The Man at Hotel Paris Heights

 

The day was cloudy. Weather forecast channels had predicted that there would be heavy rains but the rains gods had decided to stay away for the time being. Under the cloudy sky, a taxi drove down to the gate of the hotel and halted. The driver pulled down the window and looked at the security. The security personnel at the gate looked at the passenger on the backseat. A middle- aged gentleman who weirdly sat down inside the taxi wearing his glares on, looked at the security personal and waved. The security personnel couldn’t understand as to why the passenger was waving.

“Got him from the Airport. He wanted to rest for some hours before he could catch his next flight,” the driver explained to the security personnel. The driver, Carlos, was a routine visitor to the hotel. He had a business contract to get tourist from the airport to the hotel for accommodation.

After the routine security checks on the car, the taxi was allowed to drive in. The drive from the gate to the hotel was around three minutes. Three minutes later, the taxi arrived at the hotel entrance. The passenger got down and paid the taxi and picked up his only luggage of a handbag. As he stood at the entrance and looked at the name of the hotel, he felt proud. He had heard a lot about the hotel and finally he was there. Hotel Paris Heights welcomed Charles Anderson.

As he walked up the beautiful stairs that led to the entrance of the hotel, a middle -aged attendant welcomed him by waving his uniform cap,” Good day, sir. Hotel Paris Heights welcomes you.” As he walked ahead, Charles was confused by the revolving entrance door. He still had his glares on. He looked at the attendant and smiled and continued, “These seems like the new ones. Last time I had visited a hotel at Amsterdam, they had those simple glass doors.”

“Let me help you, sir,” the attendant uttered as he pushed the door which revolved and opened the pathway to walk in.

As Charles was welcomed to a beautifully designed and brightly lit foyer, his mood changed instantly. He felt cheerful. The foyer seemed exactly like the one his parents had explained to him. He was taken to the reception desk by the attendant.

A beautiful lady looked at Charles and welcomed him with a three sixty- degree smile,” Welcome to Hotel Paris Heights, sir.”

“Hello Merlin,” Charles replied back instantly. He had already read the name of the female receptionist who welcomed him from the batch on her uniform.

Ten minutes later after the initial pleasantries, when the attendant left Charles at the reception, Merlin started the check in procedure for Charles. He was allotted a single bed room on the fourth floor of the hotel. Charles had requested that he wanted a room from where he could view a good part of the city at the night. As Merlin finished entering all the details, she finally arrived at the personal identity section.

“Sir, as part of the hotel rules, since you are a foreign tourist, we would like to have a copy of your passport and the tourist visa.” She informed Charles.

“Oh, yes. I know. This is same in all the countries, I guess. Last time when I visited the United -kingdom of Traquasia, they did ask for the same.”

A crack formed over her forehead. “United- Kingdom of what?” she said back.

“United- Kingdom of Traquasia. It’s a heavenly country in the north Atlantic.” Charles replied back as he searched for his passport in his handbag.

“Really?” she asked in a confused state.

“Ah. Here it is.” Charles got his passport and handed over to Merlin.

Merlin immediately held the passport and walked back to her workstation to input the details. Meanwhile, Charles looked around in amazement of the beautiful foyer. It seemed like a very busy hotel to him. There were crowds of people leaving and entering the hotel. There was a total of seven reception desks and he was at desk number seven.

“Sir,” Merlin called Charles from her workstation.

A happy and excited Charles looked back towards the reception desk.

“I am sorry to say but the country from where this passport has been issued doesn’t exist on our list and for that matter it doesn’t even exist on any of the hotel lists in France.”

“Is it so?” Charles shot back and continued, “Can you check in detail. I mean I have travelled to so many other countries before but never did I get such a query.”

Merlin nodded her head and this time she walked towards her manager’s workstation.

Charles looked at her as she spoke to her manager.

A minute later, a tall and well- built middle -aged man, whose uniform batch read, Jimmy Wills, walked towards Charles along with Merlin.

“Sir, I guess we have a little issue out here,” Jimmy said looking closely at Charles.

“Really. What? Now you are also going to say that the country from where this passport was issued doesn’t exist in your records.”

“That’s a fact, sir,”

“So now what’s the solution to this mess?” Charles asked looking irritated.

“Sir, you will have to wait in our guest room while we sort out this matter.”

“Fine. Where’s the damn guest room?” Charles held his handbag and was ready to walk.

As Charles was seated inside a guest room that was subsequently locked from outside, Jimmy informed his seniors about the unusual situation. While he spoke to his seniors, he held the disputed passport in his hands.

Within no time, the issue was escalated to the government officials. Two hours later, three government officials arrived at the hotel to inquire about the unusual guest. Jimmy and Merlin met them and handed over the passport.

The head among them was a fifty -seven -year -old veteran named, Roger Lesky. As soon as he got hold of the passport and looked at the country from where it was issued, he was alarmed and excited. “No way. This isn’t happening again.” Jimmy looked at Roger and asked, “What isn’t happening again, sir?”

Roger showed him the passport and pointed towards the name of the country. “Abyss Bay”

Jimmy couldn’t get him, and said “but there’s no country by that name in the entire world.”

“Thirty years ago, a couple had visited Paris from this same country. They had been caught at one of the tourist spots and held captive for some days. When the investigating authorities went to meet them at their room where they were held, they couldn’t find them. They had disappeared.”

“Disappeared? How?”

“No one knows. No one could know.”

“So, you’re saying that this Charles is going to disappear like that couple?”

Everyone looked at each other for some seconds until Jimmy suddenly turned around and made a run. Roger along with his team followed him. In no time Jimmy pushed open the door and hurriedly ran in. Behind him Roger and his team entered the room.

All of them looked around but to no avail. Charles Anderson was long gone.

“Thirty years ago, we didn’t have a close circuit camera but today we have one,” Roger said looking at the only CCTV that hung over the corner of the room.

 In no time the entire team was standing in front of the footage that was being played.

Roger very well knew it. He had investigated it thirty years ago.

As everyone looked at the footage, all eyes were shocked and surprised to the view.

Some time ago, while the government officials entered the hotel foyer, Charles just walked towards the window of the room. A strong light appeared and Charles disappeared in that light.

“What was that?” Jimmy looked at Roger in horror.

Roger smiled and looked back at the screen and continued, “Nothing son, that boy, Charles, had wrongly entered our universe. He is from a parallel universe in a different world where everything is same as it is in here with of course some additional futuristic events already taken place there. This keeps happening.”

Roger got hold of the passport and kept it in his coat pocket. He looked at Jimmy with a smirk and continued, “We have lots of such passports in our collection, dear. You see, sometimes they lose track and enter our universe thinking it’s theirs.”