A Stirring from Salem by Sheri Anderson Page A

eyebrow.
    “Maybe it’s spending so much time down here,” Kayla answered. “There’s a lot of mystical energy around us,” she added as she swirled her hands in the air. “Besides, I know that when someone’s blinking a lot, it means something. And you, Marlena, were blinking…”
    “Charley is at the Royal Londolani on a photo shoot,” Marlena admitted. “John said ‘coincidence or fate,’ and there you go.”
    Kayla was stunned. She was one of the few people Marlena had confided in about the discovery that Charley was her and John’s daughter.
    “Well, that does it,” Bill was heard saying as he exited the exam room. He was walking out with a forty-year-old African farmworker whose arm was in a sling. “Tell him no heavy lifting…” he said to Beauty. Then he stopped in his tracks. “I must be dreaming!”
    “Hi, Bill,” Marlena said warmly.
    “When, what, how…?” he laughed. He was truly thrilled to see Marlena. He had known her since she’d just graduated from med school and was brought in to counsel distraught Laura, the woman who eventually became Bill’s wife.
    “It was all very last minute,” Marlena said. “Do you know John?”
    “Just by reputation,” Bill answered. On the few trips he’d taken back to Salem in the last twenty years, they’d never met. He took John’s hand. “This is just, well, unbelievable.” He turned to Beauty and the patient who were totally confused. “In two weeks I want to see you,” he told the patient and held up two fingers.
    “Thank you…Dr. Bill,” the man said in broken English. “Thank you.”
    “And thank you, Beauty,” Kayla added. “We’ll see you day after tomorrow?”
    “Yes, most surely,” Beauty nodded. Then she headed out the door.
    “He’s not doing so hot, is he?” John said.
    “Forty years old and ravaged by weather and HIV,” Bill explained. “Not a bad life span around here.” Realizing how that sounded, he shook off the reality of it all.
    “You like something cool?” Cornelius asked.
    “Yeah, thanks,” he answered as Cornelius got a tumbler from the high shelf and poured Bill a long one. “Any chance of our getting dinner?”
    John piped in. “We’re pretty exhausted, but we thought we’d catch the five-thirty game ride at Londolani. I know Doc wants to spend as much time here as she can in the afternoons, though.”
    “I was supposed to go to Mapusha today, but birthin’ a baby in our parking lot got in my way,” Kayla interjected.
    “A beautiful little scooter they’re naming ‘Patch,’ by the way,” Steve smiled.
    “I’d love to come with you,” Marlena beamed. “It’s been so long since I’ve been here that I wonder if they’ll remember me.”
    “Who wouldn’t remember that face, Doc?” John smiled sexily.
    “You, too?” Cornelius laughed and indicated Patch and Kayla. “These two are so lovey-dovey it makes your head spin. What’s in the water in Salem?”
    He was nonchalant and charming as he handed Bill the tumbler with the gold “H.”
    “Can we talk tonight or have an early lunch tomorrow?” Marlena asked Bill, who was just finishing a sip of tea. “Just the two of us. We have so much to catch up on.”
    Bill lowered the glass and caught Marlena’s look. He’d seen that look many times, not only from Marlena but from his ex who was also a psychiatrist.
    “Sure. Just the two of us,” he said calmly. But his hand began to shake.
    You already know I’m falling apart, don’t you?

Raised as the daughter of an infamous billionaire, Charley had seen almost everything. But she was still quite impressed by their suite.
    They were escorted there by Tuma, the Sotho staff member who’d been assigned to them. Accessed by elevated walkways to ensure the guests stayed on clear paths and out of the way of the nature that enveloped them, the suites were massive and beautifully appointed.
    “Not bad, eh?” Vince smiled as they entered.
    “Mind-blowing actually.” Charley said,