Story: Annabelle's New Role. Epilogue.

by Violet Carson

Epilogue – 3 Months Later

Annabelle looked at her reflection in the rear view mirror of her new Golf. She had thought of this moment for much of the last three months and it had finally arrived as she sat in the car park of Getaway Holidays as the workers drifted home at the end of this bright spring working day. When she arrived, the car park was largely full, but as it started to clear she had managed to move her car to a space very close to Andrzej’s Honda.

She had come a long way in just over three months since her accident. She had spent the first three days in a coma in hospital and had been described on the local news as an unidentified elderly lady who had been the victim of a mugging. Thankfully, both Jack and Jenny had heard of the incident and as she hadn't returned calls made their way to the hospital and from then on visited regularly. Jenny had told Annabelle’s now ex husband about the situation and once she’d regained consciousness, he had, after some persuasion paid to have her transferred to a private hospital where she had received the best possible care.

After 4 weeks there she was discharged to stay with her parents where she embarked on a rehabilitation regime and over the past month had built up her strength via swimming, regular trips to the gym and runs of increasing length every second day. A week ago she moved into a rented flat in St, Albans waiting for the money from her divorce settlement to arrive when she would buy her own home and embark on the next stage of her life.

She admired her reflection in the mirror. The regular facials, exercise and healthy diet had worked well and the scar on her forehead had almost faded and was well hidden by the peroxide blonde pixie cut that Zoe had convinced her would suit her and she had to agree that she was right! She’d also now sported a small diamond stud in the left side of her nose and with her now whitened teeth and new crown where one had been chipped in her fall she knew she looked great in a slightly punky rock-chick kind of way.

With that she jumped to life as she spotted Andrzej walking across the car park towards his car. Her heart skipped a beat. She had rehearsed this scene a thousand times in her head over the preceding weeks, but now it had finally arrived. So much depended on the next few minutes.

She quickly got out, took a deep breath and shouted.

“Hey Andrzej it’s Rose!”

He looked dumbfounded at the blonde goddess in front of him with bright red glossy lips, biker jacket, skin tight jeans and Cuban heeled ankle boots.

“I’m sorry” he stammered in his subtle Polish accent, “I don’t know anyone called Rose, you must be mistaken”

“Rose the cleaner” Annabelle replied.

“No you’re joking” exclaimed the extremely surprised Andrzej.

“Is this some kind of wind-up, Rose is an old woman”

“I know, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, do you want to hear it”

“Erggh, yes, I suppose so!”

“Good, there’s a pub just up the road follow me and I’ll tell you everything.

Epilogue – One Year Later

Beverley Smith walked past the parade of shops that until the last twelve months or so had been boarded up or home to a few small discount stores and a newsagent. Only the newsagent now survived and although some were still empty, a wholefoods shop, two coffee shops, a wine-bar, a retro clothes and furniture store had all opened along with her destination, a tattooist and piercing studio called “Submit to the Needle”. This area had most definitely rapidly become hipster central and Beverley although very attractive and only 23, felt decidedly plain and boring in the neighbourhood. She worked for the City Council as a Public Health Officer and this was one of her first solo inspections having only recently qualified. She was visiting the new tattoo parlour that had become something of a local sensation a hipster hub. This was its first post opening inspection and she felt very nervous.

She walked through the front door and was amazed that it was nothing like the vision she had in her mind. There were no drawings of skulls anywhere to be seen. It was bright and airy with bang on trend mid century furniture and even a vase of flowers on the reception desk!

She introduced herself to the young girl with the bright red angular haircut at the desk and introduced herself and said that the Manager: Annabelle Edwards was expecting her.

Before she could complete her introduction, the most amazing looking woman Beverley had ever seen walked towards her holding out her hand with an enormous smile and said:

“Hi, you must be Beverly, I’m Annabelle. I’ve been nervously looking forward to your visit”

Suddenly Beverley felt totally at ease and admired the self-confident woman in front of her who couldn’t have been very much older than her.

“Why can’t I be like that?? she shyly thought to herself.

Annabelle looked stunning. She had bright blonde hair that she wore with a fringe that finished just above her eyebrows, that hairline was followed all the way around her head with everything below shaved. She wore a very expensive looking ivory coloured sleeveless silk blouse which showed off a remarkable geometric style tattoo running down most of her right arm. She also wore cropped tailored pinstripe trousers and flat metallic silver brogues. Beverley thought she looked absolutely amazing and knew she would never have the self- confidence to pull off such a powerful image.

Annabelle made interesting small talk about the business having been operating for just over six months, doing tattoos and piercings and that her boyfriend Andrzej designed Apps for people to complete their own unique tattoo designs. They were also about to branch out into interior design and fabrics based around the Apps he created. They were both astonished by their success. She went on to say that they had just secured the lease on the empty shop next door and that was going to become an alternative hair salon that an Australian friend of theirs was going to manage for them.

With that, she took her over to meet Andrzej and went on to say that a year or so ago she was in a very dark place and going through a divorce but she’d now met Andrzej and just when she thought her life couldn’t get any better, last week she had discovered she was expecting their first baby.

Beverly congratulated her and as Annabelle left her with Andrzej and turned away she noticed that on the back of her hair that would normally be covered by her hair was inked in a gothic type “Never Submit”.

Beverley smiled to herself and wondered what it meant and was strangely envious of her success and genuine warm personality

Epilogue – Four Years Later

The Bartosiks had become the darlings of the UK’s hipster business community regularly being featured on the front covers of business magazines, colour supplements and the style pages. Their business empire had expanded, with a number of shops across the UK and now also in Warsaw, Prague and Barcelona. Nobody seemed to envy them their success as in interviews they always presented themselves well, with none of the pretentious “Hipster speak” often heard tumbling from the mouths of people in the arts and design communities.

They regularly attended charity events and were often seen with the Beckhams and the Clooneys and were particular supporters of charities for battered and oppressed women as well as children’s charities, now having three young children of their own.

The only dark shadow in their story that occasionally surfaced in interviews was that of Annabelle’s relationship with her disgraced ex husband Mark Parfitt.

After the sudden death of the founder of Parfitt developments Sir Richard Parfitt, Mark had taken over the business and with the help of his CFO: Nigel Edmonds and his 2nd wife Lucy had gone on a rapid expansion drive buying development sites across the UK, US and mainland China. After a rapid increase in value, which meant Mark was lauded as something of a business genius, it suddenly collapsed when it became apparent that sites were being sold off plan, without ever being fully completed as they went on to acquire new sites.

With such a backlog of uncompleted developments, investors became suspicious and the business collapsed. Mark and Nigel were being held in the US awaiting trial and had used almost all their money trying to fight the case. Nigel’s wife Jenny was reduced to living in a small flat whereas Lucy had mysteriously disappeared to China. No-one seemed to know if she had fled with the money and was living comfortably in China or if she had fallen prey to some of their ruthless Chinese investors. There were rumours that she had been murdered, or was being used as a prostitute or maid from some ruthless Chinese speculator. The truth was unclear.

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