Almost immediately after I got in the room, Mike called me for our evening chat. As the garage kittens have just been rehomed and Mommacat ear tagged under a TNR program, we had more than our usual conversation's worth of topics¹ and were on the phone substantially longer than the usual hour.

This meant that Nice Guy's repeated attempts to get through to me by voice call consistently failed.

With all the information I've got coming to me filtered through him, it's a bit difficult to put the pieces together regarding what actually happened but, best I can tell, since his name and number were down in the Covid logbook, someone from the local CDC called him to ask him his recent travel history and he said:

"I haven't been traveling, I just registered a room in my name for a foreigner who didn't have a valid NAT."

Everything else he said (such as who was trying to kick me out of the hotel, if he actually got put into Quarantine because he rode unmasked in a car with me, and if anyone had actually told him that as a potentially Contaminated Person he was responsible for driving me to the nearest city even though my train doesn't leave from there and then coming back to serve Quarantine) is suspect.

I never saw nor spoke to any police or CDC officials, and, like I said before, something wasn't quite right about this dude².

At one point, he came back to the hotel to pick me up and take me somewhere. He told me he was coming and that I needed to pack my things and get ready. I responded that I'd just done my laundry and there weren't enough hangers in the room. You don't understand, you need to leave. Actually, you don't understand, I'm not leaving.

Then, he told me he was downstairs and where was I, had I packed all my stuff.
"Of course not. I'm spending the night here."
“Don't worry, something will be arranged for your lodging.”
“Nothing needs to be arranged, I already have a hotel room.”
“You can't stay here.”
“I am.”
“I'm coming upstairs to help you pack.”
“Would you ask the front desk to get me some hangers and bring them with you? My clothing won't dry so well hung up over the chair.”
“I'm outside your door, would you let me in?"
"Did you bring my hangers?"
"No. You're leaving. I'm here to take you somewhere else."
"I'm not leaving. Now go back downstairs and get my hangers."

I was a kindergarten teacher once upon a time. You cannot out stubborn me.

¹ Going from twice weekly to daily calls, we more or less ran out of things to talk about during my quarantine in March 2020. But he called on the regular and kept me sane and I rather do love him so we have continued the practice.

² Some of the next morning's messages, as I'm still trying to get the names or job positions of the people who he says told him he must be quarantined, included him telling me that his wife was filing for divorce because of this.