Lost Hours

"Lost hours?" Olivia asks. "Yeah, the lost hours." She stares at me. "I'm gonna need more information than that." I clear my throat. " There is a theory that when you are abducted by aliens you will lose a few hours and not remember where you are." "I think that's a mental condition." Olivia says. "That's possible, but where did we go?" "We went to sleep." I raise my index finger in the "ah ha." fashion. "But do you remember falling asleep?" I ask. "No, but that is hardly a mystery. We were tired. It happens." "Aren't you curious what went on while we were sleeping?" Olivia shakes her head no. "Not really." "I am. I have to know." "You know I think this is how people develop insomnia." I feel slightly degected. Olivia sighs. "Alright, I'll play along." We sit down by the bonfire and stare at the flames. "Now what?" she asks. "Now, we wait." We sit and stare for a few moments in silence. Olivia glances at her wristwatch. "I don't think anything is happening." She declares. Just then we hear something coming our way. "What the hell is that?" Olivia asks. We get ready take on whatever is coming our way. As we are preparing to fight mentally and physically, we hear a voice from behind us. "What are you guys looking at?" It asks. We turn around to see a little raccoon standing on its hind legs. It wears a tool belt and hard hat. It watches us gawking at him. "You guys ok?" It asks us. I loudly whisper to Olivia. " Did it just talk?" "Yeah, I did and I can hear you." It replies. The raccoon skimpers to the bonfire. "Now, make some room. I've had a long day. I need to rest for a while." We move over and give him some space on the log. The raccoon plops down and stretches out his legs. He extents his paw to us. " The name is Norm. I'm a contractor." We shake his paw. "So what brings you two here?" He asks us. "Where not exactly sure." Olivia tells him. "Actually, there is one thing I was wondering." I utter. "Shoot." I continue. "Do you know of a tribe of kids around here?" Norm sneers. "I've heard of them." "Did you do any work for them." I ask him. Norm laughs. " Hell no, they have shitty work. Lot of safety violations. I've been trying to get them shut down for years. Not exactly in my jurisdiction though." Olivia leans in. " Any idea who might have helped them?" Norm shakes his head. " I don't know and I don't care either." "We kinda would like to solve this mystery." I insist. " You guys wanna solve that mystery, be my guest. I'm not gonna help you though. It's not my problem. I had a long day. I just want to relax." Norm stretches and Olivia and I look at each other. These are the lost hours. I think to myself.