A Perfect Day for Bananafish

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Suite Room (2)

I return from the digression. In conclusion, the airplane to Narita had gone before I got on. My baggage left the owner for Japan. I only had a small shoulder bag. The idea I had a credit card cheered up me. Even so, a horrible day, isn't it?
I decided to try.
I asked to a fright attendant at the desk. "Did the airplane from Milano arrive at Heathrow on time? I hurried up but I missed the airplane to Narita. My baggage seemed to change for Japan. I don't know how to do."
I don't exaggerate. I didn't know how to do. I wanted to come back to Japan!

To be honest, if I understood where the subway st. was, I might not have missed. I knew. But I also think if the fright attendant told me the way to subway, I could get on the airplane. I repeated the same question. In those times, I didn't go to English conversation school. I thought "I wish I were able to speak English well".
The attendant of British Airways told me with a smile that they offered me a plane ticket, a room charge which included a dinner and a breakfast charge.
She explained me that the airplane from Milano was late but the airplane to Narita took off on time. She showed me the way to the hotel near the Heathrow Airport.

The hotel was the biggest in hotels where had stayed in that journey. I told a front desk clerk the reason why I came. She was a young woman and spoke English with Italian accent. She looked at the free tickets and my passport and asked me.
"If you wish, we can prepare a suite room for you."
I couldn't understand what she said. I saw her. She had a smile all over her face.
I was thinking in a bus from Heathrow to the hotel that today was so terrible day but finally I could get a room to relax. But now the hotel clerk gave me a difficult question.
Did an accident happen again? Is she asking too much for the hotel charge since I'm Japanese?

I remember an accident in a restaurant in venezia. I ordered a glass of wine but the waiter who was a middle-aged Italian man served a bottle of white wine. Therefore I complained about it. But he insisted that I had to drink because they had already opened the bottle of wine. I proposed they used the wine in cooking. Probably he surprised at my complaint in Japanese and strange English and gave up.
Looking at her face, I was thinking and thinking. And I remembered I had listened same story like this. I asked her.
" Why did you offer a suite room? Do I need to pay for it ?"
"If you told us the room should be a suite room, we must prepare it for you. Of course, it was free of charge." She smiled.
I got the point. Her guest was not me but British Airways. They will pay the hotel charge for this poor stranger.
"I'd like a suite room, if it's possible."
She nodded in approval with a smile.

Wow! The interior of the suite room was so elegant and not gorgeous. Its fabrics were flower and plants pattern. The furniture were made of plain wood and North European. At first time, I couldn't find a TV. It was in a cupboard. And the bathtub was large! When I lay in the bathtub, my feet couldn't reach its edge. In the hotels in Europe, the room charge was put on the door. The charge was most expensive in hotels I had ever stayed. I remembered the fright attendant who was taking a rest in a Heathrow and enjoying conversation with a co-worker. He doesn't know that the company which employs him will pay the hotel charge for a stranger who asked him the way. Because of fog in Milano and him, the last night of the journey was so nice.
Cheers!