“No… Just tired,” I told him. “So, did you just call to chew me out for not calling you first, or was there something else on your mind?”

“Little of both, I guess,” he grunted.

“Okay, if you’re finished with your lecture, are you ready to move on to the other?”

“What the hell is that?” he asked, confusion in his voice.

“Ummm…I don’t know. You called me, remember?”

“No, White Man. I mean what’s that fuckin’ noise?”

Apparently my next-door neighbor had another transaction waiting in the wings, either that or one of her co-workers had been in the queue. I’d already identified the voices of two separate bad actresses operating out of the same room. At any rate, it appeared my hoped for fifteen minutes of peace wasn’t going to happen, at least not during this particular hour.

“Exactly.”

“Exactly what?”

“Just like you said, it’s fuckin’ noise, Ben,” I told him, echoing his raw terminology. “Let’s just say there is a lot of nightshift work here at the Inn.”

“Jeezus, Row… You aren’t gonna…you know…”

“Come on, I think you know me better than that.”

“Well couldn’t ya’ get a decent room somewhere else?”

“Believe me, I wish I could. Right now I just need to be happy it has a roof and electricity.”

“So you at least got a TV?” he asked.

“Actually, no. I don’t think the people who normally use these rooms are all that interested in TV. Why do you ask?”

“Just wonderin’ what you’re doin’ for entertainment?”

The non sequitur queries were really starting to aggravate me, so I snapped, “I’m not here for entertainment, Ben, and you know that. Now, are you going to tell me whatever it is you had on your mind or not?”

“You sittin’ down?”

“No. There isn’t a chair, and I’m not so sure I want to use the bed from the looks of it. I’m not even sure where I plan to sleep in here now that I think of it.”