Soliloquy

Jeff knew he had to act fast. There wasn’t much time remaining. He stared at his watch. It showed ten past midnight. He took his time before slowly pulling the curtain. What stood before him made him dumbstruck. He couldn’t speak now that Ellie was in her bunk just above his. One thing he didn’t have was time.

Jeff Carmichael started going over his mind about how he had ended up in Besant Hotel. He was a renowned New Jersey attorney who had a normal nine-to-five week. He would return to dinner with his wife Goldie everyday. After all, a property advocate wasn’t expected to work odd hours. He had built up a reputation among the chambers as a hard-working, conscientious man. His wife Goldie and him were blessed with a gorgeous daughter Ellie, who was now five.

A hectic summer had Carmichael working flat out which left him desiring for a short beach vacation, something Goldie too was able to agree upon. They chose Miami and were away at the crack of dawn the next Friday. Their plan was to return on Monday morning.

Carmichael and family booked into The Besant Hotel and chose to go with a single room with double beds. The hotel had an interesting innovation of having one’s bunks on top of another, not unlike a railway sleeper. Jeff agreed with Goldie that this would prove fun for Ellie.

They had planned a visit to the beach the next morning and mother and daughter were already planning the visit to detail. Thank God there wouldn’t be a dress code to discuss of, thought Jeff as he turned the lights off. He tucked Ellie into her bunk and fell into a deep sleep in his.

His sleep was interrupted by his thoughts, going back over a tough negotiation he had to make for his client back in New Jersey. He wasn’t going to lose sleep over his work in a vacation, he had thought as he had embarked on this journey but Goldie turned out to be right. She had once commented that Jeff and law were friends who couldn’t wish each other goodnight even if they were in different parts of the world, willing different time zones too! Jeff smiled at his wife, sleeping contended beside him, wishing that he could have her sense of balance in life.

This time, when he awoke he knew it was something other than law. He turned on the bedside light to see a piece of paper stuck beneath his pillow. He turned it over and read, “Ten past midnight, and you’re wiped off.” He couldn’t believe to what extents Ellie was willing to go to scare her dad. He laughed and put the piece of paper back and started to sleep again when he heard the voice. It was a female voice. He listened carefully. The female was shouting from across the window. It wasn’t a human voice, he thought. Then he took a bold decision. He withdrew the curtain across the window and stood still. He could now see the female clearly. His assumption was right. The voices died down. His watch said it was ten past midnight. Jeff could no longer hear his own voice.

It was left to ‘The Florida Morning Chronicle’ to carry the news of the mysterious death of a New Jersey family at a Miami Hotel.