NEEDLING

ONE HOUR AWAY FROM THE END OF MY 12 HOUR SHIFT

It’s snowing outside. Nothing happened out of the usual today. The usual. The hotel was 3/4 full last night and smoth running this morning. No fights with either client or maid. A couple rented a room for the afternoon. They were in a real hurry. Or at least he was. I only had one room left with one large bed so I gave him the full tariff. He wasn’t happy about that so he said he’d go look some other place. I said OK. Not ten minutes later they were back. “Looks like we gotta take it if we want something clean and descent.” “No problem.” And that was that. Nothing exciting. They left two or three hours afterwards. Everybody paid this morning, nobody tried to rip off the contents of the minibar – a good change – the maids weren’t back-talking-stabbing each other. Not even one single little nag. No complaints from clients except one leaking sink in the same room as a dead battery in the television channel flipper. That room also missed klenex. Old clients who are used to having klenex in the room. But we don’t carry klenexes in the rooms anymore. They have a tendency to walk off daily. The bathtub plug is stuck in another room, the same party as the other complaint, and the only way to get it up is with a knife, the client said. It’s not practical, he added, can you do something about it? Sure, I said, I’ll give it a shot. But the boss was supposed to be here before 16h00 and he hasn’t shown up yet to count the cash, check last night occupancies, and fix the small everyday problems. AND, most importantly, to make the breakfast and other stuff – jam, butter, tea, soft drinks, orange juice, milk, etc… – order… very important… which means there won’t be anything left for the weekend and that it’ll be my fault. I called him twice on it at the other hotel. Got the boss the first time and he said he’d be around before the 16h00 daily deadline for orders, not to worry about it. Second time I called, at 15h30, I got his brother and almost got my head chewed off. No longer my problem, then… forget it. Work, it’s so exciting.