33 Chapter 33

The lady in the white car smirked and zipped her car towards City M. On arriving at City M she wanted to reach her apartment as quickly as possible, but the morning 10 am traffic was delaying her. The streets were overcrowded with vehicles and pedestrians. A minister had suggested that staggering the working hours in City M would even out the crowd in the local trains and reduce traffic on the road at any given point of time. However, this was never implemented and the traffic issues remained the same.

She was getting irritated by the long jams, the pedestrians that were trying to cross the street without paying heed to traffic signals, and the heat. After two hours she reached her apartment building. She saw the guard was not present on his desk. She took the advantage and quickly ran up the stairs to reach her third floor apartment. Usually the guard immediately springs from his chair and helps the occupants in calling the lift. While it was not needed he knew that was a great way to collect appreciation and in the long run it benefited him when some occupants gave him tips during the festivals.

Her apartment was not very neatly decorated. Everything out there was bought out of necessity. It was a small one-room apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom. The only great thing about the apartment was that it had a small balcony – a luxury that was not very popular for the common City M people. There was a small wall bed in the room and a large mirror on the wall next to it. The washing machine was placed in the balcony over which there was a birdcage that was empty. Inside the room a fold-up table with two chairs acted as the dining table.

She went to the kitchen to prepare some tea. She was hungry and wanted to prepare sumptuous meal but she didn't have enough time, as she had a flight to catch. She made quick two sandwiches for herself and had them with tea. While her sandwiches were getting grilled, she went to switch on her music system to play the 'Kenny G'. She had her sandwiches and tea in quiet. After finishing it, she cleared and folded the table back in the wall, took the cup and plate to rinse them in the kitchen and came back to her wardrobe. She changed her clothes and wore a casual jeans paired with a cotton shirt. She tied her hair in a neat bun. She wanted to look as casual as possible. Her black suitcase was already packed with most of her clothes and other essential items. An hour later she came out of her apartment. She had left the music on.

She didn't take the lift again and instead came down using stairs. The suitcase was heavy, but she managed to bring it down with her. The guard had come back and found it odd to see her using the stairs instead of the lift.

"Exercising!" She said seeing his expression.

"Oh yes madam! Very good." He replied with a smile.