Angel Fall Read Free Page A

living room, she broke down in tears. So empty. Just like her soul. The pain was almost overwhelming. And not just in her heart, in her body. It had been growing for months. The terrible secret that she had not told them, because if she had they never would have left. And leaving was for the best. Struggling to her bedroom, Ellen fell onto her bed. Tomorrow the treatments would begin. Paid for by the man she had loved since she was seventeen. The man who had left her. Was it going to rain? She wished it would rain a river that would drown her soul.

3
TIME SPIRIT
    F orty-five minutes to O’Hare, the worst airport in the Western world. Alex slouched on the tattered seat, wishing their walrus of a chauffeur would close the glass partition so he could be completely separated from the passenger compartment. One glance had told him that his sisters were enjoying themselves, enthroned like princesses on the way to a junkyard ball. Tori had discovered an old TV set bolted into the ceiling and was watching cartoons. Amanda had found a paperback novel, just her kind of trash.
    Alex examined his surroundings. If anything, the limousine was worse inside than out. He guessed that four thousand years ago the upholstery had been red. What was left was barely visible between long strips of duct tape that kept the whole mess from sliding onto the floor. But that was better than the dashboard, which was a shattered mass that looked as though someone had taken an axe to it. Unquestionably his mother had consigned them to a garbage truck. Alex knew that only a total dork would arrive at the airport in such a wreck.
    There was one small consolation, however. As bad as the limousine was, it was better than riding with their mother. Of course, she had talked for days about driving them herself, but he had been firm in his refusal. Like always, getting his way in things that didn’t count. True, Ellen had been hurt (he was trying to think of her as “Ellen” now), but that was good. She deserved to be hurt. While the scales of justice were hardly balanced, retribution had to begin somewhere. He hoped that she was miserable.
    In spite of his best efforts he fought a growing lump in his throat, hating himself for allowing the slightest trickle of emotion. Shifting his mind into neutral, he tried to lose all feeling in the trance of the highway. It was odd how smooth the old junk heap ran. Not the slightest bump or rattle. Laying his head back, through half-closed eyes, he watched the liquid blur of trees and buildings.
    Blue town.
    The town of the tinted window.
    A metallic river of speeding shapes that meant nothing.
    The trance was almost complete when the driver’s grating voice jarred his eyes open. “Come on, Malleus. Get up there, boy. Don’t let that wind stop you.” Suddenly it was blowing much harder. The old loon was having a difficult time steering the limousine up the ramp onto the tollway. “Ever see such crazy weather? ’Nough wind to carry off the whole dern city. What airline you kids want?”
    “American.” Alex intentionally mumbled the word.
    “How’s that?”
    “I said American .”
    “That’s what I thought you said. Goin’ a long way, are you?”
    Alex groaned. What a stupid question, and if he answered it, it would lead to a hundred more. Only one way to deal with this. Long ago he had discovered that a few well-timed grunts kept old people blathering with no need for him to talk. Staring at the road, he grunted out a half-word that sounded vaguely affirmative. As expected, the driver started to babble.
    “Don’t ever fly in planes myself. Too dangerous. Was drivin’ right by when that DC10 crashed in ’78…or was it ’79? Anyway, I said then what I say now. If the good Lord wanted us to fly in planes, He wouldn’t have give us perfectly good cabs. Never fly in a plane when you kin take a cab. It’s a good rule, son, ’specially on a day when the time spirit’s movin’.”
    Alex was all ready with