One Toe Out (A Complicated Love Story) Read online

  When he had first come Home, he was overcome by the beauty of it all. He’d sit for hours drinking in the crystalline birds that soared through the air, leaving trails of vivid purple, red, blue and other unworldly colors behind, it was so magnificent that he would’ve cried if it was possible.

  Beautiful, he reflected before rejoining the group.

  “Who will be in charge? And what happens if we can’t come to an agreement?” Brett Thompkins asked. In his other life he had been nicknamed Golden Boy, not only because he resembled one with his blond hair and blue eyes, but every deal he touched made millions. As a CEO, he had ruled his corporation as though it was his own country. At the height of his career, he fired hundreds of his employees, then two months later purchased a five million dollar corporate jet, a move that made him the most hated man in Chicago. His desire to control didn’t diminish—not even here.

  He tilted His head and grinned. “You are delightful. No one is in charge. You all will agree on every decision, and I want you all to respect it. And I have some rules. Under no circumstances can you alter the health of anyone. You cannot make direct contact with anyone other than your charges. And keep your visits to Earth to a minimum. You all should have ample time to do your job for I’ll be asleep for two hours.”

  Two years their time, Tyrell Jackson silently calculated. As a kid he sold drugs, it was the only life he knew. He sold them to everybody: Kids, pregnant women and senior citizens, as long as they had money, they were customers. It wasn’t until he was nineteen-years-old and sitting in the hospital with a gunshot wound in his stomach did he realize that he needed a new life. As soon as he was released from the hospital, he took all the money he had accumulated and moved to Atlanta. There he hired a personal nurse who took care of him while he recuperated and who had later became his wife. She had fallen in love with his boyish good looks. Culinary school soon followed, for thirty years he ran one of Atlanta’s best soul food restaurants.

  He floated in front of them. “Any more questions?” He asked, His voice tired.

  “What happens if we can’t complete the task? It is a huge assignment,” Mavis Watkins said. For ten years she was a stripper by the name of Cinnamon Twist and was as flexible as a Slinky. After years of saving her money she had gone to school and gotten a master’s degree in social work, then spent another twenty years rescuing her former co-workers and everybody else who needed it.

  “You will,” He answered confidently. “Anything else?” No one said anything. “All right then. I’ll see you in a bit.” With a slight smile, He slowly evaporated.

  They looked at each other, unsure of what to do next.

  “I thought we were done with work,” Brett joked. “These are supposed to be my golden years. It sure feels like it.” A warm breeze flitted by. Acres of greenery stretched out behind him.

  “But we’re going to be helping people,” the ever optimistic Rachel Pruitt said, “and maybe we can get our wings.” Contrary to popular belief, everyone who made it to Heaven wasn’t automatically winged. They had to earn them, much to Rachel’s disappointment. She had been preparing for her new home her entire life. As a daughter of a preacher and a wife of one, she figured she’d be given a free pass. Growing up she always envisioned herself sporting a pair of pure white wings while zooming around Heaven.

  “I wonder why He picked us?”

  “Yo, I wanted to know the same thing, but I was too scared to ask. He still makes me nervous,” Tyrell admitted.

  Mavis agreed. “I know, even after all this time. I still get nervous whenever He comes near me.” They all agreed.

  “I guess our numbers came up. You know what I’m saying?” Tyrell joked.

  The Committee wasn’t a secret, everyone knew about it, but no one knew how He selected the members. All they knew was that a new Committee was created every day during his nap time.

  Brett snorted. “He never does anything randomly, everything is done with a purpose. I think He picked us because we’re the best,” Brett said arrogantly. This time all eyes turned in his direction.

  “Maybe,” Mavis offered, “or maybe, just maybe He wants us to learn something.”

  “Maybe He wants us to teach instead of learn,” Rachel said.

  “Yo, He could want us to do both,” Tyrell offered. He spoke from experience, he had spent a lifetime being a teacher and a student of life.

  “It doesn’t really matter why we were picked, the fact is that we’ve been picked,” Clay said. Everybody turned to him, he had been so quiet, that they had forgotten he was there.

  Brett spoke, “I guess it doesn’t matter why we were picked, but we damn well better have a clear idea of what we’re supposed to do.” The group gasped, no one swore here, ever.

  “Brett!” Rachel admonished.

  “And now we know why you haven’t been winged yet,” Clay muttered.

  “Oh and I just love yours,” Brett shot back sarcastically.

  “Yo, let’s stay on track,” Tyrell said. “We don’t have a lot of time. You know what I’m saying?”

  Mavis glanced at a three hundred-foot time piece. Instead of minutes it measured days. A team of angels suddenly converged on the piece, they peacefully floated around it, then as if pre-arranged, six flew to the bottom and six soared to the top, then they flipped it. Rocks the size of beach balls slipped down. “You’re right. We’d better get on it, time is running out, and we’re wasting it by all this bickering.”

  “Okay guys let’s review the files,” Brett said. The only sounds were birds singing and water crashing against rocks while they read their information. “He says that there’s a looking glass for us to view the subjects,” he said as soon as they were done.

  “A looking glass?” they murmured to themselves.

  Mavis pointed to a pond that was so still it looked like a mirror. “What about that?”

  Their eyes widened, that pond wasn’t there a second ago. No matter how long they were in Heaven, they still weren’t used to His powers. Brett led them to a pool of water.

  They all peered intently into the pond, an image of a lady and man eating dinner in a restaurant materialized. “I see our first project.”

  “She’s pretty,” Clay murmured. She looked like an old girlfriend.

  “She looks so happy and in love. It looks like she has everything, what are we supposed to do with her,” Mavis wondered.