The next
morning Josh woke up to find himself laying on the couch. Sometime during the
night he had pulled a blanket over himself and placed a pillow under his head.
Although he doesn't remember doing that. He shook his head as he threw the
blanket back sitting up. The television set was still on so he reached to the
floor for the remote and turned it off. He stretched his back before standing
up. He had finally gotten some needed rest. He glanced up at the clock and
noticed it was already almost eleven. Luckily it was a Saturday and he didn't
need to be to the shelter early.
After
taking a shower, he sat at the kitchen counter drinking a cup of coffee as he
read the newspaper. Just past noon, he rinsed his cup and grabbed his keys.
Walking through the living room, he stopped as he felt a shiver go through him.
He turned around, but saw nothing. Sighing, he left the house, and drive away.
***************************************
Lance
moved to follow Josh out of the house. He had told himself not to come during
the day. Stay away from Josh. You are playing with fire, and for one of his
kind that was a bad thing. Yet, here he was.
"Lance,
what are you doing?"
Lance
sighed as he turned towards the sound of the voice. "Justin, don't start.
I'm just visiting him."
"You
just visit him a lot, Lance. They are starting to notice, you know."
Lance
ignored his friend, and left the house reaching Josh and the jeep just before
they pulled away. In the driveway, he watched as JC stopped the car. "You
followed me, didn't you? God, I must be losing it. Talking to thin air cause I
think something is there."
Lance sat
still. Watching as the man drove. Wondering how this person could feel his
presence when others could not. When the car stopped, he watched Josh until he
was out of sight, before leaving again. He would be back.
********************************
Josh
walked through the first floor of the shelter he worked in. He looked into each
of the rooms as he walked by. Checking to see what his kids were up to. He walked
into the office where he caught his friend and co-worker Chris with his head on
the desk sound asleep. He walked over to the sleeping man, and slapped him on
the back of the head. "Asleep on the job, Kirkpatrick?"
Chris sat
up in his chair startled. "Well, you do it too, Chasez, so don't say a
word."
Josh sat
at his own desk looking at the files piled up on one corner. "Busy night,
Chris?"
Chris
stood up yawning. "Yeah, the kids were a handful last night. Had to put
one of the girls in solitary."
Josh
froze for a second before reaching for the file on top of the pile. "Okay.
I'll check on her later."
Chris
walked over to the door shrugging on his jacket. "Don't worry about it,
man. We checked her out before locking her in."
Josh
shook his head waving his hand. "Yeah, okay. Who's on tonight?"
"Joey,
man. I'm outta here." Chris left the office closing the door behind him.
Josh let
out a shaky sigh. He remembered the last time he had to put someone in
solitary. He had thought it would be fine. Let her calm down. He hadn't known
what she had hidden in her clothes. He hadn't known when he went to let her out
that he would find her dead. He hadn't known that it would be his fault that he
let one of his kids die.
Josh sat up slamming the file back on his desk. He walked over and poured himself a glass of water. As he brought the glass to his lips, he looked into its contents. For a second, he saw something reflected in the water. He turned his head but nothing was behind him. He looked again into his water, and nothing was there.