Leaving Hometown

July 29th.

5:30 p.m.

The air hostess asked all the passengers to tie their seatbelts, the plane was about to take off. She was sitting nervously in her seat, fidgeting with her fingers. She looked outside the window for one last time, she was about to leave her hometown. Her eyes became glossy as the plane started moving. She took a deep breath after closing her eyes and rested her head on the seat.

*

10:45 p.m.

The plane landed on the airport and the passengers came out after collecting their bags. There were only a handful of passengers on the flight. It wasn't as dark outside as she thought it would be. She came out of the terminal dragging her suitcase and holding 2 small bags on her both shoulders.

She looked around but found no one who might have come to pick her up. A man came near her and said in a foreign accent "Miss Bloom? Are you Penelope Bloom?" He had grey mop-like hair, thick beard covering almost all of his face. He looked like he hadn't taken shower in days. He seemed to be in his late thirties or early forties.

She stumbled backward, holding her bag tightly. She raised her brows and said firmly "Who are you?"

"I'm Philip. Philip Ridge." He paused for a second and stood straight. He said, his dull blue eyes focused on her face. "Mr. Grace sent me here to pick you up from the airport and take you to your apartment." He said and put his hand inside his jacket to take something out.

He took out the driving license and showed it to her. "See?" he held the license in front of her face.

"Why aren’t you holding a sign for me to see?” She questioned. “I didn’t have time to bring one.” He shrugged. “Hmph.” She pouted. “Let me just confirm it." She said and texted Mr. Grace. He sent her a confirmation text along with Philip's picture attached. "Teenager these days." Philip said with somewhat a disgusted look on his face as he put her luggage in the car.

He opened the door for her.  He shook his head and muttered something under his breath.

"You want to put those back here or not?" He pointed towards the bags on her shoulder. "No, I'm good." She shook her head as she sat in the backseat of the car and he closed the door. He started the car and drove off to the building.

She looked outside the window. She was finally here, a new place; beginning of new life. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The roads were crowded as if everyone just decided to come out at once. She smiled to herself and kept looking at all the lights, buildings, and people.

I am going to be a New Yorker, she thought to herself and then smiled at her stupid thought again. After a drive of about 20 minutes, the car stopped in front of an old building. She thanked him as he took her luggage out of the car.

She stood in front of the building and adjusted her hair. Her lilac sundress was badly wrinkled after the flight. She tried to smoothen it a bit by her hands but when nothing happened, she just let it like it was – wrinkly. She opened the glass door of the building and entered the lobby. There was a room, more like an office on the right side. A male-figure was there, sitting on the leather chair.

He greeted her and asked, "How may I help you, ma'am?"

"I... uh..." She began to say "I rented out an apartment in this building about a week ago. I... need to see Mr. Richard Grace. We've talked about this on phone, my name is Penelope Bloom." She placed her bags on the floor.

"Ah, yes. Welcome to New York Miss Bloom." The man said with a warm smile "I'm Richard, very nice to see you miss." He rang the bell and within seconds a man came in the office. Richard asked him to carry her luggage. He took her suitcase and the other bag leaving her handbag with her and started moving towards the elevator. "This way, please". Richard said and she followed him.

"I've arranged all the furniture just like you asked me to." He was continuously smiling. "Thank you very much." She smiled lightly and pressed her lips in a thin line.

The door opened and they entered the elevator. "Your apartment is on the second-floor miss." She simply nodded. "How was your flight? You found the car easily, right? He reached on time, didn't he?" He asked so many questions in a single breath.

"Yeah? --" She replied to the man and tried recalling everything he had said. But then she just said, "Everything's fine." And the faked a smile, she was too tired to answer.

The door opened and they stepped out of the elevator, they moved down the hall and stopped in front of the wooden door on the left side. "This one's your apartment." He put the keys in the keyhole and opened the door.

"There," He pointed towards the door across her apartment "There live Mr. and Mrs. Lumen. Very nice people. I would have introduced you to them but it's a little late. You can meet them tomorrow or some other day." He entered the apartment and turned on the lights.

It was nice and cozy, small but beautiful. There was a small rack for shoes and umbrellas. First there was a living room. It had a cream color couch with two side chairs and a wooden center table. There was a separation wall in the living room. Behind which there was a small space. It had a study table and a chair. There was a window there too. On the left end of the apartment, there was a small balcony, two green flower pots were hanging on the sides. And a bean bag was placed in one corner. The apartment was painted in a soft shade of lavender.

On the right side of the apartment, there was an open kitchen. It had cabinets and marble shelves. The microwave oven was on the right side of the sink and the refrigerator was placed in the left corner. There was a small island with four chairs in front of it.

Walking forward there was a small hallway. Two doors on the right. One lead to the small space for washer and dryer and the other one was the bathroom. On the left side, there was a bedroom. A queen-sized bed placed in the middle with a dresser put in front of it. Two side tables and an indoor plant beside the dresser. There was a medium-sized window with blue curtains on it. And on the other side of bed, there was a small bookshelf.

"It's... It's amazing." They came back to the living room and she said, excitement beaming through her voice. "I'm glad you liked it, miss. Here are the keys. The intercom is right there, in case there's something wrong or anything. Have a very goodnight, miss." Richard handed her the keys.

"Oh, and yes, the rest of the things from your list will arrive tomorrow. And if you want anything to be changed or replaced let me know about it." He said and then left the apartment.

She hung the keys on the wall and sighed.

"Finally." She stretched her arms over her head. "It was worth it to put a shit load of money into an apartment like this." She grinned from ear to ear. She dragged her bags and suitcase in the bedroom. She checked her phone, it read 23:15.

Her stomach growled. She was hungry. She lied down on her bed with her feet hanging down. “What to eat? What to eat?” She scrolled down on her screen. She rolled over on her stomach and kept scrolling. After almost 20 minutes of looking through all the menus of nearby places she ended up ordering a pepperoni pizza. It was 30 minutes for the pizza to arrive. She put her suitcase on the bed and took out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

“Why didn’t I just wear these in the plane?” She shook her head. She let her hair down and lightly massaged her scalp with her forefingers. She took out a small case from her handbag and stood in front of the mirror.  She was really exhausted. She wiped her makeup and removed the lens and put them in the solution. After plugging her phone to the charger, she went into the bathroom to take a shower.

*

She dried her hair with a towel and folded the dress she was wearing before and placed it on the dresser. She was sitting on her bed with her phone in her hand, scrolling down her tasks that meant to be done by the end of the day when suddenly the light went off. Complete darkness everywhere.

She started panicking and her heart started to sink in the darkness around her. She was nyctophobic. Her heartbeat increased and her hands started shaking. It was getting difficult to breathe with every passing second. With trembling hands, she tried turning on the flashlight of her phone. She was struggling to do it with sweaty hands when it started to ring, an unknown number on the screen.

Her heart began to race and sweat drops formed on her forehead. She was thinking about whether to pick up the phone or not when someone knocked on the door. A cold wave ran through her body.

Her phone had stopped ringing but there was still someone knocking on the door. She took small steps towards the door with her heart pounding in her chest. Thousands of thoughts were running through her mind.

As she slowly unlocked the door the lights suddenly turned on, she saw the pizza delivery guy on the other side.

"Oh." She wiped her forehead and pull herself together. "Wait a minute." She said and moved towards the bedroom leaving the delivery guy with a quizzical expression on his face.

She took out cash from her handbag and gave it to him. "Thank you."                                            

"When the power went off, I tried calling you. I thought I've lost the address." He said as he counted the money.

"Okay."

She took the pizza and locked the door behind her. Her heartbeat slowed down to a normal pace after knowing that it was just the guy delivering the pizza. She sat on the bed and started eating.

She scrolled down her notes and marked “check” on all the tasks for today. She lied down on her side while eating. She stopped after eating almost 3 quarter of the pizza.

"Tomorrow is a day off, and after that, I've to go to all the places I've applied for a job to." She said to herself and put the pizza box in the refrigerator.

She checked the front door and door of the balcony. She turned on the lights in the hallway and left the door of her room slightly open. She put all the tasks meant to be done before the working day in her to-do list and then slowly drifted to sleep.

*