Page 88 of Midnight Ride

Virge fiddled with his phone and told us the news. “From Lethbridge, it’s gonna take us another eight hours to get to our destination in British Columbia. Holy fuck.”

“We’ll be stopping for food and for gas,” said Annie, “so it will take longer than that. We won’t get there until tomorrow.”

“Jesus,” said Virge. “Why did you go so far away from us, Tammer?”

Lucy started to cry, and I pulled her close and let her sob on my clean shirt.

High River. Alberta.

At a service center in High River, Travis stopped in for gas and food. He pulled up to the pumps and Virge hopped out to pump the gas.

Annie and Lucy went into the convenience store, and I waited until Virge finished at the pumps. Travis found the men’s room at the back of the store, and I followed him. We’d been in the truck for hours and it felt good to get out and stretch our legs.

We’d eaten the sandwiches Annie made and packed in the cooler and drank the Cokes and we weren’t too hungry. We grabbed snacks in the store and Annie purchased a case of Coors for later. We decided to eat dinner in a restaurant in another couple of hours and have a decent meal. Actually, Annie decided, and nobody argued with her.

I took over the driving and headed north to Calgary. Annie got in the back seat with Lucy and Virge and Travis sat in the shotgun seat and phoned Billy to check on him and the ranch and the station.

“The dogs okay?”

With five of us, the truck was full, and we had no room for Max and Sarge. They might have come in handy if we had to track Tammy down at some point, but hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. We’d find her and she’d come home.

Mountain View Motel. West of Calgary.

Annie picked a motel when we were all too tired to go any further. We’d driven for hours, and we still weren’t out of Alberta. The Canadian provinces were so fucking big it took days to drive through them. We wouldn’t be in British Columbia until the next day.

We had two rooms. Me and Virge were in with Lucy, and Dad and Annie had their own room.

As soon as our luggage was unloaded and we settled in a little and caught our breath, we walked down the strip of restaurants and hotels to a Milestones restaurant and went inside.

Looked like a nice place and when I picked up the menu, it looked kind of expensive. Annie didn’t seem to care. She ordered drinks for all of us and told us to order whatever we wanted.

Dad ordered steak and mushrooms and I thought that sounded pretty good to me. I was hungry for real food after eating junk food and sandwiches most of the day.

Lucy helped Virgil pick out something he might like from the menu, and I wasn’t that fond of her helping my brother. Shouldn’t have felt like that, but I wasn’t perfect and didn’t pretend to be.

Dinner was great. We had dessert and coffee, and Annie was all smiles after we’d eaten what she called adecent dinner.

The September night cooled down, but it wasn’t cold. The sky was clear with lots of stars and the walk back to our motel was short. Glancing up at the moon high in the sky, I wondered if Tammy was looking at the same moon we were.

“Our room for a game of cards, kids,” said Annie.

Travis shook his head. “I think I’m too tired to play cards, sweetheart.”

“You can lay on your bed and snore,” said Annie. “The kids and I aren’t ready to sleep yet. It’s only nine o’clock.”

“I want to play cards, Mommy,” said Lucy. “Can I pick the game?”

“Sure, honey. Call it.”

Fontana Residence. Sicamous. B.C.

Me and Eldon were so happy together it was a little bit scary. I kept thinking that something would go wrong and destroy our happiness.

We sat on the back deck after dinner drinking coffee and holding hands. Just like in the movies.

“Before we go on our next run we’ll get married at city hall in Kamloops,” said Eldon. “We’ll have to get our marriage license ahead of time, so I’ll look into that tomorrow.”

“I’ve never been married before,” I said. “Do you think I’ll make a good wife?”

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