"Living in Hotels" by Eva Konstantopoulos

I wait as she stares at the floor and the mirror which is smudged with fingerprints and the desk with no bible in the drawer but a catalogue from ShopRite. I wait as she rises and gathers the packets of macaroni and stale fruit snacks and cups of hot chocolate and white, red, and blue candy wrappers and Domino sugar and popsicle sticks and stained newspapers off the floor. She stuffs everything in the now overflowing trash can and takes our cold tea and pours it over the garbage and then stomps the mess down with her bare feet like she’s composing wine.

Then she stands before me, and I think she might lean over to kiss me, but instead, she raises her arms defiantly over her head and turns the trash can around, the packets of macaroni and stale fruit snacks and cups of hot chocolate and blue, red, and white candy wrappers and Domino sugar and popsicle sticks and stained newspapers pour down my shirt in rhythmic shakes, and nothing sticks to me, but I still fall back and hope that fucking maid does barge in and give her five to ten for her illegal stash of soap. 

First there’ll be a knock on the door. Anna will think it’s room service, her apron-wearing dealer with a duster in one hand and her daily fix of gold and white plastic squares in the other.

She’ll open the door. She won’t suspect a thing until...BAM! The door slams against the wall.

“Drop the soap, young lady! You are under arrest! Hands in the air!”  The maid pulls out a badge in one hand, a gun in the other.

Anna’s lips quiver with fear. Her eyes dart to the window, the bathroom, the badge. She hopes for someone to save her, and then her eyes fall on me.

She pleads. She has no choice. Anna falls on her knees in front of me: “I’m messy, but you keep me sane. It’s all my fault. Take me home, I’ll do whatever you want...”

But not this time, no, it will be too late.

“Take her away, Ma’am,” I say, nodding to the maid.

She handcuffs Anna and leads her out the door. I close my eyes and hear the maid drag her down the hall, clunk thump bam.

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