Night Auditor

Meredith (10)

The housekeeping closet was situated at the farthest end of the third floor, right by the fire exit door which supposedly would sound an alarm when opened.

The long hallway, which held six rooms on each side, was almost hypnotizing to walk on with its varying triangular patterns and a palette of maroon colors. The stretch of it was more eerie than the quiet halls of the first floor itself, and the rain sounded much louder here.

Ahead of me was Richard, jangling his set of keys while he tried to look for the closet key. We then reached the end of the hallway and found the housekeeping closet by the exit door, right where Richard said it would be. "Here you'll find toiletries, shampoo, toothpaste, all that stuff if any guest needs it."

Richard, having finally found the right key, inserted it into the lock, turned it, and opened the closet. On the highest shelf were dozens of toilet paper arranged in neat stacks. The following shelves displayed small buckets with blue signs glued on the front: toothpastes, toothbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, hair caps, soap, shower gel.

"I'll show you a spot later where you can easily find these at the front desk. Unfortunately we are not the Hilton so try to limit giving guests two of each thing at most."

"Got it. Limit the free stuff."

"They're technically not free," said Richard. "I'll show you the maintenance room next. We have this stick we use in case a guest gets locked in the bathroom."

"Do the bathrooms not have keys?"

"Not quite," said Richard. We headed back down on the hallways towards the stairs guests and staff were supposed to use. "A few guests have been able to successfully lock themselves in the bathroom. Sadly not too surprising. Poor Miss Ester used to deal with rude guests somehow blaming her for them locking their child inside."

"You get a lot of family visitors here?"

"Sometimes." Richard led the way up to the fourth floor with me trailing behind. "We got old folks like me who stay here in Lagro and their relatives who left a long time ago would come back to town to visit every once in a while."

The flight of stairs tucked in the northeast section of the hotel rumbled along with the hurricane looming overhead. I was sure it wasn't any safer but being back down on the second floor somehow made me feel better.

"I suppose you don't get a lot of hurricanes in-- where are you from again?"

"Clovis," I said. "And no. We have the occasional sand storms though."

"I hear ya," said Richard.

Richard went on to show me where I could grab the stick they used in case anyone got locked inside one of the bathrooms and briefly explained to me how to use the stick to lift the lock from the other side, which I was sure I wouldn't remember when the time came (and silently prayed that it would never come). Once the maintenance tour was over, we walked back down to where the kitchen was, dark and spotless in a tiny section adjacent to the dining hall. Keys to the food cabinets were handed to me, and there was o be oatmeal, waffles, coffee, fruit slices, bagels, and omelets with enough servings to feed however many people were staying the previous night.

"Listen," said Richard as he opened the cabinets one by one to show boxes of oatmeal and chocolate chip waffle mixes. "No one's going to micromanage what you put out for breakfast and you're welcome to eat during your shift. Just try not to overdo it. Between Amy's family and the guests staying tonight, I would try to make up to ten servings of each."

"Got it. Ten servings."

"I come in at seven tomorrow morning so if you don't have everything out by then, don't sweat it. I can finish off whatever you leave me with."