I've been meaning to write this story for a long time and I'm finally getting around to it. Like many other people in this world, we've all had bizarre crazy events transpire. I could never have imaged this one but rests assure you will see it in one of my movies one day. The events in this story are totally true. I lived it.
Several years ago, I was working for the Dell Corporation in Round Rock, Texas, which is just outside of Austin. It was in January of that year and the Company had sent me to its Bracknell, Berkshire location in the UK, which is right outside of London. I went there for meetings with the European Training team. The meetings went great and I was there for a week. As much as I'd like to have a good UK story, this story begins on the way home.
My travel itinerary for the return trip consisted of a non-stop 747 ride from London to Chicago O'Hare, where I'd pick up my connecting flight down to Austin, Texas. When we left London, I knew the weather in Chicago wasn't the good, as they were expecting blizzard conditions. About an hour out of Chicago, the Pilot's voice comes over the intercom. He said that the blizzard conditions in Chicago were getting worse, but he thought we'd make it into Chicago as long as the airport didn't close before we get there. He said he would keep us posted, but forewarned us that those folks on connecting flights may not make it out of Chicago today. Frustration set in with me because when I return from trips, I just want to get home and sleep in my own bed. From Chicago to Austin was another two and a half hour ride and I didn't have a whole lot of time to make my connecting flight.
When we closed in on O'Hare the Pilot comes on the intercom again and says the weather on the ground is just about a complete whiteout, but we're going to do the approach and we should make it in just fine. The Pilot shot the approach and I know he had to be right at the legal minimum conditions when he had visibility of the runway. All was great. We landed safely. During the taxiing to the gate, the Pilot comes on the intercom and announces that we were lucky in that O'Hare is now officially closed. We were the last airplane to make it in. Oh great, I thought. I'll be spending the night in Chicago. I remembered the Hilton Hotel was right there at the airport, so I thought I'd just fork out the extra money and stay there. Make it easy you know. Wrong.
When we got off the airplane, of course, everybody ran for the nearest ticket counter to get rebooked on flights and the lines were miles long. It wasn't just our flight, it was everybody from every other flight that was stranded and had to rebook. It took me close to two hours to get a flight booked for early the following day, hoping that the airport would reopen by morning.
After getting the flight rebooked, it was now time to go check in at the Hilton – or so I thought. I went over to the wallboard that has the 20 phones on it to directly call the various Hotels. I found the Hilton line and dialed it. I said to the lady on the other end, I'm stranded here at the airport and need one of your rooms for tonight. The nice lady said, sorry but we're booked solid for the night because of the airport closing. She said to try some of the other Hotels, I'm sure you can find something. I called Hotel after Hotel after Hotel and none of them had any rooms. All booked. By this point, the Hotels I was calling were a significant distance from O'Hare. The thought of trying to sleep in the airport just wasn't appealing. Especially since you can't fold the arms of the chairs up and take advantage of several seats. I mean, I understand why they don't allow this. People like me would be hogging three or four chairs all night. I needed a nice bed and some rest.
So back to calling I go. I finally found a Hotel where the clerk said he had an opening. I told him I'd take it immediately. I didn't care. By this time, it was close to 8:00 pm at night. The Hotel clerk told me to go outside and there would be van along shortly to pick me up along with some others. I waited outside looking for this van for nearly an hour, and then finally it came along. It was snowing unbelievably hard. I piled in this van with 5 or 6 other people and luggage. None of us had any idea where we were going. I didn't care as long as they had food and a bed. I was starving by this point. It was kind of comforting knowing that some others were in the same boat as me.
Little did I know the Hotel we were going to was 20 miles from O'Hare, somewhere in Chicago. On the drive there, which was mostly City driving, we went through what looked like the roughest part of Chicago. I thought to myself, I'm from Flint, so Chicago has nothing on me. Wrong. Finally, after close to an hour, we're in a section of Chicago that is really run down. The van starts to pull into this little dive Hotel. There's no restaurant's to be seen. In fact, there are no occupied commercial buildings either. Oh, they were there. They were no longer usable. Many were gutted or burned out. Even if there were a restaurant, I'm not going out walking in this area at night. My next thought was maybe the Hotel might have something to eat. Wrong.
After checking in, I asked the guy at the desk if there was any food around. He pointed to a single vending machine that looked like it was 40 years old and had two items in it. Of course, the machine didn't take cards and I had no cash on me. I told myself, self, you can go one night without food. I rationalized too. I figured I had to leave the Hotel at 5:00 am anyway to get the shuttle back to O'Hare to catch my plane.
The Hotel room was a dive also, but at least it had a bed. It was also the kind of place where you don't even want to touch anything for fear of dying of some deadly disease. It was cold in the room and only had a cover sheet and thin bedspread. At 10:30 pm, I shut out the lights and tried to go to sleep. About an hour later, I was awakened to the sound of two people arguing. It was a Man and a Woman. At first, it was in the hallway. Then they took their arguing into the room right next to mine. I got up and looked through the peephole and could vaguely see two people for a brief second before they went in. It wasn't just a discussion kind of argument, it was yelling. It continued to get louder and louder. I put my ear to the wall to see what it was about. It had something to do with him cheating on her. The guy sounded very much like a bully, but the lady wasn't taking any of crap either.
With my ear against the wall, it was then I realized that the wall between us was razor thin. You know how you can tell when a wall is thin and built cheaply? Exactly. The next thought in listening to them was that bullets were going to start flying any second, and I'm a goner through this paper-thin wall. I called the front desk and nobody picked up. My bed was right against the adjacent wall, and there was nowhere to move it, in case my bullet fear came to fruition. The arguing went on for quite a while. I lay down on the bed and tried to tune the arguing out, hoping I would somehow fall asleep. Wrong.
About 10 minutes later, the arguing abruptly stopped. Abruptly. Like went silent. My first thought was… they're dead. How come I didn't hear the gunshots? Maybe it was a knife murder. Then a minute later, I hear the two people moaning. My first thought was, they shot each other but they're alive. Then the harsh reality set it. I mean harsh. They were starting to have sex. My thought at this point was, you gotta be kidding me? I have to listen to this now? She was way outpacing him in the moaning department, but he was pretty loud himself. The moaning continued to get louder as they got spun up. It didn't last that long though, and for that I thanked God. Then I thought to myself, damn that sure was fast. Maybe I can sleep now. Wrong.
About 10 minutes later, the arguing starts again. It picked up right where it left off the first time. Not even missing a beat. It was just as though these two people took a timeout for the sex. This time the arguing went on for almost an hour and a half. The arguing went in cycles, however. By cycles, I mean it was up and down and for a brief moment, I actually thought they had come to some kind of resolution as to whether or not he cheated on her. Then I would hear an outburst of screaming and her crying. I thought about calling 911, but I deemed that to be a useless thought in this part of Chicago. I could hear myself telling the 911 Operator that their sex was too loud. Besides, I didn't want to be involved or near my new friends. The thought of a gun never left my mind.
After the hour and a half, the sex starts a second time. My thought at the point was, are you, serious God? You’re really going to do this to me? This time it was far worse. It took these two people a lot longer to get spun up and not only that, I got the proverbial headboard knocking against the paper thin wall effect. Don't laugh; we've all been on the giving end of that scenario at one time or another. For a brief moment, the thought of knocking on their door and suggesting they try the sex in the shower crossed my mind. I said to myself, this night cannot be happening to me. I am truly living a nightmare. Not only did I fly all the way from the UK, but I also have not been to sleep in 24 hours or had any food since we were over the middle of the Atlantic ocean. I prayed they would wrap things up quickly and be done with this nightmare. Sometime later, those sounds ended and the arguing starts again. However, the arguing wasn't nearly as intense and let me just say, she sounded.. shall I say, not too happy with his performance.
I said to myself, I'm done. I got up and got dressed. I quietly snuck out of my room and went downstairs. It took me 15 minutes to track down the desk clerk. I told him to call the shuttle van. I'm leaving for the airport. It was around 4:00 am.
The thought of connecting through O'Hare in the winter time still makes me cringe.
