Tell Me I'm Dreamin' Read Online Free PDF

appearance. She looked like she had been through a major ordeal. There was a strained look on her face and large pieces of leaves and twigs were sticking out of her hair. Nadine began to remove the debris and decided this had been the most harrowing day of her life. She comforted herself by thinking it was all coming to an end, and somehow, tomorrow, she would contact Dr. Steward to put her life in order again.
    Her hands felt heavy as she removed the flexible ponytail holder from her thick, light-auburn hair. Once freed, it reached just below her shoulders. Nadine looked at it. Gloria, her dearest friend, had always encouraged her to wear her hair down. She said that Nadine’s hair was one of her best assets, but Nadine had never worn it that way. She had felt it would call too much attention to herself, which would be a vain thing to do, and of course, in the Lord’s eyes vanity was a sin.
    With her thoughts far away Nadine unconsciously arranged her hair attractively around her face, but when she realized what she had done she stopped abruptly, and smoothed it back with her hands.
    â€œIt needs washing, that’s all,” she said to the strange surroundings.
    She steered her thoughts to the moment at hand, and how ill-prepared she was to spend the night away from her hotel room. She had very little with her in the fanny pack. Nadine unzipped the small bag, thinking of the toiletries she did not have, and was surprised to see the onyx slab. It had been forgotten in the midst of everything else that had taken place.
    She attempted to take it out, but the task was difficult; the stone was stuck inside the pack with her large-tooth comb. When she was able to remove it a conversation surfaced in her mind. She had overheard her boss and a colleague discussing a collection known as the Gaia Series, a set of stone carvings that some believed were tied to a legend on Eros. Either way, for their artistic value or for their mysterious origins, they felt the set was very important. Nadine thought they said one of the pieces was an onyx unicorn. For a moment she considered the probability that the unicorn carved on the slab was the one they referred to, but she quickly discredited the thought. It would be highly unlikely that she had discovered one of the rare pieces during her first day on Eros. She placed the onyx slab in the lower drawer of the dressing table.
    Nadine looked at the remaining items in the pack, her comb, her glasses, and a small care case for her contact lenses. She had bought the lenses the day before she left Memphis, but did not put them in her eyes until she arrived at the airport. It was her way of lessening her chances of running into someone she knew. Nadine wanted to anonymously get accustomed to living without the thicklensed glasses she had worn her entire life. On a deeper level, she had decided the contact lenses and the trip to the Caribbean were the first steps toward a new approach to her life. Although the notion was quite scary, she was determined to be a changed woman when she set foot in the United States again. A woman who was open to new, stimulating situations. A woman who was not afraid to live and to love.
    Of its own volition Nadine’s brow lifted. Yes, she was open to new experiences on Eros and Barbados, but not the unexpected situations she had thus far encountered. Here it was her first day: there had been an earthquake, she had nearly been killed by a rock avalanche, and now, at this very moment, she was staying in the bowels of this island at the home of some strange white folks, led here by a mysterious man, while the owner of the place, eccentric to say the least, thought she was someone called Lenora.
    But even today’s events hardly dimmed the sparkle of Nadine’s delight over being in the islands. Her love for her work was unshakable. She was here to do the work she had aspired to: historical research. The Caribbean was a land she had always dreamed of