At Dusk

Personal islands

The hotel was called Três Coroas. It was in reality a shabby inn stuck in an old building that did not have an air conditioner or even a functional elevator. Thank god Laura had chosen to stay on ground level.

The place stubbornly refused to keep up with modern days. The yellowish painting on the walls was peeling off and the receptionist, a redhead teenage boy with skin problems used a typewriter to fill in the register.

The good part was that the place was right at the heart of the city center. That would come in handy, she thought, although not knowing exactly what for.

She had never left the coast before, even when the floods started. They just moved further and further up the mountains, driven away by the hungry seas that now claimed much of the land people used to inhabit. Used to call home. 

Laura and herself went to school together on an island that no longer existed. Isabel left, then Laura. And then she got married; as if to fill the void left by her closest of kin. 

So to leave home now was like leaving a cocoon. What to expect from the world outside? In theory, she expected to find her sister. Or at least a clue as to where she might have gone. Yet in reality, the novelty of it all mesmerized her. Why did it all have to happen when she became pregnant?

She sighed. That's the way things always were. She was impelled to change by others. The truth of it did not bother her anymore.  

The room was a bit different than she remembered from her vision. Less compact, the bed considerably smaller and with a more pronounced feeling of decay. She deposited her bag on the same wooden piece of furniture Laura had used as a writing desk, before going to the bathroom to pee for what felt like the millionth time in a single day.

Her back hurt and her belly felt heavier than ever. Perhaps Linda did have a point, after all.

Back in the room, she turned on the fan in the ceiling and started massaging her own neck. All she wanted was to lie down in the bed for a few hours and just let her eyelids follow their natural path toward rest.

You ought to rest, Linda's voice reverberated in the head. 

She decided to walk around the room instead and go through a recognition process. The room had been thoroughly cleaned up and the bed sheets had been changed time and time again since her sister was there. Still, she thought she would be able to pick up on her trace, the frequency of her thoughts. 

Nothing came to her. The only thing she actually managed to do was to grow even sleepier.

That wouldn't work, she decided to take a bath, change her clothes and go out. To have dinner would be a good idea. She could walk up the large avenue just around the corner and maybe get a general idea of what Laura had been up to in that part of the country.

It was half past seven when she went to the reception and gave the key over to the receptionist. Dusk was still an hour away, for it was already Spring and each day became longer.

The entrance of the hotel was made of glass and the subtle light of a sun that was setting filtered through, nonetheless. 

"Is it always like that?" She asked Pedro, the receptionist hiding behind the counter.

"Sorry?" He replied as if he had not heard her.

"The light coming in through this window. Is it always like this?" She explained.

"You should see it in May."

"Why?"

"Because it all turns orange suddenly," he replied, half interested, half immersed in his own thoughts.