Saturday 26 November 2011

Charlotte's Tower - A Short Story


Charlotte woke up propped up on four fluffy cream pillows. The puffy Tower Hotel ones that you sink your face into. To Charlotte the Tower Hotel is her home. She has lived there since the age of five. She always felt like the missing kid in home alone as she slid down the banisters and nicked miniature bottles of shampoo off the room service lady’s cart. Her Dad owns the 'Towers' or 'Towers of Doom' as she affectionately calls the hotel. Charlotte has long caramel blonde hair and bright green eyes but the porcelain doll comparisons get very annoying when repeated so often. Truthfully, Charlotte feels lonely a lot of the time. Arriving back home from boarding school for the summer makes her feel isolated and agitated. Also, it doesn't help that her Dad is psychotically overprotective. He is so powerful and intimidating that at age eighteen no boy has dared approach Charlotte, let alone kiss her. 
Charlotte longed for the romance that she was enthralled with in Bronte novels as she was growing up and old black and white movies. Like an eightie’s pop song - I want you to want me. Boom. But no, life doesn't really work that way. I guess that’s the problem when your Dad runs a hotel Empire and your mother ran away with her Puerto Rican gym instructor. Your elitist father may, or may not become serially neurotic and paranoid. Charlotte pondered over her life reminiscing what it felt like when she was little and her parents were really in love. It scared her that it didn't last forever. In the movies the happy ending was imminent and comforting and expected. Charlotte sighed and decided a scrumptious breakfast was in order. She called up room service and decided she deserved something very fattening... ''Hi It's Char here, I'm in the Penthouse Suite, could you please ask Ricardo if he could muster me up a Tuscan grilled cheese sandwich with oyster puree. Oh, and a green tea. Thank you!''
Charlotte realised she hadn't let the lady at the desk get a word in edgeways, but it wasn't intentional. Charlotte hadn't mastered the fact that a telephone conversation shouldn't be a monologue.
She slid out of the bed in her pink silk dressing gown and fished for the TV remote. A movie day was in order. 'How to Marry a Millionaire' was on. She breathed a sigh of delight. She adored Marilyn Monroe, she was so glamorous and alluring but there was something mysterious about her. Charlotte had always wanted to be an actress; she had been born with her mother's good looks and a serious flair for the dramatic. She liked to pretend her life was a movie and she was the star in it. It was bizarre but amusing to her. There was a knock at the door and a husky voice said 'room service'. Her breakfast was very fast. Charlotte strolled to the door in a nonchalant manner then twisted the door knob and flung it open. Seriously dramatic. The boy who was delivering the order spilled the green tea all over his uniform including his formerly pristine white shirt. Charlotte couldn't help it. She giggled. He looked up and saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his whole life. She had long, thick shiny caramel blonde hair and piercing emerald-green eyes. She was wearing a pink silk robe and had the most dazzling smile he had ever seen. Could this girl be real?
'Oh my god I am Charlotte! I mean, I am sorry! sorry' Charlotte exclaimed ' Please come in I will help you get rid of that stain...'
John followed the beautiful blonde into her suite and marvelled at the extravagance of the huge four poster bed, burgundy satin couches and most of all, the stunning mysterious girl who was definitely the most fascinating thing in the room. He took a seat on the couch awkwardly and waited for Charlotte to approach him. It's funny how people look like their names. This girl just looked like a Charlotte. She approached him soda water in hand with a towel at explained how this would draw the green stain out. 'What is your name?' Charlotte enquired batting her eyelashes. 'I'm John, I am new I just started working at the Towers a month ago. Are you on Holidays?' Charlotte smiled and whispered ‘yes I guess you could say that’. Their chemistry was instantaneous. It was like something out of a black and white film, but not in a clichéd way. John was tall, dark and handsome and clearly besotted and Charlotte was trying to be calm, cool and collected but gushed about her life, father, school, favourite colour. Every single thing under the sun basically. This made John like her even more. Her erratic personality, naiveté and natural beauty had John shell shocked. But she was the boss’s daughter. He was a glorified bellboy. How could it ever work? It was evident Charlotte didn’t care. John told her about school and how his Dad had lost his job and his Mother passed when he was a baby. He explained how he liked working in the Hotel because he felt not only independence but he could support himself and help his Dad. Charlotte gazed at him with adamant admiration and jealousy. She longed for freedom to be free of the clutches of her over protective Dad who resented how much she looked like her Mother, even though her would never admit it out loud it was constantly written all over his face.



Charlotte wanted to leave the Towers and live her own life. She longed to live somewhere with a garden with flowers and a residence where someone doesn’t change the towels daily or leave a chocolate on your pillow, a place where it is not essential to leave a ‘do not disturb’ sign to ensure a little privacy.
As Charlotte gazed into John’s eyes she saw a new path, a world of infinite possibility. And as she quickly dressed and went on her first real date with John to a quiet café. A cup of hot chocolate out of the Towers down a quiet street made her feel warmed up inside out. Charlotte and John strolled hand in hand and she realised not only did she feel liberated but finally found someone who not only inspired her, but who she could share her freedom with. It helped that he was cute too...

To Be Continued.....

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xo L

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