Thursday, January 5, 2006

Hotel

Meldrif’s stomach gurgled from the indigestion of the black coffee and sugarcoated donuts provided by one of the hotels’ hospitalities. Despite the all too noticeable pain of her stomach, the day was a redundant as any other. Except instead of waking up with a tear-stained pillow she found it clear. The nights were getting easier and she was slowly gaining back the sleep she lost from all the nights before. Meldrif hated the sleepless nights because it reminded her that she was a woman, an emotional one at that.

The teenager was rudely awakened by the argument of her parents loudly discussing where the family would be staying for the future nights. She pulled the blankets over her head, but the reverberations of her parents’ accents carried throughout the room. With a long sigh Meldrif rose from the bed and started preparing for school. The world spun as she sleepily stumbled around her petite surroundings. When she reached the area with wall she blindly felt for the light switch to the bathroom. When she heard the soft click, she slowly stepped inside closing the door behind her. Inside she could still hear the voices of her parents’ aggressively debating over the same opinion of whose fault it was for incorrectly filing the hotel receipts. In other situations she would have laughed and put in a few words of her own that would subdue the catastrophe with humor. Except now she neither had the will or patience to deal with their quarrels, she just wanted them to stop.

“You think you could do a better job!!”

“You’re twisting my words. I just saying I want to help you with this.”

“You want to help? Ha! You’re gone half of the time!!”

“I have a job. You don’t know how hard it is. I work all day and I tired. All I want is to relax and watch some TV.”

“Oh, poor mijo! And you don’t think I’m tired!! Not only do I have to do this all by myself, I have to take care of the kids and pick up the kids and then Maria comes with her children---they threatened to kick us out Bernardo!!”

Meldrif sat in the bathtub with her feet pulled up close to her chest. The shouting was what woke her up and the shouting was what lulled her to back into her slumber. It was an endless cycle that wouldn’t end until the house was finished being rebuilt. ‘It will be done in two months’ the insurance company first informed her parents. However, the two months soon stretched to three then to four, and according to the most recent form of communication it was six. The reason for the long wait was due to the agents getting fired for not performing their jobs properly. Meldrif smirked at her thoughts. The family case would probably be known as the “Intransigent Customers”.

Meldrif laid in the tub waiting for the day the noise would stop and the day that she would return back to her natural surroundings of the house. At first it was exciting to live in so many hotels and not have to worry about the bill being paid. The family was forced to get to know each other a little better and the family would go out to eat at several restaurants. However, after having to eat fast food for six straight months lessened Meldrif’s appetite for deep fried fish filets and French fries from Burger King.

Comments (0)