RIP THE SKY
by
Mark Packard
Speculative Fiction / Fantasy / Science Fiction
Publisher: Bluestreak Publishing
Page Count: 317 pages
Publication Date: August 21, 2023
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After a shocking courtroom tragedy, a disturbed Vietnam veteran and the vindictive judge who sent him to prison become an unlikely pair of time travelers in a chaotic multiverse. The fallen angel who rescues them wants to guide them to a radiant new life. But first they must return to the scene of a ghastly crime.
Billy Worster was a naïve teenager ill-prepared for the gruesome realities of war. The sole survivor of a deadly massacre in a Vietnamese jungle, he avoided certain death only because he ran away when the shooting started. Riddled with guilt, he comes home to a dusty Texas farm with post-traumatic stress disorder and the crazy notion that he can fly in and out of parallel worlds.
As Billy struggles with addiction and questions his sanity, he is arrested on a drug charge and ends up in the courtroom of Judge Madeline Johnston, a bitter old judge tormented by a dark secret surrounding her father’s death. She callously tosses Billy into prison, but when a greedy executor files a lawsuit to steal his inherited land, Billy is hauled back to her courtroom in chains, where a stunning twist of fate launches them into the sky on an odyssey of discovery and healing.
Spanning forty years from the jungles of Vietnam through infinite, parallel worlds, Rip the Sky examines how the power of forgiveness can lead us toward a better life, no matter how many worlds we may live in.
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Deleted Scene, Part Two
from Rip the Sky
by Mark Packard
CLICK TO READ PART ONE OF THE DELETED SCENE
It was quiet. The radio in the old truck had long been broken, and the only sound was the hot wind whistling through the open windows. Neither one spoke for several minutes. Finally, Billy broke the silence, “Were you scared when you were over in Normandy? I remember you telling me when I was a boy about how you waded to the shore, and there was dead bodies floating face down in the water. They got drowned cause their packs strapped to their backs were too heavy.” Billy couldn’t help gesturing with his hands as visions of the littered battlefield played out in his mind. “And then when you got to the sand you had to step over body parts, and everything was on fire, smoke coming from everywhere. And I remember you saying how lucky you were that you were not one of the first ones to land, ‘cause they never had a chance.”
Floyd took another drag from his cigarette, inhaled deeply and methodically, holding in the smoke for what seemed like half an hour, and then let out a long, hard exhale, as if he were respirating bad memories.
“We did what we had to do,” he said, “and so will you.”
The sun blasted the pavement, and Billy stared at the highway ahead, fascinated by the illusory sheets of water, the mirages that appeared and instantly vanished on the highway. They always looked so real. He counted them, tried to pinpoint the exact spot when the phantom mist evaporated from sight, but could never really figure out where they were when they vanished. Billy squirmed again in his seat.
“Dad, I guess I am a little scared,” he said.
Floyd turned to look at Billy, staring hard at his pimply-faced, scrawny son. Floyd’s eyes glassed over, and Billy felt—measured, even pitied. And he hated that.
“I was afraid when I went to war too,” Floyd said. “A man would have to be crazy not to be scared. There ain’t nothing wrong with being scared, Billy.”
Billy nodded, unable to look away from his father’s gaze.
“But if I could make it,” Floyd continued, “so can you. You’re just as good as anybody else, especially all those long-haired city boys.”
“I will,” Billy said, “Thanks, Dad.”
There was another long silence, and then Floyd cleared his throat, rubbed his eyes, and whispered, “Damned pollen.” Billy knew better than to speak when the pollen made his father’s eyes water. The old man’s eyes had watered just two days before, during a whisky-filled night,
when Billy saw his dad pound the coffee table with his fist, muttering about how only poor kids get drafted, about how he wished Billy could have gone to college so they wouldn’t have to drive to Abbeville. Billy didn’t speak then either.
Floyd drove slowly in the right-hand lane, and another pickup passed in the left lane, the driver in the cowboy hat giving Floyd’ the “thumbs up” signal as he blew by them. “Must like my bumper stickers,” Floyd said, and as the passing pickup sped away Billy noticed the same bumper stickers that were patched onto the back of Floyd’s truck that read “America, Love it or Leave it” and “America, My Country Right or Wrong.”
Billy watched the pickup disappear into the horizon, then read the white letters and numbers on the green road sign that flashed by, barely having time to learn that Abbeville was 30 miles away.
Neither said another word, and at long last they pulled into Abbeville, drove past the Air Force base where pilots learned to drop bombs and napalm on the North Vietnamese hiding in the jungles of Vietnam, past the tall buildings that adorned the sky, and into the parking lot at the Continental Trailways Bus Station.
The long truck ride was over, but Billy didn’t want to get out yet, keeping his head down, staring at the fabric of the cloth seat beneath him.
A long, awkward minute passed, until Billy, with his head still bowed, muttered the words, “I love you, Dad.”
This time Floyd squirmed, cleared his throat again, but didn’t speak right away. He gripped Billy’s hand and shook it hard. “I’ll miss you too son. Pay attention and remember that everybody in Langtry is praying for you.”
Billy’s throat felt tight and swollen, and his eyes were moist. “Yes sir,” he mumbled, as he climbed out of the pickup, scooped up his duffle bag out of the rusted bed, and waved goodbye.
Floyd watched his son walk into the bus station and wiped his eyes.
“They never stood a chance.”
Mark Packard spent the last 38 years as a trial attorney and is now retired from the courtroom and working as a mediator. In a life before lawyering, he was a journalist and regrets waiting far too long before returning to his roots to write his first novel, Rip the Sky. Though he knows he should have jumped off the merry-go-round years ago, he hopes to hang around long enough to craft a few more tales. Connect with the author:
Website ◆ Amazon ◆ Goodreads
LinkedIn ◆ Facebook ◆ BookBub
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About the Author
S. K. Golden is the author of the Pinnacle Hotel cozy mystery series. Born and raised in the Florida Keys, she married a commercial fisherman. The two of them still live on the islands with their five kids (one boy, four girls — including identical twins!), two cats, and a corgi named Goku. Sarah graduated from Saint Leo University with a bachelor’s degree in Human Services and Administration and has put it to good use approximately zero times. She’s worked as a bank teller, a pharmacy technician, and an executive assistant at her father’s church. Sarah is delighted to be doing none of those things now.
From cozy mysteries to seaside romance, USA Today bestselling author Traci Hall writes stories that captivate her readers. As a hybrid author with over sixty published works, Ms. Hall has a favorite tale for everyone. Mystery lovers, check out her Scottish Shire series, set in the seaside town of Nairn, or the Salem B&B Mystery series, as Traci Wilton. Her latest project is an Irish Castle cozy as Ellie Brannigan. Whether it’s her ever-popular By the Sea romances, an Appletree Cove sweet romance, or a fun who-done-it, Traci finds her inspiration in sunny South Florida, living right near the ocean.
In this lawyer-on-the-run suspense drama, attorney Quinton Bell loses the trial of his career, and possibly his life.
Manning Wolfe, an award-winning author and attorney, writes cinematic-style, smart, fast-paced thrillers and crime fiction. Manning was recently featured on Oxygen TV’s: Accident, Suicide, or Murder, and has spoken at major book festivals around the world.
K.M. Messina is an earth and space science teacher, a dog mom, and a lover of all things mystical. Her black German shepherd Luna is the star of her award-winning picture book, IF YOU COULD ASK YOUR DOG ONE QUESTION, which won the Best Independent Book Award (BIBA) and the Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for best picture book for all ages. She lives on the rocky coast of Long Island, New York, where she enjoys feeding wild turkeys, moon gazing, and adding to her ever-growing collection of stones and crystals.
Susan McCormick is an award-winning writer and doctor who lives in Seattle. She graduated from Smith College and George Washington University School of Medicine, with additional medical training in Washington, DC and San Francisco, where she lived in an elegant apartment building much like the one in the Fog Ladies books. Susan served as a doctor in the US Army for nine years before moving to the Pacific Northwest and civilian practice. In addition to the Fog Ladies series, she also wrote Granny Can’t Remember Me, a lighthearted picture book about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and The Antidote, a middle grade to adult medical fantasy. She lives with her husband and two sons and loves giant dogs, the bigger and slobberier the better.
USA Today Bestselling author Dorothy Howell is the author of 49 novels. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages and sold worldwide. She writes the Sewing Studio mystery series, the Haley Randolph mystery series, and the Hollis Brannigan and Dana Mackenzie mystery series. Dorothy also writes historical romance novels under the pen name Judith Stacy. Dorothy lives in Los Angeles.
Rebecca McKinnon enjoys playing with her imaginary friends and introducing them to others through her writing. She dreams of living in the middle of nowhere but has been unable to find an acceptable location that wouldn’t require crossing an ocean.
Ann Jacobus is the author of YA novels The Coldest Winter I Ever Spent and Romancing the Dark in the City of Light. She earned an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has published articles, essays, short fiction, and poems. She teaches writing and presents at workshops and conferences. A former suicide crisis line counselor, she’s a mental health advocate and speaks to teens about writing and suicide prevention both. Born in Texas and a life-long Tex-Mex addict, she and her family divide their time between California and Massachusetts.
