by Linda Opdyke
Kelly Jo
Book One of the Wayward Angels Trilogy
by Linda Opdyke
Copyright 2012 Linda Opdyke
Cover art copyright MtnMist Designs
All rights reserved.
This book and its characters, places and events is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to people living or dead, locations or events is coincidental.
This book is licensed for your personal use only and may not be resold or given away in any form, written or electronic. Thank you for your support of copyrighted material.
Chapter One
Jack Thomas McKetrick hadn’t thought much about death, something he realized when, without warning, it found him. Oh, he’d always expected to experience ‘beyond the sunset’ or to ‘cross that river’ or any other of the other glorious descriptions of entering Heaven.
What he hadn’t expected was to find an ethereal beauty waiting to greet him when he crossed to the other side. A female ethereal beauty, that is, not the ethereal beauty of Eternal Glory his mind had pictured. And a not very pleasant female, to boot. Wasn’t everyone in Heaven inherently pleasant and agreeable? Apparently not. Golden hair tumbled down her back in loose curls and summer-sky blue eyes met Jack’s as she spread her shimmering bluish-white dress and sat on a rock beside the merrily bubbling stream. An opaque rainbow of inconceivable color rose toward Heaven on the stream’s far side.
He was humbled, dazzled by the angelic glow that surrounded this angel and even as he mourned losing his earthly life, his heart soared at what he saw, the joy and peace that he knew awaited his soul. Soared, that is, right up until the female opened her mouth.
“Drat it,” she complained, adjusting wings that sat askew.
Jack remained silent. Maybe he hadn’t died after all, maybe this was a bizarre dream warning him of an upcoming encounter with a woman he’d be wise to avoid.
“Well, it’s about time,” she snapped at him.
Jack inhaled a patient breath, then exhaled it, and though he anticipated the answer he was determined to remain calm. “Have I died?”
The girl stopped in mid-adjust of her wings and turned a disbelieving look to him. “Well, now, let’s see,” she told him. “You’re driving along a winding pacific coast road, jump to turn up the radio because they’re finally playing your first record - no conceit there, of course - take your eyes from the road just long enough to shoot through the guardrail and down a loooooong, sheer drop… and you want to know if you’ve died?”
Jack instinctively felt his chest, stomach, ran his hand over his head and through light brown hair.
The girl sighed and sympathy colored her words. “Feels like you’re still all in one piece, doesn’t it?” She shrugged. “Technically, you still are…I mean your body is…but it’s not nearly as pretty as it was.”
“Oh,” was all he got out.
She smiled. “I’ve got some more bad news for you.”
“I can’t wait,” he muttered. “I thought you’re dead was the ultimate bad news. Guess I’m wrong.”
“Don’t be a wise guy,” she advised. “That doesn’t go over big here.”
Jack stared at her. “Here. Where exactly is here?” He walked over to the rock and took a good look at her. “And just who are you?”
The girl held his gaze and the veil of sadness in her eyes came and went so quickly Jack wasn’t sure he’d actually seen it.
“My name is Kelly Jo, and there’s no need to introduce yourself.”
Jack didn’t know whether to laugh or not. Did she mean his name was on her list of ‘arrivals’? Could this get any more bizarre? As unobtrusively as possible he slipped his right thumb and forefinger onto the back of his left hand and pinched. Ow. Nope, he wasn’t asleep. Realization jarred him to his very core and settled coldly into the very marrow of his bones.
I really am dead.
Irritated, Kelly Jo said, “What is it with you people? You never believe you’re dead, you always need proof.”
Irritated by her irritation, Jack stared at her. This wasn’t at all what he’d pictured, but he didn’t want to admit, even to himself, that he felt cheated by his lukewarm welcome into Heaven. “Where’s my choir of angels?” he demanded. “Where’s the Light that I should walk into? Don’t I at least deserve those two things?”
Kelly Jo rose, her gaze holding Jack’s. “You’re not where you think you are, hon,” she said lightly.
Shocked, Jack was rooted to the spot. “Not…not…” he stammered, stunned as he did a quick rewind of his thirty years of life through his mind. Well, there was a few fairly wild college episodes…and again after graduation when he jumped into the music scene…then he shook it off and turned a determined gaze on Kelly Jo. “Uh uh. There’s no way I wouldn’t get into Heaven.”
A smile played at her lips and her eyes fought to not reflect that smile. “Boy, I’ve heard that before.”
“Now, listen here,” Jack began in a huff.
“Oh, relax,” she chided, then went again to sit on the rock, missed and fell backward. “Ouch!”
Instinctively, Jack ran to help her to a sitting position. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern, then stopped abruptly. “Wait a minute. If we’re dead, how did you hurt yourself?”
With one hand in his, the other on the rock, she struggled to her feet. “Your impatience will be the death of you,” she joked, then said, “Sorry,” when she saw Jack found no humor in her idea of funny. “Neither of us is completely dead. We have a job to do, one that will decide if we get to return to earth and resume our lives.”
He said nothing. He just wanted to wake up and never again eat or drink whatever had brought on this nightmare.
“Did you hear me?” she asked when he didn’t answer.
“I heard you,” he responded. “But how can anyone be not completely dead?”
“Well,” she told him, “this is considered a…I don’t know…how about a holding area? One where someone who died when they weren’t supposed to die gets a chance to help an apprentice save someone on earth. You’re my assignment.”
“Oh, lucky me,” Jack offered, then turned thoughtful. “You’re saying I wasn’t supposed to die in that crash?”
“I’m saying nobody realized you’d be so enthralled by your own voice coming from your car radio that you’d be completely inattentive to your driving. You know the rest.”
Jack grimaced, but had to ask anyway. “What’s in it for you? And what happens if I don’t want to help you? Do I just get sent back and too bad for you?”
Kelly Jo walked to stand in front of Jack, her gaze steady. “You don’t get sent back, Jack. You pass go, collect two hundred dollars and go straight into Heaven.”
He held her gaze while he considered that. “And you?”
If there was one thing Jack never expected to see, it was tears in an angel’s eyes, tears that spilled in a single drop down a flawless face.
“If you refuse, then I wait for the next unexpected death to be assigned to me. With so many of us hoping for that second chance on earth, that could take…well, it could take forever.”
Jack stared at her, not pleased with the way she tugged on his heart. His voice softened. “Why can’t you go straight into Heaven?”
She lowered her head, then raised it, her eyes clouded with heartbreak Jack knew she’d never willingly share. Her soft voice echoed through his soul. “You’re my final chance. Will you help me?”
Chapter Two
Jack’s fingers reached to gently touch Kelly Jo’s face, his eyes soft. “If it’s your last chance and I refuse to help what happens to you?”
Her attempt at a small smile faltered, then failed. “Then I spend eternity…” she gestured around the area “…probably here.”
Jack chewed his lip and narrowed his eyes. “Let me get this straight. If I help you with…whatever…we both get to resume our lives…with no knowledge of ever being here, I assume. But if I refuse to help you I go right to the head of the class, aka Heaven, and you spend eternity right here.”
“That’s correct,” she said serenely, spreading her skirt to sit on the rock. “So you’ll help me?”
He held up a hand. “Not so fast,” he told her, then lowered his hand. “This sounds a little too easy. Well, easy for me, anyway.”
She shot him a look. “Then if it sounds so easy what’s the problem?”
“What kind of an assignment are you talking about? Preventing a suicide? Stopping a murder? Helping a lost soul back…” He paused when he saw her expression.
“Wow,” she told him, her eyes barely concealing her laughter. “I think when you were little you watched too many television shows about angels. And pretty sappy shows, at that.”
Annoyed, he folded his arms over his chest. “Is there anything else I need to know before I give you my answer of NO THANKS?”
Kelly Jo walked to stand in front of him, her blue gaze locked with his hazel one. “I’d think,” she said coolly, “that you’d be thanking me for this chance. It’s not offered to everyone, you know.”
Jack couldn’t believe his ears. “Thanking you? You’ve done nothing but poke fun at me.”
“You had it coming.”
Jack whirled at the deep male voice, eerily similar to that of James Earl Jones, that answered Kelly Jo. “No, he didn’t.”
A tall, white-robed, gray-haired man with a blinding halo and massive wings walked to them, frowning down at Kelly Jo.
Kelly Jo smiled, but Jack clearly heard her muttered, “uh oh”.
“I am so sorry, Jack, that you’ve been intercepted.”
Jack stared from the man to Kelly Jo, who was now looking at the ground, then back to the man. “Who are you?”
Kelly Jo answered with, “They call him Big Bob.”
Startled, Jack took a step back. “An angel called Big Bob?”
The man again frowned at Kelly Jo, and when he looked at Jack, though his voice was calm, the short look he shot to Kelly Jo said oh, just you wait.
“I am not called Big Bob,” he corrected, unaware that Kelly Jo mouthed oh, yes he is to Jack. “My name is Robert and I’m here to accompany you into Heaven.”
Jack raised a finger. “Uh, wait a minute…I thought I was her assignment?”
Robert sighed, a soft sound that echoed on the breeze and rippled light waves in the stream. He turned to Kelly Jo. “You’ll be dealt with later…severely this time.” He turned back to Jack and smiled, a golden glow growing and pulsating around him. “Take my hand and be guided into the Light that awaits you.”
Jack was nearly mesmerized by the incredible beauty, the sight of everything his soul had prepared during life to receive. Then from the corner of his eye he saw Kelly Jo turn her back to him, but not before he saw the devastation in her eyes, all hope slowly drain from her expression.
“Wait,” Jack said sharply to Robert.
The golden glow dimmed but Robert’s expression remained serene, patient. “We need to leave, Jack,” he said gently. “It’s your time.”
“Kelly Jo,” Jack said to Robert. “What’s going to happen to her? And what did you mean by she intercepted me?”
Robert sighed and it took a while for him to speak. “Kelly Jo was given one last chance to go back and undo something on earth. She failed, mainly because she very foolishly attempted to do it alone. She’s been forbidden to go alone again because her attempt ended with serious consequences for a human being and she’s desperate to reverse it. She can only go with another willing soul.”
Confused, Jack said, “Well, that’s pretty much what she told me. But I don’t understand…”
“Kelly Jo doesn’t wait her turn,” Robert interrupted. “She’s on a waiting list but consistently waylays the new arrivals, pushing herself far ahead of those who have waited hundreds of years. This time she’s gone too far.”
“Too far?” Jack asked.
Robert sighed, but this time it sounded like thunder. “You didn’t know, did you?”
Though he didn’t want to, Jack asked, “Know what?”
“She steered your car off the road.”
Chapter Three
Jack whirled on Kelly Jo. Even though he knew it wasn’t literal, steam shot from his ears, flames from his eyes. “You killed me?”
She pooh-poohed him. “Don’t be such a baby.”
Flabbergasted, Jack walked to her and towered above her, then lowered his face to hers when she raised it. Her expression was one of only mild interest.
“You…” he breathed harshly. “You…you…” he sputtered.
“What’s the big deal?” she burst out.
“What’s the big deal?” Jack shouted in disbelief. “You killed me!”
“You already said that,” she reminded him. “Besides, the way you drive it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway. I merely…helped it along.”
Jack stared at her. “You helped it along?”
“A little,” she admitted.
“By about fifty seven years,” Robert added with a look of reproach to Kelly Jo.
Kelly Jo shrugged. “But it would be in an automobile accident and it would be because once again you’re beside yourself over hearing yourself sing, only this time it’s on a moldy oldies station.” She shrugged again. “Same conceited scenario…I just speeded it up a little.”
“How dare you?” Jack shouted.
Something leaped into Kelly Jo’s eyes then, sparks of battle, but tinged with something Jack couldn’t identify. “Go then, Jack,” she said tersely. “Go with Robert. Into the Light. Forget me.”
Deeply angered, Jack wagged a finger back and forth in her face. “Oh, no, you don’t. You’re not laying a guilt trip on me. You did this. Whatever trouble you’re in is your own doing, and if you’re waiting for me to say hey, it’s okay, no problem that you killed me…FORGET IT.”
Jack turned when Robert’s golden glow intensified. His emotions were a mixture of sadness and joy. Deep sadness for the unfinished life he’d left behind, overwhelming joy for the everlasting life awaiting him.
Robert’s hand reached for Jack’s and Jack extended his to within an inch of the smooth hand waiting to take him Home. From behind came a soft, “I’m sorry, Jack. I really am.”
Jack stopped and slowly turned to Kelly Jo. The remorse emanating from those beautiful blue eyes into his was genuine and despite his intent his heart melted in forgiveness. He smiled, but couldn’t quite bring himself to say, “It’s okay,” because if given the choice, he would choose to return to earth.
He raised his gaze to Robert. “What’s going to happen to Kelly Jo? Honestly.”
Robert’s gaze held Kelly Jo’s and Kelly Jo lifted her chin, but didn’t look at Jack.
“She’ll not be allowed again to return to earth. She knew the rules, knew them well, and still made this choice. You’ve paid the ultimate penalty for her selfishness. My decision is irreversible.”
Puzzled, Jack studied Robert. “I don’t get it. Why can’t you just return me to earth and undo what she did?”
Robert sighed. “Part of what Kelly Jo told you is firm rule. Those who’ve been chosen get a second chance at earthly life by helping an angel with an assignment.”
“Oh, yeah,” Jack said, shooting an unpleasant look at Kelly Jo. “She made a pretty hard pitch for my help. And I definitely get the part that she deserves to be punished for killing me…” He ignored Kelly Jo’s scowl and added, “So what’s the problem? Send me back. If I can’t remember…problem solved.”
Kelly Jo stared at Jack. “Are you dense?” she demanded. “Are you not understanding that only those names on that…” she broke off and came back dripping sarcasm and making quote marks with her fingers, “list…are offered the second chance opportunity
. You aren’t on it.”
“Oh.”
“Unless…” Kelly Jo began, turning a bright, impish smile to Jack.
“No,” Robert said immediately.
Suspicion flooded Jack and he narrowed his eyes at Kelly Jo. He didn’t know if she was insane or something close to it and he knew he didn’t want to hear what she had to say.
Her smile faded and her gaze riveted to Jack’s. “You can return,” she said quietly. “There is a way.”
Robert’s voice boomed from all sides. “I won’t allow it.”
Unsure, Jack looked from one to the other, but knew if there was a way to go back he’d jump at it. Even if that way did include the lunatic with long golden curls and summer-sky blue eyes. “What is it?”
Kelly Jo looked at Robert, her gaze defiant. “I have the right to tell him. You know that.”
Though Robert’s face became an angry mask, he remained silent and Kelly Jo turned to Jack.
“The Law says that if an angel accidentally causes death, the victim has two choices. One, they can voluntarily enter a relationship with that angel. If they succeed, on earth, with the angel’s assignment, that person will be returned to their earthly life.”
Jack waited, but Kelly Jo was silent. “That’s only one. What’s the other choice?”
“You can just follow Big Bob through the turnstile.”
Jack brightened. “The choice is mine?” Maybe he could ditch Kelly Jo when they got to earth and…no, one way or another, she’d find him.
“No,” Robert interjected. “The choice is technically mine.”
Jack turned to Kelly Jo. “But you said…”
Robert shook his head and gave Kelly Jo a side look before turning to Jack. “Kelly Jo has a way of twisting everything in her favor…to make it sound simple for you to just jump to her suggestions.” He shot another look at Kelly Jo. “The choice normally would be yours, Jack, but not in this case. Kelly Jo has ignored repeated warnings of her interference. Unfortunately, this time, for you.”
Jack couldn’t take his gaze from Kelly Jo, from the free spirit he sensed lived beneath that tumble of golden hair and blue eyes. Eyes that now filled with unhappiness and brimmed with unshed tears.
