For giving the rest of the hotel as big of an overhaul as it had, Brian was actually quite disappointed in the room itself. Not much had changed there. Oh, sure, the paint was no longer peeling from the walls, and the heater worked, but it was still generally the same room as before. The room itself was still tiny. There was a bed in the corner, a few wall sconces and an overhead lamp, a couch against the opposite wall, a writing desk near the window, and a tiny bathroom off to the side. Looks sure had been deceiving by the looks of the lobby.
Brian found his suitcase near the door and walked over to retrieve it. He quickly unpacked his belongings and then laid down across the bed, sighing. He needed a game plan, a strategy, anything... How on earth was he going to do this? He rubbed at his temples and tried to concentrate - where would he go if he were Sally?
As if a lightbulb had gone off over his head, he nearly jumped up from the bed and hurried back out the door.
Brian wandered the streets of Berlin, amazed at just how little was even remotely similar to how it had been before. Most of the street names had stayed the same though, for which he was very grateful. Not having owned a car of his own when he'd lived here before, he came to know the streets very well by walking them all the time.
He entered what used to be the nightclub district, but found that this, too, had been re-built. As this were still daylight hours, almost none of the establishments were open yet, but he could tell by the signs above the doors that this area had been turned into a red light district. Charming...
He read every last sign on the street, seeing if anything were the same as before, but all he found were promises of live girls, nude mud wrestling, sex shops, peep shows, the like. He walked to the spot where the Kit Kat Club had been, and felt his heart break when he found it had been demolished. All that remained was a pile of rubble and shattered bricks. More shocking still, when he kicked a brick out of frustration at this newest disappointment, he noticed a familiar shade of red on its side. He knelt down amongst the rubble and carefully picked it up to inspect the inscription. His heart both skipped a beat and broke a little more when he found that it was, indeed, what he'd suspected:
S.B. + B.R.
Brian sighed heavily as his mind wandered back to the evening that inscription had been made. Sally had invited him to come see her at the club one night...