Part 4 – Lost And Found

Well, we’re back everyone. I had to take a couple of days off and rest after all that happened the past few days. But now I’m back. I figured the best way to start this off was to answer some common questions. First of all, Richard. Or I guess, how Richard became Richard. I guess it was the second or third time we saw him that he got his name. Gary and I were sitting outside one night at the table eating dinner when Gary had to go to the restroom. Now by this point, he was already pretty paranoid about his food getting snatched by the possum so he had me swear I would watch it. I promised I wouldn’t let anything happen to it and he went inside. After a couple of minutes, I heard the phone ring from the office. Now as much as I would love to uphold a time-honored tradition of protecting a sandwich from a possum, work had to come first. In my defense, I did throw our food into our lunch boxes before I went inside, so I do feel like I’m due some credit at least. Still though, when I came back outside, the damage was done. Richard was there on the table, food in his mouth and both boxes wide open. Gary came out right after me and gave me a look like I had just stabbed him in the back. “OH, WHAT THE HELL MAN!?” he yelled. “Look man the phone rang. I had to go inside. I put it all away though, I thought that would help.” “Well OBVIOUSLY it didn’t.” “Yeah, yeah. I’m sorry.” “Go on now, get! Get out of here you little bastard!” Gary yelled. The possum just stood there. “Thomas.” Nothing. “Earl.” The possum just stood his ground. “Michael.” Nothing. “Aw fuck it, you can have the damn food you little dick!” At that, he turned and ran off into the night. “Huh. I guess that’s it,” Gary said. “What?” “Richard. That’s his name.” “You realize you just spent a couple of minutes randomly yelling names. He finished the food. It’s not like you called him his government name or anything.” “No. He responded to it. Richard is his name.” I just rolled my eyes and went back inside. Gary spent the next 15 minutes chastising me about the importance of a man’s word while I tried to find a pizza place that was still open. I owed Gary dinner after all. But the name stuck. Soon after that, the whole staff and even some of the guests knew the infamous food bandit, Richard the possum. Now on to something else that y’all have brought up a few times, Room 14. I’ve gotten a couple of questions like, did someone die there, is it close to the vending machine, and the basic answer is no. Well, technically no. You know how some places don’t have a 13th floor or whatever? It’s like that for us, only we don’t have a room 14. I think it was my second day on the job when I noticed it. Gary and I were walking around the first floor and the rooms just skipped it. It went 11, 12, 13, 15. I pointed at the gap and asked Gary about it. “Hey, why does it go from 13 to 15?” “Because we don’t have a 14.” “No shit, I can see that. But why?” “Hell if I know. We just don’t.” Now you’re probably thinking “Why the hell didn’t you think that was weird?” and honestly, I don’t know. It was a job. They don’t drug test and believe it or not, when you’re working nights at a place where the maintenance dude hunts possums and the boss doesn’t give you any problems, you don’t really invest that much. I can honestly tell you that it never crossed my mind why the Wayfarer motel didn’t have one. That’s the other thing. Ever since I started it has been called The Wayfarer. I don’t know when the name changed or why. Hell, until the other night, I didn’t even know there WAS a name change. Maybe Mr. Freedman wanted something that sounded more welcoming? I just don’t know. I didn’t care why we didn’t have a room 14 before. After seeing it written on the door the other night though, maybe I should start to. Anyway, back to tonight. The motel is back on its bullshit again. Around two or three in the morning, I was sitting back behind the desk in the front office watching the cameras and I saw someone walk out of the front door of the office. The issue was, I was the only person IN the front office. I sat there watching as the front door stood open for a second, when suddenly a man walked out of it but that man was ME. I was watching as what looked like me walked out of the door, then took a right turn towards the east side of the motel. This didn’t just look like me a little bit. He was exactly me. He had on the same dirty jacket, the same jeans with the same holes, he even had on the same band t-shirt I was wearing. I continued watching him/me walk throughout the motel. He headed down the walkway, turned right past the vending machine then stopped for a second. I sat in the office in awe. I had no damn clue what the absolute hell was happening. He was talking to someone. That’s when I saw Gary come into frame carrying a box full of random supplies. Gary stood there talking to him, or me I guess, fuck I don’t know. Gary then turned and walked away but as he did, a roll of paper towels fell out. Him/me picked it up, put it back on top of the box and then walked away, disappearing around the corner. I just about jumped out of my skin when the phone rang. It was the lady in room 35, Ms. Riggins. “Front desk. How can I help you?” “Someone keeps getting into my room. Get up here now!” “Is someone in the room with you right now?” “No. Get up here NOW!” I told her I would be right there, hung up the phone, and started to head towards her room. When I got there she had the door wide open already. “Okay ma’am, what is going on?” I asked. “Someone keeps breaking into my room!” “Did they take anything?” “Well, no. They’re leaving things here.” I had to take a second to comprehend what I just heard. I just stood there with a confused look. “Wait…what? What do you mean leaving things here?” “Every time I open my suitcase, there is something in there that I didn’t put in it.” “Ma’am, are you sure? I mean it could just be…” “Look!” she said, interrupting me. She was holding up a man’s blue button-up shirt. She continued, “That’s not all either.” She then held up a pair of socks and men’s slacks. “Are you in the room alone?” I asked. “Do you think this is a joke?” she screamed, slamming the suitcase closed. “No. No, ma’am. I just…well it’s weird but there has to be some kind of explanation.” Right as I said that. THUMP. A loud noise came from the suitcase. Both of us just stared at the suitcase. Then another noise. THUMP. She turned to look at me. An “I FUCKING TOLD YOU I WAS ALONE!” look, understandably covering her face. We continued to stand there in silence. Eventually, one of us was going to have to open it. Seeing that she wouldn’t budge, I decided I had to be the one to do it. I went over to the suitcase and slowly opened it. Inside the suitcase was not one but two men’s dress shoes. I picked them both up to check them out and that’s when I noticed that one of them had a streak of red blood across the top. I dropped the shoes and stared for a second. What the hell was going on? She jumped back and gasped. “We should call the police!” “And tell them what? Someone broke into your suitcase and quietly placed a man’s outfit in it while the two of us were standing here?” She just looked at me with a quiet indignation. What the hell was going on with that suitcase? I checked to make sure that there was absolutely nothing in the suitcase. I felt every pocket, opened every zipper, I even held it up and shook it. Ms. Riggins looked over my shoulder, making sure that I checked every possible place. There was absolutely nothing in there. I set it back down on the bed and closed it again. We stood there and just waited. It didn’t take long. THUMP. Begrudgingly, I opened the suitcase again to see what was inside. A wallet. I told her that she should pack up her belongings and I would get her a new room. I had her leave the clothes in the room while I took the wallet and walked out to go make her a new key. Gary and I would have to go back and bag the stuff up just in case someone came looking for it. When I got to the office, I looked in the wallet. There were a couple of credit cards, some cash, and most importantly a driver’s license. I pulled the license out and read the name. Walter Matthews. He was a man in his mid-40s, short blonde hair, blue eyes. I hadn’t seen him here at the motel before. So I decided to see if he was checked in. When I put his name into the computer though, he wasn’t a guest here. I thought about what happened in room 35 and figured that I should get back to helping her get a new room. I put the wallet into the desk drawer and went to take the new key to Ms. Riggins. I walked out the front door and turned right towards the east side of the motel. I headed down the walkway, turned right past the vending machine then stopped for a second. Gary came up carrying a box full of random supplies and started to tell me something about Richard, then he turned and started to walk away. That’s when a roll of paper towels fell out of the box. I picked up the paper towels, put them back on top of the box and… Just stopped dead in my tracks. What. The. Fuck.