Beth A. Fleisher<\/p>\n
Hour 12<\/p>\n
Prompt:\u00a0 Take a book off the shelf\u2026 First line: Old Henry Lee stood transfixed by all the commotion at the Panama Hotel.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Signs at the Panama Hotel<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Panama Hotel was old.<\/p>\n
The guidebooks said historic, and that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n
But old is true, too, exterior<\/p>\n
in need of paint, interior needing carpet,<\/p>\n
like an elderly woman who needs a new dress.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I told my Seattle friend Henry Lee<\/p>\n
about my grandparents owning a shop<\/p>\n
in Chinatown when they were young.<\/p>\n
I wanted to stay nearby and walk around<\/p>\n
the neighborhood, see their old shop.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He said the Panama Hotel was just the place,<\/p>\n
barely a stone\u2019s throw away from Chinatown.<\/p>\n
By all accounts, it was still a favorite place<\/p>\n
to stay, close to Pike\u2019s Place Market,<\/p>\n
where you can buy pretty much anything.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So, I had booked a room for one, sight unseen,<\/p>\n
and here I was, in my room, which was clean<\/p>\n
and tidy and included a small refrigerator,<\/p>\n
microwave, hair dryer, iron, and a sink \u2014<\/p>\n
but no en suite bathroom.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I stared transfixed at the plush, spa-like bathrobe<\/p>\n
hanging in the closet. And the sign beside it:<\/p>\n
Please enjoy this robe when you use the bathroom<\/em><\/p>\n in the hallway. Separate men\u2019s and ladies facilities.<\/em><\/p>\n I stood there and read the sign again.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Well, I shrugged, at least there are separate<\/p>\n men\u2019s and ladies\u2019 facilities. In my mind, I made<\/p>\n the words sound very proper and British.<\/p>\n Out in the hallway, I was just reaching for<\/p>\n the door to the ladies\u2019 room when a man bolted past me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Close behind him was a little, old lady waving her cane<\/p>\n like a Jedi light saber, yelling \u201cPervert,\u201d and a younger woman<\/p>\n who was trying to stop her. A crowd had gathered,<\/p>\n everyone talking at once. It was quite a commotion.<\/p>\n Apparently, the poor fellow hadn\u2019t read either sign.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beth A. Fleisher Hour 12 Prompt:\u00a0 Take a book off the shelf\u2026 First line: Old Henry Lee stood transfixed by all the commotion at the Panama Hotel. Signs at the Panama Hotel The Panama Hotel was old. The guidebooks said historic, and that\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1455,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1455"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71721,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71698\/revisions\/71721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}