THE MOMENT
"Every year, someone shows up, somehow having made a reservation...," Franny answered. She didn't mean to gasp as loud as she did; but, the question came as a surprise. She assumed she was done thinking about the hotel because she'd already turned guests away the day before. It was surprisingly easy compared to years before.
This time, it was as simple as telling them the hotel was no longer there. Usually, she had guests arguing with her, insisting they had reservations. She would often spend the entire spring and summer dreading that one random day. The previous day, for once, it had come and gone with little to no fuss; until today. A teenage girl with bright pink hair and a white suit walked into the law firm. She introduced herself as Justice and asked directly about the hotel.
"That's helpful, thanks," Justice nodded. "Do you have a general idea of when the last time it happened was? I mean, before yesterday," Justice clarified what she meant; but, it only made Franny more curious. How did she know about the incident the day before?
"Sure, I've been keeping track...," Franny nodded and she began searching through her phone. After a few taps and swipes, she nodded again and looked up. "...June 15," she said. "Last year."
"Great, perfect!" Justice replied and focused on the device in her own hands. Franny couldn't help to compare the relatively clunky box she held in her hands to the sleek, thin, transparent pane of glass that Justice used. It was the most advanced phone Franny had seen and she was mildly envious of it. Even from an odd angle, she could see bright colors on Justice's screen. Franny was confident that she could have read the text itself if she'd made an effort. "Found the problem," Justice nodded and she tapped at the gizmo with more enthusiasm. "Alright, got it. Thanks!," she smiled, then slid another transparent card across the counter to Franny. "You shouldn't get any more lost vacationers; but, if you do, this'll teach you how to deal with them," she said.
"This is... for me?" Franny didn't hesitate to pick up the card. As soon as she touched it, the time appeared in brilliant, clean white digits that seemed to be floating in mid-air.
"It's mostly in case you need to contact us again; but, there's a lot you can do with it. It's yours to keep," Justice nodded.
"Us?" Franny asked. She had been so distracted at first, that she hadn't caught all of the girl's introduction. But, thinking back on it, she remembered the teen pointing to the red scissor logo on the front of her blazer. "Oh, right, you said you were with Sharp Development?" she asked. "What does the company do? Tourism?"
"We do everything," Justice nodded. "including Tourism. We recently acquired a new chain of hotels. Yesterday we received a complaint about this one, so I came to investigate," she said. Franny was suddenly unsure about everything again.
"But...the hotel that was here burned down 60 years ago...," she said.
"Yeah," Justice shrugged. "It looked like no one bothered to update the directory," she said.
"I don't understand," Franny shook her head. Being able to admit that had gotten her surprisingly far in her career. "Your company bought the hotel that was here 60 years ago. It burned down and you're still taking reservations for it??" she asked.
"What?" Justice tilted her head at Franny with amused curiosity. "I can see why you don't understand that; it sounds pretty ridiculous," the teen chuckled.
"But, isn't that what you're doing? Wait, that's what's been happening for years? Even before your company bought the hotel; where do the guests come from every year??"
"Ah, I see," Justice said. She nodded down at the transparent rectangle in Franny's hands. "That's called a node," she said. "You'll learn a lot through it; but, here's a quick explainer. There was a hotel on this property 60 years ago; it burned down, right?" Justice asked.
"Dozens of people died...," Franny nodded.
"And, since you started working here, you've had at least one visitor a year looking for that hotel, right?" Justice asked. Franny agreed. "How long have you worked here?"
"Seven years," she said.
"And did you hear of anyone looking for the hotel in the 53 years between when it burned down and when you started?" she asked. Franny shook her head.
"We're the first business here; I was here the first year," she said.
"Let me ask you a different question," Justice asked. "As far as hotel names go, where do you rank 'Hotel Paradise'?"
"It's kind of generic," Franny shrugged. Somehow, the motion of her shoulders clicked all of Justice's questions into perspective. "Ohhhh," she sighed feeling more than a little dumb.
"You got it?" Justice asked.
"Yeah," Franny laughed. "If I'd just sat down and thought about it for a little bit, I wouldn't have been so convinced they were ghosts this whole time," she grinned. The combination of not caring enough to fact check in combination with the sporadic nature of the events let Franny's mind make up anything. If she'd bothered researching the hotel any deeper than just finding out about the one that burned down, she likely would have found a chain. It was obvious that the people she'd been dealing with over the years had just been confused in one way or another. They weren't ghosts. As Justice said, that would have been ridiculous.
"Oh, yeah," Justice nodded. "They're definitely not ghosts. They just came to the wrong universe because the directory still listed this one as 'Open'," she said.
"I'm sorry?" Franny asked. "...wrong Universe??"
"Well yeah," Justice nodded. "The one from this universe burned down; but, it's a multiversal chain."