Chapter 2

The Italian restaurant offered its customers privacy by utilizing well placed columns and large plants.  Along one side of the restaurant glass panels reached from floor to ceiling, affording the occupants of the tables alongside it a breathtaking view of the city. 

Unfortunately, this view was lost on Dana as she glanced at her watch for the second in as many minutes.  It was only 7:45pm so Alice still had plenty of time before their scheduled 8:00 meeting but Dana couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed that the writer hadn’t yet showed up.  After all, this was the same woman who had called her a butt plug and left crazy messages about herds of hippos. 

Following the conversation in which a new meeting was agreed upon, Dana had looked up as much information on Alice Pieszecki as she could find on the web.  If Alice was going to be following her around to Dana’s rehab and doctor appointments then Dana wanted to know as much about her as possible.  Over the years she had come across a couple of the writer’s works and had always been impressed with the depth and emotion that her words provoked in her readers. 

From what Dana had been able to find, Alice Pieszecki was 31 years old and made her home in LA when she wasn’t traveling for a story.  The writer had been to over twenty different countries for a myriad of stories in the seven years since she left the LA Star.  One of her more recent stories had been a piece she’d written about corruptness and uprisings in the Philippines.  Although Dana liked to consider herself up to date on current events she couldn’t help but feel a little ignorant after reading about the NPA (New People’s Army), their war with the Philippine government’s armed forces, and how it was effecting the lives of Filipino citizens.  Reading the story, Dana had been impressed with the research and first-hand accounts that Alice had included in her work.  She had also been impressed to find that because of the attention her story had brought, the Philippine Government was putting more resources into protecting its citizens from the acts of violence by the NPA.