"I don't know if I can stay here," Ginger said. It was understandable. The family had come to town to visit some friends and to save time and money had picked the same hotel, the Hilton, where they stayed when their youngest son Sam had been about to visit the special doctor. It was the last place they spoke to him. It was a very very hard memory for them.
"I know. I feel the same way," said Lee. Sadness overtook them both as they remembered the occasion as if it were yesterday. It had been two years ago.
"What's the problem?" said Garrett as he pulled his backpack out of the trunk of their minivan. "It's just a hotel," he added. In one swift motion, he shouldered his pack and faced the front door of the Hilton. "C'mon." He said. Garrett turned, lifted his youngest sister Savannah out of her car seat, took her by the hand and lead her through the revolving door at the front of the building.
Lee and Ginger looked each other in the eye. Getting their 8 year old daughter Emma out of the van Ginger said, "It is the closest place and the most affordable." They agreed and entered the door to check in. They had made no reservations. The small town hotel rarely filled to capacity and today would be no different. The evening clerk assigned them a non-smoking room on the 4th floor.
The room was comfortable, but not as large as Sam's suite on the 8th floor. Two years ago, they had needed the extra room to take care of Sam and make sure he had his rest. This day, they would all bunk in a small room. Lee, Ginger, Garrett, Emma and Savannah on the fourth floor. They didn't know that Sam was on the 8th floor waiting for them.
After unpacking a few small things, putting some playing cards and his PS2 in his cargo pants pocket, Garrett said, "I'm going to go exploring, okay?" What he had hoped to do was to escape the sadness and misery that often accompanied his parents these days. He would find a nice quiet place to sit and concentrate on defeating the next level of his new Batman game. Then he wouldn't have to think about Sam or worry about what his parents were thinking or worry that he might say the wrong thing. Before he left, Ginger, his mom, made sure he tucked the small two-way radio in the other pocket of his pants before he left the room. Ready for action, he headed for the elevator.
As God's providence would have it, Garrett found his nice quiet place at the end of the long corridor on the eight and top floor of the hotel. The large suites on the floor were expensive and since there wasn't much demand for expensive suites in the small town, there was no one on the floor but himself. He felt as if he had the whole hotel to himself. For about an hour he sat quiet and unbothered as he battled the Joker in PS2 fashion. Just as he was about to smite the Joker into oblivion, his mother keyed in the radio.
"Garrett" he heard her electronic voice.
He returned the reply, "Yeah, mom," he said.
"Head back the room, buddy, we're about to go grab something to eat," she said.
"Okay," his short reply. He stuffed the radio back into his pocket and pushed the pause button on his game, convinced he would have time to finish the Joker off before they left for dinner. As he walked down the lonely hallway, he passed the open door of room 816. In that moment, his life changed forever.
