Don't Forget Me

23

Our trail was quickly coming to an end. We were somewhere in Bucharest, Romania. There hadn't been any sightings or any clues that he was in the city. But his handler said he could speak Romanian, so I followed my gut and went there. We had no idea what city he was hiding in. We chose to visit Bucharest only because it was the capital and it had a lot of resources. Bucky also seemed to have a pattern to choose larger cities to hide in.

Bucharest is one of the biggest cities in the European Union. It was the sixth largest city, just falling behind other cities like London, Berlin, Madrid, Rome and Paris. It had a population of around 1.8 million citizens. Combing through the city would be impossible. But we had to start somewhere.

We got a relativity cheap hotel room on Nicolae Balcescu Bulevard. It was nicer than some of the other rooms we stayed in, I convinced Steve, it was time to sleep on something nicer than cardboard.The only thing in the room was a bed, and a couch. It had a small desk, and old TV with a bathroom. It was more than enough. The bed had an ugly green color cover on it, and the couch had the matching pillows. The green was the shade of green that would worry you if it came out of you, if you're picking up what I'm putting down. It wasn't very comfortable. The hotel was only a 10-minute walk of Kilometer Zero Monument and Romanian Athenaeum. We had reserved the hotel room for two nights, we didn't expect to find anything in Bucharest.

Steve had driven from Berlin to Bucharest, it was supposed to be a sixteen hour drive, somehow he did it in fourteen. I think he figured that speed limits were only suggestions, not law. I offered to drive, but he said he was happy to drive, so I let him. We got through Austria, Slovakia, Hungry and Romania relatively easy. He was done with planes for awhile.

"I'm so tired." Steve confessed setting his bag down on the floor by his side of the bed. He usually slept on the left side. He flopped down on the bed and rested his arms behind his head.

"I bet you are. That was a long drive." I checked my watch. It was two in the afternoon. It was probably good if we took the rest of the day off. We could re-group and tomorrow we would figure something out. "You can take a nap if you want."

"I think I might." He agreed and he sighed staring at the ceiling and then back at me. "Are you going to join me?" He asked noticing that I was just standing there at the end of the bed.

"Yeah sure. But I'm gonna set an alarm so we don't sleep the whole afternoon."

"Okay." I set one alarm for 3:30, and another at 4, knowing we wouldn't get up at the 3 o'clock one. I took off my shoes, and jacket before laying down on the bed. I hadn't even driven 16 hours and yet I was exhausted. I rested my head on Steve's chest, and his arm rested on my hip. His heart beat was already slowing down. He was drifting off already. He wasn't kidding when he said he was tired. Running around the world, wasn't easy. I tried to count the number of countries we visited in the last month or so but fell asleep before I could finish the list.

I jolted awake at the sound of the 3:30 alarm. Steve stirred, and mumbled something incoherently.

"Do you want to wake up now, or later?" I asked him

"Later" He half mumbled with his eyes still shut. I silenced the alarm and made sure my 4 o'clock one was still on. I got up from the bed, and went over to my bag. I searched for my book I had brought along. I bought it at a gas station in Austria. It was one of two books they had in English.

I sat back down on the reasonably comfy bed and picked the book back up. Steve was softly snoring besides me and he didn't wake up till my second alarm clock went off. I was sitting up resting my back against the headboard. Steve was pretending to sleep on his side facing me.