The scream

TSL Pandorathon May 30 (prompt given by Santosh Bakaya)

"How dare you !!!!" His words rolled out spasmodically, eyes riveted on a tailless lizard hanging from the ceiling.  Short fiction:  Humour, satire

We had arrived at the beach resort on Bali island after a taxi had driven. us from the busy industrial airport to   entrance gardens leading us to a huge straw covered wooden pavilion among the fragrant frangipanis trees and jasmine vines. It was a  mesmerising reception hall with no walls filled with low sofas and coffee tables . The staff was welcoming and friendly , already our luggage had been taken care of while we were filling official papers. Our flight had arrived early in the morning and the staff told us our room was not ready yet, so if we didn’t mind we were to have breakfast in

the hall. And in fact three waiters were preparing us a feast on one of the hall large square tables. It was a lavish spray of fresh fruits, danish pastries and croissants, coffee , tea and fresh pressed juices. So we just enjoyed it. The curious thing was we couldn’t see any tourists. A staff was sweeping a carpet, there was no noisy vacuum cleaner to distract us, and the swish swish of her broom was kind of relaxing. Eventually we were told our room was ready and to follow the steward. 

We walked behind him on an outside pathway wandering to our hut for the hotel was in fact a series of tropical huts set amongst lovely native gardens . Already, the short walk had us sweating in the high ambient humidity. Our hut was also straw hatched on the outside, but with a plastered ceiling inside, where a large fan was moving the thick heavy air. No air conditioning was on offer. We decided to change from our townies clothes and take a shower to refresh us from our night trip before exploring the rest of the resort. I went in the bathroom, it had the expected utilities, I got in the shower turned on the taps and screamed my head off when I was suddenly faced with a somewhat monstrous scaly creature stuck to the shower wall . I had already bolted from the shower cubicle and wrapped myself in the bathrobe of the hotel when the steward came in and tried to catch the nightmarish creature. It was even made more nightmarish, when the steward having caught it by its tail, the creature just shed it , and the steward stayed with the tail in his hand. It was my turn to be stuck to the wall, I was simply terrorised while the gecko creeped to the shower ceiling. The steward apologised for the inconvenience, telling me that each hut had a resident gecko, to keep out the vermin, it was a natural pest control and that they were totally inoffensive. As he couldn’t catch the gecko on the ceiling, he left the hut wishing us a “ good day”.

For me after having calmed down, and still eying the   beast,  I spoke those words,”Pervert creature, eyeing bathing innocent tourist,  How dare you !!! “My words rolled out spasmodically, eyes riveted on a tailless gecko hanging from the ceiling while I showered. 

We later learnt that the staff kept bets rolling on how long the first scream of horror would sound after  the  hotel guest had entered their room. Games men play!

Lucette C. Bailliet 

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