It was early July and it stayed light until late in the evenings. In fact, it didn't get dark until after 9 pm and so they enjoyed drinking beer and eating dinner in the gardens of country pubs as the sun set over the hills. As they sat in the cool air, on the third night of their trip, they spent hours chatting about their lives back in Japan and Colombia, and how sad they were to be going home in a few weeks. Then suddenly they realized they had forgotten to find a place to stay for the night. They quickly jumped on their bicycles to look for somewhere to spend the night.
It was starting to get dark and
as they rode through the pretty lanes
they looked for houses offering
bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, this area was very quiet, and the
houses did not have rooms to rent.
After twenty
minutes they were
starting to feel worried. 'I think we might have to sleep in a field!'
said Satoko.
'I hope not!' replied her friend, 'I need a shower. I stink!'
They continued cycling, but it was now almost dark and all around them
were fields. Then, luckily, Maria spotted
an old stone house behind some trees, about twenty metres from the
road. There was
a small sign in the window that said 'vacancies'.
'Look! We can stay
there,' Maria said confidently.
'It looks a bit quiet and creepy
to me. There are no lights on. Maybe
no one is at home.' Satoko didn't like it.
'But we have no other choice. Let's try it.'
'Well, okay', said Satoko, 'but you go
first.'
The two friends rode up the
short driveway
to the house and got off their bicycles. Everthing was
quiet. Maria knocked on the door. They waited a few moments, but there
was no answer. 'There is no one home. Let's go,' said Satoko nervously.
'I'll try one more time,' Maria said, and she knocked on the door again.
Suddenly, there was a man standing behind them, 'Yes? Can I help you?'
he said.
The girls jumped
in surprise. 'Do you have a
room?' asked Maria.
'What? What room?' the man didn't seem to understand.
'There is a sign in your window. It says you have vacancies,' said
Maria calmly.
'Oh yes! Sorry, I forgot. We don't get many visitors in this area. It's
very very quiet. No one uses this road; it's a very private
place.' The
man smiled at them.
'Let's go. I don't like this.' Satoko whispered
in her Colombian
friend's ear.
But Maria ignored
her friend and asked, 'Can we see the room, and how
much is it?'
'Well now... it's twenty-five pounds per night, and of course I can
show you the room. Please come in.'
The man unlocked the heavy
wooden front door and pushed it open. 'Please, follow me.'
Satoko gave her friend a very bad look, but Maria gave her a look to
say everything is fine. However, Satoko still looked angry and scared.
They went
inside. In the hallway,
they saw there were piles
of books
everywhere - on the floor, on the telephone table, on bookcases, all
over the floor. 'Sorry, it's a little messy.
I was going to
tidy
up, but I've been busy,' said
the owner, 'Don't worry, though,
your room is perfectly
clean. In fact, it's the most perfect
room
you'll ever see. Once you are in the room, you'll never want to leave.'
The two students followed him up the stairs and along the dark landing
to the door at the end. The man put a heavy iron
key into the lock and
slowly pushed open the door. Inside was black. He felt the wall next to
the door and found the lightswitch. Then the girls saw the room. 'Wow!'
said Satoko, 'it's... it's...'
Her friend finished her words,'It's the most beautiful room
I've ever seen!'
she said. Satoko nodded.
The man smiled. 'Please go in. Make yourselves at home. Relax.'
Satoko and Maria entered the room. The man closed the door behind them.
'The
girl's will be very happy here,'
he thought to himself, 'It will be
nice to have
visitors. I haven't had visitors for such a long time.'