Chapter Seven – A New World

Snow swirled through the Boston streets, dusting everything in sight like sifted sugar. The edges of the high brick houses were all softened, and the narrow sidewalks were all left in glistering white, the cold of the winter was biting the cheeks, and turned all exhales into a puff of fog. Lynda pressed her palm to the cold glass and glances at cars moving slowly and cautiously down the slush slick road from the window of their new apartment. Boston to her seems as a whole different planet than Atlanta. Somehow quieter, but also, oddly, heavier, the weight of old history buzzing at every corner, mixed with this modern rush she had not quite figured out. Lukas’s city, not hers.

Initially it caught her fancy, prompting her to walk round the rooms of their apartment as though it was the king’s house. Not minding that it was just a modest place by local reasoning. Under her bare feet, smooth hardwood stretched out, polished clean. The living room caught pale winter sunlight through its tall windows. Tucked in the corner, a little fireplace waited, Lukas had shrugged it off as nothing special, but to Lynda it meant everything. It was proof she has stepped into a new chapter.

Unpacking, she took her time. Filled drawers with the new clothes Lukas had insisted she pick out, lined up books she had lugged up from home, and draped blankets in hues that brought her back to her parents’ house. When she finally finished, she saw herself laughing, this was not her ramped childhood room, or a closet she shared, or wallpaper peeling at the corner, this was the life she had been longing after all this time

One evening Lucas was standing on the veranda, his ties slightly loosened after the day work

“Do you like it “he asked Lynda, as though he needed her consent of approval after all his hard work. Lynda turned, her silk blouse glowing in the lamp’s light, and nodded, her smile bright enough to fill the room.

“I love it. It is different. Like I finally fit somewhere I was always supposed to.”

He moved closer, sliding his arms around her. “Then it was all worth it. All the overtime, every choice. If you are happy, I am happy.”

The city lights blinked across the distance and Lynda could almost hear it, Boston whispering promises Lukas could not even imagine yet.

As the days goes by, lukas always rise early to prepare for work before Lynda, he normally cover his head with scarf because of cold and takes his breakfast to work in a cooler.

Lynda spent her days exploring and learning the city’s rhythms, wandering wide avenues lined with cafes whose windows were nearly impossible to peer through.

She walks around big fashion houses and shops, touching and pointing at almost every latest style that caught her fancy, imagining herself already going to party with them, a party that she had not been invited to yet. Every discovery made her hungrier. Just moving in with Lukas, just crossing state lines, was not going to be enough. She wanted to climb higher. She wanted to be seen.

Evenings, Lukas would come home with stories: office projects, looming deadlines, the latest at work squabbles. He always wanted her opinion, always shared everything. But Lynda’s mind wandered as she watch him talk, yes she loved him, but in her own way, but she also perceived him as a connection, a good step to her needs in climbing higher.

One Friday, Lukas surprised her with winter gala tickets for his firm. “It not fancy,” he said, sounding almost shy, “just dinner, some dancing. Thought you would like to go.

” Lynda’s eyes lit up. “A gala?” she laughed, the word tasting sweet and exciting.

At the party she was the cynosure of all eyes with her queenly burgundy attire and a flamboyant hair style that matched her beauty.

Colleagues whispered to Lukas “your wife is stunning” and “where do you meet her”

Lynda kept all these thing in her mind, a sense of fulfilment all over her countenance.

As she sat with executives’ wives in pearls and diamonds, listening to talk of vacation homes and philanthropy dinners. She listened closely, smiling at the right times. This was the world she wanted.

She did not want to just visit; she was after a permanent seat at that table.

When Lukas drew her onto the dance floor, she let him spin her under the lights, his arms warm and steady. Looking up into his eyes, she saw nothing but devotion.

For a brief moment, she felt it too. “This is rare,” she murmured to herself, “his love is so real.”

Still, as she let him lead her across the floor, another voice whispered inside, this is just the beginning.

Winter deepened, stretching out the nights. They spent long evenings in front of the fire, Lukas reading aloud from whatever book he had pulled off the shelf while Lynda flipped through glossy magazines, highlighting pages where gowns, watches, costly apartments where in, letting them store up in her memory as planted seeds awaiting germination.

One morning Lynda rose earlier than Lukas from bed, went straight to the window, watching the city gate from that distance, she saw that the city has been buried in white layers of snow, making the skyline rise in a sharp lines against the pale sky, and there was a feeling of a fierce desire that erupted in her

She shouted aloud “I will not stop here, I cannot”, though no one was there to hear.

Behind her, Lukas repositioned, calling her name in his deep sleep.

Lynda turned, looking at him with a tenderness she could not quite untangle. She admires his warmth and straightforwardness. But she knew her hunger stretched far beyond this room’s comfort.

As the fall of the snow became heavier outside, covering the whole street in silence, she appreciated the safety and comfort of her new home, but still restless about the one she was longing for.