The Human Condition

Every ten minutes or so brought another amplified wave of animalistic lowing, delivering a message of intolerable pain. Haniel, unable to look, remained hovering in the far corner, trembling with first-day nerves.

Their shift began six hours ago, and the sensory assault had been relentless since the start: hit first by the tang of what Haniel had recognised as wet iron bars, they had wondered if they had come to the wrong place. But then the flashing and bleeping of medical technology and the cruel overhead fluorescent lighting had suggested otherwise.

Haniel felt very underprepared for the job. The brief handover from Gabriel, and the thin instruction manual that simply read: Shepherd lost flock to the Lord, had left some significant gaps. The modern-day maternity ward was a far cry from the beatific and bloodless stable scene of Jesus’ birth.

Another deeply disturbing bellow erupted from the red-faced woman on the bed, and a clutch of midwives hurriedly gathered around her lower half. After much nodding and head shaking, a quiet, calm voice said “We need the doctor.”

Was this the moment? Haniel thought, both panic and relief swirling. Did either mother or child require the escort that would return them to the blessed tranquillity of above? With a soft, hopeful beat of their wings, they floated gently upwards and took their first peek over the heads of the attending nurses, feathery tips grazing the grey panelled ceiling.

The horror of the scene surpassed anything Haniel could have possibly imagined. The half-stripped body lay on the bed, legs wide and streaked with blood, exposing engorged body parts Haniel had no clue existed. From this part, what Haniel assumed was a lower, and toothless mouth, five times the size of facial one, a ball shape started to appear, stretching the seams of this nether-mouth to its gory limits.

Haniel’s attention was broken by the doctor striding in, who rolled up the sleeves of his white coat, snapped on some gloves and selected a long, shiny implement from a stainless steel table. Positioning himself between the woman’s splayed legs, the instrument disappeared.

A tug-of-war took place between the two bodies. The woman roared with effort and repeatedly took the Lord’s name in vain. Haniel’s fingers crept up to protect their ears from the blasphemy while the doctor drew his arm back to a right angle, so his bicep bulged beneath his coat, and his face strained. Eventually, the battle was won. A rubbery, vernix-coated child sloppily exited its mother trailing a kinked, living hosepipe.

The infant’s first shriek commanded the room and the midwives gasped in happy unison. The doctor nodded, peeled off his latex gloves and left without a word. Then, the furious, mottled baby was passed shivering and shuddering and placed on the bare chest of its mother. “A boy,” the midwife whispered into the woman’s ear, who wept quiet relief, a waterfall of praise for The Almighty now cascading from her lips.

As skin met skin, the baby’s rage stilled and as if soothed by some maternal magic, he mewed tamely and curled into the tender shelter of his mother. A welcome serenity fell. Haniel sighed with relief and thanked God. This should have been their cue to leave, but rather than slip away to the next delivery room, they lingered.

Descending from their position beside the wall, Haniel drifted closer to the pair, careful that not a single feather disturb the air, and knelt at the head of the bed, absorbing the euphoria radiating from the earthly bodies.

Within minutes, the boy began to snuffle and seek with his mouth, his heavy head making clumsy thumps on his mother’s chest. In response, she offered a swollen breast and after a few frenzied snorts, the two connected in a satisfied latch that seemed to nourish them both. Awestruck and overcome by this miracle, Haniel outstretched their hand to the woman’s forehead, and tenderly stroked her damp hair from her face. A fluid energy flooded the hollows of Haniel’s empty veins, filling them with an unfamiliar sensation. Haniel felt afraid of it, so powerful and urgent it was, far beyond the limits of angelic emotion. They quickly pulled their hand away. In this unbidden act, Haniel had broken a rule. They had breached the sacred boundary between the spiritual and the physical.

With that light touch, Haniel had been infused by the human condition. The gateway opened to envy, curiosity and greed, they suddenly ached for the intimacy they were witnessing. They felt desire.

Mother and child were asleep now, and Haniel’s eyes settled on the baby boy; the precious lamb milk-full and sound in the endless protection of unconditional love. They both looked so restful, Haniel thought, so vulnerable in their ecstatic bliss.

Extracting the baby was easy, his exhausted mother’s arms fell away to her sides as Haniel scooped the cub-like infant up. Immediately, Haniel noticed the child’s body heat permeating their own temperature-less palms, oven warm. His legs dangled in a foetal curl, and Haniel bent their head to rub their cheek against his downy crown, it was more delightful than Heaven.

Gazing down into the peaceful picture of the infant’s face, Haniel’s craving reached its apogee. The newborn pulse thundered through them. They folded the baby into the crook of their arm as every powerful expansion and contraction of his breath filled Haniel with life. With love. And noticing the pink fingers and transparent fingernails shiny with newness, clasped in prayer under his chin, Haniel decided:

Yes, I will take you.

Haniel raised his shoulder blades high and extended their magnificent wings into a glorious white horizon. The pearlescent feathers reflected the stark clinical lights and cast a rainbow dispersing in all directions, Haniel and the baby at the centre.

Taking a final, apologetic look at the infant’s mother, Haniel deftly curled their wings inwards, concealing the sleeping baby within their feathered cloak, and left the ward.

Angel’s Bone is the Pulitzer Prize-winning opera-theatre work by composer Du Yun and librettist Royce Vavrek – performed by the English National Opera at Aviva Studios from 12 to 16 May 2026. Find out more here.