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Archive for July 7th, 2010

Nighttime Adventure

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

On our way to Winnipeg, we spent the night of June 29 in a hotel in Regina.

She opened her eyes to the darkness of the hotel room. The air conditioner blasted air in a futile attempt to combat the mugginess of the air. Her eyes were scratchy with sleep and she tried to rub them clear, but the humidity held it there, so she pulled the sheet up to her chin and closed them again.

‘But, that sound…what is it?’

There was a high pitched noise…beeping? Not quite; a little more intense. Screeching? Chirping? Definitely annoying, that’s for sure.

For a moment she attributed the noise to the air conditioner – it seemed to be coming from that direction anyway – and decided to try to sleep through it. But her curiosity got the best of her and she threw back the covers and groped around until she found her glasses. The clock showed 3:09 am. Ugh.

She tiptoed to the door and opened it a crack to peek out.

The sound was deafening. Blinding lights flashed. Could this really be? A fire? Right now?

She closed the door and turned to look at her family – her husband rousing from his sleep, awakened by the storm of sound that had entered the room; and her four children, still sleeping peacefully in their beds.

“What should we do?” she asked her husband. “I just saw a guy heading for the stairs with his coat, backpack and identification on.” She knew what they should do, but the thought of waking the children at three o’clock in the morning was daunting.

As she pulled on her shorts, he called the front desk – no answer.

It was settled; time to wake the children. One by one they were woken up, softly, gently.

“We need to go outside, there’s a fire alarm.”

She gathered her purse and computer as the rest put on their shoes. He felt the door – not hot – and opened it slowly.

And outside they went, into the dark and mosquito-filled morning, at an hour they rarely saw. The two youngest children were carried, clutching their loveys in a sleepy daze as the oldest two walked bravely and patiently and seriously, carefully following every direction they were given.

There were some people outside, and some hanging out in the lobby. There were two fire trucks, lights flashing, parked in front of the hotel. We headed to our van for warmth and protection from the bugs and sat for a mere five minutes before the alarm stopped sounding, the lights stopped flashing, and we were allowed back in.

I joked that we should make them open up the pool and waterslide now since were were all up. Everyone returned to their beds though, and soon the room was quiet again. My eyes slipped shut just as the morning light started to stream through the crack in the curtains. Our nighttime adventure was done.

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