In the heart of the night, a lonely traveller was looking for a place to sleep, he would have sleep on the sidewalk if that was legal! He was practically asleep while driving.

He saw a hotel, it looked pretty bad but he wasn’t into the position to complain about esthetics right now.

He entered the hotel and greeted the man at the reception.

“Hi,” He said

The man didn’t respond.

“I want a room.”

The manager looked at him strangely, like he had just said some insane thing, “for how long?”

“Well, for a night”

“For a full night?!?”

“Yes, for a full night... is that so strange here?”

He looked at him for a second then looked down, then up, he passed him a piece of paper, there was a number written on it.

“What’s this?” The traveller asked confused

“The price of rent.”

“THE PRICE! What! this is insane! Are the rooms made of gold or what? Is this a joke?”

“No this is not a joke, and your remarks offend me and this hotel. We have other things to do with ours rooms, we have other clients to serve, so either you accept the deal or you go away.”

The traveller went away, hoping to find a better place, saying the worst insults and curses a man falling asleep could utter.

In reality, despite what he said, the hotel had been mostly empty for a long time. So few clients came and even fewer remained that there were days were the manager barely worked at all, passing most of his day doing nothing, at least nothing worthwhile.

Yet some people stayed, despite the remarks of the manager, so much so that the hotel was practically their homes. How they had managed to stay so much in a so pricy hotel? Well:

One room, an empty chamber with a window and a table, was rented by an artist when he wanted to make art. Only problem? He was frustrated and anxious as hell and thought that everything that he produces was bad. The manager didn’t share his opinion, he thought that some pieces were very good, even if raw or undefined. So he let him rent the room for very little at the pact that he gave to the hotel the bad pieces that he produced, he gave to the hotel every single piece that he made. Another was rented by a girl who passed most of his day on a monitor or tv, he didn’t do anything but that, mindlessly scrolling the internet, playing videogames or watching tv. He didn’t really mind the poor management of the hotel, he never talked to anyone, actually, he barely left his room. Why the manager made her paid so little is unknown. Rumours says that she was a childhood friend, or even a parent of him, who became homeless and depressed, though this is not been confirmed. Another was rented by a charming young man, who, if talk to, would begin a pleasant conversation around many topics. He was able to make convincing speeches and explain things, even quite complicated ones.One could talk to him all day long and not get the slightest hint of the fact that he was broken, homeless and suffered heavily from impost syndrome. For all his abilities he lacked something quite essential, honesty and openness. When he didn’t talk he glumped himself with all sort of food and drinks, obliviously purchased with his own money. The manager let him the room at pact that, when he needed his conversation skills required, he would work for free. One room was very strange, no one knew what exactly it was supposed to be, or what was its purpose. It was occasionally rented by a very beautiful and elegant man. When he rented that room the manager and he would pass many hours inside. The manager eventually would come out with scared eyes, beating heart, and a terrible mood for the rest of the day. The beautiful gentleman never left it. What he did to him of so extraordinary that even knowing that he will eventually come back made the manager anxious? Mystery. He was the only client who paid full price.

.

The last one was rented by a charming little grandma, who passed his day enjoying life and doing some cute things with her hands. Of all people in that hotel, she was the only one who the manager had the pleasure spending time with. He gave her the room for free.

Those were the only stable clients of the hotel.

On a cold day, one gentle little man came to the hotel, the manager answered him badly, as usual. He rented a room, entered it, looked around, and decided that he would pass his day there exploring the hotel.

The whole place was dirty and decadent. Many rooms were used as storage rooms only because they were too bad to be used for clients, and if this hotel says a room is bad you can trust. The space was ill manage, many rooms could be divided or united. Passing through the hotel what struck him the most was an old lady bringing the trash out, herself, in a hotel. Ok. He decided to talk to the woman.

“Hi,” He said.

“Oh hi, new tenant?” she responded

“What?”

“For how long have you rented?”

“A day”

“Oh, then you are just passing here.”

“There are people who live here?”

“Yes, I am one of such people. If you help me take the trash out you can come in my room.”

He passed the rest of the day talking to the various people in the hotel.

The old woman was really gentle and kind to him.

The artist passed two hours talking about how frustrated he was and how, in reality, he was a victim, and passed two minutes actually making art.

He found the room of the girl open, by the smell she hadn’t take a shower in a week, she was so focused on the monitor that she didn’t notice the man entering his room. He tried to talk to her but got only half responses. All without moving his eyes from the monitor.

The gentleman made a very good and long speech about home rents. Yet it only it took him only a few seconds to notice is uncontrolled diet and drinking.

The beautiful room was very polite with him and the room appeared perfectly normal, yet he could feel in his looks and glances something bad, something terrible. He left the conversation with a sense of fear.

When he went away he had an illumination, behind all that frustration and rage of the manager there was something else. He was angry with himself and the life that he had built, he was desperate for help or work, yet would avoid any kind of both.

He decided that he would try helping him.

“How many clients this hotel usually has?” He asked

“Oh, many, believe me.” He responded

“Would you want even more clients?”

He looked at him with slight interest.

“For a month I can put your hotel in a kind of challenge, the hotel would be re-launch and you will have many clients, you can accept them or not. Once the month is ended you can decide if continuing or not.”

“Why should I ever do such a thing?”

He gave him a piece of paper, looked at it, and thought a bit about it.

“Hahaha, do you seriously believe that I need such things?”

“Think about it.” The little man went away.

Before going to bed he checked the money in the cash, not a very hard thing to do considering how little money he had earned.

“Perfect the hotel is slightly in positive.” just as he was closing the book a feeling of wrongfulness came tormenting him. He made the calculation again and everything was fine.

But the feeling didn’t go away. He made the calculation again, this time without a calculator, and everything was fine.

He went into his room, undressed, closed the lights and went in bed under warm sleeves and sle- “DAMN IT!!! WHERE IS THE ERROR!” He screamed in his mind.

In a dash, he grabbed pen, paper and money and remade the calculation again, again and again. It was full night and he was repeating the same calculations for the eight-time now. He was exhausted, he dropped pen and calculator and just looked at the raw figures. He looked at it for several minutes when, finally, the error didn’t shrine to his eyes. That was the exact number that he earn yesterday. He went to the archive and looked at the various papers of balance, all the same exact numbers, every day the same, his existence was completely monotonous and void.

He turned the little garbage bin of his office outside out, searching through the papers for that piece of paper that the little man had given him. He found it and thought

“I can use some more clients…”

The next day many clients came and he did his best to welcomed them, that is simply answering their questions. The price of the chambers was lowered so much that people many people were willing to pay the full price without making remarks about the insane price. How times change places…

He had way more to take care of now, he had to clean the room daily, for real this time. He had to negotiate with the mouses living in the hotel which portions of the hotel they couldn’t access. He thought that all those traps and poison was enough to make the deal go well. He realizes that it wasn’t when he saw a mouse eating his breakfast cereals and another running away from a children playing tag with him. “Maybe, is better if I call someone specialized…” he thought to himself.