Hotel Candelabra: Chapters One & Two
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Chapter One
Repeated from the introductory post. Today’s chapter is below.
It was not a choice I would have ever made except for the ferocity of the storm. Pelted by rain and blinded by lightning, the rolling thunder seemed the least of my concerns. I had become accustomed to hearing the rumbles in the distance, but this time the storm consumed me.
Glancing up, I spotted the glowing sign. Hotel Candelabra. It seemed an odd name for a hotel, but through the door, the lobby looked inviting—and dry. Gathering my baggage, I entered what I hoped with be a refuge from the storm. In my haste, I missed hearing the melody of a long-forgotten song. Bursting through the door, I heaved a sigh of relief only to see the door shut behind me—and vanish.
“Welcome to Hotel Candelabra!” a cheery voice said.
Behind the check-in counter, one of the most elderly of all elderly men smiled at my dismay and said, “You are going to love it here.”
There was something rather final in his words. Apparently, I had come to stay. I faintly heard the strains of a song echo through the lobby again and asked, “So, I can’t ever check out, can I?” It was a rhetorical question.
A cheery smile added additional wrinkles to the aged face behind the counter but did not diminish my discomfort. I had been accustomed to landing places that I didn’t necessarily want to be for most of my life but never had anyone made it feel so unlikely that I could ever leave.
Not knowing what else to say, I asked the obvious. “Do you have a room?”
“Yes, we do,” the smile said and beckoned me to follow. I looked around for the other part of his “we” but seeing no one else, I complied.
Standing in front of an elevator that looked like Willy Wonka might appear when it opened, I glanced around the lobby. In the center was a massive table with an equally massive candelabra taking up space in the center of it. I wondered if the candelabra had existed since the beginning of time and the hotel had been built around it. It was certain that the candelabra was never going to be able to leave either. There seemed to be hundreds of places for candles, but there was only one. Though the room was dark, I could see that the walls of the lobby were interspersed with mirrors and pictures of candelabras of all shapes and sizes.
“Oh wait,” the smile said, “I forgot your candle.” With that, he walked over, climbed up a stepladder to remove the last candle from the top of the massive candelabra, and handed it to me. “You will need this.”
The elevator door opened, Willy Wonka did not step out, and we were on our way.
Chapter Two
As the elevator door closed, the elderly man of few words suddenly became the elderly man with incessant words.
“There are four levels to this hotel—Lower, middle, upper, and The Flame,” he said. “That is where your room is.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the night in a place called The Flame, but he left no space for protest.
“There are twenty rooms on each of the lower floors and then ten on The Flame. You understand that The Flame is the top of the Candelabra, right?” I nodded yes, it did make sense. He continued, “You are in room number 70 because you are the very last one to arrive! We have been waiting for you!”
I wondered again about who we meant, but the elderly mouth barely took a breath before continuing. “Do you know why we have been waiting?” There was neither a pause nor expectation that I might know anything. The voice almost jumped up and down as he exclaimed, “Because you are the only one who can gather all the clues for why none of us can leave Hotel Candelabra. That is why we have been waiting for you!”
I was underwhelmed by his excitement as the elevator door opened. Expecting a hallway, I was startled to see another large—but not as massive—table in a large room with an equally less massive candelabra in the center. This time, it was filled with candles except for one spot. I was sure that spot was waiting for the candle I held in my hand.
Seeming to read my mind, the elderly man smiled in delight and motioned for me to add my candle. I wasn’t sure what to expect but was sure something would happen. It didn’t.
Feeling as though I might soon collapse due to the exhaustion of it all, I looked around the doors that lined the perimeter of the room until I spotted room number 70 and said, “I think I need to go to my room now. Can I have the key?”
With more enthusiasm than seemed warranted, he responded, “Oh, there is no key. The room knows you.”
Feeling an affinity with my childhood friend, Alice, who stepped through a looking glass into a world that made no sense but seemed familiar, I walked up to the door and watched it open. What I saw in the room took my breath away.