Page 29 of All Your Days
The hotel sits on top of the pub, which is where most of the shouting is coming from. It just gets louder the closer we get.
The hotel and bar is one of the buildings that remains from the old days. It might have been nice once, but it’s been through a lot in the years since. The pub portion of the building is single story, while the attached hotel is two stories. It’s the same square sort of look as the rest of the old buildings—like someone got two mismatched boxes and just stuck them together and said she’ll be right.
The glass windows to the pub are long gone, replaced with shutters that sit open, allowing us to see the patrons inside. Half the shutters on the hotel side are hanging off, with some windows just boarded up instead, and the railing on the second floor hangs from the balcony on a good portion.
My hopes are not high that wherever we’re sleeping is any better than the tents.
“Ryan, you come with me to check us in and get our rooms organised, everyone else, wait here.” Jacob gives my back a little stroke before he leaves and like a child, I want to beg him to not leave me behind.
We’ve attracted the notice of the men in the bar. Their drunken hollers are enough for me to squeeze myself between Sheba and Adeeko, with Lou and the remaining guards in front of me. It says a lot that I’d rather be between two camels than be exposed to the strangers.
“Yo, look who we got?”
“Freshies for the trade!”
“What kinda trade, though?”
“Ah! Don’t be shy! We’re nice, come say hi!” The men—drunk on whatever they’re drinking call out through the windows. Our lack of response only seems to encourage them.
“Hey cobber! I know you!” One of the dickheads is half hanging out the window, yelling and waving his arm. “Oi, Jacob! Whaddya doin’ here?”
They catch Jacob as he jogs out of the door to the hotel side. Thank fuck he doesn’t stop, just turns and calls back to them.
“Just on a trade run, the usual.”
It hits me again, that despite my ingrained fascination with Jacob, he has this whole other life outside The Facility I don’t even know about. Does he have friends out here?
Oh god. Does he have a—a–I don’t know, amanout here? Is that why he does the trade runs? Is that why he has never had anything serious with anyone back home? Have I imagined everything between us for a wholeten years? Is that why he bolted to his tent the other night? Because he knew he was coming here to… toconnectwith someone?
Fuck.
Adeeko bumps my head with his grotty mouth, grunting grumpily as he shifts on his big feet. The poor shithead must be tired.
“Join us for a drink, yeah mate?” The man calls out again, his accent so thick I can barely make out the words. Or maybe it’s just the grog.
“Yeah, sure.” Jacob’s close enough that I can see him wave over his shoulder, and for me to catch the “not bloody likely” he mutters under his breath.
“Right, lodgings are short tonight. Half the hotel’s been fucked somehow, dunno. Rosalie was on the desk and she can be a bit shit to deal with.” Jacob rubs at his forehead, trying to smooth out the frustration there. “Everybody come with me round backto get the camels down and our shit locked up and then I’ll show you where we’re staying.”
We start walking while he continues. “There’s only two rooms left. Ryan said you three were fine taking one room, so we’ll have to get a couple of the camp beds from the trailer before we lock her away. And Lou, you can be in with me and Eli.”
I’m thankful it’s too dark around this side of the hotel for them to see the way I baulk at Jacob’s suggestion. On the one hand, I’m so tired I feel dead on my feet—I could pass out on the street amongst the mob of roos lounging under the gums just up the road. But on the other hand—Jacob and me in the same room? Tents were hard enough. For fuck’s sake. Even with Lou there to kill the mood it’s going to be a nightmare.
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather stay with the camels. It’s a new place for’em and I don’t want anything happenin’ to my babies overnight. And I’ll be fucked if I don’t want a little ‘lone time for m’self if you know what I’m sayin’.”
Cale and Malcolm guffaw at Lou’s wink, while I try to force back the mental image Lou paints.
Jacob grumbles something under his breath, and Sheba copies the sound, making the lot of us chuckle again. It takes the edge off the anxiety we’re all feeling, I reckon. We’re all a lot more at ease when we head round to the back of the hotel where someone is waiting at the wooden fence, ready to let us through to the enclosed rear yard.
The man says something I don’t understand. His lips are curled in—I don’t think he has any teeth and he seems to be missing a large chunk of his tongue. Jacob understands just fine, and through the haze of my exhaustion I marvel at the calm and confident way he gets Lou and the camels settled in the barns for the night and our trailer locked away tight. With our bags and the camping cot for the guards we follow Jacob up the stairs to the back entry to the second level of the hotel. I hold my breaththe entire way up. The metal stairs creak loudly with each step and I swear they are swaying.
Each room opens out to the balcony, with rooms on both the front and back. We’re separated from the guards with three rooms between us. Jacob doesn’t seem to like that either—he makes a lot of grumbling sounds about us being so separated, but there is nothing we can do, and besides, we’re all going to meet down at the pub for dinner. That’s something else that has him grumbling, but it’s the only place that serves food this late.
A stale musty smell assaults me as I step over the threshold. The wooden floor creaks just as precariously as the stairs did under Jacob’s boots. I’m not brave enough to enter. Not like him.
Fuck. I really, really am a pampered princess in my tower. I think to myself when I shudder in disgust. When we get back home, I’m going to have to talk to Moby about temporarily working elsewhere, just for a little while.
“Is this… is this safe?”
