- ”Jacob Carpenter’s Guest Hotel”: Chapter 1

- The Toot Suite

        Jacob’s message to me was that the Cochran couple would be staying in the train suite. They would be arriving tomorrow at 6:00 in the evening. So that was going to be tricky. He had forgotten to give the note to me and just found it and handed it to me this morning. He sometimes misplaces his notes to me. He then somehow manages to locate them just in time for me to make the arrangements - like a crazy person. I’ve given up on the hope of maybe a text or an email. He will not communicate with anything but a land line, pen and paper or typewriter. Guests are asked to leave cell phones, tablets and laptops at home. That takes a little bit of explaining at check-in when I ask them to put their devices in the hotel safe. You would think I was asking them to hand over their guns! Jacob is adamant that you can’t make a journey to an odd and unnatural place while still tethered to the one you came from. Who knows! I just put things together for him as he describes them and then watch the strangeness unfold.