Another boring night for Erik working as a night portier at his father's hotel ''Park Hotel i Linköping''. The silence is broken by the first wave of happy or drunk or both people swarming down to the city's traveling centrum to either get a bus or a train to return home. The loud people outside is joined by two miscontent customers inside. The first of them starts to complain about the noise and Erik listens with half an ear as he studies a fly circling around the ceiling lamp. Both the fly and the guest buzz in his ears. One of Erik's regular customer's in his side business of selling stimulantia (to get money for his own amphetamine and other stuff to keep him awake) enters the door with his body guard hanging around. This regular are a quite known rock star named Vincent Warmer. Used as he is to the business he simple takes a place at the end of the line fo two customers and wait. The body guard gives Erik a glance, something like I-know-you're-OK-but-know-that-I-know-how-to-handle-trouble.
The guest falls silent for a moment as he inhales to sharpley ask Erik if he's listening and thereby recalls Erik's attention to him. ''Yes, yes, of course I'm listening'' Erik says. ''But what do you want me to do about it?'' he asks the customer. The customer stops surprised as he gets by this ignorent answer. Erik can hear the rock star, in his outfit of black clothes and silver studs, hum along some rhyme. A broken away phrase reaches Erik ''Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me'', something about how they come there again with their floppy shoes and funny hair. Guest number two, standing close to the rock star squirms and looks uncomforatable with this obvious high flying drug user standing behind her. Since the first customer don't take command of the conversation again Erik leans to the side and ask customer number two if he can help her with something. ''Yes!'' says the customer, satisfied to focus on Erik instead of the drug addict behind her. ''It's a damn noise outside'' she says continuing customer number one's complaints. ''Ah, yes it is'' answers Erik ''It's students during the first freshman period, nolle-P. This how it is like in a University city'' he says laconically like Leonidas himself. Customer number two almost shuts up but then follows up by requiring Erik to not charge full payment for the room. ''You can't have me pay full for this room'' she says. ''As a matter of fact, i can'' Erik answers. The customer start to look like she needs to kill someone but falls silent.
As the customers again are silent new phrases from the humming rock star reach Erik ''Can't go to sleep ... caffeine, caffeine ... a little speed is what I need''. ''OK'', Erik says, ''You can have a pair of ear plugs both of you. It's on the house.'' He gives them a pair each with ''Park Hotel'' printed on the plastic wrapping. He sits down and look down on his desk trying to signal that the conversation is over and that they can either take the ear plugs or leave them. The guests on their hand first of all must haul back their jaws from where they dropped them on the floor. The rock star still hums on weird songs. Now it's something about something that lives under his bed and that ate his cat. Apparently only a paw, the tail and a ear was left. Erik thinks of the monster being under the bed of one of the customers. One of the customers stomps away like only certain very discontent induviduals can do while the other one leans over Erik's desk and shouts at him ''Shape up!''
Slightly flying on his own drugs Erik looks up with a face like if-you-don't-behave-I'm-gonna-have-to-call-someone. The customer slows down a little. ''OK'' Erik says again ''You can have two packages''. As Erik reach for a second package the customer grabs the ear plugs and tells Erik that this was the last time he slept here and everybody's gonna hear about this. The customer stomps up the stairs, probably awakening a few other customers and Erik for a short moment fear that there will be another round of ''It's a damn noise here tonight''.
Erik looks up to his regular customer for which he actually cares some and rolls his eyes. The rock star shrugs his shoulders and gives an expression of you-should-only-know-what-you-can-meet-in-my-business. Vincent hands over an envelope with a fake address as if he were leaving a message for someone at the hotel. Erik takes it and hands over one of the prepared tea bags. As this happens Erik realises that the man in the lobby, Erik can't say when he arrived, is watching him or both of them. He also has some big object under the left side of his suit. He kind of looks like a under cover policeman. Actually, Erik realises, it is an under cover policeman. It's like a million signs are telling him that the man that has been watching them for a while is actually an undercover cop. Erik freezes at the surprise, the rock star looks at him and gets that something's wrong and ask ''Are you sure that there were no message back to me?'', trying to do something normal. Erik mumbles about something and tries to get hold of the tea bag lying in the open between Erik and Vincent.
Vincent's body guard approaches and Erik mysteriously realises that he is very worried. Erik slows down and lets go of the tea bag, finding it quite stupid to give the body guard any reason to think he's trying to fool anyone. The body guard walks towards them so he places him between the tea bag and the undercover cop. As he approces them he whispers ''Pigs. Outside.''. The door to the lobby opens and two policemen in uniform enters and walks over to the desk. Erik's stomach starts to turn around and Vincent and his body guard doesn't look at ease either but they have at least got rid of the manoey and never taken or touched the drugs. Somethings is gonna come up from Erik's stomach, almost like flies, big flies. Vincent and his body guard steps aside as the policemen come up to the desk.
''Good evening'' says the older one of them, ''We're going to do a search at the hotel and hope you don't have any objections''. Erik tries to contain the flies inside him but they press on and his mouth opens and the flies swarm out towards the policeman who sweeps with his hand against the flies. Erik backs away at panic and wants to find somewhere to disappear. The other policeman tap the communication radio and calls a code into it. More flies are swarming inside Erik and he desparately search for the door that's not there to flee through but suddenly there are a door. Erik opens the door and steps in and somebody steps after and bumbs into Erik. Erik, surprised, steps aside to let somebody in, it's the rock star. Erik closes the door and looks around.
No comments:
Post a Comment