Crystal Lies - Melody Carlson [48]
Just the same, I was relieved to see that Jacob had come home after all. Sacked out on his futon, he still had his clothes on, but at least he was safe. Feeling somewhat encouraged, I did my regular morning run, which had increased to nearly an hour including a cool-down period. Then after my shower, I peeked into Jacob’s room to see that he was still sleeping soundly. I decided to make us both a nice breakfast of blueberry muffins and cheese omelets.
But Jacob’s breakfast went untouched as he continued to sleep. About two o’clock I decided to wake him up.
“What’s wrong?” he asked as I gently shook him.
I told him the time and reminded him about work, and to my relief he finally pulled himself out of bed, showered, and left. Even so, that same old feeling of worry began gnawing in the pit of my stomach. I wondered if this could be the beginning of trouble again.
But Jacob came home after work and seemed to be doing fine. And for the following week, we continued to live fairly contentedly in our small and slightly cramped home. Oh, sure, he got in pretty late a couple of times, but he was always in good spirits, and his explanation always was that he’d been jamming with Daniel and some friends.
“We might even try to get some gigs this winter,” he told me as he poured himself a big bowl of cereal and drowned it with milk.
“That would be great,” I said, replacing the milk jug back in the fridge for him.
And, really, I figured music was probably a good distraction for him, something to keep him away from the temptation of drugs. I knew a little about distractions myself, since I spent most of my time trying to keep myself busy these days. It was my way of distracting myself from my own messed-up life—or rather my marriage. I relied on diversions like my daily morning runs. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I’d walk Rufus and then have tea with Mrs. Fieldstone.
I also busied myself by keeping the apartment immaculate. For some reason I felt that if I could keep everything perfectly in place and running like clockwork, it would make it easier for Jacob to stay on track. I didn’t even mind cleaning his room, a practice I had long since given up when we were living in our old house. But the apartment was small and easy to maintain. Even the menial tasks, like scrubbing the grout between the tiles in the shower until the little room gleamed, didn’t bother me. I’m sure the place had never been so clean. Not only would I get my cleaning deposit back in February, but in all fairness the management should thank me for leaving the place in much better condition than I’d found it. In an attempt to remove old pet smells, I’d already steam-cleaned the carpets twice and was even considering painting the walls to freshen them up.
I also distracted myself by shopping for groceries at More-4-Less, and since the store was only eight blocks from the apartments, I would sometimes walk when I only needed a few items. Sylvia had explained the concept of clipping coupons to me. So now I would search through the Sunday paper or old magazines left in the laundry room for useful coupons. These I kept separated by category in an old wallet so they would be ready when I needed them—I knew that Sylvia had little patience for customers who held her up by digging around in search of some missing coupon for fifty cents off. I also knew about “double off” coupons. Sometimes More-4-Less would honor offers made by competing stores by giving you twice the face value of the manufacturer’s coupon. Already I had saved more than ten dollars by using these.
Twice a week I busied myself by doing