That night Jennifer slept for the first time in months. She and Raven had spent the afternoon at the kitchen table catching up. Raven spoke briefly of her small but flourishing practice, but mostly listened intently as Jennifer spoke of her mother’s last days, then the following months watching the decline of her father and hero. She told of how his mind kept “slipping”, causing him to forget where and sometimes who he was. More than once Jennifer broke down sobbing, especially when Raven made her “sit down and rest, Sis,” while she went to tend to the old man calling for “something to drink ‘fore I die of thirst.”
Raven had offered her a pill to let her sleep after promising to tend to the patient throughout the night. Raven was true to her word, and Jennifer slept for a total of twelve hours, not even rousing when the old man began to call out shortly after two in the morning.
“GET OUT OF HERE!” The old man screamed.
Raven jumped up from where she had just dozed on the couch. She took the four steps to his bed.
“Hey, Pops.” she said, pushing the hair back from her eyes, “Mr. Curtis, you having a bad dream, Sweetie?”
He started. He raised a weak right arm, pointing toward the kitchen.
“Tell that no good salesman to get out of my house and leave my Gwen alone!” He was trembling.
From the corner of her eye, Raven saw a man standing in the doorway. She saw that he was a tall man in bib overalls and a flannel shirt. It was her turn to start. When she jerked around to confront the intruder, however, he was gone.
She stared at the empty kitchen, feeling as if her heart might jump from her chest.
“Shouldn’t be HERE!” The old man screamed, raising up from the bed.
Remembering her patient, Raven came back to herself. She grabbed his shoulders and gently pressed him back down to the bed.
“Shhh….” she said, “he’s gone now, Sweetie. Get some sleep, Love.”
Raven spent the rest of the night soothing the old man whenever he awoke, and convincing herself that she had imagined the scruffy looking visitor. SHe had almost succeeded until she went to make coffee the next morning.
That’s when she discovered the muddy footprints in the doorway. What startled her the most was that there was no mud leading to or from the doorway, just in the spot she had almost seen the man watching them.
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