Hotel Williamstown

There once was a small sleepy town that the highway paved right over. The Miller’s bought the old rundown hotel on Main Street that used to take the motorcades and greyhounds that would travel down US 24 that ran right though the town. The Millers Deborah and Jack Miller had spent every nickel they had on their dream of being the best bed south of the Ohio river. Their young daughter, Olivia, believed that her parents were making an enormous castle for them to all live in together, To be King and Queen of the county. Sovereign over the corn and the sprawling cow fields.

And every great castle she knew had to have its own magic. Her father let Olivia have free run over its many floors and secret tunnels and crawlspaces. Many a day was spent in every nook and cranny of her home, playing. Falling in love with the carpet, the wallpaper and the bannisters. She would wake up each morning, dressed herself in her finest dress and run down to the front lobby to greet the new guests that would live in their home with her. Some of them brought children of their own, which became fast friends with the Princess of Hotel Williamstown.

She reached up and opened the door without any resistance, stepping into an empty room with an empty guest room. The window illuminated the dust kicked up from her presence and she was shocked to see a body in the wall. It was the shape of a small boy, resting peacefully within the wall. His face made her shriek and cry as she ran from the abandoned room. She practically fell down the grand staircase of the main lobby to get to her father who was checking another guest in. When she led them back to the room, the door was gone.

This would concern her father so much that he agreed to meet with the contractor that helped build the Hotel Williamstown, about this Wall boy. The contractor came clean; he talked about his family. His wife was a witch who reformed her evil ways, and they together had a young rebellious son named Anthony. As they were setting the concrete for the foundation of the building, Anthony fell in and was crushed to death underneath the concrete. His mother, in a fit of woe, cursed the building to be his new body, not allowing any renovations, less it releases his spirit into the afterlife. Jack Miller wasn’t too happy with the contractor after his ghost story and swore never to tell anyone else, especially Olivia of the ridiculous story. Not that it mattered, for soon after she told her father, she gathered her courage again and returned to the unmarked room and found a new friend to play with the next day.

Olivia would be sent away to live with her aunt in Ohio. Leaving her castle so that she could go to college in a booming city. Her parents told her that it was for her grades. Not that they planned to wallpaper up that pesky door on the 13th floor. She departed her childhood and behind her home. She would go to business school there and was very good at forming long-lasting friendships and partnerships. Her smile sold hearts like she did in her Castle back home.

She would receive a phone call from her parents one day. Her father was wanting to pass along the Hotel to her. He had gotten too old to run it anymore. Her mother had died a year earlier. She returned home after ten years of living in the big city. Before her father departed this world, he told her of the story of the boy in the walls. She always suspected such a thing but just chalked it up as her imaginary friend. She was more surprised to see all the new people that her father hired to run their castle. Her eyes especially focused on a rather cute Bellhop who hauled luggage up the many flights of stairs with barely complaint. After an arduous suitcase, he slumped by the front desk and introduced himself as Tony the bellhop.

She would watch him day after day heft heavy trunks and bags with vigor and a smile. The Miller’s couldn’t afford an elevator, so their business literally rested on the sturdy back of Tony. She would treat Tony now and then, for his hard work. They would spend time after work together, enjoying each other. Spring of 81 had been the busiest season for them by far and was the turning point in Olivia’s and Tony’s relationship. It had been pouring down rain, a good humid summer rain that brought mercy to the sun-dried greens around the property. There was a guest who stepped onto the front porch of the Hotel Williamstown, shaking the water from his coat before stepping inside. He was from out of town and thought that Olivia was “the prettiest thing that he had ever seen.” And then she asked her not only for a room, but for a date as well. Olivia only smiled, looking at the man who was twice her age and let him down easy. She handed him his room key and wished him a good night.

That night after Olivia locked the front door and turned out the lights, she retired to her room for the night. Once she climbed the stairs to her floor, there the stranger was, standing by her door.

“It’s late Sir. Please step aside.” She said curtly, already not liking the fact that he knew which door was hers. “Maybe. It is late. You live in this big ole hotel, all by yourself?” he asked looking over his shoulder as he stepped out of her way to unlock her door. The charged silence made her sick to her stomach. The snap of her door lock caused him to rush into her room, pushing her inside. Her scream warbled as he slammed her door back. His teeth practically glowed in the dark, white like fangs. She scrambled to her feet, not breaking eye contact as the only light came from her bathroom sink. “You and I are going to keep each other nice and cozy, aren’t we?” he smiled, making himself at home. Olivia was about to scream for help when she noticed a shadow that formed from the bathroom doorway grew out of the wall, the figure made her freeze in fear.

“Looks to me that someone lost all that spunk.” he laughed, until he felt the very real fist of Bellhop punching the back of the strangers’ head, causing him to fall forward. The sex predator stumbled around to find dark hands pummeling his face and dragging him into the hallway. The lamp outside showed the Bellhop uniform emerging from the shade.

“Tony!” she cried out as the Bellhop was ringing the man’s bell, breaking his glowing white teeth along with his nose and jaw. Olivia watched as the stranger was dragged into the walls. His face was no longer the picture of composure. The police had found the man tied up in the basement, babbling in sheer terror of anyone who got close to him. Olivia would find Tony sitting on the stairs, his face crestfallen.

Olivia took a seat with her Bellhop and touched his face. “I didn’t think my imaginary friend was still around. Waiting for me after all this time.” She took off his hat and gave her ghost boy a kiss. It made Tony feel alive again for the first time in decades. “Not like I could go anywhere, your majesty...” he teased.

“Oh god…I told you about the Princess thing…just don’t go announcing that to everyone, and I won’t hire a priest to evict you.” It was then that she found out how he managed his workload every day. He would carry the luggage through the walls. Always beating the guests to their rooms, every time. He even took Olivia back to the unmarked room that her parents covered up years ago. It’s door, ripping the paper apart and returning to its unaltered state. He let her inside again. He told her that when she left for college that he worked his ass off getting her dad to like him. His body was the hotel itself so it was easy to support the aging Millers into their twilight years. He was worried that he was going to be remodeled by someone if she didn’t come home again, breaking his curse.

“I would never let anyone remodel my castle.” She said, reassuring him, kissing him and closing the door to give them privacy. She was the owner of the Hotel Williamstown. She spent the next twelve years living together within her Castle and her Tony. Each Christmas was a grand display with some decorations perplexing their guests on how they hung decorations without any ladders or poles.

It wasn’t until the American Disabilities Act passed into law that things had to change. The law required all buildings, gas stations, stores and yes, Hotels had to be made accessible to those who were in wheelchairs. Which was great for business, but spelled doom for Tony. Many businesses received grants from the government to remodel and update buildings. That money wasn’t going to be around forever. Olivia wasn’t going to allow it, not if it meant Tony going away.

But the Bellhop knew how much the hotel meant to Olivia. He couldn’t stand the thought of the Hotel Williamstown going under because of not being ADA compliant. He couldn’t drag the wheelchair into the walls with him. That would scare them away forever, not to mention be a real pain in his back. He decided to call and order an elevator to be put in when Olivia was on a business trip. The night before the installation, he wrote a letter to his Princess.

“Olivia. The time I’ve spent with you have been the greatest years of my life. Even though I died a little bit before we met. I decided to order the elevator not because I was tired of existing, but because I was tired of seeing you wasting your life with someone who was already dead. You deserve to be happy and that’s why I’m resigning as Bellhop of the Hotel Williamstown. I love you more than anything in this world. I’ll be waiting for you on the other side. Eternally Yours, Anthony.”

When she returned to the Hotel after her business trip, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Drywall being smashed, the worn wooden banisters being disassembled and hauled out the main doors. When she yelled at the Foreman to put it all back, he handed her Tony’s resignation. She took it into her office, read it and cried. He had ordered an entire renovation under the ADA money, letting Olivia have the upgraded hotel that she needed, at the cost of his immortality. When the Hotel reopened a year later, she was surrounded by Friends and family members, waiting for her to cut the ribbon. But Tony was nowhere to be found. She decided not to hire a new Bellhop. Anyone who tried to step into Tony’s shoes easily disappointed her every time.

She never left her office for a while after that. Never greeted anymore guests, not checking any happy vacationers, not even to chat with her staff. It wasn’t the same anymore, she considered selling the Hotel to one of the bigger hospitality corporations when she read in the paper about a new theme park opening in town. “We’ll see after the opening how I feel.”

The term used by the biblically minded corporation, Wisdom Tree, as Theme Park was very different to the secular meaning used by actual enjoyable experiences. The Ark Park, which was a deliberate cash grab by the company to attract tourists to their full-sized recreation of Noah’s Ark. They publicly bragged across the town newspaper that would bring Williamstown into a new age of prosperity. They did no such thing. If the theme of the Theme Park was boredom, then they succeeded. What they brought was a walk-through exhibition building, tons of overpriced restaurants and zero rides and our attractions. The CEO of Wisdom Tree, Percy Bacon, claimed that it would be a slow start but once their petting zoo was up and running the masses would bring all their money to Williamstown. Olivia went to the town hall which had Mr. Bacon trying to explain to the rest of the community why Wisdom Tree was not paying their fair share of taxes. Olivia was about to head out when she bumped into a journalist and locked eyes with him.

“Oof…Excuse me miss.” He spoke. He looked very much like a diehard newsie. He searched for truth in shallow places plus it didn’t hurt that he was nice to look at. His name was Roger Coleman.

He was in town to uncover exactly what Wisdom Tree was doing. Olivia invited him to stay at the Hotel and the two hit it off. She was right next to him as he cracked the money laundering scheme of Percy Bacon and personally saw the man arrested outside his unfun theme park. She decided to keep running the hotel, the journalist made her feel the warm sensation of love. The kind of which she believed that she didn’t have any more. It was the following year they were married, at last. The ceremony was held in the hotel, her white dress training down the golden stairs of the lobby. Staff lining on either side of her as she entered the ballroom. There, at the altar. She would become Mrs. Olivia Coleman. Her mind forgetting her imaginary friend completely.

She would continue to run the Hotel, becoming the mother of a brilliant little girl, Jane. She would grow older as the years went on. New technology would be installed as quickly as they came, improving her castle even more. So much so that the Hotel seemed to operate entirely on its own. Barely needing any input from her whatsoever. Her daughter wanted her to retire after her father died, to come home and spend her golden years together. But she would refuse each time. “I don’t want to. This place is my home. I will miss it too much.” She said.

Jane had arranged with the new manager that her mother will stay up on the fourth floor and be looked after every day by homecare nurses. The last time she saw her mom, Olivia was lying in her bed, looking over at her.

“Did I ever tell you, about Tony?” she asked.

“Yes Mom, the Ghost boy. You liked to tell me that one a lot growing up.”

“I forgive him. He was right, I don’t think you would even exist without him going away.”

“Mom, it’s just a story. Ghost bellhops and disappearing rooms don’t exist.”

Olivia rubbed her daughter’s hand with her frail boney fingers. “Don’t say that. It ruins the fun.”

“Sure. I need to be going. I have work.” Jane sighed, getting up and putting her bag over her shoulder.

“Jane.” Her mom said.

“Yes?”

“I just want you to know that I’m proud of you. No matter what you do with your life.”

Jane felt a sense of finality coming from her mom.

“Thanks. I love you too Mom.” She said, kissing Olivia’s head before leaving her suite.

Olivia looked at the door as it closed. Her heart was heavy. “I’m ready.” It was her only response. Jane would take two steps from the Unmarked room where her mother lived. She reached into her pocket and realized that she had left her phone at her bedside.

“The Princess has checked out of her castle.”

The End