Home away from home

"Hello! Good afternooon!"
"Hello!"
"Did you miss me much?", I asked jokingly.
"But of course, we did!", she replied with a broad smile.
"Liar! How's business?"
"Good, good. We are having a couple of good months. May almost full, June all booked. How was your trip?"
"Tiresome actually, I have a bit of a headache..."
"Don't you worry about a thing! Your room is ready, here's your key. You can go upstairs straight away and rest !"
"Aaah! Thanks a million. On which side is the room?"
"On the left, overlooking the stream, of course", her smiled melted away, a bit disappointed at me.
"Of course, as usual".

I thanked once more, bidded farewell and left to my room. It was only 30 minutes later, when I finally laid down, that I realized that, for the first time in my life, I didn't have to say my name, show some ID or the hotel reservation to make the check-in. Actually I had arrived two hours before check-in time.

I smiled to myself, "so this is what it means to be a regular, feeling at home, away from home".

Namaste!