The Wedding Project 💍

'Down Under' - The Janitor (@HistoryFan2003, @MikeMacColin)

Under the dim light of one single bulb dangling from the basement ceiling, Eddie was doing his daily work. In front of him, on a wooden workbench, a wall heater waited desperately to be repaired.

His plain jet electronic watch beeped quietly, signalling that it was 10:30 am. Upstairs, somewhere in the bright Caribbean sun the party was about to begin. That was none of his business, though. He felt the rough wood of the bench when he placed his hands onto it and gazed on the spotless concrete floor, letting out a sigh.

How could a place like this need so much heating? He thought to himself. Where I come from, we mainly worry about air conditioning. And this is the Caribbean, for crying out loud! He remembered the heat of his Australian homeland, especially when the air condition units failed in over 30 degrees of heat. Compared to that, the weather on Gundersson Island used to be very mild, but for some guests, it still seemed too cold for their taste.

His work on the heater was done after ten minutes. A routine job. He left it on the workbench and made his way upstairs, leaving the basement behind. Strangely enough, the basement was the one place in this entire hotel or on this island that he felt comfortable at. It was dark and cool, no matter what temperatures were raging outside. And it was quiet. Even with the occasional visit from other staff members giving him new tasks and new things to fix, which they rarely did. Nobody liked to be down here except for him.

At the end of the staircase leading out of the basement, he opened the large metal door and slipped through, shutting it behind him with care. The clanking of the metal was silent enough to not disturb anyone. During his first year at the Southsea Hotel, Reginald, the concierge, taught him how important discretion was. In fact, the less he was seen by the hotel guests, usually the better. He was a ghost roaming the hotel, fixing everything from the shadows, making it seem like there never was a real problem.

The wedding outside was in full progress. Eddie could catch a glimpse of the bride in her beautiful white dress, almost gliding down the aisle as if she was on a cloud. He scoffed. Everyone gets their happy day, just not me. Painful memories of his once lost love crept back inside his head - a girl that he thought he would love forever, but she left him for a French guy who tried to be an actor and pretended to work on that career. Yeah, the French actor had more money than Eddie - that was not a good enough reason to leave him, god damn it! Bitch! All they ever want is money! At least all the girls I ever liked.

He then heard footsteps coming down the hall behind him. Reginald joined him in the shadows, where they both watched the wedding ceremony discreetly from afar.

"The good news," the concierge started talking after a brief moment of silence, "is that there are no severe injuries or damage of property so far."

"So far," Eddie echoed him, perfectly aware of what he meant by that. "Well, that is a pleasant surprise."

A loud crash behind them caught their attention. One of the kitchen staff members had dropped a huge pile of plates onto the floor - the good porcelain had shattered into a thousand pieces. While the young man still tried to save the rest of the dishes, he apparently startled himself and dropped the rest as well. Another crash echoed in the hallway, and Eddie wondered if the wedding guests outside had heard it.

"Spoken too soon," Reginald just said grimly and sighed. Eddie nodded. Mate, you should really know better than calling out your own luck like this!

The kitchen worker had retreated, probably out of embarrassment over the situation. But another staff member, this time one in the official uniform of the hotel security, approached the two men. "Eddie," he opened with the typical accent of the locals. "Could you please take a look at the security cameras in the main building? One of them on the third floor is having trouble."