Chapter 1

Jerry had a comfortable, if unexciting, life. He had a steady, 9 to 5 job that paid well enough that he could live fairly comfortably if he watched his budget. He kept the books at a small publishing company (the accounting books). An added benefit was that the editors would supply him with an endless supply of as yet unreleased reading material. In return, he would help them by highlighting any errors he found or questions he had. He wasn’t doing their job for them, but he had a keen eye for grammatical details and offered insightful comments. It was a win for everyone.

Jerry used books like many people use television or movies, or even alcohol or drugs for some people. He would go home from work and submerge himself into whatever reading material he was currently interested in. He would eat and sleep as he needed, but otherwise he wouldn’t “come up for air” until he had to go back to work.

By and large, this suited Jerry just fine. He had a habit of inserting himself into a chosen role in whatever he was reading and, as such, had a rich and fulfilling existence, at least in his own mind.

One of the other perks of Jerry’s job was his office.The office was tiny, which is why it was passed over by higher ranking employees, but that didn’t matter to Jerry. It had a window overlooking a small park. He would often gaze out at the occupants of the park and make up semi-elaborate stories about what their lives were like, or what they were doing.

On one of the first warm days of spring, a young woman caught his eye. This was not unusual as young women were his favorite subjects to ruminate about (as they would be for many of us).

This young woman was slim and blonde. She was wearing black leggings and a midriff baring lycra top. She was reclining on a blanket in the grassy area beyond a small courtyard and seemed to be simply enjoying the warmth of the sun.

At this point a couple of elements of luck aligned for Jerry. The first element was that the book he was currently immersed in was set against a backdrop of Egyptian mysticism. Images of Isis, Anubis, Ra and the associated symbols had been freshly floating through his mind. The second element was that in the center of the courtyard of the park stood a small obelisk. What it was memorializing, if anything, didn’t immediately spring to mind, but that was mostly because the shadow of the very tip of the obelisk was approaching the girl’s chosen position in the park.

Jerry had the sudden impression that if the tip of that shadow were to touch her, something dire would happen. His mind didn’t take in the time to fill in what that might be. A curse that would result in her death? A series of terrible misfortunes? Or, might the mystical energies at play cleave her cleanly in half as the shadow passed. It was impossible to say.

Jerry didn’t think. If he had thought, he definitely would have dismissed such notions as the flights of fancy brought on by an overactive imagination that they (probably) were. Instead, he bolted from his desk and raced down the stairs as he didn’t have time to wait for the elevator before the shadow reached her. He froggered across the street barely avoiding the early afternoon traffic.

“Miss! Miss!” he shouted as he approached her. She raised her head slightly and saw a middle aged man huffing and puffing his way across the park in her direction with a look of concern on his face.

Her only thought was “What fresh hell is this?”

She sighed in resignation and propped her upper body up on her elbows.

What would it be this time? Was he going to say he thought he knew her from somewhere? Did he have some other cheesy pickup line that seemed to be in endless supply in middle aged men trying to achieve some sort of connection with her in the hopes of ... taking her to bed, she supposed. She’d heard them all before, she was sure.

Or was he one of the ones with moral objections to the amount of skin she was showing. She wasn’t dressed overly provocatively, for sure, at least compared to some of the other clothes she had. She tried to picture his huffing and puffing visage at seeing her in one of those and smiled at his dismay.

Truth be told, the two types weren’t that dissimilar. The first wanted to fuck her and were actually trying. The second wanted to fuck her and at least knew they couldn’t, so they didn’t want anyone else to enjoy her, either. She didn’t know which we’re worse, really. Potayto, Potahto at the end of the day, she mused.

She braced for the onslaught she knew was coming.

“Miss! You need to move! The shadow of the obelisk mustn’t touch you!” he shouted.

She blinked and lowered her sunglasses. This was new.

She looked to her right and the tip of the shadow of the spire was just nearing her stomach.

She rolled nimbly to her left and crouched on the edge of her blanket.

As Jerry saw her piercing eyes staring back into his, he lost all conviction. This was ridiculous! His steps faltered and his eyes, not able to bear the intensity of her gaze. dropped to his loafers.

He stammered, “Well ... uh ... I mean. Geez, this is hard to explain.”

“I would appreciate it if you would try.” she prompted.

She had the natural wariness of a young woman that was used to moving around the city alone, but she was also insatiably curious. This led her into many new situations. Some were wonderful, some were awful, but all were vital to her existence in their way. She had learned that allowing situations to develop sometimes led to something she could use.

Jerry’s shoulders slumped. He knew this was going to sound ridiculous. Once he opened his mouth again, he was sure this young beauty would flee this apparent middle-aged lunatic.

“Well ... I saw you from my office window,” he gestured vaguely over his shoulder, “and when I saw that the shadow of the point of the obelisk was getting near you, I had an unaccountable fear that something terrible would happen to you if it touched you. I’ve been reading a book about an ancient Egyptian spirit that has escaped into the modern day and has been wreaking havoc and I guess my imagination ran away with me. I’m dreadfully sorry to have disturbed you. I’ll leave you in peace, but I couldn’t have lived with myself if something ... anything unfortunate were to occur to someone as lovely as you, if I could help avoid it.” he mumbled and slowly turned away.

She stopped him. “Wait ... uh ... I didn’t catch your name.”

“It’s Jerry.” he practically whispered.

“Jerry. So you’re telling me that you rushed down from your office, braving that traffic, to try to prevent the ... uh ... shadow of an obelisk from harming me?” she queried, raising one eyebrow as the corners of her lips, her obviously soft, pink lips, curled up.

“God!” Jerry thought. It sounds even more asinine from her lips than I had feared it sounded in my own mind. His eyes dropped back to his shoes as he nodded.

“Where is your office?” she asked.

“Fourth floor, about in the middle.” he mumbled, again turning away.

She watched him walking slowly away shaking his limbs a bit and stretching his back as he attempted to loosen up the mostly unused, and recently abused, muscles.”

“Jerry!” she called out. “Thank you for your concern! Really!”

He turned back a bit, but couldn’t bring himself to meet her piercing gaze. Instead he gave a weird little touch of the hat brim type salute in her general direction. His mood was greatly brightened by the fact that she didn’t mock him mercilessly for an action that was obviously so addlebrained it was hard to conceive that an adult human would express it out loud. That small act of kindness on her part burst the balloon of despair that had been swelling in his chest, threatening to suffocate him with the shame of his actions.

She watched as Jerry’s demeanor brightened, if only just a little as he headed back to his office.

She turned her attention to the shadow and watched its inexorable march across the grass for a few minutes, deep in thought.

Jerry didn’t read his Egyptian mystery that night and he didn’t look out his window once the next morning. He was determined to reign in his imagination, if only for a while, to avoid another awkward situation like yesterday.

Over the next two weeks, he slowly settled back into the familiar and comfortable routine of his life. He had long since finished his Egyptian novel and was currently working on an one about a mystery solving archaeologist and their adventure through northern Europe.

He was currently daydreaming about that very subject when he heard a knock on his door. It opened immediately and in walked Freyja herself. He blinked twice as his eyes came into focus on the face.

He blinked. Then again. It wasn’t Freyja, it was the girl from the park. The blonde hair and statuesque figure had meshed perfectly with his daydream. Fortunately, she was not dressed in the manner of a Viking goddess. Nor was she wearing the leggings and top that she had been wearing in the park. She was dressed in a smart black blazer, white blouse, and wide legged black slacks. Her outfit evoked the image of every other smart business woman that you might see downtown. Her presence seemed much more substantial, however, like she carried a higher force of gravity than she should.

“Jerry! It’s been forever!” she called with a smile as if greeting an old friend as she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet for a friendly half-hug.

The shocked Jerry looked over her shoulder and saw the very prim and competent receptionist, Mrs. Franklin. Mrs. Franklin pursed her lips and appeared to indicate that the visitor was acceptable and Jerry was allowed to see them. Mrs. Franklin actually had no such authority, but the fact that the publishing office didn’t often receive unscheduled visitors and Jerry even less, had piqued her curiosity.

Jerry’s visitor kicked the door shut with her heel as the sound of Mrs. Franklin’s footsteps faded back toward the reception area.

Jerry slumped back in his chair still in shock at the recent turn of events. He forgave Mrs. Franklin’s curiosity. This was, in fact, the first visitor to his office since the auditors three years previous.

He opened his mouth to speak, but noticed that his new visitor was looking past him out the window. She moved to all the extents of the office and many points in between, her piercing blue eyes always considering the view through the window. After a few moments she appeared satisfied with what she had seen and dropped a medium sized, but rather dense bag in Jerry’s lap with a thud.

For his part Jerry was pretty glad that it landed on his thighs rather than up a bit higher toward his crotch. He didn’t feel like rolling around on the floor in agony in front of his visitor.

She unzipped the bag and pulled out a photographic tripod, propping it against the closed door. Reaching in again she pulled out a professional DSLR type camera. Jerry wasn’t a shutterbug, but he could tell this wasn’t a consumer model. For one thing, it didn’t (yet) have a lens attached. It was just the body and it was more substantial than your average camera, he was sure. She placed the camera on his desk before reaching in again. This time she pulled out something Jerry didn’t recognize. It was, more or less, a quarter sphere. There were three large suction cups on one of the flat sides and some sort of ball shaped structure with a screw mount on top on the other flat side.

She put the tip of one shoe on the edge of Jerry’s chair next to his leg and launched herself gracefully to stand on his desk.

Jerry was in awe. She was careful to avoid actually standing on any of the papers or objects on Jerry’s desk. This put her feet a bit wider apart than a person would normally stand. The obvious ease with which she mounted the furniture, the nimble way she positioned herself and her feet without ever wavering gave the impression that she had tremendous control over her body and these activities were no more exertion for her than lifting a cup of coffee or even blinking might me to Jerry.

He let his eyes travel from the pointed toes of her elegant (and probably very expensive) heels, up her slim but powerful legs. She towered above him and he felt like he was in one of those scenes where ancient mariners were sailing into port under the “Pillars of Hercules” for the first time.

She had turned away from him and he was treated to an impression of a delightfully shaped ass as powerfully muscled as her legs. He only really had the view of her ass because the blazer had raised itself up as she reached above her shoulders. Jerry heard the solid “thok” sound of the suction cups being attached to the window.

She twisted back toward Jerry and pointed to the bag, snapping twice to break his reverie and get his attention. He snapped out of it and dutifully handed the bag up to her.

She reached in again and pulled out a longish white lens for the camera. She deftly removed the caps from the body and the lens and twisted them together before reaching back up and attaching the camera to the ball mount device on top of the sphere thing. She attached a couple of cords to the assembly and removed the camera lens cap before dismounting the desk. She didn’t do a double back flip or anything, but Jerry had no doubt that she could have if she had wanted to.

She plugged the cords into a small block then plugged the block into a power strip behind Jerry’s monitor. A small blue LED lit up on the sphere thing.

She reached into her inside blazer pocket and pulled out a smartphone, unlocking it and starting an app with fluid motions. A couple of presses later and Jerry heard a very quiet whirring noise from above his head. The camera was turning from right to left. Another tap on her phone the camera started to tilt down slowly. As she activated other controls, he saw the rings on the lens begin to rotate as the camera changed zoom and focus settings. One more tap and the muted sound of the shutter indicated that an image had been captured.

She stuffed the tripod back into the bag, then patted Jerry on the head twice like you might an obedient puppy, before pulling the door open to leave. The door clicked quietly behind her and Jerry was left staring up at the new installation in his office.

Over the next several days Jerry took notice of the camera less and less frequently. It never did anything, so he quickly almost forgot about it.

One afternoon he heard a quiet whirring noise. He had so completely forgotten the device, it took him a moment to realize what it was. As he looked up he saw the camera pointing itself. It stopped and the rings on the lens began their little dance. After they were done, he heard the shutter activate.