Overlook Hotel: Party of One

OK so I've been staying in the Permanent Party (sweet irony) Quarters for over a week now and I've yet to see another guest staying here. Oh, I'll sit in my room and hear the dryer in the laundry room across the hall tumbling away or muffled voices, but I've never actually seen the launderers nor the owners of those disembodied voices. I'm tempted to stick my head out the door next time I hear a commotion, but I'm worried about what I might see... or not see.

The only person I have seen walking through the halls is the cleaning lady who seems to be pushing her dust mop over the same section of linoleum every time we cross paths. She just nods and lowers her head when I walk by. The fact that she's obviously American only makes things creepier.

I guess the strangest part is walking through the halls at night. The flickering fluorescent light, TV on in the lobby, and the smell of industrial strength cleaner give me that same distinct feeling of walking though the P-ways of Bancroft Hall during Christmas break. The inefficiency of maintaining a building meant to house so many thousands (mere hundreds in this case)of people is a little unnerving. It feels like your not supposed to be there. Any minute someone is going to step out of the door right in front of you eeriy and pleasantly shocked to find a trespasser, but no one ever does it's just the click-clack of your own soles against that freshly buffed floor. So I go, occasionally hearing someone scurrying through this warren of hallways possibly thinking the same thing.

This is made more glaringly bizarre once I step out the of the building and a brilliant sun beams down on me as hundreds of cherry blossoms gracefully flit their way down from their branches on a crisp wind neatly piling themselves into open corners or blanking the parked cars in a sheet of soft pink. People ride by in their small cars or bicycles blissfully unaware of the strange happenings inside.

Goodnight Nobody, (Hopefully)
Eric