Chapter Three

            “Look, she’s standing right behind you!” Anna shouted at Shifra, but when she turned around, there wasn’t anyone there.

            “I don’t understand this. A woman dressed as the Justice Tarot card was standing right behind you. I’ve been seeing her all night. I’m going to ask Elaine. Thanks for the reading, it was a bit more than I expected.”

            “Life always is.”

            Anna left the table and found Elaine refilling the wineglasses. She took hold of her friend’s arm and pulled her aside.

            “Elaine, I just had my cards read. That woman I’ve been seeing all night is dressed in a Justice costume. She looks older than your other guests and if I didn’t know any better, she could have been my older sister. Her hair was as dark as mine, olive complexion. It was so eerie, the way she was staring at me. I could have sworn she knew me, but I’ve never seen her before in my life. You must know who she is. This is your party.”

            “She might have been a guest of one of my guests. Well, you know how it is in a city this size. Everyone is either a stranger, or someone who you think looks like someone you know, and turns out to be a stranger. I think you should stay the night, you don’t look so great.”

            “Thanks a lot,” Anna said to her friend, who obviously thought she looked as terrible as she felt. “But you’re right; I think that last knish didn’t go down so well with the Merlot chaser.”

            “That’s what you get for not drinking the Manischewitz like everyone else,” Elaine joked.

            “You know I can only drink that sweet stuff at Passover, or the tiny shot they give you after Shabbat.”

            “When was the last time you went to a Friday night service?” Elaine joked.

            “I’d go more often if they served Merlot.”

            “If that is what it will take for you to go with me, I’ll be sure to ask Rabbi Meyers to buy some kosher Merlot from Herzog Winery just for you! Speaking of the rabbi, I’m going to say good night and thank her for a great reading before she leaves. You can crash in the guest room.”

            “Thanks, El. I’m feeling a little better, but just to be on the safe side, I’ll take you up on your offer. I wouldn’t want to take the chance of this great kosher food ending up all over some stranger’s back seat.”

            “Sounds like a plan. I’m going to mingle, you go relax and try not to stress out too much about the Justice lady, I’m sure she’s not here to sue you for copyright infringement and if she is, you have a best friend who just happens to be an attorney!”

          Elaine made her way through the crowd and Anna returned to the buffet table, hoping to find something to settle her stomach. Somehow she didn’t think that gefilte fish was quite what the doctor ordered, not even a Jewish doctor. She was relieved to see a crock pot filled with matzo ball soup. Anna poured the hot broth into an authentic-looking pottery bowl. When Elaine threw a party, she really stuck to details, Anna thought, and she had to give her the name of her caterer. The soup was amazing.

          Feeling better, Anna decided to join the conversation with some of the other guests, most of whom she knew from Elaine’s other parties and business networking dinners. Sometimes, more often than not, Anna was slightly envious of her girlfriend. They were both the same age, but Elaine had married right out of law school and not only did her career take off the moment she passed the bar, she took on cases in the appeals court who had been unjustly convicted, and some who had been justly convicted but needed a strong defense any way.

          Her husband Brian took his degree in an entirely different direction when he joined the New York State attorney’s office. Within two years, he had gained a reputation of being hard nose on the law. There were times when they actually sat on opposite sides of the courtroom, but they never took their adversarial arguments home with them. In fact, they gave a whole new meaning to the phrase “make up sex.” It wasn’t unusual for Brian to miss Elaine’s social engagements, and tonight was no exception.

            Anna, on the other hand, had woken up with more hang-overs than lovers since her last break-up over three years ago. It seemed that every relationship always started out with fantastic expectations and ended in disastrous disappointments.  Maybe her standards were too high, or maybe she shouldn’t try so hard, but she was getting awfully tired of playing the same game and having the other side throw in the towel even before the second half. Her new motto was no expectations, no disappointments, only delightful surprises. She just hoped that those surprises would come before she was too old to know what to do with them.

            Pretty Tarot fortunetelling cards or not, if there was a knight of swords in shining armor going to gallop into her life, Anna thought, he’d better get here fast.

            “That soup smells good, just like my Bubbe used to make.” Brian came up to Anna and poured some soup into a mug. “You’re certainly uncharacteristically quiet tonight, except for those pro-Vashti outbursts,” he said. “You should remember, it’s only a story.”

          “I know, you’re right, Brian, but everyone always cheers for Esther and her bullshit, saving the Jews, and makes Vashti look like some kind of vain slut. It just makes me so angry. It’s biblical stories like these, written by men of course, that have demonized strong, independent women from the time of creation, and every year when we celebrate Esther’s so-called heroism, we forget that we’re also celebrating the way Vashti was so horribly treated, not only by her husband, but future generations who made up lies about her just to make Esther, the fraud, look good.”

            “It’s too bad you weren’t the publisher of the original Torah, Anna,” Brian joked. “If it were written your way, who knows how things would have turned out.”

            “The original publisher, as you well know, deleted the story of Esther out of the anthology, and put it in a separate section where no one could find, so I guess they weren’t as smart as they thought,” Anna said.

            “Just goes to show you, that wonderful stories will always find their way to the masses, despite the publisher’s worst intentions!” Brian left to help Elaine organize the Purim party games.

            For the first time that night, Anna laughed. She didn’t know why she just wasn’t feeling her usual party self. Not even drinking six glasses of her favorite wine was helping her mood. She couldn’t stop thinking about the stranger who had seemed to have crashed the party, because no one Anna asked knew where Justice had come from, or anything about her. What was stranger was that no one even remembered seeing her at the party at all.

           After a few more hours, and several more glasses of wine, Anna also forgot all about the mysterious women as she finally got into the festivities and crazy Purim adult games. It was nearly two in the morning before the last of the guests descended the stairs. Anna was trying to decide whether to follow them, or take Elaine up on her offer of spending the night. Her body decided for her when she was suddenly overcome by a wave of exhaustion.

            “Don’t worry about it, Anna,” Elaine said. “I’ll call the cleaning service and they’ll have this place back to Brian’s immaculate spic and spanliness before he steps a foot in the door on Monday. Why don’t you take a hot bath, those jets are exactly what you need.”

            “That sounds great, Elaine, but I’m so tired I don’t think those jets will do much for me, unless there was a real New York Jet in your tub.”

            “If you see one, don’t tell me. Brian is the jealous type.”

            “So, I’ve heard. Well, he has nothing to worry about with me in your guestroom. I’ll see you in the morning.”

            “Don’t worry. A pot of very hot, very strong coffee will be ready whenever you wake up.”

            “That will be around noon.”

            Anna was grateful that Elaine let her keep a few things in the guestroom closet for nights that she stayed over. Before Elaine and Brian were married, Anna had spent many nights listening to Elaine’s tales of joy and tales of despair on the topic of her boyfriend then husband, although recently there were a lot more tales of joy than of the other variety, Anna thought, correctly, that was due in part to the large amount of time Brian spent at his job, which made their free time together so much more intense. The perfect man, Anna thought, was one who would be close enough to know when to give her space, even if it meant that space was in a different time zone.

            Her nightshirt was exactly where she had left it the last time she stayed over, in the third drawer in the back of the guest room closet. Along with her toothbrush, deodorant, clean pair of panties and a box of tampons in case that stay over was during that “time of month.”

Anna took her toiletries into the bathroom, turned on the hot water in the sink and was about to open the cabinet when she caught her reflection in the mirror. Or what she thought was her reflection. For a jolting moment, the face staring back at her was an older, more mature vision of the mysterious woman who Anna had seen at the party.

            A sudden chill went up her spine, and for a moment Anna was worried that someone at the party had drugged her wine. The steam from the hot water covered the mirror and for a second, Anna felt apprehension as she wiped it clean, but the only image that appeared in the mirror was her own.

            “Ok, now I know I’m either too drunk or too tired, but whatever, I’m going directly to bed.” she said out loud. “I’m sure my head will clear in the morning and I’ll be fine.”

            After she got into bed, pulled the covers over her body and turned off the light, Anna was fast asleep in less than five minutes. In less than ten, she felt someone’s hand on her arm and heard a strange voice whispering in her ear.

            “Adara, Adara. Wake up. It’s time to leave.”           

            When Anna opened her eyes, she was no longer in Elaine’s guestroom in Beverly Hills, California. She was lying on a bed of silk in a room draped in royal purple and gold, and the woman she saw dressed as Justice at the party was now standing over her. Solid, flesh and blood and frighteningly real.

            “What the hell?” Anna gasped.

            Anna sat up, shocked to see the surroundings were definitely not Elaine’s guest room. There were marble statues lining the walls, and tapestries hanging from the ceiling, covering the windows. She shook the woman’s hand from her arm, grabbed the bedcover, and jumped from the bed.

            “Where am I? Who are you?” she yelled.

            “Adara, stop joking. You know perfectly well who I am. I know you’re nervous about the coronation, but we’ve been preparing for this day since you were born and you have nothing to worry about. Deborah and Ruth will bring your breakfast in a few minutes and then they’ll help you dress, so hurry and I’ll see you in the Audience Hall.

            The door opened and two young women, Anna assumed were the Deborah and Ruth the woman had mentioned, entered the room. They were carrying trays of fresh fruit, including apples, dates, and sliced pomegranates.

            For several seconds, Anna didn’t move. Her body felt strange, even for a dream, and she forced her neck to turn so she could see her reflection in the mirror on the far wall. Anna had to force herself to remember this was only a dream, or else she might have screamed. The image staring back at her with a shocked expression appeared to be a young man who couldn’t have been much older than seventeen.

            Anna put her hand to her face, and the reflection did the same. She quickly explored the more intimate parts of her body and confirmed that she was, in fact, a girl, no matter what the reflection was showing her. The voices of the other women distracted her momentarily.

            “I’m so glad you two are here,” the older woman said to the other two. “I don’t know what’s wrong with my daughter, but I’m certain you’ll have better success helping her get ready, she’s always been so headstrong, as you both know.”

            Daughter? Whose daughter? She’s crazy!

            The women giggled in agreement. “Don’t worry, your Majesty. Adar and Adara will both be on time. All your loyal servants have been looking forward to this day for the past eighteen years!”

            “As I have as well. Thank you ladies. I’ll leave you to prepare her. Adara, on this day you will make history for our people. I’m so very proud of you.”

            “Uh, yeah, me, too,” was all Anna could say in response. Once the door closed, Anna asked the remaining duo the one question she needed the answer to more than all the others.

“Who was that woman?”

            The two looked at each other, not knowing if she was joking.

            “Adara, I know we had a bit too much wine last night celebrating your long-awaited ascension to the throne, but we didn’t think you would forget your own mother.”

            “Yeah, well, my mother is living in a retirement village in Rancho Mirage with my father. I have no idea who that woman is, or who you two are, or why I look like someone who just graduated high school, so why don’t you answer my questions before I scream for the police.”

            For a moment the women didn’t say a word, but their eyes were doing a great deal of expressing themselves without any words. Their look was at first amused, then puzzled, then frightened. The one who looked to be older spoke first.

            “M’lady we know not of the village of ran-cho, nor what a high school is and I’m guessing by police you mean the palace guards, who as you well know are positioned right outside your bedroom, so there is no need for you to scream.”

            “Well, if I don’t get some answers, that’s exactly what I’m doing to do. Now spill it, whoever you are.”

“As you wish,” the older one answered. “I’m Ruth, and this is Deborah.” The younger women bowed slightly. “And the women who just left us to help prepare you to become the next ruler of the realm, is your mother, Queen Vashti.”

            No sooner had the woman spoke the name when Anna felt the room began to spin. She was just able to reach the edge of the bed before her legs gave way and then everything went dark.