The Macedonia Hotel, Chapter 4
The Macedonia Hotel
A NANOWRIMO
Relay writing project
By the Wayne writers Guild
Completed July 2016
The Macedonia Hotel
(This fictional piece is the product of a relay writing project by the Wayne Writer’s Guild In honor of NANOWRIMO-2015. Any resemblance to real events, people, places, or things is a coincidence and neither intended nor implied to be real and accurate.)
I extend my thanks and gratitude to the contributors who shared their time and talents to make this NANOWRIMO Relay Writing Project possible.
The individual chapters are the intellectual property of the author.
Special thanks are extended to John Cieslinski for his generous use of the book store’s back room.
–Kate Chamberlin, Coordinating Editor
July 20, 2016
Wayne Writers Guild
Meets at 7:30pm – 9:00pm, on the 2nd and 4th. Tuesday of each month
Books, Etc. of Macedon, NY
John Cieslinski, Owner
78 W. Main ST. Macedon NY 14502
Phone 585-474-4116
Chapter 4
A Light in the Darkness
By Kc Meyer
Ivory made her way carefully toward the door to get away from the crowded apartment and dangers it held. She wished she could take her friends with her and get away from it all.
“These people are driving me crazy” she muttered to herself. “All I wanted to do was get away from home…the yelling, the screaming, the beatings, the mess, the drudgery and the people who never really cared whether I lived or died, and what do I end up getting myself into? Social Services seemed to think that a rundown, filthy, two bit, flop house was some kind of a solution! I would have been fine if they had let me go with my real dad as I pleaded for them to do. This place is full of dirty old…reprobates.”
That made Ivory smile a bit. Vocabulary was her forte…she loved to read and write. Mrs. Scotsman, her English teacher, had been the one who encouraged her to pursue her literary gift. Now she was lucky if she could find a quiet, safe place to study at all. She quickly stopped talking to herself when she saw Randy. They were both Seniors in school. He’d also been here before. He was a really nice guy but he didn’t always choose the best friends to hang around with. Ivory saw that he was walking toward the door with Grace, Sandy’s younger sister. Grace was using her white cane.
“She doesn’t belong with that crowd” she thought. “I hope he watches out for her.”
As she inched closer to the door, through the boisterous, inebriated and sometimes lecherous crowd, Ivory noticed that Grace looked ill and scared. She also looked young and vulnerable. But at least Randy seemed to be leaving with her. Thank goodness. Soon they were out the door.
A protective instinct washed over Ivory as she thought about her younger sisters at home. She missed them so much sometimes she could hardly stand it. She worried about them all the time and took every chance she could get to see them at school text them or meet up with them when they weren’t at that house she used to call home. She wasn’t allowed to go there, not that she had done anything wrong. But her mother was so afraid and dominated by her abusive boyfriend, and he was so clever at being a conniving fun drunk, that she chose to believe him over her daughters. One of these days she was going to change all that for her sisters. He was so cruel when he was drunk. He’d hit them as well as emotionally abused them; they were all scarred. She was now an emancipated minor and able to make decisions about her own life with approval of her social worker, but in a few months she would be 21 and old enough to sue for custody of her much younger sisters. She had plenty of evidence and knew she could count on her social worker to help. She intended to raise them right. She had already talked to Social Services about it and had even met with a Legal Aid lawyer to find out what her options were. The plan was in the works. Just a few more months and she would be of age and then she would begin the long process. But what chance were they going to have if she couldn’t make a good enough living to support them?
She needed to graduate and find a good job while going to college part time. It was all about her sisters now. Somehow she was going to get them out of that house.
“In the meantime maybe I can at least keep this girl out of danger” she said to herself. “I’m going to talk to Randy on Monday and see what I can do to convince him to watch out for her.
Finally, Ivory also slid out the door and into the dark hallway, able to head, unseen, for the stairs and then to the cupola. If there was one place in this flea-bitten excuse for a hotel where she felt safe, it was in the cupola. Oddly enough, everyone else stayed as far away from there as possible…it was rumored to be haunted. Actually, Ivory knew it was haunted because she had met the woman who haunted it.
As a matter of fact, they had become great friends. Ivory went there during the week after she was finished with school for the day and done with her shift at Hamburger Hut. She often bought her supper before she left for the evening and took it with her up to the cupola. She had set up a cozy niche with a lamp and old overstuffed chair she found, where she could curl up and study without being bothered by anyone. She only came down when it was safe to be in her own room…except tonight some jerks had decided she and her suite mates were fair game. Well, tough luck boys…you can say whatever you want about us but we know the truth and someday, when all of this is behind me and I am in a college dorm studying my heart out, your misadventures and disgusting, misogynistic behavior will be great fodder for my first and highly successful novel. The thought of that put a small smile on her face.
Ivory reached the cupola and there she was…her only true earthly, or should we say “other-worldly” friend, The Lady in the Cupola. She was staring out the eights in the window, hovering a foot or so above the floor, and when she turned, she smiled beatifically at Ivory as tears shimmered down her translucent face.
“Ah, my friend, I see you have escaped the throng of revelers and, what do you call them…”reprobates” unscathed, yet again.”
“Yes, and I truly get so sick and tired of it. But it won’t last forever. Someday, not too long from now…”
her voice trailed off. She didn’t need to finish her sentence. The Lady knew all about her and her life, her sisters, her hopes and her dreams. They had been friends since the first Saturday evening they met when Ivory escaped the first wild party someone decided to hold in the suite.
“You’re crying, my lady. What can I do to help?”
“Oh my dear young friend, you are so dear and so sweet. With all you have to worry about, you fret over my tears.”
“You are the best friend that I have,” smiled Ivory. “And I want to help you however I can.”
“It’s my same concern, the one we’ve talked about ever since we met. But it seems to be getting worse. The thing we have to do is change this run down, dilapidated, sad, sad hotel back into the glorious inn that it was when I first opened its doors over 125 years ago.” the lady sighed. “How can we do that, dear, lovely friend? What can we do to find the beauty, hope, joy and kindness that once inhabited these rooms? How do we bring back the fellowship, respect and camaraderie that once made this hotel the shining star of the Finger Lakes area? How do we do that, my dear, dear girl?”
“Well, we will find a way, my Lady, we will. I know you won’t rest until we do and I will help you. Just as I won’t rest until I get my sisters to a safe place and just as this town won’t be prosperous or happy again until we turn some things around. “Actually”, said Ivory, I have a plan. “It’s only in the planning stages, but I think it just might work. ”
“Then you’d best get busy with your studies my friend, because the future lies in the hands of you and people like you who can mold it and make the world better. You won’t be able to do anything for the Macedonian, for me, for you or for your sisters if you don’t graduate. And there will be a reckoning for those who have destroyed this beautiful place. Oh, I don’t mean to do anything horrible or violent…but I do have some thoughts on how to rid ourselves of unwelcome and unwanted…”
“Reprobates” they both said simultaneously, laughing as they did so.
At that, the Lady vanished and Ivory switched on her laptop and began to review what she had written:
“The Macedonia Hotel was a charming, three story hotel with a beautiful wrap-around porch, gardens overflowing with color and draperies hanging at the windows made of the finest damask. It was a jewel of hotels in the upstate region of New York State, in a quaint little village not far from Rochester. But in the ensuing years, it was ruined by “reprobates.” Until, one moonlit night, a face peering out through the windows in the shape of 1888 was illuminated for all to see. Startling many, it only held mystery and intrigue for the girl from the Third Floor. She knew she had literally found a kindred spirit.”
Author Bio:
Kc Meyer has lived in Wayne County most of her grown up life, but she’s been writing since she was in grade 2. Prose, poetry and short essays are her favorite genres. She and her husband/best friend live on a farm in Wayne County. Kc was happy to join WWG in 2006 and has published with the Guild in three collective anthologies.
(contact information withheld upon request)
Wayne Writers Guild
Meets at 7:30pm – 9:00pm, on the 2nd and 4th. Tuesday of each month
Books, Etc. of Macedon, NY
John Cieslinski, Owner
78 W. Main ST. Macedon NY 14502
Phone 585-474-4116