CHAPTER ONE
Cruelty
Looking up at the sky from the sunroof of her car, the blue was still there but the clouds continued to thicken, probably forming rain. Kris was carrying Christmas gifts for her granddaughter, in the trunk. It was a dull morning in December, very chilly. Looking at herself in the rear view mirror, she noticed some grey weaving through her thready hair. She took her left arm off the steering wheel and ran it through her hair to check. She was wearing a jacket today but was feeling a bit warm, not like the previous year when there was a moderate rain fall in Dubai.
Kris had been driving ever since she was a teenager. But since she crossed the age of forty, she hated it. Meanwhile, Kris now considered herself an old woman. Other cars were cruising and blowing past her, some even switching lanes like idiots. Construction reminded of her teenage days; she’d always flicked a middle finger to crazy drivers like the man in the red Ferrari ahead of her. She was no doubt used to such annoyances whenever she would drive on SZRoad. She shook her head and concentrated on her steering with both hands holding firm on the wheel.
She was visiting her older daughter. Tracy had taken an apartment on the Jumeirah Lake Towers, having come out to Dubai with her child for Christmas holidays. With sign post of maximum speed limit receding past her, Kris was still motoring at 80kph, maybe 30 in 20 minutes to the Marina from Downtown. Now she was passing the Business Bay crossing sign posts. She didn’t take Exit 43, as she had planned, Even though the traffic seemed lighter there than it was on the SZRoad.
Tilting her head left and right, feeling bored on the lonely short journey, almost groaning to herself, she thought of the music. She had bought only one CD this Christmas, from the Virgin megastore at the Mall of the Emirates, it was Josh Groban and she had remembered “Smile” as one of her favorites on the CD. Too many things, rather memories. came back to her just over that song.
She slowed down on taking exit 29, seeing several areas of road work and diversions, and pressed hard on the accelerate taking the interchange from SZRoad. Still playing her CD, She forwarded it to track 4. That was “Smile”, one of those songs she still loved listening to, even after growing up. Well, she liked many others on the same CD, but she assumed “Smile” was the first song. Josh Groban sounded pretty kind to her ears. She loved his soothing voice, and the relaxing instrumentals.
As she reached her destination, she parked her Grey Saab 900 convertible at the podium for Tower A, turned off the music and swung the door open wide. Looking up and around, she didn’t see anyone out and about, even on the neighboring towers. But she knew Marina is a quiet area everyone is always going about their business. She walked out towards the foyer, not forgetting her granddaughter’s gifts. She pressed the lock key button of the remote to switch the ignition off noticing that nobody was there outside of the podium. She checked her watch. It was just another fine morning; despite the sharpness of winter winds.
She knew this place; her daughter had loved Lake Towers Community even before she left Dubai for Los Angeles, so whenever she visited Dubai, she always stayed in the Lake Towers. This was the sixth time when her daughter and her child had come to Dubai for Christmas. The climate was always pleasant by this time of the festive season and it was also the first time Tracy, and her daughter would have the chance to meet Tracy’s ex-husband Andre, since they had separated in a friendly divorce. Thereafter Tracy had moved off with Chloe to Los Angeles. Kris knew it was wise for her daughter to leave Dubai for LA, for other opportunities in her life and to help her erase the bad memories of her failed marriage with Andre.
Kris abandoned the lift as its doors slid open. She was old, admittedly; but she always wanted to keep her body in shape. So instead, she opted to use the staircase stretching up to apartment A216, where her daughter and her grandchild were living. She was anxious to find them home, for sure. She smiled in expectation, and excitement at the thought of meeting her granddaughter, Chloe, soon. Kris thought for a second before pressing the door alarm bell.
