Monday May 25, 2020
I have been recording everything that I can during my time here obediently. I haven’t been home since the plague broke here. Today I have to return to my apartment as the repairs have been completed. I don’t know what to expect as far as my things are concerned, but it was all cheap self-built crap anyway. Everything with any kind of importance I brought with me to the hotel.
Most of what I brought are things that are a real bitch to replace. My cell for instance. It has specialized apps that allow me to piggyback on a signal that is sent back home. I personally have no idea how that works, but it does. Same thing with my Chromebook. My reports are filed, encrypted, sent to the homebase, and then removed from the computer. I had my friend compare that to magic and for me he’s pretty much right in this case.
Kaylin is having trouble dealing with my distance without my trips home. She is not being dramatic about it, she is right. I just really don’t know what to do about that. It’s been months since we have held one-another. I understand how and why she is upset, there is just nothing about all that in my control. I would go home this hour if I could.
The extra money has been building up. There was a stay in place order and since then, I stopped paying for the room. Screw Hilton. After I get settled back at the apartment, I think I will come back and give Chuck the desk guy and Lillian the cleaner some cookies or banana bread. They have been full blown champs.
I have built up a little collection of my comforts here, and I have to say, it was a lot of help having the hotel supply my toilet paper for a while.
I place the two boxes of stuff onto the luggage trolley and make for the lift.
There are still the familiar sounds of the other occupants to the hotel that I have been hearing for the last couple months. Some frustrated shouting from the lady with three kids that had been living in their car in the parking lot before the hotel was forced to give them a room. I may have been calling local news outlets about it, but honestly the moment they got some hope that it was possible they jumped onto the TikTok and made themselves known.
The plague really drew a black and white line here. There was a complete fumbling by the administration to get it under control. Then that streak of inaction blossomed into higher death rates that they kept trying to deny, then there was the scandal about sending the nations emergency supplies to China just before they went into lockdown.
Number denials, mask protests. It’s been a bit of madness.
By the time I hit the lobby Angelica is already more than over being in her carrier.
When the doors open I see that Chuck is waiting for the lift himself.
“Here we are then. I was just about to stop at the desk.”
“Oh? What’s up?” He replies, fiddling with his pants.
“Well, I see your pocket pool practice has paid off. Are you a cinch for the finals?”
“Did you need something?” He asked, pulling his hands from his pockets, clearly not enjoying my humor.
I hand him the envelope I’d prepared as a tip. “Enjoy a month on me. I might have screwed Hilton but you sir were a gem.”
He looked at the present and then he gave me a look of confusion.
“Have you seen Lillian about?” I ask.
He was opening the package and his jaw went agape.
“Mate. Are you okay?”
“I… yeah. She’s in the breakroom.” He said in a distant tone.
I go behind the desk and into the room through the back wall. It was the office and breakroom for the desk crew.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
I knocked softly before entering.
“Hello?”
“Hey, go ahead and come in and I am on the phone,” She told me.
I went into the breakroom, a fluorescent nightmare with the standardized vinyl flooring, loud old fridge, and a microwave that will probably give you cancer faster than heat your burrito.
I walk over to her seated at the plastic folding table and set down the envelope. I gave her a smile and a little wave. She returns the gestures as I mouth “It’s not important.” to her and exit out the door back into the hotel. Angelica is not at all happy with being in a carrier and she is mashing her face against the mesh netting, attempting to find a flaw she could use to escape.
I take up the luggage trolly and head for the door.
As I wait for my Lyft, I resume playing text tag with Kaylin. The signal has been so choppy getting back home, that it is taking minutes if not hours for a message to get through back and forth. From what I can tell in this upset, I am not fulfilling my promise of making things work even with the distance. How am I supposed to tell her that I didn’t see this coming? How am I supposed to tell her that I understood the risk, but that the reward was promised to vastly outweigh the risk?
The Lyft arrives and I just pretend I haven’t read Kaylin’s newest bundle of messages.
“Ahh Fred Al…” The driver asks.
“Alginon. Fred Alginon. Yeah, that’s me,” I say while loading up my boxes into the van. He comes around to help me with the rest.
“It’s fine. We’re okay,” I say while waving him off.
“Is that a cat?” He asks me.
“Yes. She is a cat,”
“Oh. I can’t have a cat in my van. I am allergic,” The driver replies.
“I’ll tell you what. I’ll slip my coat over her carrier, no more fur will escape than what would come off my clothes,”
He nods at me like I’m an asshole but he could use the money so he won’t push it, defeated.
All loaded up we travel the five miles back to the apartment that they are now telling me is ready for occupancy.
As I pull up I see that the parking lot is nearly empty, which is bizarre considering how many people live here, who also own cars. I double check the address to make sure this fella didn’t take me to a similar lot in the same complex, but it was right.
“Pull up to the door there, with the stairs would you buddy?”
I see him in the rearview and he clearly looks annoyed. He is making no effort to hide that he is scratching periodically.
“Right-o here. I am dreadfully sorry to have imposed upon you this much with Angelica here. Please be assured I plan to tip you well for your soldiering on.”
I empty my things from the van and begin the shuffle of the boxes through the security door mailroom, taking multiple parcels near the door, then into the mailroom, to shuffle from the mailroom to the apartment door, and on and on.
Angelica was the first thing into the mailroom, to get her out of the weather, which was oppressively humid.
I pull up the app on my smartphone when the last box clears the van then rate and tip the fellow. As he pulled away it clicked up his tip and I could see him change his entire body language. A smile and a wave was a nice touch. It’s sick how easily money turns an encounter from aggressive and upset, to meek and smiley servant that would like you to call upon them again.
The entire building smelled of cleanser. There was a fresh coat of paint across the entire common room hallway to the apartments and the carpet looks like it was replaced, at least here on the sublevel where I reside. I take Angelica to the apartment first. My door was freshly painted, the door knocker plaque below the peephole had my name slipped in behind the little plastic shield.
“Yeah, no.” I say while I slip the paper out and pocket it before opening the door.
I am actually rather surprised that the entire place looks pretty good. The carpet in the apartment had been replaced, I smell fresh paint, cleaner, a hint of smoke, but overall it seems like pretty good work.
It doesn’t take me long to bring in the boxes and set everything up. The few things that I thought might have been taken, weren’t and overall, it doesn’t seem like anyone rifled my undies drawer, so everything is pretty much okay.
When I let Angelica out she rushes off to the kitchen in search of her bowl and fountain.
I check my phone and see there are three new messages. All three of the messages are from Kaylin. It seems she wasn’t buying into me not having read the first couple yet.
“It’s over.” I read her newest message from the lockscreen.
I don’t bother to unlock the phone. I don’t need to read the rest tonight.
I walk into my bedroom and throw myself on the bare mattress that is currently sealed in plastic, and my sheets are nowhere to be seen, but there is a box marked “Replacement Bedding.”
“Oh grand. I get to feel like shit and unpack everything, while washing this brand new bedding because I am not sleeping in unwashed anything. Superdooper.”
I turn on the telly and mash the home key on my streaming stick remote. I am going to need something to feel good for the rest of today.