"EMILY, NOT A SLEEPING BEAUTY"

Working at the front desk of a motel for many years, you end up meeting all kinds of people from all over the world and all types of personalities. One memorable guest was named "Emily" who I met while working at the Soundings motel on Cape Cod, Mass. in the late 1970's.

"Emily" called to make a reservation and confessed that she had had some mental problems and that her doctor advised her to take a vacation and mingle with people to help her with her problems. She took a bus into Hyannis, Mass. and then took a cab from Hyannis to Dennis Port which is about thirteen miles away. While riding in the cab and within about four hundred yards from the Soundings motel, Emily said to the cab driver "Take me back to the bus station I don't think I can go through with this vacation." The cab driver turned around and started back toward the bus station in Hyannis. The cab driver mentioned to "Emily" that the next bus back to her home destination would not be there for another six hours. "Emily"then told the cab driver to turn around again and go back to the Soundings and that she would try to go ahead with her vacation visit.

Dick Manning, one of the Soundings motel owners, met "Emily" at the front desk and told me that when he said to "Emily" "Hi, How are are you today?" "Emily" replied in a slow,low monotone voice, "I don't think I'm going to make it."

Later, when I arrived at work for the evening I met "Emily." She was about sixty-two years old and had long, stringy, unwashed, grey-black hair and was slightly overweight. She was not a lady who would win many beauty contests. "Emily" had reserved a non-ocean view room at the motel which was about eighty feet from the motel lobby area.

As the evening progressed I received a call to the front desk. It was "Emily". She said "What's that noise? I think someone is outside my room trying to get in." It was a very quiet night around ten o'clock. I went outside the lobby and looked down the walkway to "Emily's" room and there wasn't a soul around. I told "Emily" that everything was fine and to have a good night. Twenty minutes later "Emily" called the front desk again and said "That noise! I heard it again. I can't sleep in this room.
I'm coming down to the lobby and sleep on the couch. I don't feel safe in this room!"

About five minutes later "Emily" walks into the lobby area with a pillow and wearing a long white nightgown. She proceeded to put her pillow on the lobby couch and lie down on the couch. A couple of guests walked into the lobby and saw "Emily" on the couch. "Emily" was saying to us,"I knew this was a bad idea going away. I'm not going to make it."

I called Dick Manning and told him about "Emily" being on the couch in the lobby. He said that she can't stay there and somehow we'll have to get her back into her room. I told "Emily" that we can't allow her to sleep in the lobby and that we have a night security man coming in at eleven o'clock and that I would make sure that he would watch her room for her. "Emily" finally made it back to her room. Poor "Emily", a sleeping beauty she was not.