Page 4

LEXI

I carried two cups of coffee up and found him already dressed, brushing his teeth in our tiny bathroom.

This bathroom was a step up from the master bedroom and had a slanted roof because it was built in the eaves.

There was a room for a clawfoot tub, with a shower-head at the high end of the ceiling, and a pull around shower curtain.

Beside that was a toilet, and a pedestal sink with no counter.

I would joke that we could brush our teeth, pee, and turn on the shower all at the same time.

I reached past him to place his mug on the edge of the sink. “Coffee for you?”

With the brush in his mouth, talking to me through the reflection in the mirror, he mumbled, “Don’t need it, not yet, might be able to sleep on the plane, maybe.”

I said, “Fine, more for me.”

He spit in the sink, then put his toothbrush in the holder next to mine.

I continued sipping my coffee, admiring him as he fastened the leather strap on the Movado watch I had given him for Christmas.

He was tall and lanky, enough muscles to rock climb, but lean.

He ran his hands through his hair and straightened his shirt.

“You look good. Are you wearing the blue tie?”

“Yep.” He stepped down and crossed the bedroom to the antique arm chair in the corner where his clothes had been laid out. He picked up his blue tie, pulled it on, tied it effortlessly, and straightened it. He pulled down his collar. “How do I look?”

“Great, you’re going to wow them.”

“You can barely tell I didn’t sleep last night?”

“Not at all, and I’m so sorry, Coop.”

“I know, no worries. If a little exhaustion screws up my meeting then I wasn’t very well prepared.”

I said, “You’re prepared.”

“Yep.” He stuffed his toiletry bag in his suitcase, zipped it up, and slung his suit bag over his shoulder.

I left for the kitchen carrying both cups of coffee, asking over my shoulder as I descended the stairs, “You got your dress shoes, your trainers in case there’s a casual moment?”

“Yep and I got two suits, three ties, four shirts, and work-out clothes for the gym.”

“And your toothbrush, that’s all you need.”

He deposited the suitcase in the kitchen and ran back upstairs, calling, “Forgot my toothbrush!”

I laughed. “Glad you remembered, but none of this matters. There will be a drugstore right there, and Target is always only a taxi ride away.”

He jogged back down the steps and crouched in front of his suitcase, stuffing his toothbrush into his toiletries case. He zipped it all back up. “You always say that.”

“It’s always true. You could literally get on the plane with nothing and buy all the stuff you want once you’re there, probably in one afternoon.”

“You can also tell you grew up with money. In my family if you forgot to bring your toothbrush you’d have to use your finger.”

I laughed, “I’ve met your mom, she would never allow that.”

“We would be too scared to tell her we forgot our toothbrushes.” He glanced at his watch again. “I have to… I’ve got just a minute and... oh, what the hell.”

He picked up his coffee mug and sipped while leaning out so it wouldn’t drip on his clean clothes.

Then he put the mug back on the counter. “That helps.”

He focused on me. “You going to be okay? I could… I don’t know... need me to stay?”

“Absolutely not, don’t be crazy, this is your big moment, Coop. I’m fine, that was just some fluke.”

“Call Jen if you need company.”

“As you know, I have her on speed-dial...”

Then I asked, “I was wondering, what if… could it have been a tornado? Could a funnel have picked him up and dropped him there?”

He screwed up his face. “I don’t think that’s a thing, babe. Not where he would survive, ya know?”

“Yeah, probably, but whatever, I’m not worried. He didn’t look like someone who was from around here, like I’d be more worried if?—”

He checked his watch. “I’m sorry to cut you off, Lexi, I gotta go. It’s a long drive, I don’t want to miss my flight.”

“Yes, of course, yes.”

He picked up his suit bag and wheeled the suitcase behind him down the hall. I held the door for him as he lugged it all out and down the porch steps, then pulled the suitcase careening behind him down the walkway to his Toyota 4Runner.

There was a momentary bustle as Cooper loaded his suitcase and hanging bag into the backseat and then he kissed me goodbye.

“Call as soon as you get to the hotel. I love you.”

“Of course, love you too, and call me if anything weird goes on, promise?”

“Promise.”

“Have a good week.”

“Thanks, Cooper, don’t worry about me, got this all under control, and we’re still going out to eat next weekend?”

He sat down in the driver’s seat. “Yep, got the reservations.”

“Perfect, have a good week.”

I waved as he started the car and pulled away.

Dude met me and stood beside me as I looked all around at the first glow of dawn brightening the sky. But then I saw a glisten in the dew near where that guy had been lying.

Weird.

I walked towards it down the lawn with Dude following and found that odd object, lying unnoticed in the grass.

“Uh oh, he’s going to want that...” Dude sniffed it and then batted it with his paw. “Whatever it is.”

I sighed.

That was a complicated thought. That sounded like a lot of trouble for me. I added, “He’s going to want that if he survives.”

I picked the object up and headed up to the house. It seemed like there was a weight inside that moved around as I turned it over in my hands, trying to understand what it was. The word ‘gyroscope’ came to mind, though I didn’t really know what a gyroscope was.

In the kitchen I poured myself more coffee and made two decisions: One, I would take the object to the hospital in a few hours. Two, I would try to do an internet search, maybe there was an explanation of what it was.

There wasn’t an explanation.

I tried search terms like, ‘metal can heavy like a weird gyroscope that has markings.’ No wonder they didn’t bring back an answer. I removed ‘gyroscope’ because I got weird results, then scanned websites and blogs, but ultimately the search returned nothing helpful.

I drank coffee, leaned against my kitchen counter, with a cartoon turned on the little TV on my kitchen island. What was this thing?

How often in the world did we come across things that were new, that no one had ever found before?

It was 2004, for sure there would be a blog post about it.

But I couldn’t find anything in this first search, which sucked.

I loved research and was good at it. I had been researching my family tree and documenting the history of my old Victorian house for months.

Stacks of documents and folders were piled all over the desk in my hobby room.

I should have been able to find something...

I sighed, leaning against the counter, thinking about the events of the night. My nerves were jangled — the nightmare, the storm, the stranger, not to mention having an ambulance in my driveway. And Cooper leaving for his trip.

Probably too much coffee, too early.

I had gotten up before the crack of dawn and so my whole day had been thrown out of whack.

I sipped from my mug and said to Dude, up on the counter again, “It just seems kind of connected, somehow, right?”

Dude looked indifferent.

I said, “Like all of it at once…?”

Dude trilled.

I said, “Of course I don’t mean the dream, that’s ridiculous, the dream was a coincidence — I mean the storm and the stranger.”

But how could a storm be connected to a stranger?

I dumped the last sip of coffee into the sink and used a sponge and soap to wash out our mugs, placing them on the dish drainer to dry.

“Likely he was crossing my land and hid in the trees when the storm came on, and... then a branch fell on him.” I peered out the window, my eyes sweeping the lawn down there. No branch. But…

My eyes fell on the weird object again, sitting on the kitchen counter.

I came up with the best explanation: He was a sculptor from down at the art center.

This was one of his pieces, or something.

He looked like he had been wearing a costume, he probably performed at the…

using my phone I searched the arts center calendar to see if there had been a performance last night.

Maybe an actor got lost, or like somehow it was a prank.

There was no show last night. He did not look like a student from the college.

This was all so freaking mysterious.

I took a shower, got ready for my day, and then called Jen.

“Hey, lady, I’m going to pick you up in a half hour.”

She groaned. “I’m not even up yet, what-the-hell time is it?”

“Time for you to get up, it’s 7:45, we gotta go .”

She was quiet.

“Jen!”

She snored.

I huffed. “Getupgetupgetup.”

She chuckled. “Why? It’s Saturday, I don’t get up on Saturday. I’ve been around monsters all week, I’m in no mood, plus this is spring break now, I don’t have to get up until noon.”

“Those are kids, you’ve been around kids all week, stop complaining — I need you to go to the hospital with me.”

She said, “Why what happened? You okay? Is Coop okay?”

“Yes, we’re both fine. He’s on his business trip — the craziest shit happened last night, or really, early this morning in the storm.”

“ What storm?”

“That giant storm! The one that almost lifted my house from its foundation and then left some stranger lying in my yard.”

“What the heck? So, like a tornado? I didn’t know we were having storms last night. Man, must have slept right through it.”

She went quiet again.

I said, “Jen, I’m going to be there to pick you up in twenty minutes. You’re going to the hospital with me.”

“Bring coffee.” She hung up.