I was working new ground and I decided I’d stay at the hotel the weekend and put in an appearance at church.“All alone?” asked the girl in the cash desk.It had been raining since ten o’clock.“Mr. Good has gone,” she said. “And Mr. Straker. He usually stays with us. But he’s gone.”“That’s where they make their mistake,” I said. “They think they know everything because they’ve been on the road all their lives.”“You’re a stranger here, aren’t you?” she said.“I am,” I said. “And so are you.”“How do you know that?”“Obvious,” I said. “Way you speak.”“Let’s have a light,” she said.“So’s I can see you,” I said.That was how it started. The rain was pouring down on to the glass roof of the office.She’d a cup of tea steaming on the register. I said I’d have one, too. What’s it going to be and I’ll tell them, she said, but I said just a cup of tea.“I’m TT,” I said. “Too many soakers on the road as it is.”I was staying there the weekend so as to be sharp on the job on Monday morning.
