The Railway Angel Read online

  “That was my little sister,” I whispered and saw him wince. “This is what I saw.”

  *****

  “It’ll be fine, her mum replied, and then burst into tears. “Oh Lizzie, I’m sorry, forgive me.”

  The family left the house, and her mum collapsed upon seeing the coffin. Her dad stood still, silent. Her sister tagged behind, shuffling her feet.

  They watched the procession to the gravesite and then the ceremony, and as the coffin was lowered, my heart nearly broke again when I saw Mum fall to the ground, crying, “I’m sorry, darling, I wish I’d given you that money now, then you wouldn’t be up there and me down here.”

  Mum looked up at the sky. Had she known I was looking down? I liked to think so. “Mum,” I whispered, “look after each other and keep an eye on our kid. Talk to her.”

  I smiled when I saw Mum get up from the ground and reach out to my sister and whisper something. I suspected it was to do with me looking down on them as my sister looked up and a fresh set of tears coursed down my face.

  *****

  “They didn’t talk to each other, so fell apart,” I told Craig, my arms dropping like my heart did at reliving that day.

  “Oh,” he said, his eyes fixed on me.

  Great, I now have him interested in me. So far, so good. Now what do I tell or ask him? Well, I’d been talking about leaving family behind so that would be it – the big question.

  “So, can you tell me how your family would react if you did what you just did and fell like me?”

  Tears welled up in his eyes, and I put a hand on his arm, making him shiver. I guessed I’d do that to people.

  “I see that you have two options. Here’s the first. I really don’t want to show this but...here’s what you could end up like, like I did when it all went wrong and I was killed.”

  I shook uncontrollably as the memory came alive. Shaking with nerves. I had no idea what I’d looked like when I was killed. I was dead.

  I scrunched up my eyes and brought back the scene of the railway where I had been.

  Craig put his head in his hands as we watched me sway, then fall on to the tracks.

  The train station came into focus and with it my two friends clinging to each other, crying and screaming.

  I bowed my head, thinking, if they were reacting like that, no wonder Mum and Dad had been so distraught at my funeral.

  Then slowly, as though my eyes as a camera were reluctant to see it, in slow motion the scene went to the body on the tracks. My left leg was at an awkward angle, as was the rest of my body and I was covered in blood, especially my hair. My lovely chocolate hair, that I’d cherished.

  Craig whispered, “All that blood. How comes there’s no blood on you now if you come from up there?”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about that too. I think that once we get to where I did and start to find our way, then your image is cleaned. Angels aren’t meant to be bloody and scary.”

  I shook myself to rid my head of that awful image. “Would you like to see the other option?”

  Craig nodded. “Please,” he begged. Yes, that image had shaken him up. It had shaken me up too. God, what had I done to my family and friends?

  “OK, here goes.”

  “That’s me again and Danny and Tommy on the other side,” Craig said.

  We watched as they waved and heard a shout of, “Come on, you can do it.” How I hated those words now.

  Craig shook his head, left the station and a couple of minutes later appeared on the other side with his mates. They all got on the train, which had arrived, laughing.

  I opened my eyes and said, “That was the other option. What are you going to do now?”

  “I want to do what that scene showed, get on the train this side of the station. But I’m scared. What if I don’t make it by the time the train’s here?”

  “I’ll help you. OK, touch me, anywhere, and keep holding on,” I told him. I hoped my idea worked.

  When Craig touched me, I stretched my body again, to reach the other side of the station near his mates.

  As I hoped, Craig was with me, and as I roly-polyed on to the ground, I was sure I’d have bruises after this, he was standing there.

  “Just in time,” he said.

  I saw the train just round the corner.

  “By the way, what’s your name?”

  “Lizzie. Now take care of yourself and be good.”

  At that I faded into the air, but could still see and hear him. I heard him whisper, “Thank you, Lizzie, my guardian angel.”

  I waited for a while, and once I saw him climb into a train, I wandered back to the foyer and sat down where I’d woken up.

  I huddled up in the corner and closed my eyes, smiling. My job for today had been done. My first success. If only I’d had a guardian angel then, I‘d not be here like this now.

  A tear slid down my face. One family saved from the grief of a tragic accident, I thought, unlike my own.

  *****

  A voice saying, “There’s no need for tears, you did a good job, Lizzie. You can wake up now,” brought me back to the world I’d come to know.

  I opened my eyes to see that I was now surrounded by chairs and desks. Miranda was standing over me.

  “I think I did it right,” I said, giving a shy smile.

  Miranda beamed. “Yes, you did, and you can see now if you come here.”

  I went and stood next to Miranda.

  “Have a look down below.”

  I did and saw Craig chatting away with his mates on the train.

  One boy asked, “How comes you didn’t do the second part of the dare as planned?”

  Craig replied, “Life’s too short to risk it.”

  I smiled. Good, I’d taught him that lesson.

  I sighed. “I wish I had had someone like me, who could have stopped me from doing what I did to end up here.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  “I think I know who that is,” Miranda said. “Come in, Jerry.”

  The door opened and a man with a pale face and white beard and moustache came in.

  He smiled at me and, feeling drawn to him, I smiled back.

  “Lizzie, meet Jerry Milton, my boss.”

  “Hello, Mr Milton.”

  “Afternoon, Lizzie. I heard what you just said before I appeared and I’m glad you said it.”

  “Oh?” I replied.

  “Yes, I like to keep an eye on who arrives here as well as what is happening down there. Which is what I want to talk to you both about. Tell me, Miranda, have you noticed recently that there seem to be a lot of youngsters coming here?”

  “Now you say it, yes I have,” Miranda said.

  “It’s a sad thing when a child dies before its parents, especially if it’s unexpected. I have been watching down there the last few years and what those teenagers do with their lives makes me go white, well, whiter than I can be.” His voice deepened and became husky when he said this.

  My mouth twitched. His tone didn’t go with his sense of life, which was as large as his stomach was, and as loud as his bright blue shirt.

  “This is where you can both help.”

  “How, sir?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

  “I want to set up a team of teenage guardian angels who are here because they self-destructed and who you feel can help prevent others from doing the same thing down there. This is your job, Miranda.”

  “Ah, I see why I had the test now. That’s a good idea.” I smiled.

  “So how about being part of the team and helping Miranda find the second candidate?” Jerry asked, his green eyes twinkling at me.

  “I’m the first candidate? Wow, I feel privileged.” A hum of excitement buzzed through my body for the first time since I’d arrived here. It was as if my body was coming alive again. Not that that could ever happen.

  I’d been given a job to do and one I could do well.


  Then I recalled part of what I’d done to help Craig. “Er, there’s one thing that I need to ask...”

  “I think I know what it is,” Jerry said, “the magicking up of your memories...”

  I nodded. “And the stretching.”

  “You want to know how you did it. Well, that’s easy. You see, this is where the school up here is different. Whoever arrives here automatically receives certain magic powers as well as bringing your memories to life. Because it was your feet that got you here they were scared to move, so the rest of your body did it for you, hence, it stretched like it did. It worked though, didn’t it?”

  “Oh yes, it made the boy change his mind.”

  “Hopefully you’ll find the longer you’re here, the better your powers will become, and your wings will grow on you with each challenge and test you face and pass. Well done on the good job, Lizzie, and Miranda, I’ll leave you to think over what I’ve said. Good luck.”

  “See, you did a good job and I’m proud of you. I know how hard it was for you to go there. Congratulations, Lizzie, you’ve passed your first test.”

  “Why it had to be there, I don’t know.”

  “To conquer your demons and put your past behind you.”

  “It was hard, really hard.”

  “I know; I saw when you hesitated after that lie.”

  I blushed, feeling my face heat up like a burning flame. “I looked up and sensed you watching me and knew then what I had to do, tell the truth, which is what the test was all about, wasn’t it?”

  Miranda nodded. “You can be proud of yourself, now that you’ve done it. You’ll find you’ll accept being here.”

  “I will do, thanks to you and Jerry, and the magic powers.” I laughed.

  “Now that you’ve passed your test, I need to show you something. Come with me,” Miranda said.

  As we neared the end of the corridor I gasped. For as we got nearer, a doorway came into focus through the whiteness.

  “Where does that lead to?” I asked.

  “I’ll show you,” Miranda replied.

  I followed and tried not to gasp again as, as we went through the doorway, stairs appeared.

  Miranda seemed to know where she was going, so I continued following her. Down the stairs, through another door, that appeared when we got there, into another corridor like the one we’d just come from. And there along it, were more doors, which as I walked past, saw desks and chairs.

  “Classrooms?” I asked.

  “Yes. The first one is called ‘The Persuasive Room’ for practising your persuasion skills like you did today; the next one is ‘The Magic Room’ for practising your magical powers to persuade others; the third is ‘The Scene Room’ where you can practise scenes where you could be needed and the last one is ‘The Team Room’ where you can bond with the other team members, when you are all together at last. Now I need to show you your room.” I followed Miranda back through the door at the end of the corridor and up two flights of stairs this time, into a bright sunshine yellow light.

  “This is your dormitory, and the boys will be in the room next to it.”

  Miranda opened the door and I walked in, to see a bed on the right and another on the left.

  “As you’re the first here, you can have first choice of beds. I’ll leave you to settle in for now and no doubt will see you soon. Good night and good luck, Lizzie.”

  “Night,” I replied, as I watched Miranda walk out of the room.

  Feeling exhausted, I fell on to the first bed.

  I tried to take in all that I’d seen and heard. Maybe it wasn’t going to be so bad up here after all. Not now that I knew I was needed and had a purpose.

  As I thought this I felt my back tingle like something was tickling it. My wings! Were they starting to grow already? I twisted my head round over my shoulder to try to see my back but couldn’t see anything, so I eased my hand round to feel instead and thought I felt something soft and furry there, like hairs growing.

  I smiled. All I had to do was pass more challenges especially with my powers and they’d become whole. Wow! I couldn’t wait.

  *****

  Dear Reader

  Thank you for buying and reading this book. If you enjoyed this one, then good because there are a few more to come about the trainee ‘Guardian Angels.’ The next book is Danny’s story, who briefly featured in this one.

  About the author:

  I live in SE London.  I have been writing for 19 years and have had published reader letters in green, health and writing magazines, short stories in small press magazines Creature Features and Crystal, and my first children's fiction book was published in 2009 called Rosie and the Sick School, about healthy eating at school with magical elements.  I am currently working on my third book for 8-12 year-olds called Georgina, Queen of Clean about using natural beauty products at school with magical elements.

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