by Abby Weeks
Aisha had spent a week packing up their belongings and selling off anything they didn’t want to bring. She’d managed to raise about five hundred dollars getting rid of their old furniture, their kitchen appliances, and the TV. Most of their clothes had gone to the local thrift store. They wouldn’t be warm enough for the Alaskan winter anyway. They’d been told not to bring more than could fit on the roof of a single Toyota Land Cruiser, so their entire worldly belongings now fit into four oversized suitcases and a couple of backpacks.
“Did you find out if we were going in a convoy?” Aisha asked as she waited nervously for the company-employed guide to show up. She was sitting on the front porch, the suitcases piled up by the door.
“I think it’s just us and the guide.”
“Isn’t it safer if we go in a group?” she said.
Heath shrugged. “We’re driving through Canada, not Africa. What’s the worst that could happen?”
“I don’t know, bears?”
“Killer moose?” Heath said, laughing.
“Universal health care!”
It calmed her nerves to see Heath laughing. She knew the company took their safety seriously. When the Land Cruiser arrived, she saw just how seriously. The vehicle had been customized to withstand virtually any conditions imaginable. It looked like one of the trucks people drove when they went on safari. There was a shovel attached to the side of the vehicle, a winch on the front and back, spare tires, luggage racks, camping equipment, and additional lights. There was even a gun rack behind the back seat with four high-powered hunting rifles.
Their guide hopped out of the driving seat and marched over to them.
“I’m Cody Hunter,” he said, extending his hand to Heath.
Aisha assessed him quickly. He looked like he knew his way around the wilderness. He was in his mid-forties she guessed, with a raw face, shaggy beard, and rich, dark hair. She felt a little relieved at the thought of making the journey with someone as capable looking as him.
The men loaded the luggage while Aisha made three thermoses of hot coffee for the road. She wasn’t sure if they’d be stopping for breakfast, but she hoped so. She was already hungry and it wasn’t even seven.
When she saw the cruiser fully loaded she laughed.
“This looks like quite the expedition,” she said.
Hunter nodded. “Don’t worry about a thing, missy. I’ve been making this roundtrip for Northern Ridge for ten years now.” Northern Ridge was the name of the company that had offered Heath the job. They were the biggest logging outfit in Alaska and the Yukon.
“How long will it take us to get there?” she said.
“That depends on the weather, and whether we make the Monday ferry at Port Hardy. I’d say a week to ten days if everything goes according to plan.”
“We’re taking a ferry?”
“We’re taking two ferries,” Hunter said.
“We better get on the road then,” Aisha said. She felt daunted. Ten days in that little cruiser with two men. How would she wash? How would she take care of herself? When would she get any privacy?
Despite her concerns, she was pleased to discover that the first stretch of the journey wasn’t nearly as arduous as she’d feared. They had a nice, easy drive through Forks and the Olympic Forest to Port Angeles. At Port Angeles they boarded a ferry that would take two hours to cross the straits and bring them into Canada. She’d been to the town many times before and was surprised that she’d never even noticed the ferries that made the crossing to Canada six times a day. She’d never thought of leaving home before. She’d never imagined heading off into the world. To her, the world had been her little town, her little community. Roads, ferries, airports—those were things for other people, not for her.
The ferry terminal felt like a foreign country to her. They had to clear US and Canadian customs, and she saw that Hunter even had travel documents for her. The guards had a few questions, especially about the rack of rifles locked into the back of the vehicle, but Hunter had all the necessary paperwork, and they passed without incident.
It was a wet morning. Low clouds hung over the harbor. Aisha left the men at the cafe on board the ferry and went up to the deck. There were a few people up there, parents with children, some Japanese tourists with cameras, but most people remained in the cafe where they’d pass the two hours of the crossing sipping weak coffee.
Aisha walked up to the bow of the boat, the forward-most tip, and looked out across the harbor. This would be her last glimpse of Washington for quite some time. She realized she didn’t even know how long she was going for. Would she ever be coming back?
She was surprised to feel tears falling down her cheeks as the ferry engines revved up. The turbine began to turn, and very slowly the ferry pulled out of its berth. She stayed on deck and looked at the little harbor of Port Angeles while the boat turned. It pulled slowly out of the port and turned to face the north. This was it. She was leaving Washington behind.
All she could see now was the bleak blankness of the gray water, Canada, and far, far to the north, Alaska.
*
Chapter 18
THE CROSSING PASSED UNEVENTFULLY. Aisha left Heath and Hunter to themselves for most of it and tried to sleep on one of the seats in the lounge. She didn’t want to eat on the boat but she bought a BLT from the cafe before disembarking and brought it back to the cruiser.
She sat in the back by herself, Heath and Hunter taking turns driving in the front. They got off the boat at Victoria, British Columbia, and had a six hour drive ahead of them to Port Hardy at the northern tip of the Island. From there they’d catch another, longer ferry ride that would take them all the way north to Alaska.
Aisha sat quietly in the back of the car and tried to appreciate the little differences that made Canada a foreign country. The roadsigns were in kilometers, for example. Heath had given her a little cash, and she noticed that the Canadian money had pictures of the Queen of England on one side. Canada was part of the commonwealth, she remembered.
“You ever tried Tim Horton’s coffee?” Hunter asked back to her.
“No,” she said.
Hunter pulled the cruiser into a coffee shop by the side of the highway. There was a drive-thru, but they parked to use the washrooms. They bought a box of donuts and three coffees before getting back into the car. The donuts looked delicious but Aisha refused to allow herself to eat one. The thought of eating a donut in front of Heath put knots in her stomach.
They made their way along Trans-Canada Highway 1 to Nanaimo, and then continued north along the east side of Vancouver Island. It was late afternoon when they got off the highway at the town of Campbell River to find somewhere to eat. On their way into town, they crossed a bridge overlooking the riverbed, and Aisha was thrilled to see a group of four grizzlies pawing for salmon.
“Did you guys see that?” she gasped.
“What was it?” Heath said.
“Bears.”
Hunter nodded. “Oh, just you wait, missy,” he said. “Where we are right now is hardly any more remote than Washington was. Once we got into Alaska, that’s when the adventure really begins. This is all just a warm up.”
Hunter parked outside a rustic diner overlooking the harbor, and they got a table by a window. Heath sat next to Aisha. They faced Hunter.
Their waitress was a friendly woman in her forties, and she asked if they wanted coffee. They ordered three coffees and looked over the menus.
The food looked pretty similar to what Aisha was familiar with back in the US. She wasn’t surprised. She hadn’t expected Canadians to eat that differently from what she was used to.
“What’s poutine?” she said to Hunter as she read over the lunch items.
“Oh, you’ve got to order that. You’d love it. It’s fries covered in gravy and cheese curds. It’s a French thing. A Quebec thing.”
It sounded delicious. Aisha was literally starving, but always in the back of her mind was the worry of what Heath
would say if she ordered what she actually wanted. She ended up ordering a Caesar salad with chicken.
As she ate, Aisha thought she saw killer whales out in the bay.
*
Chapter 19
IT WAS DARK LONG BEFORE they reached the town of Port McNeill. The motel looked like an elongated ski chalet with rows of rooms around a central parking lot. Hunter had made the reservation for them, and there were two rooms—one for her and Heath, and one for Hunter. They said goodnight to Hunter outside their room, and Aisha swore she’d never been so happy to see a bed in her entire life.
It was still the same day she’d left home, but she already felt like she was a million miles from Washington. She’d travelled farther that day than she ever had before. They were at the northern tip of Vancouver Island. Tomorrow they’d catch the ferry that would take them all the way to Prince Rupert, far up the coast of British Colombia, close to the border with Alaska.
“How do you like Canada?” Heath said as she searched through her suitcase for pajamas.
“I like it,” Aisha said.
“It’s exciting, this trip, isn’t it?”
Aisha nodded.
“I really hope this is going to be a new beginning for us,” Heath said.
“Me too,” she said.
“I mean, I know things were difficult for us the past few months with me being out of work and all.”
She nodded again.
“But things will be different in Alaska. I promise you.”
Aisha went into the bathroom. She looked at her shoulder. She’d had the paw-shaped birthmark her entire life but it had always been very faint. Somehow it seemed darker today.
She put on her pajamas and got into the bed next to Heath. She wondered idly for a moment if he’d feel like taking her the way he had earlier in the week. That had been a savage night, haunting, almost unreal. She remembered clearly the howling wolf, the light of the full moon, and most of all, Heath calling her a bitch, over and over again as he came inside her.
*
Chapter 20
THE NEXT MORNING, AISHA WAS up early. She thought they’d need to hit the road immediately, but Heath told her the ferry wouldn’t be leaving Port Hardy till six in the evening. Port Hardy was less than an hour from where they were, so there wasn’t any hurry.
She decided to take a walk into Port McNeill and find something for breakfast. It was another gray, misty day, with low clouds and the constant threat of rain. Aisha was used to that sort of weather, she’d grown up in the wettest zip code in the continental US. It was a mile or two along the side of the highway into town, and she enjoyed the walk. The scenery was spectacular, with wide views over the strait.
She found the little town charming, although there wasn’t much to it. Indian totem poles, obviously placed for the benefit of tourists, lined one side of the main street. On the other side were a few gift shops, a post office, a grocery store, and a cafe.
She found a nice table overlooking the harbor and ordered coffee and breakfast.
“You from the US?” the proprietor asked her.
“Yes, ma’am,” Aisha said.
“You better try the peameal bacon, then. American’s love it.”
“Sure,” Aisha said. She watched the water and saw the same whales out in the bay. “Are those orcas?” she asked.
“Humpbacks, killers, gray whales, porpoises, seals, you name it.”
*
Chapter 21
AISHA WHILED AWAY MOST OF the day exploring the town. She bought groceries to take onto the ferry, she knew it would be an overnighter.
She got to the motel in plenty of time, and they left Port McNeill at about four. Their ferry for Prince Rupert left at six that evening. Aisha felt like she was used to the process of getting on ferries by now. She’d done it once, so she was an expert! The terminal was almost identical to the one they’d been at the day before, only this time they didn’t have to clear customs. Prince Rupert, their destination, was still on Canadian soil.
She went up to the deck again, and this time she was the only person foolhardy enough to face the icy wind. It was dark, and there wasn’t much to see other than the lights of Port Hardy receding into the distance as they made their way out into open water. Aisha didn’t feel the same sense of loss as she had the day before at Port Angeles, but she was really beginning to appreciate just how far from home she was headed. Hunter had warned her the journey would take at least a week! At this rate, she felt they’d make it to the other side of the world by then.
*
Chapter 22
THE CROSSING TO PRINCE RUPERT was uneventful. Most of the journey took place during the night, so there was little to look at. Hunter hadn’t booked any sleepers, so they had to make do with the regular seats in the lounge. There were less tourists on this boat. It was mostly men who were making the crossing—rugged outdoorsmen, the type who carried out the rough work that the north asked of them. During the night, the boat pulled into harbors at Bella Bella and Klemtu—two isolated villages that Aisha had never even heard of.
The next day she spent a lot of time on deck watching the forested, mountainous coast drift by.
They were taking the inner passage, which meant their route brought them between the mainland coast and a string of mostly uninhabited islands that seemed to be about as lonely as anything Aisha could imagine.
She learned that the remote forests contained all sorts of wildlife she couldn’t dream of finding back in Washington—moose, grizzlies, lynx, caribou, bison, cougar, Kermode bears, wild horses, wolverine, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, and of course, wolves. She felt like she was leaving the real world behind and entering a new, magical kingdom, a place where wild animals, hunters, predators, eagles, deer, forests, and mountains were all real. It was like going back in time to when the world was wild and rugged and raw.
*
Chapter 23
WHEN THEY REACHED PRINCE RUPERT, Hunter immediately started enquiring about the next ferry they needed to take. She learned that she was already over a thousand kilometers north of Seattle. She hadn’t ever even realized you could go that far north of Seattle. She’d always thought of Seattle as about as far north as anyone would want to go. Now she realized there was a whole undiscovered world up here beyond the border. It was a place few ever visited.
They drove the cruiser off the ferry, and Aisha immediately noticed the difference in climate. It was a good deal colder now than when they’d set out. The wind rushed in off the ocean, and there was a bite to it she hadn’t ever felt before.
Evening was just setting in, and Hunter was eager to see if they could get tickets for that night’s crossing to Juneau, Alaska.
“It’s a thirty hour trip,” Hunter said. “There’s a ship tonight, and there’s another one in three days.”
“Three days!” Heath said. “What the hell would we do here for three days?”
“Exactly,” Hunter said.
They drove around the harbor to the ticket office for the company that operated the boat to Juneau. The ship was leaving in an hour, and they were too late to buy tickets at the regular kiosk.
Aisha and Heath waited in the cruiser while Hunter went to try and wrangle them some tickets. When he came back, he had a broad grin on his face and was waving an envelope in the air.
“You got them?” Heath said.
“We’re on tonight’s crossing. And we’ve got a cabin!”
*
Chapter 24
AISHA FELT A LITTLE APPREHENSIVE about this crossing. It wasn’t the fact that they would be sailing another thirty hours farther north, but more the fact that she would be sharing a cabin with both Heath and Hunter.
They got on the ship and immediately Aisha realized it wasn’t going to be as comfortable a crossing as she’d expected. On the other boats there had always been an observation lounge, a cafeteria with hot food, a gift shop, even video games and telephone booths. This boat was a lot more utilitarian. Th
ere were metal staircases that brought them up to the passenger deck from the parking level, but once on the upper deck, all she saw was a long corridor leading to the cabins. Halfway along the corridor was a little kiosk that sold snacks, hot drinks, alcohol, and cigarettes. That was it. There was a door that led out to the deck, but it was dark and cold out there and the sound of the ship’s massive diesel engines was deafening. This wasn’t a pleasure cruise, it was a way of getting people north and that was it.
“We’re in 108,” Hunter said.
Aisha led the way down the narrow corridor, past the kiosk, to their cabin. It was tiny. Officially, the cabin had two beds, but when she saw what they meant by that, her heart started pounding. Against one wall was a narrow bed. Then up against the other wall was a little table with two chairs. The table and chairs were hinged against the wall so that they could be folded away. Then the second bed came down from the wall and practically touched the first. It might as well have been a single double bed.
“This is our room?” she said nervously.
“It aint much, but it’s all I could get,” Hunter said.
“Where will we all sleep?”
Hunter looked at Heath and Heath let out a little laugh. “Don’t worry, precious,” he said, “we’ll figure it out. We’ll put you against the wall here on the big bed and I’ll sleep in the middle.”
Aisha didn’t like the way he called her precious. He’d said it mockingly. It made her feel guilty for complaining.
“Look,” Hunter said, “don’t worry about it. You two take the room. I can find somewhere else.”
“Where?” Heath said. “Up on deck? You’d freeze.”
“I can wait by the kiosk. It’s fine. I’m used to roughing it.”
“What about the car?” Aisha said. “Could one of us sleep in the car?” She was willing at that point to volunteer herself for sleeping in the car.