The Amazing Adventures of Miss Ariana Okata

Rite As Rain

It was oddly comforting to be out driving at such an ungodly hour, with only the odd car passing by now and then. This was the only time the city ever quieted down from its usual neo-cosmopolitan racket of honking horns and construction trucks hauling rocks back and forth.

It took me 20 minutes to drive to the Store-It-Rite Storage Lockers at 4940 Forest Drive. Would have been nice if they Spelled-It-Right, I thought to myself as I approached the building, but in this day and age of text messaging LOLs and IMHOs, I wasn't holding my breath. What was the world coming to? A planet full of semi-literate, text-messaging humanoids, that's what. I guess I'm one to complain though, what with my copious text messaging and use of abbreviations on my beloved iPhone. At least I still know how to spell, and in real British English, with all of the u's intact.

I parked my car in a not-very-well-lit parking lot next to the warehouse-shaped building. To my relief, the sign outside it read: "24 hours" and, sure enough, there was an attendant sitting inside a tiny room at the front of the building. After signing in, I climbed a flight of creaky stairs to the second floor where I found locker #71. While fumbling with my keys for a bit, I thought I heard a noise from the stairway and stopped what I was doing, holding my breath to see if I could hear any more noises. When none came, I went back to locating the gold key I'd found inside Ted's safety deposit box. It glinted under the dim warehouse lighting. I inserted it in the large padlock holding the locker door shut, turned it, and the lock popped open. Score!

The inside of the locker was pitch black, so I took out my trusty iPhone and engaged the torch app. Having only used it once before while fumbling in the dark for my clothing during a disastrous date involving the back seat of a Hummer, an overly eager lifeguard and a self-inflating red lifesaver, I found the torch app surprisingly bright, in fact, enough for me to find the light switch next to the door.

The locker held a rather impressive-looking motorcycle (though I know nothing about them, I could tell it was quite expensive and, thus, impressive) and six large cardboard boxes, each one taped shut. I honed in on the ones marked OFFICE FILES and, using one of my keys, tore the tape off sufficiently in order to remove the rest of it from the box flaps.

Just then, I heard a noise again – this time distinctly a door slamming shut somewhere downstairs. I froze. Who else would be inside the storage facility at nearly 4 in the morning? Had I been followed? Had Jacques made his way back to Vancouver and was now searching for the files that just might incriminate him?

I could hear footsteps coming up the same stairs I had recently mounted. The door to the locker was still open and if I shut it, the person belonging to those footsteps would surely notice. Instead, feeling very much like my fave fictional girl PI, Nancy Drew, I stood up, shut the light off and stood silently beside the still-open door, just inside the locker, waiting as the steps drew nearer. Finally, they paused right in front of the open locker door. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what to do when and if the person entered the locker. If I had a brick in my hand, I could hit him over the head with it, but I didn't have one. All I had was my purse, so I held that up in the air, poised and ready to inflict some Coach damage on the intruder's head.

A torchlight snapped on and its beams shone inside the locker. When the figure advanced inside, I stepped out and confronted him, holding my designer bag as threateningly as possible above my head.

"-Ariana?"

Just as I was about to swing the bag down, I paused. I recognized the voice.

"Daniel?"

The torchlight turned around and shone at the face of the person who'd just admonished me – yes, it was Daniel! I was so relieved to see his handsome face, especially in a rather dicey place like this at a dicey time of the morning such as this. I threw my arms around him in relief.