Writing Wednesday
I don't have much time, and there is a lot of noise here. Let's see what I can do. I wrote something last night, but it's all in my head. It never actually made it to print. Going to try to do it now...
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It was a warm and sunny August morning in Laramie, Wyoming. A Mexican maid took her tablecloth and spread it on the hotel sidewalk and began to set out her tortillas to warm and bake for the day. Inside Room 106 a man showered, and his bride cried. Finally she pulled herself together and went out to greet the sun. She walked barefoot to the hotel lobby, hoping no one would complain. She filled 2 styrofoam cups with cheap coffee, one black, the other with powdered cream and sugar. She put a bagel and a muffin in the pocket of her sweatshirt, and went back to the room again. The lobby had been empty and no one had seen her. She passed the maid still on the sidewalk, and paused outside the room to watch the chain of Harley Davidson motorcycles rumble down the road toward the Interstate, on their way to or from Sturgis, she wasn't sure. She went back to 106 and set the coffees down, and took the muffin and bagel out. One sip of the powdered coffee and she knew she'd need to dump it down the bathroom sink. As she tried to remember where the truckstop was, her man came out of the bathroom, smiling and calm. The bruises on his body told her he must be in some pain, but he obviously didn't want to discuss it. She offered him the breakfast, but he declined so she dumped out both coffees and put the food in the trash.
A knock at the door. The maid was asking in Spanish if they were gone yet. It wasn't quite checkout time, but all the other guests had left. "No, not yet" the bride replied, "Just a few more minutes please". So the maid went back to the sidewalk and her tortillas. A little boy appeared carrying a small pinata. "Is it time yet Momma?", he asked. "No", she smiled. After Room 106 was clean, she would finish with the fiesta preparations. There would be a birthday party for the child with the pinata, and they would have all afternoon for it, until 3pm.
At 3pm, check-in time would come and new guests would arrive. By then the couple in Room 106 would be somewhere else on the Interstate in their dusty rental car, heading somewhere to spend another night in an air-conditioned hotel room, with a stop or two for truck stop food and gas along the way.
