Before Tarsha Yeo could fire a second grenade Killingsworth side-swiped the Yugo. It was not a very large car, nor very heavy and the armored Mercedes outweighed it by a couple of tons. The Yugo rolled over the top of Yeo, and the two of them careened over the precipice. The last Monica saw of Yeo was a glimpse of her flailing body as she and the car plummeted into a stand of trees that grew thirty feet below.
Killingsworth straightened the sloughing Mercedes and resumed down the winding mountain road at a much more conservative pace that wouldn’t risk her life or the life of her new charge.
“Where are you taking me?” asked Barbel.
“I’ve got a safehouse in Lugano,” said Killingsworth. “We’ll hole up there until I get further direction from your father.”
Barbel pulled her stuffed Orangutan close, hugged it and she begin to cry.
“What’s wrong now?” sighed Killingsworth.
“My father was supposed to come home for Christmas. Now we don’t have a home to have Christmas in.”
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” said Killingsworth. “Your father has enough money to purchase a thousand homes if he wants.”
Barbel sat quietly for a moment, pondering something. “Has my nanny gone to meet Jesus?”
Killingsworth shifted uncomfortably in the driver’s seat of the stolen Mercedes. She had, of course, wondered before what happened to a person’s soul once she pushed them off this mortal coil with a bullet or two. She liked to think that they were extinguished into nothingness, so that she would never have to face the prospect of meeting them again. Still, the persistent thought there might indeed by something beyond this life continued to haunt her.
Finally, Killingsworth spoke. “I suppose your nanny was a good enough sort of person. She’s probably meeting with Jesus right now.”
“What is your name?” asked Barbel.
It was an innocent question. Of course, Monica Killingsworth wasn’t her real name—but it was her trade name, and the name she most often used. “People call me Monica.”
Barbel rolled the name over, forming it into something she was more familiar with. “Monique. Thanks for saving me, Monique. Is that what you do? Save people?”
“I’m a conflict resolution specialist,” said Killingsworth, reciting the job description printed on her business cards.
This meant nothing to Barbel of course, but she accepted it just the same. “Monique, do you think you and I will meet with Jesus when we die?”
“I’m sure you will,” said Monica. “I suspect there will be someone else waiting to see me.”
Books from Pulpwork Press:
Derrick Ferguson
Derrick Ferguson’s Movie Review Notebook
Return of Derrick Ferguson’s Movie Review Notebook
Denbrook Series:
Diamondback: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
Dillon Series:
Dillon and the Golden Bell
Four Bullets for Dillon
Joel Jenkins
Dire Planet Series:
Dire Planet
Exiles of the Dire Planet
Into the Dire Planet
Strange Gods of the Dire Planet
Tales from the City of Bathos Series:
Escape from Devil’s Head
Through the Groaning Earth
The Gantlet Brother Series:
The Nuclear Suitcase
The Gantlet Brothers Greatest Hits
Damage Incorporated Series:
The Sea Witch
Denbrook Supernatural:
Devil Take the Hindmost
Children’s Books:
The Pirates of Mirror Land
Josh Reynolds
Bury me Deep & Other Southern Folk Songs
Wake the Dead
Born Under a Bad Sign: The Ghost Breaker & Other Weird Heroes
Dracula Lives!
Percival Constantine
Love and Bullets
Myth Hunter
Anthologies
How the West was Weird, edited by Russ Anderson
How the West was Weird 2 edited by Russ Anderson
Coming in 2012
Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet by Joel Jenkins
The Island of Lost Souls by Joel Jenkins
Outlaw Blues by Percival Constantine
Dragon Kings of the Orient by Percival Constantine
Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira by Derrick Ferguson
For more information on these and other titles or for online ordering
visit us at PulpWork.Com or find our titles at Amazon,
and BarnesandNoble.com
About M.D. Jackson:
M.D. Jackson is a wizard from the misty reaches of British Columbia. His most impressive magical feat is the ability to cast the illusion that the lines he draws actually form a picture. Visit his blog at michaeldeanjackson.blogspot.com.
About Josh Reynolds:
Josh Reynolds is a professional freelance writer of moderate skill and exceptional confidence. He is not, however, an influential 18th Century English painter. He hopes that, given time, you will get over that disappointing fact. Visit Josh Reynolds’ blog at Joshuamreynolds.blogspot.com.
About Joel Jenkins:
Joel Jenkins lives in the heron-haunted shadows of the Rainier Mountains, and finds the perpetual twilight conducive to writing. He is the former front-man for several obscure rock bands and once impersonated a ghost. Visit Joel Jenkins’ blog at JoelJenkins.com.
PulpWork - Christmas Special 2011 (Joel Jenkins - The Christmas Eve Killers; Joshua Reynolds Page 5
