Chapter 2: living the dream

He sat up in bed, not knowing what had woken him up. It didn’t seem like he was asleep for long. What time is it anyway? He checked the time on his phone. Nine o’clock in the morning! Crap, I’m late! He exclaimed. The Grand opening was supposed to start two hours ago. He jumped up and got dressed as fast as he could. He ran out of his room to get Emily and Robert. When he went to knock on Emily’s door, it was already open.

He called to her, but she didn’t answer. She wasn’t there when he went in, and her bed was already made. So, he went to get Robert, but he wasn’t there either, and his bed was also made. Were they in the kitchen? He left Robert’s room and went through the door to the dining room. There was no one there either. The entire place was empty. Where was everyone, and why did he wake up so late?

He went out the front door and down the stairs to the bottom landing. To his right, there was a door. If he went that way, he would end up in a small alleyway beside the building. The alleyway was narrow, maybe about five feet wide. At the front, there was a wall that made it look like the building next door was butted up against his. And, in that wall, there was a small wooden door leading to the sidewalk. At the back of the building, it opened into a much larger alleyway. This one was lined with meters, dumpsters, and parking spaces for all the buildings on this block.

There was a warehouse about the same size as the storage area above to his left. At the back of this warehouse, there’s a large overhead door for moving Freight in and out in the far-right corner. To the left of that door was the emergency exit he had to add for the fire code. In the far-left corner was the freight elevator. His office was on the same side of the building at the front of the warehouse. And in the opposite corner on the front was the employee restroom. He walked across the warehouse to check his office, but no one was in there either. So, he went through the double doors in the middle, out to the showroom.

From here, it looked like the grand opening was fully underway. Why would they start without him? Why didn’t they wake them up? Those were good questions, but he noticed trouble by the time they were formed. Emily was over by the cash register with a customer. It looked like they were in a very heated argument from where he stood. When Danny got closer, it seemed more like the lady was yelling at and berating her, leaving her no choice but to defend herself. By the time he got there through the crowd, the lady was already out the door and gone.

“What happened?” He asked.

She just walked past, like she didn’t even hear him. Before he knew it, she was halfway across the room. Here, she was trying to stop a child from destroying a display. When the child’s mother got there, it was the same as the first situation, ending with the woman and the child leaving the store. One by one, the customers got angry and left, vowing never to shop here again. Somewhere in the middle of all this, he noticed a man standing in the far corner. From where he was, he couldn’t tell what he looked like. He was just kind of tall and dark. By the time he could get closer, he was gone.

By this time, all the customers were gone. The store was empty except for Emily. She was standing in the middle of the floor crying. He wanted to comfort her, but when he approached her, it was like he wasn’t even there. He tried touching her, which just seemed to startle her. She looked all around her like she was expecting to see a ghost. He started to touch her again, but he stopped.

“This is ridiculous,” he said. Then he looked at Emily and said, “I want you to see me.”

There was a look of pure shock on her face, as she was now looking directly at him, then she suddenly disappeared. The next thing he knew, he was waking up to a surprised gasp. Though he could barely hear it, he knew it came from Emily’s room. Looking at the time, he realized it was an hour early. So, he turned off his alarm, slipped on his shoes, and went out his door. He walked across the hall and knocked on Emily’s door.

“Come in,” Emily said.

He opened the door and stepped inside. “Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yes,” she said, “just a bad dream.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

“Can we talk about it later? There’s something else I want to talk to you about.”

“Sure; what is it?” He asked.

“I’m really nervous about the grand opening, and I feel like I might mess things up,” she said.

“We all feel like that sometimes. It usually just means we care about what we’re doing.” He said. “As far as you messing things up, I’m not worried at all. You’re not just my best friend. You’re my inspiration. Knowing that you believe in me makes me want to try even harder.”

“I know what you mean,” she replied, “I feel the same about you. Sometimes when I have to make an important call, I have to pretend to be someone else to get through it. But when you’re there or I think about you first, I don’t even get nervous.”

“Well, you have nothing to be nervous about,” he said, “and I’ll always be here for you.”

Emily didn’t say anything after that. She just put her hand on his. Now, he had a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he felt his heart rate increase.

“How about we finish getting ready and make a big breakfast before the grand opening?” He asked.

“I would love that,” she said.

About half an hour later, they were in the kitchen gathering up all the breakfast foods they could find. They found eggs, bacon, sausage, and ham.

“Let’s make waffles, too,” Emily said. It wasn’t long before the smell of food brought Robert to the kitchen.

“What’s going on here?” He asked.

“We’re making breakfast,” Danny answered.

“Yeah, would you like to join us?” Emily asked.

“Of course, I would,” he said.

He helped them finish cooking. Then, while they were eating, they discussed the grand opening. After they finished eating, Emily looked around.

“I think we overdid it a little,” she said,” we’ll never be able to eat all this bacon and sausage.”

“That gives me an idea,” Danny said. “You guys make a lot of scrambled eggs. Use what’s left of the eggs.”

While they were busy with that, Danny whipped up some salsa and made tortillas from scratch.

“There,” he said, “we’ll make miniature breakfast burritos for the grand opening.”

“How do you know how to make tortillas and salsa?” Robert asked.

“That’s a good question.” He replied. “The only experience that I’ve had with Mexican food was this one time I dreamed that I was watching Mrs. Henderson cook. It seemed so simple. It never occurred to me that I didn’t know how.”