Chapter 2 Bowl of water

Jessica Summers

When the bus finally halted I got down from the bus and walked towards the exit.

"New York." I smiled as I whispered the name of this amazing city to myself.

I had always wanted to come to New York. When I was a kid I used to dream about living here in a huge apartment, going to work wearing posh clothes and earning lot of money. It seemed very easy back at that time but now I know how difficult it is to earn a single penny.

Never did I ever think I would come to New York in such condition-running away from my crazy aunt. Being in New York; my dream city, I was ready to work my ass off and settle my life here. I believed I can do it.

As a new comer to this big city without any knowledge of anything here, I decided to catch a cab to some cheap price hotel.

Checking the time in my phone which read 11:35 PM I walked out of the bus station to hail a cab, luckily one stopped. The driver looked around forties, he had dark hair.

"Where to, Miss?" he asked politely. He seemed like a father figure and a person who wouldn't take advantage of a girl who was new in the city.

"Um... I'm new here, could you please drop me to some good hotel, where I can get a room at low price?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, sure, Miss. Hop in." he smiled warmly.

Once I got into the cab he drove through the streets of New York City. I looked around to see tall buildings, shops and vehicles waiting at the signals. Seriously, this city never sleeps.

I was enjoying seeing around and I already loved the city. Living in such big place wasn't easy, the money I had wasn't enough to start my life here. I had to find a job and a small room to live which I hoped would happen soon.

Aunt Lisa must have learned by now about me missing from her house. What must she be doing now? Searching for me? That thought made me cringe in nervousness but she can't reach me. I was far, far away from Texas.

Her behaviour was still shocking to me. I was her own brother's daughter. I remember playing with her son when we were in the middle school. After her husband's and son's death who died in an accident, she isolated herself and thereafter lived alone, away from her relatives.

She wasn't like this few weeks ago. What shocked me more was the sudden change in her.

I was so lost in my thoughts that the jerking of the cab brought me back.

"Did we reach the hotel?" I asked. I looked out of the window and realized we were in middle of an empty street.

"No, Miss. I guess there's something wrong with my vehicle. Give me a minute, I'll check it out." he replied before getting out of the car. Opening the front hood of the car he got busy checking.

The surrounding that I saw from the window of the car looked empty and dark. I couldn't see anybody on the road or anywhere near the place.

After few minutes, the driver bent down to the window.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but I don't think it will start without a mechanic." he said unhappily.

That meant only one thing, walk it down to the hotel. Finding a cab on this empty street was almost impossible by looking around the area.

"No problem. How far is the hotel from here? I can walk it down till there." I said taking my bag and got out of the cab.

He gave me the name and told me the way to the hotel. It wasn't very far. I had to first go straight, turn at the second right then take the first left and I would reach the hotel. It seemed like a ten-fifteen minutes walk.

I gave him the money as he told me to be careful since New York wasn't much a safe city. Thanking him for his concern I started walking to the hotel.

The surrounding was completely empty with hardly any lit street lamps on the road. My heart was beating fast and I felt the way to the hotel was farther than I thought. I tried to walk as fast and as calmly as I could.

It was cold, the black clouds covered the sky, hiding the moon and the stars. It looked like it would rain any time now. Not too long after I heard low thunders. I hoped the thunders didn't get louder, I had always been afraid of them. When I was a kid I would hug my dad whenever there were thunderstorms and he would sing to me until I fell asleep. But I still hadn't gotten used to the sound of the thunders after all these years.

As I was walking a loud thunder frightened the hell out of me. Slowly it began to drizzle and I increased my speed of walking so I could reach the hotel before it started raining heavily.

Walking further when I saw a turn I realized I had forgotten which turn to take. Should I take the first turn or the second? I tried to remember what the driver had said but couldn't remember any bit. Panic began to set in me. There weren't any people to ask for help.

Should I take the first right? I questioned myself. To my dismay it started raining heavily so without wasting any time I took the first right hoping this way would lead me to the hotel.

I was walking down the street when I heard motorbike noise behind me, it seemed like two or three bikes were coming this way. As the motor noises started getting closer to me I hastened my walk and hoped they wouldn't notice me.

I was walk crossing the road when the motorbikes suddenly surrounded me in the middle of the road and rode circles around me whilst whistling and laughing. My heart was beating at the speed of a bullet train in my chest.

I had no idea what to do. What if they kidnapped me? Or murdered me? Or raped me? Or worse, what if they did all the three things to me? My throat went dry.

Stopping their motorbikes they got down and circled me. They were four tall guys, I couldn't see their face properly in the rain. They all wore dark clothes.

"What's such a beautiful lady doing here alone on this empty street?" one of the guys asked. I could smell strong alcohol.

"You new here, doll?" another guy asked.

"Come on babe, will help you. Wanna come with me?" a guy in a red jacket said and the others started laughing.

My mind went blank. I had never been in such situation before, not knowing what to do I stood there quietly.

One of the guys, came to touch me.

"Don't to-touch me. St-stay away fr-from me." I tried not to stuttered but failed.

Ignoring my words, they stepped closer to me. I pushed them with all my power and ran.

I felt a strong pain in my abdomen-all thanks to aunt Lisa. The pain didn't let me run fast. Unfortunately those guys were faster than me and caught me.

"Where you running away, girl? Come with us, let's have some fun." the guy in red jacket said as he caught hold of me.

"No! Leave me alone. Get away from me." I screamed as tears formed in my eyes.

The guy didn't let me go and the others were laughing at me while striping me down with their eyes.

I thought of kneeing the guy in the red jacket like I did to Mark. That was the only thing that came to my mind. And I did.

I kneed him in his groin and when his grip loosened I escaped but the other guys followed me. I tried to run as fast as I could despite the pain in my abdomen, and hoped I could get some help.

I was now on some main road. My muscles burned, my chest ached and I looked over my shoulder, the guys were not far from me.

I was just praying for God to help me.

Whilst running, I tripped and losing my balance I fell on the road and before I could get up a car stopped in front of me making the tires screech. I brought my hand in front of my eyes to adjust them to the headlights of the car.

Before I could get up and ask for help the guys surrounded me again. The guy in the red jacket pulled me up and put some cloth to my nose which made me unconscious.

I unwillingly welcomed the dark and let it consume me.

• • •

Dean Walker

Today was one of those days where the time was passing painfully slow. I had loads of things to finish yet and it was now noon. I had been working my ass off since morning.

I heard a knock on the door whilst I was going through a file.

"Come in." I said sternly.

"Mr. Walker, Mr. Smith is on the line to confirm the meeting." Marissa; my assistant said.

"Yes, ask him to be here at sharp four." I replied back.

"Yes, Mr. Walker." she said and walked out of my office.

Her high pitched voice irritated me the most, I knew she did it on purpose. Since the day she joined I wanted to fire her but was left with no choice. She was better among the others who came for the interview. I was willing to fire her any moment if I found a better assistant.

I was fed up of her though. She always tried to flirt with me. She was short with blonde hair, she wore short, tight clothes with low neckline to seduce me but I never even looked at her. I was no more that womanizer I was a year ago. I realized it was all waste of time and energy when I could use them into making more money.

First of all, I didn't like to have any type of relation with my employees besides business. And second, she wasn't my type.

I was waiting for an opportunity to fire her. I didn't just fire any of my employees for no reason.

Shaking off the unnecessary thoughts I cleared my head and got back to the file.

When I was done with my late lunch, I got out of my office and headed to the meeting hall.

As I entered the hall, I saw Mr. Smith waiting for me. I also saw my company manager, Simon sitting opposite to Mr. Smith. I looked at my watch, it was sharp 4 PM.

"Mr. Smith, good to see you again." I said as I approached him.

I first met him at a charity event. When I spent time with him talking about business and technology I found him very interesting. After couple of days I got a call from him saying he'd like to start a project with my company. I soon agreed and today we were here.

"Ah, Mr. Walker, likewise." he smiled at me.

We shook our hands before taking our seats and started the project discussion. After two hours of discussion, we agreed to the terms and conditions and signed the documents to seal the deal.

After Mr. Smith was gone, I made my way back to my office, and sat down drinking water from the bottle. I was happy that Mr. Smith signed the agreement. It was a huge deal which I was interested in and had been wanting to seal it. Now that it was done I wanted to start the project as soon as possible.

I called Marissa and asked her to inform Simon to get all the files and documents of the new project.

"Mr. Walker, manager Simon is here." she said through intercom after a couple of minutes.

There was a knock on the door. As I permitted, Simon came in.

"Take a seat, Simon."

Simon was of my age; twenty four. So I didn't do the formalities with him, we called each other by our names. I usually didn't do that with my other employees but I have known Simon from a very long time, even before I started Walker&Co.

"Well, Dean, after going through all the documents and data I'm positive this project of ours will be very successful." he said happily.

"That's a great news. So let's start the project next week. I don't want to delay it."

We started planning about the estimation, materials and soon the time flew by. When I glanced at my watch it was 8:30 PM. We finished and finalized everything before Simon left. Everyone had gone home to their family already.

I continued with my pending work when there was knock and after permitting Marissa came in.

"

"Mr. Walker I have completed filing all the documents. Is there any more work?" she asked.

I glanced at her for a second before looking back at my laptop. "No, there is nothing. You can leave." I said focusing on my work.

"Are you su-" I cut her off.

"You can leave, Marissa." I said, without looking at her.

Without saying another word she left. Jesus, why does she throw herself at me when I don't even look at her that way?

I sighed in irritation and leaned back in my chair.

I worked very hard to become what I was today. I didn't enjoy my childhood like any other normal child, my childhood was very disturbed. I was ten when I lost my parents.

Since then Mary became my family. If she wouldn't have brought me here to New York fourteen years ago then I wouldn't be what I'm today. She has been my family since fourteen years. She looked after me. After my Mama, she became my mother. She showered me with love and care. She was funny and beautiful even at the age of sixty four and I loved her too much.

She lived in a small town near by as she didn't want to live in the city. She loved farming so I bought her a farm with a house and that's where she lived. It was hardly an hour from New York City so I often went to meet her and even spent my weekends there sometimes.

Her granddaughter; Tasha lived with her, along with her husband. The couple had a four year old son, Jake. Tasha met Henry during sophomore year in her college. They fell in love and got married. She is two years elder to me.

I did catch up with them at Mary's house whenever possible. I was happy with them. They were my family.

Speaking of me, I was known as a cold and a hard person in business field. Well, actually I didn't blame anyone, it's because I am.

Even though many things happened in my life, I never showed it off and I tried not to get affected by my past. Of course anybody and everybody's life was or is fucked up in a way. We had to kick it aside and think about the present and the future. That's what I did. But some times the past doesn't let you go.

I was brought back from my thoughts when I heard a light thunder. I looked at my watch it was already 11:50 PM. Quickly, I shut my laptop and headed out to the elevator.

When I reached the ground floor, I nodded at the security guards and walked out of the building.

I saw Alex; my driver, already waiting by the door ready with my Audi Q5. He was in his mid thirties and he wasn't only my driver but also my personal guard. He held the door open for me and closed it after I got in.

Alex brought life into the car and drove me home. It was a tiring day, all I wanted was to take a warm shower and sleep. The thunders became frequent and loud as it began to drizzle. I looked at the window and saw rain drops hit the window glass. Soon it started raining.

I usually went home by ten pm and on busy days I went around twelve. I liked being alone now as I got used to it from so many years and also there wasn't anybody waiting for me at home so no point in going home early.

All of sudden, the car came to stop making the tires screech.

As I was about to ask if everything was alright I stilled when I saw a girl trip and fall on the road. May be she was escaping from the guys who were chasing her, who weren't far from her. I looked back to see her face but she was shielding her eyes by her hand because of the car headlights. The guys came to stop in front of her and then a guy in red jacket pulled her up and put some cloth to her nose which made her unconscious.

I immediately got out of the car and briskly walked towards them. Seeing me they ran away leaving the girl on the road. I stared at the unconscious figure lying on the road before carefully scooped her into my arms and got into the car.

"Poor lady, she got into hands of those low lives. Is she okay?" Alex asked with concern.

"No Alex, she is unconscious. Take me home quickly." I replied.

I gazed at her, her head was resting on my chest. She looked beautiful, fragile and right now very cold. Her wet brown hair were all around her face, I removed the hair strands and saw her look even more beautiful. She wasn't pretty but was very beautiful. I don't think I had seen such beautiful brown headed girl before.

"We are here, Mr. Walker." I heard Alex.

I opened the door and carried her till the elevator. Getting into the elevator I pressed the top floor button. I couldn't help but look at her again and unknowingly a small smile appeared on my face.

Walking out of the elevator once it reached my penthouse floor and after unlocking the door by entering the code I went to the guest room and laid her on the bed carefully.

I took my time to study her beautiful face. She had long eyelashes lying above her cheekbones, tiny nose and small, red lips which I felt were the best thing in her face. I wonder how they would taste?

Damn, after a long time such thought entered my brain it was a little shocking as well as surprising. Scolding myself, I stopped my thoughts from going any further and decided to help her. Glancing at her one last time I left the room.

I quickly got changed into my pajama shorts and went to the kitchen. Taking a bowl of water I went to the guest room. She was still in the same position as I had left her.

I sat on the bed beside her and put some drops of water by my fingers on her face. She stirred a little so I did it again and waited for her to open her eyes.