Harold unfolded himself as he withdrew from the driver’s seat of his ancient Peugeot. When he stood up, he rubbed the small of his back and groaned. 

He slammed the car door closed hard. Since it hadn’t closed properly since it was side-swiped in the motel parking lot last month. The sign in front of the hotel blinked MOTEL over and over. He sighed and said, “just another day in paradise.”

As he walked through the hotel door, the bell jingled once, and then it fell to the floor. He left it there. As he walked up to the front desk, he pulled out his wallet and looked for his one and only credit card. He thought he might still have credit available on it. There was a worn-out-looking man with a balding head. The few strands of hair he had left were combed across his pale and shiny scalp. He was slouched over the front desk. He had barely enough energy to say, “good evening.” And then he reached out and grabbed Harold’s credit card. “We have one room left in the back.”

“That will be fine, I’m only staying for one night, and then I’ll be heading home to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where I live. I’m going to my mother’s funeral. She died from lung cancer. I told her to stop smoking, but she never listened to me. She smoked two, sometimes three packs a day. The hotel clerk barely heard Harold talking. He long ago lost any interest in the lives of the people who stayed at this third-rate hotel. He felt they were below him in some way. He slapped Harold’s credit card down on the faded and chipped and faded counter. “This card is no good. Do you have another one or cash?”

Harold looked through his wallet, hoping against hope that he would find some money or another credit card. He was just about to give up when he found a forgotten Visa gift card that still had fifty dollars on it. “Try this.”, he said and sighed. It went through, and the clerk grabbed the room key from one of the hooks on the wall behind him and shoved it  in Harold’s direction. He was so surprised he jumped back. And he said, “what the hell is wrong with you?”

The clerk said, “check out is nine o’clock, not a minute after. And then he turned and walked into the back room. Harold heard a TV playing, and it sounded like reruns of Gilligan’s Island. He headed towards his room, not expecting anything more than a bed with broken springs, a table, a lamp, and a toilet and shower. But he was not wrong. There was a bath towel, a hand towel, and a dirty glass on the bathroom counter. The shower curtain was torn and stained. The bathtub was indescribable. He wondered if it had been cleaned since the day it was installed. It didn’t look it.

He took a leak and then pulled his shirt and pants off and hung them on the crooked hook on the bathroom door. And then he flopped wearily onto the bed. He fell immediately into a dreamless sleep. He gave up hoping for good dreams twenty years ago. He whispered a silent prayer not to wake up. He was absolutely sick of his monotonous life. He couldn’t think of anything he had to look forward to except more of the same.

He was awakened by loud screaming in the middle of the night. It sounded like a barroom brawl in the hotel room next to him. And then he heard what sounded like a gunshot. He couldn’t decide if he should take a run for his car and get the hell out of Dodge. He decided to hide in the bathroom right after he called the hotel manager and report shots fired. Shots fired this was a new low for his career.

What next? Harold was afraid to contemplate what other horrendous things could occur in this hole-in-the-wall, last stop before hell. He decided to continue sleeping on the bath towel and what passed for a bathroom floor mat. He closed the bathroom door and kicked it for good measure, and then pushed the ratty hamper against it. And he fell into a deep sleep and didn’t wake up until he heard his alarm clock ringing and ringing and ringing.

Harold rubbed his crusty eyes. He felt as if he had just fallen asleep, yet he could see the morning sun peaking through the thin and dirty curtains that crookedly hung from a curtain rod. That was held up only by a single screw on either side of the filthy window of his even more disgusting hotel room.

He had to admit he had reached a new low, even by his standards. He wanted to go outside to get a fresh breath of air. But, he was afraid that the gunfire might start up again. On the other hand, his stomach was growling since he hadn’t eaten anything since the hamburger and fries he ate for lunch yesterday. He decided to go to the restaurant next door for a hot breakfast. He hadn’t eaten a real meal in several days. He wasn’t a connoisseur. On the other hand, he didn’t enjoy eating food that tasted as if come out of a dumpster.

He grabbed his suitcase and opened it on the bed, and took out a relatively clean shirt, underpants, and the least wrinkled pants that still remained in his suitcase. He sighed deeply and shoved his feet into a dirty pair of socks and his loafers. He was about to leave when he realized he didn’t have his wallet and couldn’t remember where he put it.

He had a habit of just putting things down and then forgetting where he put them. He finally found it lying under his pillow. He must have stashed it there in an attempt to hide it from would-be robbers. He couldn’t count how many times “the cleaning help” in hotels had “cleaned” him out of his last dollar.

As he stepped out the door, he took a deep breath, and he was surprised to find it was indeed fresh. Probably had something to do with the fact that this crummy hotel room was so far off the beaten path that the highway was nowhere near it. It raised his spirits a bit, and he walked next door to the little restaurant with a smile on his face. He hadn’t smiled in so long that his face hurt. When he pushed open the door, a little bell rang, and that made him happy too.

He plopped down in the first empty booth he got to. The table was covered with a red and white checked tablecloth and had a small vase in the middle with a single rose in it. The rose looked like it came from someone’s garden. He leaned over and breathed in its perfume. A forty-something waitress came over to his table and said, “good morning, and how are you today, sir?”

Harold was so surprised to have anyone say anything pleasant to him that he couldn’t think of a single thing to say. So he just gave her his biggest smile forgetting that he hadn’t put his top teeth in that morning. And that they were probably sitting on the bathroom counter in his hotel room, totally forgotten. He thought, “oh well, such is my life. One dumb mistake after another.” He tried to shake that thought out of his head. And the waitress said, “are you alright, sir?”

“Yes, sorry. I just woke up, and I didn’t sleep very well last night. There was some kind of kerfuffle in the hotel room next to mine last night. I thought I heard a gun go off. And I ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor. Then his face turned all red. He had no clue why he was telling the waitress what happened to him. He was usually a closed book. And never shared anything with anybody about his life. He didn’t know what had gotten into him. “Sorry, I don’t know what’s gotten into me today. Could I just get a fried egg with ham and toast and a strong cup of coffee?”

“Oh, course, sir. By the way, my name is Kathleen. Let me know if you need anything else.”

About ten minutes later, his meal was delivered to his table. “Thank you, Kathleen, it looks great. I haven’t eaten since lunchtime yesterday, and I was starved.”

“No problem, just raise your hand when you want some more coffee or anything.”

After Harold finished eating and drank his last sip of coffee, he felt like a new man. He raised his hand to let Kathleen know that he was finished, and she came over and handed him his check. He pulled out his wallet from his pocket, and that was when he remembered he didn’t have any money left.

He looked around, and he started to panic. He didn’t know what to do. He thought about making a run for it. But decided he was too old and too slow for that kind of stuff. So, when Kathleen came over, he said, “I don’t know how to tell you this, but I just realized I don’t have any money left, and I maxed out my credit card yesterday when I checked into the dive next door. “

“Oh dear, that’s unfortunate. Let me have a talk with my boss and see what he has to say, OK.”

Harold sat there and began to feel more and more upset and depressed. He had no one to call for help and no way to get any money. And then, it occurred to him that he still had two strong hands, and he used to work at a restaurant when he was just out of high school. And he knew his way around a kitchen.

He raised his hand and waved at Kathleen. She noticed him and walked over to his table.”Listen, Kathleen. It occurred to me that I could work here for the day to pay for my breakfast. Back in the day, I worked at a busy restaurant in my hometown to make money. I was a pretty good cook, and I know how to clean at the end of the day in the kitchen and the dining area. What do you say? Can you ask your boss if I could do that?”

“As a matter of fact, my boss suggested the same thing. He’s a good guy. So, after you finished your coffee, come on back into the kitchen, and I’ll give you some clothes to put on so you won’t mess up your work clothes, and you can get to work.”

“Really, well, that’s great. Thank you so much.”

“Well, follow me, and you can get started.”

Kathleen led him into the kitchen and handed him the clothes and a long apron. And then she said, that’s the men’s room down the hall where you can change. And then come back here, and I’ll show you what’s what. OK?”

“Yes, I’ll be right back. ” After he changed and put on the apron. He headed back to the kitchen. And Kathleen motioned to him to come over. “Great, you will fit right in. Why don’t you start by sweeping the floors before the rush comes in, and then you can clean the front windows. If you see anything else that needs some cleaning, please take the initiative to do it. If you have any questions, let me know. I’ll talk to you in a little while.”

Harold got busy. He forgot how much he liked working at a restaurant, the camaraderie, the laughter in the kitchen, the workers making remarks about the people that came to eat, and the smells. He wished that he had continued working at his old restaurant now instead of going into sales and spending long days driving and trying to make sales. It was a lonely life.

At the end of the day, he looked around and saw that what he didn’t had really made a big difference in how the place looked. He was about to go over and ask Kathleen if there was anything else that he could do when she waved at him to come into the kitchen.

“Harold, my boss wants to talk to you for a minute.”

“Oh, oh, didn’t I do something wrong?”

“What? No, not at all. Just go talk to him. He is in the back near the freezer.”

Harold made his way to the back of the kitchen and saw a giant of a man with a handlebar mustache standing there smiling at him. Harold walked up to him and said, “thanks for giving me the opportunity to work off my food. I completely forgot that I spent my last dime at the hotel yesterday.”

“That was my good luck. Your name’s Harold, right?”

“Yes, Harold. I was named after my grandfather. But, all my friends always called me Harry for some reason.”

“Well, Harry. You did a great job today. I was wondering if you might be looking for a job because we are really short of workers. And there is a room in the back where you can stay for as long as you like. What do you say?”

“Well, as I was telling Kathleen once upon a time, I used to work at a restaurant, and I loved it. I don’t know why I ever quit. Thank you I would love to do that. When do you want me to start? Well, why don’t you finish out the day and help with closing the restaurant, and then you can start fresh tomorrow morning? And I’ll talk to you about the pay and the room after we close up. how’s that?”

“That’s great. I’ll talk to you later. I’m going to stop by my room next door and pack up my stuff, and then I’ll come back here in a bit.”

Harold walked back to his room and threw all his stuff in his bag and brushed his teeth, and took a deep breath. He threw the keys to the room on the bed and closed the door behind him. He felt a lightness in his step and a brightening in his heart and knew that today was the first day of a new life. He smiled and walked next door to his new life.

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