Making an Entrance

(A/N: Okay, some of you are thinking the 'letter-thing' is a mystery you can solve. In a sense, you can! So if you are interested in figuring it out, somewhere in the first four chapters you have enough information to solve the entire puzzle of the letters! I may have given away too much already, so if you have solved it, please PM me privately so as not to spoil the fun for others.)

Chapter 5

It was the day of the party.

Early in the morning, Daniel practically jumped out of bed. Not that he was excited. In fact, he was the opposite. It could almost be described as a feeling of dread. The thought that another envelope could be waiting for him heightened his apprehension.

Before he dressed, or ate or did anything, he rushed to the front door. His hopes were dashed.

Another white envelope that had been shoved underneath the door.

He picked it up and opened it carefully, extracting the familiar single sheet of white paper. A fifth letter had been added to the previous four; this time it was a green newspaper-cutout letter "I". The other letters on the page H,Y,S,T, were glued on more crooked than usual.

Did that mean anything? Daniel wondered, and why was the 'Y'smaller than the others?

His thoughts immediately carried over to Hilda Jones. He knew it wasn't fair to connect Hilda with the letters; that maybe his paranoia was playing tricks with him, but it could be her delivering these letters, despite no evidence pointing to her. Except for her annoying presence, that is. Daniel rushed to the living room window and there she was again, sitting in the green sedan, and this time he knew for sure it wasn't a hallucination.

Daniel felt if he didn't get away from the images of the letters and Hilda Jones, he would go crazy. Or crazier, he corrected himself.

.

Later that afternoon Daniel was sitting in his living room sofa, trying to find some inner peace. He immersed himself in listening to his tape of classical music, headphones in place. The stringed music was playing loudly. His right arm seemed to cut through the air as his index finger shot out and moved in motion with the song. Every finger movement he made coordinated with the character of the music, turning delicate for soft passages, medium for accompanying strings and larger for a horn and oboe melody. His arm strokes suddenly grew bold with vigorous lines as he worked to draw out the sounds he was hearing.

"Doc, DOC!" Lewicki's voice interrupted the flow of music as Lewicki lifted one of the earphones from Daniel's ears, "Doc! You've got a call!"

Daniel looked puzzled as he went and hesitantly picked up the receiver of the phone.

"Dr. Pierce here."

"Dr. Pierce, hello, this his Jenny Clayton."

Jenny Clayton, his new neighbor.

"Yes?" Daniel responded

"I hope I'm not disturbing you," she stated.

"I was just conducting a symphony," Daniel said.

"What? Should I hang up, Dr. Pierce?"

"Why is it that you've called?" Daniel inquired, anxious to be alone with his thoughts and his conducting.

Well..." Jenny awkwardly spoke over the phone, "... I just wanted to thank you for inviting me to the party tonight and Tom and I will definitely be there."

"Shouldn't you be talking to Lewicki about this?" Daniel was feeling uncomfortable, "he's hosting it, after all."

"Well, it's your party so I wanted to thank you personally," Jenny sounded enthused, "And Tom will be coming, too. He isn't into partying, but he knows how much I'd like to be there. After all, it's a pretty short walk to your place, too, so how could he turn it down?"

Daniel usually wanted to keep conversations short, but this time he was intrigued. Not by what she said, but how she said it, how she enunciated words. It seemed as if she when she spoke, her "I" 'r' and 'lk" pronunciations were blended or almost dropped.

"Where did you say you were from originally?" Daniel asked out of blue.

"What?" Jenny sounded confused.

"What city did you say you are from?" Daniel asked.

"Seems we have a bad connection," Jenny quickly changed the subject, "so I'll let you go and we'll see you tonight."

She hung up before she answered his last question. Daniel scratched his head. He felt something was odd about his neighbors. Hopefully he'll find out tonight.

.

.

(Later that night, an hour before the party)

"You sure I look alright?" Daniel asked Lewicki, as he peered in the mirror to view himself.

The image that stared back at him was a man who wore a sky blue silk buttoned-down dress shirt tucked into gray slacks and a black jacket. Daniel unconsciously reached up to adjust his hair and suddenly he felt Lewicki's hand slapping his hand away.

"Ow! Max!" Daniel responded.

"Stop touching your hair then, Doc! Just let it be and don't fuss!" Lewicki advised, "It'll look more natural if you don't touch it so much."

"My hair isn't the Grand Canyon, Lewicki," Daniel commented. He couldn't help it, he gave it another touch and quickly withdrew his hand before Lewicki could slap it again, "It just looks so...uncontrollable..."

"It's looks fine, Doc!"

"You think so?" Daniel didn't sound convinced, "To me, the only time it looks good is just before I am about to take a shower."

Lewicki snorted, "I hear you, Doc." He then rubbed his own short hair as he observed it in the mirror, "Hey Doc...does it look like one side of my hair is sticking out more than the other side?"

Daniel stared at Lewicki's hair in the mirror, "No more than usual," he straight-faced.

Lewicki stared expressionless at Daniel, "Very funny, Doc."

Daniel had stopped fussing with his hair as he now looked nervously in the mirror at his clothes.

" And then this whole outfit that I'm wearing..." Daniel complained, fidgeting, "it...it doesn't seem to be working for me. All this silky material...it's just too... smooth. Why can't I just wear my tee shirt and jeans?"

"Because this is a par-ty, Doc."

Daniel gave Lewicki a good once over, "Then why do you get to wear one of your regular, everyday vest? Isn't this supposed to be a par-ty?"

Lewicki held his arms out in a showmanship like gesture, "You think this look is easy to come by, Doc? Welcome to the cult of Awesomeness."

Daniel thinned his lips, "I hope you are not going to say things like that at the party, Max. We want people to stay."

"Oh, now you want people at the party..." Lewicki said.

"It doesn't matter," Daniel assured him, "even if no one comes, I'll just hallucinate that people showed up at my party."

"Oh, great," Lewicki stated, "What could be a better party pleasing conversation than hallucination jokes? You'll have them begging for more, Doc."

Daniel attempted to adjust his shirt and once again Lewicki slapped his hand away.

"Ow, Max!"

"Stop fidgeting, Cinderfella," Lewicki gave Daniel one last look over, "It's fine as is...although...come to think of it...would you consider adding a necktie to your outfit?"

"A necktie? No!" Daniel sounded petulant, "I'd feel like I would be tying a little noose around my neck."

Lewicki hid his smile.

"Fine, okay" Lewicki was done with this, "...I'll just leave you to yourself so that you can make a grand entrance. Don't you dare change a thing—unless it's your personality, that is."

Daniel gave Lewicki a straight face, "Keep talking like that and I'll change into one of your vests!"

Lewicki pffted the comment and then started walking towards the door. At the last minute, he turned back to Daniel, "She'll appreciate the way you look tonight, you know."

"Who?"

"The Statue of Liberty, that's who," Lewicki made a big deal of rolling his eyes, "Who do you think I mean, Doc? Kate, of course!"

Lewicki then left, shutting the door behind him.

Daniel gave one final look in the mirror just as his internal thoughts kicked in.

"You do look nice tonight, Daniel, " Natalie was near enough to that she could adjust his collar, although the collar didn't actually move. She then stepped away, "This new look suits you."

"If you ask me," Daniel said, as he straightened the bottom of his jacket, "I think I'm closer to the toad than the prince."

Natalie lovingly tilted her head and smiled knowingly, "We'll let HER make that decision," she stated, "Go and have a fine time, Daniel."

.

.

Downstairs, Kate had a drink in her hand as she spoke with Paul and his date, Serena, a totally delightful woman. Serena evidently piloted charter planes in the Boston area, so they were having a pleasant discussion about traveling, but frankly, Kate was in anticipation of Daniel's arrival.

There were murmurings all around the room as the dozen or more people stood around and small talked.

"Yes, there definitely is no city quite like New York City," Serena was saying, "the last time I flew there I went to the Empire State Building and..."

A hush had prevailed in the room and Kate followed the other people gazing up at the staircase. She did a double take as she saw a debonair- dressed Daniel standing at the top.

From up above as Daniel scanned the room, he instantly spotted Kate down below. She was wearing a red silk wrapped dress that clung femininely at every curve of her body before flaring out above her knees.

The striking color made her stand out amidst the other people in the room while air swiftly rushed out of his lungs, making it impossible for Daniel to speak.

Daniel began the descent down the stairs, anxious to get to Kate, but many people impeded his movement as they wished him the best.

Kate was no longer listening to Paul and Serena. Everything else in the room fell by the wayside; the gaiety, the laughter, the conversation had all frittered away. A slight smile formed on Kate's lips when she caught Daniel eye.

When Daniel reached the level floor, his next door neighbors, Tom and Jenny Clayton rushed to give him birthday wishes. He had no choice but to shake hands and be social. But even as he shook their hands, his sharp eyes lingered on Kate's soft brown ones from across the room.

He acknowledged her with a wistful smile that made her heart soar.

The glow from Kate's cheeks had nothing to do with the warmth in her room. Her entire body tingled now that they were in the same room together. From the corner of her eyes, she saw him meandering around the room. She watched him through the gaps in bodies, thinking that he looked so dapper and handsome.

He looked her way now and was hypnotized when he spotted her while she was unable to tear her eyes away from him. He took a deep breath and gathered his courage.

Suddenly he was headed her way.

Kate was trying to steady her trembling body as she watched him. As he approached her, he twisted and turned to avoid some of the small circle of people socializing.

When he reached her, Kate's heart was beating frantically.

"Kate," he smiled rakishly, "You look lovely."

But it was Kate who was the more impressed, as she stared wordlessly at him, forcing Paul Haley to speak.

"Happy birthday, Daniel," Paul wished, "I want you to meet my date, Serena Davis."

Daniel tore his gaze from Kate and acknowledged Paul's date.

"Birthday wishes, Dr. Pierce, "Serena smiled, "and you have a lovely place here."

Daniel's expression turned to one of curiosity as he gave Serena a second look, "Where are you from?" he asked solemnly.

The change in topic surprised everyone.

"Uh, I'm originally from Boston, why?" she asked.

Of course, a Boston accent, Daniel thought. The three watched as Daniel began scanning the people in the room. He stopped the minute he spotted the Claytons. Yes, it was definitely a Bostonian accent.

Slowly he turned his head to Kate. She was peering at him with those exquisite eyes of hers.

"Kate," Daniel said, "Is there any way I can see you in the garden...alone?"

.

.

Please review