Magical Midlife Detectives 1 / Chapter 1
Chapter 1 First Morning (free to read until January 19 2023)
I had not expected to find myself in this situation. My life had always been nice enough. Dull, yes, but secure. Yet there I was, in a small, one-bedroom apartment, in the middle of moving boxes, rummaging through them to find my clothes. Rain beat down on the curtainless windows. All the pretty curtains I had bought to make our home look nice – and let’s face it, traditional enough to gain acceptance from Paul’s business friends – were left behind. I had matched those curtains pretty well, too. Paul had wanted me to wear dresses for the dinners to entertain his business associates. Dinners I was to prepare like a good wife. And as his mother had liked floral designs in both curtains and dresses, Paul expected me to wear them too. The dresses. Not the curtains. And I did. Horrible auntie dresses that made me look like a certain TV character who answered the phone with, ‘Lady of the house, speaking.’
I had found this little rental flat with haste, and whoever had lived here before had not even bothered to put blinds on the windows. So I had a clear view to outside, which today matched my present emotions perfectly. Grey, drab, depressive. In my current state of mind, I wouldn’t have matched the damn floral curtains. Heck, not even the walls, unless they were the drab old attic ones that we hadn’t bothered updating and had seen better days. Like me.
I kicked the mattress on the floor towards the wall to gain more space, and on its way towards the mattress my foot met the corner of a box. I hopped on one foot, holding the other, trying not to swear. Then I realised there was no need to keep quiet.
‘Shit! Shit, shit, shit!’ I yelled.
After flexing my toes a while, I decided I had not broken any bones and continued my search.
I lifted one box after the other until they formed a chaotic circle around me, breaking a nail in the process. But I did finally find what I was looking for. My clothes. I had been too tired last night to find them, and now I had to find something that didn’t look like it had been at the bottom of a storage box. Which it had been, obviously. I pulled out a suit fit for the office, a bit thick for this time of year, but at least smooth enough.
I checked the time. Yes, I could still take a quick shower. If I found the towel, that is. I decided I would not spend another minute searching and grabbed the blanket lying on top of the mattress. It would do. It would dry during the day.
I left the blanket on the bathroom doorstep, as the bathroom was tiny. No bathtub, obviously. Only a shower in the corner, next to the toilet seat, which was so close to the washbasin you needed to sit down at an angle. Everything about the flat spoke of cheap building – but I didn’t care. I had wanted out and I had wanted out fast.
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