The Tragedy Paper Read Online Free Page A

reservation.”
    “That’s impossible,” she said again.
    “My mom’s travel company works with the hotel,” I heard myself explaining. “She called and apparently theyhad at least one room left because she booked it. It’s waiting for me. I’m just heading over there now.”
    “Wow,” she said. I could see her eyes light up. She seemed so much friendlier suddenly. “Do you think it has two beds?”
    “Maybe,” I said. For some reason I was not at all surprised by her question. I had the distinct feeling that the universe was out of whack and normal rules didn’t apply. I sort of liked it.
    “You could come along and we’ll see. And if not …” I let the words hang in the air. She frowned and rolled her eyes, but responded by gathering her things. For a second I thought she was going to hand me her coat to carry, but she didn’t. I was glad because the truth was, if she had, I would have.

CHAPTER FOUR
TIM
I FELT LIKE NONE OF THE NORMAL RULES APPLIED
    Neither of us talked at first. I could have asked
Where are you from? Where are you going?
But I didn’t want her to think that I was going to talk all night. Later, when we talked about this moment, she told me she wished she could have just kept listening to her iPod, but she knew that would be rude. Maybe she should have.
    We were almost there before either of us spoke.
    “I’m Vanessa, by the way,” she said, reaching out her hand. It was one of those memorable moments because, as strange as it may sound, even when people are nice to me, they don’t usually volunteer to touch me—unless they know me, of course. I looked at her for a minute before I took her hand and shook. And then I smiled.
    “I’m Tim,” I said. “It’s nice to meet you.”
    “Maybe if we’re going to spend the night together, weshould know each other’s last names too,” she added. Was she flirting with me?
    “Okay,” I said, trying to sound casual when really my heart was beating so fast and hard I was surprised she couldn’t hear it. “I’m Tim Macbeth.” As soon as I said it, I wished I had said something cooler, like “It’s Macbeth” or just “Macbeth.” But I couldn’t go back.
    “I’m Vanessa Sheller,” she said, smiling a smile that I didn’t quite trust but that I liked anyway.
    We pushed through two sets of heavy doors and went down one escalator before we reached the entrance to the hotel. I love hotels—they make me feel calm and hopeful, in a weird way. I think also that they make me feel like I’m escaping something. Are you starting to sense a theme here? But that was not what I felt when I entered this lobby. It smelled like hot, sweaty, anxious people with some wet dog mixed in. Almost every single possible surface had someone sitting on it—chairs, sofas, even the coffee tables. Some people were eating, others were sleeping. A bunch of little kids were playing ring-around-the-rosy.
    I had never checked into a hotel alone before. There had never been a need. But I didn’t want Vanessa to know that. And adding to my anxiety was the fear that these people were going to mob me when they saw me get a room key. I glanced around for the front desk and was happy to see it off to one side. I could feel the eyes on me as I walked toward the exhausted-looking teenage girl behind the desk,but as I moved, I realized that not
all
the eyes were on me—a fair amount were on Vanessa.
    “I’m sorry, we have no rooms left for the night,” the girl said before I even opened my mouth.
    “Oh, I know,” I said, stopping short of saying my mother called. “I have a reservation under Macbeth.” I waited. I might not have ever checked into a hotel alone before, but I had stood next to my mother or Sid many times and I know how it’s done. She click, click, clicked at the computer with a skeptical look on her face.
    “Huh,” she finally said, her eyes showing her surprise. “And it’s a nice one. You’ll be in room 956 with two double