October 12, 2016
I was inside my hotel room, sitting on the king-size bed. The bed was soft yet firm and comfortable. The top of the mattress was covered with a white down comforter, and I was surrounded by plush oversized pillows. I was basically sitting on a cloud of comfortable ecstasy.
My hotel room is situated on the 6th floor on oceanfront property. The balcony had sweeping views of the Atlantic Ocean. The breeze was soft and firm. The forced air would push through the open sliding glass doors, and a whizzing sound could be heard as the air poured through the ivory color privacy curtain. The curtain would sway inside like Superman's cape before being sucked back out.
I lay back on my king-sized bed and cuddled under the covers. The roaring sound of the ocean surf pounding the flat sandy beach filled the room and gave me a natural high. I was in paradise from 6 floors up.
What was I doing, you ask? Watching television, of course.
I had a long day. I was trying to recover from 2 days of non-stop partying. My body was over-tired and fatigued. Yet my fingers seemed to work. I feverishly used my thumb on the remote control to search the television channels for something suitable to watch.
As I advanced the channels, there were small pauses in between, which allowed me to watch at least 2 seconds of programming per channel before I could flip to the next channel. One a pause, I briefly saw teenagers and men in a camp. One was naked, but of course, the station blurred out his body to provide some sort of dignity. The man was fighting with another man. Due to reflex, I switched the channel, and on the next channel, I saw a couple sitting at a table with a chef at their table, searing their beef to perfection. I promptly switched the channel to see what was happening on the previous channel.
As it turns out, the young man is in a camp in a poverty-stricken country. (I won't name places and races.) In this camp, he is being protected from others in the country who may try and recruit them into gangs and certain death. During communal shower time, he placed 30 Francs and his clothes, toothbrush, and other items next to the wall. When he got into the shower, he looked back and noticed that everything he had in this world was gone. He ran out of the shower and towards the central courtyard, where he confronted the people in the shower with him. He was still naked. A person who owns the camp confronted the boy and the people he accused of taking his possession. The boy continued to argue and shout, begging for his only possessions back. The camp director shouted for the return of his items. Slowly, the boy's clothes turned up. Once he got his clothes, he got dressed in the yard. He got all his possessions back, including his 30 Francs.
I felt happy for him. He got his items back. Feeling satisfied, I switched the channel. That is where I came across a couple enjoying their table-side cooked meal. They were critiquing the food while they sipped their wine and laughed. I didn't watch for long because I didn't understand the language, so I flipped the channel. While trying to find something suitable to watch on this 42-inch hotel flat screen, I thought about the 2 different worlds those people lived in. One camp was of young men fighting daily to stay alive, and the other couple enjoyed the best life they had to offer them.
"Huh, the nerve of those people. In this world, they are critiquing food and the good life while others suffer greatly." I thought to myself.
I turned off the television and let my body sink into the covers. The cool breeze danced along my face. The smell of the ocean intoxicated my nostrils. At this very moment, at this exact time, I could've been in heaven. I'll give this hotel a 4-star review.
684 words
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