A/N: Once again, thank you all for your reviews. A few quick things – I took some liberties with the décor of the Arnold's room over their barn. The Minneapolis reference is for my Mom. And please remember – Jasper's little sister is younger than she was in the movie.

Chapter 5: A Room For Rent

A fine layer of perspiration broke out and covered Jasper's entire body. He slept an uneasy sleep, rarely peacefully anymore since Samantha's death. He often spent his nights tossing and turning constantly in failed attempts to escape his recurring nightmares. Once again his attempts failed as another nightmare chased him…

She was alive again, alive and well, and they were together. It was just like old times. He loved her and he would have bet anything that she loved him too. Being alone with her felt almost right, except he didn't quite recognize where they were.

The room they were in was overly bright, almost blindingly so. Any color, if there was any color, was leached out by the over-abundance of light. The room felt familiar to him in some way he couldn't quite put his finger on and there was music playing. It was coming from all around them. He kept searching for it, but couldn't find the source. Suddenly he found himself seated on a stark white bench that wasn't there a second ago, and sitting in front of a stark white piano that also wasn't there a second ago. When he looked down, he saw that the music was coming from him. He was playing. He was playing for her, for Samantha.

Jasper had never played for Samantha before. He never felt comfortable enough in his abilities. He never felt he could lose himself enough to play all out in front of her. He could now. His love for her was coming through in his playing. He could feel her love for him as she listened. She stood, leaning against the piano with her elbows atop it and her chin resting in her hands. She watched him intently. Her big blue-green eyes never leaving his. She was enthralled by the passion with which he played. In this time, for this moment, they were the only two people in the world and they loved each other.

As quickly as those familiar feelings caught up with him once more, is as quickly as they left him. What Jasper was just feeling from Samantha was already fading. More like it was drifting away from him and towards someone else. At that same moment, Jasper became aware of something else happening. Color was appearing in the room. Not all colors though. Only one – yellow. Yellow roses began springing up all over the once blinding white room. They sprang up in big bunches, and small bunches, and in single delicate buds. Their sudden fragrance in the room was over-whelming and getting stronger. Not only were yellow roses popping up out of nowhere, but yellow rose petals were raining down from above. Soon a blanket of them covered the entire top of the piano and was slowly filling the room.

Jasper hated yellow roses. Every time he bought his flower bouquet for her, he made sure they were never included. Those were their roses, Samantha and – someone else; someone other than him. He knew he should know who that someone was, but he couldn't remember. Not right away anyway. Not until he saw them – slowly coming into his view. It was Kelly. It was always Kelly. He kept coming back over and over. Each and every time, Jasper would sense Samantha's feelings drifting away from him and focusing on Kelly. Kelly, who came for her again and again, always carried with him a full bouquet of yellow roses.

Samantha abandoned her place at the piano and ran into Kelly's arms. Jasper played on. Their passion flowed as their lips met and crushed the roses between them. Jasper played on. He didn't want to. He didn't want to watch them either; but as much as he tried to, needed to, he couldn't stop himself. He watched even as Samantha began withering in Kelly's arms, and collapsing to the floor, taking him with her. And still Jasper played on, watching and feeling his heart break. His gaze never wavered as Samantha took her last breath, and covered in yellow rose petals, died in Kelly's embrace…

Jasper awoke with a sudden gasp, inhaling deeply as if he'd forgotten to breathe. His heart was pounding in his chest; leaving his body too weak to move. He always remembered upon waking that the blinding white room his nightmare played out in was Samantha's hospital room. He opened his eyes slowly and laid there in his bed staring at the ceiling as he always did, waiting for his strength to return. He could still smell the fragrance of the roses; his dream taking longer than usual to fade from him.

oO0Oo

Alex decided to take advantage of her morning off. She agreed to help out with the night shift that night, thereby leaving her morning free to do some much desired exploring of the area. Something she had been meaning to do since deciding to extend her stay in Putnam. So after picking up an extra large coffee with a heavy dose of sugar and easy milk, she set out early.

She started walking and wandering. She went about looking into storefront windows along the main street running through town, and admiring the well-kept homes along the way. She continued to wander about until she came across the local library. It looked exactly the way it was supposed to look in Alex's mind. It had masonry construction, light in color, and aside from the second floor, it looked about the size of Mabel's Table. The front of the building had concrete steps that ran the width of it. The entrance was a double set of double doors and floor-to-ceiling windows on either side of those doors extending out to the corners.

Alex had a thing for libraries; the quietness of them, how they allowed you to isolate yourself even when they were full. She knew the minute she saw this one, she was going in. As far as libraries go, Putnam's was typical, stacks of books, card catalogs, tables and chairs, individual studying cubbies, and over sized lounge chairs for hanging out or reading. Looking around, it was the second floor that Alex was interested in. It was the library's media center, complete with audio and visual study tools, computers and internet access.

Alex suddenly realized, when she was deciding to stay in Putnam for however long that might be, she was essentially leaving her life behind. She was walking away from it. Had that been her intention? She wondered. Did she need a break from her life, to not think about it for a while? Or did things here feel so good and comfortable, she forgot her life? She resolved herself and realized it was probably the latter. She had let herself forget about her life, but not anymore. She was still going to stay in Putnam, at least for a while, but her life beckoned as well. It was time to get back to it. And the Putnam Public Library Media Center was a good place to start.

She spent the rest of the morning and the early part of the afternoon in front of one of the library's computers. She used it to access her email account. She read through her emails, dumping many and answering some. She had quite a few from her mother who moved to Minneapolis from Los Angeles shortly after she started her trek across country. She had a scant few from her brothers – one living nearby in Boston and the other still living in Los Angeles. Most of the other emails were proposals and/or propositions of which she had no interest. There were several, however, all from the same person. This person had been shown some of her work, and wanted to talk to her about some ideas for a project that could suit her being in Putnam quite nicely. She sent an email back expressing interest in the project and suggesting further discussion of details. If she accepted this project, she really would have to consider more permanent living arrangements.

Remembering she still needed to make contact with the Arnolds, Alex made a point to stop by their farm on her way back to her room. When she found it, she followed the short, unpaved driveway running between a good-sized house on one side and a two-story barn on the other; to dead-end at a field spreading out behind both structures. She stopped in the middle of the driveway when she reached the house. At first it didn't appear to be anyone home, until she heard the ringing of a small bell. She turned her head to listen for the direction of the bell. When she did, a little girl with soft sandy brown, almost blonde curls framing her face came out from behind the house. She was riding a child's two-wheeler bicycle and ringing the small bell attached to the handlebars.

"Who are you?" The girl asked when she spotted Alex.

"I'm Alex Jace. Who are you?"

"Robin Arnold"

"Hi Robin Arnold", Alex said, bending down to shake Robin's hand.

"Hi."

"So you're an Arnold."

"He's not here, you know", Robin informed Alex.

"Who?" She asked, a bit confused by the child's admission.

"Jasper. He's not here, if you're looking for him. He's hardly ever here anymore", Robin complained sadly.

"I'm sorry", Alex sympathized with her. "Actually, I'm here to talk to your parents. Are they home?"

In an instant Robin hopped off her bicycle, letting it fall unceremoniously at Alex's feet. Calling for her mother, the little girl ran into her house and like she let the bicycle fall, she let the screen door slam behind her. Before long, she came back out followed by a woman Alex could only assume was the child's mother. The woman met Alex at the bottom of the steps.

"I'm Betsy Arnold", she introduced herself, holding her hand out to Alex. "Can I help you?"

"I hope so. My name is Alex Jace, Mrs. Arnold." Alex shook her hand as she too introduced herself.

"I've seen you. You're new to Putnam."

"Yes ma'am I am. I've been filling in over at Mabel's Table for the past couple of weeks." Alex paused, rethinking her decision to just stop by unannounced. "I should have called before showing up at your door step. I was out exploring today and on my way back when I took a shot in coming by here."

"Why did you come by here?" Mrs. Arnold asked suddenly.

"Jenny Cavanaugh…. Um, right now I'm renting a room, week to week, over the bus station. Jenny suggested I get in touch with you. She said that you have a room over your barn that you rented out last summer. She said you may be willing to do it again." Alex ended her extended explanation, hopeful that Mrs. Arnold would be willing to rent again.

Several minutes later, Alex was led up a flight of stairs running along the outside of the barn to the top floor room. Alex liked that. At least there was a separate entrance aside from the barn itself. When Mrs. Arnold showed her into the room, Alex saw that it was very simply done, decorated in gingham fabrics of soft blues and greens. A full-size bed, with rounded slatted head and foot boards, unadorned bedspread, and fat pillows in pillow cases matching the bedspread, sat against the wall opposite the door. Back across from the bed, left of the door as you're coming in, was a chest-of-drawers with a large mirror mounted over it. There were two matching nightstands on either side of the bed, each with a hurricane style lamp atop it.

Deeper inside the room off to the right, there was a small sitting area with a rocking chair, a window seat and a bay window that looked towards the east and the wide open meadow across the road. That window, Alex made a mental note, would let in an incredible amount of light during the early morning hours. Inside and to the left was the bathroom. It too had a window - inside the small separate shower area. That window looked out over the back fields. Alex was almost disappointed at the size of the shower, until further into the bathroom she found the old-fashioned, claw-footed bathtub. She fell in love with it instantly. She envisioned herself soaking in it, taking long hot baths covered in fragrant bubbles.

Before Mrs. Arnold could go into the details of renting the room, Alex stopped her.

"Mrs. Arnold", she began. "I really like the room, but it looks like you already have a tenant. I don't want to force someone out of their room. I…I can't….

Throughout the tour Alex noticed cd's on top of the chest-of-drawers and on the right side nightstand, a plaid flannel shirt thrown across the back of the rocking chair, and an old beat up green baseball hat on the door knob. She also saw someone's soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and hair brush in the bathroom.

"It's okay", Mrs. Arnold interrupted. "We're not renting this room out to anyone right now. These things belong to my son."

"Jasper."

"Yes. Do you know my son?"

"No. Not exactly. He comes into Mabel's everyday. Doesn't talk to anyone. Probably wouldn't eat anything either, if an order of french fries didn't find its way in front of him. From what I hear, he's been haunting the place for awhile."

"Yes. I imagine he would", Mrs. Arnold responded somewhat distantly. A small measure of concern was evident in her voice.

"You know", Alex paused. "Maybe he needs this place more than I do. I'm fine where I am."

"No! Jasper needs to be home", Mrs. Arnold declared with undeniable resolve.

Quicker than expected, Alex and Mrs. Arnold reached an agreement. For a fixed amount, Alex would take over the room on a month to month basis. The utilities, except for the phone, would be included in the rent, as the room didn't have its own phone. Alex would have to start using her cell, which she hated to do. She never wanted to be one of those people who walked around all day almost hard-wired to their phones. She wouldn't have one herself if it wasn't for her older brother. He made her carry one if she was going to be gallivanting all over the country. His words, not hers. She rarely even turned her phone on. She only used it for emergencies, which aggravated her brother to no end. He should be happier now.

Mrs. Arnold walked Alex back up the driveway, assuring her that Jasper would be out of the room by the end of the week and it would be ready for her to move into on the weekend. She also looked forward to her moving in and extended to her an open invitation to join the family for meals at any time. Alex thanked her and was back on her way into town. She had to hurry or she'd be late for her shift at the diner.

END OF CHAPTER 5