Watching You Sleep

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3Rain pounded on the van's windshield as the wipers struggled to keep up. Abby clutched the wheel and squinted into the rain. The headlights didn't help much at all. When she had pulled out of the store parking lot, she had seen Jasper up ahead, walking down the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets and his head down against the weather. But then he had passed out of the meager pool of light from the street light, and she had lost sight of him in the glare of oncoming traffic.

She leaned forward as far as she could and drove slowly down the road. No sign of him yet and she was beginning to feel crazy. The guy had fallen asleep in her store at closing. It was too late for him to catch the bus and he didn't have money to get a cab. Did she really want to get messed up with that? Except she wasn't getting involved with him. Okay, so he was good-looking, but that wasn't reason enough. She was just trying to do a good deed. Help the guy out so that he didn't have to walk home in this lousy weather. There wasn't much traffic at least. Not at this time of the year when all of the summer people fled the beach for better weather down South. Lots of beach homes stood empty this time of the year. She passed a group of them along a stretch of the cliff overlooking the beach. What if he had already crossed to one of those houses? He had said it wasn't far.

If that was the case, then she was wasting her time. Just then she saw a person ahead on the sidewalk, walking beneath the next streetlight. That was Jasper. She grinned. After putting her through all of this, she just might make him laugh again. She checked her mirrors. No one behind her. She signaled and pulled up alongside Jasper and tooted her horn.

Jasper collapsed as if she had cut his strings.

"s**t!"

Abby set the parking brake, shifted into neutral and got out of the van. Cold rain pelted her. It was raining harder than when she had left the store. The drops felt big and almost slushy. She ran around the front of the van to the sidewalk. Jasper lay on his side on the sidewalk. Abby got to him and crouched down. She slid her hands beneath his head and turned his face up.

His eyes locked on her. He grimaced, she saw his jaw muscles flex but his mouth didn't move.

"I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't think about the horn startling you. I'm really sorry."

His eyes narrowed like he doubted her sincerity.

"No, Jasper, really. I didn't mean for this to happen."

The rain felt like someone was pouring cold water down her back. Her clothes were rapidly getting soaked. Jasper was lying in a puddle on the sidewalk, and she could see that his clothes were already soaked through. Her legs started to ache. She couldn't crouch and hold his head like this for long.

"How are you doing? Getting any movement yet? We need to get out of this rain."

His jaw moved, muscles twitching. "Nope."

"Hey, I really am sorry."

"Sure. That's what they all say." His eyes went to the van. "Flower power?"

"Hey, don't knock a classic."

"Classic?"

Abby swallowed her laughter. "Hey, none of that. We need to get you up."

His hand twitched. "Nope. Not yet."

"I can't believe that you were walking in this."

"It wasn't this bad when I left." His arm moved. Jasper pushed himself up. He turned and looked at Abby. "You didn't have to come after me."

Abby stood up. "I couldn't just let you walk in this weather. Legs?"

Jasper looked down at his legs. His foot rocked from side-to-side. He shook his leg and then turned over onto his hands and knees. Slowly he stood up. He stomped his feet.

"Okay?"

Jasper nodded.

"Great. Get in." Abby hurried back around the front of the van. She got to her side and climbed in quickly. She immediately turned the heater up as Jasper got in the other side.

Jasper fastened his seat belt and sat back. Abby looked at him. After a second he turned his head and looked at her. "Thanks."

"Sure." Abby signaled and pulled out.

For the first minute she drove, and neither of them said anything. Abby drummed her fingers on the wheel and watched the road ahead. Another couple minutes passed, and Jasper still hadn't said anything. She glanced over at him and saw that his eyes were closed.

"Shit." She reached over and shook him. His head rocked, but his eyes didn't open. Abby gripped the steering wheel as if she could throttle it. "How do I get myself into these things?"

She glanced at Jasper. Nothing.

"Fine. Go to sleep. You do realize that I don't know where you live?"

Nothing. Up ahead Abby saw the bright lights of a Chevron station. She signaled and turned into the parking lot. She pulled over into one of the parking slots past the pumps and parked the van. She left the engine running. She twisted in her seat and reached over to shake Jasper. He didn't wake up. How could he fall asleep like that? They were both freezing wet.

She shook him harder. "Jasper? You've got to wake up. I don't know where to go."

Jasper stirred a bit, moaning in his sleep but he didn't wake. Abby bit her lip. What was she going to do with him now? Take him back home? She didn't like that idea. Nothing against Jasper, but she had to work tomorrow. She wanted to drop him off and be done with her good deed.

Abby dug in her purse and pulled out her cell. She searched the white pages for his address. No results. There were seven J. Lee addresses, but no telling which might be his address, if any. He said that he was a writer, could be that he kept his address private. She shoved the phone back into her purse. She looked over at Jasper. Fine, if she couldn't look up his address, then she was going to have to do something she didn't want to do. She gave him another shake.

"Jasper. Wake up!"

He turned his head away from her but didn't wake up.

"Fine. Great." Abby shoved on his shoulder and then, still holding him away from the seat, reached with her other hand down the back of his pants. She tried not to think of it like fondling his ass as she wiggled her hand down into his back pocket. He did have a wallet. She pulled it out and let him fall back against the seat.

"Okay," she said with satisfaction. "Let's see where you live."

The wallet was worn black leather. Jasper didn't have it packed full like some guys. No duct tape. She flipped it open. A few cards in one of the side pouches. No pictures. She looked in the bill compartment, nothing there. In the middle pouch was one card. She pulled it partway out. An annual bus pass. She slid it back into place and turned her attention to the other cards. One was a debit card, a medical card, dental and a library card from the local library. She was beginning to think that he didn't have any identification on him but the last card was a state ID card, not a driver's license. That made sense, he didn't drive, and it didn't make any difference. The ID card had his address on it. On Devil's Lane? That was way up at the other end of town. It had to be at least five miles or more from the store. Abby shoved the other cards back in the wallet and tossed it into Jasper's lap. She kept his ID card.

"Not far, huh?" Abby shifted into reverse and started backing the van out of the parking space. "Right. What were you thinking?"

Jasper kept sleeping.

Abby pulled out of the Chevron station and drove on through town. She wasn't as familiar with that end of the city, so she kept an eye out for the road, but she had a vague idea of where Devil's Lane was located. The rain was coming down harder than ever which made it hard to see. She let her speed drop until she was going ten miles per hour under the speed limit. Nobody cared, she had the road mostly to herself. Now and then cars passed her going the other way but the only car going North was far behind her.

Even driving slowly she almost missed the sign because the street light was out and with the rain she couldn't hardly see it at all. But she knew she had to be close, so she slowed way down and half turned onto the street so that her headlights hit the sign. Devil's lane, this was it. Abby glanced at the license for his house number.

"At least it's not 666." She tossed the license over onto his wallet in his lap.

Abby turned right and drove away from the ocean, heading inland up a hill. The road curved around the hill and dropped down the other side before climbing again around the next hill. After the thin strip of businesses and old houses close to the highway, the houses spread out. Trees closed in on the road making conditions even darker. The rain pounded down, and her headlights hardly illuminated the road ahead. She switched to her brights, but that didn't help much. Most of the houses weren't visible from the road, so she watched the mailboxes for the numbers. She passed a new development that was nothing but an empty field with a fancy sign out front.

High Meadows, a luxury experience! From the weeds growing around the sign, it looked like the only residents of High Meadows were going to be deer grazing on the new plants coming up in the clear-cut development.

Another half mile past the High Meadows development she saw a mailbox that matched the house number on Jasper's license. She turned into the driveway and stopped when she saw the gate.

She reached over and shook Jasper again. "Hey, wake up."

This time Jasper actually stirred. He yawned and stretched out his arms. He blinked rapidly and looked out the window and then over at her.

"How we get here?"

Abby gestured to the wallet and license on his lap. "Sorry, you wouldn't wake up, and I didn't know where you lived. Is this it?"

Jasper looked out the window and back at her. He grinned and shook his head. "I don't live here."

"You're kidding me."

"Nope." He held up his hands. "Sorry, I don't. My ex-wife lives here. I've got a place down on the beach. I reported the address change to the DMV, but I didn't bother getting a new card."

Abby looked out at the pounding rain and groaned.