Crystal Clear

She emerged from the cool water with a happy smile plastered on her handsome face. After a terrible day at work and having to run official errands in the hot sun, the water felt like being born again. As she waded through the crystal clear water towards the edge of the swimming pool and her pile of cloths, she felt that burning desire to move into the mansion and closer to the swimming pool  rush over her yet again. Sighing softly, she knew it was time to get out of the water. 

Reluctantly climbing out, she stood still for a while as the evening breeze hastily licked up the droplets of water cascading down her supple skin to form a small pool at her bare feet on the tiled deck. It was the first time she was swimming naked and it felt rejuvenating. Ignoring her cloths by the pool side she walked over to the array of lounge chairs and almost purred as she stretched out on one. 

Tonia felt like dancing beneath the radiant glow of the setting sun as it embraced the horizon with its red warmth. The sound of the gentle breeze rustling through the trees set off a familiar tune in her head. It was her first peaceful Sunday evening and even though it meant the beginning of another strenuous week, she refused to give in to the negative mood trying to steal her joy. She detested being a service clerk after leaving school with good grades, but there was no job in town and getting any job was better than calling her brother for monetary assistance. All her midnight prayers had paid off.

Her boss at the new office was a perfect motivation; Tonia thought as she imagined the handsome young man walking towards her from the towering mansion, bearing a tray of her favorite drink. She smiled up at him as he dropped the tray beside her on the deck and leaned down to kiss her soft lips. Tonia bolted upright and woke up from her fantasies. Her heart was racing. Why was she dreaming of her manager again? How would she be able to work closely with him with such vivid thoughts running through her mind? Could it be the stress of finding and cleaning her new apartment?

"You need to watch yourself Tonia," She chastised herself; "no sane young man would fall for a girl whose life is in shambles and earns almost the same as a janitor."

She had felt her life in the big city was over when Nanya threatened to eject her from her house few months after the end of their one year youth service. She met Nanya at the camp and was overjoyed when she offered her a room in an apartment paid for by one of her rich boyfriends. She was losing hope of ever getting a job when one of the private companies where she had gone for an interview called her with an offer and Nnanya’s agent called with the news of a free room.

The room turned out to be an old store in a solitary compound located at one of the high brow areas in town.  It was the cheapest room in the neighborhood and felt like being trapped in a broken elevator but she was lucky to have gotten it after a long, desperate search. The paint was old and the dingy three-quarter bathroom was too small to fit in a bathtub. The shower was running and for that she was thankful. The large and only window in the room overlooked the beautiful mansion and a breathtaking swimming pool. A gardener always came in at weekends to sweep the compound and clean the pool, but nobody ever used it. The owners were definitely not in the country.

The estate agent had warned her never to go near the mansion; but after surviving two weeks in her dingy apartment concealed behind huge trees far away from the mansion, she didn’t need a soothsayer to tell her that the huge mansion was deserted and yearning for someone to run around inside it. Tonia sighed to herself and laid back.

If she ever had a mansion, nothing would make her desert it. The agent was just being stingy, conservative and worried over nothing. No one would notice if she spent a night in any of the massive rooms and the pool was hers to enjoy for as long as she wanted. She smiled at the sun fading behind the tree tops as she closed her eyes...

To be continued