Hospitality Inn Page #6

• Short story

								

     “I know some engineers.”
     “Sweetie,” she said. “I’ll take care of the whole thing.”
     “But, Sheli, how much is this whole thing gonna cost?”
     “Don’t worry about it; you just go on with your astronomy. I’ll handle it all.”
     In summer, Sheli met often with experts in town to discuss the bed-and-breakfast’s construction. It was decided that this B&B would be a wide, one-storey structure with a square plan and built on the spot in Walnut Meadow where the mansion had once stood. Groundbreaking was in autumn.
     As the cement was pouring, Sheli realized that she spent so much time on the project that it distanced her from Isaac, so she planned to rent a house with him until the B&B was completed. She sent him a message but didn’t get a reply until the next day:
 
Dear Sheli,
 
Our time together has been unforgettable. It was something we both needed at this time. 
 
It’s time that I should be completely honest. I hope that maybe you’ll understand who I am and what I need. After my wife died, I did in fact see someone. She was a blessing I can’t describe. But it wasn’t right. I knew it was not meant to be. She knew it too. We caused each other too much damage. 
 
I deeply regret that you’re just like she was in many ways. I wish I could have been have honest with myself and told you sooner. I just can’t look at you without seeing her.
 
I wish you all the best,
 
Isaac
 
     Her mind numbed and desperately clung to the extra have that he had miswritten. All she could think about was that one typo. The annoying error served to shut out all of the feelings she wasn’t ready to feel. “This is something I could have seen coming. There’s something wrong with this picture.”
     She put down the morbid experience of meeting a man in a place like a saloon as just one of many common blunders made in a vastly unpredictable life. She concluded that such a mission of developing a sophisticated B&B would be most effectively accomplished on her own and that, after this disappointment, she had no choice but to maintain her healthy lifestyle and immerse herself in her new field.
     Employee absence caused delays during the framing and electrical wiring stages, but the B&B was completed within a year.
 
Camera L: it’s raining, and a family is standing at the entrance.
 
The B&B at Walnut Meadow predominated as a wide, rectangular structure with a simple exterior of solid ash. Its flat roof and uniform color gave it the appearance, from the foothills, of a giant box into which one would stack a few giant notebooks or giant cutting boards. Its small, dark-tinted windows deceived the observer into believing all of the lights were out and the place had closed down. The interior, however, was brightly lit. The décor elaborated on the same flat, ashy simplicity of the exterior and included deep orange on a few objects such as a large plant pot and a throw pillow. Security cameras surveilled the property, including the swimming pool and detached gym.
    She wore a black dress jacket over a white button-down with a loose collar, a skirt, and kitten heels. She stood in the common area and held a pamphlet in one hand and made commands with the other. Her name-tag read SHELI.
     A guest of the B&B slid an omelet onto his plate and returned to his wife and child at the breakfast table. A younger couple drank coffee and looked at the day’s itinerary. Inner mechanisms churned.
     Sheli spoke into a microphone. “Good morning, everyone, and welcome. I hope you’ve noted our location on your GPS and taken a screenshot; when you’re hiking, the reception can be very erratic. If you see any cats, please don’t try to pet them or pick them up. Make sure to be back before 6 for dinner and the outdoor movie.” 
     The hikers crossed the train tracks. They passed by the convent and saw Katherine with her horse. Later, a young girl sprained her ankle. Meanwhile, in preparation for the dinner, Sheli scooped spicy ground beef into a steel hamburger press and made neat patties which she used her spatula to flip over and press down on the grill. They arrived back early, and a few thought they had touched poison ivy but were not sure. Once the medical concerns were addressed, Sheli summoned them outside to dinner.
     She turned a control dial to Setting 1. A buzzing noise came from some metal workings somewhere underneath the B&B. The structure trembled, and very slowly, the whole thing began to elevate on four steel poles that worked as stilts. There was nothing holding up the whole B&B except the four stilts. Once the B&B was high enough for the guests to safely walk under, the stilts stopped moving and stayed in place.
     Only the stilts and a few cords and tubes now connected the B&B with the ground. Standing under the structure, which was now like a giant canopy, the guests had a 360° panoramic view of what surrounded Walnut Meadow. Much of the view was occupied by a giant outdoor TV screen standing opposite the downhill view. Both the ceiling under the B&B and the floor of this new space were completely covered in acrylic. On voice command, the white acrylic of the ceiling turned a tranquil yellow. Another voice command switched on swirling colored lights from under the clear acrylic floor. For the dinner, Sheli had only the overhead yellow lights on. 
     Some of the guests assisted in bringing tables and chairs to arrange under the B&B, the B&B that was now a giant canopy with a flat top. Sheli told the TV screen to play soft music and a slideshow of local scenes as the guests ate their hamburgers. After dinner, Sheli played a family movie and served popcorn in large buckets. She noticed that the wind had caught an empty bucket and rolled it out into the yard, so she asked the guests to crush the buckets once they were finished eating the popcorn so they wouldn’t roll very far. The guests, once they had finished, turned the buckets upside down and crushed them with both feet.
     An unwelcome, rotund man with greasy hair and a gold tooth drank vodka and occasionally whaled with laughter that carried far up into the hills.
     As the months passed, Sheli noticed that patronage was rather inconsistent. At times, bookings were back-to-back for weeks on end. At other times, the B&B stood empty for weeks. She found that she was obliged to make it clear beforehand that the whole B&B structure was raised and lowered regularly. 
    On the whole, however, she enjoyed her multifaceted work and the health benefits of taking care of her guests. She took her own dinner, which usually consisted of something very light such as a few sardines and a garden salad, in her old log cabin, but she humbly played hostess and waitress for the guests and sometimes sat and talked with them while they ate. And she wasn’t above getting her blue jeans dirty in a game of tug-of-war or her face grass stained from rolling down the hill with the children. She even liked the cleaning; it gave her time to think.

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