Untold Stories

“Yes, right there.” The woman pointed to the blank space beside the old, full-size bed.

“Thank you,” she said.

The three men lowered the newer full-size and made minor adjustments before the four left the room.

The four walls sat in silence as their voices could be heard drifting away.

A few moments later, a deep cough penetrated the silence.

“Are you okay?” a young, high-pitch voice asked.

“…Yes,” an older, husky voice replied curtly.

“What’s wrong with you?” asked the younger voice. “You look tired.”

“I am tired,” the older one returned.

“Well, how long have you been here?”

“Too long.”

“Oh,” said the younger voice.

“How about you?” Asked the older one as it coughed again. “How did you end up here? You’re probably the youngest I’ve seen yet.”

“I was assigned here! From my class.”

“Why? What did you do?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Uhh, well,” said the older voice. “This isn’t exactly the Ritz-Carlton…”

“Oh. Well, I wasn’t at the top of my class—those were assigned to showrooms, nice homes, and fancy hotels. The rest of us got these hotels and prisons—“

“Prisons? Don’t they just sleep on hard slabs there?”

“It’s for the conjugal visits.”

“Ah,” the older voice coughed again—this time, violent hacking.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asked the younger voice.

The older voice chuckled. “Do I look okay, kid? You see my lovely, dull shade of yellow, compared to your bright white? And the stains, and the smells. I’ve practically lost my shape.” It let out a hack again. “I guess you can say, I’ve seen better days.”

“Oh I’m sure you’ve had many exciting days, too, though!” exclaimed the younger voice.

“Sounds to me like a life pretty well-lived!”

“Yeah. That’s one way to put it,” huffed the older voice.

“Yes, see, exactly! That’s why I’m actually happy I got this assignment. I would’ve hated to be assigned to a boring, everyday, family home…or to just be stared at and occasionally ‘tried out’ at a dull furniture store. Seems like this kind of place would be a lot more interesting. Like it’d see a lot more interesting people, with interesting stories!”

“You can say that again,” said the older voice.

“I mean, whole families,” the young voice continued. “Romantic couples, business travelers, solo adventurers. Maybe even a famous celebrity or two!”

“Yeah, and prostitutes, drug dealers, adulterers, gang members, drunk teenagers…”

“Well. I’m sure those are probably the exception and not the rule…”

“Umm, I don’t know who told you that.”

“Well, it can’t be that bad.”

“Hey, I’m just sayin’. I would’ve gone with the prison conjugal visits,” said the older voice before it deeply hacked again and the conversation came to a brief pause.

The younger voice sighed a few moments later. “I can’t wait for my first sleep! I can hardly stand it.”

“Wait. So, you’re that new…” said the older voice, “That you’ve never been slept on at all?”

“Nope. Completely brand new. Straight off the assembly line!”

“Oh. Wow,” the older voice cleared its throat.

“Yeah! So, what’s it like?!? Pretty awesome, I bet!”

“Yeah. Awesome,” the older voice said dryly.

“I bet!” exclaimed the younger voice. “I mean, think of how important our role is in society and to humans. To the world!! Sleep is the single most important thing humans can do besides eat and hydrate. They need it to stay alive, and we’ve actually been tasked with this great responsibility to see that that happens every night for their entire lives!! Even when they’re away from home—how cool is that?!?”

“Yeah. Cool,” said the older voice.

“So, what’s your favorite thing about being a hotel be—“

“Motel,” the older voice interrupted.

“Huh?”

“You keep saying ‘hotel’. This is a ‘motel.'”

“So? What’s the difference?” asked the younger voice.

“There is one.”

“Umm, okay. So, what’s your favorite thing about being a motel bed? I bet it’s seeing all of the cool and interesting people who come through!”

“The time the room is vacant,” the older voice said abruptly.

“What? Why would that be your favorite??”

“Kid. You being this green would be comical if it weren’t so…sad…when I know what’s to come…”

“I really think you’re exaggerating. I mean, what could be so bad?”

The older voice laughed. “Seriously?”

“I’m not understanding,” said the younger voice. “I mean, all you have to do is just sit here. And be slept on.”

“Yeah, you would think.”

“Well? I’m listening!”

“Kid, if all they did was sleep on us or sleep in the room, I’d be on cloud nine instead of questioning my life every second I live it.”

“I mean… What else do they do besides sleep?”

The older voice sighed. “Well, let’s see. I’ve been stepped on and jumped all over, peed on, pooped on—by both humans and animals. Ugh, animals. Dogs, cats, even rabbits! The amount of fur and saliva they’ve had to clean from me—and not even a deep-clean…”

“Oh, I didn’t think even think about animals…” said the young voice.

“And I could make my own Olympic-size swimming pool with how much I’ve been drooled on. The sheer amount of human bodily fluids as a whole. I mean, from sex alone—“

“Oh, yeah. Sex. I forgot about that possibility…”

“Possibility?! Ha! Kid, you’re at a motel. What else do you think they do here besides have sex?!”

“Well, I thought sleep—”

“Ha!” The older voice belt out before it continued. “I’ve been coughed and sneezed on—people in here with everything from the cold to COVID, and don’t get me started on STDs…” It violently hacked again.

The younger one sat silent.

“And blood. Man, the amount of human ladies who have leaked through during their time of the month—some way more than others. And we’re supposed to get replaced anytime that happens, but… I’m counting around 25 or so years now—”

“25 years?!?” the younger one gasped. “Oh my gosh!! Why so long?!”

“I mean… Once you throw on some nice, white sheets and sprits some air freshener on me, no one can really tell the difference. To the average visitor, I’m as new as you!”

“But 25 years?!? That’s, like…if you had a different person each staying an average of two nights that whole time, that’d be almost 5,000 different people!!”

“Uhh yah. I’m sure it’s against some law. But what are ya gonna do about it. No labor laws for us. Or sufficient health and safety ones for them. The last few times I was treated for bed bugs, I thought that’d finally be it, but…I guess not.”

The younger one continued to process what it was hearing.

“Like I said,” said the older, “I’m surprised they got you in here. The one that was in here before you was here even longer—almost 30 years! Honestly, that’s actually more of the norm…”

“Oh my gosh. Well, what happened to it?”

The older one hesitated.

“Well?” said the younger. “What happened to the other bed that was here before?”

“Look, I really don’t want to scare you or ruin your clearly very optimistic outlook about this whole thing before you even get started…”

“I mean, you’ve already said some pretty intense stuff—I’m not sure how it could get any worse.”

The older one sighed and chuckled. “Oh it can.”

“Well, just tell me.”

The older one sighed again.

“Some things you can’t bleach away, no matter how hard you try.”

“Huh?” said the younger.

“Let’s just say, that bed experienced a whole lot more blood than just some from a leaking woman…”

The younger one gasped. “What happened?”

“It was a…homicide. A triple homicide, actually. About a month ago—a whole family executed…on the bed there before.”

“What?!?”

“I told you you might’ve been better off with the prison’s conjugal visits!” the older voice mused.

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah. An older husband and wife, and their adult daughter and son. Full of silencer bullets and practically drained by the time housekeeping came during the room’s mandated weekly rotation and discovered them. The odor was pretty bad by then—nearly unbearable. They spent weeks trying to get it out, and they still haven’t completely. I’m actually surprised you can’t smell it.”

“Oh. I wasn’t going to say anything, but… I thought maybe this is how it always smells…”

“I mean, it isn’t usually much better, but”—the older coughed and cleared its throat—“it’s better. That smell is a…very distinct one. They almost had to get rid of me for it—ya’ know, innocent bystander.”

“Wait, so. You actually…saw the family killed?” asked the younger one. “You know who did it?”

“Yeah. I know everything. I’m a motel bed, for crying out loud!!”

“Did they catch him?”

“Them. It was a couple of men who did it. An outstanding gambling debt, apparently.”

“Man…”

“Yeah. And I’d love to share what I saw with the police, but…”

“But…they can’t understand us,” said the younger voice.

“Well, except for the family’s pet dog that was also here and the guys for some reason let live. Between me and the dog, we could’ve easily spoke to what happened, but—”

“Yeah… Wow.”

“Exactly,” said the older voice. “Still looking forward to the dreamy ‘motel bed’ experience?”

Just then, some activity could be heard outside the door.

“Oh, shh! Shhh!!” whispered the older.

The door unlocked, and a woman entered. It was the same one as before.

“Yeah, this is the one,” she said to another woman and one of the men from before. “I want you to Lysol that one right there real good. It still stinks in here.”

“Umm, why don’t you just replace it, ma’am?” asked the second woman.

“Replace it? Why? It’s still a perfectly good bed. No, a good spraying down should do it. And then we’ll get housekeeping to come make them both up. We’re expecting a full house this weekend, so we need all the beds we can get…”