Finding Home

Chapter One - City

"Annie, can you head up to my office at 5?"

Oh, this can't be good! I listened to my boss' voice coming through the phone line. 

"Sure" I say and I hear a grunt of approval before the line goes dead. I look around the large room, everyone sitting in their tiny cubicles. 

I am no exception. Everything is grey and dull. My small desk doesn't have much room for anything other than my computer. And the partitions between each desk are bare. 

God, I hate this place. I work in a response team for a large bank, I basically listen to people complain and moan constantly whether it's on the phone, by email, over instant messaging. I am tasked with fixing whatever banking problems and queries these people have. 

When I left college I had dreams of moving to the big city, becoming some hot shot business woman and living in a penthouse overlooking the best skyline. Instead, I took the first job I was offered partly out of fear of mounting rent and bills but also partly because I was running from something, something from my past life that I didn't want to find me. I needed a job and I needed money. 

My studio apartment is so small it only takes a few steps to get from one side to the other, once my sofa is folded out to create my bed all space is pretty much gone. The tiny kitchenette is pretty much an oven and an under-bench fridge and my view is of a back alley full of trash and smoke. 

Back then, I had to take the first thing I could get, I had come here with pretty much nothing. 

Safe to say I completely underestimated what it would actually be like. The streets are too busy, too crowded, all the time. The noise can be so deafening and although I am surrounded by people I have never felt like I have friends, companions, acquaintances even.

I glance at the clock. 

4pm. 

At least I don't have to wait too long to see what fate has in store for me.

I dive into the hundreds of emails waiting for a reply, to help keep my mind off of the time. It doesn't really work, with every watched second that goes by my stomach flips. 

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5 o' clock finally arrives and I sheepishly pass a few rows of cubicles before I am outside of a separate office, lightly knocking on the door.

"Come in" I hear, and slowly make my way inside.

"Hi Annie, can you take a seat?" My boss, Roger gives me a tight smile once I am in his office. He stays sitting in his own seat, taking off his glasses and rubbing the sides of his balding head. He looks tired and preoccupied. 

I do as he asks, cautiously sitting down at his desk noticing another woman sitting in the seat next to me. She does not make eye contact, instead scribbling something down on a notebook she has placed on her knee. Her body is angled towards me so I can't see what is being written.

"OK Annie, this is Melanie from HR" Roger explains nervously while picking a bit of invisible lint on his faded grey suit that looks like it has seen better days. The woman looks at me and just nods before going back to writing, slightly pushing her black glasses further up her nose. What the hell is she writing?

I look back to Roger for him to continue feeling my stomach twisting. 

"As you may know, the company is downsizing our response team" I had heard some chatter around the office about something like this but no one else seemed concerned so I didn't pay too much attention.