We were waiting and suddenly screen in-front of us displayed '4 deg C outside, wind chill will make you feel -2 deg C'. We immediately took out our jackets and wore. We assumed it will be a long walk from the airport to the parking lot. My husband seemed tense as he was not sure about the pick he had requested from the company. It took me a moment to realize that waiting is the only option. I looked around and saw most of them wearing coats just like us. The girl standing next to us was wearing the most trendy coat in the entire lobby. She looked Chinese. I looked around and started counting how many Asians are there in the lobby. Suddenly I heard hi. DH was waving to his friend who had come to pick us up.
It was almost 9:00 pm and the drive to the apartment was about 45 mins. After long 24 hours of flight these 45 mins seemed nothing to me. I was excited to be in this new country. After about 2 mins of casual talk DH and his friend got talking about work. I had heard that this city and its outskirts has a beautiful natural landscape. I looked around, there were no signs of buildings or trees for a long time. It was probably the longest freeway I have ever seen. Suddenly a right turn and we were there.
The entrance lobby of the apartment was warm and cozy. We collected our keys and reached our apartment. Next day was working for my DH. When I got up he had already left. It was 8:00 am, I had house to myself after about 8 months. I loved that feeling. I opened all the blinds and saw a tall apartment building in gray across the street. I looked down, our apartment was at a square. Diagonally there was a construction going on. I wanted to look further so tried opening the window, it was fixed. I tried opening the balcony door, it was stuck too.
I got back to my daily routine. After unpacking for about four hours, the house was ready. I was already feeling sleepy because of the jet lag. I decided to drag myself through the day.
Next day, After the much needed sleep I got up at 6:00 am, prepared and packed lunch and had breakfast. As usual DH left before 8:00, along with the only key for the apartment and garage. After making some calls I decided to go to the balcony. The grey building in the front had about 20 floors. After bending forward to peep further, on the left side I could see the road turn. On the right side, I could see square and connecting roads, the ongoing construction, and manicured trees on the divider of the road and of course cars. From my balcony I could see 14 trees.
I decided to reclaim my independence, evening I went to the front office and as asked for the spare key, but admin manager was on leave till weekend. So I had no choice but to stay house arrest till then. Next day by 8:00 am I was done. I went to the balcony, the upcoming building was to be called Marilyn Monroe, and was supposed to be 110 floors , tallest in the country. The picture on the screen was of the same building, who had won best design award at Dubai architecture convention 2006. I literally jumped to see something which I have read about and admired, is in front of me. The building was already 9 floors tall. My attention was drawn to the honking, and alarms on the road. The road was blocked with signs and security like in some Hollywood movie. It took me about two minutes to realize that they are wrapping trees and saw 3 trees warped in white, like a lollipop, before I could process it, door bell rang.
After the cleaning ladies left I came back to the window and to my surprise all the 14 trees were wrapped in white like lollipop. The signs were gone and the traffic was moving again. There was absolutely no greenery left in the view. Every thing was almost grey, black and white. Except for the moving cars, no humans or trees were to be seen, even on the ongoing construction site. Something sunk in me, I decided to continue with my day.
It was Thursday,as usual I was done with all my chores by 8:00 am, it was colder than usual, the screen on the construction site displayed -2 deg C. I saw there was no moment of any machinery today. I thought to myself, probably its very for construction. The morning was mostly cloudy and dull. Very less cars on the road. I looked around, same story two tall buildings and 14 wrapped tress. I tried looking beyond from my window, in all possible angles, I saw more buildings and a dark tree. The tree was in the same line as our building. I could only see part of it. The tree had a profile but the leaves were very odd. The tree was actually black in color. I have never seen or heard of a tree like that. I thought may be it is the vegetation here.
For next two days I tried observing leaf pattern of that black tree, until my eyes began hurt. Weekend was good we went out, saw the city, did some shopping. No doubt it was a beautiful city but almost all the trees were wrapped like lollipops. We dint know or knew anybody who knows the reason for it.
Next week it started snowing. The city literally slowed down till almost spring. It was difficult to go out because of the cold. I was pretty much house arrested months except for weekends. The ongoing construction was on hold for the season. The scene from the window was pretty much same including the black tree. It was autumn there were no leaves left on the exposed trees, except for that black tree and its varying foliage. It hit me oh, so the wrapping protects these expensive landscaped trees from snow. It became my routine to go up to the window daily and look at the black tree.
Two months we were thick in autumn and a foot snow everywhere. The city was dry and white. It intrigued me how that black tree is still unaffected. It is definitely not artificial as it moves with the wind. It was really strange but intriguing.
Usually it used to be dark around 5:00 pm but that day it was almost dark around 3:00 pm, it rained heavily for an hour and than cleared again. I went to the window, out of habit I looked at the black tree, it was same and suddenly I saw at least a 100 bats flying from the tree. I looked harder there was no black tree expect for the skeleton of a dry tree.
