Inn and Out

INN and OUT
A Young Boy’s Fantasy Brought To A Darker Light

When I was a young boy around the age of seven, I worked with my father run a small Inn just outside of the city. My father had inherited the old building from his father who built it along with his own father when he was a boy. Naturally, one day I would be taking over. The place was always busy. Businessmen and vactioners would always be coming and going. I usually helped the maids clean up the rooms and sometimes my father would let me sit at the front desk.

I was very young, yet very mature for my age. People found it amusing to see a cute little boy like myself sitting behind the big desk. It was fun alot of the time. I liked my father. It was just me and him since my mother left town and I never had any brothers or sister, but that was fine with me. We had a whole apartment on the second floor of the Inn all to ourselves.

Of all my childhood, one night stands out above all others, and is largely responsible for the kind of man I turned into. It was almost four o’clock in the morning and I was fast asleep. I awoke suddently with my father’s hand gripping my shoulder and shaking frantically.

“Norman,” His voice was shaky, “Norman, wake up.”

I got up quickly, I was now wide awake and very worried.

“I have an emergency to tend to,” he explained, “I have to do something and the phone lines are down, I need you to man the front desk for me. I won’t be more than half an hour.”

I crawled out of bed and asked him what had happened. He told me not worry about it and reminded me again that he wouldn’t be long. But of course I knew that if he was planning on driving anywhere on this night it would take him a very long time. The phone lines had went down in the snow storm that we were having. It was the worst storm I’ve ever seen and I knew that it must have been a huge emergency if my father was risking driving it in the middle of the night.

I came downstair with him and sat down at the desk. He bundled up in warm clothing and reminded me for the third time that he’d be back as soon as he could. I watched his headlights disappear outside into the heavy snowfall. I sat there for a minute longer before deciding that nobody would be arriving in the middle of the night during a snowstorm, and even if they did, they could ring the bell and I would hear it. So I left my post.

I didn’t really have anything to do. All the guests were fast asleep and none of the other employee’s would be arriving yet, so I decided that I would just wander the halls for a while.

It was on the second floor that I found a door that was open just a crack, with a yellow glow of light from the lamp escaping into the hall. As I passed by I saw a woman alone and asleep on the bed. The Inn had strict rules about leaving the lights on all night long like that, it would ruin our electric bill! So I felt it my duty to wake her up and inform her of this.

“Ma’am,” I called to her, “Ma’am, you’ll have to turn out your light.”

She didn’t move. She was sleeping like a log. So I pushed the door open and walked further into her room.

“Ma’am, your light.” She continued to sleep peacefully and I decided that I would have to turn out the light myself.

I crossed the room and knelt down by the bedside table to switch off the light.