The Fire in the Pantry

“Charlie, Charlie!”

Henry burst through the door. Charlie jumped out of her seat, stubbing her toe on her office desk in the process. She had been looking over the budget for the Strawberry Hotel.

“What now”, Charlie sighed. Lately they were having a lot of problems at the Strawberry.

As the associate manager, Henry’s job was to inform her of all the happenings in the hotel.

Sometimes - she thought - he knows too much about the lives of our guests.

She ran her hand over her mahogany-stained desk, as Henry introduced her to the new problem.

“... a fire has started in the pantry.”

At that, Charlie snapped out of her daze. She ran to the door with Henry by her side.

“Is the door handle hot? Or am I hallucinating?” said Charlie with a nervous laugh.

She pulled open her office door into a crowded hall - full of people smiling and laughing.

“Do they know?” Charlie whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

“No, I thought we should let you know before alarming the entire building.” He replied.

Just then a lively little girl ran up. “Charlie is that you??”

Charlie stopped to say hi. Even though she felt stressed about the possible fire, as manager of the hotel she felt the responsibility to be polite to every guest.

“Yes, I’m Charlie”, she said, holding out her hand.

The little girl took it and shook it vigorously.

“What’s your name, little one?” She said with a cheerful voice.

“My name is Rosie!!” she said, with a little curtsey.

Charlie noticed all the flower designs on her outfit. She was wearing a tight shirt with bejeweled flowers on it, and a wavy pink skirt.

“I like your outfit!” Charlie commented. Even with a possible fire burning the pantry down, Charlie always put her guests first.

With way too much enthusiasm, Rosie replied,

“I like yours soooo much better than mine!”

With that, Charlie laughed, looking down at her plain red and white hotel uniform. Her blonde hair was pulled into a plain ponytail.

“There you are Rosie!” A black-haired woman stepped out of the crowd. “No more running away!!”

Rosie sighed.

“But mom,” she whined, “it's Charlie!!”

Her mom looked up.

“Ah, Charlie, nice to meet you.” Addressing Charlie for the first time.

Then she scooped up Rosie and walked away.

“She didn’t even introduce herself!” Charlie said, surprised.

“Some guests are too rude to be polite” stated Henry, already halfway down the hall. Charlie hurried to catch up.

……..

There were a few curls of smoke from the pantry, as Charlie and Henry stepped in.

Three workers were bustling around as if the fire didn’t exist, while the other two were spraying it with a fire extinguisher.

“It looks like everything is under control… So, why am I here?” asked Charlie under her breath.

“It’s not the fire you should be worried about” Henry muttered, gesturing to two figures at the other side of the room. Henry walked over to one of the kitchen workers to interrogate him about the fire.

The figures he had gestured to both had brown hair tied in a french braid, and brown eyes. The taller one had a sneer on her face and she looked like she was filming the mini commotion with her phone.

The younger and shorter one smiled at Charlie then beckoned her over.

Charlie immediately recognized them.

“Violet, Vivian!” exclaimed Charlie, walking over to them. “Our main guests!” Charlie teased. “How was your stay?”

“Ugh, whatever. This hotel sucks. I only come for the drama. Like this fire.” The taller one scoffed. “Mind if I post this?” She said, waving her phone in front of Charlie’s face.

“No, Vivian!! The hotel will be no more! We’ll get a one star review! No one will come!” Charlie fretted.

“And won’t that be fun?” Giggled Vivian.

“Well, I think this hotel is the best ever” Smiled Violet. She shot a glare at Vivian, who rolled her eyes in return.

“Well I think you should watch the video anyway” whispered Violet, a concerned look spreading across her face. “There’s something you should see.”

Vivian handed her phone to Charlie with a smirk.

“Looks like your hotel is falling apart anyway!”

Confused, Charlie took the phone and pressed play on the video.

Even though the room was dark, Charlie could tell it was the pantry. Suddenly light flared, as a match was struck and dropped into a cupboard.

As a figure moved away, Charlie recognized his familiar silhouette.

Charlie gasped. “It was Henry?” She whispered.

“Yup” Vivian took her phone back, with a snide look on her face.

“You better call the cops before - “ Violet was interrupted mid-sentence by Henry walking over and saying,

“Now what are you three ladies talking about?”

“Shouldn't you two be in bed? It's only 8 am.” Answered Vivian as Violet stepped away from the crowd, phone to her ear.

She came back a minute later and gave Charlie a thumbs up.

Henry looked between Charlie, Vivian, and Violet. He crossed his arms, then a worried look came across his face when he heard sirens in the distance.

“There’s no need for the fire department,” he stuttered.

“Oh, those aren’t the fire people,” laughed Vivian.

“I gotta go to the bathroom!” Henry shouted, running to the door.

Suddenly, four officers stepped in front of the door, blocking his way.

“I can explain!” Henry yelled as Police officers handcuffed him and pushed in the door of the police cruiser.

Charlie and the two sisters followed them out.

“I was paid! Arrest the guy who hired me! Not me!”

“We’ll arrest both of you!” scoffed the police officers, pushing him into the police car and driving him away.

Charlie sighed.

“Good riddance.” Said Violet.

“I smelled something fishy about him the moment we met.”

“So how did you guys know he was going to light the fire?” Charlie asked.

“We were sent to the pantry to make pancake mix for breakfast, but the lights were off and we saw a figure moving around and - “

“Naturally I needed to film it.” Vivian interrupted.

Charlie turned to Violet -

“Will you be my new assistant?” She asked.

“Of course,” smiled Violet, walking back inside.

In the Jail Cell -

“I can’t believe you got caught!” sneered a gruff voice from the next cell over. “

“Whatever.” sniff sniff. “Do you smell smoke?”