Free Floors: by Patrick Carman Page B

time, over and over again.
    All Leo could think about was how Ms. Sparks would use this to try to fire his dad. She’d say it was his fault the hotel was falling apart.
    “You take Ms. Pompadore — you’re good with her — and I’ll take Captain Rickenbacker. Let’s start there.”
    The first thing they had to do was get the siren to stop wailing, which would mean getting at least one guest to stop pulling on his rip cord.
    The call center had an old-fashioned-looking bank of buzzer buttons across the middle under Daisy’s head. Clarence pushed the button for LillyAnn Pompadore’s room and Leo for Captain Rickenbacker’s, hoping they’d let go of their rip cords long enough to answer the calls.
    Mercifully, the siren stopped wailing in the basement boiler room as both guests picked up at once, their voices distant and crackly.
    “The Pinball Machine has gone berserk!” yelled Captain Rickenbacker. “It’s trying to kill me!”
    “WET FLOOR, HINEY CAN’T SWIM!” was all Ms. Pompadore would say, although she said it so loudly that both Fill mores leaned back as if a strong wind had blown into the basement.
    “At least the siren stopped,” said Leo, and the moment he said so, the siren began sounding again.
    “You’ve jinxed us,” said Leo’s father, looking at the call center lights flashing like mad.
    Fifteen minutes later, Leo and Clarence Fillmore had everyone calmed down. The call center was still blinking red, but at least they could quietly assess the damage.
    Water leaks in at least three rooms, which Leo rightly blamed on a leak in the pond pump on the roof.
Air-conditioning out in four rooms. It was only midmorning and already the temperature was pushing eighty. If it got over ninety in the Cake Room, they’d be looking at a frosting disaster, very hard to clean up.
Electrical shorts in the Pinball Machine and the Robot Room. Klink, Klank, and Klunk were in a battle royal that threatened to drive Mr. Bump out of the hotel and into a café with his laptop.
Hot water was a complete no-show in the hotel, which meant the boiler was on the fritz.
     
    “Leaks first, then every thing else,” said Leo’s dad, staring at the strips of ticker tape and wondering how they were ever going to get it all fixed.
    Leo was just about to encourage his father — they’d figure it out, he was sure — when the door to the basement opened and the shadow of Ms. Sparks’s towering beehive leaned into the room.
    “You’re on thin ice, Mr. Fillmore. I hope, for your sake, you can get things under control around here.”
    “Absolutely, Ms. Sparks. Leo and I have it handled. No need to worry.”
    “Why am I not consoled?” she said, looking at the Fill mores’ bunks as if she couldn’t imagine having to live in such primitive quarters. She slammed the door shut and Leo listened as her high-heeled shoes clanked up the concrete steps to the lobby.
    “I’ll fix the water pump, you mop up the rooms,” said Clarence.
    “Then I’ll take the duck elevator to the maintenance tunnel on four and fix the electrical panel. It’s the same panel for the robots and the Pinball Machine.”
    “Perfect! We’ll meet back here in an hour to wrestle the boiler into shape.”
    Leo and Clarence loaded their tool belts and bags with every thing they could imagine needing, and then Leo called Pilar on the maintenance line and asked her to switch on the wet / dry vac system on all floors and break out the mops.
    The siren started wailing again as voices blared into the basement.
    “Let’s get out of here before she blows!” Clarence joked, and he and Leo were off, fixing things on every floor.
    In all the excitement, Leo wasn’t able to get his hands on the blue box, which just about drove him half crazy with anticipation. He knew it would lead him somewhere secret in the hotel, but he couldn’t rightlygo exploring while the Whippet was in the fight of its life. He’d never known the hotel to suffer so many calamities,