Lance awoke naked in the bathroom. He had a dizzying moment of panic before he assured himself that it was in fact their bathroom. The reason he didn’t recognize it at first glance was the state of disarray it was in. Bottles and tubes of every sort were strewn about the large counter. He counted seven towels in various wadded-up states on the floor. He stared at the dark mass in the sink until he realized it was his clothes. For some reason, a pair of his jeans and a navy blue polo shirt had been left to soak there. He pawed at the soaked clothing and saw that his socks and underwear were in there too. Scratch that. One sock. Where the hell was his other sock? And why were the rest of his clothes in the sink? Obviously he was trying to wash them, but why?
He sniffed at his wet clothes in the sink. They had a metallic sort of odor. Was that blood? A wave of dizziness overtook him, and he grabbed the counter for support. He needed to get ahold of himself. Besides the wet clothes in the sink, was there anything alarming in the bathroom? He looked around. Well, a huge mess, but mostly it just looked like he had raided the linen closet and flung stuff everywhere. There was nothing here to make him panic, but he knew what he needed to do.
It took him a few seconds and several deep breaths before he worked up the nerve to open the door into their bedroom. The light from the bathroom spilled out into the dark room, revealing Caitlin still sleeping soundly in the bed. She was sleeping, wasn’t she? He held his breath as he watched, and only released it when he finally saw the comforter moving slowly up and down with her breathing. Everything was fine. He could relax.
Then he looked across the bedroom and saw something that made his blood run cold. The bedroom door was wide open. He remembered Caitlin insisting they leave the door unlocked despite his protests.
He raced down the hall to Adam’s room. Belatedly he remembered that he didn’t have any clothes on, but he didn’t care. He just needed to make sure Adam was safe. The floor creaked as he stepped into his son’s room, and Adam stirred in the bed. Out the window, Lance saw the indigo sky of early morning. The sun would be up soon, which meant Adam and Caitlin would wake up. Lance had a disaster of a bathroom to get cleaned before then.
Lance threw on a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt before heading back into the bathroom to survey the damage. He had made a huge mess, but he figured he could clean it up before Caitlin woke up. The problem was he didn’t remember where everything had been, and even if Caitlin wasn’t the neatest person in the world, she would still be able to see that things were out of place. She would have questions. He needed to have an answer.
So he struck upon a solution. He would give the bathroom a thorough spring cleaning. His cover story would be that he couldn’t sleep and decided the bathroom was long overdue for a thorough cleaning. It wasn’t even a lie. There was all kinds of crap they hadn’t touched in years shoved to the back of their linen closet. Did they really need hundreds of half-used mini bottles of hotel shampoo?
He loaded his sopping wet clothes and all the towels scattered about the bathroom into a laundry basket and carried them down to the laundry room. If he started the load now, it might wake Caitlin and Adam. So he left them in the basket. He ran the risk of Caitlin walking into the laundry room and finding his clothes inexplicably drenched, but he decided this was unlikely.
He carried a big black trash bag upstairs to the bathroom and set about emptying the linen closet of anything that looked vaguely like trash. He chucked in all but a handful of the hotel shampoos and soaps. Then he found a mostly empty bottle of mouthwash so old that the plastic had started to turn yellow. According to the date stamped on the back, the stuff had expired four years ago. This gave him a new mission, and he began checking expiration dates on every package he came across. Cough syrup, ibuprofen, and a bottle of nasal spray went into the trash. Then he hit the mother lode. Shoved to the back of the closet were boxes of Caitlin’s sleeping pills. Judging by the expiration dates on the boxes, she must have forgotten about them years ago. He tossed them all into the garbage bag.
When the closet had been purged of all its extraneous contents, he set about rearranging the remaining items neatly before refolding and stacking all the towels so they looked like they belonged on a department store shelf. With the organization task complete, he grabbed a spray bottle and paper towels to clean all the surfaces. When he was finally done, it was light out. He took a step back and surveyed his handiwork. Was it too much? Had he gone overboard?
Caitlin was still sleeping soundly when he hauled the full trash bag out through the bedroom and downstairs to the garage. He realized it was garbage day. Well, that was a lucky coincidence. It made his early morning bathroom cleaning seem just a touch more justified. He grabbed a second bag and went around the house emptying all the bins before wheeling the filled container out to the curb.
The wheels made a thunderous noise on the pavement. It was enough to wake the dead, let alone his wife and son. So when he headed back inside, he went straight to the laundry room to get the load started. He dumped everything into the washer and added the detergent—but wait! Had he checked the pockets? He hauled his pants back out and searched them. He turned up a quarter, a paperclip and a business card. He dropped the pants back into the machine and started it before he took another look at the odds and ends in his hand.
Was that blood on the corner of the business card? His heart began to race as he turned it over, but then his eyes fell on the words Culver Creek. It was the dream whisperer’s card, and that red stain wasn’t blood but tomato juice from Corey’s bloody mary.
He was surprised he hadn’t thrown the card out. Maybe he was meant to keep it. Maybe he was meant to call her. Caitlin had specifically said no shrinks, but this woman wasn’t a shrink at all. This morning’s panic was still fresh in his mind. He couldn’t go on like this. Even if he was able to convince Caitlin to lock the bedroom door, that wouldn’t stop the bigger issue—Adam’s nightmares. Sure, right now that was all they were, but it was only a matter of time before the nightmares turned to something else.
In his head he saw a linoleum floor splattered with blood and felt the pain in his bloodstained fist. Moreover, he felt the confusion and utter helplessness. He didn’t want Adam to ever have to feel that way. Could this dream whisperer woman help? Maybe. At least it was better than doing nothing.
He heard someone coming down the stairs and shoved the card into his sweatpants pocket before heading out into the kitchen.