Short Story V
Christmas shopping at Christmas Eve at the busiest streets at New York.
Was was she thinking?
This was what she was thinking, thinking up ways to keep the rates up and up and up was what she was thinking. Thinking up ways to keep her husband by her side was what she was thinking. Trying to make up for the lost time from her house was what she was thinking. Trying to push away the regret from stabbing her heart was what she was thinking.
The streets of Fifth Avenue were filled with last minute shoppers, trying to get themselves into the sparkly, glittery shops. Big red "Sale" cards were hung at shop windows, decorated with toys and candles to attract any unsuspecting bargainers. Taxis and the smell of their worn leather seats, street lights and the smell that could only mean SALE.
Women dressed in Chanel and Gucci, men in tasteful Armani suits, she recognized the types. They were the types that were devoted to their work. They were the ambitious types that put everything behind and focused on their careers. They were the ones who were glued to the computer screen fourteen hours a day. They were the ones who flew back and forth all over the world without a sigh or complaint. They were the ones just like her.
Serenity Lively, daughter, wife, and then mother to two. She had a job at Reed and Howe , a prestigious law firm, a word anyone would recognize. In the law firm lies the most meticulous, quick-witted, manipulative and workaholic people that could ever grace the Earth. They wore expensive brands to look expensive, to convince people they meant business.
Serenity meant peace and calm, something she wasn't. Serenity was trained to think on her feet, since there isn't time for her to sit down and clear her mind. Her therapist suggested she took a day off for a spa treatment but Serenity's demanding job simply couldn't afford a day off.
A day off was weeks, years even of work to a lawyer like her. She couldn't take a day off or she would go insane.
True, her boss the ever so manipulative Reed in Reed and Howe Law Firm was just plain evil and didn't have an ounce of compassion in a single fiber of his being, but Serenity just bears with him. He was her boss, after all.
Serenity reached home late at night, too late to tuck her children to bed. Too late to read them a bedtime story. Too late to even tell them how much she loves them. Celia and Carol Greene saw their mother only during the weekends, and that was only if her pig of a boss didn't call her in to work again.
Shopping bags of toys and an expensive Rolex - the latest, naturally- hung at their strings at the crook of her right elbow while her left hand was hand raised in the air, trying to hail a taxi. Hailing cabs at New York City at Christmas Eve. Someone just had to write it in the book of records for being the most frustrating and difficult feat in history of time.
After a few minutes of endless waving at taxis that never stopped, Godsend came in the form of a yellow cab stopped opposite the road. The driver whistled and beckoned her over. Typical.
Without looking left or right, her black Manolo pumps clicked on the road as she half-walk half-skip to the cab before any shopper decides to steal her cab.
She spoke too soon. Halfway through the street, a skinny red head in a bright red trench coat got into the cab and it sped off. Fuck. FUCK. Serenity swore profounities under her breath and she stomped her pump-clad foot on the ground. She probably looked like a spoiled five year old but she could care less. All she needed was a cab to get her home so she can check her e-mails. Her Blackberry died at the Armani Store when she was reading her e-mails while browsing the identical black suits.
Serenity heard loud honks coming from her right. She spun her head towards the sound and her eyes widened as the truck just a few feet away speeding right at her. The truck driver stomped on the brake but it was too late.
Shopping bags flew in the air, scattered on the ground alongside Serenity Lively's blood. Blonde hair strewed on the dirty road, her eyes closed and her heart wheezed for life.
Serenity took her last breath as the truck driver got down from his truck, his face white with fear from the scene.
Merry Christmas, one and all.
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