The Simple Lady Upstairs, a short story

The Simple Lady Upstairs

Have you ever been guilty of people watching? Imagining what other peoples lives were like compared to yours. I had a habit of that. Guilty as charged. The lady upstairs was particularly interesting to watch. The best and only way I could describe her was simple, or predictable. Her long blonde hair was always straightened to perfection, half of it pulled back from her face with little black clips. She never wore make up but to be honest she was one of those people that didn’t need to. Natural beauty and all that. Her face was a kind of heart shape with two piercing baby blue eyes in the middle of her freckles pale skin. She looked like she was in her late twenties, though she was definitely older. She woke up every morning at 8am, had her usual bowl of granola in her flowery dressing gown and pink fluffy slippers, then would go up to change for work. She always wore some sort of plain pant suit that made her look boring and frumpy. Usually it was her favourite brown one, occasionally it was a grey or black one. She would leave dead on 8.30am, in her nice BMW, probably the only nice fancy thing she owned. It was quite a big car for a single lady but who was I to judge. She would leaving listening to the local classical music radio channel and wouldn’t return until 6pm. I always thought she was a teacher or some sort of receptionist for a big fancy company. She had that sense of sophistication about her, she was smart and calculated. Like clockwork she’d go inside and change into duck printed pyjamas, stuck a ready meal for one in the microwave and poured herself a glass of red wine. She would sit in front of the tv with her meal on her lap and watch some crappy tv show. But there was something different tonight. There was something off about her. She had a slight frown on her face, her body tense like a viper ready to strike. She looked uncomfortable like something was about to happen. She suddenly leapt up from the sofa as cars screeched to a stop in front of her house. There blue and red lights flashing. Finally they had come for me. That simple lady was my captor….