IT - Pieces in the Dark

Chapter 9 - Where the heart is

Chapter 9  -  Where the Heart is

 

Sam woke with the daylight in a place he was not familiar with; the sun streaming through the bare windows into a room of half empty packing boxes.

He was lying on a wooden framed bed, its new mattress still in its plastic wrappings. He was still clothed and he ached, and his back was damp with sweat from being next to the plastic. His head felt numb, not from a hangover, but as if he hadn’t slept, like it had been working away all night in his absence. He sat up and his back complained at the additional burden it had to endure in addition to the brick hard bed it had already had to cope with.

He was tired, irritable and in need of a shower. His mind was busy processing things, thoughts flying around all over the place, pulling bits and pieces together from dreams and concepts that had obviously been working around in his mind in the night, sparked off by his conversations with Max.

The sounds and smells from the Greek fauna outside his window drifted in through the half-open windows and he slowly worked out where he was and why he was there.

There was quite a breeze blowing now, which seemed to have shut the cicadas up. He got out of bed, stumbled around in the room looking for his rucksack, pulled out a bottle of water and downed it along with a few headache tablets.

He then opened the door and made his way to the kitchen to find something for breakfast. The back door was open so he guessed that Max was already up and out walking somewhere.

Sam walked barefoot over to the fridge, which of course was only a cupboard with a cool box in it, and opened it, still bleary eyed and only half-awake. He lifted out the carton of milk which he found was empty and that it had a slightly cheesy odour to it. There were a few things he could not quite cope without, and breakfast was one of them.

It also had something to do with not having to wake up until the last possible moment, even if that was as you drove into the office car park for work in the morning. Breakfast was one of those automatic pilot activities, and meant that everything had to be in place beforehand to avoid having to wake up and think.

He closed the door and looked around the kitchen, and then just picked up an apple from the fruit bowl, and ate it standing in the open doorway.

There was no sign of the dog either so he assumed they must both be off doing some rounds somewhere. In any case he didn’t feel comfortable any more, not just physically, but with the situation there; it felt odd, as if he had outstayed his welcome, even though he had only been there one day.

Before long there would be some personality clash he was sure, besides he could feel that the levels of the discussions were tough for the German to cope with, stress-wise.

He didn’t want to push him too far, or force him to deal with keeping pace in discussions that put pressure on him. He didn’t want to be responsible for a nervous breakdown or stroke - he just wasn’t qualified to deal with that sort of thing.

He made his way to the bathroom with his bag and washed and shaved himself as best he could. He noticed that even the water pipes and the taps and fittings were all plastic - Max must have had some very interesting meetings with the builders in the specification of what was required. 

Sam put on the fresh set of clothes that Brina had packed for him and then went back to the kitchen to wait for Max and his dog to return.

It was awkward telling Max that he was leaving. He felt as if he was abandoning him from one perspective. Max managed to look both sad and indifferent at the same time, weighing up his need for space and solitude and his limit of capacity for coping with company.