The Inn Keeper

The driver and leader of the gang was a tall, muscular build jock type with long blond hair. The hair looked unwashed and unkempt. The clothing on his body was baggy and singular colored. His jaw was big. He had big blue eyes. Without any elegance, he pushed into the lobby. His boots were big. Because they were untied the opened up wide. He walked with a big swagger to avoid tripping over them. He smashed his hands onto the reception desk.

"Harry's the name, honey," he said. "On the ride up, we've been playing this game of saying how we lost our virginity. How did you lose yours?"

Harry was standing big with his XXL sized winter jacket wide open. His face seemed twice the size of Rachel. Rachel let out a perplexed "err."

"Hey, she's Indian. They do arranged marriage stuff over there. She doesn't have a dot on her forehead. So, she's probably not married," said the mid-twenty guy next to Harry. The other guy was 5' 5". He was skinny. His face had detailed features. His hair was black and neatly cut.

"I have done it," protested Rachel. "I've gone to college. I was twenty years old. Another student and I were in the dorm. He kissed me. Then he took his clothes off. His penis had a bent in it. He put it into my mouth. And then you know how it goes. He was very gentle and soft. He made me many compliments."

"Yeah, I was fourteen," said Harry as if he were challenging here. "I was on the hockey team. This one tart Betty decided to fuck the whole team. When it was my turn, I fucked her real good. After five minutes, she went to the next guy. I'm proud to say that I lasted longer than that."

"I don't know if it counts if you don't get to completion," said the other guy derisively.

Harry grabbed the key cards out of Rachel's hand. He also reached over the counter to take two bundles of kindling. "I know my way around." And he turned to leave the lobby.

"How many guests will you have in the cabin," cried Rachel after him.

"Eight or ten! We'll see who shows up," replied Harry without turning around.

"There is an extra charge for additional people," called Rachel. The automatic door had already swiped shut. She made a note in the account.

The next car was a small whoopty of a car. Six girls piled out of the car. They were clearly college aged. While the two leaders of the group were checking in with Rachel, Rachel could hear the three girls in the background talking about her:

"Have you seen her arms? There are so many hairs on it. She's like a bear."

"I'll call her black bear for the duration of our stay."

"She didn't get the memo about the existence of makeup yet. Is this some kind of Neanderthal that they pulled out of a rural village in India with no running water?"

Rachel smiled with her lips, while her face was struggling to disassociate from the painful feeling in her gut, the feeling of being embarrassed and outcast, the feeling of not fitting in. She was the stranger among the Canadian people. Every visit to the grocery store told her that, when she had to choose among food that she hadn't eaten back home. She had been brave to take every challenge as it came. Though, hearing those words was like a dagger twisting in her heart telling her that she had utterly failed. All her efforts of making a living here had been a joke.

"I wish you a wonderful stay," Rachel concluded her thoughts about her life looking at the girls with makeup and trendy clothing. "That's a lovely earring," added Rachel. She pointed at the big golden earring that was the letter 'G' for gangstress.

"Oh, that's so last year. I didn't want to wear my nice stuff on the ride. Here, you can have it," said the lead girl. She lifted the golden G out of the hole in her ear and put it down at the counter. Rachel didn't know if she should feel hurt for having been given something that was deemed too old fashioned to wear or gracious for a gift. The girl turned to walk away.

"Thank you," called Rachel after her.

For a long time, she was staring at the golden G on the front desk. On one hand, it was the closest that she had gotten to trendy. She had seen such jewelry in music videos on YouTube. At the same time, she feared that she was wearing something that people didn't like anymore. It was one thing to be with middle aged and old people, who were courteous. It was another thing to meet young people her age to realize where she fit into the social hierarchy, very low.

Patrick stepped out of the office. "Don't let it get to you," and he added jokingly, "little G."

After thinking for a while to form the right pep speech, he explained, "In our business, there are sad and insecure guests. We may find their behavior deplorable. Instead look at it as an opportunity. Every other hotel receptionist wants to lecture them. And they know that. Be friendly and gracious to the wild beast. If they realize that they are accepted here, they'll keep coming back and will be loyal guests. That girl is in college. She probably makes no money or perhaps 30 dollars at a fast food chain. She has nothing going for her, except her youthful looks and attitude. She doesn't have your world experience of having lived in two cultures. She doesn't have your completed college education. She doesn't have your career. Let her bark and pretend to be a big deal."

"And a little attitude in your attire wouldn't hurt. We do get a lot of young people. They like that kind of style. I think Lil' Kim was wearing that in one of her music videos." With that Patrick disappeared back into his office.

The rest of the evening was too busy to think more about it. Cars kept coming in faster than she could process the check-ins. There was often a line of one or two people. She pointed every incoming guest to self-serve a cup of tea from the little desk that she had prepared. People liked the welcome and sat down on the couches to chat. Rachel loved the excited spirit that the newcomers brought as they were looking forward to their time off and winter adventures. Wintertime is playtime after all.

Harry and his entourage came running into the lobby. They were wearing winter boots, board shorts, and big winter heads, nothing else. Their bare skin was exposed. They stormed through the lobby and out to the hot pool. They threw the clothes on the ground and jumped in. The two old ladies that were in the pool were a bit ruffled. They left a few minutes after listening to the boisterous sounds of the young guys. They weren't even words. Harry was hollering like a wolf. His sidekick was trying to sound like a hyena. Someone balanced a can of beer on his forehead that ended up spilling into the hot pool.

While Rachel kept processing more arrivals, the girls from the woopty arrived. They had white hotel towels wrapped around their bodies. Otherwise, they were bare spare for their shoes. Once they arrived at the pool, they dropped the towels and revealed tropical island ready beach bikinis and trim figures. One had a green bikini that showed plenty of her boob. Another had a pink Roxy bikini bottom that showed plenty at the side of her butt, because the side cut was running high.

At first both groups occupied one side of the pool with a no-man's land in between. Backs were shown to the other side. Yet, quick, coy glances showed a secretive, yet keen interest in the other side. And then a big holler from Harry turned the girls around. "Hey, I was going to wear the exact same thing." And he pointed at one of the girls in the bikini. He had big board trunks that went all the way to his knees. His pecs were big slabs of muscle. His belly wasn't the most contoured, yet still strong.

The girls were so nervous that they ignored the joke and went straight to a conversational question. "Where are you guys from?" Then the conversation lowered to a more conversation tone. Rachel could only hear the occasional hollering and laughing. Beer cans were passed around. Apparently a feature of board pants is that they fit at least four fully sized beer cans and come with a bottle opener.

Rachel kept sneaking looks out at the pool, while she talked with newcomers. When the night was late, newcomers had this hurried look on their face from a long day and an urge to crash in a clean bed. The party outside got increasingly drunk. The clean separation lines between the groups had melted. Girls were sitting on laps. Guys were dunking girl heads under water. They would come up all giggly and touched for a guy taking interest in them. The girls were like kittens who love being toyed with and teased to snap with their claws.

They eventually started doing a game with a spinning plastic bottle. They'd spin the bottle in the water. It didn't spin real well. However, the whole point was to point it at someone, who would explode into giggles and anticipation. It was hard to see what the person had to do, because everyone huddled around that person to see closer. Sometimes, Rachel lost her composure and was craning her neck to see better, while she was still in mid conversation.

The first time, she saw what happened was when a girl run around the pool bare chested. A guy was holding her top. Her boobs were bouncing wildly as if they were flying past her head. Her fists were raised high. She was running so eagerly. On the turn around the stairs, she slipped sideways. Her body was instantly on the ground. The pool people were roaring with laughter. She ruffled herself up. The guy at the reception desk had heard the commotion and was staring at her. She quickly jumped back into the pool and snatched her top out of his hand. A wave of high fives came her way.

Rachel was antsy to finish her current check-in. Her current check-in was very distracted by glances over his shoulder to see the pool. And then Rachel's fear happened. A girl raised a pair of board trunks high into the air. She held them by both ends of the top to stretch it out real wide. The board shorts were twice as wide as her. Then, she tossed them to one of her friends. The girls kept tossing the board shorts amongst each other. A guy was trying to chase after them. However, the water had too much resistance to catchup with the shorts quickly flying through the air. The girls giggled. The guys started chanting.

The guy's face got white. He got mad. His face eased. He grabbed the handrail to get out of the pool. There his white naked butt was running through the winter land. He was in full view of the people sitting on the couch drinking tea. His dong was flying wild left and right until it settled to flinging around in a circle like a helicopter. He was circumcised. His balls were shaven. He was a short stubby kind of guy. His butt cheeks twitched during the spurt. His long naked legs stretched out. He dove back into the pool. The leader girl handed him his shorts back. She was holding them pinched between her index and thumb finger as if there were something disgusting about them. She didn't want to reveal herself as a slut too much by liking his pants or nudity.

"Would you excuse me for a moment," she told the distracted guy in front of her. She stormed out with angry, swift steps. She opened the glass door to the hot pool patio. The freezing air didn't face her. She was on a mission. A guy was pouring beer out of a can into the mouth of a girl, who had her head leaning back. The beer ran over her mouth and into the water.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you of the hotel rule for proper attire at the pool," Rachel announced.

"Is that bitch from the office talking to us," asked one girl. That was the only notice she got. The raucous continued as if she wasn't there.

"Guys, you have to keep your clothes on. There are other guests," she yelled louder.

"Allright," hollered a drunk guy back. "Just go back to your office."

"Look there are basic rules of modesty," she tried again.

"Here, here, now we'll learn about rules of modesty," mocked one of the girls.

"How about you'll show us your tits, and we'll keep ours covered," hollered another drunk girl to an applause of giggles.

"Yeah, show us your tits, and we'll behave," hollered one of the guys.

"I want you, valued guests, to have a wonderful stay. Could you keep your clothes on?" Rachel tried again. She was straining to get her point across without offending the guests. The guys and girls in the pool were clearly in party mood. The booze had loosened them up. They were oozing sexiness with the wet chests. Smiles and happiness was in their faces. Something was gnawing on her. She felt an emotional pull. She felt attracted to the male bodies. She felt jealous of the attention the females were getting. It was a very unformed kind of emotion inside of her, because she wasn't used to experiencing such a temptation from her culture. It was more that seeing the naked limps and feeling the atmosphere woke something up in her that was deeply buried during her study time.

Everything had been so orderly, when she studied. She would focus on the words in front of her. They had meaning. She would file the meaning. Then she would move on to the next words. Here she felt longing to be part of the group. She felt hurtful rejection for not being part of it. She felt painful powerlessness for not getting her point across. She felt desperation about failing in front of Patrick, who was surely watching her. All of those things bubbled around in her and clouded her rational thinking. Tears were nearing her eyes. Lusty smiles were twitching in the corner of her lips. Her face had waves of panic running over it.

"Pool is closed for tonight. Keep your clothes on tomorrow," said Rachel sternly. She turned around to get behind the base of the pool. She got her big key chain out of the pant pocket. She turned the key. The bubbles in the pool faded out. She walked back inside. She returned to her customer to check him in. The party people in the pool realized that the pool was getting slowly colder.

When they were confronted with having to deal with the cooling condition, they decided in their inebriated mood to make a protest march. They dried up outside of the pool in the cold. Then, they stripped their board shorts and bikini tops to go single file through the lobby in protest. The girls kept their bikini bottoms on, because that would have been slutty. One of the girls paused to face Rachel for a moment. The girl cradled her boobs and shook them, "You are a big meany and don't know what fun is! Go back to your buzz kill country." One of the guys swatted the other guy on the bare butt cheek.

Everyone in the lobby, including Rachel and Patrick, watched the parade coming through. She watched the naked male bodies. They were all in good shape from snowboarding and other physical activities. The boobs of the girls had such varied shapes: Really tiny, barely there; round as a ball ready to bounce; big and sagging like a cow. Rachel had seen as many penises that night as she had seen her whole life. Seeing their shape and how they bounced was educational. She had them only seen standing upright. She hadn't seen them in their casualness hanging between the thighs. She hadn't seen how small penises can shrivel.

Once the parade hit the outside away from the light cone of the lobby, they all started running like mad, because the air was freezing cold. Patrick apologized to everyone and handed out little good night baskets with cookies to make up for the unpleasant experience. Looking at the guys, in the room, they weren't actually that mad. They were rather red faced and eager to hush comments to their friends. It was Rachel's face that was throbbing for a whole hour after the incident.

When her shift was finally over, she was ready to get to her room down in the city and leave it all behind. A hand grabbed her shoulder with soft force, yet a very clear intention. "Rachel, can I see you in my office," said the voice of Patrick in that ever smooth hotel service voice. The melodic resonance from his chest lulled her into emotional docility. Yet a scream deep inside of her head screamed panic: "Don't let the warm demeanor make you feel safe! A private chat in the office is always trouble. Am I going to get fired? I don't have any savings. This job is the only thing that keeps paying the little room down in the city. It's way cold with ice and snow. I can't live in the street."

Patrick closed the office door behind them. "Have a seat," he invited her cordially to sit on his desk swivel chair. She glanced out of the window. The view into the lobby was darkened by the one-way-mirror glass. There were four computer screens on the U-shaped desk. The phone was a giant board of a hundred buttons. Randomly, she kept staring at the red fire extinguisher in the corner. There was something oddly pleasing about it. Perhaps, it was her mental escape hatch, like a fire happening now would save her from the talk. Or, the emergency equipment resonated with her inner mood.

"Yes, Patrick, what is it?"

"Rachel, let's talk about the situation at the hot pool. First, when you went out there. There is nothing anyone could have done. Those were drunk, belligerent guests who had formed a pack mentality. Turning the heat off was a non-confrontational way to make them leave," lectured Patrick. Rachel eased a bit up. She thought that there had to be a but coming real soon. Her body tensed up preparing for it. Her torso got rigid. The muscles hardened like a shield. She couldn't feel her own breathing. She starred into those clear, focused eyes and that well groomed face. Was he wearing makeup to get skin that pure?

"The right move would have been to go out there an hour earlier. Simply chat with them, make them feel special. Those young people love status. If they can go home and brag to their buddies how they are friends with the manager, they feel awesome. And you shouldn't feel like you are only the check-in person. Strut around the place like you own it. According to them you could be a manager. It's all in your presence. Once you befriended them, it's much harder for them later to switch to talking down to you."

"(Continued) the hotel business is a business of being smooth and behind the scenes. It's important to anticipate problems and head them off before they form. When you left, you could have reminded them that a beer or two is fine at the pool. However, drunkenness is not tolerated. They would have probably tried to prove that they are the good guys."

"(Continued) I've let you experience the whole thing without interfering, so that you could learn from it. The important thing is that we didn't get a liability case from it or property damage. However, I have to file a report with HQ. Any of the guests could have made a video about the nudity parade. If that goes viral, our marketing department has to run damage control."

"I am very sorry to have let you down, Patrick."

"These times are different. Before cell phone cameras, we had a lot of wild things happening here at the Hidden Valley. Sandra Oh, the famous Grey's Anatomy actress, had stayed here. Apparently, she had gone through a bad break and came here to hide from the world. Here, I'll show you."

Patrick leaned over Rachel to tap the mouse. When a login screen appeared, he entered his password. Rachel stared at Patrick's shoes to avoid seeing the password. They were shiny-polished black leather shoes with a gold clip as highlights. The screen switched to a four-way split screen with black-and-white cameras panning across the outside of the lodge. She saw parked cars and cabins with the yellow light on in the windows. Patrick clicked a search function and entered a date, years past.

Using a big knob, Patrick fast forwarded the modified camera view. It was trained on the first cabin. The first cabin had luxury bedding and Viking appliances. The first cabin was used for promotional photography and videos. A tall woman with her head low and a scarf covering her head and face walked into the cabin. The body posture was severely slumped. She looked like a haggard, sad loaf of an old woman.