I’m having an ultra restless sleep in the hotel where I’m staying this week. I’ve been awake for hours, but finally I must have fallen asleep because through the fog of sleep and the mercy of earplugs, I hear a muffled banging sound. At first it sounds like construction noise and I ignore it. It persists. I remove an earplug to hear more clearly, someone is banging at the door and yelling for me to open it.

I’m struggling to pull myself from sleep, but I feel my feet hit the floor. I start to move toward the light, there is something sharp on the carpet under my feet, it feels like I’m walking through gravel. I flick the light on, it takes a few moments for my eyes to adjust, it looks like a bomb has gone off in my room. The floor is covered with broken glass and remnants of drywall. The ceiling has large areas that look like they have caved in under a weight. I pick my way toward the bathroom, I need to get a towel to cover myself before I open the door.  The bathroom is in the same shape. I catch a glimpse of myself in a shard of what’s left of the mirror and notice that I’m already wrapped up in a bedsheet. I move to the door and open it it. Two officious hotel staff roughly push past me and move through the room. I turn and follow them, asking what has happened. I get no response. As I re-enter the main space in the room I notice there is a body dressed in dark clothes, wearing a latex mask, laying in a heap over by the tv.  There is another person, dressed in lighter clothes, with a bald head draped over a chest that sits under the window that now has a big hole through it. I think to myself that might be where all the glass has come from. I ask again what is happening, and again I’m ignored.

I see men dressed in military uniforms standing around outside the window, they don’t seem to be that interested in what’s happening inside the room. I start to feel anger creeping in that, as a paying guest, no one will tell me what has happened, what is going to happen, or even just move me to a new room so I can finally get some sleep. I begin to state these sentiments to no one in particular as I search around for my belongings. When I look back toward the window, the two individuals who were previously heaps on the floor and chest respectively are now on their feet and have been joined by 2 more men, possibly the hotel staff.  They are standing in a row facing the window, which is now whole, and gesturing toward the military men outside. The military men seem to be enjoying whatever show they are seeing, they stand there laughing.

The four men turn from the window and leave the room through the door. I’m left with a complete mess in the room, and no answers as to what the hell just happened. I walk over to look out the window and see a huge balcony that is spattered with recumbent bike machines, like you would see at the gym.  There are old women riding the bikes.

I return to bed and climb in. I wake up in my room, undisturbed but confused.