Displacement

Nell barely noticed the differences anymore.

Some of the hotels were slightly nicer than others, but her company was neither stingy nor extravagant, which meant she stayed in the same caliber of places wherever she went.

The bed, nightstand, and television cabinet were all standard appointments with club chair and coffee table nooks occasionally making an appearance.  Bathrooms were near carbon copies of each other, sporting the same homogeneous sinks, toilets, and tubs in practically every location.  Even the artwork on the walls tended to fall within a predictable pattern to the point where the deja’vu sometimes became disorienting.

Looking out the window of her latest room presented Nell with a view of a fallow field, filled with stumps of desiccated vegetation she couldn’t identify. Sadly, this was almost picturesque compared to the parking lots, strip malls, and truck-stops that generally comprised the backdrop of her business trip destinations. 

The current assignment was a client in Iowa she’d helped set up the previous year.  Because she’d been there since the beginning it generally took less time than comparable projects and she mostly had afternoons and evenings to herself, which would’ve been great if she were somewhere other than a town whose primary draw were various outlet and overstock stores. 

Nell examined the octagonal shapes on the wallpaper in her room.  It was a seventies style design, though the paper itself was clearly new.

‘Everything comes back around eventually.’  she thought and wondered if the same was true of people.  ‘Maybe there was a version of herself in a different hotel staring at the same recycled kitsch?’

It was the sort of philosophical exercise usually brought on by too much idle time and a distinct lack of alcohol.

She went to grab her keycard off the nightstand, but it wasn’t there.

After searching the rest of the room she finally found it beside the bathroom sink.  Nell was almost positive she hadn’t gone in there since getting back from the client site, but supposed she must have.

“Yeah, you definitely need beer.”  Nell said and laughed at herself as she headed down to the lobby.