Little Misunderstanding - Part I

“There appears to be a bit of a misunderstanding here...” said the hotel clerk. Surveying the chaos in the hotel lobby right then, I would have thought this a bit of an understated acknowledgement of the obvious.

The once opulent décor that consisted of plush couches and chairs sitting atop fine Indian rugs looked more like a setting up of the MIT Flea Market. There was electronic gear, some in hard shell cases, some laying atop hastily thrown tarpaulins. There were two dozen crew members that were continuing to add to the pile of gear in the center of the room and cameras already situated on tri pods that were already filming activities. This melee was added to by the growing number of onlookers and passersby that were growing on the fringe of the lobby and staring into the hotel from the street outside.

“So where were we?” he continues…. My, this guy is just chuck full of insightful questioning.

I said “We’re here with our crew to interview Senator McGhee. We understand that he’s preparing to make a statement regarding the findings of the Commission looking into his financial involvement with the war in the Middle East…”

“The Senator is not registered in this hotel. You have the wrong location.”

“I don’t think so… We filmed him scooting in here after the Commission went live with their report twenty-five minutes ago.”

“I’m afraid you must be mistaken.”

“Would you like me to show you the footage…?”

“All I can say is that you are disrupting our business and you’ll have to leave. If you aren’t packing up in five minutes, I’ll have to call the police.”

“Getting the authorities in here will only add to your headaches.” I was going to have to call his bluff. I was scooped by Channel 4 last week with the Anderson trial; I wasn’t going to lose the initiative today.

I was spared prolonging this stand off by the appearance of the Senator at the top of the stairs. He made his way down to the lobby level very slowly. Almost like a cowboy walking into the town square for the shoot out at high noon. I almost heard his spurs jingling as he took each lower step.

“Senator, would you care to comment on the commission’s report? We’re told that a subpoena is imminent. Have you anything to say to the voting public?”

The little hotel manager dude who was blocking our access quietly dissolved into the background once the Senator was spotted.

I checked quickly over my shoulder to see if the camera folks were in place and filming the encounter before proceeding… “Senator McGhee, the commission states that you received some pretty hefty kickback of tax dollars in the war effort. Were they mistaken in this assertion?”

The Senator smiled which I thought at least acknowledged the question.

As he approached the bottom of the stair case, some security folks converged on the area quickly clearing a small area around the foot of the stairs.

Our crew provided a microphone stand seemingly out of the air and passed it through the crowd to the senator then willingly approached the microphone stand and began to address the press and the crowd.