Behind the Red Door
The Motel. Gorgeous red doors leading to rooms of quick hook ups and exiting with sweat and regret. Behind each door is a story that is repeated on end, an endless loop of furtive whispers and sharp recriminations.
Each room has a story, broken up into chapters, bookmarked by the stroke of Noon. A motel room is a place of respite from the outside, a place to rest between stops, a place to hide, a place to play a character in a two person play with no arc.
"If you are looking for a comfortable stay which isn't hard on your wallet..." -
As I recall the smell of motel rooms from my childhood when our family went on road trips, I remember the scent of Lysol and often washed coverlets. I would lay on the bed and look up at the ceilings and imagine who was there before me. The paper that covered the glasses crinkled as I made them into paper snowballs. I would thumb the Bible in the drawer and see that I was probably the first one to open it, I would slide it back into the drawer next to the local Yellow Pages. I never thought of the motel room more than a place to sleep until I got older and saw the possibilities and opportunities it offered to consenting adults.
"There are few amenities, but the rooms are clean and comfortable." - Motel 6
As the US built it's freeways and gas was cheap, motels came into being to serve those who traveled by car. It was a place to sleep before moving on. A search on Yahoo brought up over 400 motels in Los Angeles, there are more not listed, wavering in the space between a hide out to a series of rooms strung together like a cheap necklace. Other than tourists on a budget, the Los Angeles motel is a place from the one night stand to the short term solution for those in between.
Vacancy.
Those moments shared in a motel room between consenting adults are brief and filled with easy access to an escape to the nearest freeway. The heart is filled until check out and becomes vacant once the key is turned in.
"The room smelled very nice, but not overly fragranced." - Yelp review of the Royal Pagoda Motel
We are all migrants in the physical and emotional sense, and the Motel as a symbol is the vestibule for our personal travels - and from that you could say that Los Angeles is just one big motel.
Image: Ophelia Chong / The View Motel on Fremont Blvd.
