Ask The Dust

Arturo thinks back to the day when he first arrived at the Alta Loma Hotel. When the landlady, Mrs. Hargraves asked him if he had a job, he told her that he was a writer and showed her the magazine with “The Little Dog Laughed.”After he gave her an inscribed copy of the magazine, she asked if he was a Mexican and told him that they do not allow Mexicans or Jews in the hotel. He declared that he was an American. When he signed the registry as Arturo Bandini from Boulder, Colorado, Mrs. Hargraves insisted that Boulder was in Nebraska and refused to let him have a room until he changed it in the registry.

Arturo goes onto describe the various people living in the hotel and explains how he tried to get them all to read “The Little Dog Laughed.” He left copies of the magazine conspicuously all over the hotel, but the only person to read and admire it was a fourteen-year-old girl named Judy Palmer. One day, she knocked on his door and asked him if he was the author of “The Little Dog Laughed.” Arturo was so flattered by her admiration that he invited her into his room and gave her an autographed copy of the story.