Chapter 3

• The scientists were wrong when they said there were only five senses. They said there was sense of sight, sense of hearing, sense of taste, sense of touch and sense of smell. But they were so wrong. They had omitted the most important sense— the sense of pain.
• —Steph
• Stephanie looked at what she had wrote in her jotpad before closing the slim book with a sigh. She had not make a bad decision trying to write. She had not known what to do with the emotions that have been bubbling in her for the past three days. She was too angry to paint. Music made her cry. Any attempt to draw turned to her drawing a portrait of Stevie with his eyes clawed out against her own will.
• So she had turned to writing. Writing a few sentences here and there in her jot pad had made her rationalizw her feelings and what had happened to her ; it had made her calm…made her more of the person she was three days before the mail that had broken her world into tiny bits came not like this woman who had been in a special kind of hell and had become too splittered to recognise.
• She remembered what she had wrote and wondered if those stupid scientists with their big books and thick glasses had never felt the cruel sting of being betrayed by a loved one. If they had, they would have known and acknowledged that the other five senses were nothing compared to the sense of pain. In fact the five touches only concentrated on a particular sense organ but pain filled the heart and over flowed to the rest part of the body. Those stupid scientists should do more of free thinking than sticking to stupid logic, formulas and rules. Those damn parameters did not work in real life. They never did.
• Stephanie wearily slid out of her chair and went into the bathroom. On her way to the bathroom., she discarded her clothes on the floor and switched on the coldest switch in the shower cap in her bid to shower so she can finally get rid of the choking smell that had stuck to her for the several hours. The smell had clung to her hair, her body, clothes, bedspread and even the expensive furniture in her room. It was a smell that made sure her parents or anybody else do not stay for long whenever they visited her in her room to check up on her. She had not showered for the past forty eight hours. She had not brushed her teeth or combed her black ruly hair either. She didn't need to look into the mirror to know that she looked completely hideous.
• Now that she was feeling a bit better, it was time to look like a human again. She stayed long in the shower letting the cold water drenched her, hoping its cold would seep into her raging soul and cool it.
• For the third time. She had been used for the third time. Again and again, she had been used.
• First, it was John Philips. Then it was Liam Smith.
• Now, it was Stevie.
• Just because she desire to love and be loved like the others, she had been broken so callously by the men she had given her heart to.
• She knew that if she thought again about what was wrong with her for the umpteenth time, she would descend back into the abyss she had managed so hard to crawl out from. For now.
• So for now, it was time to stop crying over what has happened and forge a new way forward for herself. She had meant when she said that she was not going to stay in Los Angeles where she had been born anymore. She knew her parents had not argued much with her concerning the issue because they thought that she had been speaking because she was in the pinnacle of the pain she had been feeling and had hoped that when she had calmed down and had come back to her senses, she would realize that the decision she had made was just foolish talk.
• But they were wrong. They were so wrong about that.
• Immediately, she had uttered those words to them, she had felt it deep within her spirit that this was the right decision for her. This was in fact the right decision that she should have made right after she had graduated from art school.
• She needed her breathing space. She needed to get away from Los Angeles and be in a new town all by herself.
• She knew that was exactly what she wanted to do.
• She had picked New Jersey not only because it was so far away from Los Angeles and so would not encourage frequent visits from her parents but also because it symbolizes freedom and liberty from whatever a person has been shackled with her. For her, her shackles were her father riches and the toxic men she had fallen in love. She wanted fresh air…a change of space. She wanted freedom and New Jersey seemed to promise her that.
• Her only major concern was her studio. New Jersey was too far away for the success she had made in Los Angeles where she had started her art career after college to follow her.
• Many people would not know her and her paint work that she have already done in Los Angeles. Those who did might trace it to the fact that she was the daughter of a rich man. That was something she could not afford to deal with right now because it would mean that she would resuscitate the influence of her Dad on her career she had been running from. So to keep away from those triggers, she had to keep away from who might have heard of her success in Los Angeles. In fact, it was to be assumed that she was just a new person just coming into the art world.
• In as much that was a painful decision to make— after all she was practically erasing the little history she had already written in the world of arts— she knew it was the right one.
• She was going to sell most of her arts that she had already made so she was going to need an Art collector soon to make the process a fast one. Once back in her room, she was going to call those on her contact who could possibly help her on it.
• She finished putting on her trousers and went down the stairs into the hallway that led to the sitting room. She could not still believe that she had been in her room for the past three days but had not been even down the stairs or to the sitting or kitchen to take the coffee that had been on her daily routine for over five years. Well, hadn't she not had a bath despite being few steps away from the bathroom for the past three days. Yeah, she had had it bad.
• Her parents were no where to be found be it in the sitting room or in the kitchen where she had told curious and relieved maids to make her a place of fruit salad and another plate of Meatball and spaghetti which was a surprise considering the fact that today was Saturday and a work free day for both of them.
• She went into the sitting room to sit down while she waited for her lunch to be prepared for her. The LCD television screen that contained the span of the left side of the room was showing a favourite drama show of hers but even though her eyes were fixated on it, her interest and attention were so far away. Now that she was calmer now, her stomach began to remind her that she had eaten any substantial meal in over forty eight hours and she was about to stand up and remind the maids to hurry up with the meal when the double doors swinged open and her dad and mum walked in with a middle aged woman who was wearing a long sleeved shirt tucked into a red skirt and was having the biggest smile on her face on sighting Stephanie. Her parents were visibly taken aback by seeing her looking so clean and calm and sitting in the sitting room with the Television on. It was obvious that it was the last place and state they had expected her to come in.
• They were both wearing similar clothes; same yellow T shirt and red trousers. Stephanie wondered where they were coming from and who was this woman that was with them that would never quit smiling.
• With a quizzical look in her eyes, she went to her parents to give them a welcoming hug. Her mother didn't let go when she tried to pull back after the hug.