A Short Drive to a Hotel (Slice of Life)

I felt the wheels of the plane make contact with the runway. I was finally here. It had been 2 hours to one connecting flight, 2 hours to the next, and finally 15 hours to my destination. What made the matter worse was that I had not gotten any sleep during the whole trip.

I shuffled through the airport and finally emerged out onto the streets. I looked at my phone. Even with all the time I was in the air, the date was still on the same day that I had left. Clear evidence of how many time zone’s I had crossed. I sighed and dialed the number that had been given to me prior.

Unfortunately, I was not on this trip for pleasure. I was here for business and had to get to work right away. We had sold a product to our customer, and it had all gone wrong. Units failed when they should not have, and after months of evaluation and testing back home, we finally came up with a solution to the problem.

Then came the discussions. Our customer wanted to have someone come out and fix all the units they had bought, a number that totaled over 200. My name came up, and I was on a plane before I knew it. I understood two things about this trip. One was that I was not going to enjoy it. The other was that the customer was furious.

A truck drove up to where I stood. It was a big white truck with a logo on the side that said, ‘Fan’s and More.’ The window rolled down, and the driver addressed me.

“G’day mate, are you the bloke from overseas?” he said with a wide smile.

“I… think I am,” I replied.

“Good on ya, hop on in.”

I put my suitcase in the back and climbed into the passage seat. The radio was playing on some classic rock station. My driver began pulling away from the curb.

“Where to now?” he asked.

“Um, the hotel I’m staying at is a couple of miles away from here; I figured I could drop off my bags, then we could stop by your facility to drop off the tools and meet Oliver.”

“Too Easy, but you know you can visit tomorrow if you don’t feel up to it today.”

“That’s okay, Mr. Uh.”

“Just call me Ronnie,” he said with a smile.

“Um, okay. I’m Thomas.”

“Good to know you, Thomas.”

“Do you have any plans for sightseeing while you are here?” he asked me.

“I’ll work most of the time I’m here. Maybe if I finish early, I can do something.”

“Oi Mate, no need to be like that. We don’t plan to work you too hard.”

“But…”

“I know a couple of good places in the area. What are you interested in seeing?”

I looked at Ronnie and then back out onto the streets. In the distance, I could see the sign for the hotel I had reserved.

“I guess I’d like to see some kangaroos,” I said. Ronnie chuckled.

“They always want to see the kangaroos,” he said with a smile while shaking his head. “If that’s the case, I know a little place that lets you pat some roos.”

“Really!” I think I sounded a little more excited than I meant when I replied.

“I’ll send you the website later; you should be able to get there by bus on the weekend.”

“Thanks.”

“No worries, mate. Just watch out for the drop bears when you’re there.”

“Drop bears?”

“Yeah, you might have one land on you when you go under a tree,” Ronnie said with a smirk.

“Good to know, thanks.” Ronnie chuckled a little after my response.

We pulled into the hotel’s lot and up to the front door. I opened the door and hopped out, and then I grabbed my suitcase from the back. I walked around to the driver’s side, and Ronnie rolled down the window.

“I’ll go get my suitcase to my room and head back out here. I don’t think it will take too long,” I said to Ronnie.

“Mate, why don’t you stay here for the day, no one expects you to get started right away.”

“I don’t think I should….”

“No worries, Oliver already is expecting to meet you tomorrow anyway.”

“Don’t we need to resolve this issue right away?”

“Mate, you’re going to be here for weeks to fix this. You’ll have plenty of time even if you get some rest today.”

I couldn’t argue with him. What he said made sense, and I was too tired from the flight to make a counterpoint.

“Maybe you’re right.”

“I am right, you get some rest, and I’ll come to pick you up in the morning.”

“Are you sure it will be okay?”

“We’re happy enough to have you here to fix this, and we’d rather have you at 100% when you get started.”

“Alright, I’ll see you in the morning.”

I decided to go along with him and wished him a good rest of the day. Then I walked into the hotel. When I got to my room, I threw my suitcase to the side and fell on the bed. ‘This trip might not be as bad as I expected,’ I thought as I drifted to sleep.