Chapter 14

I had fallen asleep with the TV on the night before and it had still been on when I woke up, but the channel it had been on had been showing something quiet – weather reports or something, until it had been interrupted by some onscreen airhead wishing some other onscreen airhead a happy birthday or something involving confetti, balloons and noisemakers. It was the noisemakers that pulled me out of my reverie.

The memories of my early years and my departure for England in the war had replayed in my head vividly, almost as if I'd been reliving them. I couldn't remember ever having that kind of memory recall, conscious or asleep. I had remembered details of those events that I hadn't thought of since the day they'd occurred.

"What the hell is happening in my head," I asked myself, but as usual nobody answered.

I left a $20 bill on the pillow for the housekeeping staff and straightened up, though the only place that came close to needing it was the bathroom, due to my morning shower. I didn't make the bed.

It had been close to forty years since I'd rented a hotel room myself, so all the fine print and details were new to me, including the fact that I was able to do some sort of instant checkout. Apparently they feel safe in letting you leave without a room check when they have your credit card info to bill any surprises to. I left the key card in the room, went down the back stairs to my bike and got my gear stashed for the long ride out to the house and then did a quick trip over to the IHOP for one last breakfast.

Smiling Mila was my waitress this morning, and the smile was wide the entire time. I'm not sure I saw her actually wait on anyone else while I was there either, though I tried not to pay too much attention to her. Her cheery "Welcome to Santa Rosa, Mr. James" as I walked out the door told me that there had to have been some sort of Mila – Kelli communications in the past twenty four hours, but I managed to hide my own grin until I had my helmet on and it was no longer visible.

The ride out to the house was nice. The traffic wasn't too bad and I had a good feeling about the future for the first time since I woke up in Cooper James' body. I almost felt like whistling a tune, but it felt weird knowing that the only tunes I could really whistle were from the Frank Sinatra and big band era, unless it was a TV theme song. The good mood lasted until I was walking up the steps to the porch, and then it didn't go away so much as get washed over with the somber memory of why I was here at this house. Cooper James had lost his parents, and what remained of their lives together were here, and it was up to me to honor their memories for him since he wasn't here to do it for himself.

Those tasks were going to have to take a back seat to a few more mundane tasks required to keep me warm and fed. The fridge was empty, having been cleaned by whoever had put the house in order to await my arrival. The pantry had quite a bit of canned goods in it, and there were still spices and other things with long shelf lives in the various cupboards, but the fridge was empty, there was no bread, no fresh fruit, not potatoes or onions. I needed fresh vegetables and meet, milk and cheese, and those were just a start. This need was complicated by the fact that I knew the garage, beautiful as it was, was empty. The Road King was currently my only transportation. I couldn't haul much more than the basics in the bike's saddlebags, and though I could perhaps manage a fair amount on the rear rack, it wasn't the greatest place for anything that needed to be kept cool.

I needed to shop for groceries, but before I could do that, I needed to shop for a car. Both shopping trips had to wait because I needed to make some phone calls.

I found the list of names and numbers that Darius had left me on the counter and called the woman he had listed as the James' housekeeper, Mrs. Edwina Ibarra.