end chapter one

No, she knew that she had been in the office the whole time, her mind trying to rationalize the memory away like a planted hypnotic suggestion. The office seemed to spin as she fought to cope with what had just happened – or not just happened. Yes, that was it; this man had hypnotized her and planted this fantasy in her mind. Well she would show him that she was no fool. After the office stabilized in her vision, she calmly reached out a plucked a tissue from the ornate box on the corner of her desk, wiped her eyes and blew her nose.  She looked over at the man seated across from her and opened her mouth to read him the riot act and nothing came out.

                She sat there in stunned silence as her mind turned over the memory and then filed it away in the story of her life all the while her rationality was screaming at it that it did not belong. Only it did, she knew that it was her memory and what was worse she knew there were more than that one. She closed her mouth with a snap and gazed at this man in mild surprise, her eyebrows went up and then she frowned as she remembered the man in the boat, the same man who was on the beach with her mother, the same man who sat across from her.

                She took a deep breath, then another and another. After breathing a bit, collecting her scattered thoughts which included a desperate attempt to remember the man’s name; she put her hands together on her desk, mostly to keep them from shaking, and opened her mouth again. This time the words flowed out smoothly.

                “Now what?”

                “Now I leave as you requested.” He stood and turned to leave.

                “Wait.”

                She felt a desperation bubble up in her breast as she spoke.

                “Yes, Vanessa?” He had stopped at her door; he looked back at her, his hand on the door knob. 

                “That’s all you’re going to do? Walk in here and wave your hands and do some hocus pocus?”

                “Hocus pocus?” Then he laughed, it was a good laugh- deep and full of life.

                “Not my finest choice of words… It’s just that…Hell I don’t know it just seems abrupt.”

                He stopped laughing but she could read it in his eyes.

                “True. I did come in here with more in mind then that but we made a deal and I will honor it.”

                “But- Oh, I see.” She felt disappointed. Disappointed! She frowned down at her desk searching for some way to say what she felt. How did she feel? Desperate is what she felt, but desperate for what?  She turned it over and over trying to put a finger on the emotion and define it.

                “Tell you what, I will do some more hocus pocus- to remind you that I was here and not some midday summer fantasy like the ones you have been having about the hunk across the street- who pretty much has the same about the secretarial pool every time they go out to lunch at the bar down the street across Main.”

                That comment made her look up at him in shock and surprise.

                “Huh?”

                Yep, that was it her razor sharp mind managed to articulate a full and refined “huh” like a distracted teenager. She was at the top of her game today. Idly she wondered where that confidant woman who had looked back at her from her mirror had gone.

                “I will wave my hands and leave you something to remember me by.” He crossed to her desk, placed a hand on its oak and mahogany finish. “Remember who you were.”

                The desk thrummed like a woodwind instrument in an orchestra with the opening notes to some symphony that Vanessa felt like she should know but could not place at that moment. The vibration was such that her papers shifted and her pens rolled around as if a tiny earthquake had just been unleashed on her desk.

                Vanessa was so shocked by the action that it took her a few full seconds before she realized that those last words were not spoken to her. Who was he speaking to? Her eyes wanted to check around her but her mind forced them to stay focused on the man. What was he doing?

                “Get out.” She heard someone whisper. Had it been her?

                “As you wish.” He crossed to the door and opened it.

                “Wait.” It was her voice again. What was wrong with her – why did she keep stopping him? She had become a blubbering idiot. Shut up, she told herself, shut up and he will leave! He will leave you alone and things can go back to the way they were.

                “What was her name?”

                The man who called himself Quest smiled at her.

                “Your mother’s name was Alisandra Morgraine.”

                Then he was gone.