The 5am lobby dream

I keep dreaming I'm in the lobby at 5am, still and dark, and every guest who walks in asks me for something I have right there in my hand — a key, a number, a name — and I say no anyway. The refusal hangs in the air like dust in a sunbeam. I wake up wondering if the 5am stillness was ever real or if it's just the part of the shift where nothing can hurt anyone yet.