting on the 2nd floor and yes…yes…I’m
sorry? Oh, you mean now…un-huh?
un…no…actually I can’t, I’m going to
22
Singapore for an annual gathering. Yes…but I
really can’t…listen, Mr. Martin…no you listen,
I told you I had to attend that
meeting…no…hello? Hello? Mr. Martin? Come
on!” The office-worker seemed tired and
anxious.
Alice was wondering. She did not know
anything about people’s job or the meaning of
the word “career”. She turned to the angel.
“What is this all about? Where’s the door to
life? Where’s the door to the world? I want to
rest a bit. I want to escape for a while. Why
23
people are always busy out there, like that
office lady? What do they pursuit and why?”
“Who says that sixty seconds make one
minute, fifteen minutes make a quarter? Who
says those twenty-four hours is one day, and
that day and night exchanges? Who says three
hundred and sixty five days is one year, and
another year follows? Who rules the order of
four seasons, why don’t they turn backwards?”
The angel replied, “Those rules, believes, and
values are all humanly made. It is nothing to
do with us in Heaven. We never think of
24
creating these principals and laws. People like
to use all of these things to pray or to question
God, and they forget that these are all come
from their own thoughts. Only by themselves
can they find the door to happiness. That’s the
story”
25
Chapter6
“Can we stop the story here?” Alice asked,
“I’m sort of confused.” The angel gave a loud
laugh and handed her a can of coke. “What is
this?” asked Alice. “Something they don’t have
in the orphanage. Something they don’t have
in Heaven, either. It only exists in men’s world.
You see, there are still some bright sides of the
reality regardless the rules too hard to
understand.”
“Really?” Alice doubted. She drank a mouthful
of coke. “That’s for sure.” She nodded her head
26
at the coke. “The world needs all of these in
order to run, perhaps?”
“Are you trying to cheer up yourself?” the
angel said indifferently.
“No, I still can’t find a way out. But if not,
perhaps a can of coke will help. Wow, I love
this drink.” Alice laughed. This is the first
time she laughed from her heart in all these ten
years.
While they are drinking their cokes, they
noticed that there was an old couple walking
around the park. The old man and the old
27
woman hold each other tightly in hand and sat
down on a wooden bench. They looked at the
grassland and the children who were playing
on the slide and the swings.
Alice heard that the old couple speaking
quietly to themselves, and everything made her
feel peaceful and warm. She put down her coke
and said, “I’ve never known the humanly
world out here, and I never thought I would
have a chance to step out the door of the
orphanage. Yet for my earlier life, I have
always wanted to try to look at everything
28
from the good and lovely aspect of it. Now that
the God has sent me an angel, I may be able to
figure out the answer of my biggest question:
the meaning of God’s love.”
“Love is hard to understand, my little girl.” the
angel spoke softly, “God leaves this most
precious thing on every person, the only way
to find out what exactly love is, is trying to feel
what it is with gratitude, and without
measuring.”
“Why should people love each other?” Alice
asked.
29
“So they have a change to understand and
treasure the beauty of humanity.”
“That is love?”
“You tell me.” the angel replied.
30
Chapter 7
“But why do some people never feel this
love?” Alice asked, “Sometime I also feel alone
that that I am one of the abandoned, given up
by people, the world, and God.”
“People do,” the angel replied, “ask that often.”
“Ouch!” cried Alice, “What is that?” Alice
picked up a book from the ground. She raised
her head. A student who was dragging his book
bag and walking around the park, throwing
some of his books away, one of which hit her
hard on the shoulder. Alice stared at him but
31
figured out somehow she was transparent to
him. He looked tired and desperate. “Oh, holly
banana!” cried the student, “Everyday I have
classes from eight to five. How ridiculous it is!
And, after that I have a three-hour long
make-up class. What have I done to deserve all
this? Why should I suffer these hours in some
places I don’t like? And guess what, I got
nothing in the end. I don’t like studying. I love
music, but my parents say that only if I get
into the university will I be allowed to have
my own band. Why? Birds don’t have to study?
32
I’m hundreds time smarter than the birds, and
I still ought to study hard…”
“He really should try to live in the orphanage.
Only that kind of routine and boring life in
the orphanage can kill people.” said Alice,
“But I don’t know about that, I’ve never gone
to a real school.”
“My dear,” replied the angel, “Everyone has
got their own problems, and it always comes
with diversity.”
“So you think that I should be satisfied with all
that I have had?”
33
“In a certain way, yes, because comparison is
never fair. It won’t help you find truth,
either.” said the angel.
“Are you trying to say that God arranges
everything for some reason? That my life is
like this has also got its reason?” Alice sighed.
“Well, people often explain things in the way
understandable to them.”
“Does God really mean that?” Alice asked. The
angel smiled without a word.
34
Chapter 8
“I don’t know if you’ve already noticed
this in the every beginning,” the angel said
after a long silence, “That people can’t really
see us.”
“I know, and that’s why the boy was not aware
that he had hit me with a book.” Alice said
rudely, pretending that she was angry. “Well,
maybe we can perform a little magic, young
lady. Do you want them to see us?”
“Forget about that,” said Alice, “I don’t think
I’m ready to meet with people in this reality.”
35
The sky was getting dark. The sun was going
to set now. The angel was staring at the
skyline and seemed to be contemplating on
something. “Do not fear, my child, you will
leave the orphanage and find yourself back into
daily life with all those people some day.” The
angel said delightfully. “Really? Do you think I
will?” Alice asked, “I know that there are so
many things I can never understand. I don’t
know why they happened to me, either. I also
know that there are some things I don’t even
care at all when I try to look back a few years
36
later. So, why should I give so much damn of
everything now? I can’t stop asking myself
that question, if I don’t give everything a damn
a few years later, then why should I mind them
now?”
“Because you are a human, and because you
live.” the angel turned his face toward hers and
smiled at her, “Once you live in the moment of
the past, and now you live in the present, and
then you live in the future.
“I live, so I care. I live, so I question. I live, so I
