Crime Time

"And skew the scientific results? Betsy would have you drummed out of her physic sorority." Those were the last words spoken as I turned out the light.

The room, in near total darkness, held a barely audible hum for background music. I'm surprised I didn't sleep too. As it worked out, I hardly had time. I heard the faint sound of a phone ringing downstairs.

Howie shot up to a sitting position. "Shit!" he exclaimed. There was murmured sound downstairs and Betsy asked from outside the door if there was a problem. "No," Howie answered. "The phone woke me." He opened the door, rubbing his eyes.

"Is Howie awake?" Martha yelled from below. "It's his mother calling from Santa Barbara." We all paraded downstairs.

The phone was in the kitchen and we gave Howie privacy. Three of us sat around the table while Quinn continued to read in a corner rocker.

"I guess he didn't have time to fall asleep," Betsy said, her voice dripping with disappointment. Martha rolled her eyes, beginning to share her husband's opinion of our little trial.

"He said the phone woke him," I offered. "He must have nodded off almost at once."

"It's no wonder," Martha said. "The poor man is exhausted. You should let him take a decent nap in our room and drop this silly business."

"Amen," Quinn said from his chair.

While I admit more than a smidgen of curiosity about what we were undertaking, I felt uncomfortable being at odds with our hosts. I could tell Betsy felt embarrassed by her enthusiasm. The longer Howie spoke on the phone, the more I felt guilty that we were manipulating him into a parlor game at the expense of his privacy. All such concerns flew away likes ducks going south when he returned to the room.

"I was back again!" he said as excited as a little leaguer with his first hit."

"Only for a minute or two but it was so cool!" He took a seat at the table. "Listen," he turned to Martha. "You should take notes in case we forget some detail."

"Tell us!" Betsy said with a glow in her eyes. Quinn peeked over the edge of his magazine as Martha brought a pen and pad from the kitchen.

"First off, I fell asleep almost as soon as I hit the sack," his enthusiasm continuing.

Martha frowned. "No wonder."

Howie continued, as animated as a kindergartener at show and tell. "The phone woke me up, even though it wasn't very loud. When I sleep normally, it takes a lot more than that to rouse me." He looked at each of us in turn. "This isn't normal sleep." Martha wrote on her pad as he continued.