Susan Tepper
iding by Susan Tepper It always happens this way. I make a travel plan and it gets disrupted by my inability to keep track. Strangely (coincidentally?) there is a theme of time in this hotel. Each room (at least those I’ve occupied over the years, about five, I think)— each has an entry way that’s papered in black antique timepieces against white. The first time I entered a room here I was charmed by this sophisticated whimsy in the décor. Clocks, watches— I said something like that out loud. Then Jack made a comment about my never wearing a watch. How he’d bought me several expensive watches over the years. I honestly don’t remember receiving a single watch as a gift from my husband. I have no idea what he was talking about. At any rate, I’ve been in this hotel longer than I anticipated. Denis, the manager, assuring me it is perfectly fine, that my minisuite has not been reserved by anyone as it’s the offseason. I’ve gotten to know him over the years. Yesterday we were having a drink in the lobby bar, cozy, tucked away in a corner. Outside was turning dusky, and of course raining. I told him I didn’t know London had an offseason. He patted my hand and said my dear. That’s all. Some men can do that. “I’ll never get enough of this city,” I told him. Every night I go alone to the theatre. Because Denis is French and married and running this hotel, he never gets to the theatre. I regale him about this or that play. I tell him London is somewhat like New York only way better. Laughing, he disputes my claim saying New York is still the best city in the world. I tell him that I love the blue and white striped canvas summer chairs they put in the parks here. “New York would never put out chairs in Central Park. They’d all be stolen in an hour.” “An hour?” he says. “Maybe a half hour.” The steps leading down to St. James Park are practically outside this hotel door. The waterfowl and other birds have diminished because of winter coming, and naturally the chairs have been stored away, but I still see some birds and ducks and of course the pigeons.
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