Alibi.

Alibi

Aw man how I dream I could remember everything completely. Maybe I can. If I go back.

I was on the bus.

It was more like a glass elevator to start off with. Four of us sharing air space. Rory was on the phone. Chatting away about something being scary. I started making ghost noises. Awoool. Whispered ghost noises. Then the girl with red hair told me to be quiet. Seems I was annoying her. Sheepish. I thought Aw what. Then yeah I shut up. There was this guy behind me Thomas. Of polish descent. He loved I got told to shut up. I think he refused me food. Or said No! To some amicable request. That was back then not now.

Something happened because we were on a bus tour in Scotland. Wed been to many places. Seen an old car museum and travelled over bridges past lakes. Beautiful scenery. Many had brought food with them. There were two buses.

For some reason Thomas was driving the bus.
The girl with the red hair had passed out.
She lay across me using my chest as a pillow.

Aw man. What was going on one disaster after another. I think they doctored my memory. All I knew next was the bus was about to crash. Smash into a wall. Thomas the driver of polish descent looked backwards. His eyebrows raised and his smile so fixed it gave him a startling demonic expression. He was enjoying this. Deliberately driving us towards a wall.

I speedily unbuckled my seat belt. I took the passed out red haired girl in my arms and placed her in the seat that was next to mine. I quickly clicked her seat belt buckle in place. Then I smothered her for safety with my body like a soldier in a film would jump on a bomb, so as to protect his friends.

The bus crashed into the wall.

I woke up with a start. Lying on a hospital bed. In front of I was a window to a window. A three tiered window. Thomas was in the top window. He laughed then appeared beside I.

His bedside manner left something to be desired.

He was raving. Cackling like a twisted evil spectre.
I was hurt I knew that much.

So your plan to save the girl worked
Thomas laughed.
Therefore I killed her myself
and chopped off one of your fingers to teach you a lesson.

I looked down at my hand and sure enough my little finger on my right hand was just a bloody stump.

Why was this happening?

How did Thomas transport himself from the utmost window to the side of my bed so quickly?

I vaguely remembered my suitcase. I had packed it. Surely. There was a document in there. My passport? No something else. I felt. Felt. I think it was something to do with the FBI.

A flashback whoa strong this time. Luckily I was already lying down. As the images prickled and burned inside my head.


Back with the bus.

Strange jumbled up pictures a suitcase loosing paper to the wind. An ice cream van and I. Chatting to the girl that said can you be quiet please. How it was a shame. Never mind. Id just eat sweets. I had lots of sweets. Which was a lie. I pulled out a half eaten strawberry lace from behind my ear and ate it. Chewing and thinking about my lies. Then the ice cream van went past playing its song and I thought, I can buy more sweets so that's alight.

The bus had stopped and everyone had got off. Everyone except for this traveller. I was just about to check my belongings when two of the bus party turned up.

A lanky guy with mousey curtains hair, a face shaped like a peanut and a light blue and white striped button shirt covering the top half of his body. His friend was shorter and chubbier. Wearing a green jumper.

Although don't hold onto that one. As I said my memory's not so good. Anyway this pair said that if I wanted to get my room I had to get off the bus and head into the hotel now.

The bus was parked about 100 metres away from a travel lodge type place and the rest of the party had been gone for about an hour or so already. I was planning on skipping the whole booking a room scenario and just crashing somewhere. Who knows at worst maybe someone would have space on their floor that I could crash upon.

For whatever reason I decided now was the time to step inside the hotel. In I went. The guy in the light blue and white striped shirt said,

"head to the grey area in the middle then use the extension on the phone to get your room"

Fair enough, I thought, as I made my way across, funny, this was odd, in the middle of a large red carpeted room, there was a patch of floor that was grey, completely grey in colour, on it were a few office style tables and chairs, and on the tables phones, the phones were grey too, the tables thankfully were a different colour yellow orange beam, otherwise the whole thing would look like some conceptual art project, office space in concrete.

As I took steps towards the grey area I went past what I would usually call the hotel reception desk. Instead of there being no-one about and a bell to ring the place was buzzing. It was like a stock exchange. There were four people manning the phones on the front desk and more and more went back in rows. The phones were constantly ringing too. It was frantic.

I was the only guest in the lobby and now the grey area.

I sat down in front of a phone and found the extension number written on it

"Extension 8441" I called over my shoulder to the dynamic duo.

They dint need to reply and I don't even know if they would have done, they moved a bit like sheep anyway, the phone to the left of me, oh yeah there were two phones on the desk, sprung to life it flashed its green light and rang. So I picked up the receiver.

"Hello" I said, perplexed.

"Hi your through to Dai, your helpful hotel room booker"

"Good evening Dai" I replied "My name is...

This Dai was speaking manically fast and cutting over everything I tried to say

"Your going have difficulty getting a room this evening"

"Really how much diffi"

"Well most of the rooms are completely booked up fully boooked so its going to be difficult for you to get a room"

"Well just let me know is it a yes or a "

"Its going to be difficult!"

"well that suggests its not impossible, difficult isnt a no so"

At this point I began to think in my head

what on earth is this difficulty that Dai's going on about, do I have to do a tightrope walk to get the room, Id be up for that I really would, lion taming?

Then it dawned, Dai wanted money of course, money.

"Its going to be difficult"

"Tell you what",
chirped in another room booker employee,
"we could check your details and have the money paid in tomorrow morning hows that"

"Tell me what the difficulty is or whether its a yes or no"

This stumped them, so I took the opportunity to speak while I had the chance of not being interrupted,

"To tell you the truth I think im better off having a bit of an explore around the area"

This was true, I also told them that most of the friends I had made from the bus were staying at this hotel. This was bending the truth slightly. I hadn't made any friends on this journey. At least I dint think so. I still however wanted to stay close to the group something was going on that I needed to find out about.

I asked Dai and the other employee whether id be permitted to visit my friends if I wasn't a guest staying at the hotel.

"No" Answered Dai abruptly, I think I had managed to piss him off. Chalk that one up to experience.

Dai's colleague said that if I stayed at the place down the road id get some sort of lodge card that would allow me access to lots of hotels including this one. The bars lounges and lobby spaces not the rooms. Fair enough I thought.

As I walked out. Dai joined. We had a chat I wanted to clear the air. After all he was just a person and people are people no matter who they are. So we talked. I told him what I was up to travelling from place to place. He mentioned I should have a better more respectful calmer style on the phone. I told Dai I was only joking around, because of his saying it would be difficult to get a room.

I couldn't believe he never revealed why it would be difficult. I said he could remember that for the future. I was thinking of sleeping it rough somewhere. Sleeping bag and stars. Dai pointed to the prices off a room for the night on the wall. Yeah I definitely made a good decision there.

Leaving Dai to his travelodge with its weird grey area, and high prices I went back to the bus.

Only it was the other bus,

A friend from before was making toast. It was the curly ginger haired man in Orange shorts. I remembered I had played with his son and told his son a story about no more apples. Thimbleberry that was his son's name. We exchanged pleasantries. The curly haired ginger man was toasting four slices of bread in the toaster.

Great I thought, I could boil up some water on here and have some pasta to eat. Odd my friend got older and older, white haired and in a jacket, he told me how he was enjoying the bus trip, I said so was I and that today had been wonderful, in fact everyday had been wonderful then I mentioned that today especially so as it was the only day I could remember the rest having vanished away.

I looked around the bus. In front of me another old man. Dressed in thick clothes. A woolly blue navy jumper, made from very thick wool, and a navy beret on top of his head. His face was pocked with pot-holes his skin a nice hazel brown hued colour he reminded me of an old police man from an English t.v show although he had a distinct French air about him, or maybe Belgium.

I looked behind and an old lady in a 1920's tan cloche stared long in my direction with her chestnut eyes

I dint know why I was on this bus full of old people. It was full. Everyone seemed to be eating something or the other. I thought perhaps the old people dint want to stay inside the weird hotel either.

So I decided that the walkway that ran between the seats of the bus of old people was to be my bed for the night.

I unzipped my sleeping bag got inside zipped it up again and went to sleep.

Thats all I can remember.