hotel

IT WAS CALLED the Fairmont Hotel. These words I remember clearly from the entrance way. I had been standing in the parking lot there, for whatever reason, when a black van pulled up and a group of armed men jumped out. Maybe they were border patrol? Or were involved in busting some drug trafficking ring? Or maybe someone had bombed another Tesla? Whatever the case, it didn’t seem like the kind of place you wanted to just hang out. It was a hot day too, and I found the air-conditioned lobby of the hotel offered up cool sanctuary. More men with guns headed in one direction and I headed in the other, passing the many posh hotel guests.

Until I found myself in Annikki’s kitchen, where she was preparing food. I was standing in the dimly-lit space, with my hands on the counter. She was chopping onions and carrots, and at the center of the kitchen a big pot of soup was boiling away on the stove. Annikki had on her blue dress, with its white pattern, so that it looked as if she had clothed herself in a patch of sky. She had been attending various therapy courses and we were talking and talking about relationships, and the onions were sliced and fed into the bubbling pot. She did this in a rather matter-of-fact way, with her blonde hair pulled back and brow furrowed. “But Annikki,” I said. “All we do now is talk. We spend all of our time talking. Won’t you just let me give it to you?”

This produced no word in response, but one light eyebrow arched up as if she was evaluating different service packages at a car wash. Annikki replied, with a shrug, “Why not try?” There was a small bed fitted on one of the kitchen countertops and we lied in it. I felt very warm lying there next to her and my body came to life. It took some real talent to uncover that right breast from its hiding place beneath the dress fabric and the lacy bra underneath. When I at last came face to face with it, I admired it, as one might admire a new find in an ancient Egyptian tomb. This is what she had been hiding from me all this time? Gradually, I sank into it, as one might ease into a bioluminescent bay. All of these secrets rippling before me, making sublime patterns in the water. I heard Annikki sigh. She too seemed to be floating and drifting.

Then came a pounding at the door. I was afraid it was going to wake up her brood of kids. Another knock. A little boy’s voice could be heard from the other room. “Mommy?” he said. “It’s nothing, kallis.” “Open up!” a man’s voice could be heard. “Open up now! This is the police!”