I heard faint tapping noises, which I presumed to be rainfall at first. But the sound reverberated from within the room, not on the other side of a glass panel.
For a millisecond, I contemplated the possibility of it being the tapping of laptop keys. But no one else was awake.
Pitter patter. It was unmistakably water droplets.
And it sounded as if it was taking place in the general area of my most valued possessions.
Lo and behold, the sight was jarring: the lightweight, yet heavy duty camera bag I had researched so extensively was soaked to the core, dampened by what I can only presume to be nasty, used bathwater (and whatever foreign material utilized in ceiling tiles).
Desperate attempts were made to remediate the inflicted damage. However, the irritable musty smell persisted.
My first concern was the potential asbestos content of the tile; it is not uncommon for old materials to rely heavily on the cancerous substance, and once made friable, residents of the room would have been directly exposed to its hazards. Had the piece not given way due to dampening, the compact quadrants would be immediately become a zone of invisible danger.
More alarming was the very fact that these droplets could have easily saturated an area with a live current, and consequently resulted in an explosion with energy contributed from neighbouring electronics.
"Built in 1984 as a demonstration plant, the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station is the only tidal generating station in North America and remains one of the few in the world."
This line was quite misleading, for it wasn't discovered until later that the plant had already been decommissioned due to inadequate energy production, lack of funding, and other environmental side effects.
Minimal time was needed to narrow down our choices - we had traversed the stretch with a penchant for scallops after all. The waitress was of little to no help, and almost nowhere to be seen except meal delivery time. This hadn't mattered greatly though, since each item's description was fairly concise.