New Life New Me: Urban Romance by Christine Mandeley Page A

was only after the movers had loaded all her stuff into the truck that she realised that she had not washed herself in two days. She quickly changed and put on one of her drab suits and went to sit in the front of the truck.
    The truck arrived at the coastal town at dusk. There were hardly any people on the streets. She and the movers started to offload the boxes and began to put them in the tenth floor apartment she had found. With boxes prawn all across the floor, exhaustion finally caught up with her and her body gave in. She fell asleep on the floor next to the boxes before she even put up the blinds on her windows.
     
    She was woken up by a knock on the door. A neighbour from a building across hers could see her through the open windows and thought that she was unconscious.  He came over to investigate what he first thought was a dead body of a woman in a storage room.
    Cynthia woke up to answer her door. She did not open but kept peeping at the stranger through the bulls ‘eye. She continued to answer back and forth but wished that the interrogation was over already. The stranger was not convinced. He could not be satisfied that there was nothing sinister going on in the apartment across his. She finally managed to convince him to leave. She certainly was not going to let a man into her apartment. She was not ready to trust men again. Men were the reason why she had left her life and her town behind. She was not about to ruin her new start by trusting them again. Besides, it was time to finally wash up and stroll around in her new neighbourhood.
     
    When she finally stepped out, she noticed the many cargo ships that were lined at the port. The sound of horn from a large steam ship that was approaching was the welcome that every new citizen experienced from the coastal town. For the first time in a long time, she breathed in air so cold and clean, it could have come from the arctic. She wanted to get some supplies and some food. She was careful not to walk too far and save some energy for the unpacking. When she returned home, she decided to first have a bath before testing the oven.
    The hot water from the shower bashed her face as she moved her head on a slow motion upward to take it all in. It was only then that she noticed the large spider that was hanging from the corner of the shower enclosure. She was afraid. She wished that there could be someone that she could call out to for help with the spider. She knew that there was no one she could call and she should toughen up.
    With eyes closed, she swooped her face towel over the corner and struck the pest dead. She hopped over it and flushed it down the drain with the increased water pressure. She had just managed to get obstacle number one. She took the time to slowly dry her afro as she had a towel around her waist.
    After that it was time to finally get to unpack all the stuff into the cupboards in the kitchen and the bedroom. She was nowhere near being done when she realised that it was dark outside and that she had missed the six o’clock news. She sat down in front of the television to eat.  She stared at the television as she took large spoon-full of cereal into her mouth. In a short while the bowl was empty and she felt like she still needed some, so she got some more. Her mind was really not on what was happening or being said on the television. She was thinking about the day ahead. She was thinking about her new job.
     
    What was it going to be like? Would the people at her new place love her, would the boss be cool to her, would he try to take advantage of her like her ex-fiancée had done? Was she going to stay long? All these questions that flooded her mind reminded her of the life that she had left behind. She was determined to shut it all behind her. She did not want her past to determine or even ruin her future. She was going to be happy here, she tried as best as she could to convince herself that she would. She made up her mind that she was not