Jules Hinton's Strange Trip: Chapter 8 by JCH and Kas  

        Somebody was stroking his hair.  He could smell her, smell freshly shampooed hair.  He was going to be all right.  “Nikki?”  He tried to sit up.
         “Not so fast there.”  An unfamiliar voice.  Female.  Soothing.  She put both hands on his shoulders and guided him back down.  He couldn’t have sat up anyway.  Still too groggy.  He opened his eyes.  Everything was a hazy.  But it seemed he was in a cabin.  The paneling looked like fake wood, like the paneling in the hallway at the Horny Toad, but cheaper and older.  Deer heads were mounted on the walls.  An ancient newspaper was framed, something about Jesse James in the headline.  He was lying on a couch.  Or a cot.  The girl was young, a red head.
         “How do you feel?”
         “Like I was run over by a train.  Where am I?”
         “Good.  He’s awake.”  The man’s voice, older, comforting, came in from behind Jules, as if he were just entering the room.  “How do you feel, son?”
         The girl answered for him.  “He’s going to be all right.”
         “He sure is,” the man said.  He came into view.  Must be about fifty, Jules thought.  Maybe a little older.  Heavy around the middle.  The girl might have been eighteen.  “I brought you some soup.  It’s about all that we have.  I was going to go into town later on today if the road is clear.  I guess all the stores are still standing.  The tornadoes were pretty bad the other day.”
         He helped Jules sit up.  The girl helped feed him.  He had a lot of questions in his mind, but most importantly, he was famished.  The man brought him two more bowls of soup before he was finished.  He introduced himself as Dan Jenkins.  The girl, Sara, was his daughter.  She had stepped out of the room for a moment.
         Then he leaned back onto the cot and fell asleep again.

         He awoke with a start.  The door slammed.  It was the girl.
         “I’m sorry.  The door slipped out of my hands.  How do you feel?”
         “Better, I guess,” he said.  He sat up on the cot.  It was getting dark outside.  Or just getting light.  “How did I get here?”
         “I didn’t think you’d remember.  We found you a couple on a dirt road not too far away from here.  Dad said you could have died if we hadn’t found you when we did.”
         “Why didn’t you get me to a hospital?”
         “They would have all been too full.  You probably don’t remember this either, but we had some tornadoes around here a couple of days ago.  As it turned out, we couldn’t have got you there anyway.  Dad said there’s a couple of trees over the road about half a mile away.  But don’t worry.  You’re in good hands.  Dad was a medic in Vietnam for a couple of tours.”
         Jules stood uneasily.  He thought he was going to fall down, but Sara helped him stay balanced.  He felt tired, but other than that...  His hands.  His hands were all cut up.  How did that happen?  He remembered something.  Thorns.  Branches.
         “I’ve been putting alcohol on them every few hours,” Sara said.  “Dad says you must have been running through the woods.  Your clothes were ripped up pretty bad too.  That’s why you’re wearing one of my night shirts.”  She blushed.  “Sorry about that.  I hope you like Garfield.  I’ll go get your clothes.”
         He hadn’t even realized the shirt.  If Nikki could only see him...  Nikki.
 Sara walked back into the room and handed his clothes to him.  “I patched up your jeans as best I could, but your shirt was pretty much ruined.  Luckily, you and my dad are about the same size.  I hope you like flannel.”
         Jules allowed himself to chuckle as he pulled on the jeans.  He automatically went for his wallet and pulled it out.  Everything was there.
         “We checked your ID to see who you were and if there was anybody we could call.  Of course, we don’t have a phone and the lines were probably out for a while anyway.  But we had to have something to call you while you were out.”
         “What about my bags?  Did you find anything else?  Like my car.”
         “Nope, just you.”
         Jules sat on the arm of the couch to pull his shoes on.  “Is your father around?”
         “He’s out taking his morning walk.  Should be back pretty soon.”
         “I need to get out of here.  I was traveling with someone and I think she may be in dander.  Is there a police station near here?”
         “Sure.  Ten or twelve miles away.  But like I said, Dad said there were a couple of trees over the road.  He would have cut them out, but we’re low on gas for the saw.  We came up here on the spur-of-the-moment to get away from the storms and didn’t have time to stock up.”
         “What about hiking?  Couldn’t we hike through the woods?”
         “We could do that.  In fact, we’ll probably have to.  All we’d have to do is to follow the road.  That would be the closest way out.  But we’ll wait until you’re up to it.  Dad said you had a concussion.  Said it looked like you were beat up pretty good.”
         “I’m up to it.  But I’m not worried about me anyway.  I’ve to get to the police as soon as I can.  My friend’s life may depend on it.”
         “What happened to you out there?”  The question wasn’t exactly accusatory.  Not totally.  But there was something about the way she had said.
         “I’m not sure exactly.  All I know is that my friend is gone.  And I have to do what I can to find her.  Damn.  We should never have left that place until the cops found that guy.”  That was my fault, he thought.  But I’ll find her.  I have to.
 
         Talking the old man into walking the dirt road wasn’t easy.  He said Jules wasn’t up for it yet.  But Jules was vehement.  Said he would go it alone if he had to.
         “Dad, listen to him.  His friend is missing.  His car is gone.  All of his stuff is gone.  He needs to get to the police station.  And we need to help him.”
         The old man relented when Jules promised to go to the emergency room as soon as he could.  “There’s a cabin on the main road just a few miles away,” he said.  “I know the man who owns it.  If he’s not there, we’ll just break in and use the CB to radio the police.  He won’t mind too much.  Probably won’t even be able to tell anybody was there.”
         Sara fixed them something to eat before they left while Dan cleaned his rifle.  “It never hurts to be safe,” he told Jules, who was pacing around the cabin trying to gather his thoughts.  Jules didn’t know if the man was carrying the gun for safety or for hunting and didn’t particularly want to ask.  But after what had happened to him, he did think about asking the man for a gun for himself.  He ultimately decided against it.
 
         An hour later, they were walking down the road, Jules leading the way.  Dan was carrying his gun at his side, loaded, as far as Jules could tell.  Sara was carrying a back pack filled with supplies, water mostly, and food, should they get stranded.  There were more than a few trees over the road, but none that couldn’t easily be climbed over.  Jules hardly noticed them at all, nor the rest of the damage from the tornadoes.  None of it mattered to him above finding Nikki.
         But he did allow himself--briefly--to wonder whether he was consciously trying to avoid thinking about what had happened to him, what he had seen.  Or who.  He thought he had been hallucinating, but the scars on his hands...  Not that any of it was very important to him at the moment.  He had to find Nikki, had to make sure she was all right.
         “Maybe we should stop for a minute,” Sara said.  “I’m not used to this.”  She leaned against an old pine tree and wiped the sweat of her face with her shirt.
         “Ah, come on.  How far can it be?” Jules asked.
         “Far enough,” she said.
         Jules sighed and looked down the road.  It was clear as far as he could see.  No more trees.  It was a beautiful day.  Warm, but not hot and not a cloud in the sky.  Jules had seen many days like this on his motorcycle and it never failed to take his breath away, the green leaves against a shocking blue sky.
         “This girl must have meant a lot to you,” the man said.  Jules thought he sounded like he was just trying to make conversation, not like he cared what Jules had to say at all.  He chose to ignore the old man.  Standing around here wasn’t helping him find Nikki.  Meanwhile, who knew where she was or if she was even alive.  Jules shook the thought off.  Keep moving, he told himself.  He had to keep moving.
         Wordlessly, Dan and Sara followed him.

         John Owens was a frail looking man who Jules thought must have been pushing 80.  Nevertheless, he was in front of his cabin chopping wood from fallen trees in his yard.  He saw Dan coming and went inside for the Jack Daniels.
         “Ain’t got time for that, John.  We need to get this man some help.  We found him in the woods a mile or so past our place.  His friend is missing and he thinks something has happened to her.”
         John Owens put on his glasses to get a better look at Jules.  “What were ya doing out there in them woods anyway?”
         “I was knocked out, taken there and left for dead on the side of the road,” Jules replied.  Something about the old man told him that he suspected Jules of something, was suspicious of him.  Maybe it was the hair, Jules told himself.
         “He had a concussion,“ Dan said.  “In fact, he should be resting some place, but he was pretty adamant about coming.  I was hoping you could help us some how.  I’d consider it a personal favor if you did.”
         “Well, since you put it like that, come on around with me, Dan.  Take a look at the truck.  I think it’ll get you into town.”
         The two men walked around the side of the house, leaving Jules feeling very relieved.  Something about the way the man looked at him, though Jules was sure he was wrong about it.
         “Mr. Owens is a good man,” Sara said.  “Maybe more than just a little backwards, but he means well.  How do you feel?  Are you holding up?”
         “I feel good enough,” Jules replied.  “I’ve always been pretty resilient.”
         Dan Jenkins pulled the truck around the house and Jules and Sara climbed into the front seat.  Mr. Owens walked up to them.
         “I really appreciate this, Mr. Owens,” Jules said.  “I don’t know how to thank you.”
         “You ain’t got to thank me,” the old man said.  “Danny Boy here said he’d bring me another bottle of Jack when he brings the truck back.  That’ll be all the thanks I need.”
         Jenkins pulled off muttering something under his breath.  “Stupid old drunk.  His wife was killed when she was in her thirties.  Drinking and driving.  That was when he started drinking too much.  You’d think the old geezer would’ve learned.”
         As they got closer to town, it became evident just how bad the tornadoes had been.  As far as Jules could see, there was nothing but destruction, trailers twisted around trees.  Power lines were down.  Cars were on their tops, barely recognizable as to what models they were.  Two-story houses had been reduced to nothing more than a pile of rubble.  Groups of people walked through the debris with their hands to their sides, shell-shocked.  Jules began fearing for Nikki’s safety from the storms on top of the man who took her.
         The damage wasn’t as bad as they got into to town.  There was some obvious wind damage, some broken windows and some shingles off of a few of the roofs.but nothing that compared to the out-skirts of the town.  Jules felt a pang of hope.  Maybe she was safe.  And maybe she was looking for him too.
         “I’ve seen worse,” Dan said.  “The tornadoes of ‘79 were pure hell.  Damn near every house in the area was gone.  Blown away.  Live in Texas long enough, though, and you get used to it.  Or you move away.  I still haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet.”
         “I have,” his daughter chimed in, though she did not choose to share her decision with either her father or Jules.
         Dan turned the old pick-up down a narrow road.  Jules saw the sign outside the police station.  Parked underneath it was a black and white.  It appeared to have been only slightly damaged.  Dan pulled to a stop beside it.
         “Would you like me to come in with you?  I know most of the police around here.”
         “No, sir.  You’ve done more than enough already.  I just want you to know how I appreciate what you’ve done for me too.  But I think I’ll be all right from here on out.”
         “Let me give you my sister’s phone number and address.  I’ll give her a call and tell her about you.  If you need anything, don’t hesitate to call on her.”  Before Jules could say anything, Dan was writing it down on a short piece of paper.  He handed it to Jules.  “We’re heading over there now, so she won’t be surprised if you call.  Like I said, feel free to call on her.  She’s a better person than I am.  She’ll do whatever she can for you.”  Dan stuck out his hand and Jules grasped it.  “Good luck, son.”
         Jules watched the truck disappear around a corner, then turned around facing the police station.  He took a deep breath, then walked inside.  There was one man sitting behind a desk.  he was talking on a CB radio.  Jules looked at the wanted posters to give the man some semblance of privacy.  It was at least ten minutes before the cop acknowledged Jules.
         “How can I help you, sir?  Did you have some looters too?”
         “No, sir.  Nothing like that.  I’m actually not from around here.  I was passing through a few days ago with my friend.  We got separated and I think something may have happened to her.”
         “You do, huh?  Is there any reason you think this?”
         Jules was expecting a little more sympathy from the man.  “We were together.  We’re not together anymore.”  He stepped up closer to the desk.  “Listen, it’s been a rough few days for me.  She was kidnapped a couple of days ago.  She got away, and they never got the guy.  And now he’s back.”
         “Are you sure?”
         “Well, I’m not sure it’s the same guy.  But it does make sense, right?  She gets kidnapped once, gets away and now this.  We were out at the rest stop at the main highway when it happened.  I was kinda out of it, still in the car.  But I saw him.  They were standing away from the car a little.  He slapped her, then came after me.  I don’t remember much after that.  I woke up some time later out in the woods.  A man named Dan Jenkins and his daughter found me and took me back to the cabin.”
         “Wait a minute.  Dan Jenkins?  I haven’t seen him in a few weeks.  Which daughter?  Morgan?”
         “No, the red head, Sara.”
         “Yeah, Morgan's her middle name, her mother's maiden name, I believe.  They’re good people.  But do you think you could identify the guy you saw?”
         “I don’t know.  Like I said, I was kinda out of it.”
         “What do you mean ‘out of it’?”
         “We had got some bad food at a Griddle House that morning and it didn’t agree with us.  You know how it can be.”
         “Tell me about it.  My daughter is a manager at one of them and she can’t even eat the food.  Why don’t you come on back and let me take your statement.  Then maybe you can look at some pictures and ID the guy.”  He led Jules to his desk and put a form he found in a box on his desk into the old typewriter.  Jules knew this was going to take a while.
         “Right now, my main concern is Nikki.  I’m afraid that it might already be too late.”
         The cop thought about it for a while.  “This couldn’t have happened at a worse time.  We just got power back an hour or so ago, but they don’t know when the phones may be up again.  That means the computers are down, of course.  I tell you what, come with me.  We’ll go by the hospitals and the clinics and see if we can’t find her.  But first, we’ll go by my son’s house.  My grand-daughter is itching to get out of the clean-up.  We’ll let her take some notes while we’re driving around.  Kill two birds with one stone I guess you could say.”

         The grand-daughter was young, maybe twelve or thirteen, but she took good notes.  Jules gave the best description he could of the man, seeing him through the foggy window, being somewhat groggy himself.  Tall.  About his height.  Dark hair.  Short, maybe pulled back into a ponytail.  Unshaven.  Mean.
         The cop--his name tag read Ferguson--got in touch with the State Police, passing along Jules’ description of Nikki, the car and the man.  “But I don’t want you to get your hopes up.  Most people are concerned only with the damage done to their houses or cars.  It’s possible that anything short of the Second Coming would have slipped past them.  But we’ll find them.  It may take some time.  But we’ll find them.”
         It took the better part of the day going from the hospital to the clinics to the school gymnasiums that had been hastily set up as Red Cross centers.  No one had seen Nikki or the man.  They were sure of that.
         “That’s not bad news,” Ferguson said.  “All that means is that she didn’t have to go get medical treatment.  It’s probably actually good news.”
         Jules could hardly see it that way.  He had the nagging feeling that she was still in danger, and that riding around with Ferguson wasn’t doing any good in finding her.  He could not remember a time when he felt more helpless.
         They were almost back to the station when the call came in.  A security guard had found the car stashed behind a couple of trees on the outskirts of the grounds of the plant he worked for.  There was some blood inside the car, but no sign of foul play.  It took Ferguson ten minutes to get there after dropping his grand-daughter off.  He had radioed the State Police and they were there by the time Ferguson pulled up.  Jules was surprised to realize that the car was not far away from where Dan Jenkins had found him.
         “It looks like there was a struggle.  We’re searching the area, but I doubt we’ll find anything.  My gut instinct is that no one was killed here.”  He looked at Jules.  “Is this your car?”
         “Yes, sir.  I got it a few days ago.  The title is in the glove compartment.  Or should be anyway.”
         “Ferguson, call a tow truck and take it to the station.  Park it somewhere secure.  We’ll get a CSU down here early in the morning.  There’s bound to be some workable fingerprints in there somewhere.”  He turned back to Jules.  “We also found some luggage in the trunk.”  He walked Jules to the rear of the car.  “Is it yours?”
         “Yeah.  Most of it is.  One of the bags is hers.  Can I take it?  I need some things out of my bags.”
         The trooper looked at Ferguson, who shrugged his shoulders.  “I don’t see why not,” he said.  “If you find anything we need to see, though, let us know.”
         “Of course,” Jules replied.

         The phones were up by the time they got back to the station and Jules called the number Dan Jenkins had given him.  He was going to find a hotel, but Ferguson told him they were all most likely either booked up with locals who suddenly found themselves homeless or were closed themselves.  A man picked up.
         “Yes.  I hope I’m not...”
         “Jules, is that you?  This is Dan.  How did it go today?”
         “It could have been better,” Jules replied.  “But it could have been a lot worse too.  I guess.  What about you?  Did you go by your house?”
         “Yeah.  It’s still standing, but it needs a lot of work so we’re staying over here with Mary.  There’s plenty of room, if you need somewhere to stay.”
         “Well, that is why I’m calling...”
         “Say no more.  We’ll pick you up.  Are you still at the station?”
         “Yeah.  We’re going to spend an hour or so first going through wanted pictures off the Internet to see if I can identify the guy.”
         “I’ll pick you up in an hour then.”

         Jenkins was there a little early, but not soon enough for Jules.  He was feeling weak, not having eaten anything more than a gas station hot dog and a pack of chips.  He had been running on pure adrenaline for most of the day, but now it was beginning to catch up with him.
         “So, are you going to the emergency room now?”
         “You know, Dan, I feel mostly all right, just a little tired.”
         “No, you didn’t understand me.  I mean you are going to the emergency room now.”
         “How can I argue with that?”
         The attending physician in the ER gave Jules a clean bill of health.  Said he just needed a little rest, something Jules already knew.  An hour after Dan picked him up at the police station, they went to his sister’s house.
         Dan’s sister, Mary, and Sara had just finished fixing a home cooked meal of chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans when they got there.  Jules was aware that he was making something of a pig of himself, but he was hungry and the meal was really good.  Besides, no one seemed to mind much.  After dinner, he took a shower.  He was glad that Mary had got her power back early that day, having not had a bath in a while.  Then, he changed into clean clothes out of his bags.
         Afterward, he went outside to sit on the porch steps to think about things.  He had dreamed of the night in the desert.  The man.  The man he had seen through the window, slapping Nikki, then coming toward him.  The man with the boots.  The boots in the hallway at the inn, then again at the gas station.  But none of it made sense.  None of it.
         He heard something behind him, to the side of the house.  Jules figured it was probably just a cat or a dog, but Jules wasn’t going to take any chances.  He stood up and walked as silently as he could to the corner of the house.  He peered around.  Darkness.
         “Jules...”
         He jumped.  It was Dan, standing behind him where Jules had just been on the steps.  They both laughed nervously.
         “Sorry to alarm you.  I was just making sure we were all right.  I was just talking to Jim Ferguson on the phone.  He said that someone matching the description you gave of the guy was seen a few towns over stealing a car in a Walk-A-Mart parking lot.”
         “Did they catch him?”
         “No, he got away.  The eyewitness was sure it was him though, according to Ferguson.  You friend wasn’t with him, though.  Sorry it wasn’t better news.”
         “Yeah.  Thanks.”  A car drove slowly down the road.  Probably looking at the damage from the tornadoes, Jules thought.  Though they were in the wrong part of town for that.
         “Ferguson wouldn’t dare ask you something like this, but since I’m not a law man anymore, I can.  Do you have a gun?  I mean, for protection.  It seems like someone is really after your friend and maybe you too.  I’d seriously think about getting something to protect myself if I were you.  Have you ever been arrested?”
         “Uhm...”
         Dan held up his hand.  “That’s all right.  I know people who you’d be able to work something out with if you want to.  No questions.  No paperwork.  No waiting period.  Totally untraceable.  Any kind of gun you want.  If you kow what I mean.”
         Jules looked at Dan for a moment.  “Thanks.  I’ll think about it.”

         Jules woke up in the middle of the night.  Something was not right.  She should be beside him.  Strange, he thought, we haven’t know each other that long, but we had already slipped into an easiness around each other usually reserved for people who had been together for a long time.
         He knew it was going to be hard to get back to sleep, so he pulled on his jeans and shoes and went back onto the front porch.  The sky was full of stars and the visibility was incredible.  Almost enough to make him forget...
         He knew he heard something this time from the same place.  He looked around the corner as a shadow--definitely a person, probably a man--disappeared around the far side of the house.  Instinctively, Jules followed suit.  He had know idea what he would do if he caught the man.
         When Jules rounded the corner of the house, he saw no one.  The back yard was wide open with few trees and the lot next door was much the same.  There was no place for the man to have gone, but he was nowhere to be seen.  Jules stopped running and was about to turn and go back to the porch when suddenly he was knocked to the ground.  He wrestled with him for a moment but the soon man pinned him down with his arms behind his back.  With one free hand, he kept Jules from looking around at him.
         “I should kill you,” the guy said.  He was speaking in a low voice.  Jules thought he was doing that to disguise his voice, more than to be quiet.
         “Why don’t you do it then?” Jules said.  Just as he had gathered up all of his strength to knock the g uy off him, there was a loud booming noise coming from the direction of the house.  It was Dan, standing there with his rifle in his hands, aiming at the sky.  Jules’ attacker got up and ran into the woods, with Dan right behind him.  Jules stood up and walked toward the back steps trying to catch his breath.
         Sara was there waiting on him.  “Jules, what happened?  Are you all right?”
         “I’m fine,” he answered, looking over his shoulder.  Dan was standing at the edge of the woods with his rifle pointed toward where a sound had just come from.  Satisfied that it was nothing more than a squirrel and that the man was long gone, he came to where Jules and Sara were standing.
         “Did you call Ferguson?”
         Sara nodded.  “He said he’s on his way.”
         He turned to Jules.  “I doubt it’s just a coincidence that this happened right after your girlfriend was kidnapped.  Somebody’s after you, son.  Do you have any ideas?  Have you pissed anybody off lately?  Maybe it’s the ex-boyfriend.”
         “No, Nikki would have told me if it was.  I don’t have any idea who it might be.”
         “No idea at all?”
         “None.”
         Ferguson got there a few minutes later and asked Jules to go through everything from the man he had seen at the rest-stop to what had just happened.  Ferguson took notes this time.  “Do you think it was the same guy tonight?” he asked.
         “Well, he blind-sided me so I didn’t get a good look at his face.  But I’d say it’s a safe bet.  Wouldn’t you?”
         “It looks that way.  Or either you’re just a very unlucky guy.  And you have no idea why someone might have something against you.”
         Jules was getting tired of being asked that question, but he tried not to let it show.  He shook his head.  “Maybe he’s just some thug.  Maybe there’s no method to his madness.”  But Jules didn’t believe this.
         “If you’ll excuse me,” Ferguson said.  “I’m going to radio in the APB.  Maybe we can catch this creep this time.”  He walked out of the house.
         “Maybe you should think some more about what we talked about last night,” Dan said.  He shot a glance over at Mary.  “Let’s go out on the porch.”  He led Jules outside and closed the door.  “My sister don’t like guns as much as I do.  Hell, I don’t like them all that much.  But, in this day and age, they’re a necessity, a sad reminder of the times we live in.”
         “I just need one for safety,” Jules said.  “If I want a sad reminder of the times we live in, I’ll just watch daytime television.”
         “Don’t get me started on that.”  Dan grew silent as James Ferguson joined them.  “I guess that’s about all I can do here.  Why don’t you come back down to the station in the morning?  We can go through some more photos.  It couldn’t hurt.  Also the state crime scene unit should get here early tomorrow.  We may know some things by the afternoon, like who the blood belongs to.”
         Jules didn’t say anything.  It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Officer Ferguson; he just didn’t think he knew what the hell he was doing.
         “I’ll see you then,” the cop said.  “Dan, please tell your lovely sister and daughter I said good-bye.”  Dan and Jules watched him walk to his patrol car, get in and drive off.
         “He’s a good man.  Tries to do a good job.  But there are times in a man’s life when he must take things into his own hands.  I think this is one of those times.”
         “You don’t have to sell the idea to me, Dan.  I think you’re right.  I need a gun.”
         “Good.  I’ll make some phone calls.  I have to work in the morning, but I’ll talk Mary into letting Sara borrow her car.  She’ll take care of you.  In the mean time, why don’t you get some sleep?  I’ll stay up until I’m sure he’s not coming back.”
         Jules wasn’t going to argue with the man.  He needed some rest.  In spite of all that had happened, he knew he would have little trouble falling asleep now even as he was sure the dreams would plague him again.
 

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