Jane Unrue - Love Hotel

You see the night we met they took me back to their estate. To our place as he called it. Then Our generous conspicuously simple main roof used as dominating background to a sequence of assorted minor themes . I freshened up went down the STAIRS turned left passed three closed doors. They got up from their heavy leather chairs as soon as I appeared within the doorway to the STUDY. On the wall above the fireplace above a little lacquered box that sat off center on the mantel near an oval mirror on a pewter stand there hung a photographically realistic painting of a house. As viewed through open gates it was a small but sumptuous symmetrically arranged stone manor with a front façade encrusted with carved flowers complemented by stone pots that lined the bottom edge containing living flowers of the same variety as the carved ones.

That’s another one of his he said.

A black front door. Bright doorknob. Knocker. Disc shaped window up above the knocker. Those same flowers set like handprints in the glass.

Then two weeks later when I turned around at work to see them in their usual spot I felt that something I had been so desperate for in order to survive had been administered to my soul. I also felt that I had known that this would be the night although this sense of knowing did not lessen my relief at seeing them. That night (Night Two) my shift completed we went back to their estate. When we arrived they led me to the DRAWING ROOM where following champagne with several chunks of chocolate almond bark the invitation came to stay the night. Although at first I hesitated

Don’t do anything to show premeditation.

I accepted. When they led me up to where the bedrooms were she opened up the door into the pretty lemon sitting room connected to a bathroom. She said Since you are familiar with it you can stay in here. She opened up another door to show me that connected to the sitting room there was a pale orange rose pink bedroom that I had not seen the last time. She said You’ll find everything you need in there . So after freshening up I joined them briefly in the STUDY. Next we went to the VERANDAH where he pointed to a padded chair said Please. She said Sit down . He said I’ll get some wine. She said she had a story to tell me.

After that I did not see them for three weeks.

BETWEEN THE WEEKS my sleeping went uninterrupted although in the dreamlike spaces of my waking life when I was not examining the tunnel with the candle I began to see collected pictures fused together into overlays that covered up the real life version of the world. Blank surfaces were most susceptible. Some not blank surfaces turned blank when I had looked at them which made them ready to be filled with pictures. IN THESE WEEKS my sleep began to change as well. Although as soon as I had met them all my sleeping troubles disappeared

no waking walking to that photograph at which I listened for the wheezing coughing sighing trapped behind the glass

I here began to find that in the morning I would wake up crying as though having suddenly recalled a tragedy that seamless sleep had temporarily screened out. In tears my body trembling in my bed I looked around the room. Upon the surfaces the objects all the fabrics even on the walls I made out traces of a presence. None of the details. Just the loss.

INSIDE OF THOSE THREE WEEKS I had decided that if given the chance to do it I would stay the weekend although so as not to give the wrong impression

Do not let them think you’re overeager.

So I told myself that I would not say yes immediately. The night they showed up in their usual spot my heart skipped beats inside my body that was strangely enough relaxed. I felt like lying down. I also had a boundless energy to be expended. When my shift was done we left together. We were getting in the car when she requested that I stay the weekend. How she asked it sealed my certainty about the wisdom in accepting. Doubtless I was entering into something that had weathered generations. Stabilized by rules of etiquette refined by deep felt understandings of propriety of decency of wholesomeness this shape was fixed then fortified against the changing times by surface over surface of the way that things had always been laid down in alternation with the way that things should always be. He never joined us in the conversation about the weekend but as soon as I accepted he said Great. They drove me to my building waiting in the car while I went in to gather everything that I would need from my apartment.

It was very late when I awakened when we turned onto the gravel road on their estate. We all went straight upstairs. This room was different from the last room. This new room was situated farther down the hall beyond a little antique bookcase then around the corner where beside the door there was an antique lyre back chair that clearly was not meant for sitting on. I went to bed immediately. My sleeping was not interrupted. Following that I did not see them for a month.

She does not tremble although recently she finds herself entirely overcome by feelings

more like waves

of desolation

patterns

of anticipation.

Waiting for she knows not what she takes her clothes off.

Opens up her case.

Selects the things that she will need.

Takes out a candle.

Lights it.

I stepped through the doorway to the stately hall of statues Roman Greek an elevated grand arrangement of cracked heroes

chipped

their bodies turned in different directions

heads

the ones that had them

angled differently

the faces pointed at a variety of spots well in the distance of that limited although eternally unknowable majestic city. Their gaze was collective

fixed as by coordinated effort on a set of points beyond those parchment tinted walls. Effect of having eyeholes rather than real eyes I told myself. Their expressions possessing vacancy as well as depth each searing cold stone look was trained upon a destination far too distant formless timeless for the living seeing person even to envisage.

My first night in that hotel

If I could clarify

If I could just

I woke up put my coat on boots went out into the hallway listened

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but I heard nothing save the distant rumble of the ice machine. I wondered what would bring a person to a place like this.

There’s something going on in there I told myself. The elevator seemingly modern but so noisy kicking into motion sent me hurrying back into my

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clarify if I

That night although I

On that night it’s true I nodded off almost immediately. But later on I did wake up. I had a hard time pulling

Once awakened

drink of water

snacks

I could not get to sleep again. My gaze was totally unwilling to abandon that one portion of the ceiling where strange sinewy reflections had begun emerging from the areas closest to the Chinese chandelier.

This final question concerning what they knew

did not

But are you absolutely certain that they

to be asked by him as a predicted answer to the questions asked by me for

Was there

Was there

had inspired in me not just contemplation. I was getting nervous. Feeling hungry too.

I got up out of bed put on my coat my boots then

key

I stepped into the hallway listening

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but hearing nothing I went back into my

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water

snacks

I closed my eyes but still I saw those shimmering squiggling shapes. They seemed to spill out from the center of my mind.

Regardless of his current state or his location he began to find himself transported back into that closet looking down upon the little seamstress down below.