The Hotel

The inside of the hotel was even more beautiful and fancy than the outside. It was pretty obvious from the minute Mama opened the door that we didn't belong in a place like this unless we were scrubbing something. I could tell Mama felt the same way because she straightened up a bit, grabbed Tom's hand and told us to mind our manners. She may as well have told us to become pink bears because this late in the day with nothing in our bellies we didn't even remember what manners were.

For the first few minutes, Mama didn't recognize her mistake because Abby and Tom were too busy looking at things to think about touching things.

Mama walked up to a counter that was made of shiny wood and asked the man behind it if she could speak to Clara Lawson.

"Is she a guest here?" the man asked looking us all up and down.

"No," said Mama "she'd be in housekeeping if she was here."

"Do you mean that you don't know if she is even here at all?" the man said like someone was pinching him.

"Mama, look there's food", said Tom pointing towards a table that had a big plate of cookies on it in the near empty dining room.

"Shhh. Be good," said Mama and turned back towards the man "Well, I guess I don't know exactly. It's just she ain't at her apartment and so I thought she might be working."

"But Mama, that women gets a cookie." Tom complained

"I want a cookie." Abby cried.

"Shh, both of you." Mama said.

"Miss, we can't just tell you if a person is working here. There are privacy issues at stake." the man told Mama.

"But I'm Karen Douglass her sister and I need to talk to her."

"I am sure if this Clara Lawson would like you to call upon her in an emergency she would have given you a phone number." replied the man.

"Mama, why don't we just go home?" I said. I knew that we weren't supposed to be here.

"She did give me a phone number. I have it right here in my purse. Can I use your phone?"

Mama let go of Tom's hand to slide her purse off her arm and open it. Tom made a beeline for the cookies and Abby was right behind him. I saw them go before Mama did but I didn't care. I didn't want to be here with all of them anyway.

"There is a pay phone outside."

"But your phone is right there. Please, can I use it?"

"Look Mama, it's a fairy wonderland." Abby cried as she found herself in a dining room filled with flowers. "I bet a princess lives here."

"Jr, go get your sister and brother please." said Mama.

"Why don't you go and get them yourself?" I said.

"Because I have to use the phone." Mama replied.

"Please miss, if you are not planning on staying as a guest I will have to ask you to leave." the man said.

"But I need to talk to Clara." Mama said then she added "Jr, go get Abby and Tom now." But I didn't budge.

"Mama, Abby is making me be a fairy. She's hurting my arm." Tom wailed from the dining room.

"The two of you get back here now." Mama ordered.

"But Abby is hurting me and I want a cookie." Tom said.

"Fairies eat nothing but cookies." Abby said.

"They do?" Tom said suddenly interested.

"They eat cookies and fly around like this." Abby let go of Tom's arm and began darting around the flowers flapping her "wings".

Tom wasted no time heading for the cookies. "I don't want to be a fairy because fairies are stupid", he said over his shoulder.

"Miss, I am going to ask you again. Please, take your children outside." the man said.

"Fairies ain't stupid. You take that back." Abby yelled at Tom.

"They are to stupid. Stupid as you are." Tom answered.

Mama handed me Sarah and ran towards Abby and Tom. Sarah woke up when she was passed to me and started to cry.  I just let her because I just wanted Mama to
take us home.

When Mama made it to Tom and Abby, they were already fighting. She grabbed their hands and started to pull them towards the counter where I was standing.

"Mama, you're hurting me", cried Abby.

"Abby wouldn't let me get a cookie", said Tom.

"You're the one that said fairies are stupid." Abby accused.

"They are." said Tom sticking his tongue out.

"Shut up both of you." ordered Mama "Jr, please help me."

"No!" I said, "I don't even want to be here."

"Miss, you can't stay here. Take your children outside."

By this time, Mama had made it back to the counter. Sarah was still crying but when she reached to take her from me Abby kicked Tom in the leg.

"Mama, Abby kicked me." Tom cried.

"You shouldn't have said fairies were stupid. You're stupid." Abby said and kicked him again.

Sarah started to cry more loudly. Mama grabbed Abby by the waist and pulled her away from Tom. Tom sat down on the carpet screaming about cookies, fairies and his leg hurting. When Mama looked to me for help, I just shook my head.

"Look Miss, I need you to leave or I'm going have to call the police."

"Give me a room", said Mama as she wrestled to keep Abby from Tom.

"I don't think you can afford a room here." The man answered looking a little surprised at the way the conversation had turned.

"I don't care what you think I can afford. I'm telling you to give me a room." Mama said as she grabbed Sarah from me and kept Abby trapped close to the counter with her leg.

"Mama, why don't we just go home?" I said but Mama ignored me.

"Our rooms are very expensive..." the man said

"And I'm planning on paying for it. So, give me a room," ordered Mama as she bounced Sarah to make her stop crying.

By this point, Tom had shut up a little to watch Mama go at it with a complete stranger and I was beginning to wonder if I had pushed her a bit too far. I didn't want her to start crying in the middle of this nice hotel.

"I don't think that we have facilities suitable for children."

"So what you're saying is that you don't have the 'facilities' for my children?" said Mama really loud. She said it loud enough to make Sarah start to cry again.

"It there a problem here?" said another man coming from behind us. I wished that I could just sink into the ground because my family as so embarrassing.

"Yes sir, there is." Mama turned and said rocking Sarah against her shoulder. "It seems that this man won't give me a room because he thinks that I can't pay for it when I got this gold credit card that says that I can." With that she turned back around, opened her purse and pulled Daddy's gold card out and set it on the counter.

During this move, Abby got loose again but didn't take after Tom because she was too busy watching Mama.

The man behind the counter looked like he was about to choke. "Well sir, I didn't know ... what I mean is that her kids were tearing around..."

"Now, we can't penalize our guests just because their children are tired and need a little bit of extra attention, can we? Now ma'am lets get the kids into the dining room and set them down. I am sure we have some wonderful desserts left over from supper. It must be very trying to handle all those children by yourself," the nice man said.

"Yes, it is." said Mama as she pulled Tom off the floor and hurried us to a table in the dining room.

After she got us seated, Mama went back to the counter with the nice man. I almost didn't understand what was going on. Just second before, we were being told to get out and now here we were in our dirty everyday clothes sitting at a table that didn't know what dirt was. "Daddy must be right", I thought, "Everyone does what you want when you have a gold card".

"What would you like to eat?" another man in a black suit asked us.

"I would like cookies," said Tom.

"Shut up Tom. We can't have cookies for dinner." I hissed.

"You can have anything you want for dinner." The man said.

"Do you have ice cream?" Abby asked with big eyes.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, we do" the man replied.

"I want that," said Abby.

"Me too." said Tom.

"I think we could all use some ice cream," said Mama as she came back to the table with Sarah. "We'll have one vanilla, two chocolate and one strawberry. And after that, we'll have some pizza if the cook is still here."

The waiter smiled and swept off to get us our food.

"Mama, it's dinnertime." I said.

"No, it's nighttime and everybody knows you can eat anything you want in the nighttime." she smiled funny at Abby who giggled. "You're right Abby. It is just like a fairyland in here." Mama said.

"Fairies eat cookies all the time." Tom supplied.

"Do they really?" Mama asked.

"Yes, all the time except when their eating ice cream." added Tom.

Mama smiled again. And so we sat, at 8:30 at night in fancy hotel eating dessert like we were born to it. It was easy to forget about being tired and mad when you're eating pizza and ice cream a whole hour after you should have been in bed.