AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Franklin nodded with a smirk, “You will be in limbo for now until you complete your mission. If you are successful and have redeemed your sins, you will stay in Heaven. If you fail, we’ll send you down below to do the devil’s bidding, alongside Levi Shields.”
“What is my mission? Are you able to tell me or do I need to wait for Ezekiel Gamboa to tell me?”
She held her finger against my mouth, squeezed my hand, and after a quick, though nauseating trip, we stood in front of a quaint cottage surrounded by an elaborate garden. The wind chimes lined up all had their own tones. Typically, I’d be annoyed by the noise since I wasn’t a fan of wind chimes, but these soothed me.
“Here we are. The home of Ezekiel Gamboa and he is expecting you.”
Franklin let go of my hand and rushed to the front door, yet I was too enraptured by the divine aroma of bacon wafting in the air.
“Jensen Grimes, hurryor there will be no more bacon for you.”
***
Ezekiel didn’t speak two words as we all stuffed our bellies with pancakes, bacon, fruit. You name it, this guy had a spread of any breakfast food known to man. As much as I wanted to be a glutton and eat more, I was so stuffed I had no more room for even a cup of coffee.
“So, Mr. Gamboa,” I said as I finished my third cup of coffee.
“Please call me Ezekiel. There are no formalities where we’re from.”
He was a long, lanky guy dressed simply in a band t-shirt and jeans. I assumed all angels wore white robes. When he rose from his chair, he adjusted his back and withdrew his wings, nearly knocking over the knick knacks on the adjacent shelves. “Oh, sorry about that. Sometimes my wings have a mind of their own.” He laughed and snapped his fingers and I watched in awe as they transformed from large bird wings to the gossamer wings of a butterfly.
“Wow! That was really cool. Will I get wings like that?” I asked, though I sensed I already knew the answer was no, and it made me wonder if it was something I’d have to earn.
Both Ezekiel and Franklin laughed, “Jensen Grimes.” Franklin blurted out.
“Please, just call me Jensen, I am aware of my last name, Franklin. What’s so funny?” I took a seat at the table, adding a bit of creamer and lots of sugar to my coffee.
“We can both read your mind. You will earn your wings so long as you successfully complete your mission and have a permanent residence in Heaven,” she told me while glancing at Ezekiel, who nodded in agreement.
“Now that we’ve eaten breakfast, would either of you like to regale what this mission is?”
Ezekiel slid a small velvet bag toward me. No questions asked, I opened it and pulled out twenty-dollar bills bundled together. “What would I need $4,000 for?”
“First, I will tell you the mission and then I will tell you the rules.” Ezekiel said as he rolled over a whiteboard. He lifted a dry erase marker and wrote ‘mission’ in caps. “You sacrificed your life for Emilie Dillon. Now you need to find her and get her safely to her Aunt Janiece and Uncle Jeff in Napa. Those two are good people, with two grown sons. They own a vineyard and are quite wealthy. But more importantly, they offer a safe haven for Emilie.” Ezekiel wrote the names on the board, pausing as he caught up. “I know we reached out to Janiece and explained the situation. However, no one can find the girl.” He cleared his throat and looked at me with concern, “The last time anyone saw her was after the 9-1-1 call was made.”
This bothered me to no end. There was no way little Emilie could have just disappeared unless Levi caught up to her and killed her too. “Isn’t there a way you could look down on Antelope Valley with some kind of bird's-eye view?”
“Frankie has tried and—”
Frankie intervened, “I can catch glimpses, but she’s pretty evasive. Do you remember the abandoned convenience store?” I nodded. “Try there first and any fast-food restaurant in the area. She’s got to be hungry, so she’ll be looking for food when she’s not finding a safe place to sleep for the night.”
Just when I thought these angels were behind the times with the use of a whiteboard and wood-burning stove, Franklin waved her hand and a holographic screen appeared. “Wow! So, you are aware of how advanced technology is. It is 2022 after all,” I chuckled and stopped when she pursed her lips and glared at me. “It was a joke, Franklin.”
Franklin shook her head and squinted at the screen. “Yeah, I don’t get it. Whatever. I’ve been trying to survey Emilie’s whereabouts, but she’s quick and moves from one place to the next. It’s like an alarm goes off and then when I think we got her—it stops, and she disappears.”
I leaned closer to the screen, thinking maybe I’d have better luck in spotting this child. “Maybe there is some kind of mechanism inside her oversized bunny that is blocking the waves of your spy camera.”
“Making snide comments will not help us find her. So, since our efforts are coming up with zero results, you need to head to California Earth and find her on foot.” She said and gave me a condescending, judgmental gaze from my eyes to the rest of my body. “The way you look right now, you’d scare the living daylights out of the child. You need to bathe and change your clothes. A shave wouldn’t hurt either.”
“I am dead, who cares what I look like?” I grumbled.
“When you arrive on Earth, the humans willsee you. But here’s what you have that they don’t.” I shrugged. Franklin continued, “You can move quickly, like The Flash. Okay, not that fast, but once you find Emilie, you can get her out of there quickly and head up to Northern California Earth.”
I chuckled, regaling great joy in teasing this girl, “You can just say California.”
“I can turn you into a frog if you insist on teasing me, Jensen,” Franklin responded with no emotion.
Feeling like an idiot, I responded, “Really?”
