Roseanne's Summer Vacation- Chapter 28
The sounds of passing trucks and drills operating at full power made Roseanne wake up. Her hip wasn’t swollen, and the pain lessened a bit through the night. She got up gently and looked outside the window. She could see workers running back and forth at a construction site nearby, cranes were swinging in the distance next to dreadful Khatanga, and some painters up on a scaffolding were decorating a silo with an image of Anne of Green Gables. The busy harbour must get on the nerves of the hotel guests, she thought.
It was 7 p.m. Mr Orville woke up an hour before to wash properly. Then he used the spare time to catch up on Roseanne’s novel. It was an interesting read for him, but he was a slow reader. There was still a third of the 50,000-word-long manuscript for him to finish. He hoped to do so the next day.
The teacher went out into the corridor and firmly knocked on the girls’ rooms. He informed sleepy Roseanne that breakfast is ready for everyone on the first floor, and they should get ready. Thally, Nika, and Milena, however, did not answer. Mr Orville knocked and knocked until he began banging his fist against the door.
“Go away. We don’t need room service,” Thally mumbled from beneath the cushion.
“This isn’t room service, you moron. Get down for breakfast now.” He kicked the handle in fury.
***
The breakfast was served in a special lounge on the first floor. A hotel worker checked their names on the guest list and invited them to take plates and use the buffet. As a result, the group roamed around a large table, taking bread buns, fruits, sausages, yoghurts, and many more. This was a feast fit for a king when compared with yesterday’s service they experienced.
Understandably, Milena left her plate empty. While clutching her new Winnie the Pooh, she found free seats for everybody.
“Oh, what is this?” Nika asked at the sight of a bain-marie pot. It was filled with scrambled eggs. The delicious, steamy scent hit her nostrils. “Yummy! I’m claiming it.”
The chain-smoking girl actually took the entire pot in her hands and wanted to carry it to the students’ table, but Mr Orville gave her a nod of disapproval.
“Take it back and get yourself a normal portion on the plate. The scrambled eggs are for all the guests.”
“Yes, sir,” she said politely.
“It’s so nice and vibey here,” Thally commented on the lounge. “What’s the catchy music from the speakers?”
“It’s from the Smooth Global app,” Mr Orville explained.
“I like it.”
Natasha was so hungry she couldn’t control herself. She stuffed her mouth with sausages, bread, and ketchup. When it was full, she then chewed slowly. “This is delicious. I was dying for breakfast like that.”
“Enjoy your meal, Natasha,” Mr Orville smiled. “For what it’s worth, I know they have good breakfasts here.”
Roseanne sipped a bit of tea while consuming scrambled eggs, “What’s the plan for today if I may ask?”
Mr Orville simply answered, “You’ll see for yourself.”
***
Having finished breakfast half an hour later, they returned to the rooms to quickly prepare for the mystery journey. Natasha was still eating. A spoon travelled between her mouth and a yoghurt in her hand at the speed of light.
“Don’t eat that fast or you’ll swallow air,” Roseanne warned her friend, but she didn’t listen.
All of a sudden, Natasha tripped over a slipper, and a pot of yoghurt landed on Roseanne’s backpack. The white substance began soaking into the material.
“Thanks for nothing. I need to wash this now,” Roseanne sighed.
“I’m sorry, Rosie. But, you know, you have two backpacks instead of one.”
“Say what?”
Natasha pointed at the piece of baggage with a darker colour scheme. “This is yours.”
“I thought this one’s yours.” Roseanne raised her eyebrows.
“No, it’s yours.”
“It’s not mine!”
“Well, it’s not mine either!”
“If it doesn’t belong to you or me, then how the hell did it end up here?”
“Don’t ask me.”
There was only one way to find out. Roseanne opened the main pocket and shook out the contents on the carpet.
In front of her, there were about a dozen little cardboard boxes. “What the heck is that?”
“Looks like containers for mini chess. My brother used to carry his set in a box like that back in junior high.”
Roseanne looked at Natasha with disbelief. This might have been the original purpose of these boxes, but who knows what’s inside. There weren’t any labels. The girl feared the wooden boxes contained drugs, exotic insects or worse—maybe a poison! She had to open them one by one. “Get me a towel, so I can protect my airways,” Roseanne ordered.
“Whoa, you’re not border patrol, you know that. Maybe we should, Mr Orville?”
“Just do as I say!”
Natasha passed her a towel from the bathroom, and Roseanne wrapped it around her nose and mouth. She also put on leather gloves that she always carried in a pocket of her military uniform.
“Well, are you ready, Doctor House?” Natasha asked sarcastically.
“Shut up and stand back!”
Roseanne took a random box in her hands. It was heavy. She inspected all the edges closely, looking for some hook or lock, but there was none. The box opened and closed thanks to tiny external hinges mounted on one side. A deep breath filled her lungs when she pushed out the lid.
Natasha closed her eyes due to a split-second fear that they would get killed by a grenade or anthrax, but nothing happened at all. There wasn’t any click or the sound of seeping. She came closer.
Roseanne methodically opened and placed each box in a row. There were twelve of them in total. She breathed out, taking the towel off.
“So what is it?” Natasha leaned over with curiosity. Whatever it was, it didn’t look dangerous. The boxes contained flat, rectangular-shaped bricks encased in matte metal with stickers pasted on top.
“Beats me,” Roseanne answered. She took a picture of one brick with her phone and uploaded it to Google Lens.
The app immediately spewed out the search result, saying that what the girls were looking at were actually computer hard drives.
“Hard drives! But it’s electronic junk!” Natasha exclaimed. “Throw it away.”
Roseanne sighed again, “Now that we know what it is, I’ll inform Mr Orville. We need to leave this in a lost-and-found office—wherever it is in Gdynia.”
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