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I heard disappointed grunts.
“That’s just for the exterminators,” I said through my teeth, knowing Harri and Larri were listening in. “We talked about this. Other guests are to be welcomed.”
Hello! appeared next, but it looked too aggressive, written in blood red and leaking down the wall. I stuck my bum out and slid it over the word, smearing that one as well before shuffling after my guests.
They stood in front of the reception desk and I tried to make my backwards walk look as casual as I could before setting the pie down and booting up my computer.
“Do you have reservations?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
They shook their heads.
“We don’t,” the man said. “This was a bit of a spur-of-the-moment holiday. We asked in a few other places but everywhere was booked. Someone pointed us up this way.”
“Ah,” I said, cheeks burning because yes, all the other places nearby would be fully booked this time of year. It made me sad that we were wide open and had as much room as we possibly could. “Well you’re in luck. We had a last-minute cancellation. And for one of our best rooms, too.”
“That is lucky,” the woman said, bouncing on the balls of her feet a bit.
“Isn’t it?” I gave her a wide smile. “Sometimes life just finds a way to give us what we need!”
“Indeed,” she said and I decided I liked her. Her partner I was still iffy on, but she seemed like a woman after my own heart. Pie loving and embracing the unconventional.
The computer coughed to life finally and I pulled up my guest log, thankful that the screen was turned away from them so they couldn’t see that their names would be the only ones besides Ryan’s in the last three months at least.
“Your names, please?” I asked and the woman opened up her mouth to reply when a loud screech ripped through the comfortable silence.
“HUMANS!!!!” echoed around the front room, and the woman and her partner jumped in fear, spinning around only to find a puff of sea-salty-smelling smoke and a puddle of water in the middle of the floor.
“What the…” The man turned back to me, eyes wide and a hand clasped over his chest.
“What was that?” the woman asked.
“Oh…that,” I said with a slightly hysterical laugh, waving my hand in what I hoped was a casually dismissive manner. “I have a…a pet parrot. Yes. A parrot.”
“A parrot,” the man repeated and I nodded so hard I felt a twinge in my neck.
“Yes! I adopted it a few years ago and it had a very tough life before so it’s very untrusting and scared of most hum—liv—people. Of all people. And so sometimes, when we have guests it screeches. From fear.”
“Um…”
“I said IT SCREECHES…” I yelled, looking toward the stairs where I knew Barth was hunkering down behind the corner. “IN FEAR!”
He let out an ungodly screech that grew quieter as he clearly fled the premises.
“That is a very strange-sounding parrot,” the woman said.
“The previous owner was an opera singer,” I said quickly. “Left the poor thing with severe trauma and perfect pitch.”
I shook my head sadly, placing my own palm over my chest and sighing dramatically. Inside, I was coming up with ways to make Barth pay for nearly running off my guests.
“Why don’t we continue checking you in…” I paused to finally get their names.
“Adriana and Benjamin Hanson,” she said.
“Welcome, Adriana and Benjamin Hanson,” I said cheerfully, typing their names in. The program lagged and glitched a few times, but I carried on. Too bad I didn’t have a ghost in there as well. I could maybe use it to apologise to the poor thing for not utilising its full potential.
I gave the machine a tiny pat on the grey plastic once it finally logged the guests' information and turned to snatch the room keys off the little hook behind me.
“Oh, you got a little…” Adriana pointed to me and I slapped myself mentally for forgetting to hide the paint.
