AT THE ATTIC

The next day till dusk, Emma's presence at the office wasn't felt by everyone who knew her at the company for the entire day. Even notable persons from the editorial team that she was in charge of were finding it hard to believe that she eventually failed to show up for work to carry out her duties which was unlike her nor respond to the incessant number of calls despite the efforts of those close to her, that had been put in place to get through to her home telephone line number directly in her house and were appalled by her intolerable behavior of not resuming work regardless of being warned by the film director as well as the Chief Executive Officer's involvement in the issue that apparently makes her guilty of mishandling the task officially given to her from Manager James himself whom the entire employees dread profoundly much more than they did for the film director. Her negligence and her show of apathy for the official assignment meant to be a core factor in getting the actors ready to producing a major film under the company's production label by not taking full responsibility for her team's failure soon became a gossip to most of the nosy employees who actually didn't like her at all as well as some of her team members when she refused to be present in the office for two days after getting warned by the original owner of the manuscript himself whilst majority of those in her team with the likes of Isabel and Kelly were wondering what was wrong with her sudden disloyal behavior which the likes of her hardly ever do in their company records since she started working for the film company and had been amongst those trying hard to reach out to her through her home telephone landline using all the means possible to contact her but to no avail. Unknown to them especially the CEO who got extremely mad with anger that he got her blacklisted and had the work redone by another appointed ad-hoc team of his personal choice after declaring her respectful renowned position in the company suspended tiil further notice for failing to provide an accurate review script for the show perfectly done by her editorial team, Emma had confined her activities for the past two days, in figuring out a perfect solution to safeguard her full responsibility rights of ownership of her family's old mansion now lay in desolation as a result of the elapsed time in taking care of the structures worth some fancy sum of money ever since it was built and she had restricted her movements to the Eastern region of the city, quarter mile radius away from a law firm. Within forty eight hours, she had made two appointments with a lawyer from the same law firm whom she knew very well to be her old friend from high school, a tall slim woman of Canadian origin whose height have always been a head taller than most of her peers back in school and even some of the male clients as well as fellow colleagues who worked with her in her law firm. But both meeting with her one time best friend turn out to be a fruitless effort for her, having wasted her time not getting what she wanted after accidentally lost an important part of her legal papers meant to play a vital role in equipping her best friend to possibly defend her in court against her uncle in a week's time if she fails to sign the document which was the major factor for her deciding to change her mind of going to work the previous day in order to sort out possible ways to get her Uncle's mind off her late father's property. After spending the second day away from her work scouring other places for practicable solutions as well as a brief meeting with her lawyer friend at roadside restaurant during midday, She had wearily retired home in the evening completely drained of strength, to rejuvenate her spent energy for the day and had a refreshing hot bath in a tub inside her bathroom the moment she got home before getting herself ready to for supper which did nothing to ease the pain gathering inside of her. Thankfully, there was sufficient electricity in her apartment to enable her watch the TV shows in her decoder that helped keep her mind off all the negative thoughts plaguing her since it started two days ago and enough warmth in her living room to keep her feeling more comfortable in her cozy red pyjamas while she sat down on her couch cloaked with the darkness in the sitting room, watching her favorite movies with a little cushion trapped against her bossom as though she was actually free from all encumbrances that did upset her usual routine of going to work early in the morning except weekends till she began to feel a lot better than she had been during the hectic day of roaming around town in incognito without being seen by anyone from her workplace. Having derived satisfaction in watching television, she started to feel bored all of a sudden and a bit stuffy in the living room but she didn't make any effort to switch off the television until a single thought about checking out the leftover boxes that she had luckily saved from heavy showers of the rain two nights ago and weren't among the rest pieces of trash at the dumpster that were emptied into the garbage truck by the disposal team in the afternoon soon after the storm had ceased its violent turbulence at the other side of town, even before she as well as other neighbors returned home from where they had spent the whole day.

Emma took her mobile phone from the couch beside her thighs and set aside a bowl of popcorn she bought from a cinema mini mart before she returned home. Then she tapped the desktop screen of her android phone and peered at the bright screen which shone into her eyes amidst the darkness radiantly, the moment it responded to the touch of her right forefinger only for her to discover a lot of missed calls recorded in her phone and most of which were from the members of the same editorial team she was in charge of at her office department. She could see the call logs of every missed call she intently ignored yesterday beginning from the very first call that she received from Kelly, the man whom she had entrusted with the burden of editing the manuscript while the others, she gave them a specific format to arrange the processed document with a well designed template from canvas but they had disappointed her by their incompetence in providing an erroneous document for her to submit to the Film director.

With disgust, she toss the cell phone back on the couch including the remote control that had rested on her thighs and strolled to the stairs after putting on her bunny slippers, leaving the television show on to go on displaying the program she had been watching. She head upstairs to the attic only to find it very dark without no lights and tried to switch on the lights but it failed to respond making her feel a bit frustrated with herself. Afterwards, she dashed into a nearby room to grab a torchlight which she found easily lying beneath a lampshade on a drawer next to the bed and returned once again to the attic. With the aid of the flashlight, she could decipher the tidiness of the room as she stride into the silent room even though the darkness obscured most part of her vision and could see the strait cubicle empty except for the old closet where she had kept the boxes intact. Her flashlight gleamed brightly in the dark as she came closer to the wardrobe, ignoring other parts of the room and opened the wardrobe to the check if everything was still intact just the way she had left it hidden inside the closet. Much of the dust had diffused out of the room through the window the entire time she left the window opened for proper ventilation after she had it thoroughly cleaned up nicely making it more easier for her to see clearly in the moonlight which shone into the room through the window.

The cartons were still very much in the same position as before and she could see that almost all of them had completely dried up as the light of her flashlight came across each of them, from top to bottom especially the old gramophone discs of the bettles album belonging to her late father together with an old teddybear she used to play with when she was little as well as a few old pictures of her parents photograph of their times together at notable places they visited during their honeymoon and nothing else seems odd to her except for something peculiar that struck her curiosity. At once, she recalled having seen the same material the same night she rescued the cartons from getting wet despite being barefooted when she entered the rain. Taking a further look inside the carton using the torch, she saw the material of bear fur wrapped against some wooden scroll which protruded on both sides, by two ropes, binding it together. She took out the carton from the closet with one hand, without interfering the other containers stacked on one side of the shelves while holding the torch with the other hand, leaving one side of the closet opened before dropping it off on the floorboard. Feeling a bit uneasy with the chilly breeze brewing into the room through the window, she left the open carton and went to the other end of the room to shut the window. However, it creaked and refused to budge even though she had to drop her flashlight to pull the two small lid of the narrow window together. After two minutes of intense struggling, She used her last strength to close the window and went back to where she had left the carton lying beside the huge wardrobe that was partly exposed on one side of its front doors.