The next morning, Fred and Shaggy met the girls down in the lobby. The roads were closed, and they had no other choice except for the hotel, but it was better than nothing.
"Fred, aren't you going to call your friend?" Daphne asked as they finished grabbing their breakfast and sat down.
"I will, but today we can't go anywhere with all the snow," Fred answered.
Once again, Fred stood up and then went to find a copy of that day's newspaper. At least they were able to read the newspaper. Fred read the article to them about the weather that was happening.
"Listen to this, gang. Here's the headline:
ROADS CLOSED DUE TO STORM
In the last couple of days, we've had a horrible snowstorm. Roads are closed because of the storm and nobody is able to get out of town to do any skiing, shopping, visits to the library, grocery shopping, etc. Everyone will be stuck no matter where we are and there is not much of a choice on what we want to do during this snowstorm."
Fred continued to read the rest of the article to his friends. He didn't see anything in that paper's article that the telephones were still working or not, but it was worth a shot, but Fred's friend understood about this entire storm. Fred then put the paper back where he found it in case somebody else would be interested in reading about this storm.
Once finished eating, Fred got up to throw the plate and bowl in the garbage. He had Special K along with scrambled eggs and toast, and also a blueberry muffin. His friends had the same thing, but Shaggy was the only one who had everything that was there. Fred entered to the counter where there were a few clerks checking people in.
"Excuse me," Fred spoke up.
A young woman in her early twenties, wore glasses, the work uniform and had light blue eyes and light black hair.
"Yes, sir?"
Her name was Kelsey.
"Kelsey, are the telephones working due to this storm?"
"No."
Fred was disappointed to hear that.
"Would cell phones work?"
"I'm not sure, but I would like to think so. You're Fred Jones, right?"
"I am."
"It's nice meeting you."
"Same with you, Kelsey. Do you have any ideas when this storm would end? I'm supposed to visit a friend here, and now we have this storm. I'm sure he understands that we can't get out of the snowstorm to drive the van to his place."
"I'm sorry your visit here is ruined, Fred. I really can't guess myself when this storm would end, but let the snow tell us. How long are you and your friend staying here?"
"For a while."
"And the TV sets aren't working, so there will be no way for us to get updates on the news."
"Thanks for telling us, Kelsey. It was nice talking to you. I'll let you get back to work."
Then he rejoined his friends.
"Well, what did the clerk tell you, Freddy?" Daphne asked.
"That we're stuck here and the telephones aren't working, but she isn't sure if cell phones would be in service or not, but we'll give it a shot," Fred answered.
"Stuck here at the hotel with hardly any food to shop for. Just what we need is being stuck in a hotel," Shaggy complained.
"Don't complain, Shaggy. There is nothing we can do except to pray," Velma told him.
None of them ever used the words 'prayer' and 'religion,' but they didn't have much of a choice on this trip. The only thing to read in this hotel was the newspaper besides the Bible, but Velma came prepared as usual by bring a stack full of books, paperback, hardcover, used or new. She was welcome to share them with her friends. Shaggy never reads much, but he has no choice during this storm.
"Did you come prepared with something to read, Velma?" Daphne asked.
"You bet I did. I packed an entire bag of books in case something like this happened."
"Tell us the choices if we need something," Fred told her.
"I will when we get back to the rooms."
Velma was a big fan of books, so she would read almost everything that was published. She mostly read books than the newspaper, to tell the truth. Fred led the way back to their rooms when Velma got up from the table. If the elevator wasn't working, the gang thought it made sense to take the stairs in case, just to play safe.
None of them said a word when they reached their rooms. Fred was in charge of his key and Velma was with hers. Daphne was not trustworthy with keys since she can lose things sometimes, but mostly winds up in danger, so that's why she never held on to a key.
"Let me get a couple of things done, and I'll be ready," Fred said, thinking of brushing his teeth and taking some medication.
Fred was on medication for a couple of years now, since he had a couple of minor health issues, and thyroid was one of them. The rest of the time he is healthy, and has been responsible for keeping up with the sorting of medications every day. Since Shaggy has always been skinny, he is normal weight, from what Fred and the girls were told, so that was good news.
Fred also decided to take a shower. At least that would make him feel better and fresh.
"You can go with the girls if you want, Shaggy. You don't need to stay in our room and wait for me."
"Okay. I wasn't planning on coming back to our room."
After that, Fred was already gone. Shaggy let Daphne and Velma in their room. When he opened the door, they both thanked him, and then he slammed the door.
"I hate storms. I wish Scooby was here with us right now instead of being sick. I miss having him to warm me up."
When Shaggy said that, he felt shivers starting to appear.
"You do look cold, Shaggy. Want me to turn the heater on and see if that works?"
"It's worth a shot, but if it doesn't work, then we have no other choice. Why did we come to this town that has a severe snowstorm and nothing to do?"
Velma didn't know how to answer his question, so all she did was turn the heater up. Pretty soon the maid would be here to clean their rooms up to make them neater.
Several minutes later, a maid came close to their rooms, but she ended up going to Velma and Daphne's room first. Fred was already out of the shower, and now was drying himself off before blow – drying his hair and combing his hair a second time. It did give him a few more minutes to get dressed again and then the maid would be ready. He wasn't so sure if the maid was with Shaggy and the girls or not, but he was pretty sure she was. He thought that Kelsey at the front desk sounded friendly when he asked about service. At least she sounded honest about it, and that was a good thing. He somehow thought to himself that there was no way of knowing how much longer this storm would last, but like Velma said earlier, all they could do was pray. At least she was right about something.
He slammed his door when he saw his friends standing outside. He joined them.
"I had that feeling the maid would be here. I hope I got here on time," Fred said.
"You did. You look nice," Velma told him.
"Thank you, Velma. We'll go through your bag of books when the maid leaves our rooms," Fred replied.
Even Daphne and Shaggy seemed to agree, but none of them said a word, so all they did was nod in agreement. It took the maid several minutes to work on Fred and Shaggy's room, but they were in no hurry to go back. No telling how much time they would be with Velma and Daphne in their room, but it looks to be for several hours to all day and night.
"So you don't want to try using the cell phone and see if your friend will know we're here safe and sound?" Velma asked.
"I've thought of that myself, but I don't want to risk the chance if the cell phones are out of service."
"Good thinking, Fred."
At least Shaggy was there who agreed with him.
And now nobody said anything for a while, but all they did was wait while Velma found her bag of books. It would take forever to go through all of the titles, but she could read all of them if she wanted to, Fred told himself.
They listened to the vacuum in their room next door, so it was hard to hear Velma while she read the titles. It took Velma a long time to go through the titles, but not one of them sounded interesting enough to the gang at the moment, but oh well. At least it would be entertainment in most of those books when there's nothing else to do, Fred told himself.