Chapter 7 
	As they drove back home, Angela recovered her spirits. 
"Helen, could you stop at the Vanity Shop? I'd like to buy a 
replacement for a mirror I broke last week." 
	"Just tell me where to find the Vanity Shop." 
	Angela pointed through the windshield. Just turn left at 
the light, and go about a block to the shopping center on your 
right. 
	"I remember it now." She looked ahead to the traffic 
light. It looked strange. She saw the red arrow for the left 
turn signal but also saw, as if in a tunnel, a sequence of red 
arrows that at the end of the tunnel changed to green. Bemused 
and distracted by the strange looking red light, Helen didn't 
stop for it. She drove into the intersection just as the red 
arrow signal changed to green left arrow. 
	Their truck entered the intersection at the same time 
as another car. Angela screamed. "No! No! No!" Almost by 
accident she swung her arms around and swatted the panic button 
on the dashboard. Immediately, all the side windows rolled down. 
	Meanwhile the passenger in the front seat of the car, 
Mike Long, reached out calmly and pressed the panic button 
while the driver, Dan Austin, belatedly pressed the brake pedal 
as hard as he could. 
	Mike watched the action as if in slow motion. He barely 
noticed the windows of the car swiftly roll down. He did notice 
two women in the green truck and watched the driver put her left 
hand through her open window as if she could stop Dan's car with 
one hand. 
	Mike stared at Helen, fearful that the next second would 
see her hand crushed. Instead, both vehicles, under control of 
their respective computers, attempted to avoid the collision. 
	The car made a 450 degree counterclockwise turn. At 180 
degrees through its 450 degree rotation, when it faced away from 
the truck, the car accelerated forward briefly. At 360 degrees 
through its rotation, Mike felt the brakes take hold. Mike 
stared forward at the truck. The car completed its 450 degree 
rotation, and he needed to look through his open side window to 
keep the truck in view. 
	The truck made a full 360 clockwise degree rotation. 
At 90 degrees through its rotation, it accelerated away from the 
car for a brief instant. At 270 degrees through its rotation, 
the brakes took hold. 
	Both vehicles had slowed significantly, but not enough 
to completely avoid collision. Mike could see it now. In another 
half second the side of the truck would strike their car. He 
attempted to slide as far as he could away from his side window, 
but his seat belt jerked him to a stop. 
	The expected impact never came. Mike, catching his 
breath, looked wonderingly through his open side window at the 
green truck. 
	Both vehicles had stopped. He could see Helen and Angela 
through the truck's open side window. They were staring at him. 
Mike did not notice that Helen's hand rested lightly on his open 
window ledge. He grimaced, and weakly waved to Helen. 
	With the vehicles stopped, Dan saw that they needed to 
clear the intersection. He triple punched the forward button on 
the dashboard to start the engine. He looked to his right to 
check on the truck. He noticed the driver of the truck holding 
on to their window, while staring at Mike. He thought to warn 
the driver to remove her hand, but immediately forgot about it 
because the need to clear the Highway intersection dominated his 
thoughts. 
	Dan glanced upward at the traffic light. It flashed red 
in all directions. Of course! The car's computer had transmitted 
the emergency code to the traffic light. 
	Dan drove his car forward through the light, turning 
left, back the way they had come, so he could park his car in 
that shopping center they had just passed. 
	In a daze, Helen started the truck, followed Dan, and 
parked the truck in the adjacent space to the right of the car. 
She looked to her left to meet Mike's stare. 
	Dan opened his door, and walked around his car to address 
Helen. "Are you alright?" 
	She broke off her stare with Mike, and looked at Dan. 
"We're fine. Both of us are fine. We were all extremely lucky 
this time. We should take it as a lesson for next time." 
	Angela quickly opened her door, so she could get out to 
face Dan. "You drove very recklessly! We could have all been 
killed! It's a miracle that we're not all dead! Your guardian 
angel won't always be there to save you." Turning to inspect 
Victor's truck she said, "I don't understand how we escaped the 
collision?" 
	Helen wondered too. What really happened? Then she heard 
or imagined she heard a quiet voice within her say, "I stopped 
the vehicles from colliding." She snapped her head sideways to 
get rid of the voice. Could anything be done to stop her silent 
auditory illusions? 
	Mike and Helen emerged from their respective vehicles 
at the same time. All four of them now stood in front of the 
two vehicles. 
	Mike addressed Helen and Angela. "I'm Mike Long, and my 
companion is Dan Austin. Dan is the CEO for United Tobacco 
Companies. I'm his right hand man, responsible for public 
relations and shooting any trouble that arises. We came a week 
early to vacation before the big event." 
	Helen frowned, but politely asked, "What big event?" 
	But Angela, excited, answered. "Oh, you must mean the big 
Shoppe Faire next Monday at the fairgrounds. Almost everyone who 
has anything to sell will be there advertising their wares. 
I myself willbe there representing the university Union store. 
Helen, you should come to my booth at the Faire." 
	Helen shook her head. "First I've heard of it. I don't 
think I'm interested in the faire." 
	Angela turned toward Helen. "Won't you be free that day?" 
	"Oh, I'll come see you, Angela. But I have no 
intention of seeing these two gentlemen ever again." 
	Mike frowned. "I understand. We almost killed you. I'm 
sorry. I don't blame you for never wanting to see us again." 
	Helen shook her head. "No. That's not it at all. I hate 
tobacco and cigs. I won't have anything to do with people selling the
cigs. I wish you understood that cigs kill people." 
	Mike started to respond, but then changed his mind. 
He signaled Dan and they both got back into their car. Helen and 
Angela watched them drive out of the shopping center. 
	Angela turned to Helen. "Now I feel relieved. Helen, what do 
you think just happened? How come we aren't dead?" 
	Helen frowned. "I don't know, and I don't want to think 
about it. Let's go buy your mirror." 
	As they approached the Vanity Shop, they saw a small boy 
sitting on the sidewalk in front of it. As the boy looked up at 
them, they saw the tears in his eyes. 
	Helen felt strongly the need to console the boy. "What's 
wrong?" 
	The boy started to cry again, and through his tears 
explained.  "I came to buy a present for my mom, but just as I 
got here, the wind blew my M-note out of my hand. I couldn't see 
where it went. Now I don't have any money to buy my mom's 
present." 
	Helen smiled. "I think I can fix that." She reached into 
her pocket and pulled out a flat wallet. Opening it, she pulled 
out her last M-note. Giving it to the small boy she said, 
"This will replace the one you lost." 
	The boy looked up at Helen, and smiled his thanks. "Oh, 
thank you very much! Are you the Goddess of Beauty?" 
	"What?" Both Helen and Angela spoke as one. 
The boy pointed to a billboard behind them. "Isn't that you?"
	Helen and Angela quickly turned to look in the direction 
he pointed. They saw the billboard set about four meters off the 
ground on the edge of the parking lot. On it a picture featured 
a woman dressed in a toga like an ancient Greek citizen. She 
cradled a shallow dish of white stargazer lily flowers in her 
two hands while looking up at the night sky filled with stars. 
The Caption at the top of the Billboard read, "The goddess of 
beauty shops first at the Vanity Shop." 
	Angela exclaimed, "Oh my goodness Helen, she looks just 
like you!" 
	Helen addressed the young boy. "No, that's not me. I 
think the goddess isn't a real person." 
	Angela added her comment. "Sometimes Helen acts like an 
angel, but I know that she's a real person." 
	The boy nodded his head. "That's what I thought. But 
when I saw you, I wanted to make sure." The boy turned to go 
into the shop. 
	Helen and Angela followed him in. As they entered the 
shop, Angela rushed over to speak to the woman at the checkout 
desk. "Who was the model for your goddess of beauty ad?" 
	Surprised, the woman looked up at Angela. "We didn't have 
a model. My husband paid a friend of his to find the most 
beautiful woman in the world. Myself, I think it's kind of silly, 
and haven't paid any attention. Why do you ask? Do you know 
someone who it looks like?"