Cowan slowly walked across the parking lot to his new dark blue Dodge SUV. He was already fond of this vehicle even though he'd owned it for less than two months. His only regret was in choosing such a dark color – in the hot desert sun, it became so uncomfortable late in the day. Actually, Cowan still couldn't understand why he'd decided on that color. He'd lived in hot southern climates all his life and always chosen light colored vehicles.

He unlocked the SUV with the remote on his key ring and the engine turned over immediately. Fortunately, today was a bit colder than usual, and with just the windows open, he found the vehicle quite comfortable.

As he drove, James thought about work. It seemed as if the whole scope of the project was suddenly taking a drastic turn. He wasn't bothered specifically by the change, but not having a clear understanding of the goals of this new project made him uncomfortable.

The story Matt gave him had more holes in it than Cowan cared to count, but he suspected there was probably some truth to it. James assumed the Colonel was being ordered to keep a lot of the details confidential.

Regardless of the real reasons for the changes, what they were investigating now was stuff they'd only briefly considered in the past. Now they were going to get to try some of them out. If things went well, some of the long-standing plans for implementing a real sleep event would need to be completely revisited.

Still contemplating the path they were following, Cowan suddenly realized he was only a couple minutes from his house. He thought back on the drive home and was disconcerted to realize there were large parts of the trip that he had no recollection of. While this had certainly happened before, it still troubled him each time. He always imagined that had he gotten involved in a minor accident, he might not have even noticed and just kept driving.

He slowly turned onto his street and almost had to stop for Tuffy the black lab, who was wandering down the middle of the road. Tuffy had lived in the neighborhood as long as Cowan could remember. He was old now and slow, and mostly, if not entirely deaf.

One of Cowan's favorite photos of his son was of him playing with Tuffy when he was a tiny pup. As Cowan thought about it, he realized the picture must be close to fourteen years old now, which meant this canine was at least ancient in dog years, if not older. Cowan smiled at the thought and decided he didn't mind waiting a minute for Tuffy to make it past his driveway. As he got out of the car, he paused for a moment and took another look at the neighborhood mascot as he continued his slow journey.

He entered the house calling out, “Kath, I'm home.”

“Out on the porch,” came the faint reply.