Meanwhile in the World where Kennedy Survived

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Dorina had hoped to make it back to her apartment in time to receive her weekly phone call from her mother. This time she let her do most of the talking, giving her all the latest news about her youngest sister Michelle and how it had begun to get hot up in that part of the country. At one point she asked “How’s your sweetie?”

  She just blurted out “He’s fine,” and quickly changed the subject to recipes.

  The next morning she arrived at work early, surprised that she was one of the first to arrive at the office. She logged into her desktop, which would stay lit up for the entire day, and checked her email accounts. The first one from Vic made her smile. In the topsy-turvy world of magazine publishing, the year was turned inside out. It was still a couple of weeks away from Memorial Day, but in his memo, Vic was already asking for ideas for the big Holiday issue.

  Dorina had many more immediate things on her mind. Was that bunker-like object actually the entrance to Merlin’s Lair? It had seemed somewhat too austere for her. If it had been a top secret government installation, which had been the other possibility, the agents would have been much more foreboding, carrying firearms and aggressively shooting out Mitch’s tires. They would have surrounded the car, pointing pistols at it, demanding that he get out with his hands up. After that he may have been handcuffed and searched and possibly jailed. The group of security officers was the most peaceful, yet efficient law enforcement personnel she’d ever heard of.