The fables of Aesop

By Kennedy Miles

“Welcome travelers, I assume you’re all here for the Tour and Tales? A world-”

“Oh please do spare us the introductions and get right to it!” the man interrupts.
I chuckle at his hasty request, for his type is fairly common. The type to ceaselessly nag and disturb a carefully crafted atmosphere, the type to protest a mundane occurrence, the rabbit type disguised as a wolf. Despite his unsightly attitude his face was chiseled to near perfection, he wore a dark crimson suit tailored with excellence, and his hair blonde with brown streaks that lined it like the marks of passing bullets.

“Of course, Mr. Hendricks.” I replied.

“How do you?” As his words trailed on he looked at me with a puzzled expression that peered into my soul. The atmosphere grew colder as ice consumed the walls, and for a moment, just for a moment I saw a familiar face.

“The cards! This card here tells me the name of everyone in the group. Mr. and Mrs. Hendricks correct?” I said.

“Correct.” Mrs. Hendricks replied while extending her fair toned and slender hand towards mine. Mrs. Hendricks was a luxurious woman, her dress was long, elegant, and stunning, she wore creamed colored pearls perched perfectly on her neck, her presence heard from miles away with each clank of her heel.

“I’m Mrs. Hendricks, you must be the bellboy, a quite handsome one at that. Age?”

“As old as time, madam.”

“A dashing man like yourself couldn’t be a day over 20.” She replied with a devilish smile.

“Mmm, as much as I would love to continue this conversation I must attend to the other guest. Now, it says here that there’s a Billy Bibbet, Davey, and Mr. and Mrs. Lavet in our presence, correct? I don’t mean to rush but we are behind schedule, So, shall we “spare the introductions” as Mr. Hendricks would say.”

“Hey mate! I don’t find that quite professional at all you know I really wanted to talk to you and you're gonna go and introduce yourself to those fine folk but not us you got something against us aye I’ll fight you right here and now!”

“Jesus! Slow down bud, Nobody here even knows what you’re on about! Who are you anyway?” Mr. Hendricks yells.

“Im’s Billy Bibbet, and this here’s my friend Davey, he doesn’t talk much but he’ll say hey. Right Dave!”

“...”

“See!” Billy Bibbet was loud, stout, and talked so fast that one might’ve thought his veins were filled with coffee, or he was strung up on crack. Nevertheless, he was kind, perhaps too kind for his time. He never really had many friends, for all the boys thought he was too soft, and the girls; well he was never too interested in women. His companion Davey was the complete opposite. Skin as beautiful as the midnight sky, quiet, timid, a shadow even; he figured this was the best way to avoid trouble.

“Darling, It’s clear we’re the only sane ones here, shall we go?” Mr. Lavet said.

“Honey, can’t you give it a chance?” Mrs. Lavet replied.

“Mmm. Yes, yes, since I’ve paid such good money to be here it’s natural we stay for another one of your obscenities.” He said with disgust plastered on his face.

“Thank you.” Her words were embedded with hurt, and tears swelled within her eyes.

“Shall we hear a story?” I said after clearing my throat in order to release the tension.

The storm

“Sir! Sir! It looks like the storm is getting worse. What do we do?”

“Call the station, tell them we need an immediate evacuation, gather everyone in the lobby to be ready for departure.” The manager shouts.

The rush was deadly. Staircases swamped with mobs of people desperately clawing to the lobby, greedy men leaving wives and children like a wave of newfound misanthropes, elevators so full that oxygen struggled to breathe. Despite the palpable anxiety that cascaded through the halls, some refused to run. Perhaps they thought they were excused from harm, or knew something no one else did, or maybe they weren’t afraid. Nevertheless, like most when faced with great despair, honesty comes to them like white wings and robes.

“Merida! Dear God, how worried I was for your wellbeing!” The woman rushes to the other and plunges herself within her arms.

“I’m alright Amelia, are you?”

“Yes, yes I’m fine. Do you know what’s going on?”

“No not quite, but I heard that the storm is getting worse and that elevators are down with people in them. My husband Richard is off asking the manager for more information, luckily it seems there’s someone on the way.” As Merida smiles at her, Amelia nods her head, releasing her grip reluctantly after seeing a man with dark suit and hair, and a pendant around his neck approach them.

“My beloved, there are soldiers on the way to collect us about 5 miles out. If we leave now we’ll be guaranteed to be the first passengers aboard. The managers has agreed to lend us horses, sh-”

“Are you mad! Are you trying to get her killed!” Amelia protested. “Richard, you must be utterly insane if you think that I’ll let you take her.” Merida grabs her arm, and as their eyes meet all anger and frustration slips from Amelia’s grasp. In this finite moment there is nothing in this world but Merida and her gaze, no storm, no hotel, and most of all no Richard.

“Attention! Attention everyone, there are women and children trapped in elevators on the third floor, we ask for a few men to assist. Please ” The bellboy begs, as he desperately searches the crowd for shreds of compassion, a man raises his hand, then another, and another, and before you know it even Richard himself has raised his too.

“Merida, I will help the men open the doors, but once I return we’ll flee.”'

The air was looming with anxiety, it had been 3 hrs since managers reported that rescue was coming. It wasn’t just the guest getting anxious, but the staff too, people were insisting that they contact the station.

“Hello, is anyone there? This is the hotel that contacted you hours ago about a rescue, what is your ETA, over.” The manager was met with static, just as he had begun to lose hope, his ears were met with words.

“Dam...broken...flood...rushing...30 minutes...no savior...pray.” The words “no savior” rang
within his ears, but he could do nothing but laugh. It was sheer mania, nothing more, nothing less.

“Sir, when are they coming?” His trustee bellboy rushes in and asks.

“Oh, my dear boy, th- there is no savior. The dam broke, and the water is rushing to us now, 30 minutes.” The boy’s smile gracefully fell, and that glint within his eyes was met with an unusual darkness. As he fell to his knees he roared a monstrous cry, but the boy had no clue why. For he had no home, no family, no life outside of this hotel. As he cried, he knew he had to do one thing.

“I never really had anyone, the only place I knew was here. Thank you for everything, you were like a father to me.” The boy said to his manager. As his manager swooped him within his arms they cried together in that office, till the end. That desperation that had seized the building was now gone, all that was left was truth, and truth was dealt.

“Merida, I must tell you something. I-”

“Love you.” Merida interrupts. “I’ve always known, Jesus I’ve always known. Because I love you too.” Merida said weakly. “And I know that’s not fair because I’m the one who went and got married, but I just thought, I just thought that maybe if I couldn’t be around you anymore I could finally breathe. I could finally be normal. God, you make me feel so peculiar, Amelia.”

Truth. Truth indeed is killing, but it cleanses the soul. Although many people died that night, few died with a guilty conscience. Husbands and wives remembered long forgotten love for one another, brothers and sisters ceased quables to profess adoration never shared. Friends, able to transcend their relationships to new levels that no man had ever seen before. Although water might have filled their lungs, they drowned within the truth.

“What woman would want to bed another, that’s absurd!” Mr. Lavet spewed

“I understand your sentiments, but imagine two women and a man. Very fit don’t you think?” Mr. Hendricks said.

“You must be absolutely mad! Women, together! How could a woman bed another woman?”

“I could.” Mrs. Lavet whispered, hoping no one heard her. “Isn’t love all that matters, at some point I think that maybe the person isn’t important and rather it’s the heart.” Mrs. Lavet said.

“I finds it cruel to judge it doesn’t matter who anyone loves. I mean I couldn’t give a rat's ass if Davey loved a man.” Billy pauses to look at Davey who has his head down.

“What year did any of this happen anyways Mr. Bellboy.”

“You do ask quite a bit of questions, Mr. Lavet. Tell me, what year is it?” I replied with a slight smile. The spiral has always been fascinating.

“It’s 1920.”

“Ahh yes yes. I often forget, for time starts to blur together here, anyways 1880 was when the storm hit.”

“That’s impossible. That was nearly 40 years ago and you don’t look a day over 20.” Mr. Lavet’s voice now held a slight tremble, mmm how I knew that sound far too well to miss it. “I- I would like to speak to your manager imme-”

“He could be the manager.” Mr. Hendricks said. “Has anyone else noticed how there’s no one else here, except us and him.” The atmosphere was so cool that clouds of smoke left mouths with each breath, the walls once again devoured by ice, and Mr. Hendrick’s eyes pierced into me like daggers seeking fatal injuries.

“We should go.” Davey uttered. Like rats, they scurried to the lobby doors, except one. As Mr. Hendricks looks over his shoulder and says to me, “This is no ordinary hotel is it? How old are you really?”

“You know I once had a friend that asked the same question, his name was Sia, some called him “a God of perception, what is your name?”

“You know, don’t you?” Hendricks said.

“Quite like him indeed, Basir.” I said with a smile.

“I am the past, present, and future all in one. What you seek is a much longer tale, though if your curiosity prevails do return! But for now, let this be nothing more than another story.”