Angel of Journey

By Debi Karr

Abby is a teenager looking forward to her summer visitation with her maternal grandfather, who lives in the Yukon Territory with the Elk Kirk First Nation. She soon learns she is not who she thought she was and discovers her familys secrets. Abby has read in several books that some secrets are so unbelievable or horrific that family members refrain from repeating them, for fear of being ridiculed or shunned. Abby believes that is true of her familyuntil she learns differently. She sees her familys heartaches and their ability to pull together as one, and she realizes their hopes, loves, happiness, celebration, and mystical connection to the heavens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524672355

Debi Karr

Debi Karr grew up in a small farming community in western New York. She and her husband now reside in the state of Florida. She attended Eastern State College in Florida and AB Tech in Asheville, North Carolina. This is her first novel, and the inspiration derived from a trip to the Yukon in the summer of 2006. She is an avid reader and has always wanted to put her ideas and daydreams on paper. As she picks words for her characters, she picks beads for necklaces that she makes, which she calls her quiet-time hobby. She enjoys camping, kayaking, and hiking. Debi has hiked the Mountain-to-Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee.

Book preview

AuthorHouse™

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© 2017 Debi Karr. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 02/14/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5246-7181-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5246-7235-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017902253

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgments

1.  Changing Times

2.  Be Brave

3.  Time Never Says It’s Sorry

4.  Where My Heart Is

5.  Sully Crossing

6.  The Portal

7.  Bright Light

8.  Keeping You Alive

9.  The Prayer

10.  All My Tears

11.  Melanie

12.  Matthew

13.  The Jeep

14.  The Silver Brush

15.  The Atrium

16.  Shane

17.  Abby

Dedic

ated

To my mother Francis M. Drew

For her love of nature and writing

And inspiring me to do the same.

Acknowledgments

There are so many to thank that I know some will be omitted but not intentionally. I want you to know how much I have appreciated everything everyone has done for me and I am very grateful for all your efforts.

First and foremost, I want to thank my husband, Jacques. For permitting me take over his office, his laptop, printer and chair. For always assuring me, and listening to my story page for page even though I would be interrupting his football game for my daily status report on what I had written, but more than that his love, support and belief in me.

A special Thank You to my Editors and my Production Supervisor. My Publishing Consultant Karen Stansberry, my Check in Coordinator Myra Baldwin for walking me though my first book and consistently helpful in other areas.

1

CHANGING TIMES

For he shall give his angels charge

Over thee, to keep thee in all ways.

—Psalm 91:11

Melanie watched as her niece, Abby, kicked off her Adidas sneakers and placed them in the gray plastic bin along with her iPhone, purse, and favorite old sweatshirt. She placed her pink kitty backpack directly behind the bin. Melanie could not figure out how in the world her niece had stuffed so much into that small pack. She also noticed that Abby had not worn socks and was standing on the airport floor barefoot. Melanie had lectured her about the unsanitary floors in the airports but to no avail. Abby would just shrug off the warning with her favorite comment.

Auntie Mel, our backyard is not much better with all the doggie doo! She’d put on a pouty face, cross her arms, and tap her right foot.

Melanie drew in her breath and let it out slowly. She would miss her niece. She watched as Abby stepped through the metal detector and then stopped when the TSA officer raised her hand. She instructed Abby to raise her arms over her head while the machine did its job. Then the officer smiled and waved her niece through.

Abby walked to the end of the conveyor belt to collect her possessions. She slipped her sneakers back on, slung her backpack over her shoulders, tied the sweatshirt to her waist with the arms wrapped around her, and picked up her oversized purse. With her iPhone in her hand, she blew a kiss to Melanie and then, with a wave of her hand and a big smile, turned and headed down the corridor to her terminal. Melanie watched her niece slowly walk farther and farther from her view. At times like these, she missed the good old days when she could almost put her loved one on the plane. She used to be able to stand by the big windows in the boarding area and watch the plane taxi down the runway.

Now you simply watch them walk away, she said quietly to herself. A tear slipped down her cheek, and a sob caught in her throat as the small-framed girl grew more distant from her sight.

From that distance, one might have thought her niece was only ten or eleven years old, not eighteen going on thirty. Abby was dressed in denim skinny jeans and a light gray sweater with cap sleeves, with the pink backpack on her petite shoulders. She weighed in at one hundred pounds soaking wet and stood five feet two inches. Her waist-long auburn hair had a natural bounce to it, even though it was stick straight. She had drawn her hair up into a loose bun on top of her head and inserted two chopsticks to hold it in place. How does she do that? Melanie thought. With the rush that morning to get out the door on time, Melanie had not bothered to question the chopsticks from the local Chinese restaurant. She had grown accustomed to seeing pencils holding the bun in place, but the chopsticks were a new fashion statement. Melanie let out a lighthearted laugh.

She thought she had prepared herself for this day. Melanie’s father had consented to Melanie leaving the Yukon Territory with Abby, his granddaughter, as long as she promised to return Abby when the tribe summoned her. They had summoned, and Melanie would honor her word. She had no choice. If she did not return Abby to them, they would come for her.

With a thousand thoughts moving around in her mind, Melanie could not help wondering whether she should’ve sat Abby down and told her the whole truth. She’d had plenty of time to do so, and she’d had every intention of doing just that. Only she hadn’t.

How is this beautiful, innocent young girl going to react to all of this? Will she accept her existence? Will she forgive me for taking her from the tribe?

Abby was four years old when Melanie moved them from the Yukon to Florida. It was a challenging move. Melanie had a tough time learning to live in a different world and adjusting to an entirely foreign way of life while caring for a four-year-old. However, she was determined to make it work, and it did.

Abby flourished and grew into a beautiful young woman. Melanie sat her down several times to talk with her about their heritage. She described the importance of honor and family and repeated the legends of how the nation of the Elk Kirk, the tribe of U Dan, had come to be and how the Great Spirit had placed them in the Yukon, near the entrance of Middle Earth, to protect it from the evil ones and demons. Melanie explained the duties of the Crow clan and those of the Wolf clan. The Crows were the first defense. They protected Middle Earth from the world of humans and evil ones, which Abby always compared to the Halloween costumes she saw in local shopping centers. Melanie would tell her that they were similar but not the same. The evil ones were ghosts of evil beings. The heavens did not want them, and Satan already had them, so they wandered in the human world, causing problems. The Wolf clan protected Middle Earth from the evil ones, demons, and monsters of the underworld.

It wasn’t until Abby was into her teen years that she understood what Melanie was telling her. That was when she decided that being a princess at Halloween was not as fun as being a ghost or one of the walking dead.

Melanie perceived that when spring arrived in the north, she and Abby should return to their homeland for the summer months, which ran short up there. Abby learned about life in the Yukon from her grandfather while on those summer vacations.

The mystical connection to the ocean, which proved to be the salvation of the tribe, provided them with plenty of fish and whales, a primary foodstuff. Abby was taught by her grandfather and several other relatives how to fish with a spear gun made from a sharpened coat hanger and a length of rubber tubing.

Melanie’s father and uncle taught Abby how to make and use a bow and arrow, including what woods to use and how to aim it properly. She was good at it. She could throw a knife and hit the bull’s-eye at fifty paces. They taught her how a garden should be planted, what vegetables should be set adjacent to each other, and how important it was to share your bounty with the tribe.

When she was young, Abby questioned Melanie about her tattooed runes. Melanie pointed out each one to her niece and described the body healing and protection it gave her.

Well, do they wash off? her niece asked.

Even though Melanie and her family talked with Abby about the importance of the nation to the spirit world, Abby never really comprehended it all. That was Melanie’s fault. She had been warned that until Abby was returned to the tribe, she would not understand or remember half of the things she was taught.

It is the way, her father had told her.

His words echoed in her mind.

Listen to me! Great Spirit, I need your power and wisdom, Melanie prayed as Abby disappeared from her sight.

She felt an overwhelming desire to scream, Stop! Come back to me, Abby! But she didn’t. She placed her closed right fist up to her mouth. While biting down on her index finger, Melanie held back from crying out.

Abby had been part of Melanie’s life for the past fifteen years. She had taken over the care of Abby after the accident that claimed her parents’ lives. Melanie’s family had been devastated. Her father was unable to recover emotionally enough from the loss of his youngest daughter, Francine, to be left with the care of Abby, who was just eighteen months old. Melanie had been numb and in shock herself. She hadn’t cried over Abby’s parents’ deaths until months later. Melanie had also pushed aside the grief she felt at the loss of her own husband, Chase, who had been piloting the small plane. Melanie had hardened her heart.

She strongly believed she would not have made it through that time without Abby. Abby had helped Melanie collect herself and find her way back to the here and now to heal. Abby had filled the void through the years. Melanie had dedicated every waking hour to her niece. Everything that she did was for the well-being of Abby.

During the weeks after the accident, Melanie carried Abby everywhere she went. She learned how to fix meals and do laundry and housework while carrying her niece. One morning, just before Christmas, Melanie’s father, who had sat silently by, watching his daughter come apart at the seams for months, approached Melanie while she was doing dishes at the sink. Abby was sitting on the counter, playing with a wet dishcloth. He ran his index finger over her soft cheek as she smiled up at him as only a baby could. She held out the wet cloth to him and then shook it between her hands and giggled. His heart broke as a memory of her mother, his daughter Francine, came front and center to his mind; she had done the exact same thing on that same counter, with his wife, Mary, standing beside him and smiling up at him while she did dishes.

Axel accepted the cloth from Abby, placed it on the counter, and picked her up. He gently kissed her forehead as she rested her cheek against his chest. He held his baby granddaughter close to his heart as he kissed the top of her tiny head, her downy auburn hair soft on his cheek. He drew in her sweet baby fragrance and closed his eyes as he let his mind wander back to her grandmother.

Oh Mary, you would love this child. She is so like you—her smile; her rosy, dimpled cheeks; her bright green eyes; the way she tips her head and places her small index finger on her cheek the way you used to when you had one of your great ideas. I miss you. I will always miss you. As a tear ran down his cheek, Axel turned to Melanie after a quiet moment and spoke.

It is time to put our grief aside, my daughter. Your sister no longer comes to me in my dreams; she is at peace. I hear the Great Spirit’s voice on the winds.

Melanie stopped what she was doing and stood for a moment, studying her father. She set aside the spoon she was drying and then mindlessly dried her hands on the towel. She turned to her father as a tear ran down his cheek. Melanie looked at her father, who had suffered the same losses she had. There were many he had grieved over the years, and he never retreated. He never threw in the towel and said he’d had enough. He never ran away. Her father was a U Dan Raven warrior, as his father and grandfather had been before him. He was a warrior of protection. He bore the runes of protection. He was proud of his lineage and proud of the Elk Kirk nation.

I love you, Papa. She sobbed as she stepped toward him and wrapped her arms around him while they held Abby between them.

Melanie knew that she had let him down, and she was sorry for that, but she was tired and wanted to get away. She wanted to take baby Abby and leave to live life the way the humans did, and in their world, she could protect Abby. However, Melanie knew she was not there to live a real life; she was not human. She and her tribe were there to preserve life for Middle Earth.

This memory was still clear in her mind.

Melanie had been told by several people that with time, the pain of death went away. She had learned through the years that that wasn’t true.

No, it does not. The pain numbs and fades a little, but it is always there, ready to pounce whenever you least expect it. A voice or a picture could trigger a memory. One time, the blowing of a car horn had brought the aching back. Melanie had adjusted—that was all. She had cried herself to sleep for many years after the loss of her mother. Her father had explained to her and her baby sister, Francine, that their mother had gone back home to Middle Earth and had accidentally fallen through a portal. Melanie had never told her father that she had looked for that portal throughout her teenage years.

Melanie had withdrawn from her tribal duties and begun submitting her applications to companies in the United States. Her father and uncle had said little to her about her decision to leave. Their disapproval was obvious.

Melanie had a PhD in physics, and when the space center in Florida had offered her a position with a project they were working on, she had accepted.

When she had told her father that she had been offered the job and would be leaving to join the human world and taking baby Abby with her, he had released a heavy breath, placed both of his hands in his back pockets, and said nothing.

Papa, I have to protect Abby. You know I promised Francine. Melanie had searched her father’s face for a softening.

Don’t use Abby as an excuse. It is you who needs the protection, not Abby. These are changing times, and there is so much sadness across the human world. He’d pressed his lips together. You must make your own way back to your life. He’d swallowed, struggling with his emotions.

The hurt in his eyes had been so raw and painful that even now, fifteen years later, she felt as if it had happened yesterday. All of this rushed through Melanie’s mind as she held back her heartache.

Now she had to send Abby back. Worse yet, she’d not been able to get the time off from work to accompany her back to the Yukon Territory. She was in the middle of a project and needed to finish it before she left, as she knew she would never be able to return to this world again. Melanie did not want Abby to go alone; she wanted to be with her. She knew that Blaine would be Abby’s shadow until she arrived in Whitehorse.

An airport loudspeaker brought Melanie back to reality. She looked around at the tourists going and coming. She knew she should leave. Abby’s plane would be departing for Houston, Texas, at 5:45 a.m., headed for Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. She glanced at the time on her cell phone. It was now 5:30 a.m. She had not realized how long she had been standing there. Abby must have boarded by now. She folded her arms and said a silent prayer just as a text message came through on her cell phone from Abby: In my seat. Luv u.

Melanie had to smile, even though she felt a dull ache in her stomach. She knew the feeling; it was an old friend of hers. It was the feeling of saying good-bye and of homesickness. She stood gazing at the message on her phone, not wanting to disconnect. It was her way of holding on just a little bit longer.

You here alone? a male voice softly asked.

Melanie did not need to look up to see who had spoken; she knew by his scent: soap mixed with cologne. She wiped at the tears beneath her eyes, sniffed, and looked up into Shane’s face as he handed her a hankie.

I needed to do this alone. I needed to let go of her my way, Melanie said as she accepted the hankie from him and dabbed at her falling tears.

Shane was one of those men whose good looks were overwhelming. He was six feet four inches tall; he had dark brown hair with soft, shoulder-length curls; and his eyes were as black as the night, which made Melanie feel he could look into her soul. His voice was soft and gentle, and he was sexy; he drew attention from women with his good looks and charisma. Melanie also knew he was a dangerous entity.

He framed Melanie’s face with his hands and ran his thumbs lightly beneath her eyes, wiping away the remaining tears.

Will you have coffee with me, Melanie? Shane asked. The last thing he wanted to do was burden Melanie with any more worries, but he needed to know what she had told Abby.

I could use something stronger, but since it is so early in the morning, coffee will do.

Shane took Melanie’s arm and steered her toward a small café, where the scent of espresso and sweet cakes filled the air.

Where would you like to sit? he asked with a smile.

"I usually sit in a corner, out of