Ecc. 2:14 “The wise man's eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.”
An EventFULL Night…
After yesterday’s post and the evening’s lousy night sleep I had the night before, I needed a distraction; something to focus on besides my drama issues. It came via a text message from my son yesterday morn. He was at work and was letting me know he was running late and he’d explain more when he got home. He’s been working the 11-7 shift since earlier this week when a three-year employee was ‘let go’. The man was fired but politely they call it ‘let go’.
Anyway, I live in a nothing-ever-happens kind of state. Statistically, we’re 85% cows. In other words, just farmland and small towns where nothing juicy ever really happens. Now keep in mind, I’m originally from Baltimore, Maryland where events like the one I’m about to tell you about happens every hour on the hour.
I think I see now why my son WANTED to work at a hotel as opposed to a pizza place, food store, or in retail. Hotels generally have an air of mystery surrounding them (think Shining) and this is the job he wanted and landed and has been HAPPY with for two full months now! (Yay)
So let me set the lead into an event full evening (technically morning) he had. Last week during a full house (88 rooms or so, taken) because of the Solar Eclipse, his hotel experienced a total blackout for 22 hours, due to a treacherous lightning storm, where he almost stepped on downed live wires, I might add! He handled the event like a champ. Even his boss was well pleased with his handling of his entire shift in the darkness situation. His position is a Front Desk Clerk, where he knows all and sees all that’s passing through the front doors of the Overlook Hotel. (real name of hotel protected for obvious reasons)
On the thirtieth, my son was asked to stay at work a couple minutes later because the ladies needed to feel protected from the events that took place that morning across the road. Him, and coincidentally a male trainee were present, so they both stayed while things calmed down. Apparently, the hotel across the road was robbed at knifepoint. No one was injured in that incident where the perp had loitered for hours before robbing the clerk, by wielding a knife demanding all of their money. The perpetrator got away with an undisclosed amount of money, just to note, hotels have very little cash because everyone uses credit! The police were scanning the other hotels in the area, putting employees on high alert making them aware of what took place. My thoughts were ‘wow, this kind of stuff never happens here!’ It made the news, by the way. Also another note, there are about twelve hotels in that vicinity, all within close proximity because of the closeness on and off the major highway. An update as of today, the man was arrested without incident at a convenience store.
Then yesterday the thirty-first happened, I received a cryptic text from my son saying something about his boss making him stay because he was high! This from a kid, okay he’s twenty-one, but has never smoked anything legal or otherwise, nor has alcohol passed his lips! So when he said he was high, I began to wonder. I heard the car nearing the house with the blaring music 'round the corner of our driveway, and laughter. He is never one to belt out laughter but there it was sounding like a young man after a night of partying!
He came in the door laughing, giggling all over himself. I said, “What on earth happened?” At first, I thought cleaning supply fumes or something like that, but no, his story was much more colorful than that.
It seems that at around 2 a.m. four police officers came into the hotel asking him questions about a wanted criminal. They suspected he might be in the hotel. They were led there by something you’d see on that show Stupid Criminals, a room key was left at the gas station next door; the perpetrator had left it behind. My son verified that the man and three other men had checked into the hotel.
Apparently, one of the men was wanted for the murder of a small child in Chicago. There was also a possibility that one of them was a suspect in the knife wielding robbery of the day before at the hotel across the road. Now what I am about to say is not meant in a racist way by any means, but when four shady looking African American men show up in a basically 90% white community, radars are normally raised, not in a racist or politically correct manner either. My son was raised in a heavily populated black community so his bars weren’t raised that high, but obviously, the police officers knew something no one else did. I believe white thugs would raise the same bars of suspicion just so you know.
The officers had to wait for a search warrant and when it finally arrived the action ensued. He didn’t say how it all went down but can you imagine, my son, fairly new to the job experiencing this? Remember, he was trying to do his work through all of this and he had to remain calm and professional at the front desk. The officers went up to retrieve the perpetrators but returned with only one screaming man, yelling expletives, in his underpants as they hauled him off to the car, while the other officers stayed in the room to ‘collect evidence’. The other men had already gone and moved on, I guess.
When the officers left with bags of marijuana taken from the premises by six-thirty, his boss had arrived for work. Yes, being the good boss that she is had stayed in touch throughout the night. My son was informed that he’d have to take an ozone ionizer to the room because of the smell, so off he went, unknowingly walking smack dab into a heavily filled room of smoke and residual crap. Hour upon hours of the men smoking weed had built up in the closed room. Apparently, the officers happily took what they needed and left the rest behind for the hotel to clean up.
My son said there were remnants of weed/marijuana everywhere, cans and trash literally, porn, beer cans, and remnants of smoked weed. He had to get around everything to plug the ozone ionizer in and just being in the room for ten minutes left him buzzed from having contact with the toxin filled room. When he came down and gave an assessment of the room to his boss, he was giggling all over himself, she exclaimed, “Your high aren’t you!” Laughing he went on to say how the room looked and all that needed to be taken care of before the room could ever be rented out again. She informed him he shouldn’t drive home yet. She knows my son well enough to know he’s not done anything like beer/weed so he was obviously buzzed and it might not be safe for him to drive.
He came home happy as a clown at a kids birthday party. Through bright smiles and giggles, he said, “Is this what it feels like? I like it! Everything looks so, so, vibrant!” His actions scare me because what he, as a good citizen has stayed away from, met him front and center. After taking his shower before going off to bed he stated, “I’m hungry.” That’s when I laughed, he had the munchies and his first contact buzz ever after an event full night at work!
