City Lights

Room Service

City Lights—Room Service

Want to talk?

A man in a raincoat walked into a motel.

The cost for rooms was laid out on a small sign. I chose the cheapest one; I just needed one night's sleep. That's all. It was an old and run down but not too shabby for Manila. At the lobby I met some old men sitting on plastic chairs ignoring me. At the desk another old man asked me my room.

I was showed my room and flicked on the tv—see what the time was. Past eleven. I needed sleep badly I had a lot of trouble today and I needed to doze off. I took a shower and washed off the filth of toady's work

Opposite the bed hung an amateur looking painting of a Black and orange cat walking along a dirty alley. The Tv hung in a corner next to the painting.

On the table next to the bed sat a phone in front of a room service menu.

"Nellie Santos—happy to serve you. Press 0 for room service", was printed on a pamphlet under the phone.

I wasn't hungry but I did want room service.

I dialed '0'.

"Hello.", I said, reclining on the bed post.

A young woman answered me kind of shyly.

"Room Service. I'm Nellie, your server."

I asked her for some hot lemon tea and a sandwich. I heard some sounds of rustling around with papers.

"Must get busy sometimes", I said.

I could hear her sort of chuckle behind the phone before she answered," Yeah, I know. What about you? I saw you on the way up, kind of tired looking."

"Are employees allowed to go on like this to--?"

"It's okay!", she interrupted. "It gets lonely here just by myself."

"I would expect the most productive times to be past nine or so."

"If you haven't noticed, this place can only keep one or two people at this job at a time."

"A'right. Say, when's my tea coming 'round?"

"I already sent for the kitchen. How's the movie?"

"Movie?"

"You're watching Pedro Penduko, right?"

She was right; I hadn't noticed it come on.

"Sorry, I just have it on, here at the office", she said and sort of whimpered.

And with that I put the phone down, flicked the tv off, and tried to doze off. I kept the lights; I'm afraid of the dark. I try to sleep

Chapter 2

It's midnight. I haven't gotten any sleep. It's been Hard enough trying to fall asleep without my hard day's work. Even after this afternoon I'm still not sleeping. Maybe I can wear myself out.

"Hello?"

"Room Service!"

"Hey, uh. I still haven't had that tea yet."

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Never mind that. Do you want to talk?"

"Oh, uh..."

It's okay if you—

Yes I want to.

Well you start.

No... there's nothing to speak about in my life.

No that's not true.

Yes it is.

All I do is day in, day out do all this and for what? It's kind of pointless.

Yeah I can relate. This job must be hell on you

I meant life, actually.

Huh?

It's just kind of pointless you know. We go out and do our jobs, get paid, and repeat. What's the point?

Well... You know it's not so bad if you have someone to spend your time with.

I don't suppose you would know about that.

You know, you just haven't met the right person. I felt that way until I met the person who was my girlfriend.

Was?

Did I say that? I meant—

No, It's fine. Tell me about her.

She's kind of like you, you know. She always listened. Paid attention.

Then Why did you kill her?

Wait what did she say?

"What are you talking about?"

"I saw you wet when you came in. I saw you wash it off in the shower. The blood"

How could she have seen anything in... I investigated the bathroom and couldn't find cameras, peepholes, or anything.

"You don't look bad, you know? Even when covered with a hard night's work. And you can stop looking anyhow. There's nothing in there."

She went on.

"Why did you do it? Just want to make conversation". She said that so sincerely and yet.

"She was hurting me, alright? I couldn't take it from her anymore."

"That's not quite true you know."

"You don't know me!"

I could feel her smile from the other end.

"I don't. But I'm still right."

"She wanted to leave me. She wanted to leave this worthless waste and I couldn't I couldn't."

"Take the thought of her happy without you."

She giggled. And said, now angrily,

"What kind of a loser would go and kill his girl to keep her from leaving him and try to get busy with another woman at a motel? You're pathetic." There was extra stress on that last word.

"She didn't do anything wrong... I..."

Silence.

"Sorry. I just remembered I'm going to bring up your tea. The staff must be lazy now. "She was not playing with me.

I froze.

I checked the door to see if it was locked and breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I heard knocking...

And I heard banging.

She wasn't talking with me.

It got louder and louder. I could see the hinges on the doors creaking as it got faster and faster. She was coming in...

I checked the window.

Too small. Can't run.

Wouldn't have done me any help anyway. I was two floors up.

She was banging faster and faster and ... stopped.

I stayed awake the whole rest of the night. I had to.

Chapter 3

I snuck past the offices and took the fire escape down. I just had to run and I'd never.

"'Gandang Umaga!", said the old man by the desk. He was alone no one was with him and he was the only one there for hours it seemed.

I asked him why they couldn't give me a wake-up call then. I found myself safe enough then to crack a joke. She'd be gone and I could go.

He told me he made a mistake; that the room wasn't supposed to be available. I asked him, "Anything wrong with the room?"

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

"No, phone's out of service. Been like that for weeks can't find someone to fix it."