Around midnight or so, Sidney starts tossing and turning. She saw flames and felt herself hanging upside down. As she is hanging there, she spots the black velvet bag laying near her. She could feel herself scrambling to get free and no sooner does she gets free. She runs as fast as she could, as the car explodes behind her.
“NO!” Sidney sits up in bed shaking and scared.
She looks around and notices Jochen was sound asleep. She gets out of bed, pulling the top sheet with her, and lays down next to Jochen. She was still feeling scared and didn’t want to sleep in her bed by herself. She slowly falls back asleep snuggled against Jochen.
Jochen is woken up by his bladder forcing him to go and pee. He feels another body next to him. He spots Sidney snuggled up against him, sleeping on top of the blanket he was covered up with. He also notices that she was covered up from the top sheet from her bed.
He slides out of bed and heads towards the bathroom. He wonders why Sidney crawled into bed with him. He does his business and washes his hands, before heading back to bed. He manages to lay back down, without waking Sidney. He feels Sidney snuggle up against him.
Several hours later, an alarm goes off. Jochen reaches over to his cellphone and taps the snooze button. He goes back to sleep and nine minutes later. The alarm goes off a second time. He reaches over and turns the alarm off. He noticed Sidney was sleeping on her side near the edge of the bed.
He gets up and heads into the bathroom and does his morning business. He also takes a quick shower afterward. He was going to let Sidney sleep as long as she could. He was still curious why she crawled into bed with him.
Once he is dressed, he walks over to the bed and gently shakes Sidney. He stands there for a few seconds. When she doesn’t wake up, he shakes her again “hey sleepy head. You need to wake up, we have work to do today.”
Sidney slowly wakes up and looks at Jochen. She sits up and rubs the sleep from her eyes.
“Bad dreams last night?” Jochen could tell Sidney was still tired.
“Yes, I dreamed I was running away from a car on fire.”
“Anything else, in your dream?” Jochen wonders if Sidney had anything to do with the car that was on fire not far from where he found her.
Sidney looks up at Jochen’s face “I was running away because I just stole something.”
“Could it be those diamonds I found you with?”
“Yes!” Sidney didn’t know why she stole those diamonds.
“Is there a reason why you stole them?”
“I don’t remember why I did. I just remember I did.” Sidney couldn’t remember why she did it.
“Do you remember who you stole them from?”
“No, I don’t. All I can recall is that I wanted them for some reason.”
“Well, at least you know more than you did before. I’ll do some digging to see if anyone has filed a police report about those missing diamonds.”
“Okay. You’re not disappointed about me, are you?”
“Sidney, I have no idea why you did what you did and it doesn’t change what I think of you.” Jochen knew Sidney the girl was different than who she uses to be.
“Thanks, Jochen.” Sidney stands up and hugs Jochen.
Jochen returns the hug. He holds Sidney for a few minutes.
“Now, why don’t you go and get dress and we’ll go and get some breakfast afterward.”
“Okay.” Sidney gives Jochen one more hug, before releasing him.
She walks over to her suitcase and pulls out some clean clothes. Afterward, she heads into the bathroom and hops into the shower. The dream she had last night still bothers her. She wonders why she stole the diamonds.
After Sidney takes her shower, she gets dressed and fixes her hair. She makes sure to shave under her armpits like she was taught. She brushes her wet hair and blow-dries it.
Jochen turns the television on and watches the local news station. According to the weather woman, it was going to be hot and humid. He hears the blow dryer going in the bathroom. He continues to watch the news until Sidney steps out of the bathroom.
Sidney steps out of the bathroom and looks at Jochen “I’m ready.”
She put on a nice dress that had spaghetti straps and a tight top. The bottom of the dress was loose and flared out. She had on a pair of light brown sandals to go with the dress.
“You look nice.” Jochen thought Sidney looked cute.
“Thanks.” Sidney grabs her purse and the keycard to their hotel room.
Jochen leads Sidney down to the restaurant they ate at last night. There was a breakfast buffet set up. While they are waiting in line to be served “are we doing the buffet or ordering off the menu?”
“The buffet looks good.” Jochen saw what was on display.
“Okay.” Sidney follows Jochen.
When it's their turn to enter, they are greeted by a woman in her late thirties “how can I serve you today?”
“Two for the buffet.”
The woman rings them up. She looks at Jochen “that will be twenty dollars, sir.”
Jochen pulls a twenty-dollar bill out of his wallet and hands it to her.
The woman accepts it and hands him the receipt “enjoy.”
“Thank you.” Sidney smiles at the woman.
“You’re welcome.” The woman smiles back at Sidney.
Sidney and Jochen find a nice table to sit at. Their waitress comes over and places some rolls and plates at their table. She leaves a card with her name on it.
“I guess we can help ourselves.” Sidney grabs a plate and hangs her purse on the back of the chair.
Jochen and Sidney go up and fill their plates with food. Sidney puts a few things she wanted to try on her plate. She spotted Jochen loading up on his favorites.
“Are you hungry this morning?” Sidney was going teased Jochen.
“Hey, I paid ten bucks for this plate. I’m going to get my money’s worth. You might want to add some more to your plate as well.” Jochen saw how little Sidney had.
“I’m coming back for seconds.” Sidney grabs a blueberry muffin.
Jochen and Sidney head to their table and start eating their breakfast. While Sidney is putting butter on a corn muffin “are we going to be here all day?”
“That depends on how long it takes the warehouse to unload us and what they are going to load us up with.” Jochen bites into a biscuit he filled with eggs and sausage.
An hour later, Jochen and Sidney walk across the street from the Hotel to the Eastern Hub. Sidney liked how her new dress felt when she
walked. It was a sensation she has never experienced before.
Before she and Jochen are allowed into the Eastern Hub. Their security badges are check. The older security officer on duty looks at Jochen when he scans Sidney’s badge “she’ll have to wait in the visitor's room, Jochen.”
“Okay, Nathan. I’ll make sure she waits in the visitor room.” Jochen knew Sidney couldn’t go further in the warehouse.
Ralph lets Jochen and Sidney continue on their way. He watches them as they enter the warehouse. After they enter, he goes back to working on his report.
Sidney follows Jochen inside the warehouse. She wonders why security was so tight for this place.
“Jochen, why is security so strict?”
“I wish I could tell you, Sidney. However, it's kind of secret.” Jochen takes Sidney to a room that had large clear windows.
“Is this the visitor room?”
“Yes, you’ll be comfortable inside.” Jochen opens the door for Sidney.
When Sidney walks inside the room, she notices it was set up like a living room with comfortable leather recliners, a rug on the floor. There was also a huge big-screen television and a sofa that matched the recliner.
“You’ll like it in here. There are several snack machines if you are thirsty or hungry and they have every channel there is here. So, you can veg
out and watch whatever movie you want too.”
Sidney looks at Jochen, before walking into the room “how long will you be?”
“Not long. I’ll let you know if I’m going to be in the warehouse for a while.”
“Okay.” Sidney walks in and over to the sofa and sits down.
Jochen shuts the door to the room and heads towards the warehouse.