"Rita"

**"Rita"** is the third tale in the 14th episode of the 7th season of The Nosleep Podcast. Written By Kerry H., it has a runtime of 27:00 and was read by Mike DelGaudio and David Cummings. It is the 837th tale overall on the podcast.

## Summary

A man takes a job as a manager at a hotel. The hotel strictly prohibits its workers from drinking at the hotel bar after work, with one exception: Rita, a Hispanic maid who speaks little English, is allowed to drink however much she wants after her long shifts.

The man describes Rita and her amazing cleaning abilities. He also mentions her red, chapped hands and a chemical smell that always seemed to hang around her, but he attributes it to the bottle of Fabuloso cleaning spray she keeps in her waistband. He asks the owner multiple times why only Rita is allowed to drink at the bar, but every time he is refused. Eventually he quits the job and moves on.

Years later, he runs into the owner at a restaurant and they sit down to reminisce about their time at the hotel. The man once again asks the owner about Rita, but he refuses to tell him. They raise a toast to Rita and admire her resolve. Several drinks later, the owner, sufficiently drunk, tells the story of why Rita was allowed to drink at the bar.

One day, years before the man worked at the hotel, she comes into his office, complaining in broken English about a man in a room that refuses to get out of his shower. Going upstairs, they find a businessman sitting in the bathroom tub, the shower pouring over him, hiccupping. His shoes and the cuffs of his shirt are burned. Rita says the word "fire", which puzzles the owner as he can't smell any smoke. Fearing the man has mental issues, he asks Rita to go downstairs and call the police. Rita yells at him in Spanish, trying to tell him something, but he can't understand. He angrily shoves her out of the room and talks to the man, who says he's been in the tub for two days.

The paramedics arrive to take the man away. Rita begs the owner to do an unspecified activity in Spanish which he can't understand. She is in great distress. They hear the water turn off and the owner realizes his mistake of not listening to Rita. He runs forward and opens the door to the room. There is a strange chemical smell, followed by the businessman running out of the room, ablaze. The fire is coming out of his throat and burning him alive. Rita grabs him around the waist and her clothes and hair are singed. The owner pulls her off as she calls out a name. The paramedics tell them to run and they do, back to the office, where Rita falls unconscious. The man is carried out of the hotel on a stretcher, burnt completely to ash. Rita starts drinking soon after that, and the owner lets her drink at the bar.

Back in the present, the owner mournfully recalls Rita's reactions during the incident and the sad look in the businessman's eyes before he died. He emptily mentions that Rita always smelled like the chemical scent he smelled before the fire, but that he may have imagined it.

The man, disturbed, rushes out of the restaurant and drives home. Though he tries to sleep, he can't because he can't stop connecting Rita's chemical smell and her burnt hands to the incident.

## Cast

Mike DelGaudio as the man

David Cummings as the owner