Hell's Hotel

by Lesley Choyce

“Changing sheets or any of that?”

  “Not necessary. We want you to spend time with the patients. Just like you did with Emma when you should have been cleaning.”

  Tara felt a little guilty. Mrs. Klein obviously knew she had spent plenty of time slacking off. “I guess I always thought that relating with the people was more important than cleaning.”

  “Apparently so did your friend, Emma.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, the truth is we’re not exactly hiring you back out of the goodness of our hearts. It seems that Emma left a certain amount of money to the nursing home in her will. It was earmarked for one purpose only — to hire you and one other person of your choosing to spend time “just socializing”, as she put it, with those living here. Emma was convinced it improves the health and the mind of all concerned.”

  Mrs. Klein had returned to her old formal self. “I’m not exactly sure what we’re going to do about the second party who is to be hired. We must be very careful about these things, you know. The wrong person could cause more harm than good.”

  Tara knew exactly what Mrs. Klein was thinking. It was going to be a very tough sell.

  “So the other person can be of my choosing, is that what Emma said?”

  “Yes. But how can we know you’ll choose wisely? We really should consider all those other applications for work we have on hand. We must be fair to them. There are dozens of young men and women who have applied for part-time work.”

  “I agree,” Tara said. “But I know the best candidate for the job. She has her application on file with you. Jenn O’Brien.”

  Mrs. Klein had clearly seen this coming. “I don’t think we could bend that far. I just don’t think we should do it.”

  “You don’t know Jenn. She’s had a hard time but she’s completely changed. You have people in here who have experienced very difficult lives, some who are now living with pain. Jenn can understand what those people feel better than you or I can. And she’s become serious about herself and about school and, well, she’s involved in community work.”

  “What sort of community work?”

  “She works on a committee with the mayor and several city aldermen.”

  “I find that a little far-fetched.”

  “Check it out for yourself. Call city hall.”

  ***

  At school, Mr. Henley finally figured out a good reason to have Josh resign as president of student council. Josh had pushed the “no grades” issue too far and, in the end, he failed to get support from the student body. Everybody, according to Josh, was wimping out, “afraid they wouldn’t get accepted into university if they didn’t have letters and numbers on a stupid piece of paper.”

  Josh still had a chip on his shoulder whenever he dealt with the downtown crowd after he had his video and audio gear stolen. Craig and the other kids had become a bit more cautious about getting involved with him. “I was beginning to feel a little exploited,” was the way Craig put it.

  In fact, it seemed like Josh had completely fallen from his lofty heights of popularity. Carla had told him that she wanted someone who was a little more fun to be with. Josh was just back to being Josh: opinionated, smart, ambitious, and a little too likely to talk before he finished thinking. But he had lost the edge of confidence that had been his trademark. And, in his effort to get rid of grades forever at Citadel, his own grades had been slipping down the toilet.

  Tara felt sorry for him. She decided she still liked the guy, despite his faults. “I want us to do a new edition of The Rage,” she said.

  Josh had let the paper slide. He hadn’t kept his promise to do one a month. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. I’m not sure anybody cares anymore. All it would bring me is more grief.”

  “When did you ever back down for that reason?”

  “I don’t know. It just wouldn’t be the same.”

  “No it wouldn’t. This time, I’d be involved. You never did let me write for your paper the way you promised.”

  “Well, you know. Things got complicated.”

  “Yeah. Everything with you is always complicated. But I want us to do this paper together. I’ll help you sell advertising space to some of the music stores, skateboard shops, and cafés.”

  “You’d do that for me?” Josh seemed astonished. Selling advertising was the true dirty work, the work that brought in enough cash to pay the printing bill.

  “Yeah, I’ll do it. Because you’re going to let me write the lead story.”

  “Sounds like you want to take over.”

  “No. I want us to work together. A truly alternative newspaper is an excellent idea. The truth is I didn’t really have anything to write about before. Now I do.”

  “What are you gonna write about?”

  “I’m gonna call it ‘Tara’s Blues.’”

  ***

  And so Tara wrote her story. She decided it might help people understand a lot of things: the way you feel when your parents break up, what it’s like to be alone, a new kid in a big city, and even what it was like to spend a night in Hell’s Hotel. A lot of kids in school thought Tara had always been someone who had it made, somebody who never fell on her face. Now they’d know there was no such thing. Everybody has complicated, difficult lives. “Tara’s Blues” would testify to that.

  The story included some honest language. Tara knew she had to make it real, quote the kids who she knew from the street, use the language of the characters she had met in Vancouver.

  Josh loved the piece. It was too long, too rough, but he printed the whole thing. He included an article about his own failed attempt to get rid of grades. And he included a story about how the city still hassled skateboarders. Craig and Jenn co-wrote a final piece about what was being discussed as an alternative for kids on the street.

  The mayor’s committee wasn’t exactly going smoothly. There were snags. What seemed practical and logical to the city officials sounded unreasonable to kids living on the street who were used to their freedom. Like everything else, it was a complicated issue with no easy solutions. But people were talking. And the city council was beginning to realize how important it was to have people like Craig and Jenn in constant communication with them. The wheels turned slowly, but wheels were turning.

  ***

  The next day Josh and Tara were sitting in Mr. Henley’s office. “I thought we’ve been all through this language business, before, Josh. I warned you that you can’t go distributing anything with that kind of foul language, those offensive words, in this school.”

  “I remember that,” Josh said. “And as you probably know, we did not distribute the paper in the school. I abided by your rules.”

  Mr. Henley looked a little flustered. “But you, Tara, you used to be such a sensible girl. I don’t know how you could have written this, this exposé of yourself. And I suppose you’re the one whom I should hold responsible for the reprehensible language. I’m seriously considering having you both suspended.”

  Josh was quick to the defence. “That would be outrageous. Go ahead, suspend me, it’s my paper, but you can’t suspend Tara. She has one of the highest grade point averages in the school. If you want to punish anyone, punish me. Not her. All she did was have the guts to tell the truth.”

  Josh was right. Henley had to know this. He could suspend Josh. Everybody knew he was a troublemaker. Suspension meant nothing to Josh. He always bounced back. Somehow he’d end up using the suspension to his advantage, probably use the time to crank out another edition of The Rage. But Tara was another story. And Tara knew that Henley knew he would get flak if she was suspended. She had always been one of the best students at Citadel.

  “I’ll accept full responsibility for my actions,” Tara said.

  “Somehow I knew you were going to say something like that,” Henley sighed
. Sure, he had succeeded in getting Josh kicked off of student council but that was because Josh did it to himself. He didn’t know when to shut up. He criticised too many of his fellow students until he lost all allies. But now this paper thing kept coming back to haunt Henley. Josh had been true to his word. The paper was distributed on the sidewalk across from the school but not in school. Not a big difference, but at least there was a thin line of discipline here. And at least the current issue had not mentioned the VP. Henley threw his hands up in the air. “Both of you, get out of my office. I’m going to have to admit that maybe you didn’t really step over the line this time. You came close. But if you keep it outside of school, I have no jurisdiction. I just have one bit of advice.”

  “What’s that?” Josh asked.

  “You’re just kids. Why don’t you relax? Have some fun. Don’t take everything so bloody seriously. We’d all get along a lot better.”

  “We’ll take that into consideration,” Tara said as they left.

  Outside after school, Josh seemed pretty proud of the way things had gone. “I wasn’t going to let you take the rap,” he said. Josh was back into his cool, big-man role.

  “I appreciate that,” Tara said.

  “You know I think we work really well together.”

  Tara could see where this was going. “On some things.”

  “I was wondering if maybe I could come over to your place tonight, watch a movie maybe.”

  Tara smiled, remembering the time she and Josh had spent together, back when they were more than just friends. She didn’t quite know how to say it to him, but she wasn’t interested in that now. “I don’t think so. I don’t know. I’m still trying to put the pieces of my life back together.”

  “Oh,” he said. Josh looked hurt. Tara knew that he had a hard time when anyone turned him down and he had just been put in his place.

  “But let’s talk tomorrow at lunch about the next issue of The Rage,” she said.

  Josh shuffled his feet and watched her walk away, his ego more than a little damaged again.

  ***

  An hour later at The Daily Grind, Jenn was waiting for her as planned. Tara had been holding back the news about the job. Jenn had been interviewed and then Mrs. Klein had come up with all kinds of excuses why she shouldn’t hire Jenn. Tara had taken it upon herself to talk to Emma’s son and find out exactly what had been in the will. Emma’s son was not too happy about talking to her. After all, the money that was going towards the nursing home jobs was money that he felt was rightfully his. In the end, though, he showed Tara the will, and it was crystal clear. Tara would be responsible for choosing the second “social assistant.” She had informed Mrs. Klein, ever so politely, that she had no choice.

  “You got the job,” Tara told Jenn as they sat down at the table.

  Jenn jumped up, screeched, and gave Tara a hug. “I don’t believe it!”

  “Believe it,” Tara said. “But it’s not exactly a career. Just a part-time job.”

  “I promise I won’t screw it up.”

  “I know you won’t. If you do, I’ll kill you.”

  They laughed and ordered. Tara was celebrating: New York cheesecake for both of them, and cappuccinos.

  “You know you can still stay at my house for as long as you like. My father said it was okay.”

  “I know, I know. But I can’t depend on you for everything. I need my own life.”

  “I’ve always known that. But you can’t keep up with this street thing. That warehouse might be the next Hell’s Hotel.”

  “Well, the city hasn’t quite figured out what to do with us. But I’ve been checking out group homes. They’re all different. I think I found one I can handle, for a while anyway. Then maybe I can use the money from my job to split rent with some others for our own place. Something cheap but something decent.”

  “That’s better than life with Rob.”

  “Rob had his good points.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “No kidding. Sometimes he was very kind to me. Sometimes he wasn’t so big and bad. I knew it when I realized that I could hurt his feelings. He was human, too.”

  “But you wouldn’t go back with him?”

  “Not in a million years. It’s wrong to be so dependent on anyone that they begin to run your life, and, like, you can’t do anything without their help or without them making a decision for you.”

  “Yeah,” Tara said, suddenly realizing that maybe she wasn’t just talking about Rob. Jenn wasn’t trying to be cruel. Maybe she didn’t even intend it to come out this way, but it was all true.

  “Well, you’re a whole lot smarter than you ever let on.”

  “Rob didn’t like it when I said something that proved I was smarter than he was.”

  “Guys are like that,” Tara said. “Josh is a good example.”

  “It’s an okay game to play for a while, but then you get tired of pretending to be stupid and you want to hang out with someone who respects you for who you are.”

  Tara knew then that Jenn would be okay. There would be problems, but she’d be able to cope. She’d stopped being somebody’s victim. She’d stopped blaming the world for her problems. This was the new Jenn — strong, independent, certainly not stupid. In a way it was a little scary. Jenn didn’t really even need Tara anymore. Maybe Tara was going to miss coming to her rescue on a dark Friday night. Or maybe Tara was just now realizing that she, herself, needed a friend like Jenn as badly as Jenn had once needed her.

  There were other kids out on the street now in front of the Tim Horton’s. Tara saw Craig and Courtenay. There was a couple of younger girls with them. Tara didn’t recognize them, but the story was obvious. New kids on the street would “check in” with Craig. Craig would try to steer them away from dangerous situations. But he couldn’t do it alone.

  “I gotta go,” Jenn said, wiping her mouth and dropping bits of cheesecake on the table. “See you later.”

  “Later,” Tara said and watched her friend hustle out the door back into her own world, a world where Tara would only ever be a friendly tourist. She paid the bill and got up to leave. Outside, Jenn was talking so intently with Craig and the new kids that she didn’t notice Tara. She was saying something about options, something about being careful and not taking any stupid chances. As Tara walked down to the corner past the vacant lot that once was the unofficial refuge for kids on the street in Halifax, she realized just how far they had both travelled from that dark end of the street, just how far they had travelled from the front steps of Hell’s Hotel.

  Copyright © 2008 by Lesley Choyce

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  James Lorimer & Company Ltd. acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the assistance of the OMDC Book Fund, and initiative of Ontario Media Development Corporation.

  Cover design: Clarke MacDonald

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Choyce, Lesley, 1951-

  [Dark end of Dream Street]

  Hell’s Hotel / Lesley Choyce.

  (Sidestreets series)

  Previously published under title: Dark end of Dream Street.

  ISBN 978-1-55277-038-2 (bound).—ISBN 978-1-55277-022-1 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-55277-606-3 (ebook).

  I. Title. II. Series.

  PS8555.H668D37 2008 jC813’.54 C2008-904715-X

  James Lorimer & C
ompany Ltd.,

  Publishers

  317 Adelaide Street West

  Suite 1002

  Toronto, Ontario

  M5V 1P9

  www.lorimer.ca

  About the author

  LESLEY CHOYCE is a novelist and poet living at Lawrencetown Beach in Nova Scotia. His writing has earned him several awards, including two Dartmouth Book Awards and the Ann Connor Brimer Award for the Young Adult novel Good Idea Gone Bad. Five of his previous Formac novels have received the Canadian Children’s Book Centre’s “Our Choice” Award. The Ottawa Citizen calls him “a national treasure”.

  www.lesleychoyce.com

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