The Cupid Bureau

This story could be in a variety of categories, I chose LW because that is how it ends and the authors I enjoy reading are all here. As you will read, most of the story is a discussion of past events; one section is a flashback to those events and is in italics. I hope you enjoy my tribute to Valentine's Day and the cherubs who help make it all it is!

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Henry and I sat enjoying coffee after a nice breakfast among the four of us. He and his wife Michaela were flying back home this evening and there was much to do. Henry Jefferson, and his wife had been our guests from the 5th of November until today, December 9th. During that time, my wife had given birth to Henry's beautiful daughter. But this is not a tale of some unusual lifestyle where I would condone my wife conceiving a child by another man.

Henry is a black man, 69 years of age, married for more than 50 years to his beautiful wife. They have no children, but they have had an extraordinary marriage and life together. I am Bob Walters, two years my wife, Julia's senior. My wife and I are white. But this isn't an interracial tale, nor is it a story about a romance between generations.

This is a tale, unbelievable as it might sound, about the love that came from an incompetent cherub, Chumley, and those who watch over him, the Cupid Bureau. You might as well "listen in" as we make a video for Grace, our beautiful baby girl.

We walked upstairs to Grace's bedroom. We had previously set three folding chairs in the room, joining the comfortable rocker, and found Michaela and Julia already seated. Michaela was in the rocking chair, lovingly holding the baby. Julia handed me her tablet, which we were going to use to film the video and said, "Who's going to start?"

I looked at Henry and he offered, "Why don't you Bob, she is your daughter, and she will want to know her story, from you." Both wives nodded in agreement. Michaela and Henry had decided they wanted to be called Nana and Gramps, but I'll get to that a little later. So, I handed Henry the tablet, with it set for video and showed him where to press to begin recording.

"Grace", I began, "today is December 9th, you are just about a month old. I am here with your mother, and the people you've always heard referred to as Nana and Gramps. We want to tell you several love stories which came together on Valentine's Day, earlier this year. The story really goes back more than 50 years, but Valentine's Day is the day it came together. Our plan is to show you this video on your 18th birthday."

I looked straight at the camera, "All your life you have heard that while we were in Paris, we ran into an unbelievable situation and thanks to Henry, there were no I injuries and we became a family. We never really said it, but the implied message was your mother was taken by someone and Henry saved her. The tale is much less straight-forward than that."

I walked over and knelt beside my beautiful wife. "Grace, your mother and I met nearly six years ago. I was a salesman for an insurance agency, and she worked in the office. We started dating and were quickly in love. I had developed an App; it was a social media platform, and it was beginning to catch on. It had over ten thousand members."

I looked up at Julia and smiled. "We married and this beautiful woman convinced me to quit my job and make my App a household name. We lived in her small apartment and did without most everything, but love. But the program grew and grew. Your mother and I had been married about two years when one of the big tech giants began to see us as competition. They offered me a huge sum to buy me out. I laughed and told them not for double."

"We were scared to death," Julia interrupted. "The truth was the offer was only a couple of million under our price. But we agreed on a minimum price, and your dad and I never go against what we agreed, so he walked away."

"I am glad you added that, sweetie, I would have left out our agreement." I turned my face to the camera. "Grace, your mother and I are devoted to one another and always have been. Because of our agreement, and my flamboyantly turning down an offer of a huge sum of money, the giant came back a couple of months later and offered twice, plus a little more."

Julia spoke, again, "I nearly fainted when he told me. He is so thoughtful. He came home to tell me. I think he feared he'd have to catch me. We changed from among the working-less-than-poor to the elite, in one step, in one day. We moved from a one-bedroom apartment to this beautiful home."

She stopped again and smiled at me to continue, "So, Grace, that is a quick look at our first few years. I was 26, your mom 24 and we decided the most important thing in the world was a family. We decided we'd start that with a romantic trip to Paris. That trip was to include a cruise down the Seine on the evening of Valentine's Day.

"I think that is as far as I will go. Why don't you introduce yourself, Henry?" Henry handed me the tablet,

"Dear Grace, I hope by the time you see this, I am still around. Unlike your parents, I am 69. When you are 18, I will, or would, be 87. But, as you'll see, it is important you know who I am and who my beautiful bride is as well."

Henry grabbed one of the folding chairs and moved it over by Michaela and Grace. He sat and continued. "Michaela is the only woman I have ever loved. We were an item in high school. She was a cheerleader, and I was a player on all the sports teams, though not a star on any of them.

"We decided I had to go to college, get a degree and get a good job. We lived in Atlanta and I was admitted to Emery. Michaela got a fairly good job, and I got one as a night janitor. We started our life together."

"I got good grades and starting my second year I had a solid scholarship. I could quit my full-time job and focus more on studies. I graduated with honors and started working for Auto-Tech. Auto-Tech supplied electrical components for every vehicle built in America, including those build by German and Japanese companies."

"I rose through the ranks and was president, and COO, when I retired at age 65. Michaela had stopped working when I graduated and started at Auto-Tech. I say she stopped working, I mean for pay, my beautiful wife has been my partner and a big part of every success I have had. We were working early in an era of affirmative action and she and I wanted to achieve because we could, not because someone else thought we should."

Henry paused and reached out and took Michaela's hand. She smiled, squeezed it, and returned her attention to the baby. Henry continued, "As people started working for me, we entertained in our home. Michaela saw to it these people saw that black people are not different from other people and we gained friends and supporters, of all races. We were the perfect team."

Henry took on a more serious look, "But a corporation is a terrible mistress. Our corporate mistress kept both of us working right up until retirement. There was always something keeping us from just being us. Michaela ran half of the charities in our hometown. She took longer to unwind from her activities than I did. Hell, oh pardon my language, once a factory guy, always a factory guy, my point is what she did was more important than a mere company president."

"Henry, sweet as you are, you are wandering, what are you trying to tell this sweet bundle?" Michaela cuddled Grace.

"So, by the time we had retired and withdrawn from charitable work we were 68, had been married nearly 50 years, and had never been on a honeymoon. We decided that Paris was the city for lovers, and we would go there for our honeymoon, a bit belated." Henry stopped and laughed at the absurdity.

"We scheduled a cruise down the Seine on Valentine's Day evening. It seemed the romantic thing to do. Of course, it seemed that way looking at a brochure, in warm months. The reality was quite different. The ship was not overly crowded, except those of us in attendance were all huddled in the small inner lounge. The decks were nearly deserted.

"Michaela and I decided we wanted to see the city of lights from the deck and moved toward the door. At the door, a young white couple had the same thought, apparently and deferred to us to let us go out first.

"The four of us stood closely together near the stern of the ship. The city was stunning."

"Henry, let me tell this next part." Michaela looked at him and Henry merely nodded. "Both men went to the rail and turned almost at the same time. Julia and I walked toward them and suddenly the boat lurched, we were in the process of docking. I spun and fell to my left. Fortunately, there was a chair and I literally fell into it. Far from graceful, but a woman my age falling violently to the deck could have resulted in a serious injury. It was maybe a minute before I had my wits about me." She smiled at me, "Bob, I believe you're up."

I handed the tablet back to Henry and he pointed it at me.

"I had seen a ring that opened some hatch and was jutting out of the boat deck. I bent down and had grabbed it as the ship lurched. I had secured my position and did not lurch, as did everyone else. Julia ended up being thrown into Henry's arms.

"As I stood, I was shocked. Henry and Julia were gazing at one another. Before I could say anything, he took her arm and they moved back into the lounge. Michaela was screaming for Henry to come back. My first instinct was to see if I could help a woman who'd just taken a fall. I had a thought that maybe Henry was hurt, too and Julia was helping get him inside. He didn't look hurt, but it was too bizarre to believe my wife would leave me months after I became extraordinarily rich, for a man her grandfather's age, who she literally tipped into as a boat docked."

"Grace, my dear child, this is where the story starts to be different from what you've heard all your life. We were sworn to secrecy as were you, before we'd show you the video. Here are the events you never heard.

"My phone pinged. I had a text. Surely, Julia was letting me know where she was. I looked at the phone and read the text. 'I am sorry. All on me. Look up and to your left.'"

I stopped for a moment and stared down at our baby, as though looking at her sincerely would help her understand. "I looked up and turned my head to the left. As God is my witness, what I saw just could not be. It was a cherub with a bow, a quiver of arrows, and nothing else. I looked around, to see if anyone else saw this cherub but no one else was looking. When I looked back, there was nothing."

Michaela said, "Bob, I swear you are as bad as Henry! Of course, there was nothing. I was fit to be tied. My man can get single minded sometimes and do what is in front of him instead of what he is supposed to do. I was, shall I say, in a foul mood and sharing that mood with as many people as I could. This nice man came and said many things which sounded quite urgent, but he said them in French. I continued my complaints in English, and he scurried off." She looked up at me and said, "tell her why we were delayed!"

"Grace, Grace as you see even family can have difficulties telling a story together. The man was replaced a few minutes later by a woman, who spoke particularly good English. She found me trying to calm Nana, and now I had this vision of a winged baby with a bow and arrows running around in my mind. Maybe the lurching broke something loose in my brain. The woman wanted to know if we were alright. Michaela wanted to know if this woman had seen her husband and a young white woman. The young French woman assured us that several had been shaken up and were being looked after by members of the crew. We need not be concerned."

I paused for a minute to gather my thoughts, "The woman asked us to go inside, out of the cold. There was no one in the upper lounge. She said they were in the room below, on the main level of the boat. She asked us about our concerns. I allowed Michaela to go first and the young woman made sure Nana could walk and bend without issue. She was very caring and patient. I guess it took about 15 minutes. She then asked me. What was I going to say? Since I'd seen what I assumed was Cupid, I decided to tell her I'd been shaken and had an uneasy moment, but it amounted to nothing and I was fine. She produced some forms which said we had talked with her and reviewed our symptoms, we were not waiving any future claims, but had been ok, in our own opinions, to go forward without seeing a doctor, that evening."

"Now I was pulled directly into this odd tale." Michaela looked lovingly down at the little girl. 'We had docked. I guess 30 minutes before. Where are our other halves?' I was getting agitated. I knew Henry to be faithful, but from the glimpse I got of him leaving, he was being more than gallant, if you know what I mean. Bob offered to go down and get them. He left and was back in five minutes, reporting no one was left on board, but us. As he explained, his phone pinged."

I jumped back in, "I grabbed my phone and looked at the text. 'Two beautiful couples. Both had been struck by arrows before. I tried to shoot both of you, to make your lives even better."

Michaela continued, "He handed me his phone. I read this text about arrows. We were in Paris, not the old West. I was thinking 'this is some Bull Sh...'" She glanced down at the baby. "It seems something is amiss" she said in a lilting tone, "is what I was thinking. Then the phone pings again, while I am holding it. The message told me to look over to my right. I did. There, like your daddy said was Cupid. Well, I wish it had been Cupid, it was Chumley, who was the cause of, not the solution to our issues."

I started talking, again. "All of a sudden the cherub is talking. He tells us we were two special couples, who by total coincidence had been the first and last arrow shot by his tutor, Corodyn. He had a chance to do something never done before. He tried. He'd screwed it up."

Michaela looked at me, like I should be observing, not talking, so I deferred. "I looked at that little person, or whatever he is, and I asked him just what it was he was trying to do?" I paused and saw that we were being approached by the young public relations woman. We decided we had to go. Bob and I talked on the way to get a cab. His hotel was a quaint old place just off the Place Vendome. Henry and I were staying out by the Arc de Triomphe, at the Georges V. The Georges V is a world class hotel and has been for years. We figured the two of them would go to the better of the hotels. We headed down the Champs de Elysée and got to the hotel. The room was empty. We called Bob's hotel, no answer."

I glanced at Michaela, who seemed to be looking to me to speak, again. "We were about to leave and there he was, again. He told us Julia and Henry were at the other hotel, in bed. Michaela started to cry. I was going crazy. We asked him what he was doing? He told us he had called Corodyn and she would be here momentarily. She just materialized beside him. Really, you could see no difference between them, even naked. Somehow, they were always positioned to keep their modesty. The conversation between them was in English and not a word of it made sense.

"Chumley said he had an unbelievable opportunity to reinforce her first and last arrows. One of the couples was older and, of course, he thought of an iridescent yellow arrow. The other couple was young and looking to start their family, naturally, he thought of alizarin crimson. Unfortunately, he decided to do it simultaneously with a trick shot. He missed two of the people and hit the other two with both arrows. He claimed it wasn't his fault."

A very agitated Michaela took up the narrative, "Here I am in the City of Lights. I am supposed to be with my husband of 50 years. We are staying in the most expensive room I have ever heard of, let alone occupied. But, instead of Henry, I am in a room with a gentlemanly young white man, a winged baby who thinks he is Cochise, and now some second cherub who's had it out for me for five decades. To make bad things worse, Chumley is telling me my man is in bed with some teen-aged white girl."

"In fairness, Julia was 24." I added quietly.

"There was nothing fair about this. None of it. I started to lose it. Corodyn started screaming at Chumley asking him if he had any idea what this red and yellow arrow would do, combined. I started yelling at her, asking her if she could see who was in the room with her?" Just reliving it, Michaela's voice still showed stress.

I tried to settle the narrative down a bit, "I said they should pretend we knew nothing about colored arrows, or what they did. They started explaining some of the things which we needed to know to figure any of this out. Apparently, it's like a rainbow. Big emotions are red, lesser ones, orange, then yellow, green, blue, and finally violet. But it is more complicated. No emotion is no emotion, so violet is simple. But big emotion can be love, hate, joy, terror, and so forth. Not to mention love can be for country, parent, child, lover, and on and on. So, this spectrum is not like a rainbow, it is more like a cone—a huge red end and a point of violet on the other end."

Michaela spoke up, "Grace, if you're anything like me cones and rainbows and colors were more like some physics class. I was in Paris for love and my husband was in bed with a woman, who as it turns out is your mother."

I started again, "They told us the arrows were really not colored as they described to us, but it was an easy way for us to understand that a cherub's arrow, these days, might be for more or for other than romantic love."

"That's when Corodyn shifted to talking about love. Well, love and the cupid's influence on love. She told us about the early days of people. Love was not an excessively big deal; survival was. But as we became more enlightened, more secure, we discovered love. She gave us a couple of examples of where the cherubs got it wrong. The first one was a king in England, in the 16th Century. The cherubs were trying to help royalty be more faithful. A cherub shot Catherine and Henry, even though there was little hope. Catherine was older and had been married to Henry's older brother. Just before the royal couple had been married 25 years, Henry's current flame was Ann Boleyn. Cupid tried to correct the earlier situation, himself. He thought he could stop Henry chasing so many others if Henry and Ann were an item.

"Corodyn told us she had seen him shake his head and take the blame for the whole debacle that followed. Henry decided he wanted this long marriage annulled. The Pope wasn't buying it. Henry did it anyway. Abolished the church, got excommunicated, and remarried. But now he was confused. Not long after he married Ann, he had her beheaded, and then had more wives than most of his subjects had baths, in those days."

Michaela was almost as agitated at the telling as she had been on Valentine's Day. "I told her my man was making babies, shouldn't we try to do something about that? Corodyn looked at me and laughed. The little bitch laughed. She told me she had never seen it in more than five centuries. My Henry had locked himself in the bathroom and was crying. Seems his 'bride' was expecting round two. He told her round two might be day-after-tomorrow. She had other ideas and he ended up locked in the bathroom. Nothing was happening for a while."

I started again, "Corodyn then shifted to Marie Antoinette. A cherub made Marie and Louis fall in love, forsaking all others. Their people were starving, Marie forsaking all others, didn't care. When told they had no bread, she said let them eat cake. They were still in love when the people shortened them by a foot, well it was a different body part, but you get the idea."