algernon looked out the window of the hotel.
the desert stretched away for miles.
the hotel rose thousands of feet into the air.
and algernon could not wait to go downstairs to explore the thousands of shops and restaurants on its lower floors and in the city surrounding the hotel.
albert einstein stood im one of the doorways of the suite and looked pityingly at algernon.
beware, my boy, he intoned. you may well lose your way if you go downstairs, and not be back in time for the conference.
nonsense, algernon responded merrily. i have a perfectly good tracking device attached to my person. no harm can befall me.
professor einstein sighed. very well, but do not say i did not warn you.
algernon got on the elevator and waved goodbye to the sage.
he was the only person on the elevator and it quickly deposited him in the ground floor.
he was surprised at how empty the lobby was.
there were only a few chairs and sofas and no one sitting on any of them.
he saw a desk in the distance and a man with a pencil mustache and sporting a purple bow tie with white polka dots on it standing behind it and staring, with what algernon perceived to be a glum countenance, into space.
algernon turned toward the revolving door out to the street but as he did so he noticed a sign over a door to his left saying - shops.
that is just what i iwant, algernon thought, i can have jolly fun gazing at the merchandise and not worry about getting lost, because i can always ask the people in the stores how to hget back to the lobby here.
and so he walked through the door marked “shops”.
he found himself in a short corridor with a floor sloping upward away from the street where he could see a few well dressed people strolling casually along.
the corridor turned sharply to the left.
to another, shorter corridor, with a staircase at the end of it.
the staircase was unmarked, and only went down, not up.
algernon went down it.
and found himself on another, very different looking street, with crowds of people, many of them not at well well dressed, thronging it.
and across the street was what looked like a movie theater, with an old-fashioned marquee reading simply-
how curious, algernon thought.
he was tempted to turn back into the hotel.
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