The Distant Cousin stories, while contemporary--set in today's world, more or less--are not meant to be predictive. Yet because they do deal with and around current affairs, sometimes they might seem predictive. This blog has already collected over eight such examples, and later several more. Now there is another. The scene excerpted below comes from Distant Cousin Two Worlds Daughter, first published in 2014.
In it, Ana is attending the Davos Conference in Davos, Switzerland, where politicians, corporate magnates, and billionaire big shots are thick on the ground. One of the latter, a billionaire playboy publisher, wants Ana to agree to his offer to make a multi-million dollar, authorized version movie of her life on Earth. Ana has zero interest in such, quite the reverse, in fact. Here is what happens then. (We blank out two words in case our host might object to them.)
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Sensing it was now her turn, Ana professed herself flattered and delighted with the concept and promised to recommend it to the board of directors of the Second Planet Foundation at the earliest opportunity.
Bianchi, ruddy cheeks glowing, stood and demanded a group photo to commemorate the beginning of the glorious project. A publicist and an aide produced cameras and associated hardware, and the principals lined up behind the table, Ana and Bianchi in the center. While the camera person focused, Bianchi laid his arm behind Ana's back and surreptitiously pulled her closer, squeezing her breast from the side. She instantly moved his hand away. No one seemed to notice her flash of anger. The camera clicked several times.
Bianchi, smiling and undeterred, announced, "And now a kiss, to seal the deal!"
With the same hand, he pulled her neck to him and planted a kiss square on her lips. Or rather, he began to plant a kiss: at the same time Ana brought a hand up and gave his right ear a hard twist.
"Oww!" he bellowed, "S__t!"
The room went deathly still, except for Bianchi, grimacing in pain.
She stepped back, her eyes like daggers.
"God d__n!" he said, hand to his ear.
"You, sir, have no honor," she said through clenched teeth, and stormed out of the room.
Her assistant couldn't exactly follow her unobtrusively, but he did the best he could.
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We have yet to see reported any instance of a woman doing something like this these days...but perhaps it's not far off. When it does happen, our congratulations here can be yet another scoop of the future.
