Free Hotel World by Ali Smith Page A

with drinks and chocolate in it; on the front of it Else read the notice: Welcome to your Global Minibar. This Minibar is laser-set. Anything removed from the Minibar for more than twenty seconds will automatically register on your Room Account. A list of our Minibar Prices can be found in your Global Information Brochure. Global asks that you please do not store anything of your own in the Minibar, as this will trigger laser reaction. Global Hotels. All Over The World . The bed is good. It smells of a kind of cleanness that even shops full of things that haven’t been used by anyone yet don’t smell of. A small folded card on the pillow reads: Please ring 0 for one of our staff to come and turn down your bed when you are ready to retire. Global Hotels. We Think The World Of You . Else wondered when she read it if this is because there are so many covers; that the bed, being so thick with them all, needs two people if you want to pull them back. There is a carpet in the room, and cups with Gs on them; a kettle, a teapot and little packets of coffee and teas. There are several sorts of teas. Else has looked in a drawer. There was a hairdryer.
    On the back of the door, Room Tariff. Global Hotels. All Over The World . A huge mirror. Else didn’t look. The room has seven different lamps. Else has switched on only one. Hanging in the wardrobe, whiter than a ghost, a dressing gown made of towel. In the bottom of the wardrobe, a piece of stuff with a picture of a pair of shoes on it. A piece of paper. Else read it in the bath. Valet Service, Name … Room … DRY CLEANING, suit 3 piece £10.50, Suit 2 piece £8.40 Jacket Trousers Overcoat £5.40 each garment Overcoat £10.80 Anorak/jerkin £5.80 Knitwear £3.90 Dress – day £5.00 evening £9.00 Skirt – plain £4.00 pleated £7.00 Silk blouse/shirt £6.00 Tie £3.00 waistcoat £4.90 . The piece of paper is on the floor of the bathroom next to her clothes, wet from her hands fromher reading it in the bath. Else will have to dry it (she can do it with the hairdryer) before she puts it back in the wardrobe.
    After the man/boy who had shown her where the room was had closed the door, Else had stood at the side of the room. After a few minutes she sat on the edge of the bed. It is a high bed; her feet were off the floor. She sat on it for a while reading about the things you can eat here tonight. Hamhock terrine pancetta salad taglionne of prawn w. garlic and parmesan venison sausages pommes purée crème brûlée grand marnier and seasonal fruits parfait. Then she had started to cough. Then, when she was finished coughing, she had tried to get the window to open, but it wouldn’t, or she couldn’t. Then she had decided to have a bath. She had taken off her boots, her socks, her jeans, her coat, her top jumper, her next jumper, her shirt, her undershirt and her vest, and carried them through to the bathroom where she could keep an eye on them.
    Now she is in the hotel bath, looking at the taps.
    She has been important before now. This is not the first time she has been it, and it is not just people in hotels who are it. There was the journalist last year, or the year before, in the spring, who brought a photographer with her who was photographing the things people on the street have in their pockets. Else emptied her pockets on to the pavement and the man photographed the things. The photograph was for a Sunday paper. The insides of Else’s pocket have maybe been seen by thousands ofpeople. The journalist had written down Else’s name; the people who read the paper would have read that as well as seeing the things in the picture; the word of her name and the photograph of what was hers would have passed through the eyes and into the brains and maybe the memories of what could be millions of people.
    She had forgotten about that.
    She doesn’t have any of those things any more, that she had in her pockets then.
    They’re just taps. They’re just stupid fucking taps. All