The Hotel
Headlights showed the road ahead between flashes of lightning in a relentless thunderstorm. Heavy metal blared as the driver slammed down on the gas pedal, racing against the storm. Four friends were out for their first road trip together and a building on their right was the first they had passed in a while. A neon sign read ‘Hotel’.
Paul was driving and followed a condensed set of traffic laws. In the passenger seat was his girlfriend, Trina. Her hand gripped the armrest and she pursed her lips together.
For camaraderie, Paul brought his friend, Lance. Without hesitation, Lance had extended the invitation to his girlfriend, Anna. As of several cities ago, she was fast asleep on his lap. Lance was tiring, too. He masked a gasp of surprise as a yawn when the car started to slow.
“Good idea,” mumbled Trina.
“Knock it off,” Paul snapped. “The car’s dying.”
The engine sputtered. Over several moments, the car coasted along the road. Paul made an effort to steer it from the lane off to the side. Upon accomplishing this task, they were stuck. He removed the key from the ignition and the blaring heavy metal music died.
Lance spoke up first after a failed attempt to suppress a cough. “Should we take a look, then?”
“In this weather?”
“You got a better option?”
“No, I guess not,” receded Paul. “Let’s go check it out.”
Paul was already out of the car with the hood popped while Lance opted for a gentle movement to reposition Anna as she continued sleeping. He opened the door a small space and Trina whispered something.
“What?” Asked Lance.
“Nothing,” Trina replied. “You’d better go see if you can get it figured out with him.”
Anna stirred, and Lance got out of the car into pounding rain as she mumbled something. “I’ll be back in a minute, babe,” He blew her a kiss and shut the door, leaving further explanations to Trina as Anna slumped against the seat with a yawn.
Both Paul and Lance were drenched. Lance ran to the front to investigate the problem with the car. “Got any ideas, buddy?”
“None yet. I can’t see a thing out here,” Paul answered, handing Lance a weak flashlight. They looked over the rusted metal and faded labels. Relentless sheets of rain made it difficult to tell where one might start. The water cooled the metal, saving some time in their assessment.
“Me neither,” admitted Lance. They got back inside the car, water seeping into their seats before further discussion commenced.
With slamming doors and flying water droplets, Anna was alert. “What are we doing now?”
“What about the hotel we passed a few minutes ago?” Trina suggested.
“Hotel? I don’t see a hotel around here.”
“Ladies, please. Trina, it’s a good idea, but that drive was short because of how fast I was driving. There’s no way we can walk it.”
“Walking?”
“We could walk to it in an hour, tops,” Trina responded.
“Or we can stay here, see what tomorrow brings,” offered Lance before turning to Anna. “The car died while you were sleeping and we passed by a hotel not too long ago.”
“Oh,” Anna moved, bumping into Lance in the dark. “Sorry,” she stated with a combination of aloof and tired. Some fumbling followed and she pulled something out of her pocket. There was a pause. “What? My phone’s dead.”
Everyone else checked their own phones. Each had a low battery and no signal.
“I don’t like this,” announced Trina.
“Me neither, sweetie,” said Paul. “It’ll be okay, but we better get going.”
“Fine, let’s walk,” huffed Anna. “But I’m going to leave my phone. I really don’t want it to break from getting wet. If it gets stolen, one of you guys owes me a new phone.”
“Let Trina buy it, the walk was her idea,” suggested Paul.
“It wasn’t my fault the car broke down.”
“Would you two stop it? Unless we’re going to sleep in the car, we should go. I’ll leave my phone too,” offered Lance. “Paul can pay for mine if anything happens to it.”
“What do you mean, I can pay for it?”
“That’s right.”
“Fine, Trina and I will leave ours as well. Then we can all be responsible for our own choices, okay? They’ll have a phone at the hotel, anyway.”
The group agreed with Paul. He ensured the car was locked once everyone was out and they faced the dark, rainy walk ahead of them. They tried to carry on conversation as the storm dampened their voices.
“I’m so sorry about your phone!” Shouted Trina.
“Thanks! Stupid battery doesn’t even last if I charge it all day,” Anna trudged along, doing her best to keep her hair presentable. It was no use, but her hands were persistent.
“Lame,” lamented Trina, sounding sincere through a sheet of rain. “I can’t believe this happened on our first road trip together!”
“We’ll be fine. Don’t let it ruin the conceptual road trip forever for you!”
Trina tried to chuckle, making a sound more akin to a whimper. She cleared her throat to cover the noise she had made, shivering. “I’ll try not to!”
“What?” Shouted Anna.
“I’ll try!”
They strained to look ahead, searching the stormy night horizon for the neon hotel sign. Furthest ahead was Paul, trucking along, with Lance trailing behind him. A car sped past them. Lance yelled something after the fast car, inaudible altogether to Anna and Trina.
“What?” Yelled Paul.
“I said, ‘why don’t they stop?’”
Paul turned to answer Lance. “They probably think we’re hitchhiking axe murderers!”
Lance slinked behind Paul, making more distance between the two groups of two. They marched along in the rainy evening, followed by forks of lightning streaking across the sky and bangs of thunder. In a flash, the hotel appeared some stretches up the road.
“It won’t be much longer!” Exclaimed Paul, loud enough for Anna and Trina to hear as thunder rolled overhead.
“Great!” They called back in unison. Anna’s tone dropped further in tired bemusement while Trina sounded relieved.
“We’ll get there!” Lance assured everyone.
“Yeah….” Added Paul.
“They’ll help us, right?” Asked Anna, catching up to the pair as Trina followed at a quick pace to join them.
“I bet they will,” replied Lance.
“Maybe,” scoffed Paul. “What if we end up with some backwards innkeeper who won’t let us in?”
“What do you mean, Paul?” Asked Anna.
“Let’s just keep going.”
“Whatever,” dismissed Anna. Her feet were getting sore. She and Lance fell behind while she clung to him as a futile attempt to stay warm in her soaked clothes. He wrapped a wet arm around her and stayed quiet. The hotel became closer as they kept walking.
Up ahead, Trina and Paul were walking side-by-side out of earshot. “Why don’t you just admit it?” Questioned Trina.
“It could be a lot of things, sweetie.”
“It could be, but you know it’s the gas.”
“Right. The gas, which could have screwed with a lot of things.”
“Being out of gas can screw with a lot of things. Such as being able to drive.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell them after we get a room.”
“Will you?”
“Of course. Complete with apologies.”
“You’re so great, Paul.”
They exchanged smiles. The couple stopped outside the hotel under a long awning as Anna and Lance caught up to them. Paint had chipped off in large splotches all over the building with decaying wood panels beneath it. Some bricks along the bottom of the building had chunks broken out of them.
All of the windows were still whole, an entry door was in one piece and lights were on inside the hotel. The neon light they had seen from the road a time ago was on above them, too, flickering before reading ‘Hotel’ again. Another flash of lightning followed.
Shivering, Paul held open the door as the group stepped inside a shabby lobby before another rumble of thunder could rattle overhead. They dripped water onto an aged, wooden floor, but at last had shelter. No one else occupied the lobby to welcome them. The two couples lingered a few paces into the entryway as dampened thunder rolled over the building.
“Hello?” Asked Lance.
There was a fit of coughing from deeper in the hotel. It traversed through a hallway and around a corner of the lobby as a man’s deep, strained voice could be heard. “Yes, yes, what is it?” Another coughing fit echoed into the lobby following the loud inquiry.
Everyone was speechless. The stranger’s voice had a cold, harsh tone falling short of trustworthy as it reached the group. Paul spoke up first this time. “We were just looking for a place to stay tonight.”
“What’s that? Come closer!”
Flurrying wind banged the entry door shut behind them. Trina stepped ahead to catch up with Paul; Anna and Lance went with them in hesitant stride. They each turned the corner to their left toward a fluorescent light pouring into an otherwise dark hallway. Trina stood aside to wait in the puddled light as the others walked through a white door opened to a cramped office; their shadows cast out to the hallway around her.
A short, balding man was seated in a thick, black chair behind a rosewood desk with an old-fashioned phone on the edge of it. Various papers adorned unkempt cabinets and crooked bulletin boards aside from populating the man’s desk. His shadowed eyes were on some paperwork he was doing. “What can I do for you?”
“We need a place for the night,” answered Paul.
“Or a way to fix our car,” added Anna.
“Well, which is it?”
“Both, really, if we can. We’re exhausted,” interjected Lance.
Trina searched both directions of the dark corridor for signs of anyone else from where she stood in the hallway. Paul looked back to her and she gave him a reassuring smile. A movement from the old man caught Paul’s attention as her smile flattened. She took a deep breath.
The man’s balding head lifted, his gaze meeting three of the present group. His neat facial hair shuffled when he spoke his response. “Car trouble, huh? Not much I can do for you on that. We have a phone here, and there’s a company that’ll tow it about twenty-three miles west. They’re closed until dawn,” he looked back down, reviewing some additional paperwork. “They’re not cheap. Not much I can do about it here, or now.”
Paul groaned.
“What about a place for the night?” Asked Trina in a loud voice from outside the room.
“There’s good news and bad news about the rooms this evening.”
“Get on with it,” Anna remarked.
“There is no wrath, they say,” mumbled the man without looking up at anyone. He scratched at his balding head before shifting his attention back to the drenched group.
“I’m Anna.”
“Of course you are. Name’s Bub,” Bub spoke, clasping his hands atop paperwork on the desk as he gave a wide smile. “The good news is, we have cheap rooms here. Nice, too.”
“Sounds good,” replied Paul and Lance, exchanging pleased glances.
“What’s the bad news?” Questioned Trina from outside the small office.
“Who said what now?” Bub craned his neck, attentive of a fourth person in the group.
“I’m Trina. You have the fantastic foresight of a salesman.”
“Well, thank you,” remarked Bub, neck still straining to see Trina behind the others. Disappointment underscored the gratitude in his remark. His squinting eyes glimpsed part of her figure before his focus returned to the others in the room. “Anyway, to answer yer question, the bad news… is that all our available rooms tonight are on the thirteenth floor. That won’t be a problem for any of you, will it?”
Anna, Lance and Paul looked to one another.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Blurted Anna with tones of awe accompanying her voice as everyone looked to her.
“Anna, babe, it’s been a long night. I bet even Bub here would agree you’ve earned a break after that long walk while Trina and Paul get our rooms booked. Whaddya say we go sit down?”
“Aw, Lance, you’re so nice. If they’re sure–”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” agreed Paul.
“Go for it. You have definitely earned it,” added Trina with weakening patience.
“Thanks!” Exclaimed Lance. The couple exited the office, sitting down on a drab bench in the shabby lobby. Trina entered the room to stand by Paul.
“She seemed nice,” Bub stated with a smirk. Trina’s satisfied grin had the couple’s focus back to renting rooms for the night.
“Did you say thirteenth floor? It didn’t look like there were thirteen floors from outside,” reasoned Paul.
“Did I? I didn’t say thirteen, did I? I most certainly meant third floor. We have fourteen floors to answer yer statement, though. Lord, it’s late. No one stays on the thirteenth floor. The elevators don’t even stop there, they just go straight to the fourteenth floor. And you’d have to be crazy to walk up all those steps when you’ve already walked so far.”
“Is that so?” Inquired Trina.
“Well, sure.”
“Sure?” Asked Paul.
“Third floor. Two rooms. Comes to thirty-two bucks for the night.”
“No way?! What a great deal!” Shouted Trina.
“Relax kid! There’s people trying to get some shut eye.”
“No offense, but who? We’re in the middle of nowhere,” commented Paul.
“I didn’t see any other cars out front,” added Trina.
“Yeah, yeah. You want the rooms or not?”
Paul pulled out his wallet, which was still damp from the rain. He shuffled through to find the amount. “There’s sixteen. Trina, will you go check with Lance for the other half?”
“Fine,” Trina pivoted and retraced her steps back to the lobby.
“Keep it quiet up there, won’t you?”
“Not a problem,” replied Paul, handing Bub some money. “What’s with the thirteenth floor gag?”
“Forget about it. Sorry I upset the girl.”
“Nah, she’s always like that.”
“Yeah? Huh,” Bub put away the money and went back to his papers.
“Have you worked here long?”
“Every night. Some days, too.”
Paul stared at Bub a moment, turning to look around the room when Trina returned.
“Here,” Trina said, handing Bub the money. “Courtesy of the hard-working Anna. Also, someone may have chipped a nail. Hint: It wasn’t me, but that’s what was most important just now. I don’t think she was really listening to the actual number of floors or the great deal we just got.”
Paul rolled his eyes.
Bub gave a chuckle and reached across the desk to set two keys at the edge as another roll of thunder sounded above the hotel. “Yer rooms are upstairs. Third floor, 302 and 303.” His face turned serious toward the unassuming guests. “Keep it down and don’t go wandering off.”
“Thanks,” answered Paul, taking the two room keys. “We just plan on sleeping. We’ll use the phone first thing in the morning.”
Bub returned to filling out some more paperwork as the couple joined Anna and Lance in the lobby. Another coughing fit sounded from the office.
“All set,” announced Paul. “Bub says not to go wandering off. How are things going?”
“Things are looking up!” Exclaimed Lance, standing from the bench as Anna hesitated before joining him.
The four of them followed the way back to the office and headed down the dark hallway, toward another light at the end highlighting some ordinary stairs by an elevator. Trina nudged Paul.
“What?”
“Why are we here, Paul?”
“Because… we need a place for the night?”
“No, why are we here, Paul?”
“Right, right. Anna, Lance?”
“Yeah?” Answered Lance as Anna yawned.
Paul stopped at the elevator panel, pressing the button. “Well, I messed up.”
“How do you mean?” Asked Lance in a tired voice.
“The car didn’t break down. We ran out of gas.”
“No way. Are you kidding?” Anna’s eyes narrowed to a glare toward Paul.
Paul returned a look of acquiescence. “No, I’m not.”
“Nice,” sighed Lance.
Ding. The elevator door slid open.
The couples stepped inside, and Trina hit ‘3’. The doors shut. “Hey….”
The elevator lifted with a jarring jolt before continuing without a sound. “What now?” Asked Paul.
“This elevator is numbered for thirteen floors. Not fourteen.”
“We’ll be sure to complain in the morning,” offered Paul as Lance nodded with fervent affirmation. “Besides, our rooms are on the third floor. We have nothing to worry about.” The door opened two floors up on the third floor, and the group took the few steps to their rooms.
Trina glanced at a dull orange glow hanging on the wall in the hallway before they entered their rooms. It was marked with the word ‘clock’ and displayed the time. “It’s just shy of midnight. Does that count as morning?”
“No,” the choral reply from the other three was equal parts expected and unusual.
“Let’s go to bed,” Lance suggested. Paul handed him a key, and each opened the doors to enter their separate rooms: Trina and Paul in one, Anna and Lance in the other.
Headlights showed the road ahead between flashes of lightning in a relentless thunderstorm. Heavy metal blared as the driver slammed down on the gas pedal, racing against the storm. Four friends were out for their first road trip together and a building on their right was the first they had passed in a while. A neon sign read ‘Hotel’.
Paul was driving and followed a condensed set of traffic laws. In the passenger seat was his girlfriend, Trina. Her hand gripped the armrest and she pursed her lips together.
For camaraderie, Paul brought his friend, Lance. Without hesitation, Lance had extended the invitation to his girlfriend, Anna. As of several cities ago, she was fast asleep on his lap. Lance was tiring, too. He masked a gasp of surprise as a yawn when the car started to slow.
“Good idea,” mumbled Trina.
“Knock it off,” Paul snapped. “The car’s dying.”
The engine sputtered. Over several moments, the car coasted along the road. Paul made an effort to steer it from the lane off to the side. Upon accomplishing this task, they were stuck. He removed the key from the ignition and the blaring heavy metal music died.
Lance spoke up first after a failed attempt to suppress a cough. “Should we take a look, then?”
“In this weather?”
“You got a better option?”
“No, I guess not,” receded Paul. “Let’s go check it out.”
Paul was already out of the car with the hood popped while Lance opted for a gentle movement to reposition Anna as she continued sleeping. He opened the door a small space and Trina whispered something.
“What?” Asked Lance.
“Nothing,” Trina replied. “You’d better go see if you can get it figured out with him.”
Anna stirred, and Lance got out of the car into pounding rain as she mumbled something. “I’ll be back in a minute, babe,” He blew her a kiss and shut the door, leaving further explanations to Trina as Anna slumped against the seat with a yawn.
Both Paul and Lance were drenched. Lance ran to the front to investigate the problem with the car. “Got any ideas, buddy?”
“None yet. I can’t see a thing out here,” Paul answered, handing Lance a weak flashlight. They looked over the rusted metal and faded labels. Relentless sheets of rain made it difficult to tell where one might start. The water cooled the metal, saving some time in their assessment.
“Me neither,” admitted Lance. They got back inside the car, water seeping into their seats before further discussion commenced.
With slamming doors and flying water droplets, Anna was alert. “What are we doing now?”
“What about the hotel we passed a few minutes ago?” Trina suggested.
“Hotel? I don’t see a hotel around here.”
“Ladies, please. Trina, it’s a good idea, but that drive was short because of how fast I was driving. There’s no way we can walk it.”
“Walking?”
“We could walk to it in an hour, tops,” Trina responded.
“Or we can stay here, see what tomorrow brings,” offered Lance before turning to Anna. “The car died while you were sleeping and we passed by a hotel not too long ago.”
“Oh,” Anna moved, bumping into Lance in the dark. “Sorry,” she stated with a combination of aloof and tired. Some fumbling followed and she pulled something out of her pocket. There was a pause. “What? My phone’s dead.”
Everyone else checked their own phones. Each had a low battery and no signal.
“I don’t like this,” announced Trina.
“Me neither, sweetie,” said Paul. “It’ll be okay, but we better get going.”
“Fine, let’s walk,” huffed Anna. “But I’m going to leave my phone. I really don’t want it to break from getting wet. If it gets stolen, one of you guys owes me a new phone.”
“Let Trina buy it, the walk was her idea,” suggested Paul.
“It wasn’t my fault the car broke down.”
“Would you two stop it? Unless we’re going to sleep in the car, we should go. I’ll leave my phone too,” offered Lance. “Paul can pay for mine if anything happens to it.”
“What do you mean, I can pay for it?”
“That’s right.”
“Fine, Trina and I will leave ours as well. Then we can all be responsible for our own choices, okay? They’ll have a phone at the hotel, anyway.”
The group agreed with Paul. He ensured the car was locked once everyone was out and they faced the dark, rainy walk ahead of them. They tried to carry on conversation as the storm dampened their voices.
“I’m so sorry about your phone!” Shouted Trina.
“Thanks! Stupid battery doesn’t even last if I charge it all day,” Anna trudged along, doing her best to keep her hair presentable. It was no use, but her hands were persistent.
“Lame,” lamented Trina, sounding sincere through a sheet of rain. “I can’t believe this happened on our first road trip together!”
“We’ll be fine. Don’t let it ruin the conceptual road trip forever for you!”
Trina tried to chuckle, making a sound more akin to a whimper. She cleared her throat to cover the noise she had made, shivering. “I’ll try not to!”
“What?” Shouted Anna.
“I’ll try!”
They strained to look ahead, searching the stormy night horizon for the neon hotel sign. Furthest ahead was Paul, trucking along, with Lance trailing behind him. A car sped past them. Lance yelled something after the fast car, inaudible altogether to Anna and Trina.
“What?” Yelled Paul.
“I said, ‘why don’t they stop?’”
Paul turned to answer Lance. “They probably think we’re hitchhiking axe murderers!”
Lance slinked behind Paul, making more distance between the two groups of two. They marched along in the rainy evening, followed by forks of lightning streaking across the sky and bangs of thunder. In a flash, the hotel appeared some stretches up the road.
“It won’t be much longer!” Exclaimed Paul, loud enough for Anna and Trina to hear as thunder rolled overhead.
“Great!” They called back in unison. Anna’s tone dropped further in tired bemusement while Trina sounded relieved.
“We’ll get there!” Lance assured everyone.
“Yeah….” Added Paul.
“They’ll help us, right?” Asked Anna, catching up to the pair as Trina followed at a quick pace to join them.
“I bet they will,” replied Lance.
“Maybe,” scoffed Paul. “What if we end up with some backwards innkeeper who won’t let us in?”
“What do you mean, Paul?” Asked Anna.
“Let’s just keep going.”
“Whatever,” dismissed Anna. Her feet were getting sore. She and Lance fell behind while she clung to him as a futile attempt to stay warm in her soaked clothes. He wrapped a wet arm around her and stayed quiet. The hotel became closer as they kept walking.
Up ahead, Trina and Paul were walking side-by-side out of earshot. “Why don’t you just admit it?” Questioned Trina.
“It could be a lot of things, sweetie.”
“It could be, but you know it’s the gas.”
“Right. The gas, which could have screwed with a lot of things.”
“Being out of gas can screw with a lot of things. Such as being able to drive.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell them after we get a room.”
“Will you?”
“Of course. Complete with apologies.”
“You’re so great, Paul.”
They exchanged smiles. The couple stopped outside the hotel under a long awning as Anna and Lance caught up to them. Paint had chipped off in large splotches all over the building with decaying wood panels beneath it. Some bricks along the bottom of the building had chunks broken out of them.
All of the windows were still whole, an entry door was in one piece and lights were on inside the hotel. The neon light they had seen from the road a time ago was on above them, too, flickering before reading ‘Hotel’ again. Another flash of lightning followed.
Shivering, Paul held open the door as the group stepped inside a shabby lobby before another rumble of thunder could rattle overhead. They dripped water onto an aged, wooden floor, but at last had shelter. No one else occupied the lobby to welcome them. The two couples lingered a few paces into the entryway as dampened thunder rolled over the building.
“Hello?” Asked Lance.
There was a fit of coughing from deeper in the hotel. It traversed through a hallway and around a corner of the lobby as a man’s deep, strained voice could be heard. “Yes, yes, what is it?” Another coughing fit echoed into the lobby following the loud inquiry.
Everyone was speechless. The stranger’s voice had a cold, harsh tone falling short of trustworthy as it reached the group. Paul spoke up first this time. “We were just looking for a place to stay tonight.”
“What’s that? Come closer!”
Flurrying wind banged the entry door shut behind them. Trina stepped ahead to catch up with Paul; Anna and Lance went with them in hesitant stride. They each turned the corner to their left toward a fluorescent light pouring into an otherwise dark hallway. Trina stood aside to wait in the puddled light as the others walked through a white door opened to a cramped office; their shadows cast out to the hallway around her.
A short, balding man was seated in a thick, black chair behind a rosewood desk with an old-fashioned phone on the edge of it. Various papers adorned unkempt cabinets and crooked bulletin boards aside from populating the man’s desk. His shadowed eyes were on some paperwork he was doing. “What can I do for you?”
“We need a place for the night,” answered Paul.
“Or a way to fix our car,” added Anna.
“Well, which is it?”
“Both, really, if we can. We’re exhausted,” interjected Lance.
Trina searched both directions of the dark corridor for signs of anyone else from where she stood in the hallway. Paul looked back to her and she gave him a reassuring smile. A movement from the old man caught Paul’s attention as her smile flattened. She took a deep breath.
The man’s balding head lifted, his gaze meeting three of the present group. His neat facial hair shuffled when he spoke his response. “Car trouble, huh? Not much I can do for you on that. We have a phone here, and there’s a company that’ll tow it about twenty-three miles west. They’re closed until dawn,” he looked back down, reviewing some additional paperwork. “They’re not cheap. Not much I can do about it here, or now.”
Paul groaned.
“What about a place for the night?” Asked Trina in a loud voice from outside the room.
“There’s good news and bad news about the rooms this evening.”
“Get on with it,” Anna remarked.
“There is no wrath, they say,” mumbled the man without looking up at anyone. He scratched at his balding head before shifting his attention back to the drenched group.
“I’m Anna.”
“Of course you are. Name’s Bub,” Bub spoke, clasping his hands atop paperwork on the desk as he gave a wide smile. “The good news is, we have cheap rooms here. Nice, too.”
“Sounds good,” replied Paul and Lance, exchanging pleased glances.
“What’s the bad news?” Questioned Trina from outside the small office.
“Who said what now?” Bub craned his neck, attentive of a fourth person in the group.
“I’m Trina. You have the fantastic foresight of a salesman.”
“Well, thank you,” remarked Bub, neck still straining to see Trina behind the others. Disappointment underscored the gratitude in his remark. His squinting eyes glimpsed part of her figure before his focus returned to the others in the room. “Anyway, to answer yer question, the bad news… is that all our available rooms tonight are on the thirteenth floor. That won’t be a problem for any of you, will it?”
Anna, Lance and Paul looked to one another.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Blurted Anna with tones of awe accompanying her voice as everyone looked to her.
“Anna, babe, it’s been a long night. I bet even Bub here would agree you’ve earned a break after that long walk while Trina and Paul get our rooms booked. Whaddya say we go sit down?”
“Aw, Lance, you’re so nice. If they’re sure–”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” agreed Paul.
“Go for it. You have definitely earned it,” added Trina with weakening patience.
“Thanks!” Exclaimed Lance. The couple exited the office, sitting down on a drab bench in the shabby lobby. Trina entered the room to stand by Paul.
“She seemed nice,” Bub stated with a smirk. Trina’s satisfied grin had the couple’s focus back to renting rooms for the night.
“Did you say thirteenth floor? It didn’t look like there were thirteen floors from outside,” reasoned Paul.
“Did I? I didn’t say thirteen, did I? I most certainly meant third floor. We have fourteen floors to answer yer statement, though. Lord, it’s late. No one stays on the thirteenth floor. The elevators don’t even stop there, they just go straight to the fourteenth floor. And you’d have to be crazy to walk up all those steps when you’ve already walked so far.”
“Is that so?” Inquired Trina.
“Well, sure.”
“Sure?” Asked Paul.
“Third floor. Two rooms. Comes to thirty-two bucks for the night.”
“No way?! What a great deal!” Shouted Trina.
“Relax kid! There’s people trying to get some shut eye.”
“No offense, but who? We’re in the middle of nowhere,” commented Paul.
“I didn’t see any other cars out front,” added Trina.
“Yeah, yeah. You want the rooms or not?”
Paul pulled out his wallet, which was still damp from the rain. He shuffled through to find the amount. “There’s sixteen. Trina, will you go check with Lance for the other half?”
“Fine,” Trina pivoted and retraced her steps back to the lobby.
“Keep it quiet up there, won’t you?”
“Not a problem,” replied Paul, handing Bub some money. “What’s with the thirteenth floor gag?”
“Forget about it. Sorry I upset the girl.”
“Nah, she’s always like that.”
“Yeah? Huh,” Bub put away the money and went back to his papers.
“Have you worked here long?”
“Every night. Some days, too.”
Paul stared at Bub a moment, turning to look around the room when Trina returned.
“Here,” Trina said, handing Bub the money. “Courtesy of the hard-working Anna. Also, someone may have chipped a nail. Hint: It wasn’t me, but that’s what was most important just now. I don’t think she was really listening to the actual number of floors or the great deal we just got.”
Paul rolled his eyes.
Bub gave a chuckle and reached across the desk to set two keys at the edge as another roll of thunder sounded above the hotel. “Yer rooms are upstairs. Third floor, 302 and 303.” His face turned serious toward the unassuming guests. “Keep it down and don’t go wandering off.”
“Thanks,” answered Paul, taking the two room keys. “We just plan on sleeping. We’ll use the phone first thing in the morning.”
Bub returned to filling out some more paperwork as the couple joined Anna and Lance in the lobby. Another coughing fit sounded from the office.
“All set,” announced Paul. “Bub says not to go wandering off. How are things going?”
“Things are looking up!” Exclaimed Lance, standing from the bench as Anna hesitated before joining him.
The four of them followed the way back to the office and headed down the dark hallway, toward another light at the end highlighting some ordinary stairs by an elevator. Trina nudged Paul.
“What?”
“Why are we here, Paul?”
“Because… we need a place for the night?”
“No, why are we here, Paul?”
“Right, right. Anna, Lance?”
“Yeah?” Answered Lance as Anna yawned.
Paul stopped at the elevator panel, pressing the button. “Well, I messed up.”
“How do you mean?” Asked Lance in a tired voice.
“The car didn’t break down. We ran out of gas.”
“No way. Are you kidding?” Anna’s eyes narrowed to a glare toward Paul.
Paul returned a look of acquiescence. “No, I’m not.”
“Nice,” sighed Lance.
Ding. The elevator door slid open.
The couples stepped inside, and Trina hit ‘3’. The doors shut. “Hey….”
The elevator lifted with a jarring jolt before continuing without a sound. “What now?” Asked Paul.
“This elevator is numbered for thirteen floors. Not fourteen.”
“We’ll be sure to complain in the morning,” offered Paul as Lance nodded with fervent affirmation. “Besides, our rooms are on the third floor. We have nothing to worry about.” The door opened two floors up on the third floor, and the group took the few steps to their rooms.
Trina glanced at a dull orange glow hanging on the wall in the hallway before they entered their rooms. It was marked with the word ‘clock’ and displayed the time. “It’s just shy of midnight. Does that count as morning?”
“No,” the choral reply from the other three was equal parts expected and unusual.
“Let’s go to bed,” Lance suggested. Paul handed him a key, and each opened the doors to enter their separate rooms: Trina and Paul in one, Anna and Lance in the other.