Odyssey Read Online Free

knocked.
    No answer.
    He knocked again.
    The knob jiggled and clicked. A slight movement of air told Sovereign that a door had opened.
    “Yes?” a woman’s voice asked. “Can I help you?”
    She was shy of five six, half a foot shorter than Sovereign.
    “I was looking for Dr. Offeran. I was sure that this was his door.”
    “He’s the pink door behind you.”
    “Directly behind me?”
    After a pause the woman said, “Yes.”
    “I’m here, Mr. James,” Offeran’s voice said. “Right behind you.”
    “Thank you,” Sovereign said to the woman before him. Then he turned and headed in the direction of his doctor’s voice.
    He had the feeling of passing through a doorway.
    “Couch is just a few steps ahead of you,” Seth Offeran said.
    As he was seating himself Sovereign heard the door to the office close.
    “That was inaccurate language for a blind man,” James said.
    “What?”
    “ ‘A few steps.’ That could mean two or four. I mean, I know in usage it means three, but most people aren’t aware of that fact.”
    “Sorry,” Offeran said. “I’ll use the correct number from now on.”
    Again Sovereign felt as if he had scored a point in some kind of unique game. But this time the victory felt hollow.
    “How did you sleep?” the doctor asked.
    “Fine, great. You know, the only time I ever see anything is in my dreams.”
    “Did you dream about me?”
    “Yes, I did.”
    “What did I look like in your dream?”
    Sovereign smiled. “Is this some kind of trick, Doctor?”
    “No. I was wondering if you might have let an image of me in even though you believe that you have not seen me.”
    “So you agree with Dr. Tomcat that I’m really not blind but fakin’ it.”
    “No. I believe what you’re telling me. But that doesn’t discount the possibility that you’re suffering from conversion disorder.”
    “What’s that?”
    “That is when a person redirects the focus of a severe anxiety into the manifestation of a psychosomatic illness. This could be paralysis, general numbness, or the interruption of one of the senses—including sight.”
    If this were a boxing match, Sovereign thought, he’d be flat on his back at this moment.
    “I didn’t see you,” he said, mentally getting to his feet. “You asked a question but I didn’t see your face.”
    “What did I ask?”
    “I don’t remember.” This was true.
    “What was the rest of the dream about …?”

    The hour was used up talking about Eagle James and the boat that Sovereign knew of but had never seen. He enjoyed talking about his family and their stories. This hour, and many more after that, allowed him access to a world that he thought he’d left behind after going off to college and starting his professional lifeas a human resources revolutionary.

    “Why did Valentina break it off with you?” Dr. Seth Offeran asked on the following Tuesday, the seventh session of Sovereign’s therapy.
    “She didn’t want children,” Sovereign said. “I told you that already.”
    “Was that something new for her?”
    “No, we had kinda agreed on it,” Sovereign said, haltingly.
    “Was there any more to it?”
    “She had worked for Techno-Sym and I’d given her a glowing recommendation for her new position at Jolly Jake’s Virtual Arcade Corporation.”
    “And you told her about it?”
    “No. No. I guess they’re pretty loose at Jolly Jake’s and the employment director let her take a look at her file. She called and asked me out to lunch.”
    “And you went?”
    “I didn’t see why not,” Sovereign said. “I had no idea that she had seen my recommendation, and anyway … she was married.”
    “Married?”
    “Yes, to another employee of Techno-Sym. Verso Andrews.”
    “And what was the lunch about?”
    “Like I said, she’d read my letter to JJ’s Arcade and wanted to thank me. We talked and I told her that she had always been an outstanding employee who did the job because of professionalism and not for any