The Strange Occurrences At The Grand Hotel

The next morning, Ollie woke to find that his sisters were louder than usual. Sam was complaining about her hair and Lizzie was wondering which dress to put her doll in that day. While his mom was sitting at the kitchen table worrying about what to make for dinner since they were having company over that night. Everything seemed louder to him and he couldn’t understand what was going on.

Even though it was only six in the morning, he decided to get up since Sam was plotting to get in the bathroom ahead of him that day. Though, he didn’t understand why she was talking so loudly since he could hear her perfectly and wasn’t being secretive and quiet at all. When he was just walking into the bathroom, Sam walked out of her room. Her brown hair was a mess and her pajama bottoms had dancing panda cartoons. The look on her face was priceless when she saw him walking into the bathroom and started to yell at him; only, her lips didn’t move.

He could still hear her as he shut the door and tired to understand what was going on. He was confused about how she was able to do that, but something told him that it wasn’t her who was doing that. Trying to shrug it off, he got a quick shower and tried to clear his head before going back to his room and getting ready for work. When he was dressed he went downstairs to the kitchen to find his mom sitting at the table reading the newspaper with a cup of coffee in the other hand.

“Good morning sweetie,” She said as she put the cup up to her lips and glanced up as he walked into the room. He noticed that she was already wearing a black pencil skirts and crisp blouse with stilettos and her makeup done and fair brown hair pulled into a tight bun. “Did he even iron that shirt? It’s all wrinkled and homeless looking.”

He rolled his eyes as he poured himself a cup of coffee and turned to look at her. “It’s fine mom, it’s not like anyone cares anyway, I’m just a janitor.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t say anything,” She replied as she glanced up at him again, her eyebrows were raised high.

He was about to say something when he finally realized what was going on. He could read her mind. Taking a sip of coffee, he tried to keep himself calm. That explained everything. Why he had heard his sister plotting ‘loudly’ in her room, and why he had heard his sister yelling at him even when her lips weren’t moving.

Footsteps came closer and he looked up to see Lizzie skip in with one of her dolls tucked under her arm and a small box stuffed with dressed. She sat down next to him and smiled happily as she set the box on the table as their mother stood and her heels clicked loudly against the linoleum as she busied herself with something on the counter. Lizzie started to hum to herself as she sorted through the dresses and tried to figure out which one to dress her doll in.

“Hey Ollie,” She said as he glanced up after studying his coffee to look at her. “Which one should I dress Sally in today?” She asked as she held up a blue dress and a yellow one and tilted her head to the side as she waited for him to reply. *Please let him pick the yellow one,*

“Um the blue one,” He replied as she began to pout.

“Sam what about you? The blue one or the yellow one!?” She turned to Sam who was dragging her feet as she walked in and plopped down on a chair. Her blonde hair was thrown up into a messy ponytail and her clothes had the normal boyish look with a hoodie, Jeans, and a pair of vans on her feet.

“Mmm, whichever one you want,” Sam replied as Lizzie smiled and set the blue one down and busied herself with dressing her doll in the yellow one. *It’s way too early, I can’t believe I tried to get up early to get to the bathroom before Ollie and then it all backfires. Thanks a lot big brother,*

“Sam are you going to eat something before you leave?” Her mother asked as she set down a cup of coffee in front of her and kissed the top of her head. Sam just shrugged in response as she took a sip. “Alright well I need to go; I have a early meeting with one of my clients. See you tonight and stay out of trouble. Oh the baby sitter isn’t able to come today so Oliver can you take Lizzie to the daycare at your work today?” She said it more as a statement than a question since she didn’t wait for his response and was out the door heading toward her car. *Ok so I have to quick get gas before the meeting and…*

*Oh yeahy! I get to go to Ollie’s work today!*

*Whoo Lizzie gets to go to the pretty hotel while I’m stuck in that stupid summer program. This is so stupid,*

Ollie closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the thoughts went on. He had no clue how any of this was happening, but there was a constant buzz of commotion in his head from all the thoughts of everyone around him. He even got the thoughts of the people who were walking by their house. All he wanted to do was understand what was going on and how it happened and get rid of it.

“Hey Lizzie get ready to go, we have to leave in a few minutes.”

She looked up to him and nodded happily as she began to think about what she should take along. He grabbed his own things that he needed as she skipped out of the room to pack her purse. When she came back, he helped her buckle her sparkly Mary Jane’s that went with her little pink dress she was wearing. Then helped her put her backpack on before taking her hand and walking out the door toward the subway.

The five year olds mind was filled with the wonder of riding a subway as they followed the crowd onto the train once they paid for their tickets and found the platform. Throughout the whole walk to the station, Ollie’s mind was full of different thoughts of the people around him and it was almost getting unbearable. It seemed like hours had passed as the train pulled up to the platform and Ollie took his sisters hand so she wouldn’t get carried away in the crowd. He pushed past all the people as he walked up the stairs onto the sidewalk and continued as fast as he could. Then, a thought hit him and he stopped dead in his step. The stone. That was the key to what was going on.

He faintly heard Lizzie calling to him as he started to walk again but ignored her and looked to his hand. The large mark the stone had left was gone as if it had never happened. He didn’t understand any of what was going on but knew that he had to find Ellie and get this solved as soon as possible. He needed to find that stone and figure out a way to fix this.

When he reached the hotel, he made his way past the main desk and to the child day care area and said bye to Lizzie and made his way back to the locker room. He pushed the door open and shoved his bags in his locker and then began his search for Ellie. When he didn’t find her in the locker room, he made his way to the supply room and didn’t find her there either. As he was about to stop and think of somewhere else, he remembered that the employees sometimes hung out at the coffee shop that was in the lobby.

As he got into the shop, he scanned the tables and saw no bright pink heads inside and immediately walked out and walked back to the locker room. He had no other place to look and realized that she might have taken the day off.

“Hey, we need to talk.” Someone said behind him. He turned and sighed in relief as he saw Ellie coming up behind him pushing a cart.

“Oh thank God,” He mumbled to himself as he walked over to her. “Agreed, but I suggest we go talk to that girl that we switched with yesterday to see if she would be willing to switch with us again.”

“Already done, c’mon lets go a talk somewhere more private.”