Charlie’s eyes blinked several times as the light slowly came on, illuminating the room with a dimness that was slowly rising as the minutes ticked by until it was daylight. “What am I…?” Charlie mumbled. The sheets rustled barely at all underneath him when he rolled over to face the wall.

The furnishings looked familiar, but the fog of memory from his sleep still hadn’t completely lifted, nor had the bleariness really gone from his eyes for several seconds.

‘Dark wood furniture, arch back chairs… the business desk with the built in blotter… rectangular bedside table with a lamp on it and nothing else but… yep, white phone. No question about it. I’m in the Seelbach.’ Charlie realized.

‘Wait…’ he realized, ‘Just ‘why’ am I in the Seelbach…?’ Charlie asked himself and then pushed himself up off one arm and rolled over on his back to rise into a seated position.

The soft pillow pressed back against the dark cherry wood headboard and his eyes finally adjusted… and his brain caught up, to everything around him. “Last night… yesterday?” Charlie frowned, the corners of his mouth going deeply down.

“You woke me up.” He heard the feminine voice and looked down to his right where Judy lay on her side with her cheek on her hands which were closed together like a prayer posture.

Charlie blinked several times, “Wha- ho- whe- did we…” He felt himself turning several shades of red and he snatched up the blanket and sheets over him and yanked them up to see if he was dressed.

Judy had a big, broad smile on her face that spread from end to end, more the way he remembered her before his travels and work took him away in all the ways that mattered.

She started laughing as his open mouth hung frozen, and then sat up. “Relax, idiot. Nothing happened.” She rolled off the bed and stood up, she was obviously wearing a hotel robe of white silk with the gold lining on the trim. “We’ve all got rooms here, you said you felt bad about being the only one to get a luxury stay, so you got us all suites. Nice of you.”

Charlie slid himself over the other side of the bed, “And you got in… how? And when?”

“You dropped your spare key, I came to return it, saw you asleep, and thought this would be hilarious. I did ask Sarah or Mary to join me in here and ‘really’ mess with your head a bit… but they said no.” Judy shrugged it off, “They were always a little shy, I guess.”

“Right… ah, prank well done and I am surprised.” Charlie answered as Judy reached into her robe and extended the key to him.

He took it a little faster from her hand than he needed to.

“So, about my apartment…” Charlie said, but stopped when she tilted her chin up a little with no small sense of cockiness about her.

“I know, right? Can you believe we finished all that, it’s a good thing we got started early every day, it’s looking a lot better now, one more good mopping and it’s liveable again. Of course ‘I’ did the most work.”

“Meh, Josef did his fair share.” Charlie pointed out, doing his best to cover his confusion.

“Maybe for the first two days.” Judy pointed out, “But fair enough, I’ll cut him some slack, given the circumstances.”

“Right the… circumstances. Ah, listen Judy, I’d like to get a bath before checking out, do you mind?” He asked and inclined his head toward the bathroom door.

“Oh, no, go ahead. Everybody else is already up anyway, we’ll be downstairs in an hour, thanks again for the rooms, it was nice being pampered for once.” Judy said and with a little wave, she walked out of the door, and Charlie could not take his eyes off of her wavy blonde hair and the way it swayed back and forth against her back, or the way it caught the light that came through the window and glinted like golden thread.

She left and shut the door with a click behind her and only then was Charlie able to make himself move, going into the bathroom, he turned on the water and sealed the drain with the little rubber plug.

The echo of the flooding waters roaring into the tub was a little louder than Charlie liked, and so he stepped out of the white bathroom and away from the dark marble sink to fetch his clothes.

He yawned deeply, ‘This is… bizarre… side effect maybe? The experiment? Multiple experiments across dimensions… or am I just… nuts? Losing my memory… think Charlie…’ He set the clothes on the toilet and stepped into the bath. Turning off the water, he sank down into the heat and felt the tension drain away. The water slowly rose as he went deeper and stopped when he came to rest at the bottom. “Eight point three pounds to gallon density and based on how much the water went up, I’m displacing about thirty-two gallons so I’m roughly two hundred and seventy pounds.”

It was a depressing thought at the very least. ‘Things are off… aren’t they? No… yes…’ He returned to the matter at hand and then struck a more important question. ‘Does it even matter?’

He had no answer to that either, and so he finished washing and got up, out of the tub, and dried off. The hotel clearly hadn’t skimped on the towel quality, so he took his time in padding himself dry until he was ready to leave.

A shave, a change of clothes, and a set of brushed teeth later, and he was out the door, everything he had was clearly his, right down to the overnight bag. ‘I’m losing time… got to be…’ Charlie tightened his lips on his way down the long hall. They were cream colored and lined with ornate lamps with half shades up like bowls, at the center was a wide curving staircase of golden trim and smooth piano finish wood with a rich royal blue trimmed rug that had a dark center and a silver flanking the center black. Down below the columned room was filled with marble stone, along with the floors, and the columns which made the height of Roman design appear to be a child’s fort. Charlie approached the curved check in desk where a young woman in a business skirt and with her makeup as well done as it was needless, smiled beneath bright green eyes and accepted his room cards when he offered them.

“Doctor Manning.” He said before she could even ask, her ruby lips kept their smile as she pulled up his information.

“Alright, thank you for your stay Doctor Manning, please come again, I’ve got you checked out, would you like a copy of your receipt?” She asked while it printed out from her side of the black stone counter.

“No, no need.” Charlie said and slung the black leather overnight bag over his shoulder.

“Charlie!” He heard his name and turned around, at his back were his familiar friends, he waved, contented. “Hey!” he said and walked away from the counter to meet them where they sat around in the open lobby area.

“Ready for one more push?” Mark asked, the half beard on his face showed he hadn’t shaved that day, but Charlie wasn’t about to criticize, so he answered with a very enthusiastic…

“Yes!”

The trip back to his apartment wasn’t alone, they snagged an Uber van and made it back to the building within twenty minutes, chattering away and filling Charlie in openly on everything he’d tried to be circumspect about before.

The van was crowded, and more than a little self conscious about his position making it crowded, Charlie pressed himself as much as possible against the side wall.

This time, he didn’t feel the need to brace himself for fat jokes, instead they drew him into the conversation, and occasionally he felt Judy’s hand linger a little longer than necessary when she touched him one place or another by accident through being crowded, or by intent when she asked him something or offered some tidbit herself.

It made the ride a quick one, and almost like college kids again, they piled out of the van like an avalanche. Memories of more wild college years before they’d all ‘grown up’ were exciting ones to relive for the moment while they went up the stairs.

Charlie took the lead and grasped the handle to his door, he took a deep breath, turned it, and opened the door inside.

Empty.

Relatively speaking.

The room was filled with the light from the window.

It still had a bed, but the filthy one was gone.

There was still a path to the kitchen.

But the path was literally wherever he was standing, Charlie could have gone to the kitchen.

All the garbage had been removed.

“Many hands make light work in everything you do.” Mark said with a clear sense of pride as they followed him into the room. The treadmill sat against a wall with the television hung up in front of it, there were still stains on the floor that needed to be mopped.

But it was otherwise clean. Except for one thing that caught Charlie’s eye.

A little fragment of blue in the corner. He approached and picked it up while the rest of his friends came in. He held it with care between two fingers, this time he didn’t cut himself on the glass when trying to identify it. ‘Hmpf, another piece of the bowl.’ He realized and went into the kitchen with the others following after.

Charlie set the piece on the counter, the other pieces were still left in their place, though now they had a small ashtray holding them all so none could be lost. He added that one to the mix. There were now six fragments there, and one to go ‘somewhere’ in that room.

“So…” he said to them while someone in the bathroom turned on the water and the sound of a bucket being filled carried into the rest of the apartment. Sarah began passing around a small white box with disposable medical gloves, “What’s next?”

“Wrap this up and then… well with Josef away, there’s not much. You plan on continuing to run with us in the morning, don’t you Charlie?” Judy asked and sidled up close to him.

“Yes, yes I do.” Charlie relaxed and couldn’t help but grin, “I need to get moving again… so… how about we finish this off, and… I should get a couch or something, one more ‘big’ purchase I guess. I don’t really have space to seat you all as it is.”

“Very true.” Sye quipped, he ran a hand through his short red hair sheepishly, “Just make sure you don’t get stools, I feel short enough already.”

“Now that is a shit joke if ever I heard one.” Mark quipped.

Sye opened his mouth, raised a finger to say something, then slowly closed his mouth and lowered his finger.

A collective round of laughter was shared again and Charlie snapped gloves in place on his hands and reached for a scrubbing sponge while the others grabbed rags or mops and got to work.

Soon the smell of pine was everywhere, the stench from before their help had come his way was gone entirely as if it had never been there at all.

They were entirely done before noon, the last bucket was dumped and the final sponge wrung out and the last bit of filth sent down the drain. Roach traps were picked up and emptied, and for good measure, Mark even picked up the last black trash bag in the room, bound it up, and dropped it out the window to crash into the bin outside, while Mary replaced the bag herself.

The rubber gloves came off and followed the bag out the window to fall slowly down to join the rest of the trash outside the building, and driven by one singular moment of common inspiration, every hand clapped together up and down in a decisive ‘dusting off’ motion, to show that they were done.

Charlie swallowed the lump in his throat at the look of his home… “I can never thank you enough… how it felt… and… just now I… all that work…”

“Just buy the beer for the next run, come join us again… and again… and again… and the next time… hopefully there isn’t but if there is… just don’t run off and hide yourself. Promise me that, and we’ll call it even.” Mark asked.

Charlie couldn’t say another word, he wasn’t sure he could get them out, a relief flooded over him of the sort he hadn’t known in the longest time. He nodded as hard and fast as he could, and accepted their friendly smacks to his shoulder or the quick ‘half hugs’ he got from Mary, Sarah, and Judy before the rest of them walked out and closed the door behind them, leaving Charlie alone.

Alone…

And happy.