He took off for work along his secret route, impatient to be at the end of the day and to experience the phenomenon again. It was his plan next time to more carefully observe and to write down what he experienced. Nothing much happened at the library. Mrs. Hultz arrived at noon to read to whatever toddlers were brought in by their mothers or fathers for story time. No takers showed, so she waylaid Owen with her tales of distant relations and medical issues. Just before she had mercy and left his office, though, she told him she’d seen in that day’s newspaper an article about the gunman from the Busy Bee. The authorities didn’t have a name for him yet, but they mentioned a small black tattoo of a cross in a circle on his wrist that they believed to be a gang affiliation sign.

“I saw it,” said Owen.

“Gangs in Westwend,” said Mrs. Hultz, and shook her head.

5

OWEN STRUGGLED AGAINST THE inertia of his body for what felt like an hour before being released to the night. Out on the street, he decided to head toward town, hoping since there were more people in that direction, there would be more sleepers. He desperately wanted answers about the dark world he roamed. A few steps along the sidewalk and he noticed something up ahead. A pale blue glow, passing through the wall of a neighbor’s house.

The man who owned the house was a forbidding fellow who never waved when Owen greeted him, yelled at the kids not to play on the sidewalk in front of his place, and had a nasty-looking pit bull. Although Owen had promised himself he wouldn’t spy on people in their homes beyond looking in the lighted windows, his curiosity got the better of him. What’s the point of this special power if not to see what is otherwise unseen?

He trod across the man’s lawn and went to the side of the house where he’d seen the other glowing figure enter through the wall next to the chimney. I’m not only a coward but now a pervert as well, he thought as he took a step forward and passed through the wall into a darkened dining room. The first thing he noticed was the light in the next room. He crept, though he didn’t have to, to the doorway and peered in. There was the man, a grimace upon his face and his hands covering his eyes.