The man who came into her office was in fact the same man she had just seen on the street. Vanessa gaped at him in astonishment then made herself close her mouth and smoothed her features.

                “Hello Vanessa.” His voice was deep and rich in accent- though she could not place it.

                “And you are?” She replied, for some unfathomable reason she felt that she needed to have the upper hand.

                “An old friend.”

                “I don’t remember you and I never forget a face.”

                “I had heard that you never forget anything.”

Had the man been listening to the whole exchange? She almost blushed.

                “I don’t.” She said leaning back to cross her arms across her chest, a defensive maneuver.

                “May I sit?”

                She considered this then relented with a nod. He closed the door before taking the client chair across from her. He smiled across at her before glancing around the office at her award plaques and ad posters. His gaze returned to meet hers. His eyes were, in fact, hazel gray.

                “You forgot who you were when you knew me.” He said as a faint smile crossed his lips.

                She blinked a couple of times.

                “I beg your pardon?”

                “No need. There was nothing you could have done.”

                “Oh?” He was crazy, a crazy man. Too bad, he was quite good looking up close.

                “You were very young.”

                “I was young?” Vanessa sighed then began to shake her head as the man started to speak again. “No wait. You have the nerve to come in here and tell me this line that you knew me when I was young. This sounds like a pan handler’s scam.”

                “Yes.” He had the gall to look amused. “Panhandler’s scam.”

                “Yes. You obviously want something.”

                “No, something would be too indefinite a term, I want you to remember.”

                Vanessa took a long measure of the man, he did not look crazy or desperate or even hungry. Okay she would play the game and see where it went.

                “How young?” She asked with some trepidation.

                “You were four.”

                “Four? No wait- You’ve got to be kidding me. I remember everything about my life and you’re not in it. I am sorry but I have no memory of you in it.”

                An eyebrow rose on his face and with an almost imperceptible nod towards her chest. She felt herself flush, heat under her skin making her face uncomfortable. Somehow she forgot her belated attempt to scope out the anatomy until she glanced down to see that she had crossed her arms under her breasts. Shame warred with her rising anger and she made herself relax her arms. She would not grip the armrests… she wouldn’t.

                “I was in ‘it’- your life, you do not remember because I made you forget.” A smile almost turned the corners of his mouth.

                “You- you made me forget?” yep this guy was crazy, her fingers begin to itch.

                “Yes.”

                Vanessa reached for her phone; the man’s eyebrow went back up. Her hand trembled on the handset until she steeled herself. She would not let this idiot intimidate her.  She gritted her teeth and in as much as a business manner as she could muster, she swept the handset from the cradle and put it to her ear. She dialed the number for security before looking back at the man opposite her. He gave her a reassuring nod the smile tugging at his grin.

                “Security.” A voiced drolled in her ear.

                “Allen. This is Vanessa Schumpert in PR.”

                “Yes, Ms. Schumpert?” the octave of the voicing rising as the man came to attention.

                “There is a strange man in my office.”

                “There is…” she heard clicking noise followed by a shuffling of papers. “As far as my records show no one has come in for you so far today. In fact-“ more clicking “- no one has come in the building without a nametag and clearance this morning.”

                Her eyes darted to the man, no nametag. He smiled at her- smug or friendly? She could not say.

                “He has no nametag.”

                “Well, this is strange; I have been on the door this morning, Ms. Schumpert. No one I didn’t know has come in this morning.”

                A thought occurred to her.

                “Hang on a moment, Allen.”

                She took a deep breath and looked across at the man who sat there grinning at her enjoying this private joke of his. With a rush of frustration and surrender she let it out.

                “How DID you get in here?”

                “I came in the normal route, by security. I stopped at the desk and talked with Allen Morgan briefly about his health and asked about how his daughter Alice was holding up since the surgery.”

                Surgery? She didn’t know that Alice had to have surgery. Wait. Wait a moment; she didn’t even know if Allen had a daughter. Her mind raced and then her conversation with Allen from a couple of days ago came into focus and she remembered him stressing over his daughter Alice who had to have her gall bladder removed for some kind of obstruction. What to say in response to this info?

                “Allen, he says he came in through the check point and stopped to have a word with you.”

                “Hmmm… there is no log, I could have forgotten to give him a nametag, and I will recheck the logs. What’s his name?”

                “Let me ask.” She covered the handset and asked the grinning man.

                “Quest.”

                “Quest?” Well it was just getting weirder. She uncovered the handset and relayed the name to Allen.

                “Let me take a look, Ms. Schumpert.”

A moment passed

                “Ms. Schumpert?”

                “Yes?”

                “There is no one by that name in the logs. Should I send someone up?”

                “Please do, thanks Allen.” She hung up the phone and looked back at the intruder- for that was what she considered him now.

                “Well Mr. Quest- what do you have to say to the fact that you did not enter the way you claimed?”

                “Humans are effortlessly fallible.”

                “I beg your pardon?”

                “Allen forgot to enter me into your log.”

                “You are a liar.” She said smugly.

                “We will have to wait and see then.”

                “We will.” She said with as much finality as she could muster and leaned back in her chair.

Some time passed, then some more finally Vanessa gave up and checked her watch. Quest smiled at her pleasantly.

                “They will not come.” He said as she checked her watch a second time.

                “Who won’t?” Involuntarily looking at the door sure it was about to open.

                “Ernest and Young.”

                “Who?” Her eyes returned to the man and she quivered at the look of calm confidence.

                “The security detail that you requested.”

                “How do you know their names?” She licked her bottom lip.

                “I do. The two of them will enter the elevator but Young will press the wrong floor number. Earnest will correct him and Young will push the correct one. On the way up they will listen to the normal and thus annoying soft elevator music.”

                “You sound pretty sure of this.”

                “I am. Earnest will receive a phone call around the third floor. It will approximately 5 seconds. Earnest will hang up and complain about a drunken homeless man who has wandered into the lobby. When they finally reach the correct floor, neither man will remember why they came in the first place.  They will speculate as they try to remember until Earnest will give up and radio Allen for help. It will take Allen 7 seconds to respond but when he does he will instruct the two men to return to the lobby to deal with the drunken man who has just passed out in the fountain.”

                “You are lying.”

                “I could be.”

                Vanessa glared at him then looked at her watch again, it had been ten minutes.  She grimaced then picked up the phone and dialed security.

                “Yes Ms. Schumpert?”

                “Well, where are they?”

                “I am sorry Ms. Schumpert, who are you referring to?”

                “Earnest and Young?”

                “I believe that they are trying to carry a drunken man out of the lobby fountain at the moment.”

                Vanessa gaped at the man across from her.

                “Why do you ask, Ms. Schumpert?”

                “Never mind.” She said and hung up.

Frank stuck his head in the door.

                “We on for lunch?”

                “What did you have in mind?”

                “Frio’s- they’re having two for one drinks and unlimited chips again.”

                Vanessa rolled her eyes.

                “I’ll take that as a no then.” Frank concluded.

                “Exacta-mo.”  Vanessa concurred.

                Frank nodded, then made a show of consulting his watch, “Your loss.” and left.

Vanessa listened to Pandora try to force some Michael Buble on her before she gave him the thumbs down in favor of Cyndi Lauper.

Minutes passed and then Sue stuck her head in the door. Vanessa cringed- Sally had gone for the new wave bangs that the two of them had discussed in brisk tones the week before. Vanessa was fairly certain she had made particular fun of the hair style now she was unsure what to say. There’s a trap in there somewhere. Who had brought the hairdo first? She couldn’t remember.

“Yes?” Vanessa said without pointedly not looking at it.

“You’ve got a visitor.” Sue said in her nasal tone, pointedly popping her gum.

“A visitor?”

“Yeah- he says that you’re expecting him.”

                “No one’s on the calendar.” Vanessa looked up then averted her eyes, then felt a wave of guilt and looked back only to see a flash of triumph in Sally’s eyes.

                “I know. I told him that but he said you had forgotten to pencil him in.”

                “Pencil him in? Who uses pencils anymore?”

                “”I know but he got this look that well you know that-“

                “I never forget.”

                “I know but…”

                “You know I never forget.”

                “I know but-“

                “Send him in.”

                “I know-“Sue nervously touched her hair. “What?” she squeaked.

                “Send him in.”

                “But-“Sue made as if to point.

                “But what?”

                “Nothing.” Sue spoke as if suddenly she was a petulant teenager and not Vanessa senior by close to 10 years.

                A pregnant pause.

                “What?”

                “This is so unlike you.”

                “I know.”  Vanessa almost rolled her eyes.

                “I’ll get him.”

This morning she looked up from the new Claritin spread and considered the male species inhabiting the work site opposite her office window. Was she fickle? Was her life lacking from the lack of a partner or a mate? Was her life to be measured and weighed on such a standard as that?

                She rose to her heels, the Sketchers having been placed in her drawer upon arrival for the more elegant and professional single inch heels she kept there. She strode forward to consider this problem in a more clerical light. She stopped in front of the plate glass window to consider the philosophical implications of the matter at hand. All the while trying to spot the muscle bound brunette who occupied many a coffee break in the eyes of the women in the office. He was prone to unbutton his work shirt and climb up a scaffold and sit with legs swinging as he and any number of buddies would consider the finer points of the female anatomy walking by on the street. It was hard for her to feel incensed at this blatant objectifying of women when the same was treating him much the same way- herself included.

                Her hunk was, however, not there. No one was, the site stood empty. Disappointed, Vanessa crinkled her brow and was about to turn away when she saw the man on the street in front of the site.  There was something about him that made her pause. What was it exactly?  She frowned as she focused on him. He was looking straight at her. There was no way he could possibly see her through the mirrored glass. That was why she and the other women were so open about doing it at the agency; the windows offered the anonymity that was often required for ogling.

                There was at once nothing remarkable about the man. He had dark brown hair and a full frontiersman beard- chops and all. He wasn’t muscular nor was he particularly fat. He wore a red plaid shirt with faded blue jeans and work boots. She knew without seeing that if she walked down there and gazed into his eyes that they would be hazel gray. She also knew that the eyes would show a deep experience that was beyond her imagining. He held her gaze for a long moment before he spoke.

                She heard him speak even though the window was pretty much sound proof.  She heard his voice as clear as if he were standing in the room with her.

                “It is about time to go, are you ready?”

                Vanessa blinked several times, but he was still down there looking up at her. She had heard the words, right? He had asked her a question. How could she know that, there was no way to have known it and yet she did?  Nervously she took a step back away from the glass but the question remained clear in her mind.

                “Are you ready?”

                Ready for what? Why would she need to be ready for anything? Who was he and what did he want with her? And why did she feel as if she should know him?

“You keep talkin’ but won’t slow down; it’s the same old story.” She sang softly to herself as she pondered what to make of the strange man on the street below. She gave herself a mental shake and shrugged before turning back to her desk.

                Phil Collins kept asking “Why doesn’t anybody stay together anymore?” So she sang with him as she sat down back in front of her monitor “I don’t why…” Pandora was really a wonderful idea unlike the double page spread on Clariton. She clucked her tongue, tired of the dull ad idea as Phil Collins confided in her as to what he had to say on the topic, but she was ready for something else, something new, and someone else.

                “It’s the same old story.”

Chapter One

“How do I make you love me?”

                Vanessa hummed in the mirror that particular morning in March. The day was the 22^th of March and cloudy. It was a day like any other day, nothing special to it like the 28^th which would be her 32^nd birthday. Too many twos she thought as she adjusted a strand of hair. I wonder where Anne will connive to take her for her birthday party. She hoped it was not going to be another singles bar where she would drink too much and still go home alone since she never trusted any man who was in the bar. Not like last year, she thought with a shudder.

                The rains had lasted the night and mist covered much of the Bay area around her condo. Her world glistened as if freshly washed, but it was doubtful there would be any promise of sunshine. She pouted at her reflection making her expression wrinkle into something unpleasant, more lipstick then.

“How do I make you care?”

                She whispered to her reflection then applied a fresh layer of Cherry Dior lip gloss, lips puckering up to meet the felt tip of the applicator. Straightening to admire her handy work she gazed at her beauty in the mirror. She shifted her hips back and forth, then her shoulders but to no avail. Then with a sigh of frustration she blew out a breath rolling her eyes at the impossibility of getting the dress to fit properly fitting. The breath fluttered her red bangs out of place. She tossed the lip gloss onto her dresser before grabbing her dress with both hands giving it a firm tug downward to the right. The stubborn thing popped back into place over her hips. She turned this way and that finally gave herself a nod of approval.

“Sexy but definitely professional, Ness.”

                Vanessa decided to forego her normal breakfast grabbing a can of Slimfast and combining it with the freshly brewed coffee before taking time to make sure the coffee maker was off. She was not going to have another coffee fire, no sir!

“It’s not coffee- its chocolate mocha lighty.” She quipped to the empty room. Maybe it was time to get a cat.

                On the way out she stopped inside the front door to get her stuff.  She put down the travel mug so she could apply a fourth layer of lip-gloss. She checked her hair again, lips pursing in thought as she wondered if a ponytail would be better than the “wet look” that Vogue was raving about. Actually her hair wouldn’t completely cooperate so she had only achieved the “semi dry” look instead.  She glanced down at her walking Sketchers. Grabbed her purse and keys and walked out the door. She was halfway down the walk before she remembered the travel mug. Great promise to begin your day, Ness; still she went back for it.

                It is hard to find yourself facing 28 and still be single. Still she was better off than her secretary, Sue, who was almost 41 and still single. Sue said she didn’t care and loved the singles scene in the Bay area, but Vanessa was not sure that Sue really meant it. Life is never quite as set as it is in the movies.  Vanessa had been too busy for romance and ironically too romantic to approach the casual relationships that her friends and brothers seemed to enjoy. When she would pause in her overly energetic routine, the irony would ring in her ears, especially when she was scoping out the rock hard abs or tanned shoulders of the construction workers across the street from where she worked at the Anders Ad Agency on the fourth floor.

Introduction

Every book or almost every book really needs an introduction, something that attempts to pull you into the story which only officially begins in chapter One. Not every book gets an introduction and this I see as the author's arrogance to think that he or she is so good that you will read his or her book because you really want to and don't need to be persuaded. Here I am writing this in hopes that you will come back to see my novel unfold page by page, chapter by chapter until we both find that we in fact have written a book.
                                                                             yep, that's it, from me, the author and all those commas too.

we begin then.

  There a certain truths in the universe or universe depending on whose eyes your looking through or for that matter how many eyes the lucky soul whose eyes you look through. This is one truth, it is undeniable and holds a secret to a universe. A universe that I choose to not only live in but will invite you the viewer to see. My story is not necessarily what this story is about. My story is involved with this story but it really is her story.. Her story really begins with the beginning of all things and the creation of time- well our time, not in fact time itself, but most of that is quite boring. Instead I will begin her story with a song. In my eyes all stories begin with a song.
 What song you may ask? The song. The song the creator sang when hesheit created all things and not things that surround and fill us. Aos- that's what we call himherit, anyway Aos opened the Source and from it came the Song. The song has seven words - which will not be repeated her since I need this world to hold together a little while longer. Just take it from me that the Song is the most powerful force in our universe other than Aos the creator, although I guess one could say that Aos is the Song but I digress. All you really need or probably want to know is that it all began with a song.
What song you may ask again if you are quite bold and i daresay you are young fool?
That Song is what we call the Song of Making, Seven words that made all things in the Universe or -yes that's correct universes.

Her song began many eons later in a kingdom on a world far from the Source with her birth, but her story begins now on another world all together with another song and that my dear viewer is all you need to know right now....