There were several excellent five-star hotels in Boston, and every traveler had their favorites. When noted writer and paranormal expert William Collins passed through town, he always stayed at the Tipton. He was a friend with the clientele there. He had done two paranormal investigations for them in a reputedly haunted room on the fourteenth floor and often hired the candy counter girl as a babysitter when his family was with him. After the cab dropped him off out front, he began his routine hike into the hotel structure, but along the way, he began noticing small idiosyncrasies about the location. For one, it was practically empty out front. Where cars and cabs were usually loading and unloading, the sidewalk was deserted except for the odd pedestrian and random tourist heading past. Esteban was not out front helping guests and bustling for tips as he usually was. Collins also noticed the large green awning over the front entrance seemed a bit tattered and faded. It seemed far older and not so vibrant as he recalled. Norman the doorman was not on duty either. In fact, the door where he usually stood just barely opened for him. It scraped and resisted being opened as Collins pushed against it. It was almost as if no one had been to the Tipton in a long time.
Once inside the location, Collins realized it was not just the front that had fallen into neglect, but the interior. The gold carpet across the floor was covered in dust, walking across it was like sinking into thick oatmeal spreading out before him. The usually active lobby was all but deserted; there was not a sign of a living person anywhere. Irene the concierge was not at her desk; the top of it was covered in a layer of dust across papers and a phone off its hook. Turning into a detective, the wily author picked up the receiver and clicked the line a few times before resting it in its cradle. It was dead. Collins looked to the deserted candy counter where Maddie once greeted everyone with a grin. Over before the elevators on the landing, Zack and Cody's skateboard looked quickly deserted. It was lying upside down with one wheel missing and a stray mouse scurrying around it. It was relatively dark except for the lights streaming through the front windows. Collins's eyes peered up to the overhead chandelier; it's light extinguished, it hung at an uncomfortable angle as if something massive had struck it. Arwin would not have left it like that. The hotel seemed it'd been deserted quite quickly a long time ago. When the paranormal researcher checked out the potted plant, the dusty weak flowers fell apart from his touch. The placard that once introduced the Tipton's resident vocalist Carey Martin had been disturbed. Several letters had been knocked loose, a few stuck in out of sequence to create one nonsensical word: madfitz. Turning around the remains of a collapsed and broken chair, William Collins felt as if he was within one of the deserted haunted houses he visited in lonely little towns from the heartland. Out the corner of his eye, young and lovely London Tipton slowly rose up from behind the admission test in better shape than her father's hotel. Her expression was simple as if it were business as usual. Nothing was wrong with the hotel at all. Her hair was perfect, hanging long down off her shoulders. Instead of her usual expensive dresses, she was wearing a copy of the hotel uniform.
"Welcome back to the Tipton, Mr. Collins." She replied without personality or emotion. "Would you like your usual room?"
"London…" Collins knew her father. He thought of her as a daughter. "What happened to the hotel? Why does it look like this? Where's Moseby?"
"Who?"
"London, honey…" He came around the admissions desk and escorted her out into the open. "Something happened…" His voice was slow and assuring. "I think you're in shock. Let me get you some help…"
"Hi, Mr. Collins!!" Maddie popped up from behind the candy counter. Almost entirely in shadow, she whipped out a rag and started wiping down her counter. Collins looked at her and back to the space next to him. What happened to London? She had been right next to him! He was sure of it. She was there one minute and gone the next. It was as if she had just blinked out when Maddie appeared. Collins dropped his traveling knapsack of clothing and rushed over to her to answer this incredible deserted mystery.
"Maddie!" He gripped her by her arms and shook her lightly. "What's gong on here? What happened to the hotel?! Where are Zack and Cody?"
"Who?"
"Zack and Cody!" He let go of her and frustratingly pressed his hands to her counter to try and get answers. "Carey's boys? How about Arwin and Moseby? Esteban?"
"Mr. Collins…" Maddie turned to stock clean candy on top of dust-covered shelves and soiled compartments. "I have no idea who you are talking about." She reacted whimsically deranged and comically distracted. "I don't know those people." She turned to tend to her merchandise out of habit.
"Oh my god…" Collins looked at her happily pretending nothing was wrong… "Something happened, and you and London are trying to run the place by yourselves. You girls need help…" He heard a squeaking noise behind him and turned to see one of the luggage carousels rolling up to the admission desk by itself. It looked as if it was rolling by itself. He noticed a hand come up from beneath it and reach for his knapsack to toss it on, a full figure of a person rising up with it from the floor. It was another young lady of Maddie's size and age clad in another Tipton uniform with a vivacious mane of dark hair and dark eyes. She took her place behind the carousel and began wheeling toward him.
"Checking in, Mr. Collins?" The voice of Corrie Willows responded to him. "Let me take you to your room." She knocked him forcibly into the luggage carrier over his own knapsack and began pushing him to the elevators. Regaining his bearings, William Collins struggled against his unwanted ride and looked to one of the elevators opening up under its own power like a huge mouth. As the doors slid open, Corrie beamed ear-to-ear and put her strength into pushing the grown man into it willing to enter deeper into the decrepit structure. His face aghast with fear, the paranormal researcher was finally scared of what waited him deep into the crumbling edifice.
"Mr. Collins…"
Hotel manager Marion Moseby rousted the horror writer and paranormal expert from his sleep. Jarred from his somnambulistic adventure, William Collins widened his eyes and took a second to recognize the slender-figured manager that ran the Tipton Hotel with a stern but dutiful hand. The hotel was alive again with the most brilliant colors of gold, orange and green. Every surface was clean and polished, every area sparkled affluent with life and the lobby area once again bristled with life. Irene was at her post. Esteban and Arwin were exchanging banter over before the rotating doors as Norman opened the doors wide to heiress London Tipton carrying her little dog and leading eight Tipton employees with her twenty-two bags of purchases. Over at the candy counter, effervescent Maddie chatted with two of her friends, Corrie Willows and Mary Margaret Culberson, the three of them standing with each other looked like the teenage stars of a Disney TV musical. A faint symphonic tune wafted over the deluge and cacophony of hotel lobby conversations and noises. Collins grunted a bit as he woke and looked again to Moseby.
"I've got to stop reading Stephen King." Collins tried to stir himself awake. "His horror novels are starting to give me nightmares."
"Well," Moseby postured a bit. "Maybe your horror novels scare him." They shared a chuckle. "You really are tired." The horror writer and his family were briefly staying in the Tipton as damage as their house was being handled. He might have just returned home to Maine, but his wife was in the middle of handling a large law case for the local Cage and Fish law firm in Boston.
"You know…" Moseby continued. "The destructive habits of your daughters remind me of a certain set of twins whose names I refuse to mention."
"Yeah," Collins picked up his copy of Everything's Eventual by Stephen King. "All they need is their own TV series, The Suite Life of Lainey and Georgia." He cracked his back in place to head up to his suite for rest before his girls escaped day care. He and London shared a brief warm greeting as their paths crossed each other. Two wealthy heirs of powerful New England families parted destinies again while London hastened her step to catch Moseby.
"Moseby…" The sometimes-demanding heiress stopped him. "Who is that?" She pointed to a young man taking pictures of the lobby and ascending staircases. "Why is he taking photos of my daddy's hotel?"
"That London…" Moseby tiredly responded to return to his post. "…is Jason Pryde, a local photographer and visual advertiser who will be shooting a fashion lay-out here this month. I and your father have given him permission to use the hotel in a fashion layout." He turned around again and realized he had said too much. Upon hearing the words "fashion" and "photos," London hastened over and made a pose in the talented young photographer's line of vision. Pryde noticed her in front of him and looked back to Moseby a bit distractedly.
"Excuse me…" He looked upon the simple-minded heiress. "Could you move a bit to the left?"
"Sure!" London was willing to oblige, but Pryde continuing waving her left, left and further left before clicking his photo.
"Perfect!" He told her. "You almost got into my picture."
London dropped her jaw offended.
"I liked the way he handled London." Mary Margaret shared a chuckle with Maddie and Corrie. London screamed upset and went over to complain to Moseby for being slighted. Pryde meanwhile traveled over to his camera bag and packed away his flash before looking up to Maddie. Corrie looked away a second following her idol worship of London. Maddie noticed Pryde looking at her. She reacted a bit offset to be noticed by the thirty-something photographer and even a bit more uncomfortable when he approached her. Maybe he just wanted a candy bar.
"Hi…" Pryde wound his film and removed it from his camera. "Did anyone ever tell you that you could be a model?"
"Me?" Maddie beamed embarrassingly. "No one has ever said that to me."
"Maddie? A model?" Mary Margaret challenged that thought. Maddie shot her a look.
"Yeah," Pryde looked at Maddie. "I'm always looking for potential natural beauties." Maddie's ego went up a notch with that praise. Her lovely features beamed wide with her grinning face.
"Look…" Pryde pulled out his wallet to pluck out a card. "My studio is a few blocks from here. If you're interested, come by and fill out an application."
"Okay!!" Maddie's ego and self-esteem was definitely getting better as she accepted his card. London stopped arguing with Moseby and hastened over with Corrie following her. She looked to Pryde collecting his bag and equipment than instead confronted the candy counter girl.
"Wait a minute…" London reacted in shock over what she had heard. "Her?!" She looked Maddie over once more as her blonde best friend looked at her with deep-rooted annoyance. "Oh, this can't be happening." She started slapping her face to wake herself up. "Wake up, London, wake up, you're having a nightmare."
Even Corrie reacted with annoyed disbelief.
"London, " Moseby came over again to reprimand her. "Look, you've been putting Maddie down for years, but whether you see it or not, some guys like the non-heiress type."
"I'm shocked!" London felt a draft in her tiny world populated only with herself and those who served her.
"I'm shocked!" Corrie imitated her.
"Don't help me…" London tried to shoo her off.
"Hey," Maddie came out from her counter. "Some guys actually like how I look." She paused with a grin. "In fact, I sometimes think I look great!"
"And some guys think I look hot." Mary Margaret added.
"Well," Corrie pushed herself center. " I think London Tipton is perfect."
"Great!" London's ego hit another wall. "The only one on my side is the weird girl!" She accidentally insulted Corrie and marched off for the confines of her world of excess in the top five floors of the hotel known as the penthouse. Moseby rolled his eyes and strayed away again as the three young ladies pulled back together into their informal retinue. As London Tipton ventured up one elevator, Carey Martin the lovely blonde lounge singer had escorted her twin sons down on her way to prepare for her act, but just a few feet from the elevator, a guest to the hotel caught her eye. She looked at him for a few minutes, focused her gaze a bit on him trying to recall him, and once she recalled him, she grabbed her boys by the belts and jerked them behind the Tipton lobby sofa to hide. Intellectual and gifted, Cody groaned from the sneak attack. A bit irresponsible and lazy, Zack felt his chest sprawled against the floor and reached up to pull himself back to eye level.
"Hey, what's the big idea?" He dusted himself off. "Is grandma coming to visit again?"
"No!" Carey whispered frantically to her boys. "Sorry, I scared you boys, but… you see that guy over there." She pointed over to the admissions desk from behind the sofa. Moseby was checking in a guy in a leather jacket and blue jeans with a large travel case. "You see that guy?"
"You mean the guy that looks like dad?" Cody asked.
"There's a reason he looks like your dad." Carey continued in secret. "I think that's Michael, your dad's older brother!"
"We got an uncle?!" Zack stood up straight, but his mother pulled him back down to the floor. Over at the submissions desk, Michael Martin looked over at the area where someone had vanished, and wondered about the appearing and vanishing figure a second before shrugging it off in his mind. Palming his key card, he lifted his suitcase and motioned to the elevators to head to his room. As he moved around the sofa, Carey and her boys snuck around the other side to hide out of view and stood up straight only after Michael was in the elevator and heading away from them.
"One question, mom." Cody's interest became vested. "Why are we hiding from him? I didn't even now dad had a brother."
"Well, honey…" Carey stood up straight and adjusted her t-shirt. "I haven't seen him since you guys were born, but he and your father were always fighting and arguing. Your Uncle Mike's even been in trouble with the law a few times. After the last big blow-up, your father and Mike spilt up to never talk to each other ever again. We kind of forgot him after that." She stroked Zack's hair with her hand. "I hope you boys never turn out like them."
"What was their fight about?"
"I don't know." Carey brushed away a tear to memories she'd rather forget and headed to the lounge to prepare her show. "And I don't want to know."