Winged *Completed*

1. Stranger

© Kelly Faulk 2012

Sometimes you’ve

Just got to

Spread your

Wings and fly

Chapter 1:  Stranger

Many people thought my job was hard.  They also thought that I was far too young to handle it.  I was nineteen, and I owned and operated a boarding type hotel.  My guests could come and go as they pleased, and they got home cooked meals every day.  I was the only worker, so it was a little hard.  The best time was winter; I didn't receive many guests during the colder months.

When I was a few days away from my eighteenth birthday, my parents died.  I had already graduated from high school, so I didn’t have to worry about grades slipping because of how distraught I was from their deaths.  But I had to stay in town until my birthday because one of my friend’s parents took me in while I waited for my parents’ wills to be processed.  I was shocked at the amount of money I received from them.  And there was nothing to stop me from spending it.

I left our little town in Ohio, and went to Michigan, leaving the past behind me.  I didn’t have anything to hold me to East Glynn except for my best friend, but that wasn’t going to be enough.  I had to get away from the memory of my parents, driving my little, run down car until it stopped outside of an abandoned building just outside of a very small city.

I didn’t have anywhere to go once my car broke down.  Yes, I had enough money to take me anywhere, but…the abandoned, three story building called out to me.  It took me a couple days to purchase the deed to the building, as well as buy supplies to fix it up, make it look like someone had lived in it for a long time.  Buying the building was an impulse buy, something I had trouble controlling since I was younger.  I had been an only child, and my parents had often given in to my wishes, attempts to make me happy.  So I had absolutely no control when I wanted something.  Thankfully, over the years, the impulse to buy frivolous things had waned, but didn’t go away completely, clearly since I had just bought a gutted building.

It was after I had painted the walls, hired someone to put in hardwood flooring and carpet, and new appliances in the kitchen that I could rent out some of the extra bedrooms.  I used some more of my inheritance to purchase enough beds and dressers to fill the rooms in the upstairs, as well as what would be my room. I also purchased items for the kitchen, living room, and dining room.  Then all that was left was the electricity and plumbing.  And to advertise to people that I was renting rooms.  One thing I did to get people to stay at my little in was offer three meals a day.  I had learned a lot of recipes over the years, and I thought I was a pretty good cook.  It wasn’t long before people came flooding in.

The hotel had eleven bedrooms, eleven bathrooms, a large, modern kitchen, spacious dining room, and a cozy living room.  It was three full stories, five bed and bath on the second and third floors, and everything else on the ground floor.

My guests would often ask me if I got scared with random people staying in my home.  I told them that I was at first, but I quickly acclimated to it.  Living on a lake in the secluded wilderness of Michigan wasn’t that scary.

It could be in the summer, though.  Families would come to the lake in full force to enjoy the weather.  Those lucky enough to get here first didn’t have to camp outside.  I had three or four beds in the guest rooms for just an occasion.  Plus, you couldn’t beat my prices:  I charged roughly twenty-five dollars a night per person.  A family of four staying for a week could total to a bill of about seven hundred dollars.  It included three meals and TV and Internet.  If all rooms are filled with families of four for a week, that was a little over six thousand dollars.  Life was good.  Especially when I sold my lemon of a car for spare parts, and saved up enough money, using some of my inheritance, too, to purchase a silver Corvette without any monthly payments.  I put the rest of my inheritance into a savings account that could gain interest over several years, telling myself to not touch it unless I absolutely needed it.  Things always need to be repaired as the colder months rolled in.