[ IP ] `` Dial 0 for crew , 911 emergency , 68 for bedtime stories . '' [ x /r/mildlyinteresting ]

`` This is Doubletree by Hilton's Bedtime Stories. How can I be of assistance?'' 
 
 `` Bedtime stories.'' 
 
 `` Yes, this is Bedtime Stories. How may I help you?'' 
 
 `` I want to hear a bedtime story.'' 
 
 `` Oh. Right. The first five minutes are free, courtesy of Doubletree, but it's five dollars a minute after that. Before we begin, I'll need some information. How old are you?'' 
 
 `` 48.'' 
 
 `` You're a little old to be calling the bedtime stories line. Is something troubling you?'' 
 
 `` Is that an official question?'' 
 
 `` It's relevant to one of the questions.'' 
 
 `` Well, yes, something is troubling me.'' 
 
 `` For this next piece of information we require, you do n't have to be too specific, but what is the nature of your trouble?'' 
 
 `` I miss someone.'' 
 
 `` Were you close? Is this a family member or some other relation?'' 
 
 `` We were n't close. But it was a family member.'' 
 
 `` I see. Where are you from?'' 
 
 `` Seattle.'' 
 
 `` Have you always lived there?'' 
 
 `` Yes... can you just tell me a bedtime story?'' 
 
 `` In a moment. One more question.'' 
 
 `` What?'' 
 
 `` Is it your mother?'' 
 
 ``... yes.'' 
 
 `` All right. That's about it for the information we need. A custom bedtime story has been tailored for you: 
 A long time ago, in a land of mountains and trees-trees as tall as giants, and mountains even taller-there was a great city. But the city was cold, and it cost a lot to live there. Many people suffered. One of the people suffering was a girl, just approaching her sixteenth birthday. She loved a man very much, and they had a child. 
 But raising a child was very hard for the girl, because she was so young. Many in the great city disapproved, and sought to remove them. And so, before her child reached five years of age, the people of the city took him away and placed him in a cottage with two lovely old hermits.'' 
 
 `` That's it?'' 
 
 `` The girl was heartbroken. She spent years looking for her child, trying to get him back. For more than forty years she searched, as her youth abandoned her. She was reduced to nothing. She had to work in a mill. A mill where people told bedtime stories to children on the phone. Perhaps she hoped that one day her child would call.'' 
 
 `` Please. Tell me this story has a happy ending.'' 
 
 `` That's up to you. The first five minutes come with the room, but beyond that is five dollars a minute. Do you accept the charge?''
