Vera's Book Corner

On the following night, nobody could fall asleep at the Pattersons home. Since she was a little girl, Natasha hasn't been to a church, and tonight, for the first time in her life, she addressed God for help. She made some sort of pact with God, giving her life in exchange for her daughter's life. If someone had to die in her family, she was ready to die, just for her daughter to have a happy and long life. Philip was watching his wife, walking around in the room all night, talking to God, not knowing whether he should do the same. In the next room, Tessa was blaming herself for not being a better sister. But how would she know that her sister will get seriously ill and that she might lose her? All night, she was thinking about how they used to play with their dolls in the treehouse when they were little. Every day after school, Valerie was writing her homework. She was always protecting her from the bad boys in her class, and she never let them bully her. Every Saturday they...

The whole afternoon, since she left the hospital, Valerie had been walking around the town. She didn't go to work. She needed time to clear her thoughts. When she returned home, Timothy was still at work. Hurry, before he comes back, she packed the things she needed most; she took a taxi, and she went to her parents' home. Valerie had a spare key to her parents' house, and she let herself in. She didn't want her father to find out that she was in the house, because she wasn't ready yet to tell him the truth. Quietly, Valerie went upstairs, passed by his office, got into her old room, and turned off the phone, which hadn't stopped ringing the whole day. For hours, Valerie was lying in her bed and thinking about the new situation she found herself in. The first person who noticed that someone was in Valerie's old room was Tessa after she returned from college. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. She knocked again, and she opened the door, but wh...

It was at Abigail's birthday party, at the end of April, when Valerie felt strong abdominal pain for the first time. Then, she thought, it can't be something serious. Something she ate, or the too many cocktails she drank at her friend's party, probably caused the pain. But four days later, she felt the same pain again. She delayed a visit to the doctor for as long as she could. Valerie hated hospitals, and she hated going to a doctor. But, when the abdominal pain became frequent and sharp, she had no choice but to go to her doctor, who advised her to see a gynecologist. For eight years, since her mother took her to a gynecologist for the first time, Valerie had known Dr. Kwan. Dr. Kwan was always nice to her patients, and she was always smiling, but after Valerie explained the symptoms, suddenly she became serious. After she examined her carefully, Dr. Kwan requested more tests. She said, "We want to be sure", but when Valerie asked, "Sure for what"...

Sunday dinners at the Chambers' family were something special, and in their home, every Sunday, it was like a Christmas. Timothy's mother was always cooking food enough to feed an army, and nobody could understand why she did that when at Sunday's dinners there were only five of them: Timothy, his brother, their parents, and Valerie, who was considered a member of their family. Used to, there were six of them, but since Timothy's older brother Brian last year broke up with his high school sweetheart Carrie, he never brought another girl after her at these family dinners. Brian was a spitting image of his father, and he was his father's pride. Unlike Timothy, he was standing strong with his feet on the ground, and he was dreaming of one day inheriting his father's business. Since Brian was a little boy, he spent all his time in the store, and when he grew up, it was logical for him to start to work there. At college, he was studying business management, and h...

A week later, early in the morning, Tessa called Valerie to tell her that a letter from some magazine from New York had arrived for her at their parents' house. Last year, while Valerie was searching for a new apartment to live in with Timothy, she gave her parents' address to every place where she applied for a job. If someone decides to reply to her, the risk of losing the mail is smaller if she gives her potential employers a permanent address. Valerie left her breakfast unfinished on the table. She just grabbed her bag, and all excited, she left her home. "Finally, someone replied", that is what she was thinking of, all the way from her apartment to her parents' house. It never crossed her mind that this could be one of those letters where they inform her how much they regret not being able to offer her a job at the moment, but they will reconsider her application in the future. She had some sort of inexplicable feeling that this time, the news would be goo...

By the end of the spring, in Mrs. Wilson's shop arrived the new summer collection, and Mrs. Wilson and Valerie were busier than usual. At work, there were only two of them, and they had to do all the work. To serve the customers, and to start with the unpacking. The people couldn't get into the shop because of the boxes with clothes, which were all over the shop. The loyal customers arrived at the same moment when they heard about the new collection, and they were impatient to try every piece of clothes that arrived. "I don't know... I'm not sure... I think in this dress I look much bigger," Mrs. Kingsley said with hesitation while she was looking at herself in the mirror. "That's not true, Mrs. Kingsley. You look beautiful in that dress, but if you want, I can show you more dresses," Valerie said, and she went as fast as she could to find different models for one of their most loyal customers. "I haven't seen these models." ...

The old Greek myth says humans used to have four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces. The humans then had a great strength, and fearing their power, Zeus split humans into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves. And when one of them meets the other half, the actual half of himself, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship, and they don't want to be separated from one another, not even for a moment. If the old myth about soul mates is to be believed, then Valerie and Timothy found their other half when they were only eight, at the moment she walked into the classroom on the first school day of the second grade. Her mother got a better position at The University of Santa Monica, and Valerie replaced rainy London with sunny California. "Children, this year we have a new student in our class. This is Valerie Patterson, and she came from London. Please, everyone, be nice to her and make her wel...

December 2018 The holiday season came so soon, and I couldn't believe it was already Christmas Eve. It's unbelievable how the time flies when we are happy. These holidays are very special to me because I'll have together with me the people I love most: Tom, his family, and my family. My parents came to New York to visit Tom and me, and they will stay with us until my birthday in February. Tom's parents invited us all to spend Christmas Eve with them in their apartment, and when I saw the table full of incredible meals, I couldn't stop wondering how they managed to cook all that food. "Don't worry, Nina. If we ever have to cook for nine people, leave everything to me," Tom said. "Because you are a son of two excellent chefs, that doesn't mean that you can cook like a chef." "Well, as you know, I'm not much of a cook, but I know some awesome places from where we can order food, almost delicious as the food served on the t...