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Chapter Nine
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,
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“Sure, Steve. I’d love to see the game. See you on Saturday.” After hanging up the phone, Nathaniel Braverman, Ph.D., put his feet up on the desk and his hands behind his head, his mouth stretched into a huge grin. His associate Aaron Berger didn’t waste a second calling him out on his posturing pose. “Well, aren’t you proud of yourself? What did you do this time, get the Presidential Medal of Honor or something? Hate to point it out to you Nate, but I don’t think there’s any space to hang it.”Aaron pointed to the plaques, certificates of appreciation and other awards of merit that were displayed on the wall behind Nate’s desk. “Don’t be ridiculous, Aaron. That’s only for mi
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Dr. Bachrach’s office looked like any other therapist’s office, not that Anna had ever been to a therapist, she certainly had read enough author’s descriptions in way too many murder mysteries that she could have furnished this one herself. The moment she opened the door, she felt silly. Having to admit to a complete stranger that she was worried weird dreams, saying it out loud sounded as crazy as sitting in a plush chair in a therapist’s office made her feel.Anna hoped that Dr. Bachrach’s techniques were more successful that other hypnotists had been, which weren’t successful at all. She had gone to parties, and seen entertainment hypnotist shows in Atlantic City, and while everyone else had succumbed easily to the main event, nothing had ever worked with her. Some people just couldn’t be hypnotized, she was told, if a subject didn’t want to be, or was too strong minded, but she was hoping if the subject was willing and she w
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“Well, at least this time I have some idea of where I am.” Anna found herself sitting on the edge of a bed, not that different from the last time she’d fallen asleep. Although she knew where she was in her dream state, she had no idea when. She glanced at her attire, which appeared to be, at the very least, of the feminine style, which meant she was no longer masquerading as Adar. Just then, the two women she’s met in her first dream entered the room. “C’mon Adara, you’ll be late for the procession. The horses are all saddled and ready. Here’s your riding outfit. Hurry and get changed, everyone’s waiting.” “One second, please.
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After she washed her face to rid herself of the last remnants of the dream, Anna phoned Elaine and gave her a rundown of the details of her dream, including how she knew how to ride a horse. “I know how much you hate horses, even though I’ve invited you to our ranch in Thousand Oaks many times,” Elaine said. “This is really incredible. You’re sure you’ve never seen the man who was looking for directions in your real life before?” “Absolutely. He’s not someone I’d forget. I’ll say that for sure. Of course there are tons of photographs that cross my desk of authors’ head shots with their bio and the back jacket of their book covers, but no artist drawing or publicity shot came even close to this Darius g
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The victory party moved to Bibi and Nate’s apartment where they, along with the rest of the Syracuse University fans, celebrated their historic win over USC. The festivities lasted a lot longer than Nate had planned. Considering he had to prepare for his presentation the next afternoon, he thought it would be prudent to stay the night, but with the after-image of Anna’s face burned into his eyelids, sleep wasn’t something he was able to achieve. Being the great host Bibi was, a steaming pot of fresh coffee was waiting for Nate as he compelled his groggy body to get out of bed. He stumbled into the kitchen, where he nearly collapsed on the counter stool. “Not that I’m stating the obvious, Nate, but you look like one of the mummies we dug up on our last exhibition,” Bibi poured the coffee.&
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As soon as she opened her door, Anna’s cell phone buzzed. She didn’t have to look at the caller ID to know it was Elaine wanting to hear all the details about her going to Nate’s presentation. Elaine was disappointed that Anna didn’t have that much to tell her since she had only spoken to Nate for a few minutes and that was only to set up the meeting in her office to discuss his book.“You didn’t tell him anything about your dreams, or that sketch you drew, or that you’re suddenly speaking and reading a foreign language?”“No, he would have thought I was a nutcase. I will say that after hearing his presentation on Vashti, I might really be interested in his book. That’s what I plan to discuss with him tomorrow and nothing else. We’re meeting at eleven.”Elaine sounded disappointed. “That sounds boring. Try to get a good night’s sleep.”“I doubt I’ll
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Janet buzzed the intercom to let Anna know that her eleven o’clock appointment had arrived. Usually when she met with an author, especially for a previously unpublished author, they would be accompanied by their agent, or agents depending on their representation. Obviously that was another policy that Nathaniel Braverman either wasn’t aware, or chose to ignore as he had done by directly dropping off his manuscript. If only he knew as much about the publishing business as he did about basketball, Anna thought. She was more concerned about his knowledge of Vashti than either of the other two. Nate followed Janet into Anna’s office, mouthing a silent “he’s gorgeous” to Anna behind his back before she turned to leave. Seeing Nate under the bright florescent lights, Anna could make out more details in his face than she’d been able to during their earlier two brief encounter
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Walking on their way back to the office, Anna was so deeply involved with her own thoughts, she could just barely engage in the continuing conversation with Nate. What he had told her at lunch about his experience in Iran was, on its surface, completely unbelievable, but then again, so was her ordering an item off the menu that wasn’t there and her seeing a waitress momentarily transform into a different person.Then there was the author himself. From the moment she met him at the basketball game, Anna’s body had reacted with alarmingly familiarly. Anna definitely knew the reality of lust at first sight, having taken advantage of that instant attraction on numerous occasions, but she was never convinced there was such a thing as love at first sight. No, that kind of deep, emotional connection was only what she read about in the hundreds of romance novel submissions. Unti
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- Vashti's Daughter Acknowledgements and References
- Vashti's Daughter Epilogue
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty-Six
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty-Five
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty-Four
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty-Three
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty-Two
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty-One
- Vashti's Daughter Chapter Thirty
