Urban Angel

In this short story Manuel's son, Antonio, is the narrator. Manuel's family now lives in Canada as he had always wished. Manuel wants to leave his old Portuguese ways behind and move on with the Canadian culture. Although in this story he finds this difficult as his wife does not always agree with his decisions.

Manuel and his wife both worked at St. Michael's Hospital where Antonio would always go directly to the archangel statue of Michael and sit under its large wings. Antonio also liked to talk to the angel. He would pray to the angel for many things but the position of Michael in the festa was Antonio's biggest wish.

Antonio went to church every Saturday morning to learn the Christian religion. His mother thought he was a proper soldier of god but Manuel did not want his son bowing at the feet of a priest. Manuel resented priest since he was a young. At church Antonio met a young boy named Ricky. They became friend until Sister Pedrosa announced that Ricky would be playing the part of Archangel Michael in the festa. Antonio was given the part of a lesser angel and he was so upset the two boys get in a fight. Antonio only wished to wear the large wings and the sparkling halo. The brawl is ended when Antonio's smaller wing are ruined by a passing train.

The festa came round and Antonio wanted nothing to do with it. He wished to stay in his room all day but had to first go down to the refrigerator to get some food for the day and that is when he saw them. Massive wings were set on the dining room table, so high the almost reached the ceiling. Manuel had built a huge pair of wings for Antonio to wear. All Antonio could think about was how annoyed Ricky would be.

Arriving at the festa Sister Pedrosa refused to let Antonio wear the wings but Manuel would not accept this. He shouted that Antonio would wear the wings and indeed he did. Ricky went over to Antonio and said he should be Michael but Antonio wanted Ricky to be Michael- all Antonio really wanted was the large wings.

Also, in this story Manuel and his wife have many arguments. Manuel wants his son to be Canadian, to speak English and he does not want him to attend church whereas his wife wants Antonio to attend church as she does. Manuel is still a dreamer whereas his wife just wants to settle down and for things to be stable; because of this Manuel feels his wife is the reason why he has gone no where. His attempts at things such as a home cleaning business, salesman and pigeon breeding all ended the same, in failure, and he blames it all on his wife's lack of support.