Another Chance Book I of III

Book III-Chapter 84, Justice, Rain Down From Heaven Part 1

Justice, Rain Down From Heaven

Michael The ArchAngel's POV

Michael was sitting in a beautiful old Oak tree on a street in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan which was directly across from the house that he had come to observe. The tree was huge and about 100 years old. Currently its boughs were naked, as it was winter, but spring would bring beautiful green leaves to this lovely old tree as it had for so many years before. The Elm had greeted Michael upon his arrival and told him he was welcome to sit among its sturdy limbs for as long as he liked. Like all living things made by the Creator, the tree was connected to the life force within Michael just as Michael was connected to that within the tree and the Elm recognized who and what he was at once. It would seem that only man had difficulty with that type of discernment and both the tree and Michael had wondered why that was many times within their long lives. While Michael could feel the cold, unlike human beings, it did not trouble him at all. He would not freeze no matter how long he was out in the elements and he had been sitting in the tree for about 6 hours. No one had come or gone from the house in that time.

It was now about 8:00 AM and Michael could hear voices within the house. The home belonged to Nicholas and Mia Galbretti. Nicholas was a well respected Banker in the Detroit Community, having taken the reigns of Michigan Bank this past May. The bank had been founded by his great great grandfather Matteo Galbretti and had weathered many storms over the last 200 years under Galbretti leadership, always emerging from them stronger than when the storm had begun. The Galbretti's had 3 children, 2 daughters and 1 son. Nick Jr. was a a sophomore at the University of Michigan and the apple of his father's eye. Nick was also a very spoiled young man who never had to deal with any real issues in life. When something came up that was uncomfortable for him, Nick's dad always came to the rescue. His mother had noticed that since Nick had started college the rescue efforts had been needed far more often and Nick never seemed to learn from the matters that his dad had stepped in to settle. When his mother would try to talk to him about that, Nick would put her off saying something to the effect of "Mama, it's settled now. No need to stress" and walk away. Worse when she tried to talk to Nick's dad, he would say," Mia, he is just a kid. Kid's make mistakes" and change the subject. The last scrape had been a serious one. Nick had been hanging out with his friends and had prepared very poorly for his Sophomore mid term exams. He and several hundred other students had bought term papers for some of their courses from an alumnus of the University and gotten caught. His dad went into action to keep him from being expelled. He was an active member of the Alumni and pledged to furnish a new dormitory that was being renovated to re-open the following fall. Nick and several other well connected students were suspended, but not expelled. Some of the less well connected were not so lucky and had been expelled. That distinction in the handling of these students had resulted in a lawsuit being filed that was making its way through the courts now. Nick, though, was not phased. He was enjoying being out of school for the rest of this term. He would return to classes in the spring. In the meantime , he would party with some of his frat brothers who had also been suspended. He was having fun, fun, fun or he had been until two weeks ago. He had been driving home from a friend's and had been in an accident. He had been drinking and knew that if he had been tested he would be in even bigger trouble than he already was. It could ruin his life especially if someone died. Scared out of his mind and slightly inebriated, he had fled from the scene of the accident. He had panicked and did not know what to do. He had taken the car to a friend's place and put it in the garage and told him that he had an accident and he had been drinking and needed to sober up. He stayed put until he could reach his father. He told him what had happened and his dad told him to stay there until dark. He would have the car picked up on a flatbed and taken to an out of town garage for the body work. In the meanwhile he made some calls to some of his contacts and found an exotic car rental brand that rented Range Rovers. He arranged to pick one up that was for all intents and purposes identical to his son's. No one would need to know that Nick's car was in the body shop as he would return home in the same type of car. He picked up the rental and followed the flatbed to his son's location. The friend that had allowed him to wait at his place for Nicholas Sr., was in no way at risk for telling anyone that he had been there. He had been bailed out of many a jam when they were in high school by Nick's dad and would keep his mouth shut.