Red Roses

Chapter Six „ Cat of Speed „

When I stepped outside again after about 3 hours, I saw life in a big city for the first time. I really noticed it for the first time. Crowded streets and tons of tourists. I was always extremely annoyed because during my holidays in Mallorca I kept talking to people who wanted to sell me something. I was a bit of an egoist back then because I always only looked at myself and not at others, but over time I changed. But I still didn't buy anything.
I got into the subway stop and briefly thought about which train I had taken to get here. I actually wanted to come back with this one too. Apart from me, the station was relatively empty. Luckily because I hated it when there was so much going on and I couldn't even sit down. Although I was more of the type that liked to stand. Well no matter. The train I wanted to take had just left two minutes ago. Shit - I thought and looked at the clock. It was 2:33 p.m.
What should I do now? The next train didn't arrive for 12 minutes. That was still a bit. I sat down on one of the silver chairs and pulled out my iPhone.

When I arrived home about an hour later, my mother was arguing with my sister. I heard a loud scream and a bang from below. That certainly came from my sister, because sometimes she had a few phases in which she went crazy.
It was once again about the topic of smoking. At sixteen she shouldn't smoke yet, my mother kept saying, but my sister didn't listen.
I unlocked the apartment door and immediately went into my room without making it clear to the two of them that I was now back home. They probably didn't even notice that I was in the apartment.

Speed ​​sat huddled on my bed and came running happily when I came into my room. He always did this when it was too loud for him outside.
After I showered and put on something comfortable, I lay on the bed and thought. I thought about how I should tell my parents that I might be moving into a shared apartment where everyone was stealing. But for a good cause - I thought. Or should I not tell them at all.

The next morning I woke up relatively late for my standards. When I looked at the clock it was already half past ten. I got dressed and looked at my phone. Two new messages flashed there. One of them was from my mother and the other was from a company where I had applied for training.

Around midday I sat with Leon in a small café near Kurfürsten Damm. The café was called "Penny's Café on the Corner" and I had seen it online. An older lady with woman's hair brought us each a cup of tea. Leon, knew her." But honestly, what do you think about what the other four are doing?" asked Leon. I didn't know how to answer that. I shrugged my shoulders. "You have to know that this is important and that you shouldn't tell anyone about it. "Leon continued. " Yes, that sounds good. "I won't tell anyone about it," I replied. Leon nodded in agreement. "Ok then that's good. Maybe we can find an excuse for you too," said Leon.
Then he looked out the window. I also looked at the window and just saw the last part of a demo that was passing by. "As always," Leon said and took a sip of tea. I looked at him "what do you mean by that, like always" I ask him. "Well, there is always a topic to demonstrate about. But here it's different almost every day. That doesn't work. They just have to do something instead of demonstrating. " said Leon and shook his head. I didn't really know how to answer that. He was right, but it wasn't exactly the case that these people who were demonstrating weren't doing anything. They were doing something. What else were they supposed to do? "I didn't understand Leon sometimes." Well, maybe they'll do something at some point. " I said to him. "Yes, let's hope so. What else I wanted to ask you, we wanted to go to the department store this evening and get food and drinks there and then distribute them tomorrow and overnight, are you up for it?" He looked at me with wide eyes. That would be a good idea, I thought. Then I could see whether the group was really acting against the rules or not. " Yes why not. "I wanted to go anyway," I said to Leon. " Very good. I knew that I could rely on you. You'll see it won't be that bad. Mike and Charlie go too. We meet at 7:30 p.m. at the station at the Brandenburg Gate. Do you know them?" asked Leon. I thought for a moment. Of course I knew the Brandenburg Gate, but I didn't know the subway station yet. "I'll find her," I said to Leon.

Suddenly I heard a voice coming from the radio that was hanging directly above us. "And now for a short message. From Sunday night to Monday, unknown people looted garbage cans from the municipality of Halle and the department store at the old market. The police assume it was theft and are asking witnesses who saw something to report it..." I was taken aback when I saw Leon's look. "That was us," he whispered to me. " Like right now ? "You, you stole food from containers?" I asked Leon as unobtrusively as possible. "Yes, what else? Someone has to do something. What would you have done?" I didn't know what I would have done in the situation and remained silent.

Suddenly the thought occurred to me that maybe this wasn't a good idea after all. Because what if I didn't get my training because my file said that I once stole food. Now it was too late. I had to go with you. I briefly thought of an excuse, but it was very inappropriate, so I said goodbye to Leon and went back home.
When I got there, I immediately googled what would happen if you eat and steal trash. I found out that even though the food was trash because it was in trash containers, it was still the property of the store. Theft was punished with a fine or social work. Well, that wasn't so bad, I thought. A good friend, his name was Kayden, once had to work 50 hours of social work because he was driving his car on the highway at 230km/h. He knew how it worked when you got social hours. When I heard my mother in the hallway of the apartment, I closed the laptop. When she came into my room she had two large shopping bags under her arms. I could have helped her but I didn't know when she wanted to go shopping. That's why I was a little unsure at first. "Hello Matt, are you back yet?" she asked me. I nodded and told her that I had met Leon. "Ah Leon from your class?" I nodded. "Yes, that's right, he lives around here," said my mother. I nodded and asked her if I could help her with anything else. My mother nodded and gestured with a quick movement of her head to the two bags that were lying on the floor.

I briefly helped my mother unpack her things and then went back to my room. I hadn't had anything for lunch yet so I decided to just order a pizza. There was still so much to do that it was just too much for me. Maybe I should take care of my education. After I ordered the pizza online, I opened my laptop again, from which I also had access to my email.
An email caught my eye. A man named Kyle James had written to me. Another spam message came up a lot when I thought more about the sentence and whether I could also imagine selling emails. I deleted this message immediately.
I spent the rest of the evening taking a closer look at the department store. I found it on the internet. Kaufhaus des Westens - it was one of the most famous department stores in Berlin. I had heard of it before but couldn't really imagine much else with the name. However, when I found a picture on the internet I was really impressed. At the same time, I was a little surprised at what Leon and the others wanted to steal there and why they didn't do it in another department store. After all, the security measures there were weaker than elsewhere. I looked at the clock. It was 3:23 p.m. and I hadn't really done much today. My body wanted to move and from time to time I became more restless. Leon had told me that I could go with him this evening and that we would meet at the subway station at 7:30 p.m. So I still had a little time. So I got up and went back into the kitchen where my mother had just put her laptop on the table. However, when I got to the kitchen, there was no one there except Speed. My sister Anna wasn't there either. No idea where she was. Then I saw a piece of paper on the table. It was written there. "Hello Matt, Anna and I are at the therapist and will be back around 6:00 p.m. Greetings Mom, "I say internally.
Aha - I thought. You went to the therapist again. Definitely because of Anna. When we still lived in Cologne, Anna was always seeing a therapist about smoking. Well, maybe she found someone here who could help her because the therapist in Cologne wasn't exactly professional.