Jane Unrue - Love Hotel

He said Any numbers on the

I agreed immediately she interrupted.

Our discussion of this subject was confined entirely to the

ENTRANCE

MAIN.

A birdcage hung behind her. By her feet there was a little wild eyed dog that although seated clearly saw himself as runner digger upper. She did not look shy though in her face particularly in the way her eyes appeared to gaze into the eyes of someone something just behind the painter. There was in her bearing true respectability. The room in which she posed a cheerful parlor with a window casting light onto the birdcage bars looked busy although stationary. Crowded. Costly. It was typical of the kinds of portraits meant to celebrate a life of privilege not accompanied by an unappealing temperament. However paired with all this pleasantness there was if one knew where to look mysteriousness. Her dress was gray with mauve the roses giving off a hint of something lurking in the shadows of the folds. Up near her shoulder was a brooch depicting in a silhouette a long haired male or female profile every facet of the brooch edged delicately in the tiniest purple gemstones. On the wall behind the birdcage was a roughly detailed drawing of a child. To see this portrait of a woman was to feel compelled to turn look over one’s own shoulder then to turn again look closely at the child.

Canary in a cage.

The fireplace grate.

I was awakened by a shrill distressing sound. A cry.

Then falling again into a kind of

One night when the moon was full a girl was taken away to a lagoon.

As I was nodding off I

Once again I slipped

Her naked body first was painted red then decorated thoroughly with yellow lines white dots and on her head she wore a sacred ceremonial object fashioned out of sticks.

I heard a crash. Door slamming. Stomps. Another crash.

Some noises are almost impossible to trace much less interpret. I decided to rely on my first understanding of the cry: distressing sound. I could not say if it had come through wall or ceiling

floor . I just looked over at the clock. I waited for another one to come.

The second most important difference she explained

the three of us still standing in the ENTRANCE

MAIN

between this last time and the other times before

While I expected I would feel her hand slip into mine I did not feel it.

was the feeling all throughout not just the house throughout the whole estate as soon as he had left.

The road becoming gloomier

instead of heading to the park he nonetheless advances certain that he took a wrong turn somewhere.

Where?

Impossible for him to understand such unkind limitation total desolation deep despondency heart racing panic tempered by a head to toe exhaustion making a mess of his interior conversation part in pictures partway uttered

swallowed up by breaths that he can almost see

It’s getting cold.

he feels that he is dropping to his knees

What’s doing this?

right on the sidewalk right there on the

No not there!

but he’s not stopping

has continued walking

flying

tipping

feeling of a body shackled by a paralyzing arm or neck injection lying motionless enclosed within a body that cannot stop moving

Has to get there.

walking

Has to go.

The night we met we all went back to their estate. It was an invitation I accepted gladly even though I have a policy against accepting rides when I am working.

It was long. They had been talkative at first but things got quiet as the way grew darker sending us into something far more rural

You have questions?

deeper.

When I first began to see the narrowing of his eyes in

Is he falling

Is this whole car falling

glimpses of the rearview mirror I began to dare myself to take increasingly longer looks into the mirror

disappearing eyes

I

Am I going down or is it is it possible that I am actually going

Yes my dear I will endeavor to tell you everything I know.

It was the turn onto a gravel road that woke me up.

We entered through the gate continuing on the gravel drive until we parked.

I nearly could remember something someone said.

We got out stood there looking. Much too dark to see their home with any kind of clarity but I could feel that it was massive. I could sense the deep impression of despondency was lessening within me. At the same time I confirmed a certain blackness swelling from inside. I looked back at the car then followed them into what he called the ENTRANCE

NOT THE MAIN ONE.

Turning back to look again I thought I saw a figure seated in the backseat of that car.

Impossible.

Impossible I told myself.

He said You first .

We started up the STAIRCASE

MAIN.

Then came the other cry.

The girl who had been decorated held a sharpened bone in each one of her hands.

Another crash. Wind hitting at the window .

I looked at the clock got out of bed turned on the floor lamp put my coat on boots stepped out into the hallway when a man was passing by.

I wanted so to turn look at the man

Don’t look at him.

but I did not as I was certain of his turning looking back at me.

I heard him exiting into a room at the other end of the hall

the high ceilinged corridor only barely lit by sconces two of which were out.

Listening briefly I

I then was under the impression that he was a gray man rigid walker scented pipe tobacco peppermints cologne.

I listened at the

404

Then

403

At last with arms extended up bones glowing in the moonlight she who had been painted yellow white and red began to sing.

The stonework he explained was laid by local masons. Quarried locally he said . A boat was bought to carry it down the

We will take you there she interrupted just as soon as

Yes we will he said.

It was a shimmering late fall afternoon when we began our walk back to the mansion from the CORNER

SOUTHMOST of the property where once a tiny house had stood. We crossed a sweeping wide expanse of land a type of beauty I had never before

But yet I felt so desperately familiar to the point of gnawing trepidation with the things that I was seeing as if I had been anticipating every glimpse each word all happenings. As we walked northward toward the mansion save occasionally inserted bits of information about the mansion the estate our conversation was devoted to the planning of a picnic by the river. It was paradise. A side effect however was that this short walk would plant in me mysteriously concentrated notions of regret spun round by uncontrolled anxiety for what was on its way.

Aboard the train within that little country cottage time slowed time leaped forward tailing back anticipation dread in tandem working to postpone to speed the heartbreaking eventuality in the form of two dark figures standing faceless in the doorway backlit by a sunset fully ablaze.

Awakened yet again I got out of the bed .

This really is too much I told myself.

You might not turn up anything she had told me with an ambivalence that showed quite plainly in her face as if an invisible line protected the upper fearing portion from the hoping part below. He had no such divisions. If you see anything that makes you nervous he insisted call us.

I put on my coat my boots picked up my key went out into the hallway just in time to see a man emerging from the elevator. It was dark down there.