by Geoff North
“When you get out there?”
“I gave it some thought. I think it would be better if I went the rest of the way alone. I don’t expect your uncles will take it well, and I don’t want you around to see that.”
“What am I supposed to do? Wait here until after the funeral?”
Ray shook his head. “Grummy didn’t want any kind of service. She’ll be cremated. I’m sorry, Dawn, but I need to get this over with, on my own. There’s a flight out from Calgary in three hours. I fly to Kelowna, say what needs to be said, and I take the next flight back.”
“When will that be?”
“Ten o’clock tonight. We can be back on the road for home tomorrow morning.”
Dawn was pissed off. Pissed off and disappointed. She’d been looking forward to driving through the mountains with him. She was broke. Her ex-boyfriend wouldn’t leave her alone. Grummy was dead. But this wasn’t just about her. Dawn’s father had been dealing with his own demons a lot longer. “All right. Let me get dressed and I’ll drive you to the airport.”
Tyler walked out of the 7-Eleven across from the Best Western, tore the cellophane wrap away from his pack of cigarettes, and tossed it to the ground. He lit up and started for the intersection. He froze at the corner when he saw Dawn and her father heading to a car in the hotel parking lot. He watched them get in and start driving away.
Tyler ran across the road without waiting for the light to turn. He rushed into his room, grabbed the gun out of the desk, and rushed back out to his truck. He spotted them pulling out into traffic heading the opposite direction from the Trans-Canada highway. Where were they going? That wouldn’t get them to British Colombia.
There could’ve been for a dozen different reasons, he thought. Maybe they were stopping for fuel first or going somewhere for breakfast. Tyler rushed through a red light and settled in a couple cars behind them. He laughed out loud. What were the odds of finding them like this? How incredible was it that he’d slept in the same hotel? Was it just stupid luck?
No, it wasn’t luck, he decided after a few more blocks. It was fate. This was meant to be.
Chapter 11
“Thank you for understanding,” Ray said as Dawn parked the car at the airport. “You don’t have to wait around if you don’t want.”
“Where do I have to go? It’s not like I’m in a big hurry to get back to the hotel room.”
He paused with his door half open. “When all of this is over we’ll take another trip. Maybe fly to another country altogether.”
“It’s alright. I have to get my shit together first. You know, quit drinking, find a job. After that, who knows?” They started walking.
Tyler pulled in a few cars away. He grabbed the gun and stepped out of his truck. They were still a hundred yards from the terminal doors. He pointed the gun at Ray’s back.
I pop the old fucker once, grab Dawn, and we’re out of here. No one close by to see it happen.
A police car appeared as the two reached the curb at the end of the parking lot. Tyler stuffed the gun into the back of his pants and pulled out his phone in one smooth move. He pretended to read the screen but kept an eye on Dawn’s father as he waved at the officer behind the wheel and they crossed in front of the cruiser. By the time the cop had driven out of sight, the two had already entered the building.
“Goddamn it!” Panic filled him. Tyler had lost his opportunity. He scratched frantically at his hair trying to figure out a next move. He saw a sign at the row’s end of parked cars that read Short Term Parking. “They’re not staying long,” he muttered. Or more likely, one of them was flying out and the other was driving away. Her father would be taking a plane. His old bag mom was probably closer to death than they’d realized. Dawn will be back out this way soon.
Tyler returned to the truck and started his wait.
Dawn stood in the queue with her father as he waited to get his boarding pass. The flight to Kelowna, as it turned out, was full. He had snagged the very last ticket. “I guess it was meant to be a solo trip after all,” she said after as they walked the length of the terminal passing by small restaurants and gift stores towards the security line.
Ray checked his watch. “There’s about ten minutes to spare before I have to go through. You want to grab a quick coffee?”
“Nah.” She’d already spotted a lounge next to a book store. “I’m going to head back to the hotel and get a few more hours of sleep.”
Ray squeezed her hand at the end of their walk. “Have a good rest and get something to eat when you get up. He pulled out his wallet and handed her two hundred dollar bills. “Just in case I miss the flight out tonight for whatever reason. You can pay a second night on your room.”
Dawn hugged him. “I’ll see you later, and all the best with Uncle Bruce and David.”
She waved at him one last time after he passed through the scanner, and then walked a straight line without hesitation for the lounge.
“What can I get you?” The server asked, placing a paper coaster on the table she’d sat at.
And then Dawn paused. She recalled watching her dad getting punched in the face the night before. “Any kind of non-alcohol beer will do,” she finally replied.
A woman came over the intercom announcing flight W-376 was ready to begin boarding. Twenty minutes earlier than Ray expected. People mumbled around his gate that it had to do with the snowstorm moving up from the south. If the pilots were in a hurry to get ahead of it, Ray didn’t mind. The sooner he got to Kelowna, the better. He just hoped the return flight wouldn’t be delayed because of it.
One of the flight attendants checked his ticket and studied the morose picture inside his passport before handing it back. “Have a nice flight, Mr. Wallace.”
He started through the jet bridge following a young couple arguing about which one would be sitting next to the window. A woman was coughing behind Ray, a little too close for his comfort. Another flight attendant looked at his ticket. “Seat 18C, about halfway down and to your left, sir.”
“Thank you.” He had to pause at the section 10 and wait for the couple to make up their minds about the window seat. The wife won, and they finally sat. Ray carried on, brushing past other travelers already seated and more stuffing bags into the overhead bins. He looked ahead and saw the 18 section. There was a big black garbage bag in the aisle seat.
The bag started to move, and Ray froze. No. Not here.
Someone sitting in a seat next to him grabbed his hand. It was ice cold. “Don’t sit down.” A familiar voice said. Ray could feel the hair on the back of his arm stand. He looked down and saw his mother. She wasn’t old anymore. This was forty-something Nancy Wallace from long ago. Her expression was a cross between fear and determined resolution. “You don’t belong here,” she whispered.
There was a man sitting beside her staring out the window. He turned and looked up at Ray. “Listen to your mother.” It was his father. He’d passed away fifteen years earlier, but an even younger version of him was here now. They were the parents that had picked him and Alicia up from his grandmother’s home on that late summer evening in 1980.
Ray closed his eyes. This wasn’t happening. His parents weren’t here. His mother wasn’t holding his hand. The black thing was not sitting in his seat.
He opened his eyes. Alicia was standing on the aisle seat of 18C, her little hands clutching the headrest in front of her. She wasn’t a burnt, unrecognizable husk anymore. She yelled at him. “Get outta here, Raymond! This ain’t your plane.”
His mother gave his hand a tug. “She’s okay, Raymond. Your father and I are both with her now. Our girl is fine. You need to look after yours.”
“Mom,” he finally managed, unable to take his eyes off the beautiful little sister he’d lost. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry for all of it.”
“We know you are, dear. But now you have to go. This isn’t your flight. Not yet.”
His father was holding her other hand. He smiled reassuringly at his
son. “Go, son. Now.”
She released his hand, and Ray staggered back into the coughing woman that had followed him onto the plane. “Watch where you’re going,” she snapped.
Ray pushed past her towards the front of the plane. He shoved other people along the way. The flight attendant that had checked his seat number stopped him at the door. “Do you need to use the washroom? Are you feeling sick?”
Ray glanced back down the aisle. His sister was standing above all the other faces. She was waving good bye. “Not sick, I have to get off the plane.”
Chapter 12
Dawn pushed the second empty bottle away. The server noticed and came over smiling. “You ready to try something a little harder now?”
“No, not anymore,” she answered, pulling one of the bills her dad had given her from a coat pocket. “Can you break this?”
“Not a problem.” The woman smiled. “I’ll be right back with your change.”
Dawn strode out from the terminal a few minutes later into the cool afternoon feeling cheerier than she expected. Not only had she resisted the booze, but it felt as if a few more corners had been turned since she had set out west with her father. She was going to sleep back at the hotel for awhile and then wake up, a brand new woman. Maybe a return to school wasn’t out of the question.
Dawn sat in the rental car and started it up. Screeching wheels sounded behind her. She looked in the rear view mirror and saw her ex-boyfriend’s red truck blocking the way. “What in the fu—”
“Get the hell out!” He came around the truck’s front end, pointing a gun in her direction. Tyler pounded on the driver’s window with the weapon’s butt end. “Now! Right fucking now!” The window exploded into a thousand pieces. Dawn screamed as he reached in and grabbed the handle. His fingers were in her hair, pulling her out.
He dragged her across the pavement and shoved her into his truck. And then they were moving, tires squealing.
“Don’t kill me,” she wept. “You stupid asshole, please don’t kill me.”
“You think that’s what this is about?” He slammed on the brake and waved the gun in her face. “You think I’d actually shoot the woman I love?”
“I don’t know what you’re capable of anymore.”
“You wouldn’t give us a chance. I gave you some distance for a while, but you just wouldn’t come around. I had to do this, Dawn. You didn’t leave me any other choice.” Tyler stowed the gun under his seat and took off again, slowing only slightly near the corner where the last row of vehicles ended. “I’m not gonna hurt you, I’m gonna—”
The world exploded. Dawn had never heard anything so loud. She felt the jarring smash down in her bones. She could taste the impact in her mouth. Her ears started to ring, an awful buzzing. She gasped for breath and opened her eyes. Tyler was slumped over the twisted steering wheel. There was blood all over his face. She could smell it, the blood, the dust.
Beyond the crushed-in driver’s door was the crushed-in front end of the rental car. Her dad was staggering out of it, clawing his way towards them. “Are you alright? Dawn! Are you okay?”
She nodded and choked out the words. “Okay… I’m okay.”
The police cruiser they’d seen earlier arrived five minutes later, the ambulance a few minutes after that. Dawn and Ray were checked over by the paramedics. Nothing broken, no blows to the skull. Not a single scratch on either one of them. Tyler regained consciousness halfway to the hospital. One of the police officers was in the ambulance with him, guaranteeing his stalking, gun-toting days were over.
Dawn listened to her father’s report at the police station—how he’d left the plane while it was still boarding, and spotting Tyler grabbing his daughter at gunpoint from the parking lot. Luckily the rental was still running when he’d reached it. He was able to cut between the rows of cars and plow into Tyler’s truck before it could exit the lot. It was after ten at night before they made it back to the hotel.
“It’s a good thing you paid extra for insurance on the rental,” Dawn said as she folded her dirty clothes and packed them back into her bag.
Ray was sitting on the corner of the desk next to the flat screen television, watching her. “We’ll find out in the morning if smashing it intentionally into another vehicle is covered. I have a suspicious feeling it isn’t.”
“What if it’s used to stop homicidal maniacs?”
He shrugged. “We’ll see.”
“At least my Cruze is all fixed. We’ll be halfway back to Manitoba by lunch time.” Her father just sat there, grinning. “What? We’re not leaving tomorrow?”
“There’s no hurry anymore. We should keep driving west, all the way through the mountains. You haven’t seen your uncles in years.”
Dawn raised her eyebrows. “You told them about Aunt Alicia?”
“Not yet. I figure we can all talk about that when we get there.”
“You won’t back out again in the morning?”
“Not again, Girl-of-Mine. Not ever again.”
Chapter 13
Bruce and David handled their little brother’s confession remarkably well. It seemed the old saying was true; time heals all wounds. Both men had raised children of their own, and they knew how kids behaved. They were capable of inexplicable actions when stressed. Fear could lead to bad decisions, and even worse secrets.
Dawn enjoyed the days with her uncles and aunts. She even dropped in on a few of her cousins still living in the area. Ray kept to himself for most of the visit, never straying far from David’s home in the hills overlooking Kelowna. A few days before they planned to drive home, his oldest brother reminded him he had one more visit to make. An important one.
Ray parked the car in the visitor’s section and stepped out. He walked slowly towards the hospital, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. This was where he’d tried to get to almost two weeks earlier from the Dominican Republic. Ray never expected to return home alive after saying goodbye to his mother.
Plans change.
He looked up into the early evening sky and saw a jumbo jet directly overhead. The rumble reached his ears a few moments later. He tracked its passage into the setting sun.
Ray had never been inside the hospital before, but he didn’t need to ask for directions. His brother had already told him Mom had passed away on the third floor. He rode the elevator up and stepped out to the right, towards the nurse’s station.
He introduced himself to the woman seated behind a computer. “I’m Ray Wallace, here to see Nurse Reynolds. I was told she’d be expecting me?”
“Of course, Mr. Wallace.” She turned her head and called out. “Abigail, there’s a handsome gentleman here to see you.”
Ray chuckled and blushed a little. “You’re an awful lair but thank you.”
A pretty, red-headed woman in uniform not much younger than Ray stepped out from the back. “Hello, Raymond.”
“Nurse Abigail Reynolds… Abby.” It was only the second time they’d ever spoken to each other. Their first brief conversation had occurred thirty-seven years earlier. “When my brother told me the name of the nurse that had sat with my mother in the end… well, I knew the odds were great, but somehow, somewhere deep inside I had a feeling it was you.”
She came around the corner of the station. “Would you like to see where she stayed?”
“That isn’t a problem?”
“It’s been slow lately, the room’s empty.”
He followed her down to the end of the hallway and into the last room on the left. There were four beds inside. The sun had finished setting outside, casting a brilliant display of red and orange outside the window. “Which one was Mom’s?”
“Here.” She went to a bed on the right, the one closest to the window. “Best view in the entire hospital.”
Ray sat on the edge of the bed and rested a hand on the cool blanket. “It sure is.” He didn’t know what else to say.
“Your mom was at peace, Raymond. She wasn’t afraid.”<
br />
He didn’t like when people called him that, but from Abby it was alright. “I know this is going to sound ridiculous, that I shouldn’t assume any kind of…” he paused, searching for the right words. “Any kind of importance in how the universe works.” He stalled a second time.
“Is it more than just coincidence that I was the one with your mother when she passed away?”
“I guess that’s what I’m trying to ask.”
“Well I can tell you coincidence certainly played a part. I had no idea who your mother was the day she came to us.” She smiled at him. “And I haven’t been keeping tabs on you all these years, waiting for my chance to come and do something nice for you.”
“So how…”
Nurse Reynolds shrugged and leaned against the window sill. “My parents left Rokerton in 1986. My dad tried farming again outside Red Deer, Alberta. We ended up in BC in the early nineties. I graduated from nursing school in ’94, got married in ’96, and settled in Kelowna a year after that.”
Ray glanced at her left hand. “You’re still married?”
“Hell, no. He cheated on me with my best friend on New Year’s Eve in ’99.”
“Not a great way to bring in the new millennium.” He showed her his ring finger. “Same thing happened to me six years ago.”
“Kids?”
“One daughter.”
Abby nodded. “That’s nice. I never had any. Threw myself into caring for others instead.”
“And you’ve done a wonderful job of it, according to my brother.”
“It’s because of what you did that I went into nursing. I guess that’s where coincidence ends, and fate takes over. You saved me that summer. I was here with your mother when she passed away because of you.”
Ray got up from the bed and stood next to her at the window. He stared at the colors already beginning to fade. A few dark bands of the jet’s stream were still dissipating. “I was going to take my own life when all of this was settled. I’ve been miserable for years.”