The tale of a story OR How I learned to start fearing for my life – Chapter 7

7. The explanation

As I drove down the streets of Bucharest, it felt like I was on autopilot. Nothing made sense in my head, but I knew I had to get away from the gunfire sounds. Soon things started to clear up and I noticed that, Andreea, George and myself were all breathing heavily and cursing fate for this night. After a while, Andreea just started laughing, George was thanking God for being alive and I was just surprised we managed to escape. And even though I still hated the death trap we were in, at least it was useful in our hour of need. I think the fact that it was such an old piece of crap is the reason why it deflected most of the bullets fired at us. More modern cars aren’t built completely from steel, but this one was, which, in a way, made it feel less like an iron maiden, and more like a shield. That, in turn, made me think more about all the times I made quick assumptions about decrepit things, how I thought they were automatically useless, when, in reality, they might have had something unexpected to offer.

The tale of a story OR How I learned to start fearing for my life – Chapter 6

6. The heist

After Stephan finished giving Michael all sorts of instructions, we followed them downstairs and exited the building through a different way then the one we came in. I found myself standing in a parking lot where Dave, just as Stephan told him to, had prepared two cars for us. Now I use the term “car” very loosely here because the objects in front of us, which we were supposed to drive, could only be described as “death traps”. Dave had prepared the two most rundown, beaten, excuses for cars that ever existed in this world. I swear, the doors on those things couldn’t open properly because of the sheer magnitude of rust and dents in them. It felt almost inhumane to even keep those things, much less have someone drive them. I didn’t know if I should get inside one of them or take it out back and put a bullet through it.

The tale of a story OR How I learned to start fearing for my life – Chapter 5

5. The plan

Speechless is a poor substitute for how that number affected my state of mind. To say it put a damper in my negotiations would be like saying that your house burning down is making your living arrangements difficult. There was nothing that came to mind as an appropriate response. George was more clear minded then I was, so he responded on my behalf.