The Captain and The Osequito - II - Luck

 II

I shuffled myself back up to the check in window with my head down, feeling defeated.  I was hoping to find the three East Indian women who originally checked me in, but instead there was a large black woman with a warm cherub face and shoulder length hair, maybe in her forties, sitting on a stool to the right of the window.

"I... I think I need to stay another night." I said softly, still looking at the ground. "And maybe... I was wondering if you have a weekly rate here?"

The woman stepped off the stool and met my knit brow with her warm face and a welcoming smile that even my quick dart of a glance could feel before my eyes fixed themselves back on the ground.  Grey concrete and pine needles.  "Well that's okay, honey." She said.  "What room are ya in?"

"105" I mumbled.  She turned around to a computer with a brightly colored chart on the screen and tapped at a few keys on the keyboard before turning back to me.

"I don't know if she started you on the weekly rate," She said gently, "but you give me a moment and I'll see if I can call her."  The woman stepped away again.  This time I couldn't see her from the tiny street window.  I fidgeted nervously with my purse and glanced across the parking lot.  Palm trees, grey concrete, pine needles.  An older looking black gentleman at the far end of the motel, next to a small barbecue grill that I smelled making dinner the night before.  The muffled voices of the patrons of the restaurant across the street.  I ate there my first night.  Appetizer sampler - the crab balls were the only thing I could get down, and a guilty glass of red wine.  "I'm sorry." the woman said, suddenly on the other side of the glass again, as if she had just glided there out of my hurt, and worry, and afternoon reverie. "I can't get a-hold of her, I'll have to charge you the same rate for now.... it's 50 dollars, you know?"

I nod silently.  We stood there both for a moment, on either sides of the glass.  I could feel her eyes on me, gentle and concerned, mine lost again in the grey concrete and pine needles, my fidgeting hands, my old steel toed boots. "You are going to pay, aren't you?" She said finally.  I nodded quickly, embarrassed this time, and fished through my purse for two twenties and a ten before changing my mind, and dragged out a hundred instead.  "Make.... make it two nights?" I said quietly, "If that's alright..." and pushed the bill under the small gap at the bottom of the window to the little ledge inside. "I don't think my luck is turning anytime soon..." I added quickly, while she gently picked up the bill and smiled at me again. 

"All I need is your key card now."

I fished it out of my purse and pushed it under the window as well.  The woman turned away again, and after a few moments reappeared. With the same small welcoming smile she placed the key card back in my hand. "And don't you worry, honey," she said. "It will."