Morning all. I hope you are having a fabulous week. I am feeling the need for coffee so let’s get moving on the morning prompt while it brews. Timers set and off we go.
I did not think this was where that sentence was going when I started. I love when my brain surprises me.
Thursday, December 19th: It took him longer to orient himself than usual.
It took him longer to orient himself than usual. He was tired, groggy when he awoke. The house seemed strange. The night before he hadn’t made it up to his bed but merely lay down on the couch and fell asleep there. As he lay on the couch trying to blink the sleep from his eyes he looked at the interplay of light and shadow. His dark leather couch was at the far end of the room, the back towards the door and the television in front. The room itself was small and often overlooked.
There were many nights when he fell asleep watching television. He always woke with the television going into what he thought of as screensaver mode. His version contained tropical fish swimming through an azure blue water with little rocks and corals around to swim through.
He looked to the television. No blue water, no fish. The television was off. Even the red light on the machinery that kept it connected to the great web of streaming sites was off.
‘No television then.’
He was under a dark brown blanket, one that looked like faux fur. It was a gift from a friend who thought that his living room needed something to make it look like he skinned a bear or wolf or some other sort of creature. It usually was tossed somewhere in the room. Today, he woke under it and looked a bit like he was the bear, the blanket blending with the couch in the shadows in front of the silent electronics. This room had no windows so it was just a dark space.
He lay there trying to recall the night before. He remembered dinner. He ate it with friends in the local restaurant. Because Dan was already a couple of beers in when their stakes arrived he stick with soda. He vaguely recalled asking for a Coke and being asked if Pepsi was oaky.
‘So no heavy drinking for me,’ he thought. He vaguely remembered getting Dan home and then pulling into his driveway. He pressed the button for the garage, pulled his car in, parked and put the garage door down. He remembered feeling sleepy and entering the house through the garage door. He recalled locking the door to the garage and somehow decided that the couch looked like less trouble than the stairs up to the bedroom.
He shifted on the couch and realized he was still fully dressed. Under the blanket he had all of his clothes on, including coat and shoes. He shifted and felt the small bulge in his pocket recognizing his keys. He always hung his keys on the rack when he got him. The hook was by the garage door. Yet his keys were in his pocket.
He started to get up and then froze as he heard a sound. It was the creak of a soft foot fall. He waited, listening. He heard one person, no two sets of footsteps.
“His keys aren’t here,” a low voice said.
“The bed’s untouched,” the other replied.
“Maybe he went out for a walk.”
“If he did he is probably passed out in a ditch somewhere. Mixed with alcohol he wouldn’t have stayed awake long and will still be out a few hours. The way they were putting them back at the restaurant last night probably longer.”
“Colston won’t be happy,” one voice said.
“Better find him then,” the other said. “Let’s try the back.” They walked off and he heard the back door open and close. Colston was a name he hadn’t heard in a while and he had no desire to hear it now.
Ten til Midnight 