Confession of a Hotel Bell Boy
Tags: Ficton, Stories, Confessions, Fiction Writing, Short Story

Attending to room services on call was a daily routine for me. There has been good days and bad days , happy customers and sad customers— like any other profession. This is the time of my life when I took up this job on a part time basis, so I was a student pursing my degree in commerce from Monday to Friday and working on night shifts over the weekends in a star rated hotel situated in the city of Kolkata, starting from Friday evening.

The primary motivation for me was the lip-smacking free food, handsome stipend(of course with tips) and the meetings with high profile guests. I was part of a five member team working who were serving their initial six months of probation. Friday evening my shift use to start from 1800 or 2100 and ends at 4300 or 9000 — so basically we were part of the graveyard shift.

Friday, Room №105, Mr. Soumitra Biswas (Managing Director of Biswas and Co.)

Ghosts and spirits are the most common flying topics of every hotel and in that age of 21, I did not hold much of apprehension. But this is one of the special case. Mr. Soumitra Biswas was one of the hobnob of the city and used to be a frequent visitor to our hotel and Room №105 was booked on behalf of his company, through out the year. On the night of Friday, I was in charge of Room №105 for every support and simply following the recommendation about his generous tips. Around late in the evening around 22hrs, Mr. Soumitra well dressed in a tailored suit entered our hotel lobby in along with a lady companion, embracing the evening love and embowering with odour of alcohol. Receptionist were quick enough to hand him over the keys and silent instructions were directed at me to take the rest of it further. I guided Mr. Soumitra and his companion towards the elevator and in utmost benign manner took them further to their room. It was quick for them to turn me around and seek the much needed privacy. I was not interfering and quickly exchanged for the necessary compliments. Later that night, well past mid night, I received a quick call from the reception to quickly attend to my allocated room. Crossing the floor lobby and multiple room inlets, I finally reached the room and knocked. Without any initial response, I used my master key and entered the room. The room was eerily silent and dark, I thought of not lighting up to bother the guest. And to my best of low voice started to call for him, “Sir,..Sir”. After a brief pause I moved further towards the door of the bedroom and with little bravery raised further to the echo “Sir, ..”. But yet, no response. The room had a weird odour apart from the alcohol, there was a sweet smell. It was dark, without any lights, air conditioner powered to maximum, and the television flickering with some random channel. Gathering some further courage, I entered the room and was stone struck. With the minimal room lighting from the television, I experienced something unnatural and out of the world. Mr. Biswas lying on the large double bed without any single piece of cloth on his body, the neighbouring phone is on his hand, he is murmuring, “Water, water.” Beads of sweat shining in the light on his body and forehead. However, this was not the moment of shock for me. When I moved my gaze from Mr. Soumitra to other dark corners of the room, I discovered a womanly figure, naked, cross legged and seated upright, hairs opened and eyes wide open, floating near the ceiling of the room. Thousands volts of shock passed through my body. Suddenly, the women moved her eyes towards me, her angry face and body of an unknown goddess was in a posture of meditation, floating above. I was amused, almost close to a breakdown and could not held my place, dropping the water bottles, which I was carrying along with me, I ran, and I ran. Without thinking of taking the elevators, I ran towards the stairs and then went down to the office room bypassing the reception. I was feeling very unwell and somehow managed to summarise the incident to my line manager. He listened to me patiently and then after giving a brief thought, he asked me to take some rest and to wait till morning.

Until next morning, I was awake and kept wondering about the outcome. Still shocked and unwell. Around 9 in the morning, my manager called me to the reception area. I rushed from the back door and the second shock of my life came into picture. Both Mr. Soumitra and the lady were happily checking out in their reception. The looked composed and unaware of any situation. Soon, they completed the formalities and went towards the exit, when Mr. Soumitra paused for a moment and called me near him, clenching my fist he handed over high denomination bill and with a grin, voiced “ Thank you for the water”.