The Coronado Hotel

Charlene ran the front desk of the hotel, Doug was the groundsman and only maintenance personnel. The siblings grew up around the hotel so they knew its nooks and crannies like they knew themselves. Charlene had frizzy brown hair with curls and volume to show, light brown skin and hazelnut eyes. She wore tacky sweaters usually with cats or some kind of cute animal sewn into the fabric, her pants were slacks and she usually wore sandals with her socks pulled up high. Doug could normally be found in plain Ts and had ample downtime and usually spent it locked away in his room smoking pot. His hair was short but unkempt and usually his clothes were worn past their usefulness.

The Coronado hotel lied in a small desert town with maybe twenty thousand residents but received a high volume of passersby. Over the past seventy years that the business stood nothing of the decor had ever changed. The white stucco walls were always white as well as the red painted wood trim that had always been red. A very earthy tone of shingle was used to cover the roof and bent upwards into arch ways at every third room. To contrast the earthy browns many green agave and yuccas were planted alongside numerous pygmy palms and desert sages. The whole view was very successfully southwestern. A well taken carpet had lasted the hotel for decades and only held minor stains and offsets. The walls were the same as they were well taken care of and only required repainting every couple of years and always the same shade of off white. White sheets and pillow cases was basic but the comforter usually was of earthy tone colors to match the southwestern feel and smelled of the pomegranate scented soap that had been used on them longer than the two siblings had been alive. The Coronado hotel lied only four blocks south of the main highway along fourth and sat across the street from the only library in town.

People came and they went, never staying for too long but never leaving without setting in impression. Behind her desk Charlene met all kinds of faces but no matter the appearance they were all the same in some sense. The businessman who had to make a stop on his way to the big city , the young couple on a weekend get away, the young mother fleeing from her family and the young man looking for his. There were those who remained silent through their check in process while others were loud mouthed an had an opinion for everything. Everyone was different yet they all shared the temporariness of their existence in the sibling's life. They like the hotel knew only cold ephemeral relationships based of the insistence that the other must move on to their true destination. None of the passerby knew permanence, the very knowledge would destroy their very being. No, permanence was a concept that only the Coronado hotel and staff could conceive.

Even as a young girl of 8 or 9 Charlene had worked the front desk helping her mother and learning the tips and tricks of the industry. How to set the keys and run the cards and how to manipulate the customer. Oh a man with a suit? Tell him no economy rooms! All one hundred and one rooms were nearly similar but the economy were facing the alley way and was never a top choice for the would be inhabitants. Doug had also too always had a hand in the caring of the business though he always chose to maintain his distance. Since the start of the hotel day to day operations were overseen by family. With the passing of the parents the only people left to continue the Coronado's existence were the bickering siblings.

Truthfully the two were oblivious as to why they were there and in reality they never had a choice. Being born into proprietorship is a difficult fate when the prospects are mediocre. To its creator the Coronado Hotel stood as a sign of creation. The buildings stood as a monument to mans ability to make something from nothing, to create a source of income where once none existed. When the hotel found its stride there was no way that the progress could be halted and given up. After some time the Coronado began to change. The business took on a life of its own and the care takers simply existed to maintain the flow of operations. Nothing became more important to the small family then maintaining the day to day tasks to keep the money coming in. As a result of its success the two siblings were forced to grow with the business' infrastructure so much so that all the knew built around them and set their paths in stone. How could they leave a world literally created for them to exist in?

Charlene had never cared to carry on a conversation for too long with any passerby. Usually the conversations were painfully monotonous.

"Welcome to the Coronado hotel."

"Thanks, I'm here to check into my room."

Ok, do you have a reservation?"

"Yes."

"Ok perfect let me find you in our computer. Here you are, Just sign here."

"Right here?"

"Yes and I will need a credit card."

"Oh for what?"

"It's just a pending hold for a safety deposit. When you check out and the room is not destroyed we will remove it."

"Oh ok that's fine."

"Thank you let me run that real quick. Perfect! And here is your key. Your room is just outside across from the pool."

"Thank you."

"Thank you for choosing the Coronado hotel." The conversations were always basic. Every once in a while an excited customer would mention where they were going and why they had to stop but not much changed from person to person. It did not matter anyways because Charlene did not care to hear it..

Doug never spoke to the customers and always kept to himself due to his constant high and false paranoia that he wold be found out. Though he tried hard to keep his drug use private some occasions had caused him to blow his cover. One most memorable one was the result of over thirty hits of Acid. Whether he knew he was being watched or not Doug stripped to his boxers and climbed to the shingled roof so that the gods could more clearly see his rain dance. Charlene came out to see him in his foolishness.

"Doug! What are you doing? Get down!"

"Charlene, she blesses us with her presence. Your honor." He gave a majestic bow. "Now to make it rain!" Doug began dancing harder with no specifically choreographed moves.

"Doug seriously! Do you even know where you are right now?"

"Of course! Its the mother fucking Coronado hotel! The place were dreams come true!"

Two fire trucks and a handful of police officers could not get him down. Doug had to leap from the roof and into the pool where he could finally be apprehended. To the benefit of the business Charlene lied and said he was just some random customer and needed to be removed. Charlene would never forgive her brother and Doug could never shake the embarrassment of his actions and how they affected his sister. In the end though when it really came down to it he did not care.

Soon after Doug's episode and the event had made the papers a customer walked in. "Is this the mother fucking Coronado hotel?" Then a smirk.

Charlene did not offer one in return and instead gave a bitter grimace. "Yes, but I do not appreciate the language."

"Hey I'm just quoting the newspaper article. I thought to myself I gotta see this mother fucking Coronado hotel. Drove all the way from phoenix to see it. Is it true, Do all your dreams come true?"

"I am not amused sir. Do you want a room or not?"

"I do but first tell me, what is your dream?"

Charlene did not answer. Really she did not even know how to answer such a question and that realization angered her. "I am not into fraternizing. Please, I will need a credit card."

"So do you not have a dream, is that it?"

Charlene refused to answer. "You are being difficult sir."

"I don't think you have a dream. Tell me are you happy here?"

She eyed the man who was asking such striking questions. Never had he seen him before and he was obviously not from the town. "I have plenty of dreams."

"Oh plenty huh? Tell me just one."

Charlene was stumped. "I dream that you would just leave."

"Oooh, ouch! But it is only a defensive mechanism to mask your lack of aspirations."

The man was right. Charlene knew it and now she could not refuse it. How insignificant she felt as she stared towards the outside and saw the passerby. All these people continually moving on from their temporary home and Charlene had never question an alternative life. How could she when the hotel was her life? There was no one else to care for it, no one else to man the front desk. Though it was striking to see a new perspective she knew that nothing could be done. The beast that had taken its life had to be maintained and there was no one else to make sure it all got done.

Charlene stepped outside and looked upon her property while keeping fresh the new reality. Everything would be the same when she returned to her desk and there would be no change for her. She would have to stay the same only now she held a deep resentment for the hotel. Charlene wished she had never met the man who implanted the realization of her lonely existence and that she could no longer ignore it tore her apart. But Charlene must remain behind her desk just as the passersby must move on along with time.