CHAPTER 1
Anja drags her feet to the office that morning. She’s so tired of the same routine each and every day. Her job bores her to death. The tiredness lies deep in her soul this morning. She is an administrative clerk at a very large insurance company. She hasn’t been promoted in the seven years that she worked there. She is so bored of doing the same thing over and over again every day of the year.
Slowly she walks to her table. She puts her handbag in her drawer and places her cell phone on top of her handbag as she has been doing for the last seven years. She can feel someone is looking at her and when she looks up she sees a pair of brown eyes peeking at her again. This happens every day. She wishes Wouter gets a pain in his ass. He is a pervert and makes all sorts of suggestive suggestions towards her. She is getting pretty much fed up with him. He’s not her type at all and she’s tired of his inappropriate behaviour. He is fat and not attractive at all. He has a big nose and very large ears. It makes him look like a funny characters out of a fairy tale.
She sits down and starts to sort out the paperwork on her desk. When she is done she has to go and file it in the filing room. Arranged neatly in alphabetical order, she carries the pile to the filing room. She opens the door and places her pile on the table and starts taking out the first files to file the documents in. She is so caught up in her own thoughts she doesn’t hear Wouter sneaking in behind her. She gets startled when he suddenly speaks behind her.
“Hello beautiful thing” he whispers close to her ear.
“Come on Wouter, what do you want, can’t you see I’m busy?” Anja complains, hoping to get rid of him.
He comes closer and grabs her from behind. He puts his arms around her body and rubs his penis against her butt.
“You are so hot, I want your body” he whispers in her ear.
Anja is annoyed on the spot and decides to teach him a lesson. She takes her hand and caresses his penis between her fingers until she feels he has a proper erection. Of sheer excitement he gasps in her ear.
“You want to play, let’s play,” she says defiantly, seductively, and turns around. He greedily loosens his pants. She puts her hand into his pants. She puts her hand firmly around his penis where it is attached to his body. She can see he likes this attention a lot. But all of a sudden, out of the blue, she grabs his penis tightly and gives one hard jerk. When Wouter leans forward in pain, Anja whispers softly but firmly in his ear “I will pull your ugly penis out by its roots!”
He does not get a sound out. She gives another firm jerk and a twist as if she is struggling to pull a weed out of the ground. This time Wouter gasps for air and doubles over in pain.
“This is the last time you mess with me! Do we understand each other? ” Anja hisses in his ear.
In a whispered voice he replies “Yes, I’m sorry Anja, I will never mess with you again.”
She releases his penis and leaves him in pain in the filing room. With a smile of satisfaction she walks down the corridor. That will teach him a lesson, she thinks to herself. She didn’t think she had it in her to defend herself like that, but enough is enough!
When she gets back to her desk, her cell phone starts ringing. She opens her drawer and picks up her cell phone. She sees it is an unknown number, but answers anyway.
“Good day, Anja speaking.”
“Good morning am I speaking to Anja Basson?” a deep voice asks.
“Yes you are.”
“Miss Basson, my name is Lodewikus Marais and I am calling from the offices of Marais and Lubbe attorneys. There is an urgent matter I need to discuss with you. How soon can you come and see me?”
“In connection with what is it sir?”
“I am sorry to inform you that an aunt on your father’s side has passed away. You are the sole heir named in her will. I would like to discuss all the details of the will with you. Our offices are located in Cape Town.”
“Are you sure you have the right person? I have no family I know of on my father’s side.”
“Your father’s name was Johannes Pieter Basson, born February 26, 1952?”
“Yes that is correct.”
“Then you are the right person to talk to. He and this aunt were estranged from each other. He did make a good impression on her in his childhood. Subsequently she bequeathed her property to you because your father had already passed away and she had no children of her own. According to her, you are the only one of the family left, so you inherit her house and everything in it.”
“It can be but I wasn’t aware of this aunt’s existence. All right, Mr Marais, I will come and see you as soon as I can get away.”
“Can you send me a copy of your ID document so that I can finalize the necessary paperwork on my part? You can forward it to my email address at [email protected]
“Yes sure, I will send it to you today still. Thank you for calling.”
“I will send you the address where you can come and see me as well. Goodbye Miss Basson.”
“Goodbye” Anja says and puts her cell phone down on her desk. Surprised she is frozen for a few seconds. She takes her ID book out of her handbag and walks to the photocopy machine. She scans it in and sends it to her computer. She writes an email and attaches the document and sends it to Mr. Marais’ email address as requested.
Now Anja has a reason to take her annual leave. The last time she was on vacation was two years ago. She is really pretty fed up of the same boring routine and faces every day. Wouter in particular irritates her the most, but after the episode of this morning, he hasn’t looked in her direction again. When he came out of the filing room a few minutes after her he couldn’t walk properly. He quickly sat down on his chair and since then hasn’t made a sound or looked over his partition at Anja. She saw him take two pills that looked like painkillers. She don’t think the pain she caused him, will get better any time soon. She thinks she did all the women working on the whole floor a big favour. She fills out her leave form and walks to her manager’s office. She knocks on the door. Disturbed he peaks over his glasses at her.
“How can I help you Anja?”
“Mr Malherbe, I have to go to Cape Town to see an attorney in connection with an inheritance. It sounds quite urgent. I want to take my annual leave please.”
“Well Anja unfortunately I can’t grant your request for leave. Who do you think is going to file all that paperwork that comes through the offices every day?”
Anja losses her temper and even before thinking, the words slip out of her mouth.
“Well in that case Sir, take your work and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine! I will change that leave form into a resignation. Give it here! ” she says, snatching the form from his hands. She turns it over and in big letters she writes ‘I resign’ and signs it. Astonished, still peering over his glasses he does not utter a word.
“Here, take it. I’m sick and tired of all these stuck up people who works here!” she says, throwing the form on his desk.
He wants to say something, but Anja turns around and walk out of his office. She slams her door so hard that the glass rattles and his precious certificates almost fall off the wall. Like an upset bull she storms to her desk. She grabs a box of paper from next to the photocopy machine and throws the paper out onto the floor. She packs her few personal belongings into the box, takes her handbag and walks out of the office, without saying a word to anyone. Everyone just looks at her in amazement. Yes, look all you like I’m done with this salt mine! Anja thinks as she walks out.
When she exits the building she shouts out loud “Yippee, I’m free!”
A few pedestrians look at her in surprise as she startled them. She feels like sticking her tongue out at them. She’s tired of all these stiff neck people working here in Rosebank. One thinks he is better than the next.
When she gets to her apartment, she goes to speak to the caretaker. She lightly knocks on the door.
Aunt Jakoba opens the door and says “morning dear, aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
“I was this morning but I resigned. I received a call from a lawyer in Cape Town who wants to see me urgently. And when my boss didn’t want to grant my leave, I resigned.”
“But wasn’t it a hasty decision on your behalf?”
“No I don’t think so. It sounds like I inherited a whole house with everything in it. I want to book a plane ticket as soon as possible so I can go and see what it all entails. Therefore, I unfortunately have to give you notice. Can I please store my furniture in the storage area until I know what exactly is going to happen in Cape Town?”
“Yes you can. Once you are there you can let me know what you decided to do.”
“Thank you very much. I will try to get a flight in the next few days. If I packed up all my things, can I perhaps spend my last night here with you?”
“Yes sure, I would like that.”
“Thank you very much aunt Jakoba. I will let you know when my flight is.”
Anja walks to her small apartment, unlock the door and enters. She calls an airline and is lucky enough to get a flight to Cape Town for the next week. She immediately books her ticket.
She packs all her things and the day before she heads out, she moves all the belongings to the storeroom. Old John comes to help her with the furniture. She is very excited to see what has been bequeathed to her. Maybe it’s not much, but she doesn’t care about that now. It’s time for a change and moving to the Cape is the perfect place to start over. The next morning she gets up early to get ready to leave.
“I am so sorry to lose you as a tenant. You were one of the best ones I’ve had. I hope you are happy in the Cape. If things don’t work out, I will always have a place here for you.” “Thank you for everything Aunt Jakoba. I will remember it.”
Anja greets the old lady and leaves for the airport. She is so excited that she has to stop herself from running to the plane. She takes her place on the plane and in a flash they are in the air. She marvels at how beautifully the sun rises over the horizon. She can’t even remember when last she saw the sun rise. The flight is over faster than she expected. She makes her way to the exit and asks a taxi driver to take her to the address she had written down on a piece of paper.
