A Way West

by Peter Westaway

  Chapter Twelve

  “Fuck!! What the fuck?!” “Huh?” “It’s raining. Our shit is getting soaked.” Pete is unzipping their sleeping bag.

  “Ah shit! Slow down dear, I’m sure nothing is ruined, we’ll be okay.” Issy is waking up and reaching for Pete who is out of the bag and crawling to the door of the tent.

  He looks back at her, “So much for this camping shit, this frickin sucks!” Pete zips the fly open and heads out into the rain. He stands up and looks around at a very different campsite than the night before.

  Jeff is poking his head out of his tent. “So much for the nice weather we have been having.”

  Pete looks at Jeff’s head, “Ya dude a motel room is looking good all of a sudden.”

  Issy gets out of the tent and is standing up behind him, “We didn’t leave anything out that is getting wrecked by the rain. We aren’t getting a fire going this morning for sure but other than that we should be fine.”

  Jeff stands up and looks up with his arms outstretched and feels the rain fall steady on his face, “Well this isn’t what I wanted!”

  Monica pokes her head out of their tent, “Uh Jeff do you mind if I go in Pete’s car this morning?” J

  eff looks back at his girlfriend, “Ya sure I guess so. We have to get back on the highway this morning that’s for sure, it’s not raining too hard so I will put on my crappy rain suit and we should head out and get some breakfast on the road.”

  “Ya I’m hungry, so I tell you what Jeff. Let’s throw most of your stuff in my trunk and we will get the hell out of here and eat at the first place we see on the interstate.” Pete starts to pull out the small wire pegs of their tent.

  Twenty minutes later Jeff is following Pete and the girls on the way out of the park. They are soon on the interstate and once again heading west. The rain is still falling steady but not hard. None of them had been listening to the radio so they had no idea that it would be raining this morning. Jeff has a cheap rain suit that doesn’t really keep him dry but he was a little wet when he put it on anyway. It wasn’t cold or anything so Jeff wasn’t very comfortable but was glad to be back on the road heading in the right direction. He settles in behind the Mustang but far enough away to not be sprayed by its wide rear tires. Fuck me it sure sucks riding in the rain is all that Jeff can think. Riding a motorcycle is much more fun than driving a car, but it is certainly a different story when the weather turns foul. This time he is glad that Monica is in the car. There is no sense having them both be miserable. It’s the same when it gets cold in the fall. It turns a real pleasant experience into a miserable one. Oh well the weather had been great until then and so he settles into suffering in behind the Mustang and is happy to keep the speed fairly slow and only hopes that it clears up soon. And for sure he is looking forward to a shower at the end of the day, but that won’t be for a long time.

  Monica and Issy are in the back seat again talking non-stop to each other. They had been talking about how cool it was seeing the animals yesterday. Monica then pats Pete on the shoulder, “So what did you think of camping for the first time Pete?”

  “It was awesome, until this morning anyway. But overall, I did really like it, we are going to for sure do lots more, right Issy?”

  “I would love that Pete, the mountains are going to be so cool. I bet there are some real sweet camping areas in Washington.”

  “And British Columbia, you guys are definitely coming up to Canada later this summer.” Monica gives Issy a friendly slap on her thigh.

  “Ya for sure Monica we will visit that country of yours.” Pete says, then turns his music right down, Van Halen had been playing low already but Pete was getting in a serious mood. “You know Monica I can’t help but wonder why you aren’t a vegetarian; you seem to be quite the animal lover.”

  “Well like I said Pete I think we are meant to be meat eaters. I love the taste of meat just as much as the next girl. But I am for sure going to start fighting for the rights of the farm animals. I want to be a big time animal activist someday, and my wet Jeff back there plans to be a big time environmental activist. He can’t stand that us stupid humans are killing our beautiful planet. Unless things change drastically there is no way we humans are going to exist in the year 3000.”

  Issy starts bouncing up and down, “Hey I know! The four of us should start some kind of big charity. You guys start it in Canada and Pete and I will start it in the States. The world has changed with the Internet and Facebook and it is time that a worldwide movement is started to change how we do things in a big way.”

  Pete glances back at his pumpkin, “That would be real cool. I am going to need a big time natural high to replace my drugs, and it is driving me crazy how China is going to keep growing and all by itself it will destroy our planet. Hey Monica did you know that China is practically buying up all of Africa just for their natural resources?”

  “Oh ya, Jeff is freaking about China too. He figures all of our kids are going to have to speak Chinese. They said that after the cold war ended there was only one Super Power. Well that has sure changed. Your George W. Bush sure seemed to fuck up spending all that money and having so many people die in the crazy Iraq war. While the States are slowly sinking, China is growing like crazy. And the real frustrating thing is the Western world is financing it by buying all their crap.”

  Issy quickly adds, “Ya I hate that we think we are cleaning up our environmental record but seem to ignore the fact that we have shut down tons of factories only to have them replaced in tons of other countries that have even shittier controls over the pollution they create.”

  Monica puts her hand on Issy’s shoulder, “Can I tell you guys one thing that I am even more passionate about changing than that stuff.”

  Pete turns the rear view mirror a little so that he can see Monica’s face, “Sure of course, what is it?”

  “Children. I love children, and I absolutely hate an organization in Ottawa that pretends to care about the children. I think you guys call it Child Services or something like that, but in Canada it’s called Children’s Aid. My mom’s brother Dave has been going through a nightmare for years because of these disgusting self-righteous hypocrites. And my four beautiful cousins are hung out to dry by these sick a-holes!” Monica pauses to take a deep breath.

  Issy turns to Monica and looks at her, real concerned, “Hey girl calm down.”

  Monica shakes her head, “Oh no Issy I am never calming down about this absolutely horrendous organization. Uncle Dave calls them The Family Destruction Society. He is a real great guy, but he used to do a fair bit of drugs and got hooked up with a pretty messed up girl. He got her pregnant and tried to stay with her. They ended up having more kids and then the shit hit the fan. My Aunt Sue used to physically abuse Uncle Dave a bit and they both ended up getting arrested. Aunt Sue knew that this C.A.S., that’s what they go by, were garbage, but poor Uncle Dave thought they would help things. But it is unbelievable what a mess they have made of things. But no matter how much they screw up they never ever take any responsibility for their often-illegal activity. The current so-called Children’s Protection Worker that Uncle Dave is dealing with, is the most self-righteous pathetic little lying bitch there ever was. I think her name is Margaret; he only calls her Maggot. Uncle Dave is trying to have her arrested for perjury but instead the whole system protects her and tries to make him look like the guilty one.

  He tells them what he thinks and curses up a storm, and calls them foul names because he is so pissed with them, so they convince the kids that he isn’t fit to even see them now. What a fucking joke! I want to help him try to let the public know what a farce these little shits are. And the judge in our city that oversees the Family Court is a former C.A.S. lawyer so she totally protects them.”

  Issy is holding both of Monica’s hands in both of hers, “That’s terrible, do you get to see your cousins.”

  “No those evil bastards took them all from Aunt Sue becau
se she’s such a crappy mom and they finally realized that Uncle Dave is the better parent but he couldn’t afford to have them all live with him. All he wanted was a similar house with cheap rent that Sue has but you know what them jerks did? They gave the kids to foster parents, and guess what? These foster parents who are just glorified babysitters get fifteen hundred dollars PER KID, per month. That is six grand a month when all Uncle Dave needed was a decent place with cheap rent. He works hard but doesn’t make much money.

  He found out how much the foster parents get when a group of grandparents complained that they could use a little of that money to help raise their grandkids when the parents weren’t able to take care of them. You know how poor retired people often are, especially women. But our dumb government would rather give a fortune to have strangers take care of the kids instead of helping out the people who love these kids. And these Children’s Aid shits pretend these kids, that they have stolen from their own family, are all orphans. And the craziest thing that Uncle Dave found out was that just across our border in Quebec they have ONE TENTH as many crown wards. That is what they call the kids that have been kidnapped by these sick jerks.”

  Pete glances again in his mirror at Monica, “Wow that makes no sense at all; I can see why you are so pissed. Where are your cousins now?”

  “The youngest one was actually adopted by a couple. And this couple, who have basically benefited from court-sanctioned kidnapping, had promised Uncle Dave that he could see her but they are more lying pieces of garbage, because none of us have seen Erica since. And the next youngest, Sarah, is twelve and is in one of those foster homes, and that is the one that Uncle Dave has been fighting the evil Maggot just to see. The oldest cousin is sixteen now, her name is Sylvia and is living with an aunt so we get to see her, but not nearly as often as we would like. And the only boy, Josh is fifteen and finally back living with Aunt Sue, but we hardly ever get to see him. So it is one big mess and it breaks my heart. But this C.A.S is only concerned about growing this huge bureaucracy and employing as many workers and lawyers and other useless idiots. And that is what drives poor Uncle Dave the craziest, that these evil little no good bastards are getting paid large salaries paid for with tax dollars to abuse the children. And oh ya, I forgot about the sickest creep in the group. Their main psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Hospital, I think his name is Macdonald, did some kind of assessment and is apparently a totally useless, incompetent, lying, total piece of garbage.”

  “Wow that really sucks. I think most of our bureaucracies and governments should be completely blown up and totally rebuilt in a much more cost efficient and effective manner, with half the people. But they all only care about collecting their fat pay cheques and going on their undeserved holidays. Oh good, lets pull over here and get some breakfast, I bet Jeff would love to get out of the rain. And it looks like it is starting to clear up so maybe it will dry up while we are in there.” Pete says this and turns his signal on to pull into the truck stop.

  “Good idea Pete, but that is really sad about your cousins Monica, I hope things work out somehow.”

  “Ya, well me and Uncle Dave want that garbage system to be changed so that the thousands of other families and kids that these scum are going to mess with can be saved from this nightmare.”

  “Hey there he is, sit down Jeff, your breakfast just got here, and you are just in time to hear how the four of us are going to change this crazy fucked up beautiful world.” Pete says this and then shoves another piece of bacon in his mouth.

  Jeff had been in the washroom of the truck stop changing into some dry clothes. “Good I am starved. So what’s this about changing the world?” He settles in beside Monica.

  Monica gives him a big kiss on his cheek. “Do you feel better sweetie?” “Much better thanks, and thank God the rain is stopping, I sure wasn’t looking forward to being wet all day, so except for my wet feet I feel great.” And he digs into his steaming plate of scrambled eggs and sausages.

  Issy is munching on her omelette, “So Jeff, we have decided that the four of us are going to become the most powerful people on the planet.”

  “Well count me in, sounds good to me.” Jeff smiles and glances around the table.

  Pete pipes up, “Yep we’ve decided to start the largest charity in the world. The world-wide revolution started in the Middle East last year and then came to North America with the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s a whole new world with the Internet and Facebook. I don’t really like the new technology but I am smart enough to know that the potential of having everyone connected in such a personal way is frickin mind blowing.”

  Monica pauses from her pancakes, “I told them how you want to be an environmental activist and we all seem to love animals. But we will make sure we protect Pete here from the big scary ones.”

  “Hey that horse freaked me out, how did I know it wasn’t going to trample us to death?”

  Monica is gesturing with her fork, “And I told them all about those useless Children’s Aid creeps. We can reach out to everyone and create all kinds of cool changes for the better. It’s time we stop relying on our corrupt, selfish politicians, and the greedy corporations to rule the world. We the little people should hold the power and not just the ones with all the money.”

  Jeff looks at his animated baby, “Gee you guys have been busy plotting a revolution. I guess fate has brought the four of us crazy people together. Maybe we can do something, but it sure sounds like we have lots of work ahead of us though.”

  Pete’s chewing on more bacon, or as he now calls it, Molly the Pig, “Well our women here want us to keep away from drugs so I figure we are smart and energetic enough to pursue a brand new, powerful and legal drug, Absolute Power!” Pete says these last two words loud enough to have almost everyone in the small restaurant give them dirty looks.

  Jeff shakes his head in disbelief, “Yep that sounds like a pretty powerful drug to me.”

  Our little band of budding revolutionaries quietly finish their breakfasts, while each trying to absorb this new quest they have apparently just decided upon.

  “Here, you can have the rest.” Issy gives Pete her remaining hash browns. She grabs her coffee, “So now that it’s nice out, how about letting me have that turn on the back of the motorcycle that you mentioned Pete.”

  Pete chews a little, then smiles. He looks at Issy then across the table to Jeff, who is looking over at Monica. “Hey don’t ask me. I think its Monica’s permission that you’re going to need."

  Monica looks at Pete and gives a short laugh, “I guess its okay. We are going to be getting to know each other pretty good if we are serious about doing this.” Monica is still smiling and puts her arm around Jeff’s shoulder, and shakes him a little, “And I don’t have to worry about you laying your hands on this tall hot blonde anyway.” She gives him a soft brief kiss on his appreciative lips. “Because Issy would probably drop you if you did.” She glances from Issy to Pete, “Just like I would make sure Pete regret it in a hurry if he ever tried to lay a finger on me.”

  Pete gives a shorter, but louder laugh, then slaps the table for good measure, making the dishes shudder slightly. “Well I guess we’ve been warned.”