The Window Of Corruption

Almost a year had passed and my life seemed to be absolutely perfect, I couldn't have been any happier. We had refurbished the apartment and it now looked half decent, we decorated the rooms and bought a new oven to cook proper meals. My grandparents seemed just as happy as I was, they too fell in love with America and they even appeared to be healthier than they were before; even my grandma's hip seemed to be getting better after she started seeing a doctor who helped her mobility.

Working also meant that I had a comfortable living wage, earning enough money so that my grandparents could buy some new nice clothes and now we were able to buy fresh fruit and vegetables every day. Vinnie and I soon became good friends; we were spending all day with each other so it wasn't surprising that we grew closer. We became Tony's favourite window washers and he even gave us extra jobs that paid more money.

I continued seeing Olivia and we became very close, I'd often spend the night at her place and we'd meet up every other day after we finished work. I introduced Olivia to my grandparents and they all seemed to get on well, my grandparents were thrilled that I had found someone and encouraged me to 'take it to the next step' although I'm not quite sure what they meant by this.

Everything was perfect and I thought my life couldn't get any better, but like all good things, my happiness had to come to an abrupt end. My life was forever changed on that fateful day, it started off as a regular day, Tony had given us a giant skyscraper to clean in the financial district, it was going to take a couple of days to clean all the windows. On the second day we were near the top of the skyscraper on our swinging stage when we witnessed something diabolical.

I had just finished wiping off all of the soap from the giant window with a squeegee when I peered inside. The window covered the whole of the wall and was taller than me and about five times as wide. I wouldn't usually look inside because I respected people's privacy and thought it was rude to peer into people's offices, but for some reason there was something that compelled me to look in. I could hear talking and movement from within the window and leaned closer to the glass to get a better view, I briefly looked down and noticed how high we were, it didn't really bother me though.

Through the glass window I saw a large room, it was a luxurious office, and I remember hearing that Robert Dylan's office was in this building. He was the main candidate opposing the current Mayor in the next election which was in a few weeks if I recalled. There were election posters and propaganda messages everywhere. From reading the newspaper and watching the news I knew that he was a very rich man and seemed to own half of New York City.

He was originally an entrepreneur who made it big, becoming a multimillionaire. Then on the news a few months ago someone asked him if he was going to run for the position as mayor. Apparently he became inspired to become the next mayor and since then has pushed his election campaign to the extreme, funding television and radio election broadcasts and using every propaganda technique at his disposal.

There seemed to be some scandals surrounding his election campaign and there had been some allegations of corruption but there was no evidence and it all seemed to just be gossip. I didn't really care for all the politics and wasn't planning to vote, but I had a feeling that Robert Dylan was going to win.

The office was huge, it had a giant long wooden desk facing away from the window, in the chair was a man, he couldn't see us because he was facing away from us. Opposite the desk was a door with two stern looking men in suits stood at either side of the door. The whole wall was plastered with bookcases and various different plaques that had been scattered around the room. Another man was stood facing the man sat at the desk, if he was paying attention he could have easily seen us but he was too busy talking to the man at the desk.