The Tessa Randolph Collection, Books 1-3 by Paula Lester (best ereader for comics .txt) 📗

She laughed at the irony as she headed toward Linda.

Who knew being a grim reaper would be her calling?

Book 2: The Scythe’s Secrets: Chapter 1

“BUT I’M SCARED OF HEIGHTS.” Tessa scowled to hide the horrified expression trying to jump onto her face. “You’re my mother. You should know that. I can’t even ride the Ferris wheel without getting dizzy.”

“I thought you grew out of that,” Cheryl said.

“No. I grew out of going to amusement parks. Can’t you give this assignment to someone else?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s part of your job. I can’t keep track of what the agents like and don’t like. We can’t cherry-pick our jobs.” Cheryl glanced up from the computer and the corners of her mouth twitched upward. She had gained immunity to her daughter’s unhappy expressions decades earlier. In fact, the grumpier Tessa got and the deeper she scowled, the more amused Cheryl became. “Mr. Hanson is scheduled to die of natural causes today, and you’re his reaper. He dies. You escort his soul to the afterlife. That’s that.”

Tessa flopped into the chair across from Cheryl with a huff and wondered about her career choice. It was bad enough to have a mother who erred quite forcefully on the critical side of the fence. But having her also be your boss was a flavor of crazy most people would know to avoid. “Why can’t I just reap him when he gets to the ground?”

Cheryl rolled her eyes. “He isn’t going to die on the ground. He’s going to die about halfway down.” She considered. “Or up, depending on how you look at it.”

“I’d rather be looking up.”

Cheryl tapped at her keyboard and read something on the screen. “Yes. His heart will give out. Which isn’t terribly surprising—it is his ninetieth birthday.”

“Today?” Tessa squeaked. “He’s going to die on his birthday?”

“It’s not as uncommon as you’d think. And what a way to go—his file says he started skydiving every year on his birthday when he turned sixty.” She waved a hand. “But he goes a lot more than that, of course. He’s a certified instructor. So, just show up for the time slot I booked for you to dive with him.” Cheryl got to her feet. “There’s really no choice here. You have to be there when it happens, which is going to be while he’s in the air.”

“But—”

“No buts! What if the poor man’s soul gets trapped in his body as it floats to the ground? That would be awful.”

“But—”

“Theresa. What if he gets stuck midair? His spirit could leave the body and take off in the wind while you’re standing there twiddling your thumbs. You don’t want to lose another soul, do you?”

Tessa bit back a curse and shook her head grudgingly. “No. Once is enough.”

Cheryl touched her perfect inverted bob in several spots as though to be sure no strands had suddenly wrestled free from their bonds of mega-super-strength hair spray. “Don’t worry. There’s no order in the system for a reaper for you. Apparently, your parachute will bring you safely to the ground.”

“You’re enjoying this too much.”

“You may like skydiving.” Cheryl’s lips twitched with barely contained mirth. “Ooh, maybe you’ll start going once a year on your birthday too. You could completely lose your fear of heights today, Theresa. Wouldn’t that be nice?”

“It would be nice if you remembered I like to be called Tessa. And you’re right. Maybe I’ll love skydiving. I hope I do. They’ll be looking for a new instructor at this skydiving place after today, right? I’m going to think of this as a job interview. There’s no way the boss could be worse than the one I already have.”

Cheryl didn’t appear worried. She waved a hand and herded Tessa out of the office. “Have fun, dear. Don’t be late to the death.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” Tessa rolled her eyes as she headed out of the office and into the bright sunlight of the parking lot.

Briefly, she glanced over her shoulder at the run-down building—her current workplace. It was disguised as a dilapidated life insurance office in an attempt to keep most humans away from what was really a grim reaper agency.

In the few months since Tessa had started her new job, she’d gotten used to the routine. Get up, check for assignments on the reaper app on her phone, reap souls. The app gave Tessa a good chuckle every time she saw the icon. It, too, had a disguise, designed to look like a cycle tracker to keep any random person who picked up the phone from clicking on it.

If there were no assignments on the app, Tessa headed into the office and did paperwork or sat in Gloria’s office and chatted with her fellow reaper until Cheryl gave them both a death glare. It was an expression her mother had perfected having worked so many years as a grim reaper herself.

But it had turned out to be a pretty decent job overall. The pay was good. Tessa hadn’t had to worry about making rent since her first assignment. And she’d even been able to pay for her landlord, Silas, to make some much needed upgrades to Linda.

Tessa ran her hand over the car’s red hood. “How you doing, girl? Any aches or pains?”

Linda didn’t answer but she started right up when Tessa turned the key. Progress. Since Silas had started taking care of her, the car did that much more often than before.

The drive out to Mist River Skydiving School was about twenty minutes, which was more than enough time to get worked up about the idea of jumping out of a plane.

Worked up into a panic. It wasn’t like she was completely risk averse. She’d recently taken up mountain biking after coming across an almost new bike for a good price at a yard sale. And Tessa often dreamed about a SCUBA certificate. After all, she planned to retire to some tropical island far away from Michigan’s cold