THE SLEEP TIGHT 1. A thin film of eucalyptus leaves and drowning mosquitoes covers the dull translucent surface of a circa 1950s chlorine deprived kidney-shaped swimming pool. The cement and water bulls-eye for a three-story, pay-by-the-week motel called the Sleep Tight Motor Inn. A sun-warped sign on a chain link fence warns, "no lifeguard on duty." The lifeguard is NEVER on duty. Skateboarding twin brothers stand at the pool's locked gate and complain... "This is messed up," one says "they should like drain the fucker." 2. The motel's stucco walls Are ashen and heat cracked. Dark brown trim boards frame bent window screens and soap streaked panes of glass. (Some shrouded in aluminum foil.) Outside room 19 The doorknob wears a cardboard collar That reads, "Do not disturb." This amuses the motel's Peruvian janitor. The two men renting 19 Have not been seen in weeks. The handyman has developed a few theories As to why... 3. up on floor three a middle-aged woman's small, soft white hands adjusts the angle of a telescope. Positioning the barrel Through a tiny gap between curtains, she swivels it downwards Focusing on the Rite-Aid parking lot across the street. Last night she studied the Seven Sisters This afternoon as the telescopic eye in the sky, the digitized voice of a reclusive prophet, she fixes her lens on earth. Picking up a cell phone her right index finger taps redial. Instantly, next to the newspaper racks, The drugstore pay phone starts to ring. Hidden, she watches and waits. Someone will answer-someone always does. (c) Thomas Kellar 2002

Thomas Kellar