Who is there to do in a small town?

No the title is not a typo, I meant to write who not what. Let me explain:

After a typical long day at work yesterday I came back to my hotel room to watch some mindless television and eat some left over pizza. While I settling into this most exciting of routines I heard a knock at my door. I thought it was my co-workers Megan, but was puzzled since up until this point she has only been to my room three times and each time she called first.

Being the lazy bum that I am, I groaned and got off my bed and walked toward the door. Not being certain who it was I went ahead and used the peep hole and didn't see anyone. Cautiously I opened the door and a small built black woman was standing out there. She asked if someone was there, I believe the name was Jack. Luckily I get a cozy hotel room all to myself and so of course there was no Jack in my room.

She then added a little bit of sadness to her tone and said she was just dropped off from Asheboro to visit an old friend who was staying at the hotel. She claimed he was part of a construction crew that was staying there. I told her the only construction crew that I knew had already left a few days ago.

Claiming that this man, Jack, was staying at the room next door to me, she asked if I could use my phone. While I know it wasn't a good idea, I probably have too kind of a heart sometimes and let her in. She used the phone and talked to the confused guy next door, thanked me and left.

At this point I was still trying to nice and believe the story, as of that moment it sounded odd. But there was no reason for me to question her and so I accepted it, and went back to watching the ending of the Daily Show. Just as the Colbert Report was in full swing and I was getting excited to watch the pending showdown between Stephen Colbert and Tom DeLay, there was another knock on my door.

Hoping that is really was a coworker this time, I crept back to the door and opened it up. Again with the almost genuine sounding of disappointment in her voice she said that it wasn't her friend Jack and asked if she could use the phone again. She didn't steal my kidney the first time, so I sighed and let her back in.

She went on talking about how she was dropped off and had no idea what to do. She asked if I was driving. Just as I started writing this I looked up the distance from Siler City to Asheboro and it turns out it is only about half an hour away. Last night I thought Asheboro was a good two hours away. Either way I was tired and my kindness has limits, there was no way I was driving this stranger to Asheboro in the middle of the night.

She asked if she could leave her purse in exchange for some money to get a cab back home. This seemed a little bit more agreeable to me, even though I didn't much like the idea. The problem for her was that I had been reliable on my debit card and had no physical cash on me except for the change on one of the hotel room tables.

I reminded her that she was welcome to use the phone, she thought about it, ask me again about the change on the table. After finding out that I had less than a single dollar in change she commented about not having anyone to call. I again apologized for not being to help more, gave her a frown to indicate my sincerity and wished her luck.

She left and I really started questioning the origins of the woman traveling over 20 miles to visit a friend who is a construction worker staying at a hotel in a city of roughly 8,000 people. Not much I could do to help her so I went back to my night time ritual except now it was my turn to be disappointed. I missed the showdown between Colbert and DeLay!

This morning at the office, my coworker Rene I was talking about a visit from a woman last night. I only picked up the conversation midway through and chimed in that I was visited by the same woman.

Turns out the woman used the old friend/telephone ploy to enter rooms and solicit sex to men who were alone. Obviously she did not discover that Rene was as physically broke as I was, but being a married man with four children and probably a myriad of other reasons he said no to her solicitation.

So I had an encounter with a prostitute and for one reason or another she either believed that I was sincere about being broke or she did not approach me with the same offer.

Either way she'd be walking away disappointed, I wasn't interested nor do I have that kind of disposable income! Not much to philosophize here... only one question left to ponder: Do I feel pity for her, tickled by the random course of events, honored that she chose to leave me alone or disappointed she so easily left me alone? I think I'm going to feel pity, a little bit of tickled and mostly indifferent about this strange evening.

All I can be certain of... it was the most interesting evening I've had in Siler City in the near two weeks I've been here!