Chapter 1
She was going to jump; throw herself from the bridge into its ripple grim grave. She was done with it all, school life, family life; overall life in general. No one to fall back on and that was the biggest of killers to her. It was no cry for help because there would be none, no opened hand because she had never been given one. I knew if she did it now her stance as an unknown would stay the same on this planet, nothingness nobody because no one is there.
Standing on the concrete guard of the bridge looking down, she came to Harper Leap, not only because of the name but also because no cars use this road, now that the new freeway around the town has diverted traffic. The rain hazes the atmosphere with a hush-hand to cover whatever noise she would make when she'd finally figure out this is a bad idea. Only one street lamp above the bridge would be her spotlight to the fame of the obituary column.
"What are you doing?" A voice from the side of her sasses.
Her neck jerks in fright to the right.
"I'm going to jump. Don't stop me!" she snarled at the young man's direction as he holds up his hands in interference.
"Just trying to do my job before it is too late, that's all." He protests to the waters wall.
She took another glance at him; he is a young guy, around eighteen-nineteen, black t-shirt and jeans and black dock martin boots; really raggedy brown hair that curls over his face. He is rather beautiful, even with the huge tribal tattoo down his right arm.
"Who are you? ...What do you want?" Instantly he shakes his head.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I am Jack." He jumps up on the wall, walks over with his hand out to shake; she backs away, he may want to drag her away from the edge.
"Jack? Jack who?" I insist.
Jack wipes the drizzle from his clothes, lifts up his head and with a smile.
"Jack. Your guardian angel, Jack." He introduces himself with a subtle bow.
"Haha! My guardian angel? There is nothing you can say that will take me from this plummet." The young woman looks again at her grave.
"Your name is Natalie Wallace; seventeen years, four months and six days old. Every time your mom or dad left you when you were a child you would cry, until you gained self-worth and stopped the tears. Your first crush was on a boy called, Adam Summers, in the third grade but he was interested in your friend Grace Atkins, they are expecting their first child out of wed-lock, neither has finance to look after themselves let alone a newborn; your thoughts not mine. When you watched Jurassic Park you wanted to become a paleontologist like Sam Neil but when you found out there was little or no money involved you backed away from the idea."
"Wait... How do you...." Jack jumps Natalie's words. "There is plenty more I can tell you about yourself, I am practically your walking talking invisible diary that only you can see. Neat, huh? Where was I?"
"Enough..." She finishes in shock.
Jack takes one step on to thin air, a few steps out he turns and glides back to me, until we are face to face, land and air.
"Give me a week. One week to show you that suicide is not the answer, one week to show you the real reasons for living." He picks up one of my tears on his finger that flee down my face; he flicks it from his finger into the sky to make a new star, our star. "There are things that you will want to live for, all you have to do is take my hand and agree to it all."
Natalie was reluctant, but his eyes melt every inch of sin.
"Am I going crazy?" She puzzles everything with her eyes and hands.
"You would ask that when something supernatural happens and now I am in the position to try and convince you of your own sanity and if I don't have a good enough answer you will kill yourself and then I have to go back up top and tell them that you thought you were crazy because of everything you've seen. And I will be really pissed off because I tried..." He stresses his face in his palms. "How about you trust me even if that means trusting you instincts once? I know you don't do it often but I know, you know, you should do it more. How about that for a speech? I am awesome and pretty to look at, what's the worst thing that happens? You get eye strain from staring at me too long and you will become amazed by amazement, sweetie." He cockily puts it with a smirk.
"Okay, one week. I agree to everything." With the ending of my words the world pushes a furious wind all around. Jack stands with his arms out wide until he is only a silhouette within the huge moon.
I can only make out. "Your first task is to take a risk and have faith in something more than yourself. I want you to ....."
My hair gets swept into my eyes, leaf's newspapers and birds spiral around this tornado speeded wind. "What!" I shoot out.
"Jump to me! I will catch you, Natalie." He fires back.
"Are you out your friggin' mind?" I fear over to him. He tipple tails backwards with laughter. "Do you really want to go back ten minutes in our conversation?" I grip on to the concrete guard with my fingers. "It looks like you're going to need some incentive, ain't-cha'! Just jump!" He point up into the sky, from the dark pit if the grey clouds a trailer is sent downwards.
"You better jump, missy!" He chuckles.
I lunge for him in fear but also in hope, as if I needed him. His arms open wide along with my mouth in a scream. It all turns black.
--
My eyes open gradually to this farfetched feeling of dreams and reality and how they betrayal me every single time I wake. I fling the blanket over my head.
"So you talk and snore whilst you sleep, that's a weird trick to have." A familiar voice peals through.
I chuck the blanket away from me. Jack is perched on his boots tiptoes on the end of my bed frame, arms folded.
"You're real?" I chide him.
"Naturally I am, well, unnaturally. It's a school day today isn't it? I'm coming with."
I am about to get out when something doesn't feel right. I reach my hand under my covers and feel around.
"Why am I naked, Jack?" I grumble. "I couldn't find any clean pyjamas, Natalie." He grumbles back as he floats around my room, touching everything from photos to panties. So embarrassing. I quickly wrap and ball up my covers around me and rush into my bedroom bathroom, I shut and lock the door and turn to my bathtub. AAAHHHHHHH! "What are you doing here? Get out!" Jack is sitting on the sink with his nose in my diary. "Nothing I haven't seen before and besides I am reading, go about your business, don't mind me, pretend I am not even here."
"Please get out, I would like to have a shower in peace, wait in my room." Within an eye-blink he has disappeared from the bathroom. "I'll just wait right out here!" Jack yelps from my room.
"Okay, don't go anywhere, I won't be long." I tug on the shower cord and jump in and place a hand over my heart, it has never burst with so much excitement ever, for anything.
"I have got you some breakfast and something you can wear for school today." He reports in his deep accent.
My I-pod-radio begins playing. Two princes – Spin doctors.
"I love this track; it's been a long time." What is he doing now? I leap back out the shower and envelop myself within two towels. I open the door and from out of nowhere I am dried and fully dressed in a red dress, a new luxurious hair style, make-up and shoes.
"What's this?" I retort.
"I thought it would be nice for you to wear this today. Before you say anything, I know you don't wear these types of clothes but you subconsciously and universally agreed, remember. We can always go back in time so you can relive that moment."
My bed is full of food from the furthest reaches of the world. Snails, lobster, croissants, berries, squid, rare fruits and slabs of steak.
"Wasn't really sure what you wanted to eat, so I just grabbed a shopping bag from everywhere and brought it back. If you don't eat the gooey stuff I would recommend on throwing it away before it kicks up a pong." He chuckles.
"I have a guardian angel. Why you?" Before I even finished my words he responds. "Punishment, I beat up an archangel cause he was talking smack about someone I care about, so I head-butted him and been doing this ever since. It has its up and downs. You meet some really cool people."
"Well how long have you been doing this?" I enquire as I sit on my beds edge and nibble on some cake.
"About ten thousand years ago, I was Michelangelo's guardian angel, as soon as I was finished with him he painted the Popes ceiling. But you can't save everyone; Kurt Cobain, so close, dude."
"Why me?" I wonder. Jack floats over on his belly and pokes me on the nose. "In time all will be revealed, I promise. Hurry up and eat, we're going to be late for you brand new day at school."
In the space of ten hours my life has gone from tediously painful at time to the exciting wonder from my mischievous guardian angel. Today at school is going to full of surprises. Here goes nothing.