Gordon's Apprentice

By A J Le Roy

A comical tale about the time God took a well deserved break. If you have ever felt like your job is too big for one person, imagine being the only being in charge of maintaining the needs of an ever-expanding universe. It's no surprise Gordon had become run down: a niggling cold that wouldn't go away and an unrelenting workload were reason enough for a small holiday. An apprentice to learn the craft and share the load was surely the best answer. Enter Hazel: a sharp-shooting Tooth Fairy who quickly rose to the top of her game in Angeldom. She may not have been Gordon's first choice, but she was ready for her next challenge. Dancing dolphins, magical soup trees, and mother-of-pearl skies weave together the rich background for this comical tale of the time God took a well-deserved break. From the woodlands on Earth to the rivers on Hibble, Hazel would become Gordon's Apprentice. With Gordon's intense training program, what could possibly go wrong?

• Language: English
• Publisher: A J Le Roy
• Release date: Jan 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310954115

A J Le Roy

Based in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, A J Le Roy has been writing ever since he could form letters on a page. Works include radio serials (Willow Tree Manor and Mutiny at the Estate) and "Gordon's Apprentice", a novella that has been well received by readers of all ages. As a writer, he fuses personal experience and wild imaginings to create worlds unimaginable.As an independent author, A J Le Roy has started ALR Publishing to assist emerging authors who may not have the time or patience to get their creations to print.

Book preview

Chapter 1

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Overseeing a continually expanding universe was a big job for one creator. Gordon, known to many as God, pondered as he shifted in his easy chair, lazily waving an arm and in doing so inadvertently producing a freak hailstorm on a remote planet.

I need to hand over some of my projects to an up-and-coming creator, or perhaps a creatrix, in this time of equality, he muttered. Even though gender was nonexistent in the heavens, it was not unusual for beings to assume the gender of their last terrestrial form. Gordon reclined and pulled his eye mask down to catch forty winks.

The phone had been ringing off the hook today: prayers from all over the universe. It was as if there had been an intergalactic resurgence of faith in the last week, but it was just the backlog caused by the nasty head cold Gordon had had the week before. So much sneezing wasn't usually a problem; unfortunately, this latest bout had been gilded with a slight dose of delirium, causing a surge of locust plagues, fires, floods, and pandemics.

It was all getting too much.

The very least Gordon needed was a break. He concluded that the best option was to appoint an archangel to the job of maintaining some older, outlying planets after a comprehensive, but quick, apprenticeship.

The latest statistics showed that prayer rates for Paragon, Hibble, Earth, and Dolores were now below twenty per cent: a good sign. Lower prayer rates meant that the planet’s creatures were successfully taking charge of their own destiny and didn't need as much supervision. The ever-increasing number of new planets under Gordon’s watch kept him busier than ever.

Gordon’s traditional day of rest had fallen by the wayside eons ago as more and more of his creations pressed him for his attention. Putting the universe on pause for a short break was no longer an option, with the explosive effect of latent creative energy creating more to remedy than was practical in the grand scheme of things. The last time he used the universal-pause method, his beautiful earthly creatures, known to current Earthlings as dinosaurs, had suffered an untimely fate. With hindsight, he now realized that dinosaurs had been incorrectly proportioned to the planet’s vegetation anyway.

Gordon brought his thoughts back to the matter in hand.

He made an executive decision and posted a sign in the archangels’ tearoom:

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Want to advance your career?

Do you make special things at parties?

Thought of a move into creation?

With an ever-expanding universe, there is an opportunity to learn the basic concepts of creation.

You are a motivated self-starter with a minimum of 700,000 years’ experience as an archangel.

Prior experience not relevant (remember what happened to Lucifer).

You are also self-reliant, with an ability to think outside the square and make good coffee.

Contact Gordo on line 7 between 7 and 7 for an information package.

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Only the archangels referred to Gordon as Gordo. Even though they never called him Gordo to his face, they knew that he knew. He was, after all, omnipotent and ultimately in control. He hoped that by using the shortened form of his name he might show his softer side and convince some of the highest-ranked angels to put themselves forward for the job.

Seven weeks, seven days, seven hours, seven minutes, and seven seconds passed and Gordon received no response to his ad, despite his constant promotion and encouragement of individual angels. In the meantime, he had flooded several small cities, torched a primitive community, and narrowly averted a crisis.

He had also accidentally introduced an alien species to one planet, thinking