Hotel of the Lost

[bookblather]

The hotel lobby is broad and open, a big circular room with a fountain in the center stocked with gold and orange koi. A large handprinted sign propped against the fountain's rim reads DO NOT FEED THE FISH, but it is the only touch of humanity in the gold-and-cream marble room. The fountain is surrounded by small tables and comfortable armchairs in greens and golds, sitting on a forest green rug patterned with small cream figures that spreads outward until it reaches a broad walkway of cream marble tiles around the circumference of the room. Potted plants stand at regular intervals along the walls; they are live trees, though from a distance they could well be assumed to be fake. Between them hang the usual forgettable pieces of hotel art.

Double glass doors open onto the outside world, with the concierge's cream marble desk to their right and the gold sign-in desk to their left. About a third of the way along the circle from the concierge's desk is a fancy restaurant done all in green and cream, currently empty, complete with a large bar stocked with at least thirty kinds of liquor. Across from the restaurant is a gift shop stocked with the usual kitschy touristy items and t-shirts emblazoned with Washington DC, also empty. Across from the double doors is an elevator bank leading up to the rooms, with a marked door to the staircase beside it.

The portals are shifting....

Comments

[isana]

"Mmm." Yuyan nodded sympathetically. "It must be. It...it doesn't seem like it ever gets easier, does it?"

[bookblather]

"No, it doesn't." She sighed again, then made herself smile. People liked it when other people smiled at them. "I don't have to do it too often. Usually the policemen do it for me." And when she did have to, Zack or Felipe always came with her, steady at her back.

[isana]

"Oh, that's good," Yuyan said, relieved. "That must help you a lot." She couldn't imagine being in Summer's place, having to tell families about how their loved one died.

Suddenly her stomach growled, and she realized she still hadn't eaten breakfast. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "I think I'm hungry. Do you know if there's someplace we could find something to eat?"

[bookblather]

"Oh, yes, of course," Summer said, and got up from the lip of the fountain, waving at the restaruant. "I think there might be some food over there. Or maybe in the gift shop over there?" She pointed.

[isana]

"I see," Yuyan said. "Maybe we should go to the restaurant first. What would the gift shop have?"

[bookblather]

Summer shrugged. "I'm not really sure. Usually they have things like crackers and chips. Filling, but not very healthy." And she should eat healthy, now. Vegetables, lots of them, bread and rice, dairy. She could look more things up later. "The restaurant is a better idea, probably.)

[isana]

Yuyan clapped her hands. "All right, then let's go to the restaurant, shall we?" She followed Summer over, where they were seated, and given lists of what they had...

...and that was when she realized the same problem she'd come up against in the bar.

"Er," she said, embarrassed. "What do you think is good to eat, here?"

[bookblather]

"Almost anything at a hotel like this," Summer replied, scanning the menu for something that looked bland. "Is there anything you like especially?"

[isana]

Yuyan stared at the menu, pondering. "Well, for breakfast, I usually have rice porridge in broth, usually with peanuts and green onions, but sometimes we'll have a treat, and have fish."

[bookblather]

Simple, healthy food. Summer made an approving noise. "Maybe you'll like the salmon, then. It says it's in teriyaki sauce... do you know what that is?"

[isana]

"Salmon!" Yuyan practically jumped from her seat. "Yes, I would! It's a treat, where I'm from. But no," she said, shaking her head, "what is teriyaki sauce? Is it good?"

[bookblather]

"It's sort of sweet and tangy?" Summer said, almost a question. "I'm not really sure what's in it, but it tastes very good."

[isana]

Yuyan nodded decisively. "Well, if it's sweet and you say it's good, I'll have to try it then," she said.

[bookblather]

Summer settled on a leafy salad for herself and went to investigate the kitchen, to see if maybe there was anyone back there. To her secret relief, it was just as deserted as the rest of the hotel, but a steaming plate of salmon and her own salad sat on the counter.

She stared at them for a little bit, then decided it was just as magic as everything else, and carried them both back to the table.

"There was nobody back there," she told Yuyan, setting the plates down, "but this looked right."

[isana]

Yuyan had never seen so much fish in one place, all for one person.

"It looks so delicious," she said. "Thank you, Summer."

She noticed her friend was only having a plate of raw vegetables. There had been talk of this practice in Dalriada, but in Huaxia, it was unthinkable. But things were probably much different in Summer's world, and Yuyan didn't want to be rude.

But she couldn't help being concerned. "Would--would you like to try some of the fish?" she asked.

[bookblather]

"Oh, no thank you," Summer said. "I need to be careful what I eat now. Leafy greens are good because they have lots of vitamins and help promote eye health." Not that anyone in any of the families had eye problems, but you could never be too careful."

[isana]

Yuyan blinked. "I'd never heard that about leafy greens before," she said. "We eat them all the time where I come from--we eat fish, too, but nothing so nice as this." She gestured at her plate of salmon, and then picked some up on her fork, taking a dainty bite.

The sauce was familiar but not--among the soy sauce and sugar and ginger, there was something else, and she took another bite. She couldn't tell, exactly, but whatever it was, it was perfect with the tender flaky fish.

"This is delicious," she said. "Oh: what are vite-ah-mens?"

[bookblather]

"They're nutrients that your body needs to function properly," Summer said, and had a bite of spinach before she continued. "For example, Vitamin C strengthens your ability to fight off a disease."

[isana]

"Ah," Yuyan said. "Does that have Vitamin See, then? What do other vitamins do?"

[bookblather]

"Some," Summer said. "And there's vitamin A, that does some of the same things, and vitamin D, which helps your brain. That's not all that they do, of course, but it's been a long time since I learned about them in medical school."

[isana]

"Medical school?" Yuyan exclaimed. "There's a school you can go to where you can learn to become a doctor?"

[bookblather]

"Yes," Summer said, rather puzzled. "You have to go if you want to be a doctor. I didn't even want to work with living people and I still had to go." Which made sense, really, because dead people were just the same as living people except that their bodies weren't functioning anymore and you didn't have to worry about bedside manner-- oh, and it was harder to make a mistake that would get you (or in Summer's case the city) sued. She speared a chunk of spinach with her fork. "I was there for four years, and then four more years as a resident in a hospital, and then an extra year in my fellowship before I was licensed to work on my own." And all that on top of college. It really was a good thing she'd graduated high school a year early.

[isana]

Yuyan's eyes grew wide at Summer told her about this "medical school" that everyone "had to go to." Nine years worth of learning!

"That sounds so wonderful," she said. "My friend Setsuko, she would have loved to go somewhere like that. We--we don't have medical schools, not where we come from. She's been apprenticed to a few doctors, though."

[bookblather]

"The apprenticeship system is actually more common, historically speaking," Summer said, more or less thinking out loud. "Medical schools aren't that old. But I'm glad that we have them. I don't know that I could have stood an apprenticeship." What if her master thought she was strange? Seven years of that...