Chapter 36: A Slight Change in Plans

Our ladies begin their search for Aunt Helga, but run into a little setback.

After returning to the hotel from a leisurely breakfast, Niki Cooper waved goodbye to her husband, his best friend, and their respective children as all four of them, fathers and offspring, went out to have an adventure discovering Old Heidelberg. Smiling to herself, she entered the hotel and walked toward the elevator, eager to begin the search for her aunt. Niki pushed the button for the fifth floor and waited for the door to reopen at her destination. Once in the fifth-floor hall, she made a sharp right turn and headed for room 532, where Penny and Annelise were waiting for her to arrive.

After knocking on the door, Niki was greeted with, "Come on in, girl!" and she knew Penny was up and ready for their day's excursion. Sheldon's wife entered the expansive suite, dropped her purse on the floor, and took a seat on the couch, cheekily greeting the other two women with, "Okay, the party can start now. I have arrived!"

Niki heard Penny Hofstadter give a hearty laugh as she emerged from one of the bedrooms, "I don't know about any party, but if we leave for downtown pretty soon, we should get back in plenty of time to get ready for that big dinner thing the university is throwing tonight."

Niki kicked back and grinned at her friend in response, "That makes sense." Her look then turned serious and she asked both ladies, but looked directly at Annelise, whose small stature reminded her so much of her friend Bernadette, "I suppose we should get going, but where to? I mean, where do you go in this area to look up a person's whereabouts or past addresses? If we were back in California, we would either use a computer or pay a visit to the Hall of Records, but where do we go here in Heidelberg?"

Annelise leaned against the wall, took a sip of her coffee, and answered with a succinct, "The Rathaus."

Penny's wheeled toward Helmut's tiny girlfriend and she asked her in a puzzled voice, "Why would we go to a rat house?"

The petite actress giggled at her new friend's faux pau and explained to her, "Not rat house, Penny, the Rathaus. It is much like your American Hall of Records. In Heidelberg, it is the central office for information about the city and its people. You can find birth, death, and marriage records there, as well as other information, such as last known addresses. If it were up to me, we would start our search there."

Niki looked over at Annelise, smiled warmly, and told her, "Seeing as how you're the expert on how things of this kind are done around here, I nominate you to be the leader of this expedition."

Penny quickly chimed in, "I second that!"

Helmut's lady nodded at the other women and replied, "Then may I suggest we leave very soon?"

Twenty minutes later, all three women were walking together towards the Rathaus, eager to find any information they could about Helga Hoffman. As they walked, Annelise began to ask them some personal questions to both pass the time and to get to know Penny and Niki a bit better, "Penny, I remember working with you in Pasadena, but I never really got to know you. So, can you tell me more about yourself and how you met Leonard? He seems to be a great guy."

Penny preened at the praise the young woman had given her husband and answered happily, "Sure. As long as I can remember, I've wanted to be an actress. So, I moved from Nebraska to California to make my 'dream' come true. I met some really awful men, including one named Kurt, who I'm ashamed to say I stayed with way too long. Anyways, Kurt and I broke up and I moved to Pasadena where my neighbors across the hall were Leonard and Sheldon. I worked as a waitress while I auditioned for every part I could get my hands on. I wasn't very successful as an actress at that point, believe me. Still, I kept on trying. Leonard was becoming my best friend at that time. He was always supportive, on my side, and he'd do just about anything for me.

Annalise appeared eager to hear the rest of Penny's story, so she asked her, "Is that when you fell in love with him?"

Penny slowed her pace, turned towards Annelise, and shook her head, "Hardly. I kept him in the friend zone for a long time, it was safer that way. He wasn't like the douches I generally dated and that scared me. He wasn't a jock or a musician or anything cool like that, he was a scientist, and not even a cool one like a doctor or something. No, he was a physicist. And he wasn't tall, dark, and handsome, either. He was short, nerdy, wore glasses and hung out with some weird friends of his that were as nerdy as he was. For a long time, I didn't even know what he really did. Sad, huh?"

The younger woman looked at her in disbelief, "You didn't know what a physicist did?"

Penny lengthened her strides, as if to escape the embarrassing memory, "Nope. I just knew he used a lot of long words and hard math I didn't understand. But, I finally decided to give Leonard a chance and we dated for a while until we broke up."

"Why did you break up?"

Penny came to a full stop, sighed, and decided to tell the truth, "He told me he loved me."

Annelise could not believe what she had just heard, "What?"

The older actress hurried to explain, "Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty stupid now, but please remember, I was scared of getting hurt again, especially by the nicest guy I had ever met. Plus, I didn't know where my life was going, so I sure didn't want to tie myself down to someone when I didn't even know who I was yet. Can you understand that?"

Annelise thought for a moment before she replied, "A little bit. But you knew you were an actress, that was something."

Penny gave a small chuckle and replied, "Well, I didn't really know that. I hadn't had any real success at it, so I thought that maybe I would be a waitress all my life. That was scary."

Annelise nodded in understanding, "So, you pushed him away."

"Exactly. Until he got a new girlfriend. Who I thought was prettier, smarter, and more accomplished than me."

The younger woman gave an inquisitive response, "Was she?"

At that point, Niki gave an emphatic, "Hell No!"

Penny looked over at her friend and gave her a sly smile, knowing full well the reason for her hatred of the lady in question*, "Okay, Nik. You can tell her that part later. Let's just say she was more accomplished than I was and leave it at that." *The Assistant Conundrum: Chapter 55

Annelise continued with her questioning, "Was she pretty?"

Niki chimed in once more with, "Not as pretty as Penny, nowhere near."

Penny threw her friend a look of appreciation and continued, "Thanks, Nik. But most people would have called her very attractive. She was slender and very exotic looking, she was from India. I mean, even her voice was sexier than mine. Anyway, she ended up not being a very nice person and Leonard broke up with her. Sheldon and Niki both hate her with a passion, for different reasons which are both legit. Anyway, Leonard and I finally got back together and were finally happy. I quit waitressing and became a pharmaceutical sales rep, thanks to another friend of ours, Bernadette, who you kinda remind me of. You're small, like her. And you look a little bit alike, except that she's very blonde and wears glasses while you have light brown hair and are glasses free. Still, you do remind me of her."

Niki nodded in agreement and told the young woman, "You really do. That's the first thing I thought of when I met you, that you looked a lot like Bernie."

Annelise was unfamiliar with the nickname and asked her, "Bernie?"

Penny explained the name for their new friend, "That's what we call her. Kind of like how Helmut calls you Anna, not Annelise."

"Oh, I see. You guys can call me Anna, too, if you like. I'm pretty used to it."

Penny looked up and down the street as she responded with, "Cool, as long as you don't mind."

Annelise joined her friend in looking around, despite not knowing what she was looking for, and answered with a simple, "I don't mind that at all."

With that issue settled, Penny resumed her story, "Okay. Now, back to Leonard and me. I proposed to Leonard, not the other way around."

"Why? Was there any special reason behind that?"

Penny stopped her search of the area and smiled over at Annelise, "Yep. He had proposed to me quite a few times and I always turned him down, like I said, I was pretty stupid at the time, or maybe just not ready for marriage. Anyway, I proposed, he said yes, and we got married in Las Vegas first, then at home with all our friends there. It was sorta cool. Except…"

"Except what?" Annelise asked her, curious about Penny's hesitation.

Leonard's wife looked over apologetically at Niki and stated, "We lived with Sheldon."

Helmut's lady was not understanding Penny's angst and asked, "Why was that a problem? He seems like a great guy, at least from what I've seen of him."

Penny gave both women a wide grin and continued, "Yep, he is. Now. Nik got herself a good one. I'm proud to say I had a hand in that, too."

"You did?"

Niki gave Annelise a quick explanation, "Yeah, she sort of kept insisting I date him. At that point, I really liked him as a friend, not a lover, but that's another story. Let's get back to Penny."

Penny once again began looking around her, but continued her tale, "Okay. Anna, the Sheldon you have met is pretty removed from the Sheldon we lived with at the start of our marriage. Let me explain that to you and tell you how I got back into acting…"

Ten minutes later Annelise stared at both women and exclaimed, "That's quite a story. So, Penny, you guys are happy now?"

"Very. I know I couldn't have done better than Leonard. We're crazy in love and we have a son we both are crazy in love with, too."

Anna made an honest observation, "He's very cute."

Penny gave her friend an appreciative look and proudly stated, "Leonard says Blake really scored in the gene pool, that he has my looks and his brains. He does, too."

Niki added, "That isn't all, Anna. Blake's a real sweetie as well. Lori is crazy about him. They're best friends. Or as much best friends as two toddlers can be."

Annelise turned to Niki and complimented her child as well, "Your daughter is very pretty, too. She looks just like you, but she has Sheldon's hair."

Niki agreed, "Yeah, she does." She then pointed out to the others, "Hey, that taxi is stopping for us. What do you guys say we cab it over to the Rathaus?"

Penny was all for it, she had been looking up and down the street for a cab while she talked, "I'm there. I know the Rat House is close by, but I stupidly wore heels today and my feet are killing me."

Niki joined in with, "I wore flats, so my feet are fine, but I'm really tired. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night."

Penny gave her friend a wicked wink and asked, "Oh, would you care to tell us why?"

Niki's answer was resolute, "No, Penny. That's private."

Leonard's wife looked towards Annelise and informed her, "I think we all know why. You might find this hard to believe, but Sheldon Cooper is a real horn dog whenever he's around Niki. And she is very happy to oblige him."

Annelise grinned and then replied with a giggle, "That sort of reminds me of Helmut. He looks very cool and detached most of the time, until we are alone. And then…watch out!"

Penny nodded, "Yep, that's the Coopers to a T."

Niki attempted to put an end to that particular conversation by telling other two women, "Okay, enough about my love life with Sheldon, let's get into the cab. He's not going to wait forever."

Penny nodded to the cab driver and began to walk briskly towards him, "Good idea. Let's go."

As they couldn't all fit in the front, the three women settled themselves in the back seat of the cab as Annalise told the driver, "To the Rathaus, please."

The driver nodded, started the cab back up, and headed down the street towards their destination, until he turned down a small side street.

Hey!" Penny called out. This isn't the way to the Rathouse! She looked over at her German friend and asked, "Is it?"

Annelise shook her head and reached for the door handle, which mysteriously wouldn't work. Panic set in and she asked the man in German, "Was machst du da?" *What are you doing?

A clear partition of bullet proof glass came up from the front seat and separated the women from their cabbie. A growling voice speaking perfect English with a strong eastern European accent was heard coming from the speakers in the back of the vehicle, "Relax, ladies. We are just taking a little detour. Behave yourselves and no one will get hurt."

I think our girls are in a little bit of trouble. How will they get out of this one?