Ice machine, building C

The ice machine in building C made a noise like a bowling ball being considered but not dropped. Every forty-five seconds, it reconsidered.

I had brought the plastic bucket from room 118. It was the color of weak coffee and had a crack beginning near the handle, though not yet a crack that affected its duties. The room card said ICE in capital letters with an arrow pointing toward building C. Directions printed on a room card have a confidence that the property itself may no longer possess.

A handwritten notice on the lid said PLEASE BE PATIENT — ICE IS MAKING. The tape had been replaced more recently than the notice.

I waited through four reconsiderations. A man in sandals came out of room 121 carrying a soft-sided cooler. He lifted the lid, looked inside, and pressed the same button I had pressed. This is how we assist one another with machines.

“Front desk knows,” he said.

The front desk did know. At breakfast the next morning, the clerk asked how my stay was going. I told her the room was clean and the ice machine was making a substantial effort. She apologized as though she had designed it.

Her name was Marisol. A silver badge beneath her name said I CAN HELP. Behind her, a framed certificate said the Desert Vista Motor Lodge had completed its annual guest-experience standards review. The certificate was signed by a regional vice president in Dallas.

Marisol offered to bring me ice from the kitchen. She was the only person at the desk. There were two guests waiting to check out and a telephone beginning its third ring.

I said it was not necessary. She thanked me for understanding, which meant the matter could now be marked resolved without ice.

Later that afternoon I saw a repair van beside building C. The technician opened the machine and placed two parts on the pavement. He explained that the motor was fine but a sensor no longer knew when the bin was full. The machine had been protecting us from ice it had not made.

He replaced the sensor. A load fell into the bin with the bowling-ball sound, this time followed by evidence. Marisol came outside to test it herself. She filled my bucket, though I had not asked, and carried it back to the office with both hands so she could put it in the staff freezer until I returned.

The motel added no charge for the ice. There was a twenty-dollar incidental hold in case I damaged the bucket.

Norbert