Sara looked around at the large waiting room at the therapist's office. It was a month since she had found out she was pregnant and her emotions went between joy and despair. On one hand, she wanted a child real bad on the other she was afraid of what could happen. She and Adam had, had some explosive arguments over it. The office was empty except for her and the receptionist manning the desk. Leather couches done in blue, green, and brown where placed in various areas while various paintings by Cassett, Picasso, and Dali hung on white walls. Sara didn't know why she was here. She had seen therapists before and they had always told her all the same things. So why did her doctor recommend this one? She sighed. Maybe she wasn't ready to have this baby even though it was a bit late to do anything about it and she couldn't bring herself to have an abortion. Besides, she couldn't do anything without Adam's consent and he definitely didn't want to give it up or kill it whatever it would be.

"Mrs. Sara Black? Is there a Mrs. Sara Black here?" asked a voice, which invaded Sara's somber thoughts.

"Yes, ma'am, I'm here," said Sara, getting up from the blue leather couch.

The receptionist smiled, a tall thin white-haired lady dressed to the nines in some red dress that seemed to Sara to be for church. "That's all right, dear. Dr. Tyner is ready to see you now."

Sara walked to the inner door leading to Dr. Tyner's office and then the receptionist opened the door to let Sara in. Then she led Sara to just outside the doctor's door. Sara hesitated. What if this one tells me nothing like all the others?

The receptionist reached around and opened the door for her. "Oh, go on. The doctor isn't going to bite," she said in a joking tone.

Sara only nodded not even managing a smile, and went inside and saw a mess. Papers were strewn around the place—on the desk, on the two chairs in front of the desk, on several file cabinets, and anywhere else. She tried to find the doctor, but she didn't think could find him in this junk. She turned back to the receptionist who didn't seem surprised.

The receptionist promptly took care of the problem by saying "Are you in there, Dr. Tyner?"

Suddenly, one of the piles on the desk rose up and a medium sized woman peeked out. "Yes, Mrs. B. I am even though I got a bit carried away."

"Carried away with what? It looks like a hurricane went through here," said Mrs. B, jokingly.

"Oh, I was doing a little cleaning. It didn't work, did it?" asked Dr. Tyner looking exasperated at the mess she had managed to create even while trying to clean up.

"I don't know if it was an improvement or not. Where do you find all that paper?"

"I was clearing out my desk and file cabinets. Why?"

"How much paper do you use in a day?"

"Well, not much, but all this paper is from a decade. I just can't bear to part with all of it."

"You need to. If you don't, then when next time you clean out, I won't be able to find you. Then what will your patients do?"

Dr. Tyner laughed. "Oh, all right. I'll clean up my office after my next appointment."

"She's here, a Mrs. Sara Black. She's the lady beside me."

"Ah, good please have a seat, Mrs. Black."

"If she can find a seat under all that paper," quipped Mrs. B.

"That will be all, Mrs. B," said Dr. Tyner with a smile.

Mrs. B went to the door and as she was going out, she said, "Too bad Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character. You two would have gotten along famously." Then she shut the door behind her.

Sara was still standing and simply stared at the doctor. The doctor smiled and headed over to stand in front of her. Holding out her hand, the doctor said, "Hi, Mrs. Black. I'm Doctor Bernadette Tyner, your friendly neighborhood shrink. But you can call me Bernie if you would prefer."

Sara took it and shook the doctor's hand. "I'm Sara Black, but you can call me Sara if you want."

"Okay, Sara. Now your regular doctor told me that you have been to therapists before with no success, but I hope that I won't be adding to your running streak. Now, if you would like, today will just be a thirty-minute "getting to know you" session. I'll let you tell me about yourself, but if you don't give me much to go on. Then I'll start asking you questions. And you can do the same with me. I'm not ashamed all right?"

Sara said, "That's fine."

"Okay. If you're ready or should I go first?"

"You go first."

"Okay, my name is Dr. Bernadette Tyner, nee Dawson. Born in the small town of Lafayette, I was the eldest of three and for most part, the responsible one. My two other delightful siblings' are a boy, Edgar James Dawson, named for my grandfathers, and a girl, Barbie Ann McGoogan, named for the doll that came out at the year of her birth. She's married and childless, but she's a foster mother so she has a soft spot for kids of any age. Dear old Edgar is a doctor an old-fashioned family doctor that makes house calls, which is a rarity nowadays. He's married to a good Christian woman and they have two kids that need to be more in a zoo than out to terrorize the public. I love them, but sometimes—I'm glad that they go with their parents after we have the holiday celebrations. After awhile, they get on my nerves."

Dr. Tyner paused for a moment, grabbed a bottle of water on the left corner, the only clean portion of her desk, opened it and drank a bit. Putting the cap back and placing it back on the desk, she started again.

"In 1979, at my last year at college, I happened to meet a guy that seemed to me like a total jerk. He was a captain on the college debate team and rebel in all other things. He didn't like things that I liked and I didn't like things that he liked. If God was playing a joke on us, he did that year because I married the "jerk", David Tyner. After some more schooling and a whole lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I got my degree in sociology and psychology and was promptly licensed to be a shrink. In 1986, we started a family, having two kids, a boy named Matthew and a girl named Ruth. In 1990, I started my own practice and started to see patients. I even hired an old typist named Naomi Brenkisi or Mrs. B. for short. Well that's my life story. What's yours?"

Sara wet her lips and began her story. "I was born in England the daughter of an ambassador. I was one of three children. I have a brother named Dave and I had a sister, a twin named Kim. After an incident, my parents divorced and I went with my mother back to her homeland, America and my brother went with our father."

"What about your other sister, your twin? What happened to her? Did she die?"

"Yes, she did."

"How? If you don't mind telling me that is," Dr. Tyner asked quietly studying Sara intently.

Sara wrapped her arms around herself and said in a quavering voice. "My sister and I were kidnapped for ransom by Thomas Crane. He called our father and ask for money. Of course we didn't know his name at the time and didn't find out for twenty-five years."

"Did he and did your father pay it? He probably did because he loved you two so much—"

"He didn't love me! He wanted Kim more! I wasn't good enough for him! Do you know that Krane wanted $6 million for each of; us. That's $12 million in all. My father didn't want to pay that kind of money to even get his own children back! He didn't want to give up anything for his girls. He was only willing to pay $7 million for both of us and because of that, he let Kim die! We were stuck in a dark root cellar for nine days with one bottle of water between us. We were each tied on opposite ends so we couldn't touch and comfort each other. We had to roll the bottle of water carefully back and forth finally I rolled it too far and Kim couldn't reach it. She died that same day. Then the only one left was me, the one he hated."

"He probably didn't hate you at all," Dr. Tyner started to say.

"You're wrong. He did hate me! I wasn't girly enough. That was Kim and he wanted her more. I was too much of a tomboy for him," Sara yelled.

"Did he ever say that to your face?"

Sara didn't look her in the eye. "No, but he didn't treat me any better. Actually, he treated me worse after Kim's death than before." She gave a harsh laugh more like a bark. "You know what is ironic he didn't even think that Kim and I were his. He thought Mom was cheating on him! It wasn't until the FBI did a blood test that he found out that we were both his. My father came to, Kim's funeral. Then he came to the hospital to see me for all of about ten minutes. Then he headed back to England and I haven't seen him since."

"So eventually he and your mom went their separate ways, splitting you and your brother between them. Did Dave ever contact you?"

"He tried, but he waited until he was of age although he did come over for summers and vacations. He became head of my security detail to protect me and it took twenty-five years to catch Thomas Krane. Dave was on that security team for fourteen years."

"What do you do for a living?" asked Dr. Tyner changing the subject.

"I'm a writer," Sara said not going into detail.

"What do you write? I mean is it anything that I have heard of?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"I write two series. As Sara Walsh, I write a set of children's books for five year olds and as H. Q. Victor, I write a series of mysteries."

"You're the famous H.Q. Victor? I love those books and so do my kids." Dr. Tyner's face became quite somber. "And I take it one of the novels in that series I think it was 'Kim', is based on your sister's death."

"Yes," Sara answered.

"Now since I digressed, let's get back to your story. What happened to you and your mom before Dave came back into your life?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"After coming to Texas, mom met and married Frank Victor less than a year after she divorced dad. Actually, it was a fluke—Frank and her met by accident. Then he died when I was 14 and a year later she met and married Peter Walsh, who adopted me. But Frank was my favorite," Sara explained,

"How so?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"It wasn't too long after Thomas Krane had taken Kim and me, but I clammed right up for two and a half years, because Thomas Krane said he would harm the rest of my family if I told. But Frank was good enough to be patient with me. He got me to talk and even taught me to draw. I think that he sensed that I felt safer in wide-open spaces where you can see for miles. He had a ranch with a lot of land," Sara said

"What were your first words when you got back your voice?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"It was 'Can I see the new foal?' Frank had a mare that had just given birth to a foal on the farm and I wanted to see it. Isn't that a silly thing to say? Of course, I was only nine at the time," Sara remembered

"Not really. You hadn't had any happiness before your abduction, at least from your father, but if seeing the foal gave you happiness, then why should they begrudge you?"

"I guess so. Then several years passed and my mother died in a car crash. My father didn't even come to her funeral even to see me.

Then for awhile, it was just Dave, me and a whole security team. I had guards 24 hours a day wherever I was staying and Dave was one of them Then I met Adam Black," Sara said.

"Your husband?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"Yes. It was during the same time that we caught Thomas Krane," Sara said.

"Then you got married. Are you going to have kids?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"Why does everyone bring that up after somebody gets married?" Sara asked.

Dr. Tyner chuckled. "It always happens. My mother asked the same thing; of David and me when we were first married."

"Well, I am pregnant," Sara said

"Congratulations!" Dr. Tyner exclaimed

"Thanks. It is our first, but—" Sara said her voice pausing.

"But what?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"I'm scared," Sara admitted.

"Why?" Dr. Tyner asked.

"What if something happens to our child like what happened to me?" Sara asked.

Dr. Tyner stared at her. "Sara, you were the child of an ambassador. Now you're a high profile writer. It could happen—no, let me tell you something. Have you ever heard of Lon Watson?"

"Yes, I read him as a kid. He did several series like mysteries for kids, horror novels, and thrillers," Sara said

"Yes, he was my father," Dr. Tyner expained.

"Your father, but your maiden name was Dawson?" Sara asked.

"Well, Ronald Dawson was also known in the publishing world as Lon Watson. He didn't want to put his real name on anything so his old friend Stan King, now deceased, decided to come up with a name that my father could use as a pseudonym. The name 'Lon Watson' came to mind. Also, on a dare from Stan, he sent his first horror story to a magazine at age 18 and got published. It was downhill from there, as he liked to say. When I was ten, a deranged fan of his kidnapped me and tried to get some ransom money. This fan asked for 500,000 dollars and a visit from my father. My father gave up his hard-earned money and took it to take to the fan when he would come to greet the fan. Fortunately, he didn't know if his fan would do anything dangerous or not so he called the police. They sent officers to follow my father and when he paid the fan the money, he got me back safe and sound and the fan was arrested. Some years later, after my father died, that fan apologized and said that he was sorry to scare me when I was a child. So maybe you can possibly have a family and not worry so much. You'll have some worry when the child is born—am I feeding him or her enough? Why does the baby cry so much? Will they touch a hot stove? Will little Johnny stick his finger or something metal in the electrical socket? Don't worry so much. You'll do as fine as every other parent that's come along."

Dr. Tyner glanced up at the clock. "Oops! We've gone and taken thirty minutes and turned it into nearly two hours. Well, at least we learned some stuff and thankfully I had no other patients on my calendar for today. It's usually my slow day. Now that you know some of my secrets, do you want to come back?"

"Yes."

"Ah, good then when do you want to see me again? You're the one paying, not me. What day is good for you?" Dr. Tyner asked

"Any day really is fine maybe a Thursday or a Friday perhaps sometime in the afternoon," Sara said.

"Okay—how about two weeks from now at 2 p.m.?" Dr. Tyner asked

"That's fine," Sara said.

"Okay. See you then," said Bernie as she let Sara out of her office. "Mrs. B will let you out of the building."

~~~Beyond the Future~~~

A few minutes later, they entered "Everything for Babies" a baby specialty store in the Washington area. It was supposed to carry anything and everything for babies and toddlers. It was a huge warehouse type place that was also relatively expensive, not that cost mattered when it was going to be used again and again.

"Can I help you ladies?" asked a young man with a mustache.

"Ah, yes, my daughter Shari needs everything for a boy baby. Strollers, baby monitors, etc., etc," Beth explained.

"Ah yes ma'am. Right this way and I will show you where the strollers are first. Your first child ma'am?" the attendant asked Shari.

"Yes," said Shari. "Marcus and I haven't been married all that long."

"Here are the strollers ladies. I'll leave you to look through them." There were strollers of every description on display. Single ones double ones for twins; and even triple ones for triplets or at least for three children.

"I don't think I've ever seen one of those triple strollers," said Beth. They sure didn't make that kind of thing when Shari and Josh were young."

"No they're fairly recent," said Rachel. "But I think even now only one company makes them."

"We'll we only need a single stroller right now so we have to chose from among all these," said Shari pointing out a whole line of single strollers. There must have been ten different brands maybe more.

~~~Beyond the Future~~~