A Home For Igor

by alexisleech

Laura looked up at Carl with a cheerful smile when he arrived at the reception desk at midday to pay his bill. Unlike him and his guests, whose hangovers were plain to see by their hang-dog expressions, Laura looked the picture of health. Determined to look composed after her ungainly departure from the party the night before, she had applied her make-up with care to help cover up the fact she only had four hours sleep.

     ‘I can see that chef of yours managed to put a smile on your face,’ Carl teased.

     ‘Sorry?’

     Carl gave her one of those knowing looks that implied they shared a secret. ‘Your chef… I must try that ‘me Tarzan, you Jane’ approach the next time I want to get my girlfriend into the sac. It was most impressive!’

     Laura could feel the colour rising in her cheeks at the suggestion, and was just about to correct him when she realised Carl’s version of events was probably more acceptable than the truth. A lot more dignified too. Her fear of being classed as a legless, drunken drug-user was much greater than her fear of everyone thinking she had a younger lover.

     ‘Ah yes…’ she tittered in a way she hoped would imply he was correct in his assumption. ‘To be honest, I didn’t realise he was so strong.’

     ‘Well, I assume he works out. He picked you up and carried you off as though you were as light as a feather.’

     Again, Laura nearly corrected him, but decided he could be right. Igor was now sporting a very healthy set of biceps, along with a flat stomach. It was certainly a far cry from the weedy, pot-bellied Sous chef they had employed eight weeks ago. Maybe he was going to a gym to impress his girlfriend, Nazdia, the one he was secretly making out with in the dry store. He certainly hadn’t acquired muscles like that carrying pots and pans around in the kitchen.

     ‘Eh, yes,’ she replied as she took Carl’s credit card and slipped it into the terminal. The fact that his bill was an extra four hundred and forty pounds on top of his three thousand pound deposit for food and accommodation, didn’t seem to faze him. Laura was just thankful she’d ordered two extra cases of champagne. Carl and his party had drunk all but one bottle at forty pounds a pop.

     ‘I’ll certainly be recommending this place to my friends,’ he told her as he tapped in his pin number. ‘This weekend has been excellent, especially with the added bonus of you know what…’

     Laura didn’t doubt that letting Carl and his friends smoke a few joints was what he was referring to. Her biggest concern was the smell it might leave behind in the residents’ lounge, but fortunately, having opened the windows at seven that morning, after she sprayed the room liberally with air freshener, the odour had disappeared.

     Not being one to miss the opportunity of getting more business, Laura opened the top drawer of the reception desk and pulled out a handful of business cards. ‘It’s been a pleasure, Carl,’ she told him as she passed them to him along with his credit card and receipt. ‘And if any of your friends would like to use The Bedford for parties or weddings, I’ll make sure they get a really good price…’

***********

By the time the last of Carl’s guests left, Laura was beginning to flag. She was contemplating going back to bed when Jenny took over the reception desk, but not until she checked something out. She didn’t want to go through another restless night trying to work out a solution to Igor’s love life problem. The sooner she solved it, the sooner she could relax.

     ‘Do you know why the back bedroom on the second floor is used as a storeroom?’ she asked Jenny as soon as she came downstairs from housekeeping.

     Jenny lifted her gaze from the arrivals list in her hand. ‘According to one of the chambermaids, who had been here for years when I started, it was because it was haunted. Apparently, a guest died in there, and people kept complaining about strange things happening after that. The owners before the Patels decided it was too much hassle to let it out, apart from the fact that it looks out on the bins in the car park at the back. Why do you ask?’

    ‘Oh, it’s just an idea I’ve had. I thought it could be put to better use, that’s all. You don’t really believe it’s haunted, do you?’

     Jenny shrugged her shoulders. ‘To be honest, I’ve never been in there. After that woman told me about it, I didn’t want to go near it.’

     When Laura thought back to the one and only time she had been in the room, technically room thirteen if such a thing was allowed in a hotel, she could only remember seeing a couple of double beds, a load of outdated bedroom furniture, and a fold away cot. If push came to shove, the cot could be stored in her flat, and the rest of the furniture not required to furnish the room could be chucked out.

     ‘Well, I better check it out then,’ Laura told her. ‘I don’t believe in ghosts, so it doesn’t bother me.’

     ‘Rather you then me,’ Jenny snorted. ‘If anything happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you!’

***********

As Laura approached the storeroom, she fished out the master key from her pocket. She was determined to make her idea work, so reminded herself that there was no such thing as ghosts when she opened the door and went inside. Just as she remembered, there was nothing but beds, redundant furniture, and the fold away cot. A bigger room than the rest on the second floor, it also had a sofa in the corner, opposite an old fashioned looking TV. As Jenny said, the small window overlooked the bins in the carpark at the back of the building, but she was sure Igor wouldn’t mind that. The ensuite was a bit antiquated compared to the others in the hotel, but that didn’t matter either. At least Igor would have it to himself instead of having to share it with his uncle’s family.

    ‘This is perfect,’ Laura said out loud after she switched off the light and fan in the windowless ensuite. If the room was cleaned out with the exception of the furniture it required, she didn’t doubt Igor could be very comfortable there. She even found a couple of bedside lamps in the corner of the room, which she took over to a chest of drawers by the window and plugged into the wall. The fact that they worked really surprised her, because the bulbs looked ancient, and were covered in dust. After she turned them off, she let them cool down before wiping them over with an old pillowcase she found on top of one of the upturned mattresses.

     Satisfied that she could do no more until she got someone to take the excess furniture away, Laura turned to leave the room when she heard the fan whirring away in the ensuite. That's strange, she thought to herself, I'm sure I switched that off…

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