Chapter 15
Day of Rest
“That was the worst night of sleep ever.” Mike said as he gingerly sat down in his oversized recliner. “Thanks again for coming to get us Trace.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Yes thank you.” Jen plopped down on the couch and put her feet up. “They woke us up every two hours. It was brutal.”
“I could go for a nap.” He pulled the lever on the side of the chair popping out the leg rest.
“You could go for a shower.” Jen smiled at him. “So how about you go get a shower and I’ll get us some food.” She looked over at Tracy who was still standing by the door. “You hungry?”
“Oh… no, not really.”
“You taking off or you sticking around?”
“Well I was going to go back home. I have some studying to do and I have to run a couple errands too.”
“Ok well if you need a break from studying you can always come back over.”
“I might take you up on that.” Tracy opened the door, waved, and walked out closing it behind her.
Mike lowered his footrest. “Now that the kids are all gone what do you say you and I go…”
“Not a chance.” Jen waved him off before he could even finish his sentence. “You’re nasty. You need a shower and honestly not sure it would be good for you.”
“Well I think it would be ok.”
“The doctor said take it easy.” Jen stretched out on the couch. “Maybe in a couple weeks.”
“Couple weeks?" You aren’t serious are you?”
“I don’t know, maybe when the team’s doctor releases you.”
“Bullshit.”
“Even coach said to rest, relax, and take it easy when he stopped by this morning.” Jen rolled over, her back now to him.
“If I thought you were serious I’d hit ya.” Mike stood up “I’m going to go take a shower.”
“Try a cold one, might make you feel better.”
“Ha, Ha, Ha…” He began to make his way out of the room as she laid on the couch laughing. “It’s a good thing you think you’re funny.”
“Cause no one else does, I know.” She rolled on her back and looked up towards Mike. “Be careful and holler if you need something.”
“I will.” He gave her a smile and made his way to the bathroom.
He started the water letting it get warm. Maybe I should get a bath instead. He thought to himself. He glanced down at the tub and the thought only lasted a few seconds. We need a bigger tub. He knew that as good as the bath sounded he would never fit. He’s been too tall for a normal bathtub since he hit puberty. His shower was quick and to the point. He now wasn’t sure he could have handled sex if Jen had actually agreed, the shower alone seemed like it drained all of his energy. When he was all done, dried, and dressed he made his way back down stairs. Jen was asleep on the couch and he thought about taking a nap in the chair when he noticed the laptop and pile of books were back out on the coffee table. He hadn’t noticed them before and wondered when she had gotten them out. She must have got it out the minute I went upstairs. He thought to himself as he grabbed the laptop. The flash drive containing Wes’s journal was still hanging out the side of it. He sat it down in his lap and started the laptop up. The shower had woken him up some. Even though his body was drained he knew sleep wasn’t an option so he figured he’d look over the journal. He knew Jen and Tracy had some picked out for him to read but one was asleep and the other not around so he decided to go to the next entry after Halloween.
11/02/2007
It’s been two nights since the Halloween party and I still can’t stop thinking about her. I’ve decided that I am going to sneak out and go back to the house tonight. I’ve been debating about asking Mike to come with me but not sure he’d want to. He hasn’t said anything about what had happened and when I said something about it he acted like it didn’t even happen. I don’t know if it just scared him that much or if he actually thinks it was his imagination. I decided not to pester him about it though. I figure he’ll either come to terms with it or write it off. It’s his decision but that means tonight I am on my own.
I plan to do more research on communicating with spirits because I really don’t know anything solid about it. I’ve also decided to use the word spirit instead of ghost. Ghost almost seems derogative now, though I’m not sure why exactly but I’m going with spirit regardless.
I tried to get in some research but have had no time to do it. I’ve had two projects due for school and they were more time consuming than normal and I went to go see Mike play yesterday. He was amazing as always. It’s like watching a man play with children. I have to admit I am a bit jealous. He keeps telling me to try out for the team but I don’t think my mother would approve and the outcome doesn’t look very promising. I told him like I always do, he can stick to his muscles and I will stick to my brain.
I have gotten off track… Back to the topic…
What little research I managed to do, I didn’t get a lot of good information. What did seem good was argued against on a different site so it’s going to take some time to go through everything and come up with the best answers. It will be worth it in the end if I get to see her again though. Maybe even communicate with her, how amazing would that be.
It is 6:15pm right now and my parents go to sleep around 9:00pm maybe 10:00pm at the latest since it’s Saturday. I plan to sneak out about an hour and a half to two hours after they go to bed. That will give them plenty of time to get into the deep REM sleep and they will be less likely to wake. I’ll just tell them I don’t feel very good and I am going to bed early. Been playing that up since this morning. Mom was actually about to make a doctor appointment but I convinced her it was a tad premature. After a little talking we decided if I’m not feeling better tomorrow then she’d call first thing Monday morning.
I will make another entry after I return and hopefully I’ll have good things to write. We will just have to wait and see.
11/03/2007
Well the first part of my plan worked out well. I was able to sneak out of the house no problem. I got into the old house but had NO results. This is going to be as hard as I originally thought. I was just kind of hoping for a little luck tonight. I can’t complain too much since I wasn’t caught sneaking out though.
I plan on spending tomorrow night doing some research on communicating with spirits. I don’t want to sneak out two nights in a row. I need to take the least amount of chances now since my trips over there probably won’t produce a lot of results since I am just not all that knowledgeable about this. I’ll take more risks when my trips are beginning to produce results.
It’s funny… Mike tried getting me to sneak out a few times and I wouldn’t do it. He wouldn’t believe me now if I told him. I’m going to be keeping all this a secret for now anyways. Maybe I’ll tell him later but not sure he’d want to hear it anyway. I better get some sleep it’s already 4:00am and if I sleep too late mom will think I’m still sick and make a doctor’s appointment. Hope my next entry will be more informative.
“That sneaky son of a bitch…”
“What?” Jen asked as she rolled over to face Mike, eyes half open. “What’s wrong?”
“Sorry didn’t mean to wake you.” He sat the laptop back on the coffee table. “Try and go back to sleep babe.”
“Yeah I wi…” Is all she got out before her eyes were completely shut and she was back to sleep.
I tried to get him to sneak out to go to parties quite a few times. Becky Stanton’s party… He thought to himself as he began thinking about some of the good times Wes and him had. They complimented each other very well. What qualities one lacked the other seemed to have and they each tried very hard to help the other when they needed it, whether it was girls, sports, or class. After a while his thoughts were snapped back to the present when Jen woke again.
“You ok?” She said in a soft voice. “Your head?”
Mike, sl
ightly startled, turned to her. “No my head is fine babe… Just thinking about the past.” He smiled. Read a couple entries, stirs up memories.”
“I’m sure it does. I knew you two were close but after reading his journal, I see just how much you two meant to each other.” She reached out her hand and placed it on his leg. “You look tired sweetie. You should try and get some sleep.”
“I am.”
“Why don’t you come lay here with me?” She scooted out towards the edge of the couch making room for him behind her. “Plenty of room.” She gave him a smile then patted the couch behind her. “We can cuddle. It’ll make you feel better I promise.”
“Well I can’t pass that up.” He stood and crawled onto the couch settling in behind her. “This is nice.” He wrapped his top arm around her. “So, what is the plan for the week?”
“I don’t know. What do you think we should do?”
“Well coach wants me to take some time off. He said no workouts for a while and since we didn’t make the bowl game I won’t have practice either.” He squeezed his arm forcing Jen against his body. “Will you be able to get time off of class?”
“Should be able to. I can probably get my assignments emailed to me.”
“Well what do you want to do? We could go somewhere; hang out here, or whatever. What do you think?”
“Well you pick.” She paused. “You won’t like my idea.”
Mike raised himself up on one arm. “Why won’t I like your idea?”
“Just don’t think you will.” She kept her eyes closed.
“What is it?”
“Well I was thinking we could go back to your parent’s.”
“Oh… Wes’s house?”
“Well you asked what I wanted to do.” She wiggled around so she was now facing him. “I just think it would be interesting to go spend some more time there.”
“Interesting or fun?”
“Well I think it could be good for you to maybe do a little investigating and see if maybe you can even talk to Wes.” After a few seconds of silence she spoke again. “Yes I think it would be fun though.”
He laid there in silence not sure how to respond. The idea of spending more time in the house wasn’t a pleasant one but he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t thought about trying to communicate with Wes. If there was any kind of a chance to tell him he was sorry for not being there he’d gladly take it. “You have a point. Not the fun part but the rest.” He laid his head back down on the arm rest of the couch.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah why not.” He decided to agree to it before he talked himself out of it.
Jen sprung off the couch. Walked to the table and began to dig through her purse.
“What are you doing?”
She ignored his question. After a bit more digging and an opening of a zipper or two she pulled out her cell phone. Pressed a few buttons and then held it up to her ear. “Trace! He said yes!” She exclaimed into the phone. She began to walk circles around the kitchen table. “I know! I didn’t think he would either… I know, I am so excited.”
“Really?” Mike asked still lying on the couch. “You had it planned?” Why am I not surprised. He thought to himself as she wasn’t responding to anything he said.
“Tonight.” Jen said into the phone. “Yes pack up your stuff and come over here… Grant able to make it?” She was silent for a minute. “You able to use the equipment?” Silence “You know he wants to come.” She stopped pacing around the table and turned to Mike. “Honey you nap ok, I’ll pack our stuff.” Not giving Mike time to respond she began speaking back into the phone. “If he said he’d come later I’m sure he will.”
Mike laid there trying to ignore Jen’s conversation about how Tracy was just reading into things and about how amazing the week would be. It wasn’t until she was off the phone that he was actually able to fall asleep but before he knew it he was woken by the sound of a case hitting the floor.
“So sorry Mike.” Tracy said as she picked a large black case up off the floor. “Was trying to be quiet.”
“It’s ok. Looks like it’s time to get up anyways.”
“We were trying to get everything packed before I woke you.” Jen said as she came in the front door, picked up one of the two cases left by the door and then disappeared back outside.
Tracy carrying the case that she had dropped, followed her.
Mike sat up still a little wobbly from the concussion and lack of sleep he has had over the past few nights. He began thinking about the dream he had while he slept on the couch, chalking it up to the activities prior to him falling asleep. Still, it left him with a strange feeling.
Soon Jen and Tracy had come back through the door. Jen closed it and then joined Mike on the couch as Tracy took a seat in the oversized recliner.
“I already talked to your parents and they are excited.” Jen sat back on the couch. “That was rough work.”
“I just had a strange dream.” Mike blurted out. He wasn’t sure if he was going to say anything but felt that he’d feel better if he did.
“What was it?” Jen and Tracy asked in unison.
“It was empty except Emily.”
“What was she doing?” Tracy asked before Mike had time to elaborate.
“Standing in front of me. Telling me not to do it… Not to come.” Mike paused. The eerie feelings seamed to intensify instead of subside as he originally thought they might by talking about it. “Said it was dangerous.”
Jen and Tracy sat there in silence.
“Part of me doesn’t want to go… Didn’t want to go I guess I should say. Guessing that’s where the dream came from.”
“That very well could be.” Jen said as she sat up and began to rub his back.
Tracy still sat there in silence and he took notice of this. “What?” He asked her.
“Oh nothing just eerie.” She forced a smile. “This is the most intense investigation I’ve been on so my nerves are going.”
“How many have you been on?” Mike asked.
“This will be seven. I’ve seen some stuff, shadows and what not but the potential for what we will find there is exciting and terrifying at the same time.”
“Nice.” Mike said in a quiet voice. He did not feel any better now and wished he hadn’t even mentioned his dream. “When are we leaving?”
“Whenever you are ready babe.” Jen said still rubbing his back.
“Well no time like the present. Let me go pee and we can get going.” Mike stood left the room and returned in a couple minutes. He slipped on his shoes and walked to the door.
Jen and Tracy stood and followed suit. Mike let the ladies out first and then closed and locked the front door. He began to make his way to the driver’s side when Jen cut him off.
“Nope I’m driving down and Trace is shotgun. You can have the back so you can relax and stretch out.” She reached out and took the keys from him. “I got this babe.” She smiled as she opened the driver side door and climbed into the car. Tracy followed suit on the passenger side leaving Mike nowhere to go but the back.
He climbed in the back seat and stretched out placing his feet in the opposite side of the car. He had to admit he liked the idea of not having to drive and just being able to relax.
“If you can’t sleep we brought this.” Jen said as Tracy handed back an iPad.
“Ok.” Mike took it not sure what he was supposed to do with it. “For?” He knew it was for more than passing time but not sure what.
Jen turned the key bringing the engine to life. “Tracy converted all the journal files we highlighted into compatible files so you can read them on there.” She put the car in gear and began to drive.
“Smart.” He said as he turned the tablet on.
“It’s in the book tab. It is called Journal and I have all the entries as individual chapters.”
Mike pressed the book tab and found the entry titled Journal and brought it up. He scrolled down looking over the d
ifferent entries then scrolled back up to the top. The first two entries were the ones he had read earlier so he skipped them and pressed on the third entry. “Very clever indeed.” He smiled up at Tracy then looked down and began to read.
Unliving Love Page 19