A New Life

Carlos was a night clerk at an upscale hotel in Northwest California. Shortly after midnight, he saw what appeared to be a ragged, homeless man walking up the driveway to the hotel. His first thought was he’d shoo him away, but he would be courteous about it. Then he thought that this might even be a holdup. Carlos stood behind the counter with his hand next to the emergency call button. As the man entered the lobby, Carlos said, as pleasantly as he could, “May I help you?”

“Please pardon my appearance, but I was in a terrible car crash. I could have been killed, but except for a lot of bumps and bruises, I am okay. I lost all of my luggage. I’ll need a room for a couple of days to get some rest and to sort things out,” the man said.

“You look like you were run over by something. Do you need help?” Carlos asked.

“Thanks, but I have had all the help that I need. What I really need is to get some rest and sleep.” The man handed Carlos his driver’s license for identification and a credit card. The license indicated that the man was Philip Johnson from Pine Creek, Georgia. He did look like the picture on the driver’s license.

Carlos checked the available rooms. “I only have a room with a queen-size bed.” “Anything will be fine.”

Carlos ran the credit card through the system; it checked out okay. He gave Philip a room key card. “The hotel has a complimentary cosmetics kit that has a razor if you need it.”

“I will need it. Thank you.”

Philip went to the room and showered. He rinsed his underwear and hung them to dry in the bathroom and wore his ragged clothes to bed. He was dead tired and felt as if he would sleep for a couple of days.

Just as he was getting to sleep, the door suddenly burst open and two men in police uniforms came charging in. Philip was instantly wide awake, but no one else was there. This nightmare kept repeating every time he tried to sleep. He tried reading a magazine until he fell asleep, but that did not help. If he couldn’t get some sleep, he feared he may go insane.

Philip thought he heard a moan and was wide awake. He went by his door and listened and was certain that he could hear someone sobbing. He peeked through the peephole in his door. His room was the last one in the corridor, and he could see a woman leaning against the end of the corridor, sobbing profusely. She was wearing slacks, and all of her clothes he could see were colorful. He went out to her, but she didn’t see him until he said, “Excuse me.”

She turned around, and Philip could see that her tears had smudged her makeup and her brunette hair was all tangled. “Yes?”

“Can I help you with something?”

The woman shook her head and responded, “No, I don’t think so.”

“My name is Phil, and I would like to help you if I can.”

“I am Roxie, and no one can help me.”

“Roxie, God loves you and wants to help you.”

“If there were a God who loved me and wanted to help me, He wouldn’t have let all these things happen to me.”

As Phil reflected on “all these things” for just a moment, Roxie abruptly changed the subject. “Your clothes make you look like you need help.”

“The clothes I am wearing are all that I have left.”

“What happened, Phil

“I just lost my wife, the love of my life, in a horrible car crash. I should have been killed, not her. She did not deserve to die.” Phil’s voice was so broken that it was difficult to understand him. He choked up in tears and could not continue.

Roxie was able to decipher what he said and felt pity for him, but she did not know how to console a distraught man. She started to reach out to him but then pulled back, not knowing if a touch would help or hurt. She thought that he must have really loved his wife. “That is horrible,” she said.

Phil regained his composure. “I don’t want to tell you much about it, but the circumstances of the crash are causing me such nightmares that I can’t sleep, and I’m going crazy. Every time I try to sleep, I dream of someone crashing into my room to take me.

Roxie took a bottle out of her pocket and handed Phil a pill. ”Maybe this sleeping pill will help you sleep.”

Phil looked at the bottle and the pill, and he could see that it was actually an over-the-counter sleep aid pill. He had some just like it at home. “Thanks, Roxie, it might help.”

“I hope you sleep well, Phil.” Roxie quickly left and was gone before Phil could say anything else.

Phil was angry with himself as he went back into his room. Roxie was obviously in need of something, and all he had found out was her first name. He pondered a while whether or not it would be safe to take the pill. He finally decided to take the pill and lie down. The pill did not help much, but talking with Roxie seemed to calm him enough that he didn’t have any more nightmares. It took a while, but after he tossed and turned a while, he dropped off to sleep.