Upon entering the double doors, it is as if the two women have stepped into an entirely different world. The noise of the travellers going from place to place in the Terminal is instantly stilled. Entering the hotel is like walking from the 21st century into the 19th. Everything is done in VERY Victorian style, right down to the costumes worn by the hotel staff. There is even a string quartet playing parlor music over by one of the fountains. The front desk is enormous, and there are at least half a dozen desk clerks, along with a small army of bellboys and porters, waiting to serve.
Both Ariel and Kitty catch a glimpse of Leo and Marda, accompanied by two other people, just as the elevator doors on the far side of the registration desk close.
Kitty Looks over to Ariel. "looks like we are in the right place." She then steps up to the counter and wait for someone to say "May I help you." She glances quickly at the card, runs it under her nose to smell the paper and then puts it in her pocket.
Ariel looks around her, obviously impresses. Her eyes are shining with an odd kind of avarice; she makes no response to Kitty.
There are three clerks behind the desk - one (a rather vacuous looking blonde with the nametag "Inga") steps up to the desk in front of Kitty and says in a voice bubbling with good cheer, enthusiasm, and helpfulness, "WelcometotheJean-ClaudeD'AubainneAirporterHotelmayIhelpyou?"
There is a picture of Inga in the dictionary under the word "perky".
The second (an obvious surfer dude, even dressed in a Victorian wescoat) looks at Ariel, opens his mouth to start his professional patter, closes it again, opens it again, and finally just stares. "Duuuuuuude," he says, in awed tones. "Max out, dude. Max out!"
The third, who is talking on the telephone, looks amazingly like Steve Buscemi's character in "Barton Fink" (since that's where I stole the character from - Ed) is wearing a nametag that says "Chip" on it. As the women approach he says. "Hello, this is Chip. How may I help you? This is Chip," then catches sight of Ariel and begomes an instant, oogling statue.
Kitty looks at Ariel to see what is going on, then turns back to the desk. "Inga, My name is Ms. McCombe; I filled out one of your pamplets and have a reservation here."
"Yaokaysure," says Inga. She begins typing on a keyboard cleverly disguised as a victorian typewriter.
Meanwhile, Biff keeps mumbling "Max out..." and Chip just stares, holding the phone loosely in one hand.
Ariel grins at Kitty when the other woman looks back, then returns to idly surveying the lobby.
Inga finishes typing, smiles radiantly, and pulls out a key. "Yaokay," she says in her cute little swedish accent," Igotchabookedintoderroom. Its412und here'sda...." at this point she is interrupted as Biff and Chip simultaneously charge the registration desk and shove her out of the way. Both begin attempting to attract Ariel's attention, Chip saying "Hi, I'm Chip! Can I help you? I'm Chip!" and waving his arms, while Biff bays "Hey babe! Like, over here! Hey!" Inga lands with a thump on her shapely posterior.
Ariel, meanwile, has noticed that Bruce seems to have made it to the hotel room. He's holding his hands behind his back and surveying the room.
Ariel shrugs and stops surveying the room, obviously disappointed. She smiles at Bruce as he walks past her, and looks with concern as Inga lands on her rump.
"Are you ok, ma'am?" Kitty says, looking over the counter. "Excuse me, gentleman, you may just work with Inga but she still is a lady. I'm sure one of you could help her up!"
Chip and Biff appear completely oblivious to Kitty's comment, and continue making absolute fools of themselves attempting to get Ariel's attention. Both ignore Kitty and Bruce completely.
"Hmph, I see. God what a zoo," grumbles Kitty. After noticing
Bruce's arms, she gingerly looks at the architecture of the structure and
looks around for a newspaper stand. Changing her mind, she looks
at her key and heads to the room she was assigned leaving the mishaps of
hormones for someone else to deal with.
Dimly, as Kitty dances about trying to keep from going down in a heap, she hears Leo's voice from the hallway crying "Marda, come back! You'll hurt Teddy!"
Upon crashing into Kitty, Marda recognizes the woman and without apology states, "Leo said you'd be able to operate on Teddy and he needs help really bad." She then holds the bear up for examination, which reveals that its chest has been cut wide open.
Kitty quickly looks to the operator. "Holy Cow, what is that? PLEASE take us to any floor other than this one and the lobby. When you drop us off, I need you to go to another level, stop for a second and then you can do what you damn please. Do not tell anyone what floor you have taken us to." Looking down to Marda and Teddy with a confused look on her face, she adds, "Marda, what happened up here? Why is Teddy like this?" She slightly covers her ears. "What is that noise?"
The elevator operator looks at Kitty rather strangely, then does as he is told. The doors close, but the hideous noises do not get any softer. They seem to be coming from Marda.
Kitty looks down at Marda and thinks that she has made the worst mistake in her life.
The elevator doors open. "Second floor," says the operator.
Kitty steps out onto the second floor and waits for Marda to follow. Kneeling down to her level, she asks, "What happened up there? Why does Teddy need an operation?"
While it seems probable that Marda wants to explain the situation in a calm, rational manner, that is simply not to be. Instead, it comes out something like, "Waa, came in room, (something in Romanian), waah, Tata really hurt, (more waah, more wail), funny marks on floor, waah, (something in Romanian, howl), cut Teddy up bad. Need to perform surgery, close the, waah, uh cut."
"Now, now, stop crying, we will fix Teddy as soon as I find some needle and thread." Kitty looks at the gash in Teddy and frowns. "Hmmm... We might have to use duck tape instead." Kitty rings for the elevator yet again to go to the 3rd floor. "Why don't we go find that acrobat, so I can find out what is going on." She picks Marda and Teddy up in her arms and waits patiently for the elevator.
"You know what... When Bruce was telling you that story, I didn't quite hear it... Why don't you see if you can remember it. I'm sure it will calm both of us," said in the most nurturning, positive voice she can muster.
The elevator doors open almost instantly; apparently the elevator hadn't gone anywhere. The wizend little operator is still inside, waiting patiently to be told where to go.
Kitty smiles politely and steps into the elevator with the bundle of child and Teddy in her arms. "Third floor, please."
Marda immediately asks the gentleman in a tremulous voice where one
could find needle and thread. She then goes into recitation of Bruce's
story, although her retelling of it is done in much the same tone, speed
and diction of a penitent sinner reciting "Hail Marys" and "Our Fathers".
He easily locates room 415 - it's right next to the room where Sam, William, the guy with the busted nose, and Cheri are. The room is actually more of a suite, with a separate bedroom, sitting room, and bathroom (rather luxurious by the standards of a guy who is used to living in a trailer painted lime green). Needless to say, it's done up in Victorian style (though without the chamber pot).
Leo's luggage has been neatly piled on the bed. Leo rummages through it and finds that somehow, he did manage to put in a small sewing kit. He pockets the sewing kit and walks back out, not without giving one longing look to the bed, which looks sooooo comfortable...
Back in the corridor, he glances at Room 413, curious to see how things have settled after the original confusion, but doesn't stop. Leo steps out of a doorway further down the hallway just as the elevator doors close, taking Cheri down towards the lobby. He sees Kitty and Marda near the elevator.
"Kitty! Marda!" exclaims Leo, waving to attract their attention. "I found some thread and needles!" He starts walking towards the ladies (half-expecting Marda to cannonball his way to snatch the surgical implements.)
Marda runs up to Leo, sounding happy for the first time since they left they left for the initial interviews. "Then you can save Teddy!"
"Leo, wonderful! We have been searching all over for some. I was afraid I would have to use duck tape on Teddy. Are the rooms comfortable?" says Kitty in a half griping, half calm voice. Kitty is trying to talk herself into relaxing, making normal chit-chat conversation.
Leo hears the tension in Kitty's voice, and he of course knows how stressful things have been for Marda lately.
"It will be all right," he says gently. "Kitty, I mean Ms. McCombe, I hoped that perhaps your sewing skills would be better than mine since you were in the service. However, you look very tired; if you want to return to your room and get some rest, I can take care of Teddy for Marda."
He turns around and, pulling out his key, opens the door to the room he just left. He turns back to the ladies. "The rooms look wonderfully comfortable," he comments as he lets them see inside his. "I think we can get refreshments from room service, if you'd like anything. Maybe there an in-room coffee maker, I haven't checked yet. Come on in if you want; you can leave the door open if you want to maintain proprieties."
As he speaks, he walks in the room and opens the sewing kit, pulling out thread and needle. He glances at Teddy, shakes his head, and threads the needle with hands that are remarkably steady for someone who has had about six hours of sleep in the last forty-eigth hours.
As Leo, Kitty, and Marda approch Leo's room, the door next to it opens, and William Levine steps out. Levine sees Leo holding a sewing kit, followed by Kitty and Marda, both of whom seem to be considerably relieved since last time he saw them (Marda in particular is no longer making those horrible "air raid siren" noises).
Kitty smiles at Mr. Levine as she steps into Marda's and Leo's room, lightly looking around the room because she is at slight unease. Marda's air raid noises have seem to rattled her a bit.
Taking out her room key she looks at the door, wondering how far away from the child she will be or who she is going to be shacked up with. "I'm sure I can get some coffee in the room, when it's needed. I can't believe how crazy this trip has been so far. Oh, by the way, Ariel and the Australian should be up soon..." She snickers. "Well, the young lady will be up after the guys stop oogling her," says Kitty while watching Leo sew up Teddy, who looks like he/she has been through more hell than any of them.
In sewing up Teddy, Leo discovers that he's a better sewer than he thought. The stitches are neat, precise, and regular. Marda is pleased with the result. Leo, with a deft twist of the needle and a flourish, finishes his repair work to Teddy and returns the battered bear to Marda.
Seeing Leo's success, she squeals in delight as she grabs Teddy from the surgeon's hands.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthank..."
It's repetitive, but it's an infinitely marked improvement over her recent speech patterns...
Without so much as batting an eyelash, Marda continues, "Now you gotta
help Tata out. He's hurt really bad too," and begins insistently
leading Leo by the hand to the next room.
He walks out, towed by Marda, and towards the next room. "I suppose I might as well find out what kind of man he is and whether you should be left with him," he mumbles.
Kitty rolls her eyes. "What else is going to happen around this place?..." She then follows Marda and Leo into the other room.
Marda, Leo, and Kitty step out into the hallway once again, just in time to glimpse a female figure, clad in black, disappear into Sam and Marda's room. A "Do Not Disturb" sign now dangles from the doorknob. The elevator doors at the end of the hall open, and Ariel steps out.
Leo sighs again and, holding on to Marda's hand, knocks firmly on the door to Room 413. Without waiting for an answer, he tries to turn the door knob. He gets no answer from room 413, which upon examination turns out to be locked.
Without a word, Ariel walks past Kitty, Leo, and Marda, uses her key to open room 417, enters, and closes the door behind her.
"Excuse me, Leo..." Kitty moves towards the door, covers her hand up with her shirt then pounds on the door. "Excuse me, this little girl wants to get into her room." With that action, she moves to retreat to her room and call the hotel operator to ask them to ring room 413.
Just as Kitty turns to head to her room, the door to room 413 opens and Cheri, the security guard, sticks her head out. Glancing down, she spots Marda, and opens the door wider.
"There you are, kid. I was just looking for you. Here's your key. You're right here in room 413." Cheri hands Marda a hotel key, then jerks a thumb in the direction of the bathroom. "Dart is trying to get that lucy crap off his face. He oughtta be out in a couple of minutes."
Cheri steps into the hallway. "Anything else, or can I get back to serving and protecting?" she asks with a grin.
Marda (who has been strangely placid during the whole closed door situation - either in light of her situation or in light of Leo and Kitty's experiences with the little bundle of hyperactivity so far) immediately shoots back, "Is Tata OK? He looked really hurt when I had to go and help Teddy."
Hearing Marda's question, Leo nods. "May we speak to Mr. Dart?" he asks Cheri. "I'm a little concerned about the arrangements for Marda..." In a lower voice, so as not to alarm Marda, Leo asks Cheri: "You seemed relatively unsurprised by the scene when we first saw the room. Does this happen often? Who is this "Lucy"? I'm worried about leaving the little girl here."
"Dart's in the shower. If you want to wait for him, the kid can let you into the room. Far as I can tell, he's just happy as a clam, 'cept for that stuff all over him." Cheri turns towards Leo. "Honey," she says, "If you're worried now, just wait until TOMORROW!"
"I don't get it," Marda replies, "what's gonna happen tomorrow?"
Cheri looks down and winks at Marda. "That, little one, is the question EVERYONE asks just before they go to bed on Al Amarja. Speaking of which, it's probably past your bedtime, and I need to be getting back to work anyway. Have a nice stay!" With that, Cheri heads off towards the elevator once again.
Leo looks at Marda, then at Kitty, then at Marda again. "Well, Marda," he says, "how about we speak to Sam, now?"
Sam, whistling a jaunty tune, dressed in naught but a bathrobe, opens the door to room 413 and sticks his head out. Instead of spotting Chsri, however, he encounters Leo, Marda, and Kitty standing in the hallway. Marda stops, apparently in the act of putting the key in the door.
Kitty smiles at Sam in his robe and then looks at Marda playing with the key.
Upon the door's opening and the revelation of her responsible adult behind it, Marda immediately flings herself upon the unprepared Sam Dart, squealing "Tata! You're OK!"
Leo smiles tentatively. "Hello, Mr. Dart," he greets the man. "I understand that Marda is booked in the same room you are, and, well, I was wondering if that was one more error on the hotel's part. I'm a little worried for her after the, uh, ritual you were a victim of..."
While Sam Dart appears stunned by the return of the ebullient Marda, Leo forgoes all proper manners and takes agood look at room 413. What in heavens has been goin on here?! The room looks pretty much like Leo's, save that there are the remains of what look to be two mystic circles (everyone can recognize them -- they look like the sort of thing one sees in bad horror movies) on the floor, the occasional drop of blood congealing on the carpet and walls, and a few stray bits of Teddy lying around where Marda missed them the first time.
Sam seems a little disappointed on seeing the group of all too familiar stragglers. Perhaps, he expected seventeen naked Swedish gymnasts. "Hey kid," he comments to the clinging bundle of excitement.
He then looks up to Leo. "What's you're problem? The kid's with me -- what's it to you?" He then leads Marda into the room, closing the door behind him, but too late -- Leo and Kitty have already walked in.
Leo glances quizzically at Kitty, then back at Sam Dart. "What is it to me?" he repeats. "You've apparently just been mugged and made the main course of some weird witch's sabbath, and you're wondering why I should be worried about a six year old?"
He waves eloquently at the interestingly decorated surroundings. "Hey, I'm an adult and I'm worried about myself, let alone Marda. "This place is REALLY strange, and I thought perhaps we could put together our resources to figure out how to survive the experience. I understand that's even the idea behind that first-time visitor promotion we all participated in.
"How about I order breakfast for all of us from room service -- I'm picking up the tab -- and we can maybe try to fit things together?" Leo ends his offer with a lopsided grin.
Kitty looks at Leo and then Marda and then glances scornfully around the room. "This whole experience is bizarre. Breakfast is fine with me as long as it is not in this room. I have already seen what has had happen to Teddy, it's not going to happen to me." This all said in a scornful face staring straight at the markings at the floor.
Leo grins at Kitty. "What, you wouldn't want me to perform surgery on you? But you're right, the dining room's decor is probably more cheerful than these pentagrams. I hope. Sam, Marda, what do you say?"
Marda considers the respective advantages and disadvantages of each venue as a location to eat breakfast. Finally, after much deliberation on the manner, she pronounces her verdict in the same tone as Solomon must have used millenia before.
"I'm hungry."
Sam looks at the group, trying to look as astute as possible beneath the guise of the terry cloth rob and bizarrely designed tattoos scattered across his person. "If your willing to buy, I'm willing to eat," he says to Leo. "Just let me go change."
With that he disappears back into the room, only to reappear a few minutes later as the Sam Dart we all know and love (just decorated).
Kitty looks at Sam with an interesting look on her face, interesting but unexplainable. "Sam, Have you just been inked? I mean are those fresh tatoos?
Leo nods approvingly. "All right, then!" He grins again and offers his arm to Kitty in playful chivalry as they all file out the door.
Kitty smiles and raises her eyebrows slightly... then takes Leo's arm in acceptance and walks out the door playfully singing "Follow the yellow brick road" but trying to sound like she has swallowed helium.
Leo chuckles, and leads the way to the elevator. As he walks past a vase of flowers set in an alcove, he swipes two and offers them to Kitty and Marda. Upon reaching the elevator, he presses the "down" button repeatedly, to the tune of "Shave and a haircut". It appears as if Leo has reached the stage of exhaustion when things don't have to make sense anymore, and everything is immensely funny. Well, the first part prepares him well for Al Amarja -- if he survives the second part.
Kitty places the flower behind one ear like a child walking through
wildflowers or regressing to a 60's Be Free Hippy Child.