Angel in Waiting - Blake Beckley, Al Parish

Angel in Waiting (eBook)

Blake Beckley, Al Parish (Autoren)

eBook Download: EPUB

2015 | 1. Auflage
240 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-68222-605-6 (ISBN)

Is your family 'normal'? The answer to that probably depends on who's asking and who else is within ear shot when the question is asked. As a parent of four children, I know my answer has often been 'not a chance,' especially when one of the kids has done something without thinking, at least from my perspective. But in reality, I have to admit my family is pretty typical. Do you believe in miracles or in a 'higher power'? We all tend to have very quick yes-or-no answers to that one, even though if we thought about it, that one is much harder to honestly answer. Would you be able to tell if your family was actually extraordinary because of a higher power? That's a much tougher one and that's the one Angel-in-Waiting is all about. A lively mixture of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, Angel-in-Waiting is about growing up in an apparently normal family that is all of a sudden thrown into an extraordinary situation. If that's not enough, the family has to contend with a much deeper mystery concerning one of its own. How would your family cope with the world of Angel-in-Waiting? How close is your family to this one? Could your family just maybe be not-so-normal after all? Enjoy a fun, poignant, thought-provoking look into unexpected possibilities as you take flight in Angel-in-Waiting.

Is your family "e;normal"e;? The answer to that probably depends on who's asking and who else is within ear shot when the question is asked. As a parent of four children, I know my answer has often been "e;not a chance,"e; especially when one of the kids has done something without thinking, at least from my perspective. But in reality, I have to admit my family is pretty typical. Do you believe in miracles or in a "e;higher power"e;? We all tend to have very quick yes-or-no answers to that one, even though if we thought about it, that one is much harder to honestly answer. Would you be able to tell if your family was actually extraordinary because of a higher power? That's a much tougher one and that's the one Angel-in-Waiting is all about. A lively mixture of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery, Angel-in-Waiting is about growing up in an apparently normal family that is all of a sudden thrown into an extraordinary situation. If that's not enough, the family has to contend with a much deeper mystery concerning one of its own. How would your family cope with the world of Angel-in-Waiting? How close is your family to this one? Could your family just maybe be not-so-normal after all? Enjoy a fun, poignant, thought-provoking look into unexpected possibilities as you take flight in Angel-in-Waiting.

Prologue

A funny thing happened on my way to becoming an adult…puberty! I know. I know. Everyone goes through it. But not like this. I remember dad telling us boys stories of his coming-of-age. The horror of waking up the morning of his first school dance with a crop of eruptions on his face, and the time his voice changed in the middle of a choir solo. I have to admit, that would be humiliating…but funny to watch!

Things were different for Dad. He was a skinny blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy with a farmer’s tan who grew up at a ranger station south of Bozeman, Montana called “Castle Rock Creek”. He spent much of his time fishing the Gallatin River, hiking the trails right out his back door and chasing the many girls who were vacationing for the summer.

The funniest story was about meeting this girl named Sarah McClure who was visiting with her family from Belfast, Ireland. She was a gorgeous redhead, fourteen years old and as hormonal as dad.

One night dad was going to do some teepee creeping. He was supposed to crawl quietly into a pre-designated tent at 10:00 p.m. At 10:15 dad made his move. He crawled in and laid down next to Sarah, put his arm around her, then he heard a “Psst!” coming from the tent door. There stood Sarah! Dad crawled into the wrong tent! Somehow he made it out without being detected.

Dad was a typical boy, he loved getting dirty, thought about girls 24/7 and dreamed of one day owning an original Ford Mustang GT 500. He had a healthy respect for his father and a fierce love for his mother. Born in 2015, dad grew up during a time of relative peace. There were wars and rumors of wars so to speak. They were always short-lived but usually not resolved. For dad, life was simple…what a difference forty years can make!

Dad went on to become one of the Navy’s top aviators flying the F39wASA. He also helped develop and test other air superiority aircraft.

While things were going good in the U.S., our neighbors to the north and south were having problems. After years of economic downturn, corruption and civil unrest, both countries accepted an offer to secede from their respective unions and join the United States.

In 2020, what many called “The Year of Vision”, the people of the U.S. voted to accept Canada and Mexico as part of the U.S. In 2021, the official name of the country became “The United North American States”. This made the UNAS the largest country with the largest budget in the world.

In order to maintain the rights of all citizens and to see that every person was equally represented by the government, the UNAS adopted a new hybrid system of government in which the country was ruled by a “Triumvirate”, that is, there are two prime ministers, one democratic and the other republican, then there is one president who is neutral. Two of the three must decide in favor of any bill for it to become law or for any executive decision. The president, though no more powerful than the prime ministers, would be the deciding entity should there be a tie.

In the years since, the UNAS had become a model society. Crime was down 40%, unemployment was at an all-time low and with unified health care, our citizens no longer had to make a decision to purchase prescription medications or groceries. They could get both!

While the UNAS prospered, the Middle East, parts of Europe and Asia all began to destabilize. North Korea marched on the South; the war was short lived but unresolved. Russia, who had been fighting Islamic extremists for decades, finally gained some ground when they captured some insurgents gaining valuable intel on the locations of sleeper cells and training facilities, thus shutting down their entire network…at least temporarily!

In 2032, the UNAS in conjunction with Russia, Germany and the U.K., launched the first successful manned mission to Mars setting up the first colony on the red planet. In route, the astronauts crossed paths with Zenith, a comet named after a satellite it destroyed when it slingshot into earth’s orbit in the 1970’s.

On a different trajectory was Phoenix another near earth orbit comet. The two were expected to come within a hundred or so miles of each other but were not expected to collide.

Josh and I were born in 2044 in Landstut, Germany on a joint Naval/Air Force base. We moved to the UNAS when they ended the F39 program in 2050 when we were six or so. Our older brother Matty was 8, and our sister Beth was 9, and bossy!

By the mid 2020’s, most automobiles and aircraft were autonomous. Some vehicles used maglev propulsion systems gliding along on a cushion of air. Actual “flying cars” dreamed up in the 20th century were still not a reality. They could make them, the technology existed. However, controlling hundreds of thousands of them in the air would be a logistical nightmare.

Technology was changing too. Most people had implanted phones called SIM devices. SIM stands for “Sound Impulse Modulation”. Your SIM device had a flip-down monitor that attached magnetically to your device which was implanted behind the ear. This was the screen for your computer.

Dad purchased a piece of property that had belonged to the government located just north of Lewistown, Montana. It had a decommissioned Minute Man III silo on the property as well as a small farm house. The area was a mixed bag of hills, grassland and plateaus.

Lewistown was a sleepy little town, the kind that rolled up its sidewalks at night. Dad called it a “hole-in-the-wall” town. It was small but the people were nice.

Dad said that computers used to take up an entire desk. Some were as big as entire rooms! All I had to do was say or think something that I wanted to search and the computer would deliver the information to my screen or speak to me through my implant. It would also speak to us at night to help us learn stuff.

Back to puberty. We boys all started at the same time. Matty started late, Josh and I started at eleven. Matty didn’t understand the changes his body was going through. Not that we really did either, we were just more accepting of them is all.

I believe in my heart that Matty is an angel. Ask yourself this question. If you stood face-to-face and toe-to-toe and stared directly into the eyes of an angel, would you know it? Imagine for a moment, a being that has been in existence since the creation of the heavens, sent down to earth, his sole purpose to protect you and lift your spirit.

I remember my Grandma telling me once that everyone has a guardian angel. “Just ask, and he will tell you his name.”

“Are there any girl angels?” I asked.

“Well…uh…there are girl people, so…of course there are girl angels!” she replied. “Besides, if there weren’t, the ACLU would have a fit.”

I spent the next two months covering my privates every time I used the bathroom or took a shower. I once covered the bathroom floor with a blanket of flour, then jumped into the bath tub and waited. It was a miracle! Footprints magically appeared in the flour! They were my Mom’s. I know because they matched the footprint she left on my butt!

So, I asked my angel his name and if he would reveal himself to me so I could see him and know for a fact that he (or she) was there. I was expecting someone like Sean Connery in a white suit with wings. Instead, my older brother Matty walked into the room at the exact moment of my request.

“Hey! Where are your wings? If you were an angel, you’d have wings!” I lamented.

Matty looked at me inquisitively. “Angels only have wings in movies and in heaven!” He made a hasty retreat. At age six, you just believe, without questioning. My angel now had a name and a face. Matty!

At times, Matty was indeed the perfect vision of an angel. He was soft spoken, gentle, and loyal…kind of like Lassie. But, he could also be stubborn and bossy like our older sister Elizabeth…thank God Matty never got the “monthly plague.”

The thing about Matty was that he was…well…different. He was unlike any other person I have known. Shortly after Josh, my twin, and I were born, Matty was diagnosed as having a disease or condition called autism. We found out later that it was something much, much deeper that separated him from other people.

Matty had good days when he was bursting with courage and energy. He would stare down an angry dog that my Dad would not got near. Other days, he would run from a butterfly to his “safe place.” He would laugh at things that scared others, and cry when others were happy. Then Josh and I would cry. It was bad!

As we were growing up, the world around us was quickly changing, and not for the better either. As things changed, so did Matty. He began having nightmares. He would talk to a corner in the room. He began giving away his valuables and chasing away his friends. One day, he told Mom and Dad that things in the world, outside of our little Lewistown, Montana, were going to get bad…real bad.

Joshua believed that Matty was like this guy on the History Channel, Nostrothomas, or Nastyrumpus, or Nostradamus…whatever. He believed that Matty could see the future.

Looking back, I now understand that Matty did not see the future. It was revealed to him a little bit at a time by God Himself. Matty shared each revelation the best he...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	2.11.2015
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
ISBN-10	1-68222-605-0 / 1682226050
ISBN-13	978-1-68222-605-6 / 9781682226056

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