Fiction Audio Book
Description
Vocal Characteristics
Language
EnglishVoice Age
Middle Aged (35-54)Accents
North American (General)Transcript
Note: Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and may contain errors.
for the rest of her life, Maya would wonder what her life would have been like if she had not gone to the restaurant that day at the time, it seemed like a lark, just a way to satisfy her curiosity and get a nice meal in the bargain later. Of course, she would realize that had changed everything forever. That evening she stepped from 52nd Street into the lobby of the four seasons. In the only nice dress she owned one, she had warned to her cousin Debbie's wedding the year before she had grown since then. So the dress was a bit too short and a bit too tight and even if it had fit, it would have been worlds of styles away from this plush lobby, with its huge chandelier and it's dense carpet and its jungle of potted plants. Even the air seemed lush and thick hair like velvet, swallowing up the click click of ladies heels and the chatter of men in suits, so that they passed as silently as gliding ships, joseph Ryan had not told her where to meet them, so she stood awkwardly to one side, pretending to admire the painting that covered one of the lobby's enormous walls, trying to avoid the attention of the maitre D who floated around the entrance of the dining room like a solicitous specter. five minutes, she thought, and if they didn't come, she would go home. She had forgotten to wear a watch. So she began to count slowly as she and Warren had as Children playing hide and seek. She would count to 300 and then she would go home and forget this crazy thing that ever happened. And then just as she reached 198, joseph Ryan appeared at her elbow like a waiter Picasso. He said. What? The tapestry here in the lobby? He seemed almost bashful, and she had almost forgotten the menace she felt the day before. Well, not a tapestry per se, I guess. He painted it on a curtain. They asked him for a painting, but he didn't have the time to make one. So he gave them this instead. I've always admired it. I thought you were bringing your wife, Maya said she's at the table. He made as if to take her arm, then thought better of it and put his hands into his jacket pockets. Instead it was almost comical his gentlemanly nece, she thought as she followed him down the hallway, a huge white room with she blinked, a jade green pool in the center trees inside, studded with pink blossoms and starred with lights like a fairy forest hidden in the center of a new york office building all around the soft hum of conversation, a scrim of fine chains lacing the window, rippling like waves, though there was no breeze. And then the strange thing happened as they came into the dining room and joseph Ryan approached the table in the corner. Maya saw herself somehow already sitting at the table in a neat navy dress, a cocktail in her hand For a moment, Maya thought she was approaching a mirror and she paused, confused, and then the woman at the table stood up and reached across to take Maya's hand. I'm madeleine, she said, and Maya had the uncanny sensation as their hands met of touching her reflection in a pool.