Aiden: Part 2
Aiden exits the elevator and transports the luggage dolly down the hall. Aiden arrives at the woman’s room. He opens the door and enters, carrying the luggage in his hands. He sets the bags on the bed and opens the larger one. He takes out the woman's clothes, puts some into drawers and hangs the rest in the closet.
He hangs her lingerie in the bathroom on the back of the door. He sets her toiletries on the sink counter. He closes the curtains and draws the bed. He closes the luggage and places it in the closet. He turns off all the lights except the one on the nightstand. Aiden leaves the room and gently closes the door behind him. He pushes the cart back to the elevator and goes back down to the lobby.
Aiden resumes his job, parking more cars and delivering luggage.
Previously…
The sun rises and Aiden’s room fills slowly with sunlight. He sleeps on a small bed along the wall. Aiden wakes up and walks to the bathroom and prepares himself for the day. He brushes his teeth and washes his face. Sunlight shines through the window into the bathroom. He is quiet. When he is done he gets dressed. He wears the same suit every day. He changes his shirt and underclothes. When his laundry gets filled he sets it outside his front door for the laundry-bot to collect and clean. Aiden is dressed and after placing each thing where it belongs, he leaves his apartment for his job at the hotel.
Aiden lives on the edge of the city beyond the port and near the vast warehouses and distribution centers. Among the buildings are some empty fields and a river that flows into the bay. An autonomous train rolls past delivering people and bots to their destinations in town. Aiden walks along the tracks. He passes homeless encampments strewn with garbage and waste, which is set deep in a tall thicket of trees capped with giant prehistoric-looking great blue herons set regally up high in their nests.
The morning is cool and still and there is a thick fog hovering over the city center ahead in the distance. The city is like a giant self-building machine, built up over time to serve the people in it. Each brick and cable is latched and locked to one another creating shelter and support. Houses and roads and pathways and businesses, all there to serve its inhabitants. The city is built on the dreams and on the bones of the people who were there before. The city is a cradle and a grave.
Aiden arrives at the waterfront hotel and the sea is calm. It is dawn and he is the only one on the streets beside the few homeless wanderers he has passed. Aiden walks through the front door and behind the desk and through another door into a small windowless room. He removes his coat and hangs it on a rack in the corner. He grabs an earpiece and connects to the visual overlay for his organization and waits for instructions.
To Be Continued…