Good Drugs

Run the Night

The fire is in my lungs.

It's so hot the fans are spurring and wheezing from exhaustion while sweat drips down my eyelids.

Today's heat wave moves like slow currents of pulsing rays straight from the long tentacles of the sun. As the degrees on the thermostat slowly inch up, a slow madness takes over the empty wasteland of my desert town.

The ravenous heat sucks our souls with boredom like a monotonous soliloquy that churns at the same pace the earth moves.

"Cleo!" a light-hearted voice called out. The chimes on the door jingled softly as feet paced in and out of the Dretre Motel.

"Coming!" I replied, wiping the nape of my neck with a cool towel.

"We have a few guests coming in tomorrow, did you clean all the rooms?" Dena asked.

Her warm smile seemed to melt in a crooked way, but then I realized it was just the heat wave blurring my vision.

I bit my lip, while I tried to recall how much of my job I had done.

Dena smiled, her southern charms are like your favorite batch of cookies always welcoming and delicious. Not to mention her emerald eyes that twinkle like moss under a luminescent tide. She's not only my favorite boss, but a second mother to me.

Dena sighed, "Cleo, please focus, you know how important visitors are!" she emphasized.

New visitors were a rarity in our little abandoned tumbleweed town. Just like in old Western movies, we had a small, underdeveloped community, cactuses, and the occasional power outage. After years of waiting, we finally had our first drive-in and one-stop supermarket.

So yes visitors were a big attraction in a place of humble means.

"I'll go clean the rooms," I promised.

Dena winked as she turned back to the paperwork she had been collecting on her desk.

I walked hesitantly up the long staircase. The windows of each room in the motel were aligned in a symmetrical row as curious faces peeped out behind the curtains, and familiar smiles acknowledged me.

I groaned, grabbing my cart with the cleaning supplies. It's not that I hated my life, but I felt like I was meant for more. Once upon a time, I was miles away chasing my dream of being an actress in a liberal Arts College. Yet, somehow like a U-turn, I found myself back in the place I promised I'd never return to.

My mom had serious spinal injuries after a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down.

And just like that my whole world was upside down. I dropped out of college shortly after to help my mother recover, and quite frankly, I couldn't afford the expense of my dreams.

Dena was kind enough to let us stay in one of the motel rooms until we somehow could find a way to bury our heads out of financial debt, and in return, I did janitorial duties and occasional office work.

We had gotten into a smooth pace, but the thought lingered like a shadow, "How could I have it all one moment and the next it was gone?"

I put my pink hair into a ponytail and banged on room 210, "Cleaning service coming in!" I announced.

I walked quietly into the room, surveying the unmade bed, dirty dishes piled up on the dresser, and the overall stench of old clothes and cigarettes.

I put on my gloves ready to work.

Time flew and eventually, I found my task complete.

I looked around at the room satisfied with the fresh smell of clean towels, linens, and an over-bleached bathroom. I had done my best work and because of that, I was swimming in sweat. I didn't have to raise my arms to know my armpits were soaking.