Doreen Read Online Free Page B

you’re going to like the picture.”
    â€œReally?” Doreen’s smile was full of gratitude.
    Biz sat at her computer, hard at work. She uploaded the photos from that afternoon’s session onto her computer and clicked through, looking for the picture that best mimicked the one from Vogue that she’d torn out of the magazine and pinned onto the wall. One photo in particular caught her attention.
    It was a medium shot, with Doreen gazing directly at the camera, commanding the viewer take her in, to feast on her beauty. It was a good picture—great even—and since she’d taken it herself, Biz was proud of the results. She checked it against the magazine picture and thought Doreen looked so much more vivacious than the dull model. Of course, Biz admitted to herself, you could see the imperfections of Doreen’s skin and the awkwardness of her body, but with her soul so available, what would that matter? Anyway, she could easily clean up the blemishes.
    Biz pulled the photo into her design program. Just a couple little touch-ups here and there so that Doreen would be proud of herself. Biz wanted her to feel confident—to see the beauty that was so apparent to her but more hidden from shallower types like Heidi or Mumzy. She zoomed in on Doreen’s face and began to smooth and gloss her skin.
    â€œI think,” Doreen said to Heidi, “that Biz thinks you will be a bad influence on me.”
    â€œOf course I will,” said Heidi. “If I am any influence at all, I will be a bad one, because that is the only kind of influence there is!”
    â€œWhat do you mean? You don’t believe in positive influence?”
    â€œOnly when you are the influencer, then there are oodles of benefits. You see, Doreen, most people find the freedom of life to be too stressful. Choices oppress these people. To relieve them of their burden, you just make their choices for them. Of course, it’s a delicate process. Though they want to be freed from freedom, they still have an ego. As an influencer, it’s up to you to ensure that even as you deliver them from their free will, they can uphold the make-believe that they are proceeding on their own chosen path.
    â€œBut in the meantime, you have to be vigilant in the matters of your own desires. Differentiate yourself from the sheep by loving freedom, by refusing to forsake it for any reason. You must, in other words, make yourself a fortress, barring yourself from outside influence so that you maintain the power over your own life and the lives of others.”
    Doreen’s face took on a peculiar look, as if she’d uncovered some long-buried truth and the discovery made her euphoric with recognition.
    â€œThere is something special about you, Doreen,” Heidi continued, keeping a careful eye on the effect of her words on Doreen’s face. “I saw it as soon as you walked in here. I think it would really be something if you gave yourself the liberty to satisfy yourself. Let life work in your favor; let all that you want be delivered to you. I’ll help you.”
    â€œWill you, Heidi?” Doreen asked breathlessly, her eyes darting back and forth across Heidi’s face. “I would like that so much! Will you really?”
    â€œHeidi, what are you saying?” said Biz, her face lit blue from the glow of the computer screen. “Whatever it is, don’t listen, Doreen.”
    â€œBiz, don’t lecture,” said Heidi, with a conspiratorial roll of her eyes at Doreen. The girl smiled—at her cousin’s expense! Oh, this was too easy. “And aren’t you done yet? The anticipation is torturous.”
    â€œAlmost, almost.” Having finished with Doreen’s face, Biz moved onto her body. A little smoothing, she said to herself, nobody is perfect. Anyway, she was only giving Doreen’s picture the same attention the model had received in Vogue . She trained her digital