The New Life

The New Life

She looked around in amazement as she stood in line waiting to get off the bus. She had actually done it, gotten away. No overbearing parents to deal with or abusive boyfriend to run from, she had really gotten away.

She looked at the people around her, then out the window at all the tall buildings. Dreamed all the ways her life would be wonderful. Nights out on the town, museums, parties, cafes, she could barely handle waiting to get off the bus and on to her new life.

She was excited as she stepped off the Greyhound bus, twisting her ankle as she stepped down to the ground, falling and putting a hole in the knee of her brand new pair of cream colored linen pants. “Shit,” she said, getting up from the ground and limping across the lot to wait for her luggage to be unloaded.

Standing with the other passengers waiting, daydreaming about how good it felt to be free and on her on. She glanced down at her watch, wondering why it was taking so long for her luggage to appear.
         “Excuse me,” she said, “is that all the luggage for that bus there?”
         “Bus 423, yes ma’am,” the young man said.
         “But I don’t see my luggage, where’s my luggage at?
         “Let me see your ticket and I’ll try and find out for you.”
         “Thank you,” she said and handed him her ticket.
“Damn, I hope things get better than this,” she thought to herself.
“Ma’am, we are going to look for your luggage. If you want you can sit by the information booth, I’ll come let you know something.”

She nodded and limped over the information booth, trying not to cry. Almost and half-hour later, he came back and told her she would have to fill out a missing luggage report and they would contact her within fifteen days.
“Well I’ll be damn,” she said, “my mother always told me I couldn’t make it in the big city.” She was beginning to wonder if her mother had been right.

She filled out her paper work, headed out front, and hopped in a cab, giving the cabbie the address to new apartment. She pressed her face against the window looking out at the city, like a kid arriving at Disneyland. She stood in front of her apartment building, pleased with herself. The building was a large, beautiful historic three-story walk up.

She looked at the quiet street, lined with small well-maintained apartment building,  walked to her door and tried to unlock the door with the key the apartment manager had mailed to her. Trying to remain calm, she tried opening the door again. Suddenly an older woman opened the door.
         “Can I help you?” the older woman asked her.e
         “I was trying to open the door to my new apartment,” she said.
         “Your apartment,” the woman said, “I live here.”
         “But I rented this apartment two months ago,” she said, with tears starting to roll down her face.
         “Sorry sweetie, I moved in last month,” the older woman said, as she closed the door.

She stood there in a daze. She slowly walked down the steps, standing in front of the building trying to figure out what to do. The headed towards the café she passed on the way over and called the landlord about her apartment. She cried as she listened to him pretend as if he did not know what she was talking about, he had not rented her an apartment. She laid her head against the phone booth trying to figure out what to do next. She dialed 311 to locate the nearest shelter. She would start again tomorrow.

The next few weeks she went about getting her life back on track, refusing to give up. Managing to find a job at a bank, a roommate and had made a few new friends. Things were going as well as she had dreamed; she was a city girl and felt good about herself.
         “Hey momma, just wanted to let you know how I’m doing, got a promotion at work. I’m the lead teller now and I’m getting ready to go back to school to get my business degree. How are you?”
         “We are all doing fine, I’m so happy to hear you are doing so well. I always told you, you would do well.” her mother said, ‘I am proud of you.”
         “Thanks, momma, I love you, talk to so you soon.”
         “I love you too, baby. Take care.”

She hung up the phone and headed back to her window to start work. Almost a year had gone by and she was happy that she had taken a chance on starting a new life. She removed the closed sign from her window.
         “May I help who is next?”
The tall handsome looking man approached the window.
         “Hello,” he said, handing her a piece of paper.

She opened the paper and read, “Don’t do anything stupid, we will shoot. Clear the drawer and pass the note down.” she began to put the money from her drawer into a large envelope and passed the note to the next teller. The teller read the note and blurted out “Oh my God.”
The last thing she heard was, “Everybody put your hands up," as bullets rang out.