Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The brightness of the room woke David from his sleep. He opened his eyes and was relieved to see the room so visible and lit up instead of dark and dim. The night had passed and there were no more dark shadows to be afraid of. David had high spirits and optimism for the new day..

He rolled over and sat up and saw that Gracie was already sitting up in her bed with the blankets pulled back off her. She was looking into a small compact mirror doing something to her eye. She noticed David’s awakening. “Good morning.” She said still holding the mirror up. “Did you sleep alright?”

David nodded. “Yeah.” he rubbed his eyes a little. “I’m glad that’s over." He looked around some more, his hair all messed up from sleeping.

“Glad that’s over?” she repeated wondering why he said that. “What, was it scary for you?” She teased.

“No.” David said chuckling along with her. “But you have to admit this place is just a little un-nerving at night, especially if your not use to it.”

"I admit nothing!" Gracie said slapping him on the arm. "Stop saying bad things about my place!"

David liked Gracie's playful physical abuse. "I wasn't saying I was afraid, I was just stating facts."

“Oh’ so you were scared.” She said teasing him some more.

David tried hard again to cover the fact that he was scared last night. “Noo..” David shook his head and laughed in comedic disagreement. “Well I guess I’m not use to these kind of places.”

“These kind of places? What are you trying to say!” She continued to have fun with David. “What are you trying to say about my house?” She slapped his arm harder.

“Well I am only seventeen years old.” David said now having fun with Gracie.

“That’s no excuse, I’m a grown up and I’m afraid of the dark too!” They both laughed. Gracie reached over and combed and adjusted David’s messed up hair with her fingers. “Here let me fix your pillow hair.”

Gracie’s stroking of David’s hair felt good to him.

David realized that he had to use the bathroom. “I need to take a leak. Where’s the bathroom?” David asked.

“The bathroom is over here.” Gracie put away her mirror and got up and walked over to a closed door on the side of the room. David got up and followed her. Gracie opened the door and walked in, right up to an old toilet that was in there.

“There's no running water in this building so you have to pour two gallons of water in this toilet to get it to flush.” Gracie pointed over to two large pitchers she had sitting over in the corner of the bathroom. “Or you can just pee in here and leave it and I will just poor the water in and flush it when I go.”

David could see that Gracie was trying to lessen the inconvenience of this place so david would stick with her, but at this point David badly wanted to let her know that was unnecessary.

“That’s okay I can poor in the water.”

“Wait a minute, let me show you.” Gracie said as she went over to the water pitchers like she never heard what David said. She picked up the two pitchers, brought it over to the toilet and poured in the water.

“Where did you get that water from?” David asked.

“Downstairs. The closest faucet that works is next door in an old barber shop. I have to fill up these pitchers and carry them up every time I come up here.”

“I can do that.” David blurted out, letting Gracie know that he would carry up any water he used. Gracie nodded keeping her eyes where she was pouring the water.

“It’s really not the most convenient system but you do what you have to.” She paused talking for a moment. “This works for number two too.”

“Where does it go when you flush it?” David asked. Gracie didn’t give David and answer right away. Instead she had a perplexed look on her face.

“I don’t know.” She told him as she looked at him still pouring the last pitcher in. “Suppose it goes to the sewer, unless it spills out somewhere downstairs inside the Hotel!” David’s mouth and nose crinkled up at the gross thought of that. “Although I have been in just about every part of this hotel and I have never seen it doing that. I’m sure it goes down in the ground somewhere.”

Gracie finished pouring the second pitcher and threw it back over in the corner. “We’ll have to bring up more water to take baths tonight, in here.” she pointed inside an old bathtub that was right beside the toilet. “Don’t worry, its cleaner than it looks. It doesn’t look like it but I scrubbed all this stuff pretty good.”

David looked inside the bathtub. It had a lot of stains at the bottom and it got cleaner towards the top. He could see where Gracie had scrubbed it. It wasn’t to bad, it looked like it had a light fade and a bit of rust here and there and the toilet looked about the same. The thing David noticed most of all were all the things Gracie put in here. On the sink was some of her hygiene items. Most noticeable was a fist size green frog sitting on the back of the sink. It was holding a tooth brush. It kind of gave the bathroom a homey feeling.

“There.” Gracie said as she poured the last bit of water in. “You go ahead.” She motioned her pointer finger at the toilet. “I’ll go out and fix us some coffee. You drink coffee?”

David had never drunk a sip of it in his life. “Yeah.”

Gracie gave a pleasant smile. "Don't get any piss on the floor!" She whacked him hard on the butt.

David liked Gracie’s continued and newly found enjoyment of touching him roughly and smiled with a dumb look on his face. "Don't worry I have good aim." He managed to say. He had the urge to say something more sexual but thought better of it.

Gracie nodded "I bet you do." David noticed she looked him up and down in admiration when she said that Then walked out of the bathroom closing the door behind her before David could respond back. David could swear he picked up on a strong sexual tone to Gracie’s voice and he was stupidly going to say something perverse back to her but she didn't give him a chance. David now had a hard-on and was having trouble getting the urine out. When he was finished he flushed the toilet and watched the water swirl down and it made him feel like he was in a normal home environment, but when the water didn’t return to fill the toilet bowl it reminded him where he really was. Gracie had told him not to get piss on the floor but because of his swollen penis he had dribbled a lot right infront of the toilet. He grabbed some toilet paper and tried to dab it up the best he could.

He zipped up his pants and walked over to the sink and mirror. David was having a hard time cooling himself down from that hot little play of words he just had with Gracy. He found himself not able to believe that an older woman like that would want to have sex with him. He wasn't totally sure she would but he new he picked up on something and his young mind could barely process it.

He turned the hot water nozzle not expecting anything to come out and sure enough nothing did. David just looked at the dry sink and faucet, then turned the hot water nozzle off like it mattered. He looked up at his reflection in the cracked mirror. He stared at himself for a moment.

“Well here I am.” He told himself. He took a moment to appreciate his good fortune, being here instead of being alone on the streets. The optimization he felt this morning was still with him. The Orange light from the candle flickered on his face reflection. The dimness of the bathroom made him feel like he was back in that dark night he just came from and it started to freak him out a little. He was tired of being in the dark rooms and he wanted to get back to the bright day, so he turned around and grabbed the door knob and pulled the door open to the bright light and the view of Gracie walking back and forth preparing a pot of coffee. Gracie was fumbling about with the coffee pot in the corner, pouring water into it from several plastic bottles she had set around. She looked like she was working on a science experiment. David looked her up and down trying to make out what her body looked like through those thick clothes. They were tight enough on her to where he could tell that she must of had a nice little body under that dress. He was hopping when he came out she would say more sexual thing to him but at the moment she was working like a busy little bee.

The light of the new day cast a crisp fill upon everything in the room. The sun was shinning outside but there was still a chill inside. The pealed and scuffled/worn wood and Christmas decorations gave the space a crisp and grayish ora of promising light that seemed to come from nowhere.

"You hungry?" Gracie asked David while mixing up her concoction.

"Yeah a little." David said wondering what kind of food she had.

"I'm going to have some tomato soup, how does that sound?"

"Okay." David had hoped he would get more erotic thrills from her but at the moment she didn't seemed to be in that kind of mood.

"If you open up that cabinet over there, you should find some soup cans in it."

David walked over to the tall armoire doing what she told him like a dog obeying his master. He was now under her spell after that little experience in the bathroom. He opened the doors of the armoire and there filling the bottom were dozens of cans of food.

"Is there any in there?" Gracie asked.

"Ummm.." David murmured, grabbing a few cans, turning them to look at the labels. He saw two cans of corn, four cans of green beans, three cans of peas, then he found two cans of tomato soup

"Yes.... two cans."

"Good.. we can each have a can. Bring those over." David piled the cans in his arm then closed the cabinet door and carried them back over to Gracie. She grabbed them out of David’s hands.

"Good, I knew I still had something edible in there. The only thing left is canned vegetables, I already ate all the good stuff." She put the cans down on the long elevated board that had every thing else on it in front of the windows. David guessed it must of served as some sort of seating for the motel guests.

"After our coffee is done I can heat up those, I only have one burner. Gracie opened the two cans and poured them into a sauce pot and then set it aside to be ready after the coffee was done. She started to settle in and put her back against the window seal behind her and crossed her legs, holding up her coffee cup with two hands while she sipped it. Her tattered dress flowed and moved with her legs. She got into comfort mode.

"So what do you want to do today?" Gracie asked David.

David remembered Gracie saying she wanted to go get a Christmas tree today and he wondered if she forgot, but before he opened his mouth to mention it Gracie spoke in an excited tone. "Oh we were going to get a Christmas tree today!" She was looking at David with big eyes. David got the impression that she had only pretended to forget about it hoping that he would bring it up first or to just see what he though about it.

"Yeah...." David managed to say before Gracie cut him off.

"Well maybe later, I want to give you a tour of the Hotel first today!" She fluffed it off like maybe she was forcing her friendship with David too fast. It seemed like David's short 'Yeah' answer was enough to reassure Gracie that he wanted to do it.

"We can use these bowls to eat our soup. I got these in the kitchen and dinning hall. Its right next to the ball room that's down on the first floor. I can't wait to show you!" Gracie raised her coupled hands under her jaw and against her neck like she was enchanted by the thought.

The tea kettle started whistling. The loud whistle broke Gracie out of her enchantment and she grabbed the coffee pot off the burner and quickly replaced it with the soup, poured herself and David a cup of coffee and handed it to him. He sipped at it not really wanting to drink it, doing so just to please Gracie. He tried not to burn his lips, letting the taste infiltrate his mount and Gracie caught him crinkle his nose and mouth up from the taste.

. "Here are some sugar packets, they'll make it taste better." Gracie knew it must have been David’s first cup of coffee but she didn't say anything. David emptied the four sugar packets into his drink and continued sipping at it.

They ate their breakfast slowly and chatted back and forth, enjoying their first meal together.