I was walking down the hallway, like I do every morning on my way to find some breakfast, when I heard someone crying. I turned the corner and there was a kid, curled up in a ball, crying.

Oh damn. What am I supposed to do with a kid??

“Hey man, are you ok?”

The kid looked up at me with tears in his eyes.

“My... my mom. (hiccup) She’s dead.”

“I’m so sorry kid. When did it happen?”

“Thi...this morning. She went to get us something to eat out of the black cupboard. But...but then she made a weird sound and twitched... and... and she was dead!!”

The kid started bawling even louder. I didn’t know what to do so I walked over and put an arm around him.

“When did you guys get here?”

“Lasss... last night.”

He wiped his nose on his arm.

“Yeah, I’m sorry kid. That happens a lot here in this hotel though. How about you come with me and I’ll show you where you can get some food?”

“K...kay.”

He wiped his face and began to follow me down the hallway.

“You know, this hotel ain’t perfect, but once you get to know your way around it makes a pretty good home. My name is Benny by the way. What’s your name?”

“M... Melvin.”

“Well, Melvin, if you want you can stick with me for a few days and I can show you around. Introduce you to some folk. Sound ok?”

“Re..Really? Thanks Mr. Benny.”

“Nah, just call me Benny.”

We turned a corner and entered the dining room. They always do a big lay out in the mornings for breakfast. Everything a guy could want; even some cold coffee.

“So what do you like kid? Eggs? Donuts? Fruit?”

“Anything is fine with me, as long as it doesn’t kill me.”

“This stuff won’t kill you. Everyone eats it, even the hums. Oh look, there’s Greg over there. Come on, I’ll introduce you. Yo!! Gregor!!”

“Beeny! My freend. How good you are to be seen. Who is dis den? One off yer meeny children?”

“Nah man. This is Melvin. He and his mom arrived just last night. His mom got into the black cupboard though.”

“<Gasp> How teerreeble. I am sooo fery sawry. Yew leesen to Beeny. He will show yew all da good places like he do me.”

Gregor smiled, then turned and handed Melvin a piece of donut.

“Oh! Dere is my vife. I weel see yew leeter Beeny. Nice tew meet yew Meevin.”

Greg left Melvin and myself with the food.

“That guy talks funny.” Melvin then gobbled his food down.

“He’s just foreign. He arrived with a hum from some other country. Anyway, he -- LOOK OUT!!!!”

I grabbed the kid and ran. A hum plate had almost dropped right on top of us.

“Wha...what was that?!?!” Cried Melvin, breathing heavily.

I tried to catch my breath too.

“That was a close one. That was a hum plate. They must not have seen us. Then again, maybe they did. Come on, grab some food quick and lets get out of here.”

We ran as quick as we could out of the dining room and into the lounge. We stopped by a chair so that we could finish our breakfast.

“Well that was interesting. Some excitement on your first day here huh kid?”

“Yeah. Thanks for getting me out of there Mr... I mean Benny.”

“No problem kid. I’ll show you around the place now. We’ll just stick close to the walls and stay out of the way.”

We walked down the hallway and saw that someone was just getting into the old elevator so we snuck in -- ended up on the 3rd floor and continued down a hallway and peeked into one of the rooms.

“Now these are the rooms where the hums live. We try to steer clear of them, that way we don’t have any problems. The more we’re seen the more black cupboards appear.”

The kid looked at me wide eyed and drank in everything I had to say. I’d forgotten what it was like to be his age. I led him down further in the hallway down to a huge gray door.

“Now I’m gonna show you where the real party is.”

I smiled at the kid. I couldn’t help it. He was eager to learn, to live.

Through the door was the stairwell of the hotel. We went down, down, down. Past the 2nd floor, past the 1st, all the way to the basement. Here was where all the people were.

I introduced the kid around. Kim, Chaney, Amanda, all of the usual folk. The girls all cooed over Melvin.

Good grief. I never had this much attention.

We pretty much hung out here for most of the day until it was time to eat again.

“Ok kid, stick with me and stick to the walls, we’ll be ok.”

He shook his head and followed me back up the stairs to the 1st floor. We stayed near the wall and made our way once again to the dining room where they were serving a dinner buffet. I just love buffets. It makes things so much easier.

We slowly made our way to the food table and started to grab what we could. We even found a little wine that someone left behind. Very nice!

“So kid, what do you think of it here?”

“Ish great!” He said through a mouthful of food. “I just wish my mom was here.”

“I know. Here, try some of this.”

I gave the kid some wine. He seemed to really like it and kept asking for more. Then he sat looking at the floor. I figured the kid was drunk, but when he looked at me he had a strange look in his eye.

“Thanks Benny.”

The next thing I knew he got up and charged out into the middle of all of the hums. I could only hold my breath and close my eyes to block out what happened next – I could still hear all of it.

“EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!!!! Mom!!! Look!!! A cockyroach!!!”

“DISGUSTING!!”

CRACK!

<sigh> Ah well, there’ll be more around tomorrow.

“See ya kid!”

---

-- Lori Geissinger

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