Author’s Note: You can read the first part of the story here: The Towels of Destiny (The first part)

The elevator doors slid open, and they pushed me out and pulled me down the hall to room number 71.

“Open it!” Mr. Kenichi demanded.

I fumbled in my pockets for the key card and slid it into the door handle. The green light flashed, and they pushed their way in with me in tow. They forced me to sit on the edge of the bed.

“All right,” Mr. Kenichi ordered the busboys. “I want an accurate count. Seize any he has stowed away. Search everywhere.”

The busboys went to work opening every drawer and door and looking under the bed and chairs. They tore into all my luggage and bags and just tossed my clothes, personal hygiene products, and my tourist purchases everywhere.

“Come on!” I protested. “Is this really necessary?”

Mr. Kenichi plopped down on the bed beside me, clamped one of his hands uncomfortably to my thigh and smiled a grotesque smile.

“Mr. Ripley, I oversee everything in this hotel. Everything. My very livelihood depends on things like making sure people do not steal towels. It’s all or nothing in my mind, Mr. Ripley. You may think this all just a big joke, but I assure you, Mr. Ripley, it is not a joke. Towels are very important to me and very important to my guests.”

The busboy with shiny and mussed hair suddenly stood at attention before us and saluted him.

“Sir?”

“Yes. What have you found?”

“Nothing hidden away, but there’s another one missing, sir.”

“What?” I wondered aloud.

Mr. Kenichi rose angrily. He thrust four fat fingers in the air.

“Now that’s four towels, Mr. Ripley! Four! Where are you hiding them!?”

“I haven’t stolen any towels!” I pleaded.

He strolled about the room menacingly and mockingly. “Oh, dear sir, of course you haven’t. Everyone in the world is innocent after all. It’s all a mistake, right? Except that it’s not!” He turned his attention to the two young men. “Pull up his check-in paperwork for vehicle information. Search his car. Break in if you must!”

“Yes sir,” they said in unison, and they quickly left the room.

“You can’t do that!”

“Yes, I can. This is my world, Mr. Ripley. My world!”

“For the last time, I didn’t steal any towels!”

He wagged one of his fat fingers in my face. “Oh. I have seen your type before. Yes, yes. First, it’s some plush hotel towels and then after that you pluck a turtle from a pond at the zoo and then on to snatching a child from a park, hmm Mr. Ripley. What’s your finale? To covet another man’s wife and slay her with your love sword while he looks on!”

“You’re insane. To hell with your hotel and to hell with your towels!”

“Do not disrespect me!” Mr. Kenichi bellowed as he slapped my face with a heavy hand.

I fell back onto the bed.

“All right,” I groaned as I struggled to get up off the bed. “I’m done. I’m checking out right now and I expect a full refund and I plan on filing an assault charge with the police and talking to my expensive lawyer about suing your ass!”

He slapped me again, harder, and again and again, eventually forcing me down to the floor, and then he was going at me with real nasty kicks and more beatings with his fists. He then hoisted a desk chair above him and smashed it down on me, and that’s when I saw a swirling tunnel of light and then everything went black for a seemingly long while.

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Did I die? I don’t know. It was like I suddenly emerged from a very long dream, but all the details had been lost.

I tried to shake myself awake, or alive. I wasn’t certain which. I looked around and realized I was in a large white room full of white machines. The room was very warm, hot really, humid, wet. The machines were humming and spinning. I soon realized it was an industrial laundry room. I looked down. I was standing before a large table that contained stacks of white towels. I was surrounded by large, rolling baskets heaped high with even more towels. I was dressed in all white and my hands were sore from all the folding I had obviously been doing. I quickly realized I was working as a laundry attendant. But how could that be? I was an architect—a very talented architect. I wasn’t in my office though, but now, so it seemed, I was washing and drying and folding towels at the Village of the Sun Hotel and Resort somewhere in Maine.

There suddenly came an impatient knock on a wide door behind me. I whipped my head around. There was the face of someone I didn’t know looking at me through a small window—a very angry looking young man with California blonde hair and disappointed eyes.

“Hey, Mr. Ripley, we need more god damn towels at the pool, on the double!” the stranger yelled to me through the door, his voice somewhat muffled yet clear enough. “And after that, floors five and six need more towels too. Housekeeping is getting super edgy. Come on, man!” He threw his arms up in the air and shook his head before walking away from the small window.

“I’m on it,” I called out, but he was already gone.

And it was very strange then because I knew exactly what to do and where everything was. I soon was going through the motions of removing the used towels from the rolling baskets and putting them into the washing machines. I flawlessly added the correct amounts of detergent and softener. I knew exactly what buttons to push. When the washing was done, I moved them to the dryers where they tumbled to a perfect level of dryness. From there, I moved them to the folding table where I quickly folded them with exact precision—all of them perfectly shaped and even. From there, I placed them on a wide wheeled cart so that I could transport the towels to wherever they were needed throughout the resort.

A red phone on the wall suddenly and alarmingly rang. I picked it up. “Central laundry. This is Mr. Ripley. How can I help you?”

“This is Craig. What’s the story morning glory? Are those towels ready!?”

I could tell it was the same angry young man who had been barking at me through the door earlier.

“Yes sir. I was just about to head out on my delivery run.”

He scoffed at me through the red phone. “Finally! I don’t know what’s been going on with you lately, but you better straighten up or there will be hell to pay. Do you hear me?”

“Yes sir. I’m sorry sir. I will strive to do much better.”

“We’ll see about that,” he snapped, and then he abruptly hung up.

“Craig. What an asshole,” I said aloud to no one.

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Once the transport cart was fully loaded, I worked it out of the laundry room and into the wide hallway. It rolled along smoothly on the polished linoleum of the maintenance hall. Other hotel workers rushed by me. Some scowled. Some passed a quick smile. One woman gave me a cheerful “Hello, Mr. Ripley.”

I maneuvered the cart over a transition strip and through a double swinging doorway with two porthole windows. I emerged onto paisley carpet the colors of blown-up Christmas elves. Now I was in the grand lobby and the change of environment was palpable. Here, one had to be quiet and polite. Here, one had to be respectable, and guest-service driven. I moved the cart ahead slowly toward the other side of the lobby where I would turn en route to the pool area.

As I passed near the front desk, I noticed someone standing there and he seemed very familiar. He was being grouchy about something with the young lady who was working at the counter. It seemed she was crying. He suddenly looked up as if he sensed my presence.

“Mr. Ripley! Over here please.”

It was that horrible hotel manager, Mr. Kenichi. He came out from behind the front desk and greeted me with a rude and firm grip of the shoulder.

“How are you getting along, Mr. Ripley? Are you enjoying the job?”

“What the hell is going on? What did you do to me?”

“Please, Mr. Ripley. Not in front of other people. Here. I will walk with you, and we can talk.”

I started pushing the cart and he went along with me. “I’m not supposed to be here. I want to leave. I want to go home,” I asserted.

“But Mr. Ripley, the Village of the Sun Hotel and Resort is your home now.”

“What are you talking about? I know no home here. All I know is that steamy, awful laundry room. Why did I suddenly show up there? Did you drug me?”

We paused in a portion of the next hallway cloaked in shadow.

“Mr. Ripley, you should be thanking me. I have done you a great service. You could be in prison, but instead I’ve given you employment. I have provided you with adequate housing and a stipend for all your meals. I’ve taken care of you—despite the fact you stole from me.”

“I didn’t steal any god damn towels!” I insisted.

“But you did steal towels!” he seethed. “I know it, the entire staff knows it, the whole fucking world knows it, Mr. Ripley!”

He retrieved a red handkerchief from the pocket of his suit coat and dabbed at his brow, now beaded with sweat. “Look what you’ve done. You’ve gotten me all worked up again.” He motioned for us to move on, down the wide thoroughfare that led to the indoor/outdoor pool complex.

“I don’t care what you say or what anyone else thinks. I’m not a thief. I’m an architect. If I want towels, I can buy my own damn towels—and they would be a whole hell of a lot nicer than these ass rags you provide your guests with.”

He chuckled. “Mr. Ripley, you really aren’t in any sort of a position to insult my towels. They are wonderful towels. That’s why you stole them. You appreciated their quality. At least you have that going for you.”

I scoffed. “Whatever. So, what is this really? You’re going to have me work a bit to pay off the cost of your, quote unquote, wonderful towels. Should take about 20 minutes, don’t you think?”

“You really are a damn bastard, you know that Mr. Ripley? And quite rude and dumb. You’ve been with us for nearly a year now. He glanced at the red-banded watch on his wrist. It’s August 17^th.

“What!? That’s not possible.”

“Oh, it is, Mr. Ripley. But I suppose you’ve been quite wrapped up in your work.” He chuckled. “Get it? Wrapped up. Towels. My wit knows no bounds, nor does my wrath.”

“I don’t understand any of this.”

“Well, let me make it nice and sparkling clear. See, you are indebted to me, forever, and by forever, I mean forever for real. So, here you shall stay. You may never leave. I will not allow it.”

I stopped and turned to look at him. “You can’t do that.”

“I can.”

“No, you can’t. You cannot hold me against my will. Someone will hear of this. That I assure you.”

He sighed, shook his head, and chuckled once more. “Let me explain something. I am very rich and powerful and that means I can twist any untruth into a truth, and everyone will believe it. You know why? Because most everyone is shamefully stupid.” He shook a fat finger at me. “And someday, Mr. Ripley, while you’re sweating your small balls off slinging towels in that steamy laundry room, you will come to believe, that yes in fact, you did steal those towels.”

He looked at me strangely. “Now, repeat after me: I did steal those wonderful towels and I’m very, very sorry.”

“I didn’t steal any god damn towels!” I insisted once more.

He sighed, then softly snickered again. He was always snickering. “Fine then, Mr. Ripley. It will come in time. But I’m afraid I really must leave you now. I’m a very important and busy man. And …It appears you have plenty of work to do. Come on now, chop chop. The guests need their towels. They will always need towels—forever and ever.”

As I grudgingly began to continue with my work, he turned to me one last time.

“Oh Mr. Ripley. One more thing. Have you been to the company cemetery?”

“The company cemetery?”

“Yes. It sits up on the high point to the east.”

“I don’t know anything about a cemetery.”

“Oh. Well, it’s a very nice cemetery with breathtaking vistas. I’ve taken the liberty of picking out a very nice plot just for you—one with wonderful views of our beloved laundry facilities.” He smiled with complete sincerity. “It is my great hope, Mr. Ripley, that you will be able to watch my wonderful towels spin and tumble for an eternity.”

He turned without another word and walked away from me. I watched him until he disappeared through the wide front doors of the hotel, a bright golden sunlight bursting through the glass and suddenly absorbing him completely.

END