Vashti's Daughter

At some future time Anna Steine, President of Steine & Steine Publishers would remember it was exactly 2:18 on a Friday afternoon in March when she returned to her office after a relatively uneventful lunch with her editorial staff to find two items on her desk. One, she was delighted to see, was an invitation to her best friend Elaine Levine’s annual Purim party. The other was a plain brown package which solicited the exact opposite reaction. Even before she touched the package, Anna knew by the size and shape, exactly what it contained, and she was furious. “JANET”, Anna screamed into the intercom. “Come into my office, NOW!” In under three seconds, Anna’s executive assistant was standing in front of her desk, visibly shaken. “How did THIS get on my desk?” Anna handed the package to Janet and pointed to the one hand-written line printed in large blue script on the front. Vashti’s Daughter by Nathaniel Braverman, Ph.D. “Did you put it here?” “No, Anna. I’ve never seen it befor

When Anna arrived at Elaine’s Beverly Hills home, the smells of traditional Jewish food reached her nose a mere seconds before the sounds of music and laughter reached her ears. Even when they were in high school, Elaine was notorious for throwing the best parties, and Anna was very happy that her friend hadn’t lost her touch. Elaine was busy handing out greggers and other assorted noise makers, and was just able to raise her hand in a hello, which Anna returned momentarily before Elaine went back to her party guests. As Anna predicted, the women were adorned in the festive garb of Queen Esther, and then men wore robes and tunics. There was plenty of wine and plates piled high with the three corned Hamantashen cookies, filled with every fruit imaginable. There were prune, peach, cherry, and even chocolate. More plates with corned beef and pastrami on rye, sour pickles and a huge bowl of pickled herring in sour cream and, of course a huge mountain of bagels, platters of lox

Another dream.Anna was in a field of summer flowers and tall grass.  She could hear children laughing and singing somewhere in the distance. She turned her head toward the sound. It was all so vivid she could actually smell the fragrance of the petals, and feel the cool grass between her naked toes. Although she wasn’t in the habit of lucid dreaming, Anna was quite aware she was doing just that, as she heard her voice say out loud.            “This is definitely a dream.”            Looking down at her body, she was shocked to see that she was shorter than the last time she was in dreamland. Judging by the sound of her voice, a great deal younger as well. She’d read a great deal about lucid dreams and in none of the books did she even remember anyone dreaming they were a younger version of themselves. “I guess this i

“So, you’re going to actually read the manuscript?” Elaine asked Anna while they were waiting for their waiter to bring their drink order.          “It showed up on my desk again today, if you can believe that. It’s in my car. I’m going to make a genuine effort when I get home tonight, if I can stay awake that is.”When the waiter arrived with their drinks and asked if they were ready to order, the women told him to come back in a few minutes. They were in no hurry to return to the office.“Are you still having those dreams? Elaine asked.“Every night since your party. I’ve search on all kinds of dream interpretation websites, but there’s not a single mention about what I’ve been going through.”            “You could be the first. I can’t wait to hear wha

Anna opened her eyes, and immediately put her hand over her eyes to shield the light of the sun which was blaring through the window. Her head was throbbing and the screaming ringing of her telephone wasn’t helping. Once she felt more awake, she moved from the couch and picked up the receiver seconds before it went to voice mail.            “Anna, where are you? The staff meeting starting twenty minutes ago. I’ve been covering for you, but the editors are becoming antsy. What do you want me to tell them?”            “Tell them it’s a boss’s prerogative?  Seriously, I’m sorry Janet, I just woke up. Just order some of those fancy pastries from the café downstairs. Sweets solve everything.”            “I’ll take care of it,