Free Billy Angel by Sam Hay Page A

the rest of my life…
    â€˜Well, you didn’t exactly save Thelma from her dark side, did you?’ he scolded.
    I sighed. I knew I was probably in the heavenly doghouse.
    Then the hoodie-angel grinned. ‘But they’re pleased with you anyway. By doing such a dreadful job with those screws, the zombie thing was never going to work. And, most importantly, you saved Grant, so Thelma will live happily ever after.’
    I suddenly felt weary. ‘All I want to know is whether I’m finished. Can I stop taking care of Thelma now?’
    He nodded. ‘That mission is over.’
    â€˜And what about the ear nipping? I presume that was all your doing?’
    The hoodie-angel smirked. ‘Not guilty. Blame yourself for that one. As soon as you signed the guardian-angel contract, your inner angel was unleashed. All that ear stuff was your inner angel making sure you were paying attention to the important stuff.’
    I gasped. My life couldn’t get much worse. An ugly looking outer angel hounding me day and night was one thing, but having to deal with an ear-pinching, do-gooding inner angel as well, was quite another.
    â€˜And I’ll tell you something else to cheer you up,’ the hoodie-angel laughed.
    I sighed. Now I was free of Thelma, I just wished he’d push off.
    â€˜You know, the truth is you weren’t supposed to do this.’
    â€˜
What
?’ I sat up. ‘What do you mean?’
    â€˜I mean I got it a bit wrong.’ The hoodie-angel grinned an even bigger grin (quite a menacing sight, I can tell you). ‘There are two William Boxes in this house, right? Well, we wanted the other one, not you.’
    â€˜My
dad
?’ I breathed. It made complete sense. My dad really was a time-served hero.
    â€˜Yeah, but the good news is, they reckon you’ve done such a good job that you deserve the gig.’
    â€˜What!’ I yelped.
    â€˜Yep – you’ve earned your wings.’
    â€˜But I don’t want my wings. I don’t want to be an angel!’
    â€˜Tough,’ growled the hoodie-angel, suddenly looking grumpy again. ‘Some people are never satisfied.’
    I leapt out of bed and prodded his chest. ‘Now, listen here. I do not want to be an angel, not now, not ever.’

    He was so taken aback that someone so small and puny would dare to prod him, that he laughed; a big nasty belly laugh, and gave me a wink. ‘You’re really something else. Anyway, must fly now, but I’ll be seeing you again soon.’ And with that he disappeared into the wardrobe.
    I ran after him. But this time, he didn’t leave so much as a feather.
    I collapsed on my bed and felt like weeping. But then I changed my mind. Tears were for wimps. What I needed was action. I pulled off my pyjamas and got into my plumbing overalls. I opened my tool bag and took out my tool belt. I filled it with every plumbing tool that would fit and squashed the rest down my socks and under my overall. It wasn’t very comfy, I can tell you. Then I found every plumbing book I own and stuck them all over my bed. Finally, I carefully climbed under the covers.
    If this lot didn’t make me Dream the Dream, then nothing would. After all, I am William Box – I come from a long line of trusted and respected plumbers. I am not, nor will I ever be an angel. It’s just not my destiny.
    The End (for now).

First published 2008 by
A & C Black Publishers Ltd
38 Soho Square, London, W1D 3HB
    www.acblack.com
    Text copyright © 2008 Sam Hay
Illustrations copyright © 2008 Emma Dodson
    The rights of Sam Hay and Emma Dodson to be
identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively
have been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
    Paperback ISBN: 978-0-71368-881-8
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-40815-345-1
    A CIP catalogue for this book is available from the British Library.
    All rights reserved. No part of this