Man in the mirror (Brotin Tale 6)

For PART ONE go read Brian Miller's post at WAYSTATION ONE. If you just read this first or by itself, it will not make any sense!

I start to regain consciousness, but there is still a fog enveloping my brain. A strange scene begins to play out in my head. I sit back against the wall of the bathroom and while staring at the dilapidated woodwork, my mind begins to take me to another place.

I find myself at the front desk of Bill's Motor Inn, only things are very different. The hotel is sparkling and shiny, almost as if it were just built. A Carl Perkins song is playing on the radio in the lobby. It was not the clear crisp radio signal of the modern world, but that static filled AM broadcast which was common years ago. The parking lot is adorned with old cars, most of which appeared to be fifties models.

I approach the desk and ask the young woman for a room. Her name is Hazel. She is a very friendly teenager, obviously working through her summer vacation. There is no real concern about security or identification, she just asks for the payment and gives me a bronze key. It is the same room number that I am in now. The key is shiny and new, just like the lock that it fits in. The room is not well used. As a matter of fact, it is possible that I am one of its first guests.

I put my bags down in the corner and make my way to the bathroom. The smell of fresh paint greets me as I enter. It is so clean, but everything is also antique looking. The bath tub looks inviting. It is just the thing that I need to relax me after my day. I fill the tub with hot water and let my body soak up the warm sensation.

Suddenly I hear a noise. Opening my eyes, I look out of the bathroom and see that there is a man at the bed. He throws a case down on the new bedding and flips it open. The man reaches in and pulls out two guns and then walks over to the window and sneaks a peek out through the curtains. He is apparently nervous about something.

I don’t know what to do. Obviously the front desk gave two different men the key to the same room. When the man disappears from my view, I rise from the tub and wrap a towel around myself. I will have to go out and tell him about the mix up. I really have no other option at this point. I walk into the main area of the room and find the man peering out of another window with his back turned toward me.

“Excuse me,” I say, “I think that the front desk made a mistake.”

The man whirls around and immediately fires two bullets into my stomach area. I stumble back into the bathroom holding my gut. The white towel is turning red under my hands. As I look in the mirror, something suddenly occurs to me. This seems to be a memory of mine, but the image staring back at me is not me. It is the same man who I saw in the mirror behind me earlier. The same man whose image caused me to fall to the floor in this old hotel room. I realize that the man who I saw in the mirror was not the same man who had opened the case of guns on the bed. There were two different men in my original delusion.

The vision ends and I stand up. Staring into the mirror once more, I now see only the modern day version of myself. I am so freaked out by the event that I gather my belongings and head to check out. Maybe I will settle on one of those rooms with the key card after all.

I approach the front desk and find that there is an elderly woman working. There is something familiar about the old lady. As she turns to me, I see that her name tag says “Hazel”. There is a strange look in her eyes as she stares at me.

“Don’t I know you?” she asks.

“I don’t think so,” I say as I hand her the key.

“Something happened here when I was a teenager and you remind me so much of…… Well, never mind, it couldn’t be.”

“You never know,” I say while a shiver runs down my spine. “You never know.”

As I walk out of the lobby, the oldies station is playing a Carl Perkins song. It sounds so different on Satellite.