HUM by Dan Hawley (chromebook ebook reader TXT) 📕

His breathing was labored and shallow as if he had just run the quarter mile. Jason shot the doctor a meek smile and relaxed back into his chair. The muscles around his lungs relaxed, and he took in a deep, calming breath.

“Wow,” he said. “Seems like a lot when you put it all out there, huh?”

Dr. Luu finished his notes and looked over at Jason, observing the young man silently.

“It actually feels…pretty good to get that off my chest, Doc. Damn! It’s like the foot that’s been standing on my throat has eased off the pressure a bit.” Jason rubbed the back of his head as he spoke.

Dr. Luu sat quietly a moment longer. The room was silent as he thoughtfully watched Jason.

“There is a lot to unpack here, Jason,” he began. “Thank you for coming in and trusting me enough to share your experiences. There is no doubt that stress is a major factor affecting your sleep right now, but I would like to run some tests to find out more. I do have a room available tomorrow night if you would like to come back and spend the night?”

Dr. Luu’s eyebrows raised with his voice as he asked the question.

“Whatever I gotta do, Doc. I just want to get better, I…I feel like I’m going nuts over here.”

“You aren’t going nuts, Jason,” Dr. Luu said with a slight smile, “but you are under a great amount of stress. We will see what the tests say and go from there. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like hope,” Jason said, semi-sardonically. He wanted to hope, but he didn’t know if he could fully allow it.

“Good. Here is some information for you, along with some instructions to follow before your appointment. Please look it over when you get home.”

Dr. Luu opened a drawer in his desk, took out a folder, and handed it to Jason as they both got up. “Oh, uh…hey Doc,” Jason stammered. “You think you could give me something, you know, to help me sleep better tonight?”

There was that feeling again: hope, hope that the good doctor had some blue liquid gels laying around somewhere that he could kindly gift to Jason.

“I’m sorry, Jason,” Dr. Luu said, “You must not change anything about your sleep routine. Don’t take anything you don’t normally take. No sleeping pills. Not even a chamomile tea or hot bath if that’s not your normal routine, ok?”

Jason nodded dejectedly.

“Once we run some tests and talk a bit more, we can see if a sleep aid is necessary.”

“Thank you kindly, Doc. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow then.”

Dr. Luu bowed his head slightly, and Jason turned and left the office. He walked through the door, into the waiting room, and across its black and white checkered floor. Jason’s thoughts dwelled on the possibility that this man might make him better. He allowed his feelings to swell into hopefulness. As Jason pushed open the metal door into the cool, crisp evening and took in a sharp breath of air, he felt relief. He was so distracted by the alien feeling that he didn’t notice the woman and child staring at him from the window above.

CHAPTER 17

Jason quickly texted Samantha to let her know that he was on his way and pulled out onto the street. It was dark, so he had put on his prescription glasses. The way the headlights and streetlamps mingled and bounced off the city’s glass and concrete caused a distracting glare. Jason wasn’t required to wear glasses when driving, his eyes weren’t that bad, but the thin-rimmed glasses sharpened images at a distance, which helped put him at ease.

Driving was a stressful thing—gasoline-filled chunks of heavy metal and rubber, barreling down the road, guided only by people and their limited attention spans. They were basically driving ticking time bombs that were waiting to go off.

About four years prior, not long before Jason had met Samantha, some dummy had run a stop sign, causing Jason to T-bone the shiny new Cadillac. Luckily this happened on a back street, and the vehicles collided at only about thirty miles per hour. Not enough to kill you, really, but enough to injure or at least shake you up. Especially if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt, which Jason wasn’t.

His body had bounced off the airbag with a flash of powder and pain. He had sat dazed as his car began to smoke, disabled in the intersection. Playing repeatedly in Jason’s mind was the image of the fellow in the passenger seat seeing Jason’s car coming and instantly recognizing the danger, their eyes meeting. Eyes filled with fear, like a dying deer. Like the dead hiker. All in a flash. The poor guy probably shit himself.

It had been a hot July day, so the passenger’s window was down. Good thing, or he would have cracked his head wide open right there and maybe died.

Jason’s daze had turned to concern as he checked his body for injuries and checked it again.

He had gotten out, walked over to the curb, and sat down. The ambulance sirens had wailed in the distance as Jason watched the driver get out, hurry to the passenger side of what used to be his shiny, new Cadillac, and swore. He swore, and he swore again, inspecting the crumpled steel and chipped paint where his door used to be. The driver stomped his foot like some angry child. He noticed Jason sitting on the curb from the corner of his eye.

“Hey man, you ok?” he asked.

Jason said that he was.

The driver’s face then turned red and flushed. He took a step towards Jason.

“You should watch where the fuck you’re going, man! You almost killed us!” The driver’s words shook Jason from his quiet stupor. His eyes focused on the angry man and narrowed into slits.

Jason stood up, causing the Cadillac driver to take a step back.

“Are you kidding me?” Jason roared. “You ran a fucking stop sign, you dumb, stupid fuck!”

The man’s angry face had