The Keeper of the Hotel

How can things go so wrong so quickly? His mind still had difficulties comprehending the enormity of it all.

Just a few years ago Robert was a respectable father of two, husband to a loving wife, proud business owner, pillar of his small community.

Then feck all happened!

Corona came, hotels like his were empty, money dried out, the American wife decided (as soon as she could travel), that she and the children needed to visit her parents in San Fran, and then never came back.

Their huge house was sold, the money divided and then squandered, and now he was a well into middle age, hotel owner living in a small room in the back of his reception desk, at the center of what was now a bad area of town.

Before Covid it had been a nice and clean area, but then, with people isolating and only the unsavory characters roaming about like they were immune to the virus, it quickly became a meeting point for all sorts of people Robert would have never dreamt to interact with.

And so, day by day, he became more and more part of a dark world of dark and aggressive people. He would justify his allegiance telling himself that he needed to keep the hotel afloat, it was his only source of income, his only possession, his only hope.

It is at this point in life where we meet Robert now. He is at his Reception desk trying to make ends meet with a pen on paper, but as much as he stretches his meager takings he has to accept it will not be enough to cover the month’s bills. Nobody warned him life can be this taxing …

‘Hello!’

Robert did not look up, he was so absorbed by his own damnation that he did not hear the voice of the person greeting him, only when she got close enough to cast a shadow on his paper, did he realize somebody was standing in front of him.

Faced with the unusual appearance he was lost for words.

‘Hello? Can you hear?’, the old woman waved a gloved hand in front of his eyes as if she was checking his sight.

‘Yes … I am sorry, can I help you?’, she was for sure lost.

‘Well, yes I hope so …’, and he saw a faint hue of pink under the very white skin.

‘It seems you have the cheapest rooms in the area and I am in need of one … for a longer period of time … I cannot pay much … but I can help around here …’, and she passed her hand through the air over the dusty furniture and not so clean carpets.

Robert almost laughed with disbelief. Didn’t she know where she was?

Didn’t she see the overgrown grass, the bikes lying around on the drive, didn’t she smell the dust and grime, wasn’t she put off by the impossible to ignore decrepitude of the hotel?

‘I am sorry’, he tried to be as nice as he could. ‘I am not sure you want to stay here, it is not a … very safe place …’, it was the best he could come up with.

‘Oh honey, let me make you a cup of tea and tell you all about it.’

Somehow she had spied where the kettle was in the little office behind him and moving a lot faster than he thought possible, in no time she was installed in a chair with a hot cup of tea and her large bags next to her.

Her name was Joanna Barry, and she was recently made homeless by the council house she was living in being taken to be upgraded … apparently …

‘And they did not give you any alternate accommodation? They must have!’, Robert was appalled on her behalf.

‘Well, they did, of course they did, in Dublin! Can you imagine? Me? Who has lived all my life on the West Coast to have to move all the way to Dublin city? I would not survive a month there! Makes no sense! They did it knowing most likely I will not go … so I grabbed my bags, filled them with what I could and at seventy-five I am finding my way in the world again.’ She sounded determined but sad, and looking at her, this little Miss Marple fallen of an old story book in his dark and dirty reality made Robert feel even sorrier for her.

They drank their tea in silence.

‘I have to be honest with you … I am not sure this place here is any better than Dublin… ever since Covid my clients have become quite rough and not nice people … I mean, I would not have my mom live here if I had a choice …’

‘But I don’t have a choice do I?’, she stopped him.

‘Look I know you are a good man, give me a chance. I will earn my keep, I am a very good cleaner, I love bringing things back to their old shining self.’

Robert did not have it in his heart to turn her away. They agreed. She would get a room in the staff quarters (which were empty and damp, but at least she was safe there) not to mix with the so called customers, and she would not come out in the evenings when the lounge was taken over by the usual clientele that treated the place like it was theirs.

The first few weeks, until Joanna got used to the place, everything went ok. Better than expected even. In the mornings she would busy herself with cleaning the lounge, she even went into some of the rooms and aired them emptied the trash. She was indeed very good at cleaning and seemed to enjoy it.

One morning when Robert sat at his Reception desk he was shocked to see that it was also gleaming and smelled nice. Joanna came out with a fresh cup of tea for him. He almost felt bad for the little money he was charging her. He could get used to that. But the day passed too quickly and the mobsters, as he called them, started to gather.

They had their own table in one of the corner of the large room, where they could sit with their back to the wall and have a good view of the entrance. The were led by this large guy everybody seemed to fear.

Robert made himself small behind his desk and let them make themselves at home. It had the appearance of a night like any other until a huge row erupted all of a sudden.

The large guy had grabbed a youngster by the throat and was yelling at him something about food. It had all kicked so suddenly that Robert did not have time to react when Joanna passed him in her house coat and went straight to the fighting duo.

‘What is the meaning of this? Let him go! He is a quarter of you!’, her voice was so surprising that the large guy unsure of what was happening loosened his grip for a moment. Just one moment as, soon after, his eyes were covered again in malice and he was seemingly playing with the youngster.

‘If you are hungry I can cook for you! Just bring me what you want!’, her confidence, and mostly her offer seemed to lead to a change of heart.

‘You know how to cook?’, the large guy seemed suspicious.

Robert was watching the entire scene in disbelief.

‘I will cook you the best meal you ever had!’

He let go of the boy and pulling out a large wad of money gave him four fifty euro notes.

‘Give him a list of what you need for Colcannon and steak. I need to run out for two hours, but I will be back mind you, so you would better deliver you old hag!’

Oh and how did she deliver!

Joanna made the best meal the large guy had had in months. He was instantly hooked and each day following that one came about asking her to make him this or that dish.

The young boy she had saved had become her official aid, and as it turned out he was very apt in the kitchen and transformed to a totally different person.

The knock out news came, when, one evening, the doors of the hotel flung open and a screaming banshee holding a small bay came in.

‘I want to see your floozy, the one that keeps you fed and away from your family!’

The large guy went all red and stuttered in front of, they all understood, was the mother of his child. She shoved the baby into his arms and put her hands on her hips commanding fear if not respect.

Joanna shuffled silently from the kitchen.

‘Oh my God, it is so nice to meet you! He never stops talking about you and how you have made him the happiest man in the world! I only serve food when they have a lot of work to do and it drags on. Why don’t you sit down dear, you look exhausted, let me take care of you! Bring back some shine to those cheeks!’

The banshee melted into Joanna’s care, the large guy, who had never mentioned his family was stunned and grateful, Robert was starting to wonder if maybe there wasn’t something uncanny about Joanna.

Things went even further. The banshee and her bairn started coming to the hotel daily. She would keep Joanna company in the kitchen, the baby was lovingly cared for by all the group, the large guy started to be nicer to everybody, and Robert’s hotel was being caringly done up. It seemed all those gangsters had other skills he never thought they might. One was a plumber, another a painter, they even had a carpenter. Trades they slowly had given up because of this or the other.

Soon, an entire community formed around the hotel and Robert found himself one morning that he had plans. At first he was surprised himself by the ideas swirling in his head, but then he just gave in, it was so nice just to have the slightest glimmer of hope.

Joanna came to join him at the desk bringing a slice of pie. He loved pie, and kindly smiled at her amazed by the difference she had made into all their lives.

‘Are you ok?’, her voice was soft and motherly.

‘I am, are you?’, he was still not used with somebody caring how he was. Loneliness can leave deep marks.

‘I am great! The boys started cleaning the back garden! Wait till you see it! An oasis!…’

And on she went chatting about this, that or the other, while Robert looked around the old hotel in disbelief.

The place still leaked when it rained, the wallpaper still peeled in places and half the chairs did not match, but for the first time in years the building sounded alive.

Cups clinked in the kitchen. Somebody laughed upstairs. A baby cried somewhere down the hall and was instantly shushed by three different voices.

Joanna kept talking happily about flowers for the back garden while while she dreamily sipped from her tea.

And Robert, who had spent years believing life only took things away, realized that sometimes it also returned them.