Trapped in Room 217 Read online

  Trapped in Room 217 © 2019 by North Star Editions, Mendota Heights, MN 55120. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Book design by Sarah Taplin

  Illustrations by Maggie Ivy

  Published in the United States by Jolly Fish Press, an imprint of North Star Editions, Inc.

  First Edition

  First Printing, 2018

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data (pending)

  978-1-63163-216-7 (paperback)

  978-1-63163-215-0 (hardcover)

  Jolly Fish Press

  North Star Editions, Inc.

  2297 Waters Drive

  Mendota Heights, MN 55120

  www.jollyfishpress.com

  Printed in the United States of America

  Thomas Kingsley Troupe

  Illustrated by Maggie Ivy

  Mendota Heights, Minnesota

  Chapter 1

  Night Call

  Jayla Walters was fast asleep and dreaming about math. She was sitting in an empty classroom at Wilson Middle School. Her teacher, Mr. Pullman, was sitting at his desk, squinting at the monitor on his laptop. She didn’t know why, but she had to hurry. A quick glance at the clock told her it was almost thirteen o’clock. It didn’t seem weird to her that there was a thirteen at the top of the white-and-black timepiece above the dry-erase board, nor did Jayla take much notice at what was blowing around outside the windows.

  Papers. Everywhere, covering the parking lot and the hedges lining the property. A swirling mass of worksheets and homework.

  Focus, Jayla told herself. She wasn’t good at taking tests and knew Mr. Pullman was probably wondering what her problem was. With a tap of the eraser, she looked down at the math problems in front of her. Her eyes glazed over when she realized her test wasn’t made up of just one sheet anymore. There was a stack of at least thirty papers waiting for her attention.

  Even though I haven’t even started, I can do this, Jayla thought. Even if everyone is already done, I can do this. Distracted again, Jayla looked around the room. All the empty desks seemed different, almost like they were slowly melting. Where was everyone?

  “What’s the capital of North Dakota, Jayla?” Mr. Pullman asked. Jayla looked over toward the front of the room to see Mr. Pullman wearing a cowboy hat. Also, it didn’t look like Mr. Pullman anymore, but her Uncle Jason.

  “This is math,” Jayla said and looked down at her test. She pressed her pencil onto the problems written on the paper to try and stop them from swirling. Just then, the tip of her pencil broke as the bell rang—so loud it woke Jayla up. She gazed at the ceiling above her bed and saw the few glow-in-the-dark stars that still clung to the plaster. They had long since dimmed from when she’d gone to bed for the night. Somewhere in the house, the phone rang again. It wasn’t a school bell after all and she wasn’t taking the world’s most terrible math test. She was home, but it was late.

  And someone was calling.

  A light came on in the hallway, throwing a wide beam of brightness into her room. A moment later, she saw her dad walk across the hardwood floor. The floor creaked under his bulky weight. The cordless phone half rang again before he picked it up.

  “Hello?” she heard her dad mumble.

  Jayla sat up in her bed, wondering who would be calling so late. She looked at her alarm clock. It was 1:13 a.m. She didn’t like late night or early morning calls. The last time the phone range this late, she remembered getting bad news.

  She tried to figure out who her dad was talking to but couldn’t determine it from his end of the conversation. He nodded and said “okay” a bunch of times, but not much else.

  Her little brother, Dion, walked into the hallway too. He rubbed his sleepy eyes and tugged on her dad’s pajama pant bottoms.

  “Who is it, Dad?” Dion asked, following the question up with a yawn big enough to swallow his face.

  Her dad put up a just-a-minute finger and put the phone to his other ear.

  “So, tomorrow morning? First thing?” he asked.

  The person on the other end must have said the right thing. Her dad nodded.

  “Will do,” he said. “Thanks for the call.”

  As her dad hung up the phone, Jayla swung out of bed. She kicked her slippers out of the way instead of putting them on and joined the rest of her family.

  “Who was that?” Jayla asked.

  “It was Jerry at the office,” her dad said. “Sorry his call woke you guys up.”

  Dion looked toward the window above the stairs and stared out into the pitch-black sky.

  “Why’d he call so late?” Dion asked.

  “Early, you mean,” Jayla corrected. “It’s past one in the morning.”

  “Whoa,” Dion said. “That’s late—I mean, early!”

  “We’re going to go on a spring break trip,” Dad said. “And we’re leaving first thing tomorrow morning.”

  Jayla started to think she was still dreaming. They hadn’t gone on a vacation in years, not since their mom had left and Grandma had died.

  “It’s only Thursday morning. Spring break doesn’t start until next week. And where are we going, anyway?” Jayla asked, likely beating her little brother’s same question by a breath.

  “Colorado,” her dad said. “Some of the trails in the Rocky Mountain National Park got washed out and they want a crew out there right away to fix them.” Then he added, “I guess we’ll just have to start spring break a little early this year.”

  Jayla wondered why that was such an emergency. Was there such a huge rush to fix trails that they needed to call and wake everyone? And they had to leave tomorrow?

  “Is that the state with all the mountains?” Dion asked.

  “Yeah, buddy,” Dad said. “The Rocky Mountains. We’ll be staying in a little town called Estes Park. It’s in Colorado and the base for the park.”

  “I need to get online and find us plane tickets,” her dad said, walking into his room.

  Jayla and Dion followed. Dad picked his laptop up off the dresser and pressed the power button. As he walked by the bed, he tossed the laptop down and went into the closet for a suitcase.

  “Are we going to have to work too?” Dion asked.

  “If you have any homework, yes,” Dad said. “Actual landscaping? No. Leave that to me and the crew they put together, okay, D?”

  Dion nodded. Jayla sighed. She knew her little brother didn’t have much in the way of homework, being in second grade. But seventh graders? They always had plenty to do.

  Especially math.

  At least we’re not going on a vacation in the middle of the school year, Jayla thought. I’d never catch up.

  “Are you going to let school know I’ll be missing a couple days?” Jayla asked.

  “First thing in the morning,” Dad replied. “It shouldn’t be a big deal to miss a couple days before spring break anyway, I’m sure.”

  “How long will we be gone?” Jayla asked.

  “Jerry says we’re guaranteed a week,” Dad said, throwing some undershirts and socks into his suitcase. “Could be more, I suppose.”

 
It was easy to see her dad was excited about the trip. Working for a landscaping company in Chicago meant a lot less work during the winter. In the off-season, her dad had to plow parking lots for businesses and the driveways of some homeowners.

  “Do you want to know the best part?” Dad asked, turning his attention to his laptop. He opened a travel website to look for plane tickets. “The company pays for everything. Even having you guys come along. They really need me out there.”

  Jayla and Dion looked at each other. It was hard to be too upset about missing school. And it wasn’t every day they got to go on a plane and fly to Colorado.

  After twenty minutes or so, all the arrangements were made. Their flight was at 6:10 a.m. to Denver. In the meantime, Jayla had to pack.

  She grabbed four pairs of jeans, a few tops, and plenty of warm socks. She looked at her school backpack and kicked it. The thought of bringing her math book on a trip didn’t seem fair, or right. After packing her toothbrush and mouthwash, she came back to her bag.

  “Fine,” she said, unzipping the backpack. “But you’re not going to ruin this trip for me.”

  Jayla tugged the thick textbook out and saw the worksheet that was due on Friday. It was folded in half and sticking out from the middle of the book. It didn’t look like that one was getting to Mr. Pullman on time.

  In the hallway, she saw Dion struggling with his bag. It looked like he had a load of bricks in it.

  “This is too heavy,” Dion groaned.

  Jayla came out to help her little brother. She grabbed the bag and lifted it. Her arms strained under the weight.

  “I don’t think the plane will take off with this bag on board,” she joked. “What do you have in here?”

  “All of my books,” Dion announced, proudly.

  Jayla unzipped his bag and looked inside. Dion wasn’t lying. Just about every single book the kid owned was stuffed inside.

  “You can’t bring all of these,” Jayla said. “Did you even pack any clothes?”

  “No,” Dion said. He pointed to the jeans and hooded sweatshirt he was wearing. “I’ll just wear these all week.”

  “Oh, no you won’t,” she said. “After a day, you’ll start to stink.”

  “You’ll stink,” Dion snapped.

  “Boys always smell worse than girls,” Jayla said. “That’s just science.”

  Jayla helped him pick out the five books he couldn’t live without and stuffed some clothes inside there too. In no time, he was able to sling the bag over his shoulder.

  “Nice,” he said.

  Before long, they had their bags lined up by the front door, ready to go. Her dad told them both to get back into bed and try to get a few more hours of sleep. They’d need to be up early to get to the airport.

  Jayla hopped into bed, wider awake than ever. She watched as the stars above her bed slowly lost their glow. Once the rest of the house was quiet, Jayla heard footsteps in the hallway. A moment later, there was a shadow across her doorway.

  “Who is it?” Jayla asked, trying her hardest not to sound scared.

  “It’s me,” the Dion-shaped shadow said. “I can’t sleep.”

  Jayla sighed. “Neither can I.”

  “Can I come lay with you?”

  “Sure,” Jayla said. “But keep quiet.”

  “Okay,” Dion replied, and ran to the left side of her bed. He hopped in and pulled the covers over him. Both of them lay in silence, staring up at the ceiling stars.

  “It’s going to feel weird,” Dion said suddenly.

  “What do you mean?” Jayla asked. “Going to Colorado? They say the air up in the mountains is—”

  “No,” Dion said, cutting her off. “It’s going to feel weird going on a trip without Mom.”

  Jayla shifted in the bed. She’d thought the same thing but had planned to keep it to herself. The less she thought about Mom, the better. After all, she was the one who left the three of them.

  “Yeah,” Jayla said finally. “But she probably wouldn’t like it up in the mountains anyway.”

  “Why not?” Dion asked. She could feel him scratching his leg under the blankets.

  “She’s afraid of heights,” Jayla said. “We’ll be way above sea level.”

  Dion was quiet for a moment and then spoke up.

  “You’re making that up, aren’t you?” he said. “About Mom being scared.”

  “I might be,” Jayla said. “Now shut up. We’re supposed to be sleeping.”

  The two of them were quiet, and before too long, Jayla was asleep. This time around, she didn’t dream about Mr. Pullman’s impossible math class. Instead, she dreamed of mountains, snow, and airplanes.

  What seemed like ten minutes later, a voice broke through her dream.

  “Time to go to Colorado, guys,” Dad said, almost sounding excited. “The mountains are waiting for us!”

  Chapter 2

  A Hotel Named Stanley

  By the middle of the next day, Jayla Walters was in love. While she liked living in Chicago and considered herself a city girl, she loved Colorado and thought it was beautiful.

  The scenery kept unspooling in front of them as they drove their windy way into the mountains. There were clusters of rock formations on the hills, deep valleys, and streams running alongside the road. Dion was pressed up against the window, “oohing” and “ahhing” at the Rocky Mountain views. He’d even put down the book that he’d started reading back in Denver.

  That was saying something, Jayla thought.

  “This is beautiful,” Dad said. “Just breathtaking,

  isn’t it?”

  “Is that because of the air up here, Dad?” Dion asked.

  “What do you mean, D?” he asked.

  “Breathtaking,” Dion said. “Because the air isn’t so fat up here?”

  “The air is thinner,” Jayla said. “But that’s because we’re at a higher elevation. We’re like seven thousand feet above sea level.”

  She’d been watching their progress on her smartphone’s map, following their car’s dot as they wound through the mountains. At times, the dot would stall when the internet wasn’t so great, but it soon caught up. On another page, she did as much research as she could on the town of Estes Park.

  Unlike Chicago, there wasn’t a whole lot there.

  “How come we didn’t stay in Denver?” Jayla asked.

  “Because it’s an hour and a half each way,” Dad said. “And since you guys will be on your own during the day, I wanted us to be close.”

  That was one of the big drawbacks about their trip. Jayla and Dion were going to be stuck alone together for long chunks of time while their dad was working during the day. Sure, she would be finishing the remainder of her homework, which was due before spring break officially started, to pass some of the time, but the bulk of it would be spent with Dion.

  “That makes sense,” Jayla said. “I just wonder if we’re going to go crazy after a few days, being stuck at the hotel.”

  “Is there a pool?” Dion asked, finally turning away from the window.

  “There is . . .” Dad said slowly.

  “Yes!” Dion shouted. “This is going to be—”

  “But it’s outside,” Dad continued, before Dion could finish. “And it’ll be too cold for it to be open.”

  “It could be open,” Dion said, hopefully.

  “It’s March,” Jayla said. “There’s no way.”

  “It could be,” Dion said quietly.

  After a while, they drove down a curving hill and a small town became visible. The road ahead of them curled away from a lake, leading into a small downtown area.

  Jayla looked to the right and saw a road sign that signaled they were in Estes Park.

  “We’re here,” she said.

  As they drove through town, Jayla studied
the surroundings of where they’d be staying for the next week. It looked just like any other small town, except that it sat in what seemed like a bowl with mountains all around it. The buildings were short and kind of plain. They weren’t any taller than a few stories. It was nothing like downtown Chicago with its soaring skyscrapers.

  “Where are we staying?” Dion asked.

  Dad looked off toward the right, squinting a little. “You’ll see it when we get a little closer,” he said. “It really stands out.”

  Oh great, Jayla thought. It’s going to be some sort of huge dump.

  Both she and Dion started looking for it among the small businesses, trying to see if they could find what their dad was talking about. There were a bunch of different accommodations, and any time Dion saw the word “hotel” or “motel,” he called them out.

  “Is it that one, Dad?” Dion asked.

  “Nope,” Dad replied. “Keep looking.”

  Jayla scanned the horizon. No hotels she saw stood out to her. As they rounded a corner and headed up a hill, she saw a place that looked magnificent. It was a gigantic mansion.

  “Are we staying at The Stanley Hotel?” Jayla asked, spotting the huge sign along the side of the road.

  “And the girl wins a new car,” Dad said. “But not really, because you’re not old enough to drive.”

  Dion laughed and their dad smiled at them through the rearview mirror.

  “You like that one?” he asked.

  “The hotel is named Stanley?” Dion asked. “What was wrong with Hotel Herbert or Louise Lodge?”

  “Very funny, D,” Dad said, as they pulled up. “This place was built by a guy who helped invent steam engine cars. They called them Stanley Steamers, I think.”

  “This place is huge,” Jayla said, still marveling at the hotel.

  The Stanley Hotel was a grand white structure, with white pillars and a large upper balcony above the entrance. There were tons of windows and a small spire with a flag on top of it. The roof was red and had a few peaks with windows that looked out onto the town.

  It didn’t look like a hotel at all. It looked like a billionaire’s mansion.