Claire was gone when I woke up. That was expected, I had told her I need to go get my car anyway, and she had to work. The soft white light of a typical Pacific Northwest, rainy day, lazily filtered though her blinds. I got out of bed, enjoying the feeling of the hard wood floor on my bare feet, and went to take a peek out of the window. It wasn't raining too bad, just a steady, but sparse, downpour of giant water droplets
I walked away from the window, because I needed to pee. Her house was freezing cold, I swear I almost saw my breath. I guess some houses don't include heaters. The bathroom was almost entirely vintage 1920's plumbing and fixtures. The entire room was done in a gaudy mix of cream, off-white, and gold flake. The old style and the freezing temperature was actually quite unsettling.
I turned on the water, and there was a pause, and then the water gutted out of the faucet, brown water. The kind of water that has been sitting in old pipes for weeks. I pulled my hand back and watched as the disgusting fluid slowly changed from brown to clear, and then I washed my face. I had left a small bag with a toothbrush and travel size burberry spray in my fantastic car that just so happened to be over a mile away. I sent Claire a text, and it marked as "read" but I didn't get a response, she must have been in a meeting or doing something crazy at work.
I usually don't eat breakfast but this morning I was starving, I felt like I hadn't eaten in weeks. I walked though her house, all the lights were off, and the white, sleepy light from outside the big skylight illuminated my path to the kitchen as I descended the stairs...I hadn't noticed that skylight, but it was nightime. The hard wood floor creaked like it was older than a viking ship. The kitchen was even colder due to the vintage tile floor. I flicked on the light, and nothing happened, I flipped the switch up and down a few times, I guess I thought that might get the light to turn on. I dismissed the switch and went to the refrigerator, I opened it and watched as a wedge of yellow light from inside spilled out onto the floor and counter...there was next to nothing inside. A Styrofoam box of take-out leftovers, they were incredibly moldy; how long had they been sitting here? Aside from that there was a half empty bottle of vodka in the freezer, encrusted with freezer burn; vodka doesn't make a very good breakfast when you're hungry. I found this weird, because we ate like a king and queen last night. She must be the type of person that never buys food that isn't from a restaurant unless they are specifically cooking. She wouldn't be the first person I'd met that does that, but I still found it strange that the cupboards were bare aside from a few nice dishes, and the pantry was full of those green propane cans and water...
Due to her house being rather boring when you want to sit on the internet and drink coffee with no pants, I decided to head out and figure out whatever the hell was wrong with my car. I grabbed my jacket, scarf, hat, and the key she left me on the nightstand and went out the front door. It's important to mention at this point that I had not really remembered anything about last night other than Claire's eyes, the food, wine, and sex at this point in the day. Her oldish grey Mercedes C320 was of course gone, it was cold enough that the tracks in the mud from her leaving had already begun to get crunchy with ice.
The walk back to my car was at least 75% less scary than the walk to her house last night in the cold dark...There was a very thick fog rolling in, and it made the entire surroundings very oppresive. I smiled when I saw my car, waiting patiently like a kind old dog. I got in and had to grit my teeth against the freezing leather, even through my jeans. On a whim I started it up like usual, and like a slap in the face, it turned over immediately. Volvo 240s do this like it's their hobby...
I drove back towards my place which was right near Water Street. The fog was everywhere, even coming back over the hill, but it made me feel better when I saw the goats that a small microfarm near the top cared for. My heater takes about 20 minutes to heat up, so I had my front windows cracked. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and even though I shouldn't, I check it at a stop sign. There was nothing, no new alerts, I wrote it off to being "phantom vibrate", I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
I started to drive without looking up, as most people do here, there is very little traffic on top of the hill. I slammed on my brakes...
There was a man crossing the street almost touching my car. He stopped and was just standing there, looking towards me but not at me, he was smiling...he stood there uncomfortably as I sat, finally he just turned and walked off to the right...I can't remember what he looked like. Maybe he was hearing a hat and sunglasses? It was just like 14 hours ago...
I continued down the hill towards Water Street. Passing the bustop. I swear I saw the same guy standing and waiting on the curb. I was driving faster than the 25MPH speed limit and I was hungry, so I could have been imagining it. I still at this point had not remembered last night.
After what felt like more than a few hours (it had been about 25 minutes since I had left Claire's) I got to the store. I could taste my coffee already. It was still raining. When I got out of my car I noticed the Courtesy Clerk, you know, the guy who bags groceries and gets carts from the parking lot? Yeah, he was standing in the rain, his hood was up, and he had one of those reflective orange vests on...but he was just standing there! In the rain! He wasn't moving. I said hello to him and got no response, except for the sound of the rain, it made a plot plot sound as it hit his orange vest...I shrugged this off as well, this day was already weird enough...the thought passed through my head that I may be still asleep...I pinched myself...and it hurt....nope...I was awake.
I walked towards the store, and had the sudden urge for a cigarette, luckily, there was half a pack of Marlboro Menthol Lights in my jacket pocket. I took the matches out of my jeans pocket as well. I lit my cig, smoking it as I looked up at the store's sign, SavMor; what a stupid name. There is a fantastic hole in the wall coffee shop attached to it. I finished and walked inside, ordered my quad espresso with creme, and went back to my car. The courtesy clerk was gone, but the carts were still in the corral. My phone vibrated again. Another phantom text. There was a woman walking through the parking lot with a stroller. She had blonde hair and a really nice raincoat on. I usually don't notice, but you could tell it was expensive, for some reason it stood out. She had those huge sunglasses on, which I guess is understandable, when it rains out here, sometimes it's so white it's almost as bad as snow reflections. The stroller was either expensive or vintage. She was approaching to my right, and my car was on my left, right as I turned towards it, I head her say "Have you seen my baby's face today?". I immediately stopped and turned, and she was almost uncomfortably close to me. Maybe half an arms length. I don't know how she closed the distance that fast, but I do wake and bake, and I generally think everybody is weird so I just said "no" in a nice way and leaned in to look at the child. He or she was maybe 1.2 years, and asleep. The mother just grinned and I smiled and said that she looks like she is having a nap. The mother's smile dropped and she glared at me. Then walked away in a huff, I don't get some people.
I decided I didn't want to wait for food and I went into the stupid store. Went for the bakery because cinnamon rolls. I noticed that the mom and her baby were in the store. I grabbed my cinnamon rolls and went back around the busy aisles towards the front. She was in front of the dairy case, the mom... I only noticed this time because she and her stroller were were standing in a huge gallon puddle of milk from a spilled container. She turned towards me, sunglasses still on. "She's awake". "I said that's good, and my phone vibrated. I hesitantly checked it, and there was a notification from Claire. "Going to be working late, I can order food for you if you want to come back over and warm the house up for me later. I'll call on my lunch break". That made me smile. I completely forgot about the milk...but I began to remember waking up all sweaty last night. I bought my carbs and left.
I was straining to remember as I drove home. I didn't see anything else weird. I parked, and immediately went inside to take a shower. It wasn't until I was under the hot water that I noticed how stiff my neck and shoulders were. New Bed, long sex, weird morning, these things happen.
I spent the next few hours reading and trying to pretend to play the piano. Claire never called, but that wasn't strange. She is a project supervisor at a small creative studio so she's stretched thin most of the time, but she always makes time for me, which I have to respect.
Around 6pm I got 2 text notifications, one was for an odd number that looked telemarketer-y, and had no content, just the number, and then blank. Thank you for that. Claire's message said she ordered Chinese to be delivered at 7, even though I had never said I was going over, but I'm not one to argue with women that feed me graciously. I got back in my car and left towards her house, as I was driving I had the thought "I hope I don't break down again" and then the whole night came flooding in.
I remembered the bad dream, thought about how similar the man at the cross-walk looked, and still just wrote it all off to the massive array of different kinds of input I've had since last night. My car did not break down in the forest, and I have to say I was happy about that, as the fog was still around in full force.
As I pulled into her driveway, the Volvo died, I spoke too soon. And it wasn't just the engine, the electrical, everything. I sat stone faced and glided it down to the bottom of the hill through the gravel, the crunching, rolling sound of the tires in the rocks was exponential in the quiet clearing.
I got out, unlocked the door and went inside.
The food came about 4 hours and 40 minutes ago...I got a final text from Claire saying she'll be here in about 40 minutes. I had eaten because Chinese food has a halflife of about 2 hours.
I've been watching The Office on my phone to avoid thinking about the creepy memories of last night. I just went to the bathroom and I will try to update sometime this evening or in the morning.
*I have more to add and it will be here until I can post again in 24 hours.
Submitted November 27, 2014 at 02:22AM by hellometeor http://ift.tt/1yYSZzx nosleep
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