Heaven Painted as a Christmas Gift Read online

  “Not something I’m going to forget,” Nancy said, taking another deep breath. “And I doubt I’m going to sleep real well for a time, but yes, I’m all right.”

  Nancy looked at Belle. “How about you? I felt you shove me at the last instant to try to get me out of the way.”

  “I think I’m fine,” Belle said, moving her feet and arms.

  Everything seemed to be working, but she had no idea how. The image of that man behind the wheel of the truck was etched in her mind. She started to look down the street toward the wrecked truck and the bodies along the sidewalk when three people appeared above them.

  Two were wearing jogging clothes and the third, a short man, wore a gray silk suit and a pink tie and pink shoes. To Belle, the man looked like he belonged in San Francisco, not Boise.

  The woman knelt down to look Belle and then Nancy directly in the eyes. “I’m Dr. Jewel Kelly. We need to get you up and away from here.”

  She offered her hand to Belle who decided the woman was more than likely right.

  The doctor’s grip was firm and helped her get to her feet.

  The man in the jogging suit helped Nancy get up as well.

  “Can’t believe we managed to get out of that,” Belle said.

  “You didn’t,” the short man said, his face serious.

  Both the doctor and the man in the jogging suit gave him a stern look and the guy in the silk suit shrugged. “I was told that complete honestly is always the best.”

  “Honesty, yes,” the doctor said. “But timing could be better. You gave us time, remember?”

  “Oh,” the man said, looking down at the sidewalk.

  Belle stared at the doctor in front of her. The doctor was tall, even in tennis shoes, and had long brown hair pulled back and tied. There was a lot of worry and compassion in her green, intense eyes.

  “What did he mean we didn’t?” Nancy asked.

  The man in the jogging suit stepped back slightly, pulling the short man with him, and the doctor faced both Belle and Nancy.

  “He is right, you did not make it out of the wreck.”

  Belle could feel the panic start to twist her stomach down into a knot. “Then how are we standing here?”

  “We’re dead,” Nancy said softly.

  The doctor just nodded. “Try to see the wreck if you can. Look for the clothes you are wearing.”

  Belle turned to stare the thirty paces up the street at the mess. A number of people were standing near the two bodies on the street, but not approaching them.

  Belle couldn’t seem to get the two bodies to focus. Then suddenly they did.

  Nancy’s body was the closest. She was only recognizable by her gray shoes and long gray dress slacks. The upper part of her body seemed to be mostly missing or twisted around in a way no body should ever be twisted.

  Then Belle saw her own body, her own brown slacks and shoes, and she turned away.

  Their blood was everywhere and the man in the orange jump suit had come through the front windshield and smashed against the wall as well. He was twisted on the sidewalk beside Nancy’s body.

  Blood flowed down the sidewalk and into the gutter.

  Belle could feel the world starting to spin and she steadied herself against the stone building.

  Then as if the light was getting shut off, everything went from dim to black.

  FIVE

  JEWEL SHOUTED, “HELP!” as the two women in front of her both fainted at the same time.

  Jewel caught the blonde while Tommy caught the brown-haired one before she went to the sidewalk. K.J. just stood there, looking worried and upset.

  Jewel turned to K.J, as she managed to hold the slumped woman upright. “Get us to a restaurant, quick.”

  The next moment the five of them appeared in a back corner of a Sizzler Restaurant. Through the windows it looked like the restaurant was off to one side of a large mall. Very few people were in the restaurant at the moment. A good choice of a place to go.

  Tommy slid the one woman into a chair and held her in position by her shoulders while Jewel got the blonde into a chair beside her friend and did the same.

  “Two wet napkins, two glasses of water,” Jewel ordered K.J.

  He nodded and vanished.

  Neither woman showed any signs of coming around, so Jewel moved over in front of the blonde and checked her. Then she looked up at Tommy. “Just shock.”

  “Don’t blame them,” Tommy said. “If I remember right, I almost passed out as well when I realized the truth.”

  “The depression and shock will pass in a minute or two,” K.J. said, appearing again with two glasses of water and two wet napkins. “It’s standard and not fatal.”

  “We’re dead,” Tommy said, shaking his head at K.J. “Nothing is fatal. We just didn’t need to put them through this.”

  “Sorry,” K.J. said and handed one napkin to Tommy, the other to Jewel. He then set the water on the table in front of the two women and went around to the other side of the table and sat down like the world had ended.

  “You all right?” Jewel asked K.J. as she put the wet napkin on the blonde’s forehead.

  “Never seen anything like that before,” he said. “That’s why I didn’t go to your wreck site. Didn’t ever want to see it.”

  Jewel understood completely. And in the last few months of working with K.J., she had come to understand he was a very delicate soul.

  “So why did we arrive so soon after the wreck?” Tommy asked as the woman he was holding upright started to moan.

  “I was told I had to,” K.J. said. “Boss’s orders.”

  “Next time just send us,” Tommy said. “We’ll do it if you teach us how to teleport like that.”

  K.J. only nodded.

  Jewel slowly let go of the woman’s shoulders as she came to, also moaning. Jewel picked up the glass of water and helped the woman drink as Tommy did the same for the other one.

  Then when it was clear they had both returned and were able to sit upright on their own, Jewel and Tommy moved to their own chairs.

  “Just drink a little more water and keep the wet napkin on your neck and it will clear,” Jewel said, watching both women as their eyes slowly focused. “Then we’ll be glad to answer all your questions.”

  Both women nodded and did as instructed. Both of their hands were shaking.

  After they set down their water glasses, Jewel decided she was going to take the lead for a few minutes to help out.

  “My name is Dr. Jewel Kelly,” she said, “as I told you on the street. This is my partner, Deputy Tommy Ralston, and this is K.J. Moore. Who are you?”

  The blonde looked at her friend, then nodded and turned back to Jewel. “My name is Belle Watson.”

  “And I’m Nancy Bend,” the brown-haired woman said.

  “So what happened to us and why are we here?” Belle asked.

  “Are we really dead?” Nancy asked.

  “I’m afraid so,” Jewel said. “But you haven’t moved on to whatever follows death as most people do because an agency called Ghost of a Chance would like to recruit you both to help out.”

  “We are all agents,” Tommy said. “Jewel and I died in a car accident in Montana a number of months back, so we know exactly what you are going through. K.J. here is our handler and reports up the chain of command and gives us our assignments.”

  “I don’t feel dead,” Belle said.

  “Actually,” Jewel said, smiling. “In a very short time you’ll feel better than you ever felt while alive.”

  “One of the great perks about being dead,” K.J. said.

  “Are you sure you are up for seeing some proof on all this?” Jewel asked.

  Both Belle and Nancy nodded.

  “Tap the top of the table lightly,” Jewel said, showing them what she meant.

  They both did.

  “Feels like a normal table, doesn’t it, and it is,” Jewel said. “But what you tapped is the ghost component of the table that basical
ly exists for everything, including your clothes.”

  “Remember,” Tommy said, “your bodies were still dressed, yet you are dressed in the same thing. You are now dressed in the ghost component of your clothes.”

  Both women looked at their clothes, then nodded.

  Jewel wasn’t sure if she should do this or not, but they needed to understand and understand quickly.

  Jewel put her hand forward and stuck it through the table. Then she pulled it back out and tapped the table again.

  Both women’s eyes were wide.

  “K.J.,” Tommy said, “could you walk directly over to the buffet and back?”

  K.J. nodded, stood, and headed for the buffet, walking through tables, a planter, a post and then finally part of the buffet itself before turning around and coming back.

  “Now try putting your hand through the table,” Jewel said as both women looked panicked.

  Finally Belle did and her hand went right through the table.

  She jerked back. “I didn’t feel a thing.”

  “And you won’t,” Jewel said. “We’re all ghosts.”

  “Can anyone see us?” Nancy said, glancing around.

  “No,” Jewel said, shaking her head. “Only other ghosts recruited can see you and there are very, very few of us. Everyone else passes on when they die.”

  K.J. came back over from the buffet area and looked at Jewel and Tommy. “I’ve got to get back. I need to get to my therapist and then spend the night in my hot tub with a good bottle of expensive wine to clear that wreck image out of my mind.”

  Jewel nodded and both of the women looked sort of puzzled.

  “Are there any Brigade members close by?” Tommy asked.

  Jewel nodded. A good question. The Brigade were other ghosts recruited to try to cause harm and change the future into a place of turmoil. She and Tommy and K.J. were the good guys, The Brigade the bad guys. It was the easiest way for Jewel to just think of it.

  “None any closer than Seattle,” K.J. said after a moment.

  “Good,” Tommy said. “What do you need us to do?”

  “Get the new recruits up to speed as best you can and all four of you get to Vegas in a week or so at the latest.”

  “But…” Jewel stared to say, but K.J. was gone.

  “Can we do that disappearing thing?” Belle asked, staring at where K.J. had gone.

  “Not yet,” Tommy said, clearly frustrated.

  Jewel understood his frustration. She looked at the two women. “I’m afraid we’re ghosts living in the real world. Which means we have some pretty major advantages and some pretty major disadvantages.”

  “What happens if we don’t want to be part of this ghost agent thing?” Nancy asked.

  “From what we understand,” Jewel said, “that once you learn about all this, if you want to move on, the powers that be let you. But no one tells us what’s on the other side. But this is all voluntary. You both were going to die today no matter what anyone did. It was your time. This agent thing is sort of a second chance to keep living.”

  “And honestly,” Tommy said. “I think you’ll both discover that living as a ghost is actually pretty amazing, once you get used to the idea.”

  “I’m far from that,” Belle said and Nancy nodded.

  “Don’t blame you in the slightest,” Jewel said. “And I remember the confusion I felt as if it was only a few months ago.”

  “It was only a few months ago,” Tommy said, laughing.

  “Oh, that’s why it’s so clear,” Jewel said.

  And for a moment she almost got a smile from the blonde.

  Almost.

  SIX

  BELLE SAT STARING at the two people in running clothes sitting across from her and Nancy in what looked to be the Sizzler Restaurant out by the mall off Franklin Boulevard.

  She couldn’t believe she was dead. Just flat couldn’t believe it. Wouldn’t believe it.

  And Nancy was clearly having the same issue.

  There was nothing these two could say to convince her. Seeing her own body must have been some sort of trick or something. Or she and Nancy had been drugged or something. She had just gotten her life completely in order. She couldn’t be dead.

  Yet she remembered the instant before the big black truck smashed into them.

  She remembered the wide eyes of the driver.

  That guy’s face would haunt her nightmares for a long time, she had no doubt. But this had to be some sort of scam these two were trying to pull.

  “Do either of you have family?” Jewel asked.

  Belle had to admit, the couple sitting across from them seemed to care, but more than likely that was all part of the scam in some way or another.

  “No,” Belle said, not giving out any more information than that. Her father had been dead for a long time and her mother just died of cancer four months ago, after the divorce from the slob was final. No brothers or sisters. A couple of nieces, but no one else. But these two strangers didn’t need to know that.

  “Only a sister in California,” Nancy said.

  Belle knew that Nancy’s parents had both died in a plane crash five years ago. Belle had helped Nancy with the estate and the grief, since Nancy’s husband had been worthless for even that.

  “Are you both feeling stronger?” Jewel asked.

  Belle nodded. She was, and the feeling of complete lack of energy and caring was passing as well.

  Jewel looked at Tommy, then back at the two women. “We honestly have no idea what to do next to help you get going with this new life.”

  “How about we just sit here for a short time,” Tommy said, “let them gain strength, and we can tell them about how we ended up dying and then becoming Ghost Agents.”

  Belle watched as Jewel nodded.

  “Honestly,” Belle said. “I don’t think there is much you can say that I’m going to believe. So how about Nancy and I just head home and you can give us that story later.”

  Jewel looked at Tommy and he just smiled. Then he said, “Sounds like the best idea to me.”

  Jewel just shook her head. “We’ll stay close when you have questions.”

  “I think we’ll be just fine,” Belle said, standing. She was starting to get really angry at all this.

  Nancy stood beside Belle and said to the two, “Thank you for your concern.”

  With that, the two of them turned and headed for the front door to the restaurant. Belle wasn’t going to let some scam and a few magic tricks fool her. She wasn’t dead.

  Far, far from it. She felt great.

  And she continued to feel great right up to the big front door to the restaurant. It was a large wood door with a brass handle and a big window filling the center of it.

  Belle reached for the handle to push it open. What seemed to be an image of the door pushed open, but the door itself stayed in place and her hand went right through it.

  She stopped and yanked her hand back, looking at it.

  The image of the door she had opened closed normally, vanishing back into the big real door.

  “Oh, no,” Nancy said. “This is actually happening.”

  Jewel and Tommy had followed them.

  “A trick we learned is to push open the ghost door and pretend the other door isn’t there.” Jewel eased by Nancy and Belle and pushed open the image of the door and walked through the other door.

  She stood holding the ghost door open.

  “Close your eyes if you have to,” Tommy said.

  At that moment, from behind them, a young kid and his girlfriend walked through Belle and Nancy, pushed the real door open, and went on out.

  Belle got a clear image from the kid’s mind about trying to convince his date to get high with him that night.

  And from the girl that had walked through Belle, she felt disgust at herself for even agreeing to dinner with the guy because he was such a loser.

  “What just happened there?” Nancy asked.

  “A live person walked
through you and you could read their thoughts and emotions,” Tommy said. “It is one of the abilities you have as a Ghost Agent.”

  “There are many more,” Jewel said as she held the ghost door open. The real door had swung closed again.

  Belle just stood there, staring at the wooden and glass door in front of her, part of her mind saying this was all a nasty joke, part of her starting to believe this was actually happening.

  Then she looked up at Jewel. “What do you think we should do?”

  Jewel shrugged. “As we said, we don’t know. We’re brand new at this ourselves. So maybe learning how to move around and get home might be a good idea.”

  “It’s what we did a while after we learned we were dead,” Tommy said, nodding.

  Again, a live person came up suddenly behind them and walked through both Nancy and Belle, pushing open the door and going out. The guy was overweight and smelled awful, as if he hadn’t changed his clothes in weeks and lived on a cow farm.

  “Oh, no!” Belle said as the thoughts of the man filled her mind. She could see that he had kidnapped two young girls from the Seattle area two days before and had them locked in soundproof rooms in his basement. He was looking forward to a night of playing with a young redhead before killing her.

  “We’ve got to stop him,” Nancy said.

  “What?” Tommy asked.

  “That man has two young girls in his basement,” Nancy said.

  Belle watched as both Tommy and Jewel instantly moved, both of them running after the man at full speed, both of them going through the walls of the restaurant.

  Belle was stunned as Tommy reached the man first just as he was about to climb into a battered pick-up truck.

  Tommy disappeared inside the guy and almost instantly the guy froze.

  Jewel waved for Belle and Nancy to join them.

  Belle took Nancy’s hand and with their eyes closed they stepped through the door and into the warm afternoon air.

  The man had dropped to the pavement and was shaking.

  As Belle watched, Tommy stuck his head out of the guy’s side and said to Jewel, “Get the police headed here quickly. This guy is a real sicko. And we’re going to have to help the police find the girls in his home. He has them well hidden.”