A Many Splintered Thing / Day 8: "Just, something has changed. We need to talk."

Happy Hump Day :) Here we go...day 8 already.
Just a friendly reminder, if you're enjoying AMST and didn't catch our first trip here on Unapologetic Fiction it was Wanderlust. Found all over the place including HERE.
XOXOSommer
Day 8
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona…he drove as close to non-stop as a human body could get after that bout of dreams. Alice sat patiently beside him. Caleb thought it might have something to do with the fact that she realized she was getting farther and farther away from Martin the terrible.
He ate gas station food—always risky—diner food and when in Texas some amazing roadside food. He caught a few hours sleep here and there at rest stops and in the parking lots of the restaurants he frequented. He managed not to get booted once, a fact he was oddly proud of.
When he hit Pasadena, Caleb pulled over and called Jasmine. The phone rang and rang and he sighed, putting his head down. “Thanks, Jas. I finally get here and you don’t answer your fucking phone.” He left her a quick message to call him.
His eyes were scratchy and way back in his skull they seemed to ache. He was tired. Way more tired than he could remember being. He’d avoided long bouts of sleep since he’d dreamed about his dad. It had more to do with the reminder of the verbal flayings than the physical abuse.
He thought that usually flesh wounds healed better than invisible ones.
Caleb found a coffee shop, ordered a cup of coffee and three jelly donuts. The man who put them at the counter looked at him and said, “You look like three pounds of shit in a one pound bag, my friend.”
Caleb looked at the guy, mouth hanging open. Was this what passed for hospitality in California? He’d never been before so he wasn’t sure. It was like the guy in Texas who had told him he looked ‘fit to fall down’.
“I..um…”
“No offense,” the guy said.
Caleb squinted at the name tag. “Thanks a lot, Britt.”
The guy grinned and in that moment Caleb saw a surfer working a day job. He was all hang ten and gnarly and beach blonde hair. Caleb laughed downing half the coffee in a swig and demolishing a donut in three bites.
“I only say that as a fellow insomniac,” the guy said. He poured himself a cup of coffee in one of the plain white mugs and sipped it black.
“I’m not so much an insomniac as…I’ve been avoiding sleep.”
“Ah, dreams?”
“Dreams.”
Britt the surfer nodded, thoughtfully, watching the traffic—both foot and otherwise—outside the plate glass windows.
Caleb checked the window. He’d tied Alice to a bike rack out front. She was in the shade, lying there, also watching foot traffic but he still felt bad. “Can I get a bowl of water?”
Britt looked at him, cocked a pale eyebrow. “Coffee’s not enough for you?”
Caleb laughed, inhaling the second donut. “It’s for my dog.”
“Is that your dog?” Britt nodded toward the window.
Caleb nodded. “Yep. That’s Alice.”
“Does your dog bite?” Britt asked.
Caleb chuckled remembering the Pink Panther movie he’d seen as a kid. When Britt raised both eyebrows he cleared his throat. “Sorry. No. Not to my knowledge. I don’t think it’s in Alice to bite.”
“Bring her around back, then. To the kitchen door. I’ll give her a burger and some water.”
“Oh, you don’t have to—“
“Come on, man. I’m a sucker for a pretty furry face. And look, it’s not like we’re hopping in here.”
Caleb glanced around the coffee shop. Two other patrons sat in two separate booths. They looked to be regulars by the way they had their work stuff all sprawled out and their breakfast remnants around them.
“Cool.” He rose to get Alice. “Thanks, man.”
“No problem.”
He led her around back where Britt had the door open and was waiting. “Well, look at this. Hello, dollface.”
He put a plate bearing a burger on the ground at his feet and then stepped back. Alice tried to gauge him. Caleb saw her cower just a touch—nothing like before—and then she slunk forward slowly, eyes on the new guy. Caleb touched her forehead. “Go on.”
At his word she looked a little braver and after sparing Britt one more glance, she went for the burger, eating it in three big chomping bites. Then she was okay, sitting down right there at Britt’s feet as if to say, That was good. Got any more?
Britt held out his hand and Alice went to him. “I don’t want to give her too much grease.”
“She’s good,” Caleb said. “I’ll give her some kibble. It’s no hamburger but she likes it.”
Britt put down a bowl of water and they both watched her go to town. Then she went to a patch of shade and stretched out near a crate. “She’s okay here if you want to go up and finish your coffee and donut. And then…” Britt scratched his head. “Not to be nosey but once upon a time I rolled into town with a single duffle bag and very little money. I looked a lot like you. So if you want to pull your car around here and put your head back and snooze a bit no one will roust you. This is parking for employees only and I’m the only one working today.”
Caleb considered saying no. But then he did a physical inventory of his exhausted body. His eyes felt scratchy and full of sand, his limbs heavy. His back ached and his ass hurt. He wished it was a bed but maybe putting the seat all the way back and taking a nap wouldn’t kill him. Alice seemed fine and Jasmine hadn’t returned his call.
Which set off alarm bells somewhere deep inside him. He pushed the thought away and focused on the present moment. Coffee, donuts, sleep.
“I would love to say no,” he said.
“But you’re just that tired,” Britt said. Inside the shop someone called his name. “Coming,” he yelled.
“I am just that tired. I’ll come in and finish and settle up and then I’ll pull around here if you’re sure.”
Britt smiled. “Cool. I’m sure.”
Caleb hooked Alice to the bumper, afraid she’d either wander off or someone would notice and he’d get in trouble. He looked into her dark brown eyes. “Don’t worry, it’s only a bungee cord.”
After his last donut, the dregs of his coffee and paying the meager tab, Caleb pulled around back and into the shade. He left the passenger door open and unhooked the dog. “I’m trusting you not to go anywhere. You can get in if you want. The door is open.” Then he reclined the seat and threw an arm over his eyes. It was quiet behind the coffee shop. No one walking past, no one driving by.
He was out almost instantly. Like drawing a shutter on the day. It was only when he heard his phone and Alice started sniffing his face and licking him that his eyes opened. The sun was much lower in the sky and his mouth tasted like death.
He fumbled for the phone, seeing on the display that he’d slept away at least three hours. And it had been a hard sleep. He felt slightly stunned and more tired than when he started. It was Jasmine.
“Jas, where the hell were you?”
“I…” She stammered and that only meant one thing. She was upset. “I was here but I couldn’t answer. I can give you directions if you want. Where are you?”
“I only need the address for the GPS, but what’s going on? What’s wrong?” He thought of Bob and Belinda and the comfy bungalow he’d left to drive all the way across country, rescue a dog from a waste of human flesh and sleep in a parking lot. His stomach felt heavy like he might be sick. It had nothing to do with the donuts and everything to do with her tone of voice.
“Nothing…” She sighed. “Everything. Just, something has changed. We need to talk. But first you can get here and then…” She was silent for a second. “Then I’ll fill you in.”
He got the address, punched it into the GPS and ran in to thank Britt. Britt gave him a bag of food someone had neglected to pick up, a tall coffee and his card. “Call me if you need to. If you get in a pinch, need a job, get lost…or if you just want to get a beer.”
“Thanks, man.”
“Good luck. Hang loose.”
Caleb chuckled at that. “You, too. Thanks for the food.”
In the Jeep he ate as he drove, following the monotonous voice of the GPS lady. All he could think as he headed toward Jasmine was, Fuck. What am I walking into?

photo credit: roboppy via photopin cc