The Anonymous Ones
Author: Susan
E-mail: susanf34@comcast.net
Classification: vignette
Rating: G
Spoiler: Anasazi
Archive: No archive without permission.
Disclaimer: One of these characters is mine. The 
other two are not.

Author's notes at the end.

Summary: Why does a beautiful woman like her 
need a room with two beds?
******************************************************

The Anonymous Ones
by Susan
~~~~

A lot of people have passed through the doors of 
this lobby over the years.

Exhausted businessmen in need of nothing more 
than a shave and a rest. Newlyweds who can't 
keep their hands off each other. Vans filled 
with families on their way to the Grand Canyon. 

In other words, normal people doing normal things.

And then there are the visitors I like to call 
The Anonymous Ones.

The ones having extramarital affairs. The drunks. 
The loners. The people who want to disappear for 
a night or sometimes two.

This past week, we haven't had much business with 
only a few seniors and a couple of families with 
kids too young to be in school checking in, and 
although it's been nice having to clean only a 
handful of rooms, I have to confess I've missed 
having some of those other people here.

And I've missed making up stories about them.

Sure, I know it's kind of silly, making up stories 
about people I don't even know, but it's a great 
way for me to practice my writing skills for the 
creative writing class I take on Tuesday nights.

So anyway, like I said before, it's been pretty 
slow this week, and of the few travelers that 
we have had, none of them have really grabbed my 
interest enough to want to write about them.

That is, until now.

It's a little after 1:00 in the morning when she
first walks into the lobby, and I'm immediately
intrigued.

She's a petite young woman with red hair and blue 
eyes. Nice car, no purse, and she asks for a room 
with two beds.

Now I'm not normally one to question a traveler
on the accommodations they want, but when I ask
her how many occupants will be using the room 
and she tells me it'll just be her, I can't help
but wonder.

Why does a beautiful woman like her need a room
with two beds?

She seems too classy to be a hooker or a paid
escort, and she doesn't seem like the type to 
be having an extramarital affair. 

Based on the way she's dressed, she could be an
accountant or a lawyer on her way home after a 
business trip, although 1:00 in the morning seems 
awfully late to be driving home alone.

She tells me that she'll just be staying for one 
night and that she'll pay with cash. The Anonymous 
Ones always pay with cash, and my mind immediately 
starts racing again, trying to figure out just what 
this woman's story might be.

Is she trying to get away from an abusive husband?

No, I've had women like that come here before, and 
though I see a hint of fear in her eyes, she's much 
too self-assured in the way she moves to be one of 
them.

After taking her money, I hand her the key to room 
seven and ask her to sign the register, which she 
neatly does before hurrying back out to her car.

Katherine Hale is what she wrote, but being The 
Anonymous One that she is, I know it isn't really 
her name.

And being the curious would-be writer that I am, 
I keep watching her.

From a discreet distance, of course.

Once she pulls into the parking space in front of
her room, she gets out of the car and goes around 
to the trunk, where she promptly pulls out two 
pieces of luggage.

Now I've seen enough luggage over the years to
know the difference between what type of bag 
a man carries and what a woman likes to travel
with, and one of her bags is definitely a man's.

Shutting the lid on the trunk, she carries both
bags to the door, unlocks it, and takes them 
inside. I figure she'll just shut the door then, 
and that'll be the end of my late night musings, 
but I'm wrong.

After only a few seconds, she comes back outside 
again, opens the left back passenger door, and 
leans down inside. I think maybe she has one 
more piece of luggage to get, but what she has 
her arms around when she stands up again is not 
what I was expecting at all.

It's a man.

I didn't see him in the back seat when she was
parked outside the lobby, and watching the way 
she's holding onto him as he stumbles to the 
door is a surprise I find both fascinating and 
disturbing.

How could such a classy lady be with a drunk?
And why did she lie to me about being the only
occupant of the room?

Moving closer to get a better look, I can see 
that the man has what appears to be a sling 
around his left arm. 

How did he get hurt? Is his arm broken? His 
shoulder dislocated? 

And if he really is injured instead of drunk, 
is she the one who hurt him?

Even stooped over, I can tell that he's quite a 
bit taller than she is so that probably isn't 
the case, but even if it is, I have no idea why 
she'd bring someone in that condition to a motel 
instead of taking them to a doctor.

Wanting to know more, but not wanting to get 
caught, I tiptoe over to the ice machine and 
hide behind it, then peek around the side and 
watch her as she tries to guide him through the 
doorway.

"Come on, Mulder. I know you're tired, but you've 
got to help me out here," she says, gently rubbing 
his bad arm. "Come on...just a few more steps to 
go, partner," she softly adds, sidestepping through 
the entrance first, then pulling him inside the 
room with her.

What kind of a name is Mulder? 

And what exactly does she mean by 'partner'? Are 
they married, or are they business associates of 
some kind?

From what I heard, the tone in her voice wasn't 
exactly the kind a woman would use to talk to 
someone who was only a coworker.

And it certainly wasn't the same tone she used 
with me back in the lobby when she checked in.

No, there is definitely something more going 
on between her and 'Mulder', and coming up with
some ideas about it will be a perfect way for 
me to practice for my class.

I watch with disappointment as she closes the 
door then and turns on the light, and though I 
know I won't be seeing either one of them again 
tonight, I've seen enough to know that I'll have 
no problem writing an interesting story for them.

Or maybe even two.

Hurrying back to the lobby, I take the spiral 
notebook I use for class out of the desk drawer
and jot down a few quick details.

And then I begin:

A lot of visitors have passed through these doors
over these years, and tonight I met one of them.

She was a petite young woman with red hair and 
blue eyes. Nice car, no purse, and she asked for 
a room with two beds.

Giving her the key to room seven, I watched with
fascination as she signed the register with a name
that wasn't hers, and it was then that I knew.

She was one of The Anonymous Ones...


~end~

*When Mulder woke up in Anasazi, Scully told him 
that they'd just driven two days cross country. 
I always wondered how she traveled with him and 
lugged him around with her when he was all doped 
up. I figured that she had to stop at at least 
one motel along the way, and I chose this one.:)

Thanks for reading. I do appreciate it.

possibilities
http://possibilities.bravehost.com/