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The inky black shadows rippled as the wisp of a figure slipped out from round the house and noiselessly fled through the courtyard, he was off into the night, and away.
* * *
"Ok", said Susan exasperatedly into her mobile
"Yes, but....", Susan tried to say
The phone had been placed on its' hook at the other end. "Damn inconsiderate b…", Susan rapped her hand on the taxi window
"Mr. done a runner?", asked the cab driver from the front seat. As bad as Susan felt she smiled, anyone would with those twinkling eyes set into that aged looking face. He looked like the type of person who was always optimistic and even his large brown moustache gave her comfort. The driver smiled back and twisted in his seat to face the road once more. He pulled back onto the motorway from the little pull in. Old fashioned he may be, but he still didn't believe in phones blaring out as he drove.
* * *
Susan had just been on a holiday in Corfu with her ex-husband and her three kids. She had been staying at the lovely resort of Paleokastitsa, on the west coast of the island.
They had spent a good three weeks at the warm beaches and marvelling at the traders on donkeys traipse up to the monastery every day. It had been an idyllic holiday that her ex had offered her to get her away from her stressful work at the office.
Little had she known that he was going to propose to her at the end of the holiday, she, being a stubborn woman, had been asked to be taken straight home, ruining her 4 week vacation.
* * *
Susan shielded her face from the rain as she jogged round to the driver’s side to pay him the 3 dollars she owed him. Hurriedly she thanked him and shielded her face from the New York down pour as she returned home to her flat on Fifth Avenue.
Susan needed a coffee, badly. She needed a nice strong coffee and a chance to get her head around the events of the last few days. In her day dream she had stepped a few blocks passed her flat. She cursed herself and sprinted back down the street to her house. Susan fumbled with the keys and eventually found the one that opened her front door. She quickly went inside and shut the door, nearly tripping over the pile of mail in the process. Susan picked up her mail and walked through the narrow corridor, taking off her coat and putting it on the rack, before finally reaching the cramped (or "cosy" as she called it) kitchen.
"Junk. Bill. Another bill", said Susan as she opened the cupboard for some coffee. Putting the letters in her mouth, she filled up her Bosch kettle and proceeded to boil it.
Susan hit the switch on her answering machine labelled "P a ", unfortunately it had worn away the lettering over the four years she had owned it.
"Hi, darl. Its' Carla here....", said the tape
"Of course", Susan smacked her head, the dog.
"How was your' hols sweetie? Just to say that Sam is here and he’s been no trouble at all."
That was one more thing that Susan would have to do on her way to work tomorrow. Susan went back into the small corridor and went up to her little cork notice board. She smiled at the happy face of her daughter, four years ago, aged nine. Moving the photo to an angle on its' pin she adjusted her calendar to the current date, September the 10th.
She now poured out her black coffee and gulped great fully at it without letting it cool down, burning her tongue in the process. She didn't mind; finally she could unwind before a busy day at work.
When the initial effects of the coffee wore off she suddenly felt an incredible yearning to go to her bed. Susan was very tired after a day of flying and the emotional stress of her husband proposal, she decided to push this out of her mind for at least the next few days.
* * *
Finally, two hours later, Susan headed upstairs to her bathroom (the largest room in her house) and started to run a hot, steamy bath.
About five minutes later the bath was half full and she gratefully stepped into the water. She felt glad to be at her home; home sweet home.
She held on to the furnished brass handles and slipped back into the herbal bubbles. The relaxation of Radox soothed her as the smell of lime entered her nostrils. The floor tiles were white and shiny, as her dog Sam, (a terrier) had not yet entered the bathroom with his muddy paws, since she had last cleaned it. The sink gleamed and the tiles were actually sparkling, Susan wondered if this was just a trick of the light, as she had never noticed this before.
* * *
The alarm sounded at 6:00 clock am sharp and she moaned as she reached out to turn off the piercing chime of the clockwork object. She respected clocks as they obviously govern peoples lives, only not when they woke her up, even if she had set it herself.
In the morning it was windy but the rain had cleared up. She went into the kitchen and left a message on Carla's answering machine about picking up the dog. With that thought in mind she "freshened up", got "cut short" halfway through the process. Then she got dressed into her working jumper, purple. She put on her best jeans and pearl earrings.
She drove her "last legs" Mazda 323 to the centre of town and through the morning traffic build up. She switched on the radio and adjusted the dial to the "Classic FM" station. It was playing her favourite composer, "Porter". She turned off onto Main Street and swore at the traffic as she drove into the usual Central Park traffic fiasco. Susan always played a game; she had done since she was a little girl, where the honking of horns and spluttering engines could be made into a song. Susan clasped her left hand and two cars honked, arced her right hand and there was an obscene conversation drifting from a neighbouring vehicle.
Eventually she switched of the radio and concentrated on the sights and sounds around her, there was the hotdog vender on the corner of the park, and the smell wafted up to her through the open car window. The smell of exhaust fumes came from the cars around her and some obnoxiously loud music blared into her right ear, giving her a headache.
Susan waited until the car had travelled onwards through the traffic, but the headache still showed no signs of abating, so she reached into her blue leather and handbag and withdrew a Nurofen tablet. As she slipped the tablet into her mouth the traffic moved on and she was caught slightly unawares. After a few seconds someone loudly honked her horn, and Susan blushed, before angrily shouting,
“I’m goin’ I’m goin’ you maniac”, she called out of the window. This had the effect of lifting her spirits a bit.
* * *
She eventually arrived outside her office at 10:17 am, precisely one hour and seventeen minutes late. Susan cursed the traffic again before hurriedly lifting her handbag and swinging the car door open. She took one look at her reflection in the mirror and then popped in a breath mint. She buffeted her hair to the left and then to the right, this always had the effect of making her feel more business like.
* * *
“Freakin’ 2001 traffic, worse than last year”, ranted a man called Mike from across the office room she worked in. He sat three rows back and slightly to the right of Susan’s current position.
“I know what you mean”, sympathised his friend, Susan was yet to learn his name.
Susan stopped eavesdropping on snippets of conversations and opened her red binder. She had to sweep of some old post its into her metallic draw before turning her attention to the folder’s contents. Just after she had read her assignment she had a thought. She took a yellow post it from her draw and wrote clearly on it: “COLLECT SAM, FROM CARLA”.
* **
Today’s assignment was a simple research the RRP of some CD’s and some exercise bikes, before finishing any overdue projects. Susan worked doggedly through the morning and managed to complete quite a few detailed assignments as well as her easy research. Susan had used her payroll to buy Broadband, thus making any Internet related work easier, she didn’t trust the internet though. She had just explored the prices and found out that a shop named “Special Reserve” had the cheapest available price for her electronic price range research.
Susan dreamily stared across the office from her ninth floor vantage point and noted the decibel level of her co-workers. Susan saw the adjacent tower and remembered she must visit it on Wednesday. This she noted in her little gold-leaf bound calendar, a souvenir from Corfu that she was particularly proud of. Her co-workers seemed to be carefree and happy. Like she was when she first married Iain…
* * *
The time had flown by and Susan dreamily looked at her watch and the time was One thirty. The dreaming abruptly ended and she leapt up, with a very audible cry of “$h!t”.
Susan hurried to her bosses’ office on the eleventh floor, leaping stairs on her way up the spiral.
She burst through the door to that of which his office was accessible from and strode purposefully past his horrible, horn rimmed spectacled secretary. She knocked on his door before going in without a reply of confirmation.
Susan saw him with his binoculars to the window before remembering, with a sickening jolt, that this was the bosses’ plane watching time. One of her bosses’ favourite past times. Susan then tried to shuffle slyly out of the door. Unfortunately she had been noticed.
“Susan Berkley”, drilled the boss,
“Yes sir”, she replied, cringing at the use of her full name,
“Why did you just interrupt my plane watching?”, he inquired,
“I…I..”, Susan stuttered, before lamely ending with, “forgot”.
Alan Way was about to craft his response when a plane caught his attention, he lifted his binoculars but made a gesture for Susan to stay and be quiet. “Its’ not on the regular flight path”, he murmured, more to himself than to Susan.
* * *
The plane had then proceeded to veer off straight towards the tower itself, Susan was alarmed and it seemed that others had noticed it too. The engines of the plane were now audible and they roared like a caged tiger. But the plane did not stop there, or at all for that matter. Instead it ploughed its’ way into the side of the tower, at (on Susan’s estimate) roughly the sixth floor. There was a crashing and a shattering sound. The office shook and the Alan’s binoculars tumbled out of the window. The whole room jolted and Alan’s head was jerked into the window ledge, forcefully. Alan was knocked unconscious and then the shaking suddenly stopped. Susan was picking her way around the objects strewn across the floor before reaching Alan. Just as she reached him the room tipped and she slid out of the door as it flung open. Susan tumbled back and through the door she had entered the block through. Susan painfully bumped down the flight of four stairs she had effortlessly jumped before. Then she pushed her heels into the wall on her right, drastically, and then she stopped.
* * *
Susan vigorously pounded the elevators “Down” switch, but it had stopped working. As she descended the stairs she looked out of the window, many people were waving white cloth flags and then she saw one worker leap out of a downstairs window. She averted her eyes and felt sick. Then as she stared at the opposite building she felt a sickening lurch that she only experienced at drops on Roller coaster rides. Then the landmark she had been staring at was mysteriously above her, and ascending all the time. She looked over the stair well and her suspicions were conformed; the building was falling.
Susan opened the window latch and heaved the contraption open. She stood on the ledge and looked at the horrific fall. Then Susan’s mind drifted to thoughts about birds and freedom. She opened her eyes and soared, majestically. Like a bird…
* * *
The character mentioned at the beginning is life's mysteries projected in human form. The rest is an account that many of you will understand. I hope this provides a response that can justify this forum of its' "Intelligent Discussion" title.
* * *
"Ok", said Susan exasperatedly into her mobile
"Yes, but....", Susan tried to say
The phone had been placed on its' hook at the other end. "Damn inconsiderate b…", Susan rapped her hand on the taxi window
"Mr. done a runner?", asked the cab driver from the front seat. As bad as Susan felt she smiled, anyone would with those twinkling eyes set into that aged looking face. He looked like the type of person who was always optimistic and even his large brown moustache gave her comfort. The driver smiled back and twisted in his seat to face the road once more. He pulled back onto the motorway from the little pull in. Old fashioned he may be, but he still didn't believe in phones blaring out as he drove.
* * *
Susan had just been on a holiday in Corfu with her ex-husband and her three kids. She had been staying at the lovely resort of Paleokastitsa, on the west coast of the island.
They had spent a good three weeks at the warm beaches and marvelling at the traders on donkeys traipse up to the monastery every day. It had been an idyllic holiday that her ex had offered her to get her away from her stressful work at the office.
Little had she known that he was going to propose to her at the end of the holiday, she, being a stubborn woman, had been asked to be taken straight home, ruining her 4 week vacation.
* * *
Susan shielded her face from the rain as she jogged round to the driver’s side to pay him the 3 dollars she owed him. Hurriedly she thanked him and shielded her face from the New York down pour as she returned home to her flat on Fifth Avenue.
Susan needed a coffee, badly. She needed a nice strong coffee and a chance to get her head around the events of the last few days. In her day dream she had stepped a few blocks passed her flat. She cursed herself and sprinted back down the street to her house. Susan fumbled with the keys and eventually found the one that opened her front door. She quickly went inside and shut the door, nearly tripping over the pile of mail in the process. Susan picked up her mail and walked through the narrow corridor, taking off her coat and putting it on the rack, before finally reaching the cramped (or "cosy" as she called it) kitchen.
"Junk. Bill. Another bill", said Susan as she opened the cupboard for some coffee. Putting the letters in her mouth, she filled up her Bosch kettle and proceeded to boil it.
Susan hit the switch on her answering machine labelled "P a ", unfortunately it had worn away the lettering over the four years she had owned it.
"Hi, darl. Its' Carla here....", said the tape
"Of course", Susan smacked her head, the dog.
"How was your' hols sweetie? Just to say that Sam is here and he’s been no trouble at all."
That was one more thing that Susan would have to do on her way to work tomorrow. Susan went back into the small corridor and went up to her little cork notice board. She smiled at the happy face of her daughter, four years ago, aged nine. Moving the photo to an angle on its' pin she adjusted her calendar to the current date, September the 10th.
She now poured out her black coffee and gulped great fully at it without letting it cool down, burning her tongue in the process. She didn't mind; finally she could unwind before a busy day at work.
When the initial effects of the coffee wore off she suddenly felt an incredible yearning to go to her bed. Susan was very tired after a day of flying and the emotional stress of her husband proposal, she decided to push this out of her mind for at least the next few days.
* * *
Finally, two hours later, Susan headed upstairs to her bathroom (the largest room in her house) and started to run a hot, steamy bath.
About five minutes later the bath was half full and she gratefully stepped into the water. She felt glad to be at her home; home sweet home.
She held on to the furnished brass handles and slipped back into the herbal bubbles. The relaxation of Radox soothed her as the smell of lime entered her nostrils. The floor tiles were white and shiny, as her dog Sam, (a terrier) had not yet entered the bathroom with his muddy paws, since she had last cleaned it. The sink gleamed and the tiles were actually sparkling, Susan wondered if this was just a trick of the light, as she had never noticed this before.
* * *
The alarm sounded at 6:00 clock am sharp and she moaned as she reached out to turn off the piercing chime of the clockwork object. She respected clocks as they obviously govern peoples lives, only not when they woke her up, even if she had set it herself.
In the morning it was windy but the rain had cleared up. She went into the kitchen and left a message on Carla's answering machine about picking up the dog. With that thought in mind she "freshened up", got "cut short" halfway through the process. Then she got dressed into her working jumper, purple. She put on her best jeans and pearl earrings.
She drove her "last legs" Mazda 323 to the centre of town and through the morning traffic build up. She switched on the radio and adjusted the dial to the "Classic FM" station. It was playing her favourite composer, "Porter". She turned off onto Main Street and swore at the traffic as she drove into the usual Central Park traffic fiasco. Susan always played a game; she had done since she was a little girl, where the honking of horns and spluttering engines could be made into a song. Susan clasped her left hand and two cars honked, arced her right hand and there was an obscene conversation drifting from a neighbouring vehicle.
Eventually she switched of the radio and concentrated on the sights and sounds around her, there was the hotdog vender on the corner of the park, and the smell wafted up to her through the open car window. The smell of exhaust fumes came from the cars around her and some obnoxiously loud music blared into her right ear, giving her a headache.
Susan waited until the car had travelled onwards through the traffic, but the headache still showed no signs of abating, so she reached into her blue leather and handbag and withdrew a Nurofen tablet. As she slipped the tablet into her mouth the traffic moved on and she was caught slightly unawares. After a few seconds someone loudly honked her horn, and Susan blushed, before angrily shouting,
“I’m goin’ I’m goin’ you maniac”, she called out of the window. This had the effect of lifting her spirits a bit.
* * *
She eventually arrived outside her office at 10:17 am, precisely one hour and seventeen minutes late. Susan cursed the traffic again before hurriedly lifting her handbag and swinging the car door open. She took one look at her reflection in the mirror and then popped in a breath mint. She buffeted her hair to the left and then to the right, this always had the effect of making her feel more business like.
* * *
“Freakin’ 2001 traffic, worse than last year”, ranted a man called Mike from across the office room she worked in. He sat three rows back and slightly to the right of Susan’s current position.
“I know what you mean”, sympathised his friend, Susan was yet to learn his name.
Susan stopped eavesdropping on snippets of conversations and opened her red binder. She had to sweep of some old post its into her metallic draw before turning her attention to the folder’s contents. Just after she had read her assignment she had a thought. She took a yellow post it from her draw and wrote clearly on it: “COLLECT SAM, FROM CARLA”.
* **
Today’s assignment was a simple research the RRP of some CD’s and some exercise bikes, before finishing any overdue projects. Susan worked doggedly through the morning and managed to complete quite a few detailed assignments as well as her easy research. Susan had used her payroll to buy Broadband, thus making any Internet related work easier, she didn’t trust the internet though. She had just explored the prices and found out that a shop named “Special Reserve” had the cheapest available price for her electronic price range research.
Susan dreamily stared across the office from her ninth floor vantage point and noted the decibel level of her co-workers. Susan saw the adjacent tower and remembered she must visit it on Wednesday. This she noted in her little gold-leaf bound calendar, a souvenir from Corfu that she was particularly proud of. Her co-workers seemed to be carefree and happy. Like she was when she first married Iain…
* * *
The time had flown by and Susan dreamily looked at her watch and the time was One thirty. The dreaming abruptly ended and she leapt up, with a very audible cry of “$h!t”.
Susan hurried to her bosses’ office on the eleventh floor, leaping stairs on her way up the spiral.
She burst through the door to that of which his office was accessible from and strode purposefully past his horrible, horn rimmed spectacled secretary. She knocked on his door before going in without a reply of confirmation.
Susan saw him with his binoculars to the window before remembering, with a sickening jolt, that this was the bosses’ plane watching time. One of her bosses’ favourite past times. Susan then tried to shuffle slyly out of the door. Unfortunately she had been noticed.
“Susan Berkley”, drilled the boss,
“Yes sir”, she replied, cringing at the use of her full name,
“Why did you just interrupt my plane watching?”, he inquired,
“I…I..”, Susan stuttered, before lamely ending with, “forgot”.
Alan Way was about to craft his response when a plane caught his attention, he lifted his binoculars but made a gesture for Susan to stay and be quiet. “Its’ not on the regular flight path”, he murmured, more to himself than to Susan.
* * *
The plane had then proceeded to veer off straight towards the tower itself, Susan was alarmed and it seemed that others had noticed it too. The engines of the plane were now audible and they roared like a caged tiger. But the plane did not stop there, or at all for that matter. Instead it ploughed its’ way into the side of the tower, at (on Susan’s estimate) roughly the sixth floor. There was a crashing and a shattering sound. The office shook and the Alan’s binoculars tumbled out of the window. The whole room jolted and Alan’s head was jerked into the window ledge, forcefully. Alan was knocked unconscious and then the shaking suddenly stopped. Susan was picking her way around the objects strewn across the floor before reaching Alan. Just as she reached him the room tipped and she slid out of the door as it flung open. Susan tumbled back and through the door she had entered the block through. Susan painfully bumped down the flight of four stairs she had effortlessly jumped before. Then she pushed her heels into the wall on her right, drastically, and then she stopped.
* * *
Susan vigorously pounded the elevators “Down” switch, but it had stopped working. As she descended the stairs she looked out of the window, many people were waving white cloth flags and then she saw one worker leap out of a downstairs window. She averted her eyes and felt sick. Then as she stared at the opposite building she felt a sickening lurch that she only experienced at drops on Roller coaster rides. Then the landmark she had been staring at was mysteriously above her, and ascending all the time. She looked over the stair well and her suspicions were conformed; the building was falling.
Susan opened the window latch and heaved the contraption open. She stood on the ledge and looked at the horrific fall. Then Susan’s mind drifted to thoughts about birds and freedom. She opened her eyes and soared, majestically. Like a bird…
* * *
The character mentioned at the beginning is life's mysteries projected in human form. The rest is an account that many of you will understand. I hope this provides a response that can justify this forum of its' "Intelligent Discussion" title.
I dunno, there was too much useless drivel at the beginning of the story, it set no real mood or anything, it was just there, to fill it up.
Okay then. It was a little distant.
The last 2 sentances carried good emotion.
The last 2 sentances carried good emotion.
It wasn't mechanical...
'Twas an intresting perspective.
But my English Lang. teacher always says this thing about showing, not telling, the reader what's going on. I think this applies here - it seemed a little mechanical.
But my English Lang. teacher always says this thing about showing, not telling, the reader what's going on. I think this applies here - it seemed a little mechanical.
"She had just explored the prices and found out that a shop named “Special Reserve” had the cheapest available price for her electronic price range research."
Blatant GAD attempt!!
Only joking. Good story. Interesting perspective. Although I would say the tower did seem to tumble too soon after the impact of the plane.
Blatant GAD attempt!!
Only joking. Good story. Interesting perspective. Although I would say the tower did seem to tumble too soon after the impact of the plane.
I'll read this tomorrow.
'Tis a bit late for this ... and a Sunday.
'Tis a bit late for this ... and a Sunday.
...And perhaps a go at GAD...
The inky black shadows rippled as the wisp of a figure slipped out from round the house and noiselessly fled through the courtyard, he was off into the night, and away.
* * *
"Ok", said Susan exasperatedly into her mobile
"Yes, but....", Susan tried to say
The phone had been placed on its' hook at the other end. "Damn inconsiderate b…", Susan rapped her hand on the taxi window
"Mr. done a runner?", asked the cab driver from the front seat. As bad as Susan felt she smiled, anyone would with those twinkling eyes set into that aged looking face. He looked like the type of person who was always optimistic and even his large brown moustache gave her comfort. The driver smiled back and twisted in his seat to face the road once more. He pulled back onto the motorway from the little pull in. Old fashioned he may be, but he still didn't believe in phones blaring out as he drove.
* * *
Susan had just been on a holiday in Corfu with her ex-husband and her three kids. She had been staying at the lovely resort of Paleokastitsa, on the west coast of the island.
They had spent a good three weeks at the warm beaches and marvelling at the traders on donkeys traipse up to the monastery every day. It had been an idyllic holiday that her ex had offered her to get her away from her stressful work at the office.
Little had she known that he was going to propose to her at the end of the holiday, she, being a stubborn woman, had been asked to be taken straight home, ruining her 4 week vacation.
* * *
Susan shielded her face from the rain as she jogged round to the driver’s side to pay him the 3 dollars she owed him. Hurriedly she thanked him and shielded her face from the New York down pour as she returned home to her flat on Fifth Avenue.
Susan needed a coffee, badly. She needed a nice strong coffee and a chance to get her head around the events of the last few days. In her day dream she had stepped a few blocks passed her flat. She cursed herself and sprinted back down the street to her house. Susan fumbled with the keys and eventually found the one that opened her front door. She quickly went inside and shut the door, nearly tripping over the pile of mail in the process. Susan picked up her mail and walked through the narrow corridor, taking off her coat and putting it on the rack, before finally reaching the cramped (or "cosy" as she called it) kitchen.
"Junk. Bill. Another bill", said Susan as she opened the cupboard for some coffee. Putting the letters in her mouth, she filled up her Bosch kettle and proceeded to boil it.
Susan hit the switch on her answering machine labelled "P a ", unfortunately it had worn away the lettering over the four years she had owned it.
"Hi, darl. Its' Carla here....", said the tape
"Of course", Susan smacked her head, the dog.
"How was your' hols sweetie? Just to say that Sam is here and he’s been no trouble at all."
That was one more thing that Susan would have to do on her way to work tomorrow. Susan went back into the small corridor and went up to her little cork notice board. She smiled at the happy face of her daughter, four years ago, aged nine. Moving the photo to an angle on its' pin she adjusted her calendar to the current date, September the 10th.
She now poured out her black coffee and gulped great fully at it without letting it cool down, burning her tongue in the process. She didn't mind; finally she could unwind before a busy day at work.
When the initial effects of the coffee wore off she suddenly felt an incredible yearning to go to her bed. Susan was very tired after a day of flying and the emotional stress of her husband proposal, she decided to push this out of her mind for at least the next few days.
* * *
Finally, two hours later, Susan headed upstairs to her bathroom (the largest room in her house) and started to run a hot, steamy bath.
About five minutes later the bath was half full and she gratefully stepped into the water. She felt glad to be at her home; home sweet home.
She held on to the furnished brass handles and slipped back into the herbal bubbles. The relaxation of Radox soothed her as the smell of lime entered her nostrils. The floor tiles were white and shiny, as her dog Sam, (a terrier) had not yet entered the bathroom with his muddy paws, since she had last cleaned it. The sink gleamed and the tiles were actually sparkling, Susan wondered if this was just a trick of the light, as she had never noticed this before.
* * *
The alarm sounded at 6:00 clock am sharp and she moaned as she reached out to turn off the piercing chime of the clockwork object. She respected clocks as they obviously govern peoples lives, only not when they woke her up, even if she had set it herself.
In the morning it was windy but the rain had cleared up. She went into the kitchen and left a message on Carla's answering machine about picking up the dog. With that thought in mind she "freshened up", got "cut short" halfway through the process. Then she got dressed into her working jumper, purple. She put on her best jeans and pearl earrings.
She drove her "last legs" Mazda 323 to the centre of town and through the morning traffic build up. She switched on the radio and adjusted the dial to the "Classic FM" station. It was playing her favourite composer, "Porter". She turned off onto Main Street and swore at the traffic as she drove into the usual Central Park traffic fiasco. Susan always played a game; she had done since she was a little girl, where the honking of horns and spluttering engines could be made into a song. Susan clasped her left hand and two cars honked, arced her right hand and there was an obscene conversation drifting from a neighbouring vehicle.
Eventually she switched of the radio and concentrated on the sights and sounds around her, there was the hotdog vender on the corner of the park, and the smell wafted up to her through the open car window. The smell of exhaust fumes came from the cars around her and some obnoxiously loud music blared into her right ear, giving her a headache.
Susan waited until the car had travelled onwards through the traffic, but the headache still showed no signs of abating, so she reached into her blue leather and handbag and withdrew a Nurofen tablet. As she slipped the tablet into her mouth the traffic moved on and she was caught slightly unawares. After a few seconds someone loudly honked her horn, and Susan blushed, before angrily shouting,
“I’m goin’ I’m goin’ you maniac”, she called out of the window. This had the effect of lifting her spirits a bit.
* * *
She eventually arrived outside her office at 10:17 am, precisely one hour and seventeen minutes late. Susan cursed the traffic again before hurriedly lifting her handbag and swinging the car door open. She took one look at her reflection in the mirror and then popped in a breath mint. She buffeted her hair to the left and then to the right, this always had the effect of making her feel more business like.
* * *
“Freakin’ 2001 traffic, worse than last year”, ranted a man called Mike from across the office room she worked in. He sat three rows back and slightly to the right of Susan’s current position.
“I know what you mean”, sympathised his friend, Susan was yet to learn his name.
Susan stopped eavesdropping on snippets of conversations and opened her red binder. She had to sweep of some old post its into her metallic draw before turning her attention to the folder’s contents. Just after she had read her assignment she had a thought. She took a yellow post it from her draw and wrote clearly on it: “COLLECT SAM, FROM CARLA”.
* **
Today’s assignment was a simple research the RRP of some CD’s and some exercise bikes, before finishing any overdue projects. Susan worked doggedly through the morning and managed to complete quite a few detailed assignments as well as her easy research. Susan had used her payroll to buy Broadband, thus making any Internet related work easier, she didn’t trust the internet though. She had just explored the prices and found out that a shop named “Special Reserve” had the cheapest available price for her electronic price range research.
Susan dreamily stared across the office from her ninth floor vantage point and noted the decibel level of her co-workers. Susan saw the adjacent tower and remembered she must visit it on Wednesday. This she noted in her little gold-leaf bound calendar, a souvenir from Corfu that she was particularly proud of. Her co-workers seemed to be carefree and happy. Like she was when she first married Iain…
* * *
The time had flown by and Susan dreamily looked at her watch and the time was One thirty. The dreaming abruptly ended and she leapt up, with a very audible cry of “$h!t”.
Susan hurried to her bosses’ office on the eleventh floor, leaping stairs on her way up the spiral.
She burst through the door to that of which his office was accessible from and strode purposefully past his horrible, horn rimmed spectacled secretary. She knocked on his door before going in without a reply of confirmation.
Susan saw him with his binoculars to the window before remembering, with a sickening jolt, that this was the bosses’ plane watching time. One of her bosses’ favourite past times. Susan then tried to shuffle slyly out of the door. Unfortunately she had been noticed.
“Susan Berkley”, drilled the boss,
“Yes sir”, she replied, cringing at the use of her full name,
“Why did you just interrupt my plane watching?”, he inquired,
“I…I..”, Susan stuttered, before lamely ending with, “forgot”.
Alan Way was about to craft his response when a plane caught his attention, he lifted his binoculars but made a gesture for Susan to stay and be quiet. “Its’ not on the regular flight path”, he murmured, more to himself than to Susan.
* * *
The plane had then proceeded to veer off straight towards the tower itself, Susan was alarmed and it seemed that others had noticed it too. The engines of the plane were now audible and they roared like a caged tiger. But the plane did not stop there, or at all for that matter. Instead it ploughed its’ way into the side of the tower, at (on Susan’s estimate) roughly the sixth floor. There was a crashing and a shattering sound. The office shook and the Alan’s binoculars tumbled out of the window. The whole room jolted and Alan’s head was jerked into the window ledge, forcefully. Alan was knocked unconscious and then the shaking suddenly stopped. Susan was picking her way around the objects strewn across the floor before reaching Alan. Just as she reached him the room tipped and she slid out of the door as it flung open. Susan tumbled back and through the door she had entered the block through. Susan painfully bumped down the flight of four stairs she had effortlessly jumped before. Then she pushed her heels into the wall on her right, drastically, and then she stopped.
* * *
Susan vigorously pounded the elevators “Down” switch, but it had stopped working. As she descended the stairs she looked out of the window, many people were waving white cloth flags and then she saw one worker leap out of a downstairs window. She averted her eyes and felt sick. Then as she stared at the opposite building she felt a sickening lurch that she only experienced at drops on Roller coaster rides. Then the landmark she had been staring at was mysteriously above her, and ascending all the time. She looked over the stair well and her suspicions were conformed; the building was falling.
Susan opened the window latch and heaved the contraption open. She stood on the ledge and looked at the horrific fall. Then Susan’s mind drifted to thoughts about birds and freedom. She opened her eyes and soared, majestically. Like a bird…
* * *
The character mentioned at the beginning is life's mysteries projected in human form. The rest is an account that many of you will understand. I hope this provides a response that can justify this forum of its' "Intelligent Discussion" title.
* * *
"Ok", said Susan exasperatedly into her mobile
"Yes, but....", Susan tried to say
The phone had been placed on its' hook at the other end. "Damn inconsiderate b…", Susan rapped her hand on the taxi window
"Mr. done a runner?", asked the cab driver from the front seat. As bad as Susan felt she smiled, anyone would with those twinkling eyes set into that aged looking face. He looked like the type of person who was always optimistic and even his large brown moustache gave her comfort. The driver smiled back and twisted in his seat to face the road once more. He pulled back onto the motorway from the little pull in. Old fashioned he may be, but he still didn't believe in phones blaring out as he drove.
* * *
Susan had just been on a holiday in Corfu with her ex-husband and her three kids. She had been staying at the lovely resort of Paleokastitsa, on the west coast of the island.
They had spent a good three weeks at the warm beaches and marvelling at the traders on donkeys traipse up to the monastery every day. It had been an idyllic holiday that her ex had offered her to get her away from her stressful work at the office.
Little had she known that he was going to propose to her at the end of the holiday, she, being a stubborn woman, had been asked to be taken straight home, ruining her 4 week vacation.
* * *
Susan shielded her face from the rain as she jogged round to the driver’s side to pay him the 3 dollars she owed him. Hurriedly she thanked him and shielded her face from the New York down pour as she returned home to her flat on Fifth Avenue.
Susan needed a coffee, badly. She needed a nice strong coffee and a chance to get her head around the events of the last few days. In her day dream she had stepped a few blocks passed her flat. She cursed herself and sprinted back down the street to her house. Susan fumbled with the keys and eventually found the one that opened her front door. She quickly went inside and shut the door, nearly tripping over the pile of mail in the process. Susan picked up her mail and walked through the narrow corridor, taking off her coat and putting it on the rack, before finally reaching the cramped (or "cosy" as she called it) kitchen.
"Junk. Bill. Another bill", said Susan as she opened the cupboard for some coffee. Putting the letters in her mouth, she filled up her Bosch kettle and proceeded to boil it.
Susan hit the switch on her answering machine labelled "P a ", unfortunately it had worn away the lettering over the four years she had owned it.
"Hi, darl. Its' Carla here....", said the tape
"Of course", Susan smacked her head, the dog.
"How was your' hols sweetie? Just to say that Sam is here and he’s been no trouble at all."
That was one more thing that Susan would have to do on her way to work tomorrow. Susan went back into the small corridor and went up to her little cork notice board. She smiled at the happy face of her daughter, four years ago, aged nine. Moving the photo to an angle on its' pin she adjusted her calendar to the current date, September the 10th.
She now poured out her black coffee and gulped great fully at it without letting it cool down, burning her tongue in the process. She didn't mind; finally she could unwind before a busy day at work.
When the initial effects of the coffee wore off she suddenly felt an incredible yearning to go to her bed. Susan was very tired after a day of flying and the emotional stress of her husband proposal, she decided to push this out of her mind for at least the next few days.
* * *
Finally, two hours later, Susan headed upstairs to her bathroom (the largest room in her house) and started to run a hot, steamy bath.
About five minutes later the bath was half full and she gratefully stepped into the water. She felt glad to be at her home; home sweet home.
She held on to the furnished brass handles and slipped back into the herbal bubbles. The relaxation of Radox soothed her as the smell of lime entered her nostrils. The floor tiles were white and shiny, as her dog Sam, (a terrier) had not yet entered the bathroom with his muddy paws, since she had last cleaned it. The sink gleamed and the tiles were actually sparkling, Susan wondered if this was just a trick of the light, as she had never noticed this before.
* * *
The alarm sounded at 6:00 clock am sharp and she moaned as she reached out to turn off the piercing chime of the clockwork object. She respected clocks as they obviously govern peoples lives, only not when they woke her up, even if she had set it herself.
In the morning it was windy but the rain had cleared up. She went into the kitchen and left a message on Carla's answering machine about picking up the dog. With that thought in mind she "freshened up", got "cut short" halfway through the process. Then she got dressed into her working jumper, purple. She put on her best jeans and pearl earrings.
She drove her "last legs" Mazda 323 to the centre of town and through the morning traffic build up. She switched on the radio and adjusted the dial to the "Classic FM" station. It was playing her favourite composer, "Porter". She turned off onto Main Street and swore at the traffic as she drove into the usual Central Park traffic fiasco. Susan always played a game; she had done since she was a little girl, where the honking of horns and spluttering engines could be made into a song. Susan clasped her left hand and two cars honked, arced her right hand and there was an obscene conversation drifting from a neighbouring vehicle.
Eventually she switched of the radio and concentrated on the sights and sounds around her, there was the hotdog vender on the corner of the park, and the smell wafted up to her through the open car window. The smell of exhaust fumes came from the cars around her and some obnoxiously loud music blared into her right ear, giving her a headache.
Susan waited until the car had travelled onwards through the traffic, but the headache still showed no signs of abating, so she reached into her blue leather and handbag and withdrew a Nurofen tablet. As she slipped the tablet into her mouth the traffic moved on and she was caught slightly unawares. After a few seconds someone loudly honked her horn, and Susan blushed, before angrily shouting,
“I’m goin’ I’m goin’ you maniac”, she called out of the window. This had the effect of lifting her spirits a bit.
* * *
She eventually arrived outside her office at 10:17 am, precisely one hour and seventeen minutes late. Susan cursed the traffic again before hurriedly lifting her handbag and swinging the car door open. She took one look at her reflection in the mirror and then popped in a breath mint. She buffeted her hair to the left and then to the right, this always had the effect of making her feel more business like.
* * *
“Freakin’ 2001 traffic, worse than last year”, ranted a man called Mike from across the office room she worked in. He sat three rows back and slightly to the right of Susan’s current position.
“I know what you mean”, sympathised his friend, Susan was yet to learn his name.
Susan stopped eavesdropping on snippets of conversations and opened her red binder. She had to sweep of some old post its into her metallic draw before turning her attention to the folder’s contents. Just after she had read her assignment she had a thought. She took a yellow post it from her draw and wrote clearly on it: “COLLECT SAM, FROM CARLA”.
* **
Today’s assignment was a simple research the RRP of some CD’s and some exercise bikes, before finishing any overdue projects. Susan worked doggedly through the morning and managed to complete quite a few detailed assignments as well as her easy research. Susan had used her payroll to buy Broadband, thus making any Internet related work easier, she didn’t trust the internet though. She had just explored the prices and found out that a shop named “Special Reserve” had the cheapest available price for her electronic price range research.
Susan dreamily stared across the office from her ninth floor vantage point and noted the decibel level of her co-workers. Susan saw the adjacent tower and remembered she must visit it on Wednesday. This she noted in her little gold-leaf bound calendar, a souvenir from Corfu that she was particularly proud of. Her co-workers seemed to be carefree and happy. Like she was when she first married Iain…
* * *
The time had flown by and Susan dreamily looked at her watch and the time was One thirty. The dreaming abruptly ended and she leapt up, with a very audible cry of “$h!t”.
Susan hurried to her bosses’ office on the eleventh floor, leaping stairs on her way up the spiral.
She burst through the door to that of which his office was accessible from and strode purposefully past his horrible, horn rimmed spectacled secretary. She knocked on his door before going in without a reply of confirmation.
Susan saw him with his binoculars to the window before remembering, with a sickening jolt, that this was the bosses’ plane watching time. One of her bosses’ favourite past times. Susan then tried to shuffle slyly out of the door. Unfortunately she had been noticed.
“Susan Berkley”, drilled the boss,
“Yes sir”, she replied, cringing at the use of her full name,
“Why did you just interrupt my plane watching?”, he inquired,
“I…I..”, Susan stuttered, before lamely ending with, “forgot”.
Alan Way was about to craft his response when a plane caught his attention, he lifted his binoculars but made a gesture for Susan to stay and be quiet. “Its’ not on the regular flight path”, he murmured, more to himself than to Susan.
* * *
The plane had then proceeded to veer off straight towards the tower itself, Susan was alarmed and it seemed that others had noticed it too. The engines of the plane were now audible and they roared like a caged tiger. But the plane did not stop there, or at all for that matter. Instead it ploughed its’ way into the side of the tower, at (on Susan’s estimate) roughly the sixth floor. There was a crashing and a shattering sound. The office shook and the Alan’s binoculars tumbled out of the window. The whole room jolted and Alan’s head was jerked into the window ledge, forcefully. Alan was knocked unconscious and then the shaking suddenly stopped. Susan was picking her way around the objects strewn across the floor before reaching Alan. Just as she reached him the room tipped and she slid out of the door as it flung open. Susan tumbled back and through the door she had entered the block through. Susan painfully bumped down the flight of four stairs she had effortlessly jumped before. Then she pushed her heels into the wall on her right, drastically, and then she stopped.
* * *
Susan vigorously pounded the elevators “Down” switch, but it had stopped working. As she descended the stairs she looked out of the window, many people were waving white cloth flags and then she saw one worker leap out of a downstairs window. She averted her eyes and felt sick. Then as she stared at the opposite building she felt a sickening lurch that she only experienced at drops on Roller coaster rides. Then the landmark she had been staring at was mysteriously above her, and ascending all the time. She looked over the stair well and her suspicions were conformed; the building was falling.
Susan opened the window latch and heaved the contraption open. She stood on the ledge and looked at the horrific fall. Then Susan’s mind drifted to thoughts about birds and freedom. She opened her eyes and soared, majestically. Like a bird…
* * *
The character mentioned at the beginning is life's mysteries projected in human form. The rest is an account that many of you will understand. I hope this provides a response that can justify this forum of its' "Intelligent Discussion" title.