My stomach begins to churn as I pull into Kings Drive, the last time I was here I met with… Daniel. The closer I get to the drive of number four, the slower I drive. I don’t want to be here, I should have taken Les up on his offer to show the decorator round himself but it’s my first day back in the office since… then. I didn’t want to let Les down any further.
As my car rolls onto the drive, I hold back the tears in my eyes and take a deep breath. I need to remind myself that this isn’t about Daniel, Daniel won’t even be here. This viewing is purely professional; this is just another day at the office.
I collect my handbag and the property keys from the passenger seat and open the car door. As I make my way to the front door, I see an old white van with ‘SS Decorators’ written on the side, pull up outside the front garden. The wheels scratch along the kerb as the tyres mount the pavement, I wave at the gentleman behind the wheel and manage to force out a smile.
I make my way to the front door and start fumbling around with the keys. I can hear the gentleman’s footsteps pat up the drive behind me and I turn to face him. I hold my hand out in front of me and he shakes it with an extremely firm grip. I feel the roughness of his hands and the power behind the shake, which pulls my arm at an awkward angle.
‘Hi, Katrina Hunter.’ I pull my hand back out of his grip and continue with my search for the correct key.
‘Steve Smith.’
I would imagine that Steve Smith would describe himself as ‘a bit of a geezer’. He is rather short and must be in his late forties. He has a large pot belly hanging over his low waisted jeans and has paint and grease splatters covering his entire outfit. He smells like a mix of cigarettes, petrol and sweat; it’s not a pleasant concoction, especially after my recent 24 hour ice cream binge.
‘Shall we?’ I point towards the door and realise that I sound exactly like Daniel. I recall the first time I visited the property with Daniel but quickly snap out of my daydream when I catch another whiff of Mr Smith’s odour. I finally find the correct key and push open the front door.
‘Right love, I need about ‘alf an hour. Gotta get some quotes over to Mr Knight like yesterday. He’s quite a slave driver innit ‘e?’
‘I’m sure he has his reasons.’ I have to defend Daniel’s actions, he is doing this out of the kindness of his heart and it’s all for his lovely sister. This man has no idea; he doesn’t know Daniel at all.
‘I’ll do the downstairs first then we’ll go upstairs, eh?’ Mr Smith winks at me and I turn away pretending I didn’t see. What a repulsive man.
‘Ok I am just going to make a phone call, I won’t be long.’ I head out to the kitchen and place my handbag on the worktop. I don’t really have anyone to call, I need some time by myself and this way I won’t have to converse with Mr Smith any more than I have to.
As I remove my phone from my bag, I scroll through my apps but decide that being caught playing Candy Crush may not be the most professional thing I have ever done. Instead, I text a few of my friends with the ordinary conversation starters, such as ‘hey, how are you? x’ and ‘morning, hows things? x’. Ten minutes later I am still waiting for a reply so I decide to pop my phone back into my bag and find Mr Smith. When I look up from my bag, Mr Smith is standing right in front of me.
‘Shall we do the upstairs now?’
‘Yes, no problem.’ I follow behind Mr Smith, a few paces behind actually, it seems even the smell of this house cannot overpower his body odour.
I follow Mr Smith into the first bedroom; he looks the room up and down, then scrawls some notes onto his pad. Every so often he gets a calculator out of his pocket and starts typing out sums, I dread to think of the cost to redecorate all of this.
As we enter the third bedroom, I remember that this is the one I chose for little Luke’s room. I picture the walls covered in the red paint I had chosen and the large dinosaur motif I had found on the internet. I can feel the tears building up behind my eyes again and I shake my head to remove any thoughts of Daniel and his nephews from my mind.
Steve saunters out of the room and calls from the hall, ‘right, bathroom next?’
I decide to wait in the hall, I place my handbag on the floor and try to distract myself with the pattern in the artex ceiling. As I look up in the air I suddenly realise how odd I must look, if Mr Smith walks out and sees me staring at the ceiling he is going to think I have gone mad. I study the carpet pattern instead; whoever decorated this hall must have been seriously odd. I have been waiting on the landing daydreaming about new cream carpets for quite a while when Mr Smith shouts out from within the bathroom.
‘Right last bedroom, then we are done!’
Mr Smith joins me in the hall, then we both walk into the smallest bedroom. I make my way over to the large window that looks out onto Kings Drive, if I stand at exactly the right angle I can just about see number 1 from here. Just as I am admiring number one’s new hanging baskets, I feel hot breath on the back of my neck. I freeze, unsure of what to do.
‘Excuse me,’ I turn to face back into the room to see Mr Smith standing right in front of me. Has this man not heard of personal space before? ‘Have you finished now, Sir?’
I am cornered, I cannot move there are walls and a sweaty man blocking all of my escape routes.
‘No, I’m just getting started.’ Mr Smith pushes his body close to mine so I am forced to step back into the window pane, I feel the back of my head hit the glass. ‘Don’t be shy.’
I can feel his pot belly resting against the tops of my thighs and I try to slide out of his grip. ‘Sorry Sir but..’
He places his fat hairy finger over my lips and it leaves a salty taste behind.
‘That’s enough of that, now be a good girl and keep quiet.’ Mr Smith’s hand grabs onto my leg just above my knee, my entire body tenses and I inhale sharply. I try to squirm out of the gap between Mr Smith and the wall but his mass and strength has me pinned against the window. His hand begins to climb my leg and the roughness of his skin grates along me like sandpaper.
‘Mr Smith, no!’ I shout out.
‘What did I say, Miss Hunter?’ He uses his other hand to cover my mouth and pushes my head against the window. I try to pull his hand off of me but he is too strong, his other hand continues it’s journey up my leg.
I search inside my jacket for my phone but I realise I have left it in my handbag in the kitchen. Using both my hands, I manage to push Mr Smith’s hand off my leg but instead of deterring him it seems to encourage him and he returns his hand to a higher position on my thigh. As he is fumbling with the hem of my skirt I once again try to remove his other hand from my face but his strength continues to overpower me.
I hear the engine of a car outside and I scream to try and inform the passer-by of my situation. I know it is in vain though; my muffled screams are only just loud enough for Mr Smith to hear let alone someone outside of the property. Mr Smith’s hand slides under my skirt and I use my free hands to bang on the window.
‘Naughty,’ Mr Smith pushes me away from the window and against the nearest wall; I once again feel the pressure of his body pushing against me. ‘So the Hunter becomes the hunted, kind of ironic don’t you think?’
I continue to scream, despite Mr Smith’s hand covering my mouth and I almost give up hope when I hear footsteps echo down the hall.
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Amelie Lockhart 