The Smithson Hotel
The hotel clerk, who’d ‘inadvertently’ given Annalise an electronic key to Rena’s room, had come full circle with his guilt. He could no longer keep information from the manager that could help solve the case of the missing handbag. Sure, he may lose his job, but he would rather take the chance than live with this guilt on his conscience. What if things really got out of hand and the damage could be traced back to him?
He would be without a job alright and probably blacklisted from being hired by any other hotel. Under no circumstances, should he have given out a guest’s key to another guest, especially if that particular guest was not registered to that guest’s room. He released a long, drawn out sigh before he tapped a few times on the manager’s office door.
Upon invitation from the manager, the clerk poked his head in. “Good morning, sir. Do you have a few minutes?”
The manager didn’t look up from his computer. “As a matter of fact, I do. Come in, Ty and have a seat. What is this about?”
“About Ms. Henderson’s missing handbag.”
The manager looked up then, giving Ty his full attention. “I’ve been wondering when we were going to have this little chat.”
Ty’s fingers began to twitch in his lap. “So…you knew?”
“I had an idea, but I was not entirely sure.”
“What gave me away?”
“Your subtlety…I’ve never known you to conceal your log of guest transactions in your desk. They are always kept in the ‘OUT’ tray for my perusal.”
Ty’s fingers were now shaking uncontrollably. “What does this means for me?”
“Well, let’s find out. Start talking.”
****
The caption read: Due to adverse situations in the Beckford household, Armando’s concert tour in Devin’s Cay had been canceled indefinitely. In fact, tomorrow – which was a forecasted Wednesday – was supposed to be Armando’s final day on the island before he would take the tour to another Caribbean island, but Armando had several reasons why he didn’t want to leave Devin’s Cay, one of which having to do with his revived infatuation with Rena. How could he even think about leaving now when he hadn’t any idea when he would see Rena again?
And even though Armando felt bad about Rena losing her handbag, he was convinced that fate was keeping her there on the island. If only he hadn’t rushed to marry Annalise, Rena wouldn’t have any reason to resist him. She was a decent girl and he respected that. However, Armando couldn’t control his emotions or his hands for that natter whenever he was around Rena. Every time his gaze landed on her, he wanted to pull her into him and smash his mouth against her rosy lips – like he’d done yesterday in the hotel lobby. Oh how Armando regretted saying “I do” to this wretch of a woman called Annalise.
“Well, it looks as if your little soldiers are marching strong after all,” Annalise announced briskly. A positive pregnancy test was clutched in her right hand.
Armando’s fingers froze on the black piano keys of a Yamaha Motif 8, allowing his stare to slowly rest upon Annalise. “My soldiers?” he queried.
Annalise giggled. “Don’t be so blasé about the news. You told me that you had what it took to transform me into a heterosexual. I’m not quite there yet – but, I must admit, sex with you blew my mind. I never knew it could be so…how should I put it? Fulfilling? However, nothing tops this feeling of knowing that a new life is growing inside of me.”
Armando sighed inwardly. At the time when he’d told Annalise about his goal to turn her away from her lesbian desires, his only intention had been to simply prove to her that ‘straight’ sex was really the way God had intended it to be and that it should be enjoyed between a man and a woman. Granted, they weren’t married as yet, but he was just trying to make a point. However, he hadn’t factored in that a forty-two-year-old woman would be able to get pregnant at the first thrust of his hips.
“Annalise, how sure are you about being pregnant? Because you do know the risk involved with being pregnant at your age?”
“What a way to show your enthusiasm,” she spat. “I thought you would be happy.”
“Truthfully, I don’t know how I really feel about it. For one, I don’t like the idea of a baby coming into this world without being in a stable home.”
“Well, what is your idea of a stable home, Armando?”
Armando swallowed his first response, which would have been to marry a woman who was sure about her sexual identity and preferences. How could he be sure that Annalise wouldn’t tire of him and run off with the next pretty thing in a skirt? Her obsession with the prime minister’s daughter went beyond the sex. It was this unexplainable emotional craving that Annalise had for other women. A connection so deep that it literally turned Annalise into a ravenous beast whenever someone challenged her love of the same sex. But maybe a baby was just what she needed to turn the tide in his favor.
With a stern tone, Armando responded, “I’ve always imagined my children being raised by both father and mother, who were married and happily living under the same roof.”
Annalise stared at Armando a good while before a small smile crept on her face. “Well, I don’t see why that can’t be arranged,” she said. “My relationship with Sabrina is forever ruined and I don’t have any intention of getting my heart torn by other women. And besides, sex with you isn’t so bad…I could get used to that ‘thing’ between your legs.”
Armando cringed at how Annalise described his male member, especially at how she made it sound as if it was some strange exotic fruit, for which an acquired taste would be almost impossible to accomplish. “Things are never that simple, Annalise,” he said. “We both have to be responsible for this new life and frankly, I don’t know if I’m in a position to take on –”
Annalise tossed the pregnancy test at Armando, interrupting his sorry excuse of an explanation. “You should have worn a bloody condom, if you didn’t want a baby! Better yet, you shouldn’t have messed with my mind and made me feel as if you could ‘change’ me. I would have done fine without you barging into my life the way you did.”
She twirled on her heel, yelling over her shoulder as she hastened out of Armando’s presence. “And I’m not getting an abortion, if that’s what you’re suggesting. I’ll kill myself first, if I have to, that way me and this baby won’t have to put up with your empty promises…”
From that point on, Armando’s world had disintegrated into one mass of confusion. He eventually married Annalise, against his better judgment. And although his reason may have been born out of guilt, he’d taken Annalise’s words to heart. His rejection of Annalise might have resulted in her committing suicide, consequently ending his baby’s life as well. He didn’t want such a thing on his conscience. But in retrospect, Armando realized he may have hurt Annalise more than helped her. The marriage in itself was a heartless move – to have deceived a woman into a life that he didn’t really want. Actually, it was unfair to both him and Annalise, because true happiness could never be realized based on lies.
And far be it from him to have only wanted to get out of his marriage because of his desire to be with Rena. Deep down Armando believed his marriage would have dissolved at some point, even if he had never met Rena in life. Because he did not love Annalise – at least not in the way a husband should love his wife. He was just too much of a gentleman to ‘kick’ Annalise to the curb and leave her to make it in life on her own.
It was his own doings; however, seducing Annalise because of a stupid wager to appease his ego. But however silly or however thoughtless his choices had been at the time, his responsibility now was to take care of Annalise like a good husband should. His mother would never let him forget if he ever admitted that she was right about Annalise and his tactless decision to marry her.
“As you have requested,” Ms. Hive said, pulling Armando from his troubled thoughts, “I have sent a message to our public relations firm in Jamaica, letting them know that the concert has been put off for another time.”
“Thank you.” Armando adjusted his weight in one of the pool chairs he’d been sitting in for the last hour, keeping his weary gaze on Ms. Hive. “Did you get to the others as well?”
“I certainly did. You are free to stay in Devin’s Cay for another month, if you wish. But I suggest that you and Annalise make ready to go back home to Trinidad and begin the healing process.”
“This is my home,” Armando snapped. “I was born and raised here, remember?”
“I did not say that to upset you,” Ms. Hive tried. “But I can see the loss of your daughter has taken a toll on you – on both you and Annalise. Staying here is only going to impede your ability to forget –”
“I don’t want to forget, Emily!” Armando shouted. “The hell’s the matter with you? Do you have any idea was it’s like to deliver a stillborn baby?”
“No…I…”
“Then you should speak with Annalise. Don’t bring your assumptions to me because I’m not in the mood for it.”
Ms. Hive blinked back her shock. Armando rarely called her by her first name, much less raised his voice at her. “You don’t call me by my first name,” she said. “So I know that I’ve greatly upset you. I will leave now before I make the situation worse between you and me. However, I just thought you should know that the crew and I are planning to fly back to Trinidad first thing tomorrow morning.”
Ms. Hive began to walk off, but Armando jumped to his feet and called out to her.
“I’m sorry…I don’t know what got into me.”
Ms. Hive froze in her strides, allowing Armando to catch up with her.
“I have a lot going on with me right now,” he said in a more gentle tone. “But it’s no reason to lash out at you the way I did.”
Ms. Hive was at least twenty years older than Armando and could have used her seniority to give him a good tongue lashing. But she worked for him and the pain that was etched in Armando’s eyes was enough for her to keep her tone respectful.
“I forgive you,” she said. “But can I say something and you won’t take it the wrong way?”
“I won’t…you’ve been my trusted advisor and friend for almost ten years.”
“I’m glad you still see me that way,” Ms. Hive said. She gave him a motherly stare before continuing. “You know from the beginning how I felt about this whole business with Annalise. I never approved of the marriage and her having so much control over the professional side of your music. By your own choice, you have made her your wife and allowed her to do as she feels. I have resigned myself to the inevitable: Annalise and I will never get along. I just have to make the best out of our tolerance for each other.
“However, losing a baby – especially the way Annalise did – is not something I want my worst enemy to experience. Now on to the point I’ve been meaning to get to…I’ve noticed that you’ve been spending a lot of your free time with another woman.”
“Tread lightly, Ms. Hive,” Armando warned. “It’s not what you think.”
“Regardless of what I think, it doesn’t look good, abandoning your wife to hang out with that woman.”
“I am not abandoning Annalise.”
“Are you sure of that?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“For one, you’re alone at the pool when you should be in your hotel room, comforting your wife. I hate to rehash it, Armando, but both of you have lost a baby just three days ago…you two need each other…And who is this other woman, by the way, who has you acting so unseemly?”
Armando flung back a few of his dreadlocks that had gotten loose from a stylish cloth he’d used to support the weight of his hair. However, his movement caused the cloth to come loose completely, making the rest of his dreadlocks to fan across his back. He made no attempt to fix it.
“I will be completely honest with you, Ms. Hive,” Armando said. “I don’t want to be anywhere near my wife at the moment. She’s not taking the loss of our baby well at all.”
“This is exactly what I’m trying to explain to you –”
“What I meant,” Armando attempted to elucidate, “is that Annalise has become a complete basket case, going off the hinges in ways I’ve never seen before.”
Ms. Hive pinned Armando with a curious stare. “Explain.”
“Well, for starters, she checked herself out of the hospital, just hours after she’d lost the baby. I woke up the following morning and she’s sitting in a chair, staring at me. Annalise does that often. But this time I can tell that something is really wrong with her. She goes wandering for hours and if I question her about it, we quickly get into a fight, which she loves. Because she uses the opportunity to blame me for the loss of our baby. I’m not gonna stay put and let her eat away at my conscience like that. I’m suffering emotionally enough as it is.”
I’ve told you repeatedly that woman is a blithering nut job. She only needed time to reveal her true self, Ms. Hive wanted to say, but she didn’t feel it was necessary to capitalize on her “I told you so” moment. Like Armando said, he was suffering enough.
“All the more reason for you to get Annalise back home to Trinidad,” Ms. Hive suggested. “Because it sounds as if she needs to be tended to by medical professionals.”
“By that you mean she should be admitted to the looney bin?”
Ms. Hive suppressed a smile. “I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to, because I was thinking the same thing.”
Ms. Hive reached out and touched Armando’s shoulder in a sympathetic manner. “You’re like a son to me and I am very much concerned about you and your happiness.”
“I know and I appreciate you being in my corner…I will get Annalise the help she needs. In the meantime, I’ll be keeping my distance from her.”
Ms. Hive concluded, “Whoever this other woman is, I sensed that she’s a very special person to you. However, the Holy Scriptures puts it more beautifully than I can ever say, ‘Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.’ I need not explain anything else…whatever you decide to do, the crew and I will see you back in Trinidad at some point.”
With one last pat on Armando’s shoulder, Ms. Hive walked off, leaving Armando to chew on her words. In all the years he’d known her, those words she’d quoted from the Bible resonated with him more than anything she’d ever said to him.