Because they were going to meet Fred at the office in a few minutes, Anna decided to take the more direct route on the freeway instead of Sepulveda. One reason she had bought a condominium in Santa Monica after her divorce was that it was only a fifteen minute drive to her office on Wilshire Boulevard taking side streets.
Two miles after turning onto the southbound exit, Anna saw flashing red lights in the distance. She cursed under her breath as the traffic in front of them was slowing to a crawl. The last thing Anna wanted at the moment was to be alone for a long period of time with the author of the book she was about to complete, or have to explain to him how she had come up with the ending without sounding like a complete lunatic.
Anna realized it was too late to exit off the freeway to avoid the traffic jam and much too late to avoid answering the awkward questions she knew he was going to ask. Ho
Jessica Price -Why Can’t Vashti And Esther Both Be Purim Heroines? Alma.com, March 2019Walter Semkiw, MD, - Author - Born Again: Reincarnation Cases Involving Evidence of Past Lives, Cases Researched by Ian Stevenson, MD – President Board of Directors of the Reincarnation ResearchProfessor Jim B. Tucker, M.D. is Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is Director of the UVA Division of Perceptual Studies - Author - Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives Michelle W. Malkin, MPA, MAJNM - What does it mean to me to be Jewish?Michael Shapiro – Author - Jewish Pride: 101 Reasons to Be Proud You're Jewis
Epilogue It was a perfect Sunday afternoon for the annual Ojai wine festival at Lake Casitas. Anna and Nate had attended the event every June since they were married. Three years ago, they were joined by their baby daughter Melody, making the event a special Braverman family outing. From the time Melody was six months old, she was completely mesmerized by the live performances. Melody’s little feet began dancing to the music even before she could walk. When she was older, she would kick and squirm in time to the music, creating quite a show for any passerby to admire. This year, instead of being confined in a stroller, Nate held Melody in his lap. Anna sat on the blanket next to them, sipping wine while they waited for the next show to beg
Nate and Anna followed Bibi out of the cabin as the others stayed behind busy carefully removing the paintings and crating the other artifacts in the cave. Anna held the precious book under her shirt to protect it from the elements. She hadn’t noticed that Nate had pocketed the rings that were in the box along with the hair samples Bibi had taken to the portable lab for DNA analysis. As they walked across the desert to the other side where once had been a flowing river, Anna’s mind was rerunning all the scenes she had experienced as Adara. Despite all the evidence that had just uncovered, the further she walked away from the uncovered cabin, the less she felt the connection to Adara. The one thing she did not lose was the overwhelming compulsion to keep the promise to Queen Esther that the truth about Vashti would be revealed to the world. Now that she had Vashti’s journal in hand, she needed to find a way to
For the next hour, Anna and Nate escaped the devastation of the past week, deeply involved with the passionate joys of the present. It wasn’t until they were basking in the afterglow that they allowed conversation to intercede. Lying with her head on his chest, his fingers gently caressing her back, Anna listened to Nate’s calm voice recite every detail that had kept him away from answering his messages over the past few weeks. Her emotions flew the gambit of shock, anger and disbelief. That Monday morning following their stroll on the pier, Nate was just about to leave for his tenure interview when he’d received a call from the NCAA head office. The head of the Syracuse investigation committee had seen the C-Span program where Henry had accused Nate of being involved with the events when he was on the basketball team and demanded he fly to Indianapolis to attend an emergency meeting.
If Anna had any idea what was waiting for her on Monday morning, she would have stayed in bed. The early morning June gloom enveloped the view on her drive to her office, filling her with a foreboding sense of impending disaster. Even though she knew the fog would soon burn off, revealing the clear blue sky and golden sun later that day, Anna just wanted to escape the depressing scene as quickly as she could.To put herself in a more positive mood, Anna turned up the volume on the radio and sang along with her favorite hit from the 80s; The Eye of the Tiger. She always thought it ironic that a song about fighting to overcome overwhelming defeat was written by a band called Survivor. Feeling re-energized, Anna walked out of the elevator ready, expecting to see her staff busy at their desks with compiling the data from the weekend’s book festival. What greeted her instead on her arrival was an uncha
Sunday afternoon on a warm spring day was the perfect way to experience the magic of the Santa Monica Pier. From the moment Anna walked under the welcome sign, the dark foreboding shadow of Henry’s broadcast was left on the other side. Walking with Nate by her side, she could feel the tension he had felt earlier fade as well. They bought a gigantic ball of cotton candy and rode the carousel like a couple of teenagers on their first date. Anna couldn’t remember the last time she had enjoyed an afternoon of simple pleasures and she was grateful for the opportunity to share it with Nate, who seemed to be enjoying the mini-vacation as much as she was. “Would you believe I’ve lived in California for over ten years and have never been to Santa Monica?”&