Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Ch 119 - Almost Home

Jake arrived at the hotel feeling sick and sweaty. He was frantic to get home to search for his sister, but his body couldn't move on the road for another minute without making the situation dangerous. Jake honestly didn't want to stop, but he knew he'd fall asleep at the wheel if he kept driving. He needed a shower and sleep for at least a few hours. Since he planned to leave in the middle of the night, he was only losing a small amount of time.

Alicia told her son she loved him before she hung up. He had talked to his mother as she led him off the freeway to the motel she put on her card. It was difficult to understand her because she was so emotional, he couldn't focus as he drove. He hated when his mother cried. It felt as if her tears were pulled from his own soul. He wanted to hold her and put a protective bubble around her that contained flowers, chocolate, and a spa day of her wildest dreams. She had told Jake that fantasy once after she had finished one of her biggest weddings. He had planned to give her that day after he owned his own practice and could afford it.

The warm sprays of the shower had a hard time washing off the smell of skunk off his skin. He cleansed everything from head to toe three times which was just enough to make the faint scent tolerable. It was bad enough that his jacket smelled like the odor absorbers he stacked his truck full of. Jake stopped short of sticking on the seat mothballs, because that was just another smell that would make him throw up. The headache he carried for most of his trip finally dulled to a soft lingering ache if he moved his head too fast. The shower helped but not as much as the aspirin he took did. He was grateful not to feel the pain that had been chewing on the nerves of his brain.

A long soak in a bath of hot water would have been preferable to his shower but he was afraid to fall into a deep sleep, slip into the water, and drown. Wrapped in just a towel around his waist, Jake retrieved his phone and laid on his back atop the made bed. With the swift movements, he caught the faintest scent of skunk and pinched his nose with his free hand to ignore it. Try as he might, there wasn't enough soap in the world that could fully erase that dank perfume. Only time or tomato juice had that magic power and Jake had neither of those things.

The bag of food he picked up on the way sat on the table by the door. The idea of eating food under the smell of skunk ruined his appetite. He didn't feel hungry anyway and wanted nothing more than sleep. After a call to his father he was going to do just that for everything else cost too much effort.

Without being able to fully regain his strength and alertness, he needed to stay in touch with his dad to find out what was going on. He laid on the firm bed not caring about the thousands of people who used it before him. Those people whom had left dead skin cells imbedded into the fibers of the mattress under the thin sheets he had hoped had been washed every day they were used.

He knew he couldn't find out more from his mom for she wouldn't yet have all the details until his father claimed the facts. Sometimes it was easier with his father, because Kyle was willing to give him theory and direction. Jake closed his eyes while Kyle's phone rang. It was the sound of his father's saying hello that woke him up. Jake stood up so he wouldn't fall asleep during anything his father said to him. Jake wasn't sure if the drugs that were in his system was dragging out the last of their tail, but he needed the rest regardless.

"Hi Dad, I'm at the hotel Mom got and I plan to sleep for a few hours before I leave." Jake said. He started to rock back and forth on his feet then stopped because he was afraid, he was going to rock himself to sleep.

"That is good, I am glad you are there. Is Anna still following you?" Kyle asked.

"Yes, I am sure of it. I know she is in a light blue car that she followed me down from Mt. Ashland which is where she must have switched it. I am sure she is going to pick her car up on the way back." Jake replied.