Chapter One

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 before,” Janet sputtered. “I was eating lunch at my desk and didn’t see anyone go into your office. Gary from the mailroom gave me just the one envelope that I put on your desk. I swear that package wasn’t there.”

“Well, some very unprofessional author obviously broke into my office at some point. You know we have a strict policy on not accepting unsolicited manuscripts.”

Janet nodded. Anna tossed the intrusive package into the garbage can, picked up her phone and pressed the small red button. 

“I’m calling security. They can check the cameras and report to me first thing Monday morning.”

In a gentler tone, Anna added, “You can shut down the office early, Janet. I’m going to finish a few things and head out myself.”

“Thanks, Anna. I’m sure we’ll figure out this mystery soon. See you on Monday.”

Janet was relieved to see her boss’s mood lighten bit, and the opportunity to beat the Friday afternoon  rush hour traffic, Janet left the office as quickly as she’d arrived.

With the office now empty, Anna walked over to the portable bar cart on the far side of the office and poured herself a large shot of Jack Daniels. Returning to her desk, she picked up the invitation.  Purim, she thought. The story of Vashti who refused to dance naked, wearing only a crown, for her husband’s wild drunken friends.

Anna remembered her Hebrew school classes and how the other kids would laugh when she dressed up as Vashti at their annual celebration. It didn’t help matters that Anna’s straight auburn hair and bright smile made more of the frizzy-haired girls jealous than just playing the character she chose to portray in a Purim play.

Those Esthers were more than happy to see a beautiful Vashti banished from the stage so they could get on with their own beauty contest. Anna didn’t care, while the other girls were competing, she was behind the curtain making out with the boy playing Esther’s uncle Mordecai, who inevitably ditched her for a flirtatious Queen Esther.

The memory having faded, Anna tore open the envelope and read the brightly colorful text:

You are requested to celebrate the Feast of Esther

at a Purim Party Masquerade Ball

13th Day of Adar, 5777

Eat Hamantashen and drink Kosher wine

From 3:00 - till you can’t remember your own name!

R.S.V.P.O.E.

Costumes required!

Anna laughed aloud when she read the last two lines. The added “O.E.” stood for Or Else, it was a sure fire way to make certain invitees would definitely respond. She and Elaine were notorious for finding creative ways to make their invitees regret a non-response, from multiple pizza deliveries, to sending their e-mail address to twenty different charities, all of which they were too embarrassed not to follow through with. Over time, not a single invitee would dare not call, and more often than not, the call would be an acceptance. This time, however Anna wasn’t quite sure what her response was going to be.

On one hand, she thought, a party might be a good distraction. “Maybe I’ll try to go this year. At least it won’t be a surprise celebration for my 30th birthday. Anna lamented, thinking about her third decade event looming in the near future which she would make every effort to avoid.

 On the other hand, or rather on the other side of her desk, was a stack of manuscripts she had planned on reading over the weekend. With her recent acquisitions not even breaking the digital e-book top-twenty list, she was desperately trying to climb out from under an uncomfortable and uncharacteristic slump. 

Anna was still recovering from passing on another first-time author’s vampire novel because she felt the genre was as cold and dead as the main character. When it shot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list, then optioned for a television series, she had to fend off several letters of resignation from the agent who had recommended the novel as well as ten other agents who all thought anyone over the age of thirty was a literary dinosaur.

Perhaps a work-free, worry-free, stress-free Saturday night was just what she needed, Anna thought, even if it was for an archaic Jewish holiday. She picked up the phone and called the number on the invitation. She could have easily sent Elaine a text, but for this celebration, she wanted to give her girlfriend a more personal reply. Even though Anna grew up with instant communication technology, she was somewhat old-fashioned in her desire to connect with an actual person, even if it were only a voice on the other end of her phone; her very old-fashioned and out dated land line phone.  After the fourth ring, she was just about to hang up when she heard the familiar voice say.

“Hi, Anna. I assume you received my invitation?”

“Of course I did. Why should this Saturday night be any different than every other Saturday night?” Anna laughed at her play on the Passover Haggadah line.

 “Cute way to confuse the holidays,” Elaine laughed.

“You’re terrible.” Anna laughed. “About this party, are you serious about the costume?”

“Of course. I know you only go to services on the High Holy days, but my Temple’s Havarah thought it would be a lot of fun for the adults to get together and have a full blown Purim party without kids for a change. At our age we no longer get presents for Hanukkah and forget trick and treating for Halloween, so I thought this year, instead of celebrating our…”

“Don’t you DARE say it!” Anna interrupted her friend before she could finish her sentence about their age.

“No worries,” Elaine agreed. “That forbidden number will not escape my lips, at least not for another four months. I guarantee you’re going to have a great time. I’m planning a full blown traditional Purim celebration. My rabbi has a real Magilla scroll she’s bringing and I’ve got noise makers left over from New Year’s Eve. I’ve even invited a genuine Kabbalah Tarot card reader, so please come so we can have a real Purim party and celebrate our heroine Queen Esther. Maybe you’re meet someone, it’s been over two years since the divorce.”

“Don’t remind me. If not for your excellent legal skills, I never would have won the major divisions of Steine and Steine while Henry was left with the print on demand division.  Believe me, I’ve tried to date, but it’s been one disaster after another. I swear, Elaine, sometimes I think I’m cursed.”

“Well, that’s one great reason for you to come to my party. I promise it will be as fabulous as the party I surprised you with when you graduated Syracuse.”

“That seems like a million years ago,” Anna lamented. “ I’m still a huge S.U. basketball fan, as you know.”

 “Good thing the season is over. Now you have no excuse not to attend my party!”

“OK”, Anna surrendered to her friend’s pleas. “Maybe my going will make my parents happy. With the book expo coming up, I told them I was going to be too busy to spend Passover with them this year I probably won’t be able to stay very long, I still have these manuscripts to finish reading and my agent’s and their author’s dreams to crush. I’m sure none of them have any idea who Queen Esther is if she’s not a vampire or a zombie!”

“Well, there certainly won’t be any of those at this party, Jews are forbidden to drink human blood or flesh, unless of course it’s been certified as kosher.” Anna and Elaine both laughed. “So, take a few hours off and go get a great costume. We’re going to have a lot of Queen Esthers at my house.”

“Esther? Elaine, you know I always dressed as Vashti. She was the real heroine of the story in my opinion.”

 “Yes, I know. Vashti is the first wife who didn’t want to show her face because she had a pimple. If I stayed home every time I had zit, I’d never go anywhere.”

“Well, that’s one interpretation of the story. Maybe I’ll come to your party dressed as Vashti’s daughter.” Anna heard the words came out of her mouth before her brain had time to form them.

            “Vashti’s what?” Elaine exclaimed.

“Just kidding. Of course Vashti didn’t have a daughter,” Anna composed herself.

“Well, wear whatever you want, just make sure you’re here tomorrow night.”

“I promise, O.E.” Anna chuckled.

“O.E.”

Anna placed the receiver back into its holder. She had no idea why she had made that comment about dressing as Vashti’s daughter. Perhaps it was only a residue thought from the package she had thrown away earlier. Turning off the lights in her office and checking to be sure she’d locked the door behind her, Anna headed to the elevator. 

She didn’t know it at the time the ride to the parking lot was the beginning of a revelationary journey that would not only change her life, but that of millions in nearly every corner of the globe