Awake Page 2

  Neither Lee nor Ben had ever driven an RV before, but luckily Washington State didn’t have any special licensing requirements. Luckier still, RVs turned out to be rather easy to drive, with automatic drives and plenty of mirrors to see the sides. After twenty minutes of test driving each, both he and Ben were proficient, but not exactly experts.

  They finally decided on the Eclipse 44XD. It was a massive beast of a machine with all the amenities, each of which the salesman gleefully pointed out as he took them for a tour. Among its many luxuries, it boasted a master bedroom and bath, a second, smaller bathroom, a gleaming kitchen filled with new appliances, and a living room with a TV bigger than the one Lee had in his house, and ample seating. The couch converted into a second bed, which would be great for Ben. Lee counted four televisions in total, there was even one in the master bath, positioned on the wall opposite the toilet.

  “God, this is nicer than my apartment,” Ben said as they toured. “Probably bigger too.”

  “You’re such a size queen,” Lee said, and they chuckled while the salesman raised an eyebrow and stared at them.

  Lee and Ben were as giddy as schoolchildren at the luxury of the RV. They took it for a quick test drive around the lot with the salesman. Afterwards, they parked it and asked the salesman to step out for a minute while they discussed whether or not to make the purchase.

  It took less than a minute. They both agreed that it was the one they wanted. “It has to be the nicest one on the lot,” Ben said, “we’ll be riding in luxury the whole way.”

  Decided, they exited and approached the salesman, who was standing at the rear of the vehicle. “We’ll take it,” Lee said.

  “Sounds great! The MSRP on this model is $370,000, as you probably saw on the sticker. If you want to come into the office we can process your down payment and get the financing going,” the salesman said.

  “I’m not going to need any of that. I’ll give you $350,000 cash tomorrow if I can take it right away,” Lee said. The salesman’s face dropped, and then recovered to an expression of disappointment and anger. He clearly didn’t believe that they were serious.

  “Yeah, right, come here tomorrow with that much cash and it’s a deal,” the salesman said, and walked off, muttering “Thanks for wasting my fucking time, fucking kids,” just loud enough for Lee and Ben to hear him.

  It was near the end of the day, so Lee dropped Ben off at his place. “Make sure you have everything you’re going to need, we’re taking off tomorrow,” Lee reminded Ben, as he let him out.

  When he got back to his place he called the bank, knowing that he’d have to give some sort of advance notice to get that much cash. The teller who answered, after checking his accounts and verifying that he indeed had that kind of money, said it was short notice but that they’d be able to accommodate him. “You called just in time, a half hour or so later and you’d have had to wait until after the weekend for it,” she said.

  He spent the next several hours getting everything together for the trip. He packed up all of the clothes, shoes, toiletries and books he could fit into his suitcase and computer bag. The rest he’d leave for whoever he ended up appointing to manage his estate. When he thought he had everything ready, he lay down on his bed and tried to rest for the journey.

  Though he took his prescriptions before lying down, he wasn’t able to get much sleep. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was excited for the trip the next day, or if it was his disease. Probably some of both. After rolling about all night, he finally managed to get a few hours of sleep, before waking up at six..

  He got up and tried writing for a while, but it was fruitless. He was just too excited and tired to focus on as anything that required much attention.

  Realizing he should inform his doctor of his plans, he called up Dr. Siegel’s office a few minutes after it opened, at eight in the morning. “I must tell you that I strongly advise against this,” Dr. Siegel said after Lee briefed him on the trip. “I’m very sorry about your condition and understand that you want to travel, but without proper medical supervision your condition could deteriorate much more rapidly than it would otherwise.”

  “I realize that doctor, but I just feel like this is something I have to do,” he said, omitting the demon part.

  “Well, if you’re determined to go through with this, you need to contact me every week. I’ll help you find doctors in whatever area you’re in, and forward your medical records to them, so that you can still get regular checkups,” Dr. Siegel said.

  “I will doctor. Sorry about this.”

  “Don’t be sorry, you have every right to do what you want. Just be smart and keep in contact with me or another doctor.”

  Lee hung up the phone and walked through the house, giving it one last look over to make sure he had everything he wanted. As a last-minute thought he grabbed an old briefcase and some handcuffs he had been given as a joke present from a fan, a reference to his book Trapped. He’d never picked up more than a few thousand dollars in cash from the bank before, and from the movies he’d seen it seemed like a good idea to cuff the money to himself after he got it.

  Satisfied, Lee called Ben as he loaded his bags into the car, to tell him to be ready to go, as he would be coming over shortly.

  The trunk of Lee’s medium-sized Lexus was completely filled up with his suitcases, so Ben put his bags on the back seat. When he was done, every part of the car except the front was completely filled with luggage.

  “You ready to do this buddy?” Lee asked from the driver’s seat.

  “For sure man, this is going to be awesome. I keep thinking about that trip to Portland we took in high school, and how much fun we had then,” Ben said. “Thanks again for paying for my place while we’re gone and stuff.”

  “Don’t mention it. You’re doing me a huge favor. I wouldn’t be able to do this trip if it wasn’t for you.”

  When they got to the bank, Lee had Ben take the driver’s seat and asked him to keep the car running while he went inside, warning him that “It might take a while.”

  “If it’s longer than an hour, I’m stealing your car,” Ben said, grinning.

  The bank teller thought that Lee was joking at first when she saw the number that he’d written on the withdrawal slip, even with the call he’d made the day before. After he insisted that he wasn’t joking and explained that he was going to buy an RV, she checked his bank account. Her eyebrows rose when she saw his balances and she went to get her supervisor, who luckily seemed to know about the prearranged withdrawal and was more prepared.

  Together the teller and her supervisor retrieved the money from the safe, and taking him to a back room, they meticulously counted out the sum twice in front of him. When that was done they both signed off on the count, and then they had him do the same. The supervisor then handed him a number of waivers, ensuring the bank wouldn’t be liable if anything happened to the cash and he signed those as well.

  When all that was done they handed over the cash. He stacked the money in the briefcase that he’d brought, before handcuffing it to his right arm. For good measure, he threw his coat over his hand, so as to conceal the cuffs.

  Neither the teller or the manager batted an eye. Instead they had the bank’s security guard escort Lee to his car.

  When they got to the Lexus, he thanked the security guard and got in. “Holy shit, I feel like a secret agent on his way to bribe some high-ranking official, or something,” Lee said, as Ben put the car into drive and started out of the lot.

  “I bet. They really let you get that much cash out?” Ben asked, glancing at the briefcase.

  “Yeah, if you have it in your account, call it in and are stupid enough to carry this much, it’s fine, apparently,” Lee said. “I’ll probably get dinged on some FBI watch list or something, but it’s legal.”

  “Jesus Christ, I’ve never even heard of someone carrying that much cash, except maybe the guys on The Sopranos,” Ben said. “I kind of thought you were joking.”


  “It is downright moronic, but I feel like living dangerously,” Lee said. “And don’t get any funny ideas about killing me and taking all the money for yourself!” They both laughed.

  When they got to the RV dealership, the salesman from the day before was there, as he said he’d be. He raised his eyebrows at the sight of them, then rolled his eyes and frowned.

  “Got your money here, asshole,” Lee said, pulling the coat off of the briefcase and throwing the case up on the counter in front of the salesman.

  2

  An hour later, Lee and Ben were transferring their luggage from the Lexus to the RV. Realizing during the sale that he wasn’t going to use the Lexus again, Lee had traded it in as part of the deal and saved some money on the rig. He was feeling rested enough and was eager to drive the RV again, so he drove out of the lot, with Ben taking the passenger’s seat.

  The first place they went was to a nearby grocery store. Lee parked the behemoth rig in the back of the lot, and they walked to the entrance.

  “Grab whatever you want and meet me back out front in a half hour,” Lee told Ben as they walked into the store.

  Lee wandered through the aisles, grabbing pop and some snack food, eventually finding himself in the pharmacy aisle. Figuring it couldn’t hurt, he grabbed several different brands of over-the-counter sleep aids and threw them into his cart, thinking that he’d add them to the prescriptions he had and see if they helped.

  When he turned from the pill racks, the demon was standing not five feet from him, studying the vitamins. He screamed loudly this time and several people looked over at him like he was crazy. Even the demon turned and looked at him, like Lee was the one who didn’t belong. Lee turned his cart around so quickly he almost tipped it over, and walked quickly towards the front of the store just shy of a jog.

  Ben was already waiting for him in front of the checkout aisles; if he hadn’t have been, Lee might have ditched his cart altogether and made a run for the RV. Seeing his friend helped him calm down a miniscule amount and Lee was able to check out the groceries and pay for them, looking around for the demon the entire time. He didn’t see it again.

  “What the hell were you so acting so paranoid about, in there?” Ben asked as soon as they were out of the store and walking to the RV, sounding worried. “That was you that screamed a few aisles away, wasn’t it? It sounded like you.”

  “Yeah, it was me. It’s the condition, when you don’t get enough sleep you start to hallucinate,” Lee said, not sure if he was telling the truth or not. He knew hallucinations were a possible symptom, but he wasn’t convinced that the demon was one.

  “Oh,” Ben said, frowning. “Look man, we should talk about it all sometime, it might help you deal with everything.”

  “I doubt it would help anything, but we’ll talk about it sometime. Not now.”

  They loaded the groceries in, careful to put the perishables in the refrigerator and shoving the rest into the cupboards. Lee asked Ben to drive, the demon sighting making him rethink driving the first leg of the journey.

  “Where to, buddy?” Ben asked, taking the driver’s seat and starting up the rig.

  “I figure we’ll go east. We can get on I-90 and it will take us all the way to Boston, I looked it up online. From there we can work our way down the east coast. Or we could cut down to Washington DC and then work our way up the coast. I’ve always wanted to see the cities in that area.”

  “Sounds good, we can work out the specifics when we get there. We’re going to have plenty of time.”

  I sure hope so, thought Lee.

  When they got on the interstate and out of Seattle, Lee popped a cocktail of two of his prescription pills mixed with a few of the over-the-counter ones. He then excused himself and went back to the master bedroom to get some sleep, planning on taking over for Ben once night came. Technically you were supposed to stay buckled when the RV was moving, but damned if he was going to follow that rule. The blinds were all down, so no one could see him.

  It was hard getting used to lying down in the bed while the car was moving. Every time Ben made a lane change it would slide him around. After some brief experimentation he managed to fix the problem by tucking himself in tightly. The pills worked and after an hour, he managed to fall into a deep sleep.

  He dreamt that he was standing at the edge of a cliff so high that he couldn’t see the ground below, only a swirling mass of clouds thousands of feet below him. Scared of heights, he turned to run away, only to find the demon standing behind him. It held out its right hand, palm up as if it wanted him to come with it. Lee backed away from it until his heels were on the edge of the cliff, but it came towards him. Without thinking, he took another step back and fell into oblivion.

  He jerked awake, sitting up in bed. It was evening, going on night. He looked at the clock installed into a panel on the wall and saw that it was almost nine in the evening. He’d managed to sleep for a full five hours.

  Feeling refreshed and proud of himself for getting some rest, Lee left the room and moved to the front of the RV. “Where are we at now?” he asked Ben as he settled into the passenger’s seat.

  “Just coming up on Spokane, be there in fifteen minutes or so,” Ben answered. “If it’s cool with you I was going to stop there and grab a burger, I don’t feel like cooking any of the food we got at the store.”

  “That sounds fine. I’m feeling a bit better, so I can drive after that.”

  When they got into the small city, they pulled off the interstate and stopped at a greasy local place called Dick’s that the GPS recommended. Both he and Ben had assumed it would be the same as the Dick’s in Seattle that they were so fond of, but found that it was a completely unrelated establishment. The food was good though and even cheaper than the food at the Dick’s they were familiar with.

  After they’d finished eating they took off again, Lee behind the wheel.

  “Have you ever been to the east coast before?” Lee asked Ben when they were back on the interstate.

  “I went to New York once, with my parents. I was only five or six though, so I don’t really remember much of it.”

  “That’s cool. I think you mentioned that before, now that I think about it. Looks like this is going to be nearly as new to you as it is to me,” Lee said. “What cities are you interested in going to?”

  “Chicago always sounded like a really cool place to visit.”

  “I want to go there too, so we’ll definitely stop there. We just have to figure out the neighborhoods to avoid, I don’t want to drive this thing through the slums and get robbed.”

  “Speaking of bad neighborhoods, we should go to Baltimore too,” Ben said

  Lee laughed, “You want to go on a The Wire tour too, don’t you? I thought that I was the only one into The Wire.”

  “Fuck you, I was into it first and you know it. I was the one who told you about it.”

  “I remember. I was just fucking with you,” Lee said.

  After two more hours of driving, Ben went back to the couch in the living room to get some sleep. It wasn’t too far from the front, so they talked for a while longer as Ben converted the couch into bed mode and lay down.

  When Ben passed out, Lee turned on the radio and tuned into an AM news station, making sure only the front speakers were on, so as to not disturb Ben. He didn’t like the first station, so flipped through a few more, settling on a channel that played old radio shows like The Lone Ranger and Flash Gordon.

  So entertained by the shows that he barely noticed he was driving, Lee flew through the panhandle of Idaho in a little over two hours and entered Montana. Another hour later, he decided that three states in one day was enough and he pulled off the interstate and into an RV park that he saw advertised on an exit sign. He still hadn’t filled the RV’s water tanks and knew the place would probably have the setup for that. He had never owned an RV before, but it made sense.

  There was a cashier booth he had to drive through at the entra
nce and after paying what Lee thought was a bit of a steep fee, they were in. He pulled into the spot specified on the receipt the cashier had given him and killed the engine. He got out, found the long hose that came with the parking spot and started filling up the water tanks with it, while Ben still slept. He had always been a sound sleeper, Lee remembered jealously, as he waited for the tanks to fill.

  When he’d finished, he plugged the RV into the park’s electricity supply so the heaters and lights wouldn’t drain the batteries. Satisfied, he entered the master bedroom via the side door, turned on the space heater in the room and lay down to try and get some more sleep.

  Two hours of rolling around later, he realized it wasn’t going to happen. It seemed that four hours was all his body was going to allow him today. It was better than a lot of days had been recently, at least. Wanting to wait until the morning before taking off, he got out his laptop to do some writing. Not feeling like working on the novella he had been tackling when his insomnia had started, he began a new document.

  Surprisingly, the old rhythm came back to him, and he soon found himself in the middle of a story about a bed monster. He struggled from time to time, but was able to get two thousand words down by the time the sun came up.

  He closed the laptop, feeling proud at getting back to his old craft. Just as the computer snapped shut there was a knock on the door.

  “Come in,” Lee said.

  The door cracked open, and Ben popped his head in the room. “Hey, how’s it going?” he asked.

  “Good, just finished up with some writing.”

  “Where are we at?”

  “Not sure, I didn’t check when I pulled off. Somewhere off I-90.”

  “Did you get any sleep?”

  “No, I wasn’t feeling very good so I pulled in to try, but wasn’t able to. I filled up the water tank though, you can use the master bath to take a shower, if you want,” Lee said, changing the subject away from his insomnia. “It’s bigger than the one in the main bathroom.”