Red Roses

Chapter Seven" The Woman at the door „

At some point around 4 p.m. the doorbell rang and I almost forgot that I had ordered a pizza. But only almost. A young woman stood at the front door with a pizza box. "Hello," she said, bathed in sweat. Apparently the stairs were so tiring because she was completely out of breath. " I'm sorry for being late. My bike had a flat tire," she said, trying to smile.
She really didn't look bad. A normal stature and blonde long hair. Maybe she was my age I thought. She was exactly my type. A bit of curly hair and glasses. I also wore glasses myself. "No, everything's fine," I answered her and accepted the pizza. Then I wanted to give her the money but realized I didn't have any in the apartment. "Oh shit," I said to her when I noticed this. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Unfortunately I didn't get any money. "Can I also pay with a card," I asked her and briefly went through all the places in our apartment where money could be. The young woman nodded and then briefly looked at the receipt she still held in her hand. "I actually thought they were paying in cash. But of course you can also pay with cards," she said to me and took out her iPhone. Then she tapped on it a bit and then held out a scan to me. After briefly thinking about what she wanted from me, I paid by card and apologized for the misunderstanding. "It's all good, that happens often. Are you here in Berlin? she asked as I was about to say goodbye. I paused. Why did she want to know that? "Yes, why do you ask?" I answered and placed the pizza on the dresser right next to the door. She pushed a strand of hair out of her face and looked at the doorbell. "I already had an address right here, but back then an older man still lived in the apartment. He was always very nice and drank money. I was just wondering if maybe you were the son. " she said woman. "No, I come from Cologne. "My parents moved here because they found a new career," I said to her. "Oh, that's right. Well then, that's good. Then I wish you a nice day and maybe I'll come again. " she said to me and smiled. Then she left the building. I looked after her and for a brief moment I hated myself for not asking her name. Maybe I could have exchanged numbers or something like that. But I had now missed this chance. A little annoyed with myself, I closed the door, took the pizza and went into the living room. From there you had a good view of the street. A quick look out the window told me that she hadn't repaired her bike but must have simply walked the last way. Because I saw that she had locked the red bike to a street lamp on the other side of the street. She unlocked it and then continued towards the main train station.

I thought for a moment. Didn't I even learn how to patch a tire? I wondered.
I could have helped her. I could have shown her this but now the chance is gone. I bit off a piece of the pizza and thought about whether it made sense for me to run after her again. I took my phone and googled where the pizzeria where I ordered my pizza was and found that the pizzeria was on a side street, so not far.

Then suddenly the phone that was in the ward in the hallway rang. A shrill sound echoed through the apartment. I picked up. "Hello, is this Matt Walker?" someone asked. I briefly thought about who else I expected to respond to, but I couldn't think of it. "Yes, Matt Walker, where did you get my number?" I asked the gentleman on the other end of the line.
"It may sound a bit strange, but I have your phone. I'm Mike Shannon. Do you remember me. About a year ago you sent an application to train as a book author because you love writing so much. " said the man. I considered. Then it occurred to me. Yes, exactly, two years ago I wrote a little story with my grandpa and then sent it to a good friend of my grandpa who also lived in Berlin. "Mike Sha?" I asked. "Is it them?" I asked. " Yes it's me. It's about the story. The story is really good and I see that they have moved. So I thought it would be a good fit because I also live in Berlin. "That's a coincidence," replied Mr. SHA. Mr. SHA or Mr. Shannon was a slightly older man and a good friend of my grandfather and was very knowledgeable about stories that I wrote or that someone else wrote. I had only seen him once in my life and that was on my grandpa's birthday. "All right. Then we'll do it like this. If you're interested, you can come by. "How about you tomorrow morning?" continued Mr. Shannon. "Yes, that sounds good. Where do I have to go?" I asked Mr. Shannon. "Come to Hans Weber Gasse 10, the first house on the left side of the street. said Mr. Shannon.

When I arrived at the subway station that evening, I saw Leon from afar. He was wearing a long coat, which he had always worn for the last two days. A few tourists were milling around on the platform and at the display boards. When Leon saw me, he waved briefly and when I reached him, he greeted me with a handshake. Mike, Charlie and Daniel were also there. "Hello Matt, it's nice that you're there too," Daniel said to me. He also had a long coat on and a black cap. I was the only one in the group wearing a winter jacket. "All right, our train is coming soon," Leon continued. Shortly afterwards we were sitting on the U6 in the direction of KDW.

I had taken a closer look at the department store online beforehand and realized that it had to be really big. However, I only noticed how big it really was when we stood in front of the large building a little later.

The KDW translated as Kaufhaus des Westens and consisted of a huge shopping hall on the ground floor. Two wide doors led into the large hall, which was about the size of a football field. In the middle of the hall there was a wide, round glass tower in which three elevators in a triangular shape went to the respective floors. As you can see below, the department store had four floors, each of which could be reached using the elevators and staircases.
On the ground floor there was a large board showing the individual floors. Otherwise there were only five smaller shops where you could walk to something to eat. It smelled strongly of fish and meat. Long advertising posters hung on the walls.

Leon looked at the clock and then said, "All right, guys, you know. It starts at 8:00 p.m. "He looked at me and then said to me, "And you Matt, you come with me." "
I followed the four of them unobtrusively to the lifts.

Now I couldn't get out of the act, I thought as we took the elevator to the top floor. Suddenly I heard a loud loudspeaker announcement. "Good evening to all customers of the department store, please note the general opening hours of the department store, we close today at 8:30 p.m. For further information please contact our information staff on floors two and three or on our website. "
I looked at Leon and he just nodded silently and then said quietly, "That always happens. "Together with the other three, the two of us left the elevator and went to a snack bar which was right next to the elevator on the left side. It was an Asian snack bar that still had two customers. We sat down at a corner table at the edge of the room and waited for the waiter to come to us. It didn't take long for him to appear and look at all three of us. "Good evening, you know that we are closing the department store in twenty minutes?" he asked us. Leon nodded and replied, "Yes, of course, we know that. We will leave the department store on time so that you don't have to worry about not being able to close your shop on time. "The waiter nodded and I ordered a Coke. I actually wanted to order something to eat, but considering the time we had left, I preferred not to eat and have something to drink instead. Mike and Daniel followed suit and also ordered a large Coke. Once the waiter had brought the drinks and was out of earshot, Leon started to explain. "Alright Matt, do you know what we want to do later?" he asked me. I thought about it and didn't really know what to answer. " Apparently not. It will work like this later. The shop closes at 8:30 p.m. and we have to get to our hiding place by there, which is at the top of the stairs right next to the emergency exit," Leon continued. "Correct. So far we have only been able to find out that the shops all close about 10 minutes earlier and take their rubbish or the food that they can no longer sell into a container in the basement of the house. Most of the time the cellar is accessible to everyone and it won't be a problem to get there," said Daniel and took a sip of the cola. "And why exactly are we doing this?" I asked "Because that is exactly our goal. "We just have to wait for the man to take the trash down," said Daniel. I nodded and understood.