 
A Way West

Published by Peter Westaway at Smashwords

copyright 2014 Peter Westaway

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter One

He twists the throttle, and instinctively leans slightly into the onrushing wind as the bike below instantly responds. He grits his teeth a little and thinks, "Right on! We are doing it! We're really doing it!" He has pointed his Yamaha directly to the west and wishes he didn't have to stop until they got to their destination. But... since it was going to take several days to get there, he will have to think about where to stop for the night, when the time came. The sun was just showing itself on the city's horizon behind them in a cloudless sky, so that won't be for many hours. By then they will have gotten many miles from home and onto this great adventure and their new life together.

Behind him, she hears the motor growling louder as she feels the acceleration. She leans into him a little more and squeezes her arms around his waist a little tighter. She says to herself, "I can't believe I did it! I've ran away from home!" Our two young lovers are on the speeding motorcycle, both with anxious, but quite different thoughts. He is excited that he is finally leaving his drunk, depressed mom, and his shitty job behind, and thrilled his baby is with him. While she is only worrying about leaving her cat behind with her sweet mom, who will now have to deal with her even more pissed off dad all alone. Her big brother Tony won't be of any help to anyone.

"We are not turning around! Your mom and Juniper will be just fine. C'mon baby you promised me you wouldn't do this." Jeff couldn't believe how the best day of his life lasted less than three hours. They are at the Esso Gas Station in Wilno. They had stopped for a cold drink and a pee. They are finally out of Ottawa and heading out west as they had both been obsessing about. But now Monica is thinking of going back home already! They had been discussing this trip constantly for the last six months and this was the last thing he expected. And it is still all about her damn cat! He will never forget the day he had strapped the cat carrier to the back rack of his bike, to see if it was feasible to take it with them. He rode up and down the street feeling like a complete idiot. It took up too much space though, and Monica wouldn't dare let Jeff even take the cat along for a little test ride. Of course, he offered to buy her a new cat after they are settled out west. But nooooo, that only made Monica sadder, and worse... madder at him. So, they then considered flying Juniper out after they got there. And he thought that would be good enough to appease her. But now less than three hours into the REST OF THEIR LIVES the stupid cat is still the only thing that matters!

"I only want to phone home and see how my mom is." Monica declares, trying to assert herself, but not feeling very confident about anything, at the moment.

Jeff takes a deep breath and reminds himself to try hard to be patient. "Look, we have discussed this every day for months now. Your mom is just waking up now and probably hasn't even seen the goodbye letter that you left on your pillow. So please baby let's do what we agreed. My mom isn't going to really care when she reads my letter, but your parents are going to freak. We have to let them digest this before we contact them." He pauses, and tries to take some deep calming breaths. Everything was so perfect to start this glorious Freedom Day, and now the same issue he thought they had figured out is threatening to destroy it all. They are sitting on a picnic bench outside the gas station, drinking a couple of Cokes and sharing a small bag of chips he just bought in the little store.

Monica takes a sip of hers and looks up at Jeff with those big gorgeous brown eyes that enchanted him when they first met three long years ago. He relaxes a little, and falls in love with her all over again. He reaches across the table and grabs her hands and tries to give her a reassuring smile.

She seems to relax a little with this and says, "I am sorry sweetie but not only are my mom and dad about to freak out, but I am starting to lose it a little myself. You know I was set on going to University. If only my dad wasn't turning into such a mean bastard. I don't know why my mom keeps putting up with him." They stay like that, with Monica staring down at their clasped hands and Jeff staring up at Monica.

She looks so pretty when she's sad, almost as pretty as she does when she's happy. Jeff is getting better at handling these moods. He used to jump in with one of his attempts at common sense advice. But she almost always got more upset no matter what he says. So, he has learned to keep his mouth shut, more often anyway, and to show concern on his face. Jeff wants to get back on the highway and put more distance between them and Ottawa. Monica has no idea what she wants. She is usually the more self assured one, but not now when they are this far from home and about to head farther.

She finally pulls free of Jeff's light grasp and pushes away from the picnic table and stands straight up and crosses her arms on her chest. She looks like she has made a decision. Jeff looks at her and braces himself for whatever she is about to say. "My mom has read the letter by now, I just know it! I didn't close my door all the way... I was so scared of them waking up. She would have looked in by now, and saw that I wasn't there." She is staring down at Jeff who is still sitting with his empty hands on the table.

Jeff is trying hard to not frown and roll his eyes. Why did they even bother spending all those nights planning this trip? He thought for sure that they would have had at least one day of fun with this new adventure. He knew she would have regrets and be homesick, but not so soon. And not so close to home.

"She's probably crying right now Jeff!" And with this she uncrosses her arms, turns and heads towards the old phone booth standing by itself at the edge of the parking lot.

AHHHH! Jeff wants to yell! They both left their cell phones back at home. He figured it would save them both the hassle of getting texts and calls from Ottawa bugging them to come back. His mom will probably miss him a little bit but she is probably more relieved than anything that she can now live by herself. But Monica's mom is a different story. Those two are real close and the two of them talking together this early in the trip is not good. Not good at all! He knows that these next few minutes are crucial to whether they are going to keep heading west or are going to head back east. If he shows the anger that is creeping up on him in any way, he knows that one of them at the very least is heading back home. But he must try something.

He jumps up from the table and runs after the smart, beautiful, but very young girl that he wants to spend the rest of his life with. But just not in Ottawa. Not for awhile anyway. He catches up to her as she is about to reach for the door to the phone booth. He jumps in front of her and tries to put his arms around her in a hug. She manages to grab his wrists and doesn't allow this, and tries to step around him. Losing control of the situation fast, not that he ever had any, Jeff pleads, "Monica baby please don't call her yet!"

Monica spins out of his attempted grasp and flings his hands away, "I have to talk to her now, we can't do this to her! She will go crazy with worry, and after she phones my dad at work the shit will really hit the fan!"

Jeff steps back and Monica turns around and goes into the old dirty phone booth. Jeff's heart is racing and he isn't sure what to do. He had been planning this day so carefully for so long now and he is starting to freak out that it isn't going as planned. He walks towards his bike and contemplates jumping on it and leaving his wishy washy, immature girlfriend in the damn booth and getting the hell out of there. He glances back at the phone and sure enough it looks like Monica is talking to somebody. He feels his blood pressure rise as he is trying to picture the conversation between her and her mom. He is sure her mom is begging her to come home and to not go anywhere with him. He tried to get along with her parents, but they never seemed to like him very much. He guesses they think their perfect little daughter deserves somebody better than a bicycle and ski technician. They don't seem to care that he has dreams of his own, they only seem to care that he hasn't gone to university. Well fuck them he's thinking. And fuck her too if she doesn't want to come with him.

He increases his pace and goes straight to the bike. He puts his helmet on and locks hers on its hook. He swings his leg over the bike and starts it up. He looks over and she is still on the phone. He guns the engine and pops the clutch. The back tire predictably spins a little on the asphalt and squeals as he races towards the booth. He is losing it a little himself and for a second contemplates ramming the damn booth! Instead he stops in front and cuts the engine. He sits there looking at Monica through the filthy, scratched booth glass as she is having an animated talk with, he assumes, her mom. He takes his helmet off and tries to calm himself down. He can now hear Monica screaming into the phone.

She then slams the receiver down and slams her way out the door. "My dad's such...AN ASSHOLE!!" She walks directly to where her helmet is locked. He reaches back and unlocks it. She puts it on and gets on behind a suddenly very relieved Jeff. She squeezes her arms tight around him and says, "Let's go sweetie! I am sorry I phoned home."

Back on the highway Jeff is starting to feel good about the day, this trip, their life, again. He takes his left hand off the handlebar, grabs Monica's clenched hands and squeezes them emphatically. He looks forward and guns the engine in celebration. Yaaaaaa! He now wants to get as far away from Ottawa as he can, as quick as he can, without attracting any cop's attention of course. He comes up to a camper blocking his view in front of them. Swerving a little to the left, checking to make sure the coast is clear, he pulls out into the oncoming lane and makes quick work of blasting by the large motor home. He feels Monica clench his waist tighter. He knows the quicker speed makes her a little nervous. The speed has the opposite effect on him though, the faster he goes the happier he is. But for her sake, and any possible waiting police radar, he slows down a bit and settles for going just under one hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, figuring that most cops ignore any speed below twenty kilometres over the speed limit.

Monica gets very nervous every time that Jeff pulls out to pass a vehicle, and closes her eyes tight every time. As they successfully overtake the motor home like it is standing still, she thinks about a time when Jeff once impressed her about a year ago, and made her love him even more. He had confidently explained to her very concerned father that it is actually safer for them to travel on his bike on the highway than it is to travel down a city street. Jeff had carefully explained that on a city street there are many more variables to worry about such as cars pulling out from the side streets, intersections where anything can happen, and pedestrians and cyclists jumping out at anytime. But on a highway, such as the Queensway in Ottawa, there is much more control of your surroundings. So even though you are going at a greater speed there is much less chance of something unpredictable and dangerous happening. Jeff would have made a great lawyer. In fact, Jeff, could be great at anything he tried, she knew. But her boyfriend didn't seem to want to do anything at the moment except to...live for the moment.

And her dad! She loves him, yet she hates him. She thought for sure that he would have gone to work by now. But instead he had apparently woken up when she was trying to sneak out at four thirty that morning. He was the first one to find her note! She wrote that note for her mom to find! What a mess now! Well screw them! She is only a week from her eighteenth birthday and she can lead her life any way that she chooses. And if he hadn't recently become such a jerk she would not be going on this crazy trip anyway. He yelled at her on the phone to get her ass back to his house. What a condescending asshole! She had been hoping to be able to console her mom on the phone, but instead she ended up fighting yet again with her dad. She decided that she won't be phoning home again until they are on the other side of the country. She knew that her mom would take care of her sweet Juniper until they arrange to fly her across the country to join them in their new home out west. How she was going to cope waking tomorrow without hugging her big beautiful cat she wasn't sure, but it looked like she was going to have to get used to it. She gives her boyfriend a reassuring squeeze and watches the farmer's fields go by.

Jeff can now go back to concentrating on their plan. He and Monica have been on Google Earth for probably a hundred hours fantasizing about this trip. They left early in the morning so that they could hopefully make it to their first night's destination in the early afternoon. He has spent many summers at his grandparent's old house in Southampton on Lake Huron, underneath Georgian Bay. Their route on this trip is taking them over the top of Lake Huron. He is planning to set up their tent tonight somewhere in that area, maybe on Manitoulin Island. And if they find a real nice place to camp they might spend an extra day if the weather cooperates. The whole trip is going to be a little over four thousand kilometres. If they never got off the bike they could make it in two days. But they are planning to take seven or eight days so they can enjoy themselves and do a little site seeing. The goal is to be on Tom's farm in nine days to celebrate Monica's eighteenth birthday on July 13th. They bought their little tent and matching summer sleeping bags a few weeks ago, at Canadian Tire. They picked out a small camp cooking set, and even a very small propane stove at the same time. They had hoped to go camping near Ottawa for a night or two to try out the new equipment but it seemed to be raining on the few days that were available to them. He was working for a big jerk of a boss right up until two days ago. Both Jeff and Monica had done lots of camping with their respective families when they were much younger. But this will be the first time that they are camping together. Jeff can't wait to make a double sleeping bag out of their identical Coleman sleeping bags and make sweet sweet love. Oh yaaa! He feels like he is the luckiest man on earth.

They finally pull into Batman's Tent and Trailer Campground on Manitoulin Island at around six o'clock. Jeff had tried to find a more peaceful and private spot but he didn't see any sites that he felt would be a decent place to set the tent. They had already found Batman's when they were studying Google Earth. It took a little longer than Jeff thought, but pulling into this funny named campground was getting him very excited. It was a gorgeous evening and he was with his gorgeous Baby. This trip was starting to go even better than he could have hoped. Monica used to love going camping with her family, and pulling into Batman's made her think about all the great times they had at similar campgrounds all over Upper New York State, and at some closer to home in Ontario. She just loves doing different stuff now with Jeff, and hopes that someday they will have their own children. They're going to go camping, skiing, biking and hiking, and lots and lots of living and loving, and laughing all the way. She was even starting to get used to the idea of doing without her Juniper... for a little while anyway.

It was a Wednesday so they had their choice of several different sites in the campground. They were both a little disappointed however that the old guy in the campground's office wasn't dressed up as Batman. When asked about it he went in to a long-winded explanation about how he wore a mask and cape for a few years back in the eighties when he was younger and more adventurous but got tired of the little joke. They picked out a nice spot that was close to the water, and it had about as much privacy as they were going to find. With a couple of hours left before it would be dark, Jeff wanted to get a fire going and cook the steaks and potatoes that they had bought a couple of hours earlier in Sudbury. They didn't have room for a cooler, or for any extra food for that matter. So, they were planning to buy food as they go. Jeff bought a bottle of red wine to go with the steak and potatoes to celebrate their first night away from home. They bought a small bag of fire wood at the campsite office and Jeff was now trying to get a fire going. They have that little stove but it is only for the times when they can't get a fire going.

Monica sat on the picnic bench a few feet away watching her sweetie show her once again how capable he is. "Hey Jeff I guess you could say that this is our first day of living together."

Jeff lets go of his little stick teepee, straightens up, and takes the three steps over to Monica. He leans over and kisses her softly on her wonderful lips, "Thank you so much for doing this baby, I am going to make you the happiest girl in the world. You've already made me the happiest guy."

She smiles wide as he goes back to building the fire.

He looks back at her with his own big smile, "How about opening that bottle of wine and I will have the steaks cooking in no time. I haven't cooked potatoes in a fire with tin foil like this since I was in the boy scout's years ago so hopefully they will come out okay."

The steak was a little tough, and the potatoes were undercooked a bit, but how could that bother Jeff in the least? This was the by far the best meal he's ever had! He finishes every morsel on his paper plate, finishes the wine that is in his little plastic cup and declares to Monica across the table as she is still working her way through her own food. "I am sooo excited that we are doing this. It is supposed to be nice tomorrow so let's stay here the extra day. We can sleep in and then just go exploring. We have no idea when we will be back in Ontario again so let's make our last two days here as memorable as possible." They are about eighty kilometres from the highway. Jeff was hoping that they didn't have to go off course like this too often but this was a very special night after all.

Monica is chewing on her last piece of steak. She washes it down with a gulp of wine and looks into his blue eyes. "I am really glad we are here, I am sorry about acting up back there at the phone booth. I am not used to waking up so early, so it will be real nice to sleep in tomorrow. Then we will figure out what to do." She pauses and looks around, "This is so beautiful here but I bet British Columbia will be even more beautiful."

Monica cleans up the dishes, tossing the paper plates in the fire and taking the few other dirty dishes over to the water tap a little down the campground road. And Jeff finally sets up the small tent. He had already set it up in his back yard so he knows just how quick and easy it is to do. They are both soon back sitting down at the table quietly enjoying each other's company and the peaceful setting as the fire is dying down. Jeff finishes off the last of his wine and the bottle is empty. "It's starting to get dark, let's go for a little walk before we settle into our sleeping bags for the night. I am getting real tired all of a sudden."

"Well then let's skip the walk if you don't mind. I am sure we will be doing plenty of that tomorrow. I am real tired too so let's get into that tent now and I will show you just how much I love being here with you." Monica does here cute little eyebrow raising flirty thing as she is finishing this.

"You don't have to twist my arm for that!" Jeff jumps up from the table and scrambles around to her side and offers her both of his hands to pull her up from the table. They lock in embrace for a few seconds and then still holding hands they head to the tent. Jeff zips up the fly of the tent. He nuzzles his face into her warm inviting neck... and slips into his own private paradise.

Chapter Two

The sun is already starting to heat up their little tent the next morning when Monica finally wakes up. She hears Jeff outside so she puts on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts and heads out to wish him a good morning. She gets out of the tent and is quickly putting her arms around him and saying, "Did you sleep okay sweetie? I woke up a few times because of the hard ground, but didn't sleep too bad."

"Ya it's a bit of a pain using our bunched-up clothes for a pillow but I slept pretty good. I've been up for a couple of hours already though sleepy head." Jeff punctuates this with a long luxurious kiss. "Let's get on the bike and find a little restaurant for some breakfast." Jeff says this while they have their usual little up close staring contest. He likes how both of her eyes flicker back and forth looking at both of his eyes.

They are almost finished their eggs and sausage at a nearby little diner, and home fries, you have to have those if they are on the menu. Jeff sips on his coffee and watches Monica cut her last piece of sausage in half and thrust it in her mouth, "I really don't want to spend much time on the bike today so let's go back to the camp site and leave it there for the day. We can ask the guy in the office and see if he has any ideas for us to go hiking. I used to love walking along the beaches by my grandparent's place but it looks like there isn't the same kind of coast up here. Or do you feel like going swimming? There must be a small beach we can do that. I wonder how cold the water is."

Monica totally catches him off guard with her response. "Actually, what I want to do is get back in the tent and make love to you again. It is so cool to be free from my parents so let's make the most of it." She does the little eyebrow flirty thing again. Jeff just stares at her with a blank expression, processing this. "It's okay sweetie if I wore you out last night I understand." Monica says, smiling mischievously.

"No no no! I was just shocked you would say that! I love the idea!" Jeff belts out quickly this time. They pay the bill and head back to their waiting sleeping bag.

The tent is fully lit by the sun by now though and quite hot inside. They once again do what young healthy couples in love do best... but don't linger in the tent for even one extra minute after they are done

_____________________________

"Juniper you silly cat you have to eat something." Victoria Martinelli is leaning over her kitchen's freshly scrubbed linoleum floor and is pushing the little blue plastic food dish towards the sniffing nose of Juniper. But instead of eating the offered bowl of Tender Vittles the cat is backing away from it as if it were a bomb. No sudden movements or it might blow up! "I miss Monica too but if you don't eat soon you aren't going to live long enough to see her again." How could Monica do this to her? How can that foolish girl just run off with that thug of a boyfriend? And not even saying good bye to her mom. How disrespectful to just leave a short note saying how she and Jeff are going to go seek their fame and fortune out west. What a mess she has left her with; she thought she taught her daughter to have more respect than that... And sense, how does any of this make any sense? Well her silly cat can go ahead and starve itself to death. She is at wit's end. And her husband Leo is just making things worse, by blaming everything on her. She has worked so hard to make her family happy and this is her reward?

I am getting fed up with all this petty nonsense. This whole ordeal is frankly getting to be quite tiresome. Why is this crazy old catserver waving its paw-like appendages around in the air? Does it really think I can understand it better if it does that? Kittymommy was real good at explaining to me how The Great Sphinx created catservers to be our committed servants, but she didn't have a sensible answer for me when I asked her why they aren't intelligent enough to communicate with us. Kittymommy thinks The Great Sphinx has some kind of weird sense of humour. I think that it shows that just maybe The Great Sphinx isn't so great after all. I have no intention of eating any food that is proffered by this crazy old new catserver. It took months for me to train my catserver to prepare and serve my food to my liking. If I let this catserver think I like its offerings I may not get my own catserver back... But where has it gone? I am starting to get quite famished, not to mention very annoyed. I will have to find a way to not let this happen again to me. I am Purrnicous The 844th and I demand that I am shown more respect than this! Why do these catservers seem to have so much power over my very existence? My chosen catserver brought me to my palace before I was able to get any more answers from Kittymommy about how to deal with these imbecilic creatures. If I ever do meet this The Great Sphinx I will definitely give her a piece of my mind. Victoria watches the cat turn away from the food and head dejectedly back towards the living room. She rolls her eyes in wonderment and goes back to finishing washing the breakfast dishes. She is sorry that she wasn't able to talk to Monica when she phoned yesterday morning. Monica is a very capable girl but she has never been away from home before, except for a couple of weeks to summer camp a few years ago. I hope she comes to her senses and comes back home soon, she's thinking for the thousandth time as her other child suddenly enters the kitchen.

She looks with dismay at Tony and notices right away that he looks even worse today. "Since you think you are too smart to go to college you had better start looking for work. You know your father will not continue to support you here if all you are going to do is stay out late with your friends doing god knows what."

Tony rubs his bleary eyes and opens the fridge door. He studies its contents, "Hey mom now that Monica is gone, can I have her room?"

"Anthony did you not hear what I just said? If you aren't soon working and helping with some bills around here, you won't be even staying in your own room. And you certainly aren't moving into hers." She puts the last dish in the rack and wipes her hands on her apron. "And please leave that Pepsi alone and eat some breakfast."

But Tony takes the two-litre bottle of Pepsi and promptly heads back out of the kitchen without even a glance at his frowning mom.

Victoria hangs her head and wonders what she has done wrong to have her two beautiful children now treat her with such disdain. Her saddening thoughts are interrupted by the phone. "Hello."

"Any word yet from that daughter of yours?"

"No Leo of course she hasn't called back. Why did you have to get her so upset when she called yesterday? Now I have no idea when she will call back. Did you phone the police like you said you would?" If only her husband had shown a little more concern about Monica while she was still here, instead of waiting until it is too late.

"They said there isn't much they can do as she is over sixteen, so they aren't even going to file a missing persons report. I told them she is a naive child and the man with her is an adult that can't be trusted. But they just wished me luck and hung up with no other offers of assistance." At least Leo is actually sounding a little concerned for a change, instead of just his usual angry self.

All of this tension and uncertainty is making me suddenly feel quite exhausted. I am going to settle into my Royal Perch here on top of the couch and watch out the big window and wait to see my catserver arrive back from wherever it has gone. Hmmm... there is a small bird hopping around in little circles on the Palace Grounds, it's reminding me of how empty my stomach is starting to feel. Kittymommy explained to me and all the brother and sisterkittys that somecats that don't have their own catservers actually hunt and kill birds for their sustenance! And even worse... rodents! Just to feed themselves. Before that gruesome thought disgusts me any more though, I am luckily being overcome with my most comfortable state of mind, the one of impending sleep. My catserver will finally be back before I wake up, I just know it.

_____________________________

"We are six hundred and fifty kilometres to The Ottawa Forest. It is just coming up to seven so hopefully we can get there around four or five. If we get there while it is still light, we can choose from a bunch of campgrounds." Jeff is watching Monica enjoy her breakfast while he is telling her this. He has already finished his non-McDonald's Egg McMuffin. They are sitting in the Tim Horton's back on the Trans Canada Highway. They spent most of the previous day lying on the beach at Batman's watching a dozen or so kids playing in the water. They hiked for a bit and swam for a bit, but mostly lay on their small towels and enjoyed the warm sunshine. They both agreed that they especially enjoyed the feeling that they were on a long anticipated and well deserved vacation.

Washing the last of her egg muffin down with some coffee, Monica looks up and says, "Sure Jeff, you have been boring me for six months about this Ottawa Forest. Big deal it has the same name as our hometown. But that sounds fine..."

Jeff feels the mood drop a few degrees. "What is the problem now? I thought things were all going great."

"Weellll..." She looks at him with her begging puppy look. "It's pretty boring sitting on the back of the bike all day you know." Monica sits back and finishes her coffee.

"Hey baby I am sorry, when we go back to visit Ottawa in a year or two it will be in an SUV, I promise." He tries to sound convincing.

"Ya ya sure, but I am talking about the next eight long boring, uncomfortable hours. You said that you would let me drive for a bit after we get started, so how about now?"

Ahhhh! He knew this was coming. Jeff hates riding on the back of any motorcycle with anyone else but him in control. He has yet to be on the back of the bike while Monica was in front. In fact, he has never been on the back of his bike with anyone driving it except him. But Monica did catch on pretty quick when he taught her to ride last summer in The Gatineau Park. The bike dropped on its side when she first popped the clutch, but it had been dropped many times before. She still feels guilty about it though. She has ridden it fine a few times since, but she doesn't have her bike license. "Well I know I did promise, though I wouldn't have minded if you forgot that one... But if you are determined to drive it for a few miles I guess you should do it now, because it wouldn't be a good idea to have you caught in the States without the proper license."

Monica immediately waves her hands and squeals her little incoherent squealing thing. She jumps up, leans over and plants a quick kiss on Jeff's lips and runs to the door. Jeff rolls his eyes but is smiling as he gets up to follow her.

Jeff gets on the back of the bike feeling very uncomfortable. He doesn't want to make her nervous though, so he squeezes her around her waist and says in her ear through her helmet, "Kay baby you can do it, just take it easy and stay at the speed limit."

And with a jolt they are off. Monica is pretty good at shifting the gears now and knows how to work the clutch. But she has never driven it on the highway before. She has her car license, her dad taught her to drive his little MG with a stick shift. She's driven that on the highway, but never Jeff's bike. So, she is excited happy as well as excited nervous as she is waiting for a couple of cars to pass so she can turn right onto the highway. When the coast is clear she enters the roadway and quickly shifts the bike into second gear. The bike gives a little jump forward as she releases the clutch. Monica starts to relax a little as the bike steadily picks up speed. As she flicks the gear lever with her foot into third gear and releases the clutch like a pro, Monica is starting to wish that she could ride the whole way. This is much more fun than holding onto the back of the bike just watching the fields go by and praying for the trip to be over. The bike weaves slightly as Monica twists the throttle and gets it into fourth gear. They just passed through the little town of Webbwood and Monica is feeling more and more comfortable.

Jeff was probably not feeling quite as comfortable as he yells into Monica's ear that she should speed up a little. She had never gone more than seventy kilometres an hour on the bike before. Her foot finds the fifth gear for the first time ever. She releases the clutch with her left hand. And with her right hand, she twists the throttle as far as it will go. Holy Shit! The handlebars try to pull away from Monica's grip. She feels Jeff tighten his arms around her waist as she gets her first real taste of adrenaline since she was little and skiing real fast for the first time. Monica holds on tight so the bike doesn't leave without her and she feels like a carefree little girl again. This is so cool! Behind the shield of her full face helmet her eyes are watering, but she notices that the car ahead of her is getting real close, real fast. She backs off the throttle and settles in behind the car in front of her.

But it very soon gets a little boring being stuck behind this car going below the speed limit. Now that she was a seasoned pro she wanted to experience a little more of that adrenaline rush. She waits for the oncoming truck to pass, then with a quick glance up the highway she pulls out to pass the car. As soon as she is in the oncoming lane a small car pulls onto the highway to head towards her. While her heart is skipping a couple of beats, she touches the brakes, cuts the throttle, and swerves in behind the car that she had wanted to pass. Her heart is suddenly pounding in her chest as she hears above the wind.

"Good girl, now be careful please, we want to live through this!" She couldn't agree with Jeff more. So she nods her helmet in agreement and tells herself to not be so anxious for that taste of adrenaline. Like they say, "Be careful what you wish for."

"Besides for almost killing us at the start I thought you did great!" Jeff is standing beside Monica who is still on the bike. He takes her helmet from her and continues, "But I can't stand being on the back of any motorcycle. My brother Jim is a much more talented rider than I am but I hated the few times I was a passenger on his bike."

Monica gets off the bike and leans it on the kickstand. She looks at him with a big silly grin glued to her face. She had gone almost two hundred kilometres in two hours, with no concerns expect for that first close call. She was very very pleased with herself. "I loved it! You have to let me drive some more, even in the States. When we are on their big Interstates I am sure as long as I go the speed limit nothing bad will happen." They are heading into the small grocery store they found that looked promising,

"Let's see how it goes. You know I am a little nervous about going over the border, so let's worry about the next couple of hours first."

They went into the store to look for some kind of snack and drink. They are in Thessalon, a little town on the north shore of Lake Huron that has a cool lookout that Jeff made note of as a possible stopping point. He plans to spend a half hour on the beach. Their next stop would be the border crossing in Sault Ste. Marie. They are soon sitting on the beach sharing a bottle of Coke and a bag of chips.

"Is that still Manitoulin Island that we are looking at? It's too close to be the far shore of Lake Huron." Monica asks as she hands the bottle back to Jeff and grabs some more chips out of the bag that is between them.

"No I don't remember the name of it but there are two or three smaller islands on this side of Manitoulin." Jeff pauses to take a quick swig of the Coke. "We won't be seeing Lake Huron for much longer though I think. We'll be seeing big Lake Superior soon but the next big lake we see after that is Lake Okanagan; it isn't near as big as any of these Great Lakes but it has its own Lochness Monster."

"Ya that is the only thing that Christine likes about me going out there. She thinks it is cool that we are going to the place that Ogo Pogo and Bigfoot both live. She says that if I can prove that they both exist she will forgive me for leaving." Besides for her mom, Christine was the only other person she will really miss. They were supposed to go to university this fall together. But now Christine will be going by herself.

Jeff chokes a little on the chips he's shoving in his mouth and laughs, "That's hilarious. She can come visit us and look for them herself." He drops the half-finished bag of Doritos in front of Monica and gets up. "We should get going. I will feel much better when we get over the border. I've never gone over the border without my parents. And ever since that nine eleven stuff I am not sure what to expect from the border guards.

Jeff is glad to be back in the front of the bike, while Monica is quickly learning what Jeff was talking about. Being on the back of the bike is MUCH different than being in the front. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to agree to going across the country on the back of his bike. Oh well she thinks, they will be there in a few days and she will never have to endure this again. She leans her helmet gently against the bottom of his and closes her eyes again wishing that the trip will soon be over. They proceed towards The United States, and their destiny.

Chapter Three

It is impossible to describe all the emotions that Jeff is feeling as he is climbing the small International Bridge in Sault Ste. Marie. Not only is he about to leave his country that he loves so much, but he is also leaving the city that his father was born. His dad John was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. His dad was never one to tell many stories, so he doesn't know a single thing about his life in this small city or even how long he lived here. If his dad had told him anything about it he probably would have wanted to spend a little more time touring around it. The last city that Jeff hopes to see in Ontario for quite awhile looked quite beautiful with its canals, rivers, lakes and walkways, but Jeff was now very intent on entering Canada's great neighbour to the south, The United States of America. Jeff had been nervous about entering the States for many months now but as he was leaving the bridge and approaching the border he felt much more relaxed than he thought he would.

He pulls up to the booth and the waiting border guard. The American border guard turns out to be a very cute girl with a warm smile. She asks them to remove their helmets and then she checks out their newly acquired passports. After about thirty seconds of questions about why they are visiting her country she says good luck and lets them enter. What a relief! Jeff puts his helmet back on and drives forward for a hundred meters, then pulls over to the side of the road. He shuts the engine off and tells Monica to get off the bike. He then also gets off and takes his helmet off again. She takes hers off and he takes it from her and puts it at their feet beside his.

He wraps his arms around her and with his face three inches from hers says, "We did it baby!" He then kisses her deeply for a long wonderful time. He hugs her hard and grabs for his helmet.

As he is pulling away Jeff is feeling more excited than he had since they left Ottawa so many miles earlier. He figures he must start thinking in terms of miles now that he is in America. He thinks it is funny that he is now travelling through Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Why they couldn't come up with a different name he will probably never know, or ever care. He sees very little of his first American city that he has ever driven in though and heads south on Interstate 75. They sure have nicer highways in the States is all he can think as he tries hard to stay close to the speed limit on this very smooth and straight roadway. Before long they are leaving the Interstate though and heading west again on a smaller highway. Now that Jeff can relax about being allowed into this country he can concentrate on his notebook that has all the directions listed and possible points of interest. He is hoping that they don't have to stop now until they get their first look ever of the mighty Lake Superior. The pictures that he had seen on Google Earth of the area looked so cool. He was hoping that they can enjoy their lunch at the picnic area that was listed in Munising on the shore of the big lake.

As usual Monica's thoughts were very different than Jeff's at the moment. She was a very proud Canadian and not a big fan of the big bad States. She could not stand the violence and rudeness that she felt the Americans represented. And not only that, she was now in a completely different country than her poor lonely Juniper. So now not only did she have to endure the mounting boredom of holding onto the back of the bike but she was now dealing with a little bout of depression. She loves Jeff very much and likes his bike but she is now wishing that they had taken the bus out west instead of doing it this way. Not only would she have been able to relax and talk with Jeff the whole time but sweet Juniper would be in the luggage compartment and never be far from her. She promises herself that she will never cross the country in this manner again. Now if she had her own bike! That would be a whole different story. Oh well, she snuggles against Jeff's leather jacket and once again closes her eyes and tries to relax. She knew that Jeff was very excited so she was happy for him and the three of them would soon be very happy together.

"The next town we are about to see is Christmas. They have a casino on Candy Cane Lane. If this was December we would definitely spend some time in that crazy little town. I sure wish we had more time to explore this whole area. That Ship Wreck Tours back there sure sounds interesting. We are going to have to make a point of exploring this whole continent some day; there is so much cool stuff to check out." They are sitting at a picnic table overlooking Lake Superior. Jeff is eating a sandwich they bought a little while ago and he has his big map spread open with his well-worn notebook open on top with all of his well thought out plans.

"Yes, Jeff it is all very beautiful and interesting, but remember we are on our way to what is probably the most beautiful part of this great big continent. Their slogan isn't Beautiful British Columbia for nothing." And then Monica bites into her sandwich that tastes a little stale. That's what you get for buying one that is pre-packaged in a corner store. Jeff looks up from studying his map and book.

"Ya baby but look at this lake, it is unbelievable. I love lakes, especially really big ones like this. Oceans to me always seemed just too scary and I remember swimming in the Atlantic Ocean when I was a kid and the salt was gross." He takes another big bite of his sandwich. Before he is finished swallowing he continues, "And the Great Lakes have always fascinated me. To imagine that nearly half of the world's fresh water supply is in this one small area is mind boggling."

They both sit like that with Monica looking out on the big lake and Jeff glancing at his notes and map and then up at the lake. They quietly finish their small lunch. Jeff is the one to break the silence, "But I do admit that I am looking forward to seeing the mountains for the first time. We are for sure going to have to spend this winter in Banff or another resort. Do you think your Level One Ski Instructor's Certification will be able to get you a job at one of those places?"

"Ya maybe, it is Level Two that they usually want but I could probably do that course at the start of the season. It sure would be a blast if I got a ski instructor job and you got a job in one of the ski shops. In fact, I can see us liking it so much that we are going to want to stay forever."

"That would be awesome but we should worry about getting through the summer first. Tom is expecting us to be a big help around his orchard. He isn't giving up his picker's cabin to us just so we can sit around and drink beer. But as soon as possible we will start looking into the area resorts and see what we can get. I had a couple of friends that worked at The Banff Springs Hotel. If we have to we will work in the restaurant or something. But it would be much better if you can work on the slopes and I can get on with a ski shop."

He sips the last of his can of Coke. He carefully folds up the map and puts it in the notebook. "Okay there baby let's hit the road, we still have a few hours before we get to The Ottawa Forest." Monica gets up without saying anything and grabs for her helmet. But Jeff notices she isn't smiling so he takes it from her and puts it back on the table. He grabs the sides of her head and gives her a quick kiss on the lips. "Hey baby I know things aren't perfect and I know you are missing your mom and Juniper but things are going to work out great, I promise."

Monica hugs him, "I will be fine Jeff, I know you are real excited and I know I will feel much better when we settle at the farm and I can make peace with my mom and get them to send Juniper out to us." She then grabs for the helmet again and heads to the bike.

Jeff pulls back onto Highway 28 and is soon going through the strangely named Christmas, Michigan, not Christmas Town, just Christmas. This brings a big smile to his face. But he is a little concerned now about Monica not being as happy as he thought she would be. He is going to have to let her have another turn driving the bike he guesses, if he can find a section where he thinks she won't get in any trouble. They sure don't want any problems with the police down here. Jeff is really liking this part of the journey though. He gets to ride beside, and get lots of looks at the most magnificent lake in the world. As well they are going through the Hiawatha National Forest. It is about the same size as the upcoming Ottawa Forest, almost one million acres. And if The Ottawa Forest turns out to be as beautiful as this forest he is going to really enjoy their campsite tonight. That lunch sure wasn't very satisfying though. He starts to think of a special dinner they can have tonight to fill their tummies and raise his baby's spirits. Maybe he will find a decent restaurant where they can have a romantic dinner. He bet that would do the trick.

They continue to make good time on the highway. They have been real lucky with perfect weather so far. For a few days before they left Jeff studied every weather predicting service he could find. There was no way that they were going to head out if there was bad weather predicted. Riding a motorcycle was for sure the coolest way to travel, except if it rains or is cold. But the weather has been holding very nicely. And the traffic has not been a problem whatsoever. Seeing the sign that tells them that they are entering The Ottawa Forest gives Jeff a little jolt of homesickness that he didn't expect. Oh well, he and Monica both love all things in nature and once again this area was beautiful. He decides that they are going to head another twenty-five miles or so to the town of Bergland on Lake Gogebic. He had been hoping to go into the interior of the Forest to where there was a bunch of campgrounds. But he has decided that he should definitely treat Monica to a nice dinner at a restaurant tonight and it didn't look like there were any restaurants in that area. This way they would be staying close to the highway and camp at the small campground in this small town. He's going to find the nicest restaurant they have and surprise Monica with a special dinner. The thought of this gets him real excited. His favourite thing in the world was to make Monica happy. And he admitted to himself that a proper dinner would go down real good right now, he was hungry.

They pull into the Mobil Gas Station in Bergman and Monica gets off the bike. She takes her helmet off and says, "We're about to pass right through your precious Ottawa Forest I think, what's up with that?"

Jeff gets off the bike and puts it on the kickstand, takes his own helmet off and explains, "Well I decided instead of going into the wild forest we are going to the campground that is listed in this town. I am going to ask the guy in here where it is, and then I am asking him if there is a nice restaurant around that we can get a real dinner. I am starved for some good food, especially after that crappy lunch. Would you like that?"

"Oh, Jeff that would be real nice, you can be a real sweetheart at times."

"Hey what do you mean at times?" Jeff smiles and is relieved to see that Monica also has a big smile on her face.

They find the campground and Jeff this time sets up the tent right away. They then head for the family restaurant back on the highway that the gas attendant recommended. As they are approaching the door Jeff tells Monica to order anything on the menu that she wants, price is no concern. It is a family restaurant after all so Jeff is pretty sure that offer can't get him into too much trouble. Monica responds with another nice big smile and an even bigger kiss and they go in. "Thank you, sweetie, this is real nice."

Monica is attacking her large plate of chicken wings and French fries. "Ya well it isn't quite the special romantic dinner I was hoping for but my stir-fry is real good. Are the wings okay?"

"They're perfect, here have one, I can't finish all this myself." She gestures to her plate while she licks her fingers.

"We will see how much room I have when I am done this; it sure is going down good. I like places like this that have big servings of decent food. I sure was hungry." Jeff scoops more rice into his mouth as soon as he finishes, then goes on. "I am thinking I should phone Tom and let him know that we are making progress and should be at the farm in a few days."

"That sounds fine sweetie, it is exciting that we are well on our way to his farm. I hope he is as cool as you claim he is."

"Oh ya Tom is real laid back. It sounds like he is happiest when he is up in his trees pruning. I have no idea what it will be like to work there but it will only be until after the harvest at the end of the summer."

They soon leave the restaurant both with very happy and full stomachs. When they get back to the little tent there is still plenty of sunlight. Jeff tells her that he is going to walk up the road to where he saw a phone booth to phone Tom. Monica says that she is going to try to get a small fire going while he is gone. Jeff intended to phone Tom but his main purpose was to phone his mom. He decided to not tell Monica this because he didn't want her trying to phone home herself again, just yet. He didn't like lying to her but thought that sometimes a small lie is important. He wasn't doing it to hurt her, in fact it was more to save her from being hurt again more than anything.

His mom Sally hasn't worked in many years, since he was a small boy in fact. His dad was a civil servant in the federal government and had left her with their small house completely paid for, as well as a pretty big life insurance policy that allowed her the freedom to not have to work for the rest of her life. She spent most days reading her bestseller books until she drank enough wine to make this difficult, and then spent the rest of the day watching TV.

Thankfully she accepted the collect call. "Hi mom."

"Jeffrey? Why would you make me worry like this?"

"I am sorry mom. I didn't want to tell you that I was leaving. I was scared that you would have told Monica's parents and then we would never have left." Jeff is quickly starting to regret phoning her.

"For you to run off with that young girl without telling me or her parents is very irresponsible of you." His mom was slurring slightly from the wine.

"I am sorry that you don't approve mom but that convinces me that I was right to not tell you. Anyway, in case you are interested, we are in Michigan and doing real good, and we are going to be real happy together." Jeff was thinking how to get off the phone without upsetting her more.

"Well you are a grown man now but it isn't right that you got such a nice young girl involved in this little misadventure of yours. When will I see you again?"

"I really don't know, I wanted to get out of Ottawa for now, things weren't going well for me and I was desperate for a big change. I promise that I will keep in touch and I am sure we will come back and visit next year or the year after. You are welcome to come visit us out west if you like someday." He liked the idea that the lecture might already be over.

"Well I doubt that I will ever want to do that but you know I love you very much and I hope you change your mind and come back soon."

"We are madly in love with each other and are going to get married someday. I promise that the wedding will be in Ottawa though, for your sake and her parents. But we aren't going to change our minds. Who knows what will happen in the future? We may decide to move back there someday but we are going to give British Columbia a chance. You know how important skiing is to both of us and that is the best place in Canada to do it. But we're both very young and there is no way of telling what will happen in the future."

"Okay Jeffrey I do love you and I wish you both luck. I have to go now, my show X-Factor is about to start, and my girl is still in it. I can't stand that Simon Cowell, but even that mean obnoxious ego maniac likes Anna, so I think she is going to win it all. I know talent, and I knew that girl had loads of talent the moment I first heard her."

"Okay mom, I love you too and I will make you proud someday. I hope Anna wins your singing show for you. Bye and I will phone again when we make it safe to Tom's farm." Jeff is feeling very relieved.

"Alright good night honey, and please take good care of Monica, you know how much I like her."

"I will take real good care of her, don't worry. Bye mom and talk to you soon." He hangs up the phone and gives a big sigh of relief. That didn't go too bad.

He then picks up the receiver again and dials for the operator to place the collect call to Kelowna. Tom answers on the fourth ring and accepts the charges.

"Hey Jeffy! Where the hell are you?"

"Hi Tom, we are somewhere in Michigan, about a third of the way to your place. We are having a blast travelling. I think we will be at your place in about four days."

"Hey that sounds cool, I am putting you both to work right away though, there is lots to do around here." Tom sounds his usual upbeat self.

"I promise we will both work hard for you. You know how much I appreciate you letting us come there. Did you manage to get the cabin fixed up like you said it needed?"

"Oh ya baby! You and your girl will be real cozy. I even bought some new bed sheets for you. Okay not you, but for that pretty little girl of yours."

"You are the best Tom, so expect us in four days from now I think, but I will phone you if something happens to change that."

"Sounds fantastic and I will make sure we have a special little birthday party for Monica, I think you said it is on the thirteenth. But tell me again how a guy like you got such a beautiful girl like her again." Tom was always a big joker.

"Hey! She happens to think I am a real good guy and she is almost right. Okay I will let you go buddy but thanks again and we will talk soon."

"Okey dokey, you drive that bike real careful and I will be waiting for you in four days. Take care."

"Alright have a good night, bye." Jeff hangs up and heads back to the campsite feeling good about everything.

Monica is looking with fascination at the little fire that she has managed to start. It is the very first campfire that she had ever started on her own, and she was proud of herself. The toilet paper she was using ignited the twigs and was starting to light the larger branches that she was feeding it. She had just been thinking that, all and all, she's a pretty lucky girl. She's young, smart and healthy. And she is crazy about a great guy... who is crazy about her. She carefully lays the two biggest broken up branches that she had gathered in the woods on her growing fire. She sits back down on the end of the picnic table a couple feet away. Dusk was settling in, but Monica doesn't notice, as she stares into the flames. Above the crackling fire, and the constant chorus of the crickets, a distant yet sharp haunting hoot of a loon frames Monica's mystical and wondrous mood.

Chapter Four

The next morning, they enjoy a leisurely breakfast and are back on the road early and enjoying the bright sunshine. The traffic is sparse once again and the surrounding forest still as pristine as could possibly be. The miles fly by very comfortably for both of them. Every time they get a look at the mighty Lake Superior on their right they both gaze at it in wonder. They enter Duluth Michigan at the far end of Lake Superior. Jeff knows that they are getting dangerously low on gas. He had already had to turn on the reserve switch under the gas tank. The engine had started to chug, so by turning the reserve switch he knew he had only enough gas left to go another twenty or thirty miles at most. Thank god for the great gas mileage of the motorcycle though, or this trip would be costing him much more. Jeff had saved up two thousand dollars in preparation for this journey. That was more than enough to get them to B.C. of course but he had no idea what their immediate future held at the moment.

They pulled into a Mobil station in downtown Duluth. He pulls up to a self serve gas pump and takes his helmet off. Monica gets off the bike and takes her helmet off and puts it on the ground. She takes his helmet from him and carefully places it besides hers. She then throws her arms around Jeff and with a great big smile, kisses him flush on the lips, and proudly declares, "I love you Jeffrey Morrison!"

"I love you too, my adorable kook!" Is Jeff's automatic reply. She releases him and runs happily towards the small store.

Jeff gets off the bike and proceeds to fill the tank. Jeff is holding the nozzle carefully, trying to not let any gas get on the outside of the tank. He can't help but notice the old style, large black Mustang and its loud rumbling as it pulls into the next lane of gas tanks. He watches as a cool looking dude gets out of the driver's side. He has mirrored sunglasses, a black t-shirt, blue jeans and cowboy boots. As this dude is grabbing for a gas nozzle, Jeff notices the tall hot chick getting out of the passenger side. She is totally gorgeous! She is wearing a tight fitting red dress, has long flowing light blonde hair, and white running shoes. Jeff watches her rush towards the little store, and then glances towards the guy.

The guy is staring back at him and smiling. He gives Jeff a nod of his head in greeting. "I see you're from Canada, where bouts you headin?" The Mustang dude asks Jeff.

"Uhh...we're heading out west... my name's Jeff, we're from Ottawa."

The dude leaves his gas nozzle in the Mustang's tank and walks over to Jeff and reaches to shake his hand. Jeff is finished filling his small tank so he hangs his nozzle back on the pump. He turns, wipes his hands a little on his jeans and grabs the dude's hand. "Hi there I'm Pete, and the babe you were just staring at is Issy."

"Hey I wasn't staring, but you are right she is a babe, but no worries I have my own babe inside." Jeff stammers a little. He knows Pete is staring at him through his mirror shades but can't see his eyes. And Pete seems to hang tightly onto his hand a little longer than necessary. Pulling his hand a way a little self consciously Jeff asks Pete, "Are you two from around here?"

"Do I need a key for your washroom?" Monica had bought a pack of gum and a couple of Cokes for her and Jeff and now needed to take care of that other business.

As the quiet Arab looking guy behind the counter was handing her the key and telling her the bathroom was in the back some blonde girl out of nowhere grabs the key from both of them. "I have to go really bad, can I go first please?"

Monica looks over at this girl and seeing the desperate pleading look on her face says, "I guess, but please don't be long as I gotta go too." With that, the blonde girl turns and runs towards the back of the store. Monica follows, trying not to be annoyed that her bladder is reminding her that it needs to be relieved. In the back corner of the little gas bar store she is waiting, and wondering how much longer this pushy blonde girl is going to be.

Monica finally knocks politely on the door and says, "C'mon it's my turn." She hears the toilet flush and then the water is running. Finally, the door opens and blondie emerges. She flashes a quick smile and an apology but Monica doesn't notice as she rushes past her.

Afterwards, feeling much better, Monica goes outside to see how Jeff is doing. Jeff is standing by a big old black car talking to the same blonde that was in the bathroom.

Monica remembers when they first met that Jeff said that he preferred blondes. Being a brunette herself she wasn't crazy about hearing that. And now he is looking a little too friendly with this pushy girl who just happens to be blonde. She goes up to Jeff and is about to grab him when some other guy rushes past her and grabs the blonde around the waist with one arm and plants a kiss on her cheek. "Hey I see you have met my Issy." Pete says to Jeff with his big smile. "This Canadian boy here was checking your ass out, when you were running into the store."

Monica stops two feet short of Jeff. "You were what?"

"Whoa... I wasn't checking her ass out baby; this guy is just messing with ya."

Pete releases Issy and steps towards Monica reaching his hand out, "Hi I am Pete, don't you worry I won't let your guy get near my pumpkin."

Monica reluctantly shakes his hand and stares at her own face in Pete's mirrored lenses. She didn't like the blonde and she thinks she likes this guy even less. She shows him a weak smile and hands the bag with the Cokes in it, to Jeff. "Let's get going Jeff."

"Actually baby, me and Pete here were talking about traveling together for a little while, they are headed to Seattle and we could use some company." Jeff was looking at Monica's face as he said this and didn't like seeing her obvious disappointment.

How could Jeff make a decision like this without talking to her first? "We have each other Jeff so I don't see why we need any company."

"Hey it will be fun, we can get a motel room together tonight and get drunk and raise some hell!" Pete jumps into the little argument with one arm back around the blonde's waist. The blonde didn't seem to have anything to add.

But Monica sure did! "Jeff, we were going to have a quiet time camping together. That is what we agreed on. I thought you were liking it." Monica looks at Jeff accusingly.

"Ah c'mon baby we are allowed to have a little fun along the way."

Pete looks at his Issy, who hasn't said a word yet. "I was suggesting to Jeff that it would be fun if you rode on the back of his bike for awhile. I know you'd like that, and his girl can ride in the car with me. I bet she wouldn't mind getting off that uncomfortable looking thing for awhile."

Issy started thinking about an answer, but Monica didn't need to think of her response. "No thank you, Pete is that your name? I am very comfortable on the bike." And to confirm this she grabs for her helmet.

Jeff doesn't want to admit that he is a little disappointed the new babe isn't joining him. But he doesn't want to fight with Monica, especially about that. "Maybe we will do that if we get to know each other a little better." Jeff says to Pete while he grabs his own helmet. "You lead the way on the highway and I will follow, I am assuming you aren't going to go too slow, I am on a bike, remember."

Heading to his Mustang Pete gives Jeff a thumbs up, and says, "Okay we will talk in a couple of hours at our next stop."

Pete is back on the highway and looks in his rear-view mirror to make sure the two Canadians are following behind on their motorcycle. Pete always thought that motorcycles looked like death traps. He feels much safer in his beautiful, fully restored 1969 Mach 1 Mustang. It took him two years of working weekends and evenings, and cost him a small fortune to get it to the mint condition that it's finally in. He totally loves his car now. He glances over at his gorgeous Issy, and thinks about how much he also loves her. He was starting to really hate his job driving a delivery truck in Duluth, and welcomed the offer of going out to Seattle to help Issy's uncle in his hardware store.

Issy continues to look down at her new Nike's and is real glad that she is still in the good mood that she has been in ever since they decided to go to Seattle two months ago. She was getting bored silly at her job at the Target Store, so she's real glad that Pete agreed to go out west with her. She is hoping that her Uncle Mick is still the real cool guy that she knew ten years ago. It is so sad that his son, her cousin Doug, drowned last year in the ocean. They're still not sure what really happened. She hopes that she and Pete can help at the store as much as Uncle Mick expects them to.

"This is so exciting to make a new start in a new city, don't you think Pete?"

"Pumpkin, if this makes you happy, then you know it makes me happy." Pete flashes her a quick smile.

Issy returns the smile, and then goes back to staring at her shiny white Nikes. She loves comfortable shoes. She will never understand women who buy silly uncomfortable high heel fancy shoes, and they can be so expensive, for such pain, what silly women. And they suffer all that unnecessary pain just so that their legs look a little nicer for men. Don't they realize that men only look at your hair, your eyes, your tits, or your ass? Horny men, and they are all horny, don't give a damn about your shoes.

She gives another quick glance at her Pete. He is so beautiful and is always very horny. And he is very smart. She hopes that getting out of Duluth and starting a new life will help Pete smarten up a little and start to take their future a little more seriously.

They had been travelling a little over the speed limit and Pete guesses it wasn't quite fast enough for Jeff because his motorcycle shows up beside him, and with a glance over, the bike pulls out in front and accelerates away. Well, his Mustang has plenty of horsepower under its hood, so he puts the pedal down and tries to keep up with the quickly disappearing bike.

Monica looks back and sees that the stupid black car is catching up to them again. Damn! She was hoping she saw the last of it. She was a little leery about coming down to the States in the first place. Jeff had checked on Google Earth about the fastest route to cousin Tom's farm. She would have preferred to go above that ocean of a Lake Superior so they could stay in their own country, but it would add a bunch of time to the trip. And as Jeff likes to point out, the gas is still a little cheaper in the States, even though their dollar is almost on par for a change. Not that gas means much since they are on a bike. But she agreed to go through the United States and now they are stuck with these unknown Americans being part of this crucial life changing trip that she has agreed to go on. If there was a time she needed to have the comfort of hugging her cat it is now. She tries to figure out when she will next be able to hold Juniper again. Not for at least a week she sadly accepts.

"Okay let's first order a pizza and then go across the street to that store and score us some beers!" Pete proudly declares as he is sitting himself on the motel room bed that they have decided is his and Issy's for the night. He looks over to Issy in the small bathroom in the back, primping her face in the mirror.

She comes out and says to her three assembled fellow travellers, "Pete, it kind of sounds like fun to do what Jeff and Monica were doing. I haven't camped since my dad used to take us when I was little."

Monica is lying on their bed staring up at the ceiling, and muses, "I like sleeping in a tent usually, but it makes a big difference not having some kind of padding under the sleeping bag. I didn't get a great sleep the last couple of nights, so it will be nice to have this bed to get a real sleep in." Not so nice sharing the room with you two though... but she will try to put up with it for one night.

"Ya some beer and pizza will be a very good start to our little party. Your American beer is pretty weak though Pete, have you ever had a real beer from Canada?" Jeff has laid his leather jacket on the bed and is now sitting on the end of it rubbing his baby's feet. He pulls her socks off and lightly tickles the bottom of both feet. He is watching her face, that is still looking up at the ceiling. She always smiles when he rubs her feet, and he is relieved to see that she is smiling a little now. "Hey baby, are you going to drink a little beer with us?"

Monica is thinking that it is not fair how Jeff has so much power over her. All he has to do, is start rubbing her anywhere on her body, and she is completely at his mercy. But right now, she must try to be sensible.

She pulls her feet reluctantly away from Jeff, and sits up against the padded head board, that looks like it has been leaned against, a million times before. "No Jeff I don't think I should do that. No offense there Pete, but being in a strange country with a couple of strange people, I think one of us should stay sober. And you don't drink too many please." She looks back over at Pete who is still sitting on his bed facing them, and asks, "How old do you have to be to buy beer here?"

"Twenty-one, how old are you guys anyway?" Pete quickly responds, looking back and forth between the two.

Jeff is the one that answers, "I am twenty and Monica here is going to be eighteen in one week. We are planning to be at cousin Tom's to celebrate her birthday on the 13th!" He glances over at Monica with this, and likes that she looks like she is finally starting to relax a little. "In Ontario where we live... was living anyway, the drinking age is nineteen, but in Quebec which is just across The Ottawa River you only have to be eighteen."

Issy is sitting at the end of their bed by now, and all four of them are then quiet for several seconds. The silence was starting to get a little awkward, for Monica anyway... so, "I was looking forward to being legal in Hull. We forgot to check what the age is in B.C. I think someone told me it is nineteen. That's crazy though that I would have to wait three more years if I lived down here in the States."

With this, Issy joins in, "I finally don't have to use a fake ID. I turned twenty-one last month... it is soooo stupid that they make you have to be so old. Almost all my friends have been drinking since they were fifteen or sixteen."

"Well enough of this talking about drinking, it is time to start doing some. You guys figure out who to call for a couple of pizzas, while I go across the street." Pete stands up and heads to the door. He looks down at Jeff, "We split the room already so I will pay for the beer and we will figure it out after the pizza gets here."

Jeff stands up, "Ya that sounds fine, but I'm coming with you. I want to see if they have any real beer."

Jeff is carrying his twelve cans of Molson Export and Pete has his twelve of Budweiser. They agreed to try a couple of each other's beer. They are waiting for the traffic to clear so they can cross the street and get back to their girls. Jeff looks around and marvels at his new surroundings. He has travelled very little in his life and this is the farthest he has ever been from home. They are in Fargo North Dakota, about half way to their destination. They are walking by their car and bike parked beside each other in front of the door to their room. Jeff looks over at Pete, "Thanks for buying the beer for me, I forgot that I wasn't old enough to buy beer down here. You haven't said how old you are, what? Twenty-five, twenty-six?"

Pete's putting the key in the door handle of the room and looks to Jeff, "Close, twenty-seven." Then he pushes the door open and enters with Jeff right behind him. Pete puts his beer case on the dresser at the end of the two beds. He hands a beer to Issy who is leaning against her headboard now, "Did you order that pizza?" He then sits and opens his own beer and looks up at Monica on her bed, "You should drink some beers with us, we got lots, Issy here is only good for three or four."

But before Monica can answer, Issy gives Pete a little kick on his thigh, "Hey leave her alone! She found a pizza menu in that little desk, and we ordered you a pepperoni and meatball pizza. And she even told them to put onions on it so be a good boy and drink your beer."

Jeff is settling in beside Monica against the head board after giving her a quick kiss on the lips. He cracks his beer open and says, "Uhhhh... is that the only pizza you ordered?"

"Don't worry you are getting your own medium Hawaiian. Theirs sounds more yummy to me, so we ordered an extra large of that one. It turns out that Issy is like me and loves eating cold leftover pizza for breakfast, so hopefully there's a few pieces left over."

"Sounds expensive, we're sure blowing our little travel budget tonight... oh well we deserve it." Jeff decides, and then raises his beer to the sky before emptying more of it into his mouth.

Pete gets up and puts his beer on the dresser. He then bends down, opens his sports bag on the floor, and pulls out a little bag of big trouble.

"AHHH SHIT!" Monica reacts instantly, as soon as she realizes he is pulling out some stinking marijuana. She knew it! They should have stayed by themselves.

Pete stands waving the baggy, "What? You guys don't smoke reefer up in that little hick country of yours?"

"Their country is bigger than ours actually Pete." is Issy's contribution.

"She doesn't have a problem that you smoke that shit. It's me she's worried about. I used to smoke quite a bit, but I quit over a year ago. So she doesn't like me being around it, but you go ahead smoke your brains out." Jeff pauses to lean over and nibble and kiss the neck of a tense looking Monica. "Don't worry baby, I am good just drinking some beer... Have one it will relax you.

Chapter Five

Monica was once again not sure of anything. Maybe she should have stayed in Ottawa. This was Jeff's dream to go out west, not hers after all. She was just desperate for some kind of change but maybe this was the wrong change to make. But she keeps her mouth shut and tolerates Pete smoking a joint before the pizzas come. Issy has a couple of small puffs of the joint but Jeff does decline when it is offered to him. The pizza is delicious; she had never tried meatballs on one before. She even relents and accepts one of Jeff's beers to wash the pizza down. She doesn't participate in the small talk between the others but tries not to be rude. So she relaxes a little but not much. She has two pieces and finishes the beer.

Monica then gets off the bed and puts her shoes on. "I am going for a walk, I need some fresh air... and to think about things."

Jeff jumps up and opens his arms wide, "Hey baby c'mon, chill out. We are just having some fun. Did your pizza go down good?" Then he wraps his arms around her.

She returns the hug, a little reluctantly. "I will be fine Jeff, I just would like to be alone for a little while. I won't be long, so please behave while I am gone." And with that, she lets him go, and reaches for the door.

"Okay baby if you insist, but please don't be long, or I will have to call for a search party." Jeff tries his best to keep the mood light.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Issy offers, as she is chewing on her pizza, and grabbing for her beer.

Monica looks over at her, "No Issy thanks, but could you make sure Jeff here stays away from Pete's drugs."

"Sure girl I will babysit both of them." Issy says, raising her beer in a toast to Monica.

\-----------------------------------------------

Well this just may work out after all. I must be a privileged cat that gets more than one catserver. My catserver has apparently left me now for some unknown reason, but it obviously first trained this other catserver to prepare my food properly. My new catserver's offerings were actually quite delicious for its first attempt at my meal. I am not about to die of starvation waiting for somecat to explain to me why this has happened, after all. So now that I have a full stomach, finally, I can now go back to concentrating on trying to solve all these new mysteries about my lowly catservers. They seem to be just beyond my grasp of understanding. And now that same bird seems to be trying to attract my attention on my Palace grounds again. It doesn't have to worry about me having any desire to devour it any time soon. I have to admit it has been a very big relief to not have to endure that old catserver always hoisting me in the air every time I see it, and squeezing me tight against its torso. The Great Sphinx does have wondrous control over these simple creatures and made sure that I was rewarded with a more satisfying one. It is so pleasant to finally be drifting off to sleep at last with none of that anxiety nonsense I had been forced to endure.

"Leonardo, I am trying my best to keep this family together. If only you had maybe spent more time with the children. You should have made some effort to make them appreciate you for the wonderful man that I know you can be." Victoria is serving her husband the meatloaf and Spanish rice that he likes so much. He has pretty much left all the parenting of their two children to her. He thinks that since she stays home and he goes to work every day that she should dote on the children. He seems to want to do nothing about them but pay for their activities and tell them "Good job" if they ever succeed at anything. Well neither of their children has succeeded at much in recent years. At least both of them finished grade twelve. It is so disappointing that neither of them is going on to university, or even community college. Tony has hung around and done nothing for a full year now.

"I am thinking that if Monica is going to be stupid enough to stay out west with that creep, and since Tony refuses to do anything, maybe we should sell the house and just get a one bedroom condo for the two of us." Leonardo says this, between large mouthfuls of his dinner.

Victoria can only stare at her husband, while picking at her own food. "You wouldn't dare do that to this family!" She finally manages to blurt out.

"It is the obvious thing to do now that the kids have grown; I have worked hard to pay the god-awful mortgage on this place. It would be real nice to downsize and save some money. And a little apartment condo would be much easier for you to keep clean. You would have more free time, especially if we are lucky enough to get Tony to move out." Leo is steadily making his way through his dinner while explaining all of this, and not once even glancing at his wife.

"You have this whole thing planned already?!" Victoria slaps her fork on the table, stands up, pushing her chair back, and reaches for the counter. She grabs the edge of the counter for support, then spins around and raises her outstretched hands in the air. In a soft yell, she proclaims to her husband, "My baby girl is gone for two days!" She pauses, and doubles the volume. "And you are already about to put the house up for sale?!!" She drops her arms, puts her hands on her waist and glowers at Leo. At least he is finally looking at her... but his face is only showing confusion, and irritation. She takes a deep breath and says very quietly, "I don't think I can take anymore of this." Putting her face in her hands she promptly heads out of the kitchen. Her head is starting to throb and she feels an inevitable onrush of tears.

\-----------------------------------------------

"Well that's a relief! Getting rid of that buzz kill of a wife of yours." Pete looks over to Jeff. Pete's sitting cross legged in the middle of his bed. He has a little pile of pot on the pizza menu in front of him, and is rolling another joint.

Jeff is still leaning against his head board, a beer in one hand and a pizza crust that he is gnawing on in the other. Waving the crust at Pete, after a quick glance over at Issy, still directly across from him, he says, "Hey, she is cool, she just doesn't like drugs. Her brother, who's only a year older than she is, has been into lots of drugs for a long time, and she hates how much it has changed him. She drinks a little as you saw, but she's never even tried pot. So she hated that I was a pothead. The only reason I ever got together with her is because she didn't think I smoked dope for those first few dates. Luckily for some reason she didn't ask me. I am such a hunk I guess, because she fell in love with me anyway after she found out. But I knew I was going to lose her soon if I didn't quit." Jeff tosses the rest of the crust in the pizza box beside him. He still had a couple of pieces left. He closes the lid and guzzles his beer.

Pete is licking the Zig Zag paper and twists the end of the joint. He lights it up and takes a couple of deep drags. With his lungs full and trying to hold the smoke in he passes the joint to Issy.

But Issy shakes her head, "No thanks, I'm good."

Pete blows his smoke out in a big cloud up to the ceiling and holds the joint towards Jeff, "C'mon man you got to miss getting stoned, we won't tell that buzz kill of yours. Go ahead, this stuff is probably better than you're used to up in that frozen north."

Jeff knows better, and says to his empty beer, "No dude I'm not crazy. Monica would smell it on me...and taste it in my mouth." He reaches for another beer.

Monica is walking slowly up the street. The temperature seemed just about perfect and she feels a light breeze. Her head is on a constant slow swivel looking all around. Like Jeff, she has travelled very little, mostly the old family camping trips. She tries to forget her current uncertainty and starts to enjoy just wandering up the street a little aimlessly, taking in the various new sights of the few people sharing the sidewalk and the many different little store fronts vying for her attention. Without giving any of it much thought she let her mind slip into a bit of a trance. She lost track of time for a bit, but not long, because a short while later a sign in a small restaurant window catches her attention. It says "Internet Cafe- $3.00 an hour". The word internet snaps her out of her little trance. This offer was one she knew she had to jump on, and she goes in.

She orders a coffee at the counter and asks the lady handing her the coffee where the computers are for the internet access. The lady smiles and points to the back. Monica sees the two small tables by themselves against the back wall, both with old style monitors on them. They are both unoccupied, in fact there was only two other people in the restaurant and they were both sitting at a table up front by the window, enjoying an animated chat together while sharing a pitcher of beer and a large plate of nachos. She is told she can pay for the coffee and computer when she is done.

She thanks the kind lady and heads to the back. Both of the computer keyboards and monitors look equally old and somewhat dirty, so she sits down at the one on the left and pushes a random button on the keyboard. She gets a little excited, as the computer lets her get on the internet almost instantly. She first checks her email. The only two emails in her inbox are the ones she expected. The first one is from her mom of course. She knows what that one will say, so opening it isn't an option for the moment. But the second one waiting is the one she opens immediately, her best friend, in fact her only close friend besides for Jeff, did not want her to leave Ottawa. She has known Christine since they were both in grade seven together. They were almost inseparable until Jeff came into Monica's life. Christine had a couple of different boyfriends in high school but nothing long term and certainly nothing serious. Christine claimed to still be a virgin and Monica not only respected her for that, but often wished she was as well. She felt very guilty losing her virginity to Jeff at such a young age, but kept trying to convince herself that since she loved him, and wanted to marry him someday, that it was okay. Christine likes Jeff, but did not approve of this move out west in the least. They had both been planning to go to university together, and now that is not going to happen.

With a little trepidation, she reads Christine's message. "Hi Monny, you have only been gone for two days but I am already missing you like crazy. And speaking of CRAZY! I still think you are crazy to go on this trip. I hope hope hope it is going well for you but I wish wish wish you would come back NOW NOW NOW! Please let me know how it is going because I am worrying about you constantly. I am going to go see how your mom and Juniper are doing tomorrow morning. I am sure your mom will cry the whole time. If you do end up staying out west please come back as often as you can because I really doubt I will be able to visit you out there for a long long time. luv ya 4ever, Chris"

Monica smiles, and tastes the salt of her tears, that started to flow almost instantly when she started reading. Good friends were hard to find, great friends were almost impossible to find. Thank god for the internet, she will be able to stay in almost constant contact with Christine. She reads the message three more times and then as her tears are magically drying, she opens her mom's message.

"Dear Monica, I have no idea why you would do this and I am sure you will soon regret it. I pray that you don't die on that horrible motorcycle. You should have talked to me about it before you left, I thought you loved me. I am sorry that I didn't get to talk to you when you phoned this morning. Please come home, you are just a child and have your whole life ahead of you. What you are doing will affect the rest of your life. Your father doesn't always show it but he loves you very much. Let me know what I can do different to make you come back, and I will do it. I will take care of your cat, but please let me know what is going on. Love, Your MOM"

Well that wasn't quite as bad as she expected.

Monica then logs on to Facebook. She is instantly inundated with messages. Some begging her to stay in Ottawa, but most telling her to have fun out west. Christine had even started a group a week ago called "Stay home Monica". She is surprised her mom didn't get wind of it. She skims over the bunch of messages from "friends" she barely knows at all. Christine didn't leave her any though, figuring probably that the email was enough. BUT just as she is thinking about this she is thrilled to see that Christine just logged on. She clicks on Christine's name and excitedly types her greeting.

"Hey Issy, why do you put up with this crazy fucker?" Jeff is laughing at Pete doing a little strange circle dance around the old wooden coat rack that was by the front door.

Issy is still on her bed and is laughing too. "I don't know Jeff, he is pretty lovable most of the time."

"Hey I am lovable all the time and you know it!" Pete lets go of the rack and lands on the bed at Issy's feet.

Pete then crawls on top of Issy's legs and up her body. He brings his face up to hers, then proceeds to plant kisses all over her laughing face, and ends by planting a big slow one on her lips. He then backs away and sits on the bed facing Jeff. "So my Canadian friend I think it is time for you to loosen up a little and smoke a joint with us. To hell with your girlfriend, I know you want to get STONED." He then gets up to get the pot and papers off the dresser, still on the pizza menu. He sits back down on the bed and looks over to Jeff who is nursing his beer.

"Ah c'mon dude! Stop bugging me about it, you know I'm tempted. I used to love getting stoned. It feels so good but it seems to suck all of my ambition away. I find that once you start getting high, you don't want to do anything accept keep getting high." Jeff looks at Pete and then drains the rest of his beer.

"Ya Pete stop bugging him about it. You heard what Monica said. You know damn well she will freak out if he smokes. Do you really want her freaking out on all of us?" Issy says this to Pete, while rubbing his back with the hand that isn't holding her beer.

Pete says nothing and continues to roll another joint.

Jeff tries to change the subject. "Issy, so what is Issy short for anyway? That's not your given name... is it?" Jeff looks away from the newly forming joint and over to Issy.

Issy is looking at Jeff, and flashes him her big gorgeous smile, "Isabella, but no one calls me that but my mom. I have been Issy for as long as I can remember." "

I like Isabella, but Issy is pretty cool too." Jeff tries to return her a nice smile. "You are going to go work in your Uncle's hardware store. Have either of you ever worked in a hardware store before?... Or any store for that matter?"

Chapter Six

July 4 Monica Martinelli - Hi CHRIS!!!!! I am in a small restaurant in Fargo North Dakota. It has been fun so far, but I already miss you too. Did you get a chance to drop by my house? How is mom and Juniper?

July 4 Christine Cunningham - Monny!!!! You're alive!!!! Thank god. Your mom is freaking out. She was in hysterics the whole time I was there so I didn't stay long. But your cat is fine, she just ignored me as usual. Your mom and I are both hoping that you come back before the summer is over. You can have fun all summer out west then be back here in September to go to school with me...... PLEASE!!!

July 4 Monica Martinelli - I am not sure what I will do anymore, I will let you know how it goes. I really want to stay with Jeff, you know how much I love him. I guess I don't have to decide for a little while, I just may still go to Ottawa U with you this fall after all but no promises. When we get to his cousin's farm I will try to figure out what to do next. I really don't think I will be able to convince Jeff to go back home though. What about you? Did you start that new job?

July 4 Christine Cunningham - Ya working at McDonald's isn't as gross as I thought it would be. They started me on fries. It sounds like that is where most people start. I also have to clean up the tables and stuff. My bosses all seem real cool so far so I think I will be able to stomach it for the summer. It will be nice to get a pay check. I really want to buy that new lap top before school starts. I sure hope you are there with me.

July 4 Monica Martinelli - I really don't know Chris, I have told you I like the idea of taking some time off. And it is real awesome to see the country. Jeff and I both really like the idea of spending the winter working and being ski bums in Banff. That would be sooooo cool. We are staying tonight in a motel with an American couple. She seems pretty cool but he is a bit of a jerk. Jeff is back at the room now with them, I left to go for a walk because the other two are smoking drugs. I sure hope Jeff doesn't have any, but I have to start learning to trust him if we are spending the rest of our lives together.

July 4 Christine Cunningham - OH NO Monny! you shouldn't have left him alone with druggies.

July 4 Monica Martinelli - Believe me we wouldn't be with them if I knew they were druggies. Jeff promised me he wouldn't have any. Tomorrow night we can go back to camping like we did the other two nights. It was real fun to camp with Jeff, I haven't done any camping in a long time and it just seemed so perfect with my sweetie. We stayed at a place called Batman's Campground on Manitoulin Island at the top of Lake Huron if you can believe it. Jeff and I just love the outdoors. It will be real nice spending the summer in wild British Columbia, I know the scenery will be breathtaking.

July 4 Christine Cunningham - Alright Monny I know you are a smart girl and will figure out what is best for you. I have to go to bed soon, I have to wake up at FIVE THIRTY in the morning to get to work for seven. Yuck! Please let me know how you are doing every chance you get. You know I worried about you on his motorcycle and now that you are so far away I worry about you constantly. I can only imagine how much your mom is worrying.

July 4 Monica Martinelli - I promise every time I get to a computer I will send you an email and check my Facebook. I think I better send my mom an email to tell her I am fine. Night Chris and thanks for still being my best friend.

July 4 Christine Cunningham - I will always be your best friend no matter how far you are away I love you! take care. Chow

July 4 Monica Martinelli - CIAO!

That made Monica feel better. It sounds like Christine and Jupiter are going to be fine. But Monica is starting to feel guilty about her mom. She knew the whole time that her mom was going to take it real hard. She re-opens her mom's email and reads it again slowly, trying to think what to say.

From: Monica Martinelli,

To: Victoria Martinelli,

Dear Mom, I am so sorry that I hurt you, but I couldn't possibly have told you about this trip or it or you would have never let me leave. I love you and miss you as I know you miss me! But I really had to do this. I am going to be okay and you will be proud of me someday. I promise I will still go to university...soon. Please take care of Juniper. In a couple of weeks when we are settled into our new place I am hoping you will send Juniper by airplane. It's only $230 by Air Canada. We can wire you the money. And Mom, Jeff is a really, really great guy. I hope you love him some day as much as I do. I promise to send you lots of emails. As soon as we get to the farm I mention in the letter I promise I will phone you.

Talk Soon, Love Monica

Monica reads it over and corrects a couple of small spelling mistakes. She quickly clicks the send button and immediately closes her email. She sees that the clock on the computer says it is almost 9:30 PM. She had been on the computer for an hour and a half already. She figures she better head back, Jeff will be getting worried. She shuts the computer off and gets up to head to the cash. She hadn't noticed that the restaurant had a few more customers now. The original couple by the front were still there and two other tables were now occupied with people laughing and drinking, mostly beer it seems. Monica pulls out her money and pays her bill. She then counts what's left. Twenty seven dollars. She doesn't like being so dependent on Jeff but figures she has no choice for now. She plans to start saving some money for herself as soon as she can. She puts the few mostly Canadian bills back in the front pocket of her jeans. She looks around one last time and heads to the door.

She is reaching for the front door when one of the guys, that had been eating nachos at the front with his buddy, jumps up. He rushes over and grabs her arm. Monica looks at him a little startled. "Hey there pretty lady why don't you join us for a drink?"

Monica grabs his hand on her bicep, and starts to pull it away. But then she looks into his eyes and freezes all movement. They were the most beautiful big blue eyes she had ever seen. Monica is unable to look away. The eyes grab her and suck her in. With her hand still holding his on her arm, all time seems to stand still.

He is smiling wide, but she doesn't notice, as his eyes won't let go. "So what do you say? Please join us, will you?" "Uhh... that is very kind of you but I have to get going." The guy looks to be in his early twenties and is unable to hide his disappointment, "Hey a guy can't help trying... you have a nice night." He gives her one last little smile and a little mock bow. Monica returns the smile, and with a little uncertain nod of her head she grabs for the door.

As soon as she is outside she is feeling all kinds of mixed emotions. She gets her bearings and without anymore hesitation starts walking in the direction from which she came.

"At the rate you are going through that bag, you are going to run out before we get to Seattle." Issy is watching Pete roll yet another joint. All three of them are still in the same places. Jeff and Issy are leaning against their headboards, and Pete is sitting near the end of his bed with the pizza menu on his lap.

"Ya well this is a special night Issy, and I am thinking that our friend here is finally ready to join us this time."

"Just leave Jeff alone already. Are you still serious about trying to quit after you finish that bag off?" Issy's mood is getting a little more serious, and she puts her half-finished beer on the little table between the beds.

Pete flashes her a big grin. "Ya sure pumpkin, we are both going to make a fresh start, I promise. But you were good with me partying it up a bit until then, so sit back and chill."

Issy wishes she could believe him but he had been promising to quit ever since she first met him two years ago. She had tried to quit smoking pot herself a few times since, but was unable to get Pete to join her. But she doesn't smoke near as much as he does.

Jeff had drunk half of his twelve pack by now and was getting pretty buzzed. And he drank one of Pete's weak beers, so really eight or so. When Pete hands him the newly lit joint, he grabs it without any hesitation or thinking. He holds it between his fingers, staring at it, and enjoyed the thick familiar smell of the burning weed.

Issy pipes up, "No Jeff don't! Monica will be back soon and you just know you will regret it!"

Jeff looks at Issy and then back to the joint. He moans a little, and hands it back to Pete, "She's right dude, it wouldn't be worth it."

The front door flies open wide and with perfect timing Monica appears. She is staring straight at the outstretched arms of Jeff and Pete... and a JOINT! "NO! How could you?!" She stares beams of anger at the startled Jeff. Jeff tries to stammer out his innocence but Monica is already turning and heading back out the door that she hadn't even closed yet. With a slam she is gone again.

"You are both such dumbasses!" Issy jumps up, grabs her Nikes by the door and runs outside in her stocking feet. Monica's emotions are now in overdrive. How could he? What can she do now? Heading back to those beautiful blue eyes was as good an idea as any. She starts heading that way. Behind her though, she hears Issy's frantic voice. "Monica wait!"

Monica turns and sees Issy jumping around on one foot trying to put a shoe on the other. She slowly heads back in that direction. "What is it Issy? Are you going to blame it on your boyfriend, or the beer? Jeff is a big boy and is responsible for his own actions."

Issy manages to slip the second shoe on. "He didn't smoke any. He was thinking about it but I told him not to, for your sake!"

Monica doesn't know what to believe, she was getting more confused by the second. "Well it sure looked to me like he did."

"Well I promise you he didn't, but maybe we should get back in there before he does. Pete has been bugging him to smoke and as Jeff drinks more beer he is getting more tempted to give in. Pete sometimes likes to cause a little trouble for people, but really, Jeff is trying to be good. And I am hoping that Pete is going to quit the shit with me when we get out west." They are walking side by side up the sidewalk, still away from the room.

"Hey baby wait up!"

Monica and Issy look behind them and sure enough Jeff has almost caught up to them. He stops running and with a little huffing and puffing reaches his arms out to hug Monica.

"No Jeff I am not in the mood for one of your hugs."

"But Monica I didn't smoke, I admit I was tempted but Issy here talked me out of it. Please forgive me for being tempted, but I'm only human. I promise it won't happen again."

"I'll tell you what Jeff. You go back to your new friend Pete. I believe Issy that you didn't smoke. But you sure as hell almost did. So how about letting me talk some more with Issy and I will meet you back in the room in a little while. If you do smoke I am leaving, it's as simple as that."

Jeff puts his outstretched arms down, and with a frown says, "Ya okay but don't worry, you leaving would destroy me so I won't get tempted again, no matter how much beer I drink, or how much that Pete keeps bugging me about it." Jeff heads back to the room by himself.

Monica and Issy walk up and down the sidewalk for another half an hour and talk about everything. By the time the two girls get back to the room they are both laughing and enjoying each other's company. They started out on a negative note back at the gas station only twelve hours earlier, but now they both were starting to feel like they were already old and dear friends. They found out they have much more in common than having a couple somewhat messed up guys, that they are in love with.

They enter the motel room to find Jeff and Pete quietly watching a movie on TV. Issy goes to her boyfriend, and Monica to hers. The two young couples finish the evening without anymore drama. They all settle into enjoying the silly but sweet Adam Sandler movie, "Mr. Deeds." Jeff had found it on the room's television.

\-----------------------------------------------

Victoria was just putting her Stephen King book down, and about to shut the light off beside the bed. Her husband was already snoring softly beside her. "CRASH!!!" She thinks it came from the kitchen. Victoria slips softly out of the bed, not wanting to wake her still snoring mate. With her slippers and housecoat on, she heads down to investigate.

"Ohhhh Nooo! You managed to break the one thing in this house that I happen to really care about! I can't believe you!... The first day I have it out in over a year, and you manage to break it!" Victoria looks from her Grandmother's crystal vase that lay shattered on the floor to three feet over, where Tony's friend Stephen is sitting, giving her a big sheepish grin, putting his arms up in innocence. She was just beginning to comprehend the role the cat was playing in the scenario.

Juniper had paused for a second when she first came in, but her son and his friend didn't stop throwing the Nerf ball. And now Juniper is bouncing off the fridge, sailing clear of the broken glass, landing with her legs still moving, then runs smack into Victoria's shins. "Anthony! You promised me you wouldn't feed her catnip ever again. Monica almost killed you the last time, she was so angry."

Tony had barely glanced at his mom, as he was much too busy laughing and playing his little game of monkey in the middle.

"Rroowwwwrrrhh!" Let GO of me catserver!...Where is it where is it?...there it is there it is... get it get it "rruuww"....where is it where is it?...there it is there it is... get it get it "rrrowooo"...where is it where is it?...there it is there it is...get it get it "rrwuwf"...

Chapter Seven

"Close the curtains!"

"You're the last one in the room I am going to listen to right now. If you got your way and Jeff smoked some of your pot we might have broke up! Wouldn't that bother you?" Monica opens the other curtain and fills the room with intense sunlight.

Pete is sitting up and shielding his eyes, "Huuhhh?"

"Oh never mind. You guys aren't ruining my morning, so wakey wakey. It's nine already and I have a new plan."

Jeff moves for the first time. He pulls the pillow off his head and looks up, squinting at Monica. "What are you talking about?"

Monica sits at his feet. "Weellll...I was thinking that I can put up with Pete, if he stops trying to get you high. Your punishment for almost smoking last night is that you are riding your bike today by yourself. I am going to go with Issy and Pete."

"I like that idea!" Issy had been watching from her pillow, she gets up on her elbows and nods her head sharply, "Ya!! I really like that idea."

Jeff buries his head back between his pillows.

"Are you sure one of you doesn't want to sit up front, it's got to be frickin tight back there." Pete had a couple of Bud left, so he has a morning road pop in his crotch. He had been rocking out to Sticky Fingers, his favourite Stones CD. It was another great cruising day. This trip is turning out to be the smartest thing he has ever done. He had turned the tunes down to check on the girls.

"I told you. I offered Monica to sit up front but she prefers my company over yours. We're cozy. Now leave the music low, so we don't have to keep yelling to hear each other."

"I already turned the back speakers off."

Monica agrees with Issy, this is much cozier than the back of the bike. She puts her hand on the back of Pete's seat in front of her and leans towards him, "Ya thanks Pete! We're having fun. But it is funny that a big car like this has such a small back seat."

"This baby was built for style. Passengers don't matter when you're talking style." Pete doesn't mind keeping the music down for this subject. "My Uncle Bob had this stored away in his shop for eighteen years. Not a speck of rust on it but it needed lots of work. He gave it to me three years ago as long as I promised to restore it and get it on the road." Pete pauses to take a quick swig of beer. "He ended up helping me lots. It's only got 68,000 miles on it. It cost me over five thousand dollars and hundreds of hours but it's worth it. I could sell it for a bundle if I really had to. But I don't plan to ever have to."

"That's cool. It is in really good shape for being older than my mom." Monica had been still leaning forward trying to hear Pete above the wind and the music. Pete smiles and nods in satisfaction, he reaches forward to turn up his Mick Jagger.

"A little lower pleeassse!" Issy yells.

Pete complies and turns it down a bit. Issy turns to Monica, "So, where was I? Oh, ya I was telling you how that after they found Doug's body every one freaked out bad. My uncle thought for sure that his old girl friend did it. He says she is a real nut job. An Emo chick. Cutting her arms up and everything. And all black. Everything. Make-up, clothes, tattoos. Doug got fed up with the act so he dumped her ass. She was still stalking him with emails and coming over all the time making up crap trying desperately to get him back. Then he didn't come back from a party one night. Two weeks later, a retired couple walking their dog outside of Seattle found his body washed up on shore."

"Oh my God, that's terrible. Were they able to prove the Emo chick did it?" Monica says to Issy as she was thinking that she had never even known anyone who had died before. The idea of a relative being murdered was just crazy.

Issy is shaking her head, "No, Uncle Mick told the police all about his suspicions about her. The cops questioned her but they have no proof that she did it. There was no evidence on the body and she wasn't seen with him the night he went missing. She wasn't at the party. Her mom claims that she was home the whole night. They don't have any other suspects so the case is still unsolved."

Up front Pete turns his music right down. "If that crazy bitch gives us any grief when we are out there, it will be her body that floats to shore next."

"Ya ya tough guy, I doubt we will even meet her." Issy is shaking her head again, rolling her eyes at Monica. Issy then reaches at her feet into Pete's case of beer. "Hey Pete there is only two beers left, do you mind if Monica and I have them?"

"Ahhh..." Pete grabs his beer and gives it a little shake, "I am almost done this one and was hoping to have another."

"Pete you know I don't like you driving if you have more than one." Issy is handing one of the beers to Monica.

"No thanks Issy, I don't want one." It's Monica's turn to shake her head.

"There you go, hand it up here, I promise I will drive real careful." Pete has his hand open and waiting.

Issy slaps the beer into his hand and opens her own. "Well fine but I am having the last one." She takes a swig.

"What the hell is your boyfriend up to?" As soon as Pete says this Jeff is passing them on his bike at about a hundred miles an hour. "I am not about to try to keep up to him this time. It's not as if he is going to leave us as long as we have his girlfriend."

Monica is watching Jeff's bike disappear as it passes a transport truck up ahead. "My God if he keeps that up I won't be getting back on that thing anytime soon."

Pete was already going a little over the speed limit so he only speeds up a few more miles an hour. The girls had stopped talking so he cranks his music. He is now listening to some Bruce Springsteen. He rarely listens to anything but classic rock.

Meanwhile up ahead on the speeding motorcycle Jeff is not pleased with the recent developments. He doesn't mind that Monica wants to ride in Pete's car for a bit but he was kind of hoping that Issy would join him on the bike? He can't help but feel a little jealous of Pete getting to enjoy the company of both babes, and he is now by himself. Risking his life by going so fast takes his mind off it momentarily but he knows he can't break the speed limit by so much and not risk a speeding ticket, or worse, a tragic accident. And besides, he can't see the Mustang behind him now and doesn't want to lose track of them.

He was pretty pissed off when Monica first jumped in the Mustang so he took off without discussing with Pete where they are going to stop next. What would he do if he lost track of them? Pete and Issy don't have cell phones either so he would have no way of getting a hold of them. He slows right down and lets a couple of cars that he had just passed, pass him. He finally sees the Mustang approaching in his rear-view mirrors. He lets Pete catch right up to him and then he settles on a speed that he knows will keep them together. He has regained contact but is now starting to get pretty anxious that things aren't as cozy as they were just the day before.

This is getting ridiculous! They had been on the road for almost two hours and Jeff was getting a little fed up. They had just passed Jamestown, North Dakota and he sees a sign for an upcoming rest area. He glances over his right shoulder at the Mustang behind him. He turns his signal on and waves his arm to indicate he is pulling over.

"Well this sure isn't any fun anymore." Jeff had his helmet under his arm and was approaching the Mustang as its three occupants were emerging.

"Well that's just too bad there Jeffy, things aren't always going to go your way." Monica gives him a little smart-alec grin.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Jeff then sees Pete toss his beer can in the trash can. "Oh great! And now you guys are already drinking. Sure Monica that's real nice, you would rather go with Pete while he's getting drunk than go with me."

"Oh can it Jeff! I'm not drinking and Pete's had two of his light Yankee beers. Big deal, he doesn't have any left." Monica looks around for a comfortable spot to sit and heads to an inviting piece of grass. Jeff settles in beside her, he watches Pete and Issy walking in the other direction together. "Just yesterday you were all upset we were travelling with these two, and now you are choosing them over me."

"Well I was wrong about Issy, I happen to really like her. And actually, Pete's not too bad either. Look, I didn't realize how boring and uncomfortable it would be spending so much time on the back of your bike. It's a relief for me to be able to sit comfortably and talk with my new friend for a little while."

"It's just not fair that all of a sudden I am by myself...would you mind if I ask Issy then if she wants to ride with me for a little while."

"Ummmm..." Monica isn't too sure she likes that idea, she was enjoying Issy's company, not to mention, having her horny little boyfriend being practically in Issy's lap didn't exactly thrill her.

"Or I know! You said you wanted to drive when we got on an Interstate, so how about you ride the bike... I just want to be with you baby, that's all." He looks at her hopefully.

She pauses for another second. "Ya okay that would be cool, I like that idea."

Jeff leans over and plants a kiss on her cheek. "Kay that's more like it." He gets up and offers his hand to help pull her up. He spreads his arms. "Can I have a hug now then?" She wraps her arms around him and gives him a quick kiss on his cheek.

She releases him and heads to Issy who is returning with Pete. "Hey Issy you get to watch me racing around on the bike now!" Monica has a little triumphant smile on her face.

"Hey there girl you be careful, the last thing I want to see is you crashing in front of me."

Monica is grabbing her helmet from the back of the Mustang. After doing up the strap she flips up the visor, "Don't worry I handle this thing like a pro, you'll see!"

_____________________________

"Get your lazy ass out of bed!" Leo is yelling at Tony after he opens the door to his son's room and has turned on the light.

"Huh? Dad what are you doing? What's the problem?" Tony is looking up, blinking and trying to focus on his dad at the door.

"I'll tell you what the problem is, it's you. Now get up and put some clothes on and get your ass downstairs. Now!" And with that Leo turns and heads downstairs, but leaves the door wide open and the light on. "Your mother and I have been talking and we've decided to give you an ultimatum. If you don't have a job, any paying job, by August First, you are going to have to move out. If you don't want to do anything with your life that is your business. But I am not going to sit back and continue to support you."

Leo takes a gulp of his coffee. Tony had come down surprisingly quick, and was now sitting at the kitchen table across from his angry dad, and Victoria is sitting with them, sipping her own coffee. "Well dad I actually was thinking of going to college this fall."

"And just what were you thinking of studying at college?" Leo didn't sound too convinced.

"Well I like the idea of being a lawyer some day, so I was already looking into paralegal courses."

"Well that would be great if you actually did it. How would you pay for the tuition?" Leo is turning this new idea in his head.

"I am pretty sure I will qualify for some kind of student loan." Tony then gets up to get his own coffee.

Leo watches his son and then takes another gulp of his coffee. Victoria brightens up and says, "I would be so happy if you did that Anthony, you are so bright and could be a great lawyer, or even you just being a paralegal would be wonderful. What made you think of that as a career?"

Tony heads back to his seat, "Well I went to court with Stephen last week when he was there pleading guilty to that pissy little possession charge the pigs gave him. I really enjoyed watching some of the other cases and I realized that I would really like the idea of arguing in front those judges to fight for some justice for the little guy. Our system is so fucking corrupt."

"Tony! Just because you are finally saying something that we want to hear doesn't mean you can use that language around here." Leo glares at his son. Victoria is liking this turn of events. "Well how about trying to get some kind of job this summer in the industry. I am sure Samantha next door would give you some help with that. You know she always thought the world of you. Maybe they could use somebody to help at her firm." She pauses and looks at her husband. "And if this means Tony is going to stay with us could you please stop this nonsense about putting the house up for sale?" Out of the corner of her eye she notices Juniper wandering into the room.

Where is MY food? Catserver? It knows better than to let me starve. These ridiculous catservers, they are all the same! Intolerably insolent! Just when I thought this new one was learning to do its job properly. And now it dares to leave my receptacle empty? After my morning nap? How dare it! I need some energy! And I need it NOW! I thought I was finally making some progress on figuring out why these pathetic catservers hold so much power over myself. But I now enter my food chamber and find that my food receptacle is empty?! "Meeooww!" Catserver!... What? It actually understood my command? Is it finally learning to understand my utterance? It's about time that it puts my food in its receptacle. Hmmm, not bad, not too bad at all. I was so famished. This constant contemplation of my considerable concerns is such hard work. I will have to spend much more time contemplating these strange creatures and why they are not as obedient and subservient as they are meant to be.

_____________________________

This is so cool! Monica can't believe how smooth this highway is. It's as if they have better quality asphalt in the States than they do in Canada. She has to remind herself to stop trying to watch Issy smiling in the Mustang in her rear-view mirror. She found the top fifth gear on the bike shortly after she got back on the highway this time, and has settled on going about sixty-five miles an hour. She feels the comfort of having Jeff wrapping his arms around her waist and likes having Pete and Issy hanging back only about fifty feet behind them. It is kind of boring though looking at the farmer's fields going by. She is like Jeff and prefers the forests that they had back in the area of the Great Lakes. But this sure was more fun than being on the back of the bike. She approaches another transport truck and turns her left signal on and with a quick left shoulder check she moves into the passing lane and twists the throttle a little to pass the truck. With a quick check in her right mirror to make sure that Pete is following, she then glances at the long truck she is passing. She smiles when she notices that the truck says Canadian Tire, and wonders what it is doing down here. After passing it she moves back into the right lane and is pleased to see Pete and his Mustang settle in behind her.

"So. Pete, how much of much of your weed do you have left?" Issy is back in the front seat and looking at Pete.

"I don't know, not much. Why?" He keeps his eye on the bike in front of him.

"Well, it would be pretty cool if we actually did give the shit up, don't you think? We won't have any connections when we get to Seattle, so this is a really good time for us to give it up once and for all before we meet any new dealers out there."

"Ya I guess... Hey, I know it's important to you pumpkin." He gives her a quick glance and a weak smile. "But it's not as if we're smoking crack or crystal meth or anything scary like that, so what's the big deal?"

"Aww, c'mon Pete, that's not what you were saying before we left. You were promising that you would quit. I really want to put it behind us. I know it's not a big deal compared to harder drugs, but like Jeff was saying last night, it sucks the motivation out of us. You know damn well I want us to have a nice, normal, GOOD life together in the future. Not just party party party, until we get old and DIE!" She stares at her Pete. Pete says nothing and keeps his eyes forward. "Well I will never be able to control what you do, but I am giving it up whether you do or not. And don't expect me to stay with you if you don't stop real damn soon." But Pete still doesn't respond or even look at her.

But one minute later he speaks, "Holy shit, that little Monica is pulling the same crap that her boyfriend was." Issy looks up and sees what he was talking about. The bike is pulling away and is disappearing around the side of a huge motorhome that is far ahead of them. Pete picks up speed and gets in the passing lane. As he soon passes the same motorhome they both notice that the bike is far ahead and disappearing in the distance. Issy gets a little nervous thinking that Monica wasn't being very smart to drive so fast. Pete is glad that the subject has been changed and cranks his music. Peter Gabriel's "Shock the Monkey" pulsates out of the speakers. He starts to wish he had another beer in his crotch. As the tune is finishing they see a big problem. A real big problem.

A state trooper is right in front of them at the side of the highway, and with a squealing of its tires it is pulling onto the Interstate. They hear his siren start up as they see the cherries on the roof light up and they both know very well that it is Monica that has attracted his attention.

Chapter Eight

No! NO NO NO! Ahhhhh! Monica couldn't believe it. What a disaster! Her heart was beating out of her chest. A COP! How stupid could she be? What got into her? And now she's ruined everything. She signals to pull over and is gearing down and braking. Jeff is going to be so mad. Why why why? The cop stays right behind her as she pulls onto the shoulder and stops the bike. Jeff gets off right away and hasn't said a word yet. Monica is scared out of her mind. She puts the kickstand down and leans the bike and swings her leg off. Jeff already has his helmet off and is staring at her with a blank expression, and still not saying anything. "I am so sorry Jeff, I fucked up bad." Jeff still says nothing. He tosses his helmet gently onto the grass beside the shoulder, crosses his arms and looks towards the cop car about thirty feet away with its tell-tale roof lights taunting them. He must be in shock; his face is blank and unblinking. Monica is freaking. She's never been pulled over by a cop before and she picks just about the worst time and place to get caught for speeding. She leans over and dumps her helmet beside his. Her eyes start to water and she approaches Jeff and opens her arms looking for some comfort and reassurance. Still without saying anything he opens his arms and they both squeeze each other tight. "I am so SO sorry sweetie." Monica starts to cry into his ear.

"It'll be okay baby, just try to calm down." He says quietly. Monica shuts her eyes tight, and Jeff looks up and watches the trooper approach them while he is putting his wide brimmed hat on. Jeff kisses Monica on a wet cheek tenderly and lets her go.

"So kids, what exactly is the big hurry?" Monica lets go of Jeff reluctantly and opens her eyes and starts to focus on the officer as he comes to a stop in front of them. He sure isn't smiling, but he doesn't look angry either. He's tall with a big bushy mustache and chubby cheeks.

"Officer I am so sorry! I didn't mean to go so fast. Please please.... I am sooo sorry." She feels the tears intensify, as they start to flow down her cheeks.

"I see you kids are from Canada. Miss, can I see your license and registration please?"

Monica wipes the side of her face about one eye with her sleeve, then with the other sleeve wipes the other eye and sniffles. "Yes sir, just let me dig them out of my bag."

"It's my bike sir, here's the ownership." Jeff is removing it from his wallet and hands it to the officer. He likes that the officer is smiling a little.

"Is this your girlfriend?" The trooper takes the offered card from Jeff, and starts reading it.

"Yes sir."

"You're a brave young man to trust her to drive... I clocked her going 76 miles an hour. I would be shitting my pants if I was behind my wife going that fast on a bike."

Jeff hopes the cop keeps the decent attitude. "Yes sir, she is usually much more responsible, I guess she just got carried away. We are really sorry. Please go easy on her, she is real good girl and means no harm."

"I am sure she is son." The trooper then accepts the license proffered from the silent Monica. "I'll be right back; you two don't go anywhere okay." The trooper heads back to his cruiser. Jeff had forgotten all about Pete and Issy who were quite a ways behind them. He now notices that the Mustang had obviously passed them as he sees it parked on the shoulder about a quarter mile ahead. He doesn't see Pete and Issy though.

Jeff approaches the silent and very sad Monica and wraps his arms around her again. "Relax baby he's being real nice to us so it might be okay after all."

Monica hopes, no, she prays that he is right. She had noticed the Mustang parked up the highway also. "What do you think Pete is up to?"

Jeff is glad that Monica is starting to relax a little. "Let's worry about ourselves right now. What the hell were you doing, going so fast? You know you don't have a motorcycle license. We might be in real big shit. I hope he gives us a break but holy crap this is the last thing we needed."

"I don't know. I just don't know. I got going and all of a sudden, I wanted that feeling I got when you first let me ride back in Canada. It was such a rush. This highway is so straight and smooth, I just let her rip... I had no idea that I was a speed freak. Maybe I am some kind of adrenaline junkie. Maybe that's what it's like to be on those stupid drugs of Pete and yours. I am so sorry, it won't ever happen again."

"Well it's a little late for that. Let's see how bad this cop screws us to the wall. I doubt we're going to jail or anything but wow, this sure isn't good." Jeff looks at the cop in his car and doesn't see him heading back to them yet so he goes to the grass by his helmet and sits down. Monica plunks down beside him. And they both sit quietly.

They both are noticing that the Mustang still hasn't moved but Pete and Issy still haven't appeared. Finally, they hear the door to the trooper's car close and see him heading back. Jeff notices at almost the same time that Pete and Issy have finally emerged and are walking back to them. They are still quite far and it will take them a few minutes to reach them. Jeff and Monica get up to face the music that the trooper is about to present to them.

"Well we seem to have a bit of a problem here. Why are you driving without the proper license Monica?" He only waits a couple of seconds and doesn't get an answer yet. "I am going to have to have a look at your license there son." The trooper has his hand extended towards Jeff. Jeff fishes it out of his wallet and hands it to him without saying anything. But in his head he is screaming. Please please, give us a break! The trooper takes it and says, "Alright sit tight again, I will be right back."

Jeff and Monica sit back down where they were and aren't sure what to think. Pete and Issy are steadily getting closer. This is not a good scene, not at all. Jeff doesn't know whether to yell at Monica or yell at himself, but none of that would be much help now. The trooper is heading back to them quicker this time and they both get up to see what he has to say now.

"First of all, who the hell are these two that are leaving their car way up there and coming to see us? Friends of yours I assume?"

Jeff answers, "Ya they are a couple of Americans we met yesterday and we were travelling together for a bit."

"And just where were you all travelling to?"

"Well officer we are on our way to British Columbia to help out on my cousin's farm. Those guys." Jeff motions his head towards the couple that have almost arrived. "Are heading to Seattle I think."

"You two seem like good kids so I am going to give you a big break. I happen to like Canadians, my beautiful wife is from Winnipeg. Your records seem to be clean according to my computer, so I am going to ignore the fact Monica doesn't have a bike license. BUT young lady, consider this a big lesson. First, don't be so stupid to ride Jeff's bike again until you get a proper license. And.... slow the hell down, or you are going to die. Now, you are still getting this ticket for speeding though. I strongly suggest you pay the fine before you leave North Dakota. Bismark our capital city isn't too far ahead. You can do it there. I don't think you want to push your luck. The next cop that stops you just might not be so nice." At this point Pete and Issy have finally arrived. Monica takes the piece of paper from the trooper; the trooper is staring at Pete and Issy.

"And just what can I do for you?" The trooper directs the question at Pete. "Officer these are just a couple of naive kids from Canada, I think you should give them a break." As usual while he is driving during the day, Pete's eyes aren't visible through his mirrored aviator glasses.

The trooper takes a couple steps towards Pete, maybe to see if he can see through the mirrors. "And just what the hell do you think you're doing telling me how to do my job?"

"Hey officer I am only trying to lend a hand to my new friends here." Pete's suddenly not sounding his usual confident self.

"Well it just so happens that they were doing just fine on their own... Is that beer I smell on your breath... Mr. Just Wants to Help?" The Trooper has his face only a few inches from Pete now.

Pete takes a couple of small steps back, "Umm, ya... Ya I had two beers back at the rest area back near Jamestown. I am sure I wouldn't blow over any limit or anything though."

Issy is standing beside Pete still, she stepped back a bit as he did. "That's true sir, he's only had two, I swear, and I had one, and we have none left."

The trooper looks from Pete to Issy. "Ya, you sure are being a big help to your new friends now." He looks over to Monica, "Monica did you or your boyfriend have any of these beers?"

"No sir but it is true; he has only had two of them." The trooper looks back at Pete, "It's not even eleven a.m. There are lots of people who think that only alcoholics drink before noon. Are you two helpful friends alcoholics?"

"No sir, not at all. We had a couple left over and just felt like having the rest. I promise sir I won't drink anymore. None." Pete's confidence is being a little shaken.

"Well I am going to believe you and not bother giving you a field test. You are all lucky I am in a good mood. But I would like to see your license now Mr. Helpful." Pete quickly produces it, sighing with some relief. The trooper starts looking it over. "Jeff I think you should get on that bike and get Monica to Bismarck like I suggested. You told me that you just met these two yesterday so you really have no need to wait for them while I just run this license to make sure Mr. Helpful here isn't some kind of wanted killer or something.

"Well sir we were hoping to keep travelling with these two." Jeff is behind the trooper.

Trooper Park (according to his name badge) turns his head slowly to look at Jeff, "I suggest you start taking my advice there son or I just might start losing that good mood that I have been trying to hold onto." He goes back to studying Pete's license.

"Yes sir, sorry sir, ahhh ya thanks for your help, we'll get going... I guess this is bye Pete it was nice meeting you. And bye Issy it was real nice meeting you too. Good luck in Seattle."

Monica had been watching quietly, she had started to feel much better about things until she heard this new twist. "Officer could you please give me a second to write down Issy's email. I have no friends out west and I would really like to be able to contact her when I get out there."

Trooper Park looks over at the pleading face of Monica "Ya I don't see a problem with that I guess. In fact, to speed things up I'll even write it down for you." He grabs his note pad from his shirt pocket. "Go ahead there Mrs. Helpful what is your email?"

Issy isn't happy with any of this, "It's easy enough for her to remember, it's Issy68 at Hotmail dot com. That's i-s-s-y-six-eight at hotmail dot com."

The trooper jots it down quick and tears the page and hands it to Monica. "Now get your little Canadian butts out of here."

"Thank you sir, I appreciate all your help." Monica goes and gives Issy a hug. "Bye Issy I promise I will write you as soon as I get a chance." "It was real nice meeting you Monica, good luck at the apple farm." She lets go.

"It was real nice meeting you too Jeff, take good care of my girl here." Monica heads over to get her helmet.

Jeff is already putting his on. "And bye Pete you take care of Issy, you're pretty lucky to have her."

Pete's pretty confused by these changes of events. "Ya bye guys have fun back in Canada."

Trooper Park watches as Jeff and Monica get on the bike. They both wave and yell bye to Pete and Issy and are soon spraying a little gravel and back on the Interstate. "Okay there, you two just stay right here and I will be right back." And the busy trooper heads once again back to his cruiser.

"Fuck, this is turning out to be pretty stupid." Pete starts pacing around kicking a little at the gravel.

"Well gee Pete, maybe we should have just stayed in the car like I wanted us to and then we would be back on the highway with the bike right now." Issy just stands in one spot watching her dumbass boyfriend. "Just be thankful that you didn't smoke a joint yet or he would have smelt that on your breath too and then we would be really screwed. I sure hope we both smarten up someday and actually stay out of trouble."

The police cruiser starts to move and approaches them slowly along the shoulder. It stops almost right on top of them. Trooper Park jumps out and walks around to the back passenger door and opens it. "Okay you two I want you to get in; you're not supposed to be walking along my Interstate." Pete and Issy obey and quickly get in. Trooper Park shuts the door and walks around to his side and gets behind the wheel. "Alright Mr. and Mrs. Helpful I am still in that good mood thankfully for me. You surprised me there Peter and don't seem to have anything on your driving record, or arrest record. So I am going to keep being the nice guy and now give you a lift to your car."

"Thank you officer, I am sorry to cause you a problem." "That's alright son, but even drinking a couple of beers isn't too smart when you're driving, so try to learn from your mistakes before they become much bigger ones."

"Yes sir, I will remember that."

Trooper Park has kept his cherries lit on the roof and is on the Interstate approaching the Mustang slowly. As he's pulling over and coming up behind Pete's car he sounds about the friendliest he has since Pete's intrusion on his business, "What year's that Mustang? It looks in decent shape."

Pete obviously perks up, "Sir it's a 1969 Mach 1, all original mint condition, it's my pride and joy."

"I bet it is. My dad had an original 1964 and a half when I was a little kid. He loved that car. He was heartbroken when he had to sell it when he got hurt and couldn't work anymore and we couldn't rub two nickels together."

"That's cool. About him having a 1964 and a half I mean, not about you guys going through such a tough time. Is your dad okay these days?"

"Nah he lost his battle with cancer a couple years back." He puts the cruiser in park. Trooper Park checks to make sure no traffic was coming. He gets out and walks around the car. He opens the door to let them out. "Now you kids try to stay out of trouble."

Pete is feeling good again, "Yes sir thanks for being a real decent cop to us."

"Ya well I try to be fair to people. It's how I would want to be treated. You take good care of that car of yours."

"I will for sure officer. Thanks again, have a good day." Pete and Issy hurry to their car.

"Pull over at this exit please! We need to talk!" Monica is yelling in Jeff's ear.

Jeff nods and pulls off at the next exit in a couple of miles. He comes to the stop sign and twists his head to get a glimpse of Monica who is craning her neck to make eye contact. "Where did you want me to go from here?" Jeff talks loud to be heard through his shield.

"Just go straight ahead and pull over." Monica gets off as soon as he stops. They are now at the start of the onramp to get back on the interstate.

Jeff stays straddled on his bike and takes his helmet off. "I think we should take the cops advice and pay the fine today. It's kinda cool actually, that you aren't getting any demerit points on your license, and it was real nice of him to let you get away with not having the bike license, but there is no way I am letting you ride the bike again until you have one. I mean even in B.C. Maybe we will look into getting you a B.C. one."

Monica is holding her helmet and standing just a couple of feet from Jeff. "Ya whatever, I wanted to talk about Pete and Issy."

"Ya well, Pete was a bit of a doofus for coming to bug the cop with beer on his breath. But he meant well I guess."

"Jeff look." Monica points in front of them to where the ramp heads back towards the interstate. "It didn't sound like Pete was going to get arrested or anything so that means they will be back on the road again soon. Assuming of course that he isn't that wanted killer. I figure we should wait up there near the highway until they pass by. His car will be easy to spot and you can catch up to him easily enough. What do you think?"

She looks at Jeff with that look that he knows all too well means that she wants to get her way. "Ahh ya I guess, what's the big deal? We would have been going our separate ways in a day or two anyway. And what if we don't see them?"

"Well I am pretty sure we will see them within a half hour, so let's give them that long. Like I said to the cop I have no friends out west and in a very short time last night I became real good friends with Issy so I would really like it if we tried to get back with them. Pete was actually really nice to me in the car this morning. Can we give it a try please? I know they will be in Seattle when we are at the farm. But I am sure it is only a couple of hundred miles away. That is a whole lot closer than Ottawa. It would be fun to visit Seattle and I bet they wouldn't mind coming up to visit us at the farm once or twice."

"Ya sure kook anything to keep you happy, we will give a try."

Chapter Nine

"I'm starting to get really hungry. McDonald's fatty little breakfasts never seem to fill me up much. Any of their food for that matter. And if I ever eat enough of it that I do feel full, I feel real gross. I hope we see them pretty soon so we can look into finding some lunch." Jeff looks over to Monica.

Monica doesn't look back at Jeff as she is watching carefully for the Mustang to appear, "Ya well you should of had the pancakes like I did, instead of those McMuffin things. And you're forgetting that they now have almost healthy food with their various salads. But for sure you're right about their disgusting hamburgers and greasy fries...Yes! There they are! Let's go!"

They both jump up from the grass they had been sitting on beside the on ramp, and grab their helmets and hurry to the waiting bike. They both are instantly in a real good mood once again, and feeling a little excitement about their current little quest to catch their new friends. Monica can't wait to see the look on Issy's face when they pull up alongside and surprise them. Moments later they are quickly picking up speed on the last half of the ramp. Jeff thinks about how smart Monica was to realize the obvious solution that they have found to this little temporary separation from these two new friends of theirs. The shiny black Mustang sticks out like a sore thumb as there is no other vehicle on the road that looks anything like it, and the bike, with its ability to accelerate much faster than pretty much any car on the road, can easily catch it. Jeff isn't forgetting the other obvious thing though; he sure doesn't want that trooper to see him speeding. If that trooper catches him going only five miles over the speed limit to catch the Mustang he would probably pull them over, and tell them that he finally lost his good mood. Jeff looks back as far as he can behind him as he is entering the interstate and is relieved that the cruiser is nowhere to be seen.

Monica has her eyes glued on the Mustang that never went out of her sight. She had figured out this little plan seconds after they had first got back on the highway, and knew it would work as long as they got off at the first exit. If they didn't get off at that one, Pete just might have got off the first one himself. Looking for a case of beer for all she knew, seeing what she has of him so far. Then they would have probably never seen them again. Jeff would have lost patience and insisted they take off. The only gamble she figured was if it was the kind of exit that you weren't able to get back on the highway. She hadn't seen that type in the States yet though, but she remembers her dad having that problem a couple of times over the years back in Canada. But it worked out perfectly, and she's feeling so good about it that the horrendous feeling she had only a half hour earlier was now replaced by a feeling of almost jubilation.

Less than two minutes later Jeff was slowing down and easing up to the side of the Mustang that was barely going over the speed limit. Monica can't help but smile wide as she sees the familiar mirrored glasses of Pete. Staying alongside them now it only takes Pete a few seconds to glance to his left and notice them. His face shows his immediate pleasant surprise, and he turns away to tell Issy the good news.

Three seconds later, Issy's face appears in front of Pete's, and she's smiling and waving frantically at Monica. There is no way for Issy to see Monica's excited smile in her helmet, but Monica is waving frantically back with her right hand. The left hand stays holding onto Jeff. It was incredible what a close bond the four of them, and especially the girls, had seemed to have formed in less than twenty four hours.

"You rock girl! That was so cool of them to wait for us, eh Pete?" Issy watches excitedly while Jeff pulls in front them, where he belongs.

"Ya I wonder if all Canadians are as cool as these two are turning out to be." "Ya maybe, I don't remember ever having a Canadian as a friend before, I've met a few over the years, but haven't really gotten to know any. It's going to suck when we really do have to split up when they have to head back north. You have any idea how far that farm of theirs is from Seattle?"

"Naa, not a clue."

Pete's favourite tune was coming to an end.

" _and she's buying a stairway to heaven_..."

"I'm going to buy you that stairway to heaven someday pumpkin you just watch." He loves Led Zepplin, and would give anything to have been able to have seen them live. He looks over at his gorgeous Issy and smiles. He can't believe how frickin beautiful she is when she's smiling back like that.

"Well I tell you what. You can start by giving me something I want right now... and since it won't cost you a dime I am pretty sure it costs less than that stairway thing. Even though I still have no idea what that means."

Pete chuckles, "Sure Issy what's that?"

"Well I've put up with your ancient music now since we hit the road. Do ya think I could put on one of my CD's now?" She looks at him and gives him a sweet little smile no guy could possibly resist.

He chuckles a little again, "Sure pumpkin go ahead."

"Yaaa! Finally!" Issy quickly pushes the eject button of the CD player. She puts the Zepplin CD back in its case and grabs her favourite CD. She slides it in and sits back, and with a glance to make sure Monica is looking safe in front of her, she closes her eyes while the song is starting.

"Ya figures, how anyone can like crap like Lady Ga Ga over Led-frickin-Zepplin? I have no clue." Pete looks over to Issy but instead of answering him, or even looking at him, she reaches back to the CD player and turns the volume of Poker Face up a little.

Pete has to yell a little, "In twenty years no one will be listening to this crazy egg lady, but they will still be rocking out to Zepplin!" Pete looks ahead and keeps his eyes on the bike. At least the Canadians will be stopping that nonsense of using the interstate as their own little race track.

Jeff sure can't remember ever having such a tumultuous few days before. This trip is turning out to be interesting anyway to say the least. They still have lots of miles before they get to Tom's farm. What more can happen? He's glad to be back in the front of the bike, but he sure didn't want her to get caught for speeding like she did. Oh well it turned out better than he thought it would. That trooper was pretty decent to them. He thought American cops would be harder asses than the few cops he and his friends have run into back in Ottawa. New York cops or something like that he bets wouldn't be so nice.

They'll pay the fine in Bismarck and that will be the end of it. She sure isn't getting back in front again though. It sure is amazing that almost every bad thing that happens has some kind of silver lining. He glances back at the two in the Mustang. He isn't going to speed again if he can help it himself. He would just as well never talk to a cop in his life again, Canadian or American.

Jeff sees the exit to the town of Steele. He flicks the turn signal on to show he's getting off the highway and waves his right arm just to make sure that Pete knows his intention. He comes to the stop sign at the end of the off ramp and turns left to go over the interstate and into the little town. On the right is a large gas station so he pulls in there at a pump and stops.

"Hey guys I am glad to see the trooper back there didn't decide to arrest you, I guess that means you're not a wanted man." Jeff is standing by Pete's window and Monica is approaching Issy's side.

"Ya dude that trooper turned out to be pretty cool, he likes my car, anyone who likes my car is cool in my book. Hey thanks for waiting for us I know Issy here really appreciates it." Monica and Issy are smiling at each other.

"Jeff is getting pretty hungry for some lunch. What do you say we find a grocery store and buy some stuff to make some sandwiches?" Monica is looking from Issy over to Pete.

"Ya that sounds like a good idea, that way we can have a good pig out for cheap." Pete looks to Issy, "You okay with that Issy?"

"Sure. That's not just a good idea, it's a smart idea." Issy looks past Pete to Jeff in the window. "Is my girl here always this smart?"

"Oh ya, and it was her idea to wait for you guys on a ramp, knowing we would see you easy enough and of course could catch you in a flash. Let's gas up and then ask the attendant where the closest grocery store is, I'm starved." Jeff grabs his pump nozzle.

"Wow these are good, I'm glad we all agreed on smoked meat on rye." Issy is chewing as she speaks, and washes it down with some Coke. They bought some plastic cups and a big bottle. "And is it true you don't have to put this bottle of mustard we bought in the fridge? My mom always did."

"It's mostly vinegar, does your mom put plain vinegar in the fridge?" Monica's chewing her own thick sandwich.

"No, she doesn't, wow you really are smart. I'm starting to really like hanging with you." Issy and Monica exchange smiles yet again.

Jeff's chomping down on his second sandwich, while he studies his map, "It looks like we are only about fifty miles from Bismarck, we're stopping there to pay the ticket my little speed demon here got."

"Hey there hypocrite, you were going just as fast, only a little while earlier." Issy looks at Jeff accusingly.

"Ya that's true I got a little carried away myself, but hey, I have the right license, and I didn't get caught."

"So how much was the ticket anyway?" Pete's on his second sandwich as well.

"Only thirty-four dollars, in Canada it would have been over a hundred easy." Jeff offers, while Monica is watching and chewing.

Issy has finished her sandwich and drains her cup of coke. "So Monica, guess what?"

"What Is?"

"I convinced my little city boy here to agree to buy a tent and a couple of sleeping bags so we can join you guys at a campsite tonight. What do you think of that?"

"You serious? That's awesome. Right on! The next campground we were going to go to is in Roosevelt National Park and it's got the same name as my cat, Juniper. I love my cat and am making sure that we have her shipped out to be with us when we get settled."

"That is cool, about the campground and your kitty. Pete here has never gone camping in his life."

"Ya, my family hardly ever left home to do anything. It sounds like it could be fun, but we're for sure getting some kind of air mattress, I don't like the idea of sleeping on the hard ground though, that's for sure."

"You wuss, you'll love it. Fresh air and roasting marshmallows on a campfire." Issy pushes Pete playfully on the shoulder.

Jeff is packing up his few things, "Let's get to Bismarck and see how long it takes to find the right office to pay the ticket and get out of that city. Ya know, for the Capital City of a State it sure is puny, only 55,000 people. I wrote that down in my notes. I always thought of the States as having big cities."

Pete nods his head, "Yep North Dakota isn't known for their metropolises." He gets up, "Okay let's get going so we can try this camping thing out. Bismarck is small but it's not too small to have a Walmart, so let's find one and get some inexpensive camping stuff."

"That sounds like a plan I can sink my teeth into. It is going to be great camping again, it's been a few years since I went camping with the family. And now that we're going to the mountains on the coast it will be awesome to get my Pete into doing it with me. We are going to do lots of healthy fun stuff from now on. Right Pete?" Issy looks over at Pete while heading to the Mustang.

"Ya sure pumpkin, if you like it so much I will do my best to give it a shot."

Our intrepid travellers were in Bismarck just over an hour later and had found the courthouse downtown to pay Monica's fine quick enough, and they were now wandering the isles of one of the two Walmarts that were on the outskirts of town. Monica is having a whole lot of fun again on this new adventure and is walking with the other three looking for camping equipment. "It is weird to me that places like Walmart and McDonald's look the same here as they do back home. I guess when they find something that makes money they just do it over and over and over."

"Yep Walmart's the biggest retailer in the world now, I am pretty sure they still make most of their money in the States, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have these things in China now." Pete is in front and he has stopped and turned around to address them, "Hey I wonder if everything in a China Walmart says made in China like it does here."

Monica gives a little sarcastic laugh, "Oh I am sure they don't sell much from North America in them that's for sure. I like these stores but I sure don't like the fact that we all do so much business with China. I wish people were more concerned with human rights and environmental protection than just saving a few bucks. I think we should be paying more for stuff that is made in North America. In the long run I bet it would save money anyway, as it would be all better quality and worth keeping and repairing when it broke, instead of going in the landfills."

Issy laughs, "Maybe you should stand at the front entrance to the store and tell everybody coming in that they should boycott the store because of all the things wrong in China."

"Hey don't laugh Issy, that's exactly the kind of thing this kook of mine is capable of. Last year we got kicked out of Loblaws, which is our biggest grocery store chain, for getting an old lady upset about the bacon she was trying to buy." Jeff is smiling at the memory.

"I was just trying to explain to her that when she was my age they treated pigs a whole lot better than they do now. And she started screaming at me to mind my own business." Monica is smiling about it too.

"I would actually pay money to see Monica cause that kind of scene, but could you maybe wait until I find what we came for." Pete starts walking slowly up the isle trying to get them moving again.

"Ya Monica I think you already got yourself in enough trouble already today. We really should get going so we can settle into that campground; we still have quite a ways to go remember." Jeff is gently pushing his baby toward the leading Pete.

Five minutes later Pete and Issy have picked out a pair of matching summer sleeping bags that were on sale. And they settled on a four man tent, Pete wanted a little extra room.

"We should get ourselves a cooler now too. That way we can shop here for some food for dinner tonight and breakfast in the morning. And oh ya, we for sure are getting a big bag of marshmallows. I haven't roasted marshmallows in years." Issy heads to where the coolers are displayed.

"Just a second, I am checking these air mattresses out first. I guess we are going to be camping a few more times, at least, this year, so I can get my money's worth after spending all this money." Pete grabs one that comes with its own little foot pump.

Monica is up the isle a little with Issy at the coolers, "I admit that it would have been nice to bring a few things like a cooler and a mattress. But we just don't have the space on the bike."

"Hey Pete likes his car and I like my bike, to each his own."

Issy can't help herself, "Sure Jeff but come winter up there in Canada I kinda doubt you are liking your bike much."

"Ya well I am pretty sure you get the cold and snow in your Duluth too. But sure, someday I will buy some kind of car, but I will always have a bike, you can bet on that."

Pete has agreed with Issy's choice of cooler. "Kay guys lets go get a few groceries and get out of here."

"Three! Two! One! Go!!" Monica yells at the other three, and gives a little jump in the air in excitement. It is early evening and they are at the Juniper Campground in The Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Issy had bragged that she was a pro at setting up the family tent a few years back and challenged Jeff to seeing who could set their tents up first. Jeff felt it was a bit unfair since he was familiar with his tent and Issy, not only never set their new tent up before, but it was a larger tent. The two tents were the same style though, in a dome shape with two long flexible crisscrossing poles holding their shape. And a fly with another long pole to cover it.

Jeff let Issy spread their tent out first while his was still in its little bag. And Pete was there to help Issy but he wasn't going to be much help as he had never even touched any kind of tent before. Jeff smoothly dumps his bag out and spreads the tent into its square shape. Issy is assembling a multi piece pole that is held together by an interior elastic cord and telling the perplexed Pete to do the same with the other pole and the one that goes in the fly.

"Go Issy Go!" Monica is still jumping up and down.

Jeff pauses and looks at Monica, "Hey trader, I thought you were on side."

"No way Jose, its girl power all the way!"

Issy is feeding the pole through and gets Pete to pull the tent straight. She then shows Pete where to hold the end so she can bend it into shape. As Issy puts the other end of the pole into place and it starts to take shape Pete sees that Jeff has already got his in place. Pete crawls over on all fours to Jeff's tent and pulls one end of the pole out of its little socket.

"Hey that's cheating!" Jeff can't help but laugh though. He sees that Issy's tent is now standing so he throws up his hands in defeat. "I give up, with Monica cheering for you and Pete cheating for you, I know when to throw in the towel. You did do real good for never setting that thing up before."

Issy and Monica high five each other, "Ya! Your boy knows when he has met his match! Yes!" Issy is doing a little victory dance.

"Okay how about you guys finish putting the tents up then Jeff you show Pete how to build a fire, and me and Issy will start getting these hamburgers ready to throw on the grill." Monica heads to the cooler. "This place is so beautiful and we're having so much fun, what do you say we all stay here an extra day. I would love to go for a hike tomorrow and look for those wild horses, or we might even see the buffalo they are supposed to have."

Issy is putting her fly over her tent, "That is a freaking awesome idea, what do you think Pete?"

"Ya I'm cool with that, I think I could get used to this camping thing."

Jeff is putting a peg in the ground, "Ya sure, sounds good to me, you only live once."

Monica is taking the ground beef out to make some patties, "Right on! Considering I thought I ruined the trip this morning with that speeding ticket things are turning out A-Okay."

The four young travellers continue to chat, and laugh together, and set up their little campsite with not a concern in the world between them.

Chapter Ten

"Perfection!" Issy raises her marshmallow on its stick in triumph. "That's how it's done!" She lowers the stick and admires her golden-brown treat. She sees that Pete has let his two marshmallows light on fire again. "Why do you have to keep being such a dumbass? I've told you ten times now, hold it above the flame, not right in it."

"Ya well maybe I like the taste of carbon." Pete blows the flame out and laughs. "Hey so I am not the pro you are at this camping thing. But I got to admit that it's fun being in the country like this. I sure wish you let me buy some beer though."

Issy is still waiting for her marshmallow to cool down. "No way, we don't need beer tonight, you've still got your weed to smoke so be a good boy and no complaints. We're all having fun. Aren't we Monica?"

Monica is across the fire from Issy trying to cook her own marshmallow over the flame. "You betcha Issy, this is a blast. I sure am starting to miss my cat though now that we are at the campground with her name. Hey Jeff I think I am going to phone my mom tomorrow."

Jeff has jammed three marshmallows on his stick and is waving them back and forth over the fire. "Ya I don't see a problem with that, it's not as if we're about to turn around and go back to Ottawa now, no matter how much you beg me. I am sure your mom is going crazy worrying about you."

"Well I'm rolling a joint. And I think I am going to play some tunes from my car stereo." Pete gets up and heads to the car.

"Fine but keep the music low please we don't want to be disturbing the other campers." Issy is picking at her marshmallow and putting small pieces in her mouth. "So Monica what was that you were saying about pigs today at the Walmart? You're not a vegetarian, are you?"

"No, I think we were meant to eat meat. I just don't think we have to be so cruel to the livestock while they are alive."

"Well what about chickens then? I heard they are treated real bad in those big chicken coops." Issy is still concentrating on the rest of her toasted treat.

"Ya but birds don't have the advanced brain that mammals have. Pigs are more intelligent than dogs, probably not as smart as cats, but the point is that they take pigs away from their mother as soon as they are born and that just isn't right."

Jeff has let his three marshmallows catch fire and blows the flame out, "I told Monica that some day we are going to have our own little farm so that we can raise some animals and grow lots of vegetables. And apples, we are going to an apple orchard after all. That way we can treat the piggies like family until they are fat enough to eat, then we kiss them good bye and then send them to some nasty place to get slaughtered and cut up."

Pete is returning with his bag of weed. "That's hilarious, you can name them so that when you are eating them you say, hey Monica how does Molly the Pig taste?"

Monica can't help but laugh at that, "Well something like that I guess, then again I will probably get all upset when it comes time to slaughter them and just eat a big salad."

"Ya great! We will have a sty full of fat pigs that we won't have the nerve to kill." Jeff is jamming another three marshmallows on his stick to try again. "Well maybe they should just have big pig farms that treat the piggies more humanely, like you said to that screaming old lady, I am sure they did it in the old days so there is no reason they can't do it again."

Issy is putting another marshmallow on her stick.

Pete's rolling a joint by the light of the fire and is liking that he can hear some more Mick Jagger coming from his car. "Ya well guess what? That would cost a whole lot more money than how they are doing it now, so you aren't about to see many farmers doing it that way anymore."

Monica has put her stick down, "Well I disagree, it's like the made in China crap I was talking about, we should be willing to pay a little more for something that is a little healthier and much more humane."

Pete's licking the paper to finish the joint, "Ya well guess what? Humane and profits don't mix."

"Well guess what Pete? Maybe there are enough people that agree with Monica and there is a market for it, just like a lot of people are paying extra for organic food these days." Issy checks her latest marshmallow and puts it back over the flame for a little more browning.

Jeff is watching Pete light the joint beside him, "So have you ever quit smoking that shit before, Pete?"

Pete's sucking in the first toke so doesn't answer right away, he finally gives a big exhale, "No dude, my brother Dave first smoked me up when I was thirteen and I loved it from the start, and I've been smoking it ever since. I am way beyond the experimental stage though, and wouldn't mind giving it up finally. You and Issy are right, it makes me lazy and not want to pursue any big goals." He pauses to take another quick puff. After a few seconds he blows the smoke into the fire. "I want to be a big businessman someday, and I know that will never happen unless I give it up."

Issy is sitting beside him and gives his hand a squeeze, "I know we can do it Pete, we'll be like Jeff here and enjoy a few beers once in a while, but no more drugs." She lets go and puts another marshmallow carefully on her stick.

Jeff is on the other side of Pete, "I quit for a month twice before I finally quit for good. And Pete, you wouldn't believe the feeling you get when you first quit. It takes a full thirty days for the shit to clean out of your body, something about the THC being stored in your fat cells or something. But as it clears out, your body reacts in a real cool way."

Peter offers the joint to Issy but she shakes her head, concentrating on her roasting duties, "What do ya mean dude?"

Jeff has given up on the marshmallow thing and feeds another log into the fire. He watches the sparks burst from it, "Well I'm a pretty hyper guy naturally I guess, and as the dope leaves my system my body overreacts to being cleaned out and I get a real natural high going. I get super energized, and about half way through the month it peaks and I can barely sleep for more than two hours a night. I then wake up beaming and ready to run around the block. When I was smoking all the time I slept real good and hardly ever dreamed. But as it is cleaning out of my system I start dreaming real clear again like I did when I was a kid."

Pete blows more smoke into the fire, liking how it just adds to the wood smoke, "Ya you're right, I hardly ever have dreams like I used to."

"Well it's obviously some bullshit the drug is doing to your brain, and I figure your body has to fight the doping effect on your body and it produces extra endorphins and adrenaline and whatever to compensate for the dopey, sleepy effect of the drug. And then when you finally stop poisoning your body with the shit, your body is still producing its own natural drugs. So I figure that is why after two weeks clean I am bouncing off the wall as if I am on coke or something." Jeff glances over at Monica and sees she is like Issy and concentrating on cooking one marshmallow at a time.

Pete takes the last haul off his joint and tosses it into the fire. "Oh ya, have you ever done any coke?" He looks at Jeff.

"Na, I had a friend who wanted me to try it but I saw how much fucking money it cost him to keep doing that shit so I figured I better stick with the pot."

"Ya well I have done a few lines in my day but just found it to be a real expensive upper. It never put a big smile on my face like my weed does." Pete grabs Issy's free hand, "Okay baby I only have three grams or so left, so I promise as soon as I finish I will find out what my buddy Jeff here is talking about with the natural high, and then me and you are going to pursue some real kick ass dreams. What do you say to that?"

Issy sticks her marshmallow straight up in the air to make sure she doesn't start it on fire and leans over putting her hand down for support and gives Pete a quick kiss on his cheek, "You know that I LOVE that idea."

Monica finishes chewing on her last marshmallow, "Mmmmm, they were good. That was a great idea Issy. I hadn't roasted these things in a long time." She holds up the bag, examining it in the light of the fire. "We have lots left though. I'm done, did you want anymore Is?"

"Nah I'm good thanks. Let's save them for tomorrow night." Issy looks at Pete with a little mischievous smile. "Hey Petey, there is one little detail about this camping stuff that we can both experience for the first time together."

Pete looks a little confused again, "Ya what's that?"

"Well how bout rolling one more little joint, I wouldn't mind having a couple little puffs, then we get in the sleeping bag and I'll show you what I'm talking about."

Pete quickly grabs the baggie of weed beside him, "Hey now that sounds like a frickin awesome plan."

"That is one thing I miss about smoking, making love on the stuff is fan-fucking-tastic." Jeff looks once again a little longingly at Pete's joint rolling.

Monica gives Jeff a little slap on his arm, "I sure hope it's not too disappointing for you now without it there, lover boy."

"Ahh no baby, don't worry I can suffer through the agony."

"Ha ha ha, very funny. Let's let the fire die down on its own and leave these two, and let's go see just how bad you have to suffer through it." Monica gets up.

"Ya sure." Jeff gets up, "I guess we'll see you two tomorrow, I hope you don't get too scared sleeping in the woods for the first-time Pete."

Pete looks up from his joint rolling duties, "Ya big guy I'll just feed Issy here to any of those bison that decide to break into our tent."

"Ha ha, we have ourselves a couple of comedians I think Monica."

"Oh ya, I'm used to that, good night Issy...Pete."

"G'night girl, and thanks for waiting for us today, this is turning out to be real sweet."

"Hey guys! Good morning." Pete is getting out of the tent.

Jeff looks up from getting the fire going again to cook some breakfast. "Hey Pete, how did you like sleeping in a tent for the first time?"

"Not too bad at all Jeffy boy, I could get used to this whole scene. I hope Issy here didn't scare you guys too bad. It's a little embarrassing how loud she get's when I'm on top of her."

Issy is getting out of the tent. "Oh give it a rest ya silly dumbass. Your pathetic little moans I'm sure would be the only thing they could hear."

Monica is sitting on the picnic table, she puts her Harry Potter book down, "Good morning guys!"

Issy sits down opposite her, "Hi ya girl, you're reading the first book, I've read the whole series. Do you like it?"

"Ya a little I guess, I prefer reading non-fiction like biographies, but I figured I would see what all the fuss was about with this stuff."

Pete sits on top of the picnic table, "So we're having the bacon and eggs we bought, right? I can't wait to chow down on a little Molly the Pig."

Issy gives him a playful slap on his thigh, "Ya how about you and Jeff make it for me and Monica here, since you both are such lucky little boys for having a couple of hot babes like us to play with."

"Sure I guess so, should I get the food out yet Jeffy boy?"

"Hi mommy!" Monica is yelling into the payphone at the campground office. Issy and her have left the boys alone at the camp site to clean up after breakfast.

"Monica, it's so good to hear your voice finally, I have been worried sick."

"I'm so sorry mommy. I wanted to talk to you the first day but daddy started fighting with me. How are things with you? Is Juniper okay?" "Yes we are all just fine. Where are you calling from?"

"Mommy we're still in North Dakota. I sent you an email the other day. We're actually at a campground called Juniper in a national park. I am so happy, but I am sorry that I left you like that, but I love Jeff and we're going to do really good, you'll see."

"You might as well be on the other side of the globe. You silly girl, what about going to school like you had planned? Christine was here a couple of days ago and she's very upset that you aren't going to Ottawa U with her this fall." Victoria is trying to not sound too stern with her daughter. She doesn't want Monica to hang up like she did with Leo.

"I am just taking the one year off mommy I promise. I still am going to go to university, but maybe I will go to one out west, I'm not sure. But I am real glad that we did this, it has been a real interesting experience for me already and we are just getting started." Monica gives Issy a smile who is a few feet away and Issy gives her a reassuring smile back.

"Well it's up to you I guess, you are a smart girl but this isn't your smartest move. Your brother has surprised us and announced his intention to go back to school this fall."

"Tony's going to school? Wow that's a big surprise. What's he taking?"

"He is going to be a paralegal. I tell you it is a huge relief to your father and I. He's next door right now actually. I phoned Samantha last night about it and she invited him over this morning to talk about it. He wants to be a lawyer someday and I figured that she might be able to help him out as she is doing so well with her little firm downtown."

"That is awesome mommy, there's hope for Tony after all. I really miss Juniper, could you put her on the phone for a second so I can say hi. I bet she is worried sick missing me."

"What did you want me to do with your cat? You don't expect me to keep taking care of her do you?"

"No mommy, I already looked into having her shipped out on a plane when we get to Jeff's cousin's place. I told you in that email that we will send you the money, it's not too much."

"Well I guess we can do that, just a minute I will go get her."

"MEEEOOOW!" Put me down catserver! I cannot tolerate being picked up. And I was just now once again being enthralled with that silly little bird on my palace grounds. "MEEOOWWW!" Just where do you think you're taking me? It's not my feeding time. What am I doing in my food chamber? Well at least I am being released. What now? These catservers are just so strange, why would I want one of their devices put up to my ear? "meww?" I can hear what sounds like another catserver's gibberish. It must be a very small one though, to fit in this strange little device. Well this is certainly another nonsensical waste of my time. I have tolerated enough of this. I am going back to my royal perch and see if that silly bird is still there to entertain me. And if that catserver dares lays it's paws on me again I just may have it feel the sharpness of my claws.

"Juniper didn't seem to be too impressed with hearing your voice. She probably doesn't recognize it over the phone. Alright Monica, please keep in touch and be very careful. Please consider coming back at the end of August. You can have your little adventure and still get back here where you belong."

"We'll see mommy, I am still real young and have lots of time to do lots of amazing things, and this trip is turning out to be a great idea so far. We met a real nice couple from Duluth who are traveling with us. They are on their way to Seattle and are camping with us right now."

"Please be careful, you don't know these people, so don't trust them."

"They're real nice, don't worry. Issy is right here beside me and we really like each other. It's as if we're sisters and we only met two days ago."

"Well okay dear. You have a really good brain, so please use it, and figure out what is best for yourself."

"I will mommy, I promise to make you proud." "Thank you for calling and please call again real soon." "We should be in British Columbia in a few days, I promise to phone you again on my birthday."

"Well that would certainly be nice of you, it will be very sad for me to not have you here for your big eighteenth birthday."

"Okay mommy bye and please tell daddy I love him."

"Okay dear bye and take care of yourself."

Monica hangs up, "Hey that didn't go too bad, don't you think Issy?"

"Ya girl, sounded pretty good from here. Let's go get those guys of ours and see if we can find us some adventure."

Chapter Eleven

"Oh my God, I can't believe how beautiful this country is. I had no idea North Dakota would be so amazing. Huh Pete? I bet you had no idea it would be like this." Issy is walking beside Pete and just behind Monica and Jeff.

"Pumpkin I am starting to think I like the idea of this travelling stuff. You've got to remember because of my messed-up family that never wanted to leave the house, I have barely seen anything but Duluth and the surrounding area. These badlands are pretty damn awesome. Jeff, is there anything like this back in Canada?"

Jeff pauses on the trail and looks back at Pete, "No I don't know of anything quite like this. Monica and I have spent lots of time in The Gatineau Hills skiing and mountain biking, which are real close to Ottawa but they are covered in forest, nothing like these cool looking exposed rocky hills. But you have to remember we have seen lots of pictures of this stuff on Google Earth when we were getting ready for this big trip."

Monica is leading the way up the path, "And almost every one of the pictures in this area had wild horses or those bison we were talking about last night. Jeff and I have actually fed some bison some carrots. There is this real cool park in Quebec called Parc Omega that has all kinds of animals that we have in North America. You drive around in your car and pass deer and moose and even a herd of buffalo. Jeff freaked out when one of them tried to fit its huge head into the car window to get at the carrots. You remember that Jeff?"

"Well it is kind of hard to forget having a thing like that drooling on your lap. It must have been a girl buffalo I figure. Because after she couldn't put her head into my lap like a fucking elk had done when we first got there I shoved a big carrot in her mouth. Then I threw a carrot at a bigger one, probably her husband or something, standing back watching us. The carrot bounced off his forehead and he just gave me a dirty look like he wishes he could just eat me instead of the carrot." Jeff laughs and shakes his head.

"And they even had some bears and wolves that we could see from the car but they were behind wire fences or they probably would have pulled Jeff from the car and enjoyed eating him."

All four of them laugh at this one. "That sounds awesome, but we better be careful here, they say to keep your distance if we do see any horses or buffalo, we aren't in the safety of any car remember." Issy says this as she grabs Pete's hand to climb up a flat boulder. They all walk in silence for awhile with only the sounds of a couple different unseen birds as their soundtrack. They once again have perfect weather. The sun is shining overhead and a warm breeze is blowing through the sparse trees. They come to a clearing with Monica still in the lead. She pauses to admire the view. The four of them gather and look ahead at the amazing view, with a shallow looking river only a couple of hundred feet away.

Jeff says, "This looks just like the photos that are posted on Google Earth. It is so wild looking."

"Holy shit guys quiet, look." Monica is whispering and pointing to their immediate left. The other three look to where she is pointing and are shocked to see a large horse only about twenty feet away at the edge of the clearing. He is standing still, and staring at them with his head held high. He then gives a stomp of his hoof and a quick snort. The horse is a beautiful rich brown with a black flowing mane, and is just staring right at the four startled humans.

"Fuck me." Pete turns and jogs back up the trail back towards the campground.

The other three stand still and watch as the horse gives a glance behind him at a smaller horse right behind him. This one is beige with a brown mane and tail. The lead horse glances back at the small humans and then takes off at a trot towards the river. The beige one follows right behind.

"Oh my god I don't believe it. They are so beautiful, don't you think Issy." Monica is recovering her senses.

"That was wicked awesome, look how majestic and free they look as they run. Hey Pete ya big scaredy cat! You can come back now!" Issy is looking up the trail where Pete had stopped. Jeff is just watching the horses. They stop at the river's edge and pause to look back at them. The bigger one nuzzles his apparent mate with his large snout and then they both run at a gallop straight across the river and out the other side, they then turn and gallop down the side of the river.

"Hey let's cross the river and climb that hill. I bet we can see for miles from there and probably see a pack of bison." Pete has rejoined them and pretending to still be in control of everything.

"Ya sure ya big chicken you will feel safe up there will ya?" Issy gives him a little push.

Jeff heads towards the river, "Sounds good to me, if they can cross it that easy I am sure it isn't too deep."

Monica heads down the little hill after the other three, "Let's see how cold the water is first."

They are soon on the other side putting their socks and shoes back on. "Ha that's a real good look on you Pete, you should have worn shorts like the rest of us." Jeff is laughing.

Issy laughs back, "No Pete here never wears anything but his jeans. He's embarrassed to show us his skinny legs."

Pete is unrolling his wet pant legs and putting them over his cowboy boots, "Ya sure, whatever you say. I will race you up the hill there, dear pumpkin."

Issy and Monica are already running towards the hill, and Jeff and Pete jog after them. Once they manage to scramble up the hill at about the same time, they all huff and puff and look around at their surroundings. They all first look towards where the horses have headed, and are disappointed that they are no longer in sight. But what they do see in that direction is very satisfying indeed.

"That is frickin awesome! I sure have to admit I have never seen a herd of bison before. There must be thirty of them," Pete says while shielding his eyes from the sun. "They are beautiful but I bet you don't want to get any closer than this." Issy is also shielding her eyes from the sun.

Monica starts walking carefully along the top of the hill in the direction of the herd. "Ya but let's get a little closer while trying to stay up here."

Jeff follows her, "Sure, but watch your step baby, I don't want you tumbling down into the river."

The four of them walk slowly along the ridge until they have a much better look at the herd that are hanging out, in and around the river. They all sit down and enjoy the show. "Hey look, that looks like the horses we saw earlier." Monica is pointing to where the two horses are joining the herd of bison as if they are all old friends.

"This is amazing, I am sure glad we decided to join you guys camping. We would have stayed at another boring dumpy motel along the highway and seen nuthin but trucks going by. So, Pete are we going to keep trying this camping stuff together?"

"For sure pumpkin, for frickin-sure!"

That night they are back sitting around the fire again with their bag of marshmallows. They are all feeling very good about themselves. "That was unbelievable today, the mountains and forests of British Columbia will be incredible but I doubt we will ever see anything quite that beautiful. As far as animals go anyway." Monica says this as she is checking her progress of her mallow browning.

Jeff blows the two marshmallows out that he has let catch fire. "Ya we saw a bunch of pictures like that on Google Earth, but to see that in real life was way cooler. Stupid us though, none of us brought a camera, or even have our phones to take pictures."

"Ya, we left our cell phones at home. Neither of them was anything special, Jeff's contract was up and I gave mine to my friend Christine. Do you guys not have cell phones?"

Issy has browned her marshmallow to perfection again and is picking at it, "No mine was a crappy pay as you go, and Pete here, well Pete is stuck in the seventies with his car and his music, so he doesn't want to join the twenty-first century."

"The world got along just fine before all this technology and I am getting along just fine without it thanks." Pete has given up on cooking his marshmallows properly and is leaving them in the fire to see how burnt he can make them. "Hey Jeff, do you have a campground picked out for us for tomorrow night?"

"Not really, I am hoping we get to Butte Montana, it's about 500 miles from here. There are lots of good campgrounds in the area but I wrote down a few that are close to town. They don't have a lot of sites though so we will probably just take the first one we find that has a spot for us."

Pete has started rolling another joint. "Ya, I'm not sure about going that far in one day with my car. We will have to start early then and see how it goes."

Issy licks her finger and thumb, "How far will we be from Spokane from there?"

Jeff puts a small log on the fire, "Butte is just over 300 miles from Spokane. I figure we are going to want to camp near Spokane, then we split and go our separate ways the next day. And as I was telling you yesterday, we will both have close to 300 miles to go on that last day."

Monica has finished eating her latest marshmallow, "That sucks that we only have two more nights together. The four of us should get together for a camping trip this summer, late August maybe."

Issy is cooking another marshmallow, "Ya definitely we have to get together at least once more this summer. We could meet somewhere in between so we share the driving distance."

"Hey I know. You can come up to Canada, it will be a real culture shock for Pete here," says Jeff.

"Do ya think so? I am liking this traveling, so the idea of going to another country is cool." Pete licks the paper to finish his joint.

"No, I was just kidding. You won't hardly notice any difference. If you went to Quebec it would be different, because of all the French, but the rest of the country doesn't feel much different than here. I bet a place like New York City would probably feel more foreign to you than most places in Canada."

"And hopefully Pete won't be rolling joints the next time we see each other. I don't like how Jeff keeps looking at his joint as if he wishes you would pass it to him." Monica says, and then gives Jeff's hand a little squeeze.

"Oh ya either Pete is quitting or I will be coming to visit Canada by myself." Issy says, and then gives Pete a tiny punch on his shoulder.

Pete is holding the burning joint and holding in his smoke after lighting it. He finally exhales the smoke, "Here pumpkin enjoy it now with me then, while you have the chance." He passes her the joint.

Issy grabs it and has a small puff. She holds it in for only a few seconds and blows the smoke into the fire, "We only have two more nights, after this one, before we get to Seattle. I want us both to be straight when we get to my uncle's place so let's make sure that we smoke our last joint when we are camping in Spokane."

Pete's exhales another lung full of smoke, "Ya that sounds fine with me, I have enough for two or three joints each night, then I will be done for good."

_____________________________

"Hi Samantha, it's Victoria." Victoria is standing in the kitchen by herself and has just phoned her neighbour.

"Oh, hi Victoria, I was just going to phone you. Tony did real well on his first day. He got along well with everyone. A little too well in fact, with my paralegal Sophia, who he is supposed to be assisting. The two seemed to be flirting with each other all day. At least whenever I was in the office, but he seemed to understand everything we were showing him so I am sure he will be a big help."

"Well that sounds nice, I want to thank you for giving him a chance. How old is this girl?"

"She is only twenty-three, so what's that? Four years older than him? Sophia is a nice girl and real smart and real pretty. We have her doing too much though so I am happy to have him help her out three days a week. Then when he starts school in the fall we will give him some hours around his classes."

"I am so relieved that Tony has decided to go back to school." Victoria pulls out a chair and sits down. "How about your daughter Andrea? Is she still down in Florida?"

"Yes she's still in Miami. My sister Nancy wanted her to come down there and be with her. They're both computer freaks. Andrea just finished her first year at Miami University. Nancy doesn't have any family down there so she loves having Andrea stay with her." Samantha pauses to catch her breath. "But I miss her so much, I have only seen her three times in over a year. What about Monica? Tony said something about her phoning you last night."

"Oh, Samantha I don't know what got into that silly girl. And to do this less than a week from her eighteenth birthday is so disrespectful to us, don't you think?"

"Ya but Victoria you were that age once too. I'm sure you weren't an angel, I know I wasn't. She's a sharp one that girl, so she will do just fine. Did they get to B.C. yet?"

"No, it's going to take a few more days. I certainly don't want them rushing anything on that motorcycle. They were camping in North Dakota last night apparently."

"You sure have to envy them a little though Victoria, to be so young and free to pursue such an adventure."

"Ya I guess so Samantha but I am worried about her, they are travelling now with a couple from the States. She has never been away from home like this so I know she is smart but anything can happen."

"It's hard I know, I experienced the same apprehension when Andrea first moved away but we have to trust that we have taught them a few basic lessons that will carry them through life and get them where they are meant to go."

"Well Samantha as long as Monica gets to university soon like Andrea is already doing, then I will be happy for her, and feel better about what I have taught her."

"I am sure she will be going soon but be patient with her for now and let her have some fun."

I leap into the air and land softly on my Palace front lawn. There's the bird. It's so slow and stupid it doesn't even notice me yet. With a quick pounce I land on the bird and hold it down. I bite the neck. Yuck! What? "MEOWW!" OUCH! Why? Where did that dog come from? "MEEEOOW!" CATSERVER! HELP! I'm eating a bird, a dog's eating me "MEEEEOOOOWWW" AHHHHHH!... Hunh? What's this? Oh thank The Great Sphinx! It was just all a bad dream. A very bad dream. I think I had that same dream before. What a nuisance. I wonder what that means? What is the purpose of my mind traveling down a dark path without my body? Does it make me braver experiencing such terror? I have no one to ask of these questions. Why does this solitary existence in my Palace feel so unfair at times? I only ever have one cat to talk to.... and I'm talking to her. In fact I can't stop talking. I guess that's why I have nightmares. It is my mind paying me back for all the talking it has to put up with while I am awake. Sometimes I wish I was as simple as catservers. I am sure they don't have such problems. Their minds are so simple I am sure they are mostly waiting to serve us Cats.

_____________________________

"Hey Monica, I was thinking about what you said last night about birds not having as advanced brains as your little piggies." Pete tosses the remains of another joint into the fire.

Monica has been sitting staring into the flames, "Ya Pete, I read that bird brains are much less advanced than mammal's."

"I'm not so sure. What about crows? We have lots of crows where I live in Duluth and I have been watching them. And I have started talking to them recently."

"Seriously Pete? You've been talking to crows?" Jeff says while sitting looking into the flames beside Monica.

"Oh ya he's serious. He goes outside his house and goes 'Caw caw caw,' every time there is a crow in the area." Issy has been spending most of her time staring at the other three.

"And just what are these crows telling you Pete?" Monica is seeing Pete in a new light, mostly a fire light.

Pete smiles while staring into the fire, "They almost always 'caw caw' back to me, or more accurately, to each other as if they are talking about me. And the other crows always answer the one crow when it is cawing as if they are having a conversation. I actually went on the internet to see what the experts think about them, and they are saying that they think crows are as smart as chimps or apes."

"Ya my stoned little Pete here wants to be Dr. Doolittle and talk to the animals." Issy shoves Pete playfully, laughing.

"I'm serious, think about it. NASA and lots of space nerds are trying desperately to find intelligent life to talk to on the other side of the universe. Yet we have lots of intelligent life here on planet earth. It makes no sense to me that they think we will be able to communicate with these so called intelligent beings billions of miles away and we can't even communicate with the beings here that share our planet."

"You're right Pete. I read a book recently about a lady on our Canadian west coast and all she does is listen to killer whales talk. She says that those whales could actually be smarter than humans." Monica is still staring at Pete as she says this.

Jeff pokes his marshmallow stick into the fire, making it collapse in a burst of sparks, "Can you imagine if our big time scientists finally make contact with some species on the other side of the galaxy and the transmission comes back as 'Caw caw caw!' Our scientists would shit their pants and our crows would get excited and start talking to their relatives and the humans would have no clue what the hell they are saying."

Pete grabs Issy's hand and squeezes it gently and gives her a quick kiss on her warm cheek. "Ya it drives me a little crazy that us humans think we are so smart that we will be able to communicate with some life form that we have never even imagined before but we don't have a clue how to talk to these life forms that have been around since before we got here. In so many ways humans are so stupid."

Issy has to add, "Yep we are all great big dumbasses."

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 because 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."

Chapter Thirteen

"Are You Okay!!"

Issy yells, "Ya this is wicked!"

Jeff is ahead of the Mustang again, now that the road has dried, and his earlier, minor misery is now but a memory. Feeling Issy pressed against his backside, with her thighs locked against his, is getting him a little more excited than he had anticipated. He can't help but notice that Issy's legs are just a little bit longer than Monica's, and just that little bit leaner. He has never had another girl on the back of his Yamaha before. He in fact has only had one other girl on the back of a motorcycle before, and that was his first girl friend Terry when he was just a kid and had a small Honda 100 trail bike. He looks in his rear-view mirror and sure enough he sees Monica forty feet behind looking back at him, sitting in the passenger seat beside Pete.

"So what kind of music do you like?" Pete looks over at Monica.

"I like this stuff... anything really." Monica is probably more comfortable travelling right now than she has been the whole trip, sitting up front beside Pete, physically anyway. "I grew up listening to my dad's classical music, and my mom's country. She likes Hank Williams and Johnny Cash, that kind of stuff. But she also loves the Beatles. She has all of their albums. John Lennon was one of her heroes"

"That's cool, I don't have any Johnny Cash but I do have a couple of Beatles C.D.'s. My favourite is Sergeant Pepper's but how about I put the White Album on, since we are talking about our own little Revolution." Pete ejects the Steve Miller that's playing and finds this next choice.

"Ya Revolution Number Nine should be our theme song. That is a crazier talking type song than the rap music playing these days." Monica smiles at Pete and is starting to like him a whole lot more than she ever thought she would, considering her first... and second, impression of him. But then again her first impression of Issy was less than favourable as well. It just goes to prove once again that you can never judge a book by its cover. Pete is glad to accommodate his new, young, and pretty friend, and only passenger, and skips to the strangest Beatles song recorded, by far.

" _Number Nine......Number Nine_ "

"Yep that's our song all right. A crazy, different revolution song for our crazy new revolution. Any idea what the Nine is supposed to represent?" Monica takes her eyes off the bike in front of her again and looks over at Pete and his mirrored glasses for an answer.

"No idea. Probably Lennon's favourite number or something. I assume he wrote it, I doubt Macartney did."

"So Pete are you planning to marry Issy? You guys seem real good together."

"Ya we've talked about it. We're not engaged or anything but I guess you could call us pre-engaged."

"Hey you better give that girl a ring and make it official. She's pretty cool and you know she's gorgeous. She could probably have pretty much any guy she wants. Don't be a dumbass as she would say, and risk losing her."

Pete looks over at Monica who is still looking at him, "Ya you are probably right. And me and her both want kids, so we should probably do it soon. Hey! Since she has no one else out west you could be her bridesmaid. And Jeff can even be my best man, seeing as I have no friends on the coast, or even back in Duluth for that matter, except a few drug dealers."

Monica averts her gaze away from Pete and back to the bike in front. "Why did you ever get into drugs in the first place? Were you trying to escape reality or something?"

Pete turns the music a little lower. Helter Skelter is now playing. "No not at all, in fact I love reality, probably more than most people. I always thought of it as enhancing realty, never escaping it. You know what saying I have always hated that the know-nothing-do-gooders in society are always saying about that shit?"

"What's that Pete?"

"When they are talking about someone who likes to drink a lot or do some recreational drugs, they say he has been battling his own demons. That is bullshit; most of us get high because we really like it. Simple as that, I prefer to think of it as toying with angels."

"Ya well you may like it but there is always a price to pay. And if you don't stop soon your price is that amazing girl in front of us with her long hair blowing in the wind behind my helmet."

"I know and I sure don't want to lose her. And anyway, we have our new goal of taking over the world, and I know I can't do anything like that if I kept my head in a fog of booze and drugs."

"Issy was telling me that you were driving a delivery truck back in Duluth. Have you ever had any thoughts of starting a charity or anything like that before?"

"No not really but I always knew I was meant for something special. And I know just working in her Uncle's store won't cut it for me, or even building my own business. I want to do something that will have me go down in history as a person that did something amazing, and us having millions of people join our group that wants to change the world sounds like it could do that. I guess I am going to have to start learning about that internet thing."

Meanwhile up ahead on the back of the bike Issy was having a little trouble containing her excitement. She had never been on the back of a motorcycle before and she is loving it. She knew that they were only going about the speed limit but it seems five times faster on the bike. She glances back at the Mustang and manages to see Monica and gives her a quick wave before looking forward again over Jeff's shoulder. Issy is starting to understand why Monica went so fast when she was riding the bike. It is such a rush! And the steady vibration of the bike between her legs is even starting to get her a little excited down there. Issy hugs her arms around Jeff a little tighter. She is wishing it was her Pete up front. Jeff is nice enough but is a little too skinny for her tastes. It has been a real blessing though for them to have met these new Canadian friends. Jeff and Monica have helped make this trip so much more enlightening and fun than it could have possibly been without them. It's only too bad that they were going to have to go their separate ways soon.

Issy thinks about the new plan to start some kind of charity with the other three. Is it feasible? Pete seemed pretty excited about the prospect. It would be nice to have some new goal for her and Pete to pursue. She knows that the thought of working in the hardware store sounds pretty boring to him.

Issy had worked a couple of different retail jobs, as a cashier at a Target Store most recently, and a few summers at a small sports store. So she knew that Pete will not be satisfied with just selling nuts and bolts. And it will be real nice to have friends that aren't into drugs. If this new idea can help keep Pete away from drugs that would be a real blessing. Issy knows that Pete is very intelligent and talented. And he has that outgoing personality that could command respect and admiration. Jeff and Monica seem to be pretty darn smart themselves. The whole world was changing real fast and just maybe the four of them can combine their talents and vision and actually have a real effect on the direction of some of those changes.

Not surprisingly Jeff at this very moment was having similar thoughts. He was the only one of the four that had actually envisioned some kind of charity before. He knew he would not make a very good politician. He was much too honest and emotional to have any chance of holding office, even if he didn't have a checkered past with his drug use. And he just wasn't greedy enough to be a successful businessman. He remembers when he tried to actually sign up to be a fundraiser for Greenpeace. Until that memorable interview at the Greenpeace office in Ottawa he was proud that Greenpeace was started in Canada. Jeff was very concerned with the environment. But Greenpeace turned out to be a real disappointment. First of all, Jeff couldn't believe that half of the money that a fundraiser gets people to donate at their doors goes into the pocket of the fundraiser. What nonsense! He remembers signing up and giving a hippy chick a hundred bucks for Greenpeace a couple of years back. But now he knows that fifty of those bucks went to the hippy chick. But more importantly the interviewer revealed just how little Greenpeace cared about their members. They only cared about raising money to finance their high-profile activism schemes that gets them in the news. That is important sure, but them raising awareness to specific issues around the world is only a start and much more can be done on a hands-on basis.

When Jeff got home from that disappointing interview the roommate that was living with him and his mom at the time, had asked where he can go to get involved in a local community project with Greenpeace. Sadly, there is nothing like that available with this group. Jeff knew that an environmental charity should get the people involved and not just educate them on their own extremist views. He knew Monica was more concerned with animals than the environment itself. Jeff likes animals just fine but he thinks that humans are much more important than any other animal. He is scared shitless that if things don't change soon that humans will become as extinct as the dinosaurs. Even if nuclear war wipes out the human race the planet will eventually recover and someday flourish again. But it is doubtful that humans would ever be seen again. And that is a travesty that Jeff is starting to get pretty obsessed about trying to prevent.

As they were saying the other day, about the crows talking, maybe there is intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, but it doesn't make much difference. It's like the old trick question, "If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?" If there are aliens at the other side of the universe and humans never meet them, what the hell does it matter to the history, or future of mankind? It is mankind that concerns Jeff, not animals or aliens, only humans. It is a very selfish point of view, but one that Jeff is very comfortable with. They all continue to make good time down Interstate 94 driving through the beautiful scenery of the Badlands. None of the four have done much traveling in their young lives and continue to all marvel at what a beautiful country it is. Jeff pulls into another truck stop just before the small town of Treasure Montana.

Monica jumps out of the Mustang and runs over to Issy. "So Issy what did you think?"

Issy fumbles with the chin strap and takes off the helmet, "It is way cool... but my legs are a little stiff, I can see why you aren't thrilled with staying on the bike all day." She walks around a little stretching out her long legs.

Pete arrives, "Hey Jeff thanks for not being a speed demon with my pumpkin on the back."

Jeff has taken his helmet off, "Ya no problem buddy, glad I could help. So did you and Monica get along?"

"Oh ya we are old friends now. My car is running a little hot though, I am not sure it wants to go as far as you were saying today."

Jeff let's go of the hug, he had going, with Monica. "Well I was thinking actually that maybe we can take longer to get to Spokane than I was saying. We are getting close to Little Big Horn, the place where Custer had his last stand. I haven't really seen anything yet on this trip that has much to do with history so how about we spend the night near there."

"Hey now you're talking. I'm starting to have a lot of fun on this trip thanks to you guys. Hey pumpkin I doubt your uncle will mind if we take a day or two extra to get there. We might not have a chance to have some fun for awhile after we get there. What do you think?"

Issy looks from Pete and Jeff and over to Monica who is smiling and nodding her head. "Well seeing as I am having more fun than I have had in about ten years we can take an extra week to get there as far as I'm concerned."

"Let me check my map then Pete and we'll figure out how far we are to Custer's Last Stand." Jeff sees that Pete doesn't quite understand. "The map is in your trunk with my stuff."

Pete opens the trunk and Jeff quickly digs the map out. After unfolding it and laying it out on the grass he makes a quick measurement and looks up at the others watching. "Well we are a little over an hour away from Billings and then Little Big Horn is about an hour off the Interstate from there. So how about we go into Billings for supplies and then head to the Little Big Horn."

They decide to wait until they get to Billings before they worry about getting lunch. So just over an hour later they are pulling off at the first exit to Billings Montana. Pete and Issy are back together in the Mustang behind Jeff and Monica on the Yamaha. They pull into the first gas station they come to.

"Hey Pete I think I will call Uncle Mick and tell him we are going to be a couple of days later than we expected."

Pete is putting a gas nozzle into his tank. "Ya good idea, but let's get some lunch first, I am starved."

Jeff is filling his own much smaller tank. "Ya I think I will phone Tom, we would be crazy to not stretch this trip out as much as we can. It sounds like all of us are going to be working pretty hard soon enough."

"Hi Uncle Mick, sorry for calling collect but I am calling from a pay phone in Billings Montana." Issy is on the phone outside of the Burger King that they just had lunch at.

"Hey there Issy, it's good to hear your voice. When do you think you guys are getting here?"

"Well that's why I am calling, we are taking a little longer than we had planned, we met another couple and are traveling with them and even doing some camping. We're having a blast, so I am hoping it is okay if we take a few more days to get there."

"Ya for sure, I am glad you are having some fun. The store will still be here if you take a little extra time. I sure am looking forward to having you both helping me though, I have had some terrible luck recently keeping decent employees. I haven't had a day off now in months."

"Okay thanks Uncle Mick, I promise you will be able to take lots of days off real soon."

"Alright Issy thanks for calling and you go have fun with Pete, but not too much fun. I will be waiting for you in three or four days."

"Kay Uncle Mick I luv ya, take care."

"Bye Is."

Issy hangs up the receiver and joins the other three gathered in front of the Mustang. "Kay, that's done, he is fine with us taking a little longer."

"We were just discussing our favourite hamburgers. I was telling them how you just love the Whoppers we just had, but I still love Big Macs."

Issy smiles and Pete and looks at Jeff, "Are you going to phone your cousin now?"

"No, I decided I'll call him tomorrow or the next day, he is flexible about when we show up. But Monica wants to go next door, they have internet and she wants to check her email."

"Good idea, I'll come with you Monica, I wouldn't mind checking mine too."

"Right on! Christine's on Facebook chat, she's by far my best friend back in Ottawa. Are you into Facebook Issy?" Monica and Issy are sitting side by side at the little internet cafe. Jeff is sitting across from them staring at his own computer. And Pete, well Pete is out in his car listening to music.

"Ya a little, I got tired of it, and don't do it as much as I did. It gets boring reading all the posts I don't really care about from so many people I really don't care about. Pete thinks it's all a big waste of time and he isn't far from the truth."

"Yep it gets silly to hear about all the stupid things people are saying to try to be smart or funny. But it's pretty cool for times like this when I can chat with my buddy a couple of thousand miles away."

July 7, Monica Martinelli - Christine! How R U?

July 7, Christine Cunninghan - Hi!! I'm going crazy worrying about you

July 7, Monica Martinelli - I'm going to be just fine. We're in Billings Montana, and we'll be in the Rocky Mountains tomorrow, isn't that exciting?

July 7, Christine Cunningham - Ya I guess so, are you still with that other couple?

July 7, Monica Martinelli - Pete and Issy are turning out to be real good friends. In fact you know how Jeff wants to save the environment and I want to save all the animals? Well we've figured out that the four of us found each other so we can change the world. We're going to start a charity that is going to use the internet and Facebook and that stuff and try to bring the whole world together to take the power away from the greedy corporations and the corrupt and useless bureaucracies, and the lying politicians.

July 7, Christine Cunningham - Haaaa.......... I'm going crazy thinking you are going to be run over by an eighteen-wheeler and instead you are making plans to rule the world with people you just met.

July 7, Monica Martinelli - Ya it's pretty crazy. But we're having fun, we even saw horses and buffalo at the Juniper park I told you about.

July 7, Christine Cunningham - THAT must have been nice, I am glad you are happy but please don't trust that new couple too much, you just met them.

July 7, Monica Martinelli - Stop worrying about me... how's work?

July 7, Christine Cunningham - Good. Your brother came in today and told me he was in love and he's going to be a lawyer.

July 7, Monica Martinelli - In luv with who???

July 7, Christine Cunningham - Some girl at his new job in a law office. Did you hear he's working?

July 7, Monica Martinelli - Ya my mom said something about it. She is excited that he's going to Algonquin to be a paralegaull.

Christine Cunningham - She's going to want you to go to school too.

July 7, Monica Martinelli Well Tony took a whole year off so as long as I don't take longer than a year off everyone will be happy, okay Chris I better go, I was just checking in to tell you we are doing fine, did you check on Juniper?

July 7, Christine Cunningham - No I didn't go back yet, but Tony didn't say the cat died or anything so I am sure she's fine.

July 7, Monica Martinelli - K Ciao Chris and we will talk soon!!!

July 7, Christine Cunningham - Chow Monny I will keep worrying about you.

Monica sees that she has no other messages from Facebook worth mentioning, she glances over at Issy's monitor, "Everything sounds good back in Ottawa, any news from Duluth?"

"Ya I am answering an email from my friend Suzanne, sounds like nothing new happening back home, it's a pretty boring place."

Issy goes back to slowly typing out her response. "... and tell Frosty that I don't care that he already misses me and Pete as customers for his weed. His idiot cousin was probably stoned when he fell off the roof, so it serves them right that they're little roofing business is a mess. Those two creeps made lots of money off of Pete over the years so we're not going to feel bad about them now. I will contact you when I get to Seattle and good luck with that jerk boss of yours. Love Issy." Issy punches send, and glances over and sees that Monica is reading an email of her own.

Chapter Fourteen

From: David Joyce

To: Monica Martinelli

Dear Monica, Monica I hope you are safe, and I know you have lots on your mind but I need to tell you what happened in court. I have finally given up fighting those children's aid fuckers, in court anyway. Instead of trying to correct any of their many fuck ups they spend all their time still freaking that I have the nerve to call them names in my emails and on the phone. The judge I had this time at least let me talk, but he completely ignored every single good point I made. I am not sure I preferred that over the main judge telling me to sit down and shut up, he just pretended I said nothing. So I now have a restraining order against me towards that bitch social worker, and get this! Since I didn't back down and told them to all go fuck themselves after court they are now applying for a restraining order against me for all of them and if Erica approves which I am sure they will convince her to do, it will say I can't ever contact MY OWN DAUGHTER!!! Just because I tell the truth and call them all assholes!!! So fuck all of them!!! I am tired of fighting just to see my own kids so I am not going to try anymore.

I am two thirds done that novel I told you about. It is going to make me very rich and very famous. I am just so glad that Moe is my best friend now. I know I have told you lot's about her but I am sad you didn't get to meet her before you left. It was less than a year ago that I emailed her and we are now really close. She loves her husband and kids so I know there is no chance I can ever be with her but I am crazy about her. I just love being her friend now and it feels strange for us as we were lovers so long ago. AND she loves my novel! I am so glad she convinced me to write it. I didn't think I would like writing fiction but its fun. I think I agree with her that I am pretty good at it, and it just may be a real big best seller.

The publishing world went nuts about Harry Potter, then that Vampire series, and now movie wise anyway, it is that Hunger Games future shit. Well me and Moe think that my novel will change the focus of all those young readers, they have had their share of fantasy, wizards, fake shit and it will be time for a good dose of reality. I am even putting Facebook chats and emails in it. AND I am making one of the characters fight with those children's aid fuckers. I figure that is a great way to tell people that those fuckers do much more harm to any child than they ever help. I was thinking that I would write non-fiction some day to try to tell people my thoughts on things but it is obvious that I can still relate all those thoughts in a fiction, and fiction novels out sell non-fiction by about twenty times probably.

So I am very excited about my future. And my sister can go screw herself. I know you love your mom but I am fed up with her judgemental self righteous attitude. And I did keep the secret from her of you doing this crazy move out west. But brother Bob out in Vancouver has actually been reaching out to me recently so I will shoot him a few bucks if I hit the big time. I know you never met your Uncle Bob but I bet he would love to meet you and Jeff so keep it in mind if you plan to ever get to Vancouver. That's enough news for now so let me know how your big adventure is going, and give my love to Jeff, he's an awesome guy, so tell him the two of you are going to get a very expensive wedding present from me when you guys tie the knot. A cheque for a cool million would look real good attached to the wedding cake! Love and hugs, Dave

Shit! That isn't good news about Uncle Dave and his kids. Monica thought things would eventually work out with him and her cousins but that crappy children's aid seem to just keep making things worse. It is outrageous that our tax dollars finance that useless garbage that only seem to care about involving more shitty workers, lying lawyers and pathetic doctors that only all care about putting in their thirty hours of work a week and collect their fat pay cheques. It would be nice if that novel works out like he thinks though.

Monica feels Jeff grab her shoulders and kiss her on the cheek, "You almost ready baby? We should get going."

"Ya just let me write a quick reply to Uncle Dave, he was in court trying to get visitation with Erica and those Children's Aid assholes screwed him over again." Monica plucks away at the keyboard.

Issy gets out of her chair, "Ya I'm done with mine. I better go check on Pete," and she heads to the door.

"Okay I'll see you in a bit." Monica offers while Jeff follows Issy out.

Issy emerges from the mini mart, after paying for her half hour using the internet, and buying a couple of drinks for her and Pete. She hears Jimmy Page singing one of Pete's favourite Zepplin tunes, if you count screaming in agony singing, that is. She comes up to Pete's door and firmly slaps one of his cowboy boots that are both sticking out the window. The boots are quickly replaced by Pete's smiling mug, behind the mirrored glasses of course. "C'mon Pete! Not everyone wants to hear that noise, have some respect for a change."

Pete turns the volume down, "It took you guys long enough, let's get this show on the road." He grabs the can of Mountain Dew that Issy passes him. "Thanks pumpkin."

Issy opens her Orange Crush and takes a swig. "Monica will be out in a minute. So, Suzanne sent me an email and she says that she saw Frosty last night and he still wants to try mailing you his weed. He's desperate for the business. His dumbass cousin Andre fell off a roof and busted his leg bad. So their little roofing company is even more screwed now."

Pete finishes taking a long swallow from his drink. He slaps the top of his door and lets out a short howl, "Haa! Those crazy fucking Serbians! I guess you told him no thanks!" He looks over at Jeff checking over the Yamaha on the far side of the car, who was right behind Issy leaving the store. Pete looks back at Issy who is looking around checking out the new surroundings. "Go get Monica, we don't have all day."

Just then Monica appears from the store, she jogs up to Pete and Issy. "Sorry I took so long, let's head to that grocery store back there so we can stock up and do some more camping."

"Aw shit!" Jeff stands up by his bike, then for good measure adds, "Fuck!" He walks around the front end of the Mustang and joins Monica and Issy standing near Pete.

"What's wrong?" Monica says with obvious concern.

Jeff kicks a small stone across the parking lot, "I just noticed a little puddle of gas on my engine and I found what looks like a small leak on my carb. Fuck! Everything was just rocking along, I knew it was too good to be true!" Jeff is bobbing his head a little pacing about aimlessly, kicking half heartedly at a couple of little stones on the asphalt, "Fuck fuck fuck." He is saying quietly to himself while searching for the next stone to take out his apparent frustration.

Monica rubs his shoulder and tries to comfort him. "Stay cool, I'm sure we'll be fine."

SLAM! Pete is out of the car. "Oh chill dude, I am sure it isn't serious."

Jeff stills himself, and looks at Pete, and whines, "Ya but every time I take my bike to the shop back home it seems to always cost me three hundred bucks. I bet down here I'll get soaked even more."

Pete's standing in front of Jeff now and gives him a playful push on the shoulder, "Are you frickin serious!? You claim to be some kind of bicycle mechanic but you don't even do your own work on your Yamaha?"

Jeff shakes his head a little dejectedly, "Nah, the few times I tried I just screwed it up worse and it costs me even more... I guess I am only comfortable working with the beautiful symmetry and grace of a bicycle and not these crude, messy internal combustion things."

Pete heads to the bike, "That's a fine pile of poetic bullshit there Jeff. Let me have a look. I bet I could rebuild this whole thing with my eyes closed."

Relief starts to cross Jeff's face, "You serious? You know how to fix motorcycles?"

"No, I've never touched one in my life actually, but weren't you paying any attention? I practically rebuilt my whole car, tranny and all, so this puny bike will be child's play. Show me this big disaster."

Jeff points to the small puddle of gas on the engine and up to the carburetor where he thinks it's leaking from. Pete leans down and looks at it for about five seconds.

He stands up, takes his glasses off and flashes Jeff his big infectious smile, "Just what I was thinking, it's a small gasket that's leaking. We can probably get one for ten bucks, twenty max I am sure. It will probably take me a half hour to replace it and the only price you pay for my labour is you watch and learn so you can do it yourself next time."

Monica and Issy have joined them at the bike. Monica grabs Jeff's hand and plants a happy kiss on his cheek, "We are sure all making a good team. What a shame we'll be living hundreds of miles apart."

Jeff meets Monica's gaze and then directs the only question at Pete that he can think of, "Do you have the right tools?"

"Do you think I would take my machine across the country without a tool box and a few parts." Pete scoffs, puts his glasses back on and heads back around the car, "So let's first hit that grocery store for some grub, then find a Yammy dealer and we'll fix your bike at the campsite." Issy declares triumphantly, "The four of us cannot be stopped!"

_____________________________

"ERRRoowwRRR!" AHHH! I...I...I "rrrRRROWWWRR!" I want it NOW! I need it! I really really need IT! "RROOWWWRR!" AHH! I cannot tolerate this intense desire I have. The heat emanating from my bowels is tormenting me. "RrroOWRR!" AHHH nothing seems to satiate this urge I have. Rubbing fiercely against my royal perch barely does anything to satisfy my hunger. My... My absolute insatiable thirst! For something. Why can't I ever seem to understand what is happening? "RRrrrRRROOWWRRR!" ARRGH!

This is driving me absolutely insane! "Oh my heavens Juniper, it drives me crazy every time you go in heat!" Victoria is standing at the entrance of the living room with her hands on her ample hips and shaking her head. "Honestly you silly cat, at times like this I am almost glad that Monica is gone so I can send you away to her and not have to tolerate any more of this silliness." Victoria heads back to the kitchen to check on her roast in the oven. She has to admit it sure is nice to have Tony behaving human for a change and coming home from his new job and joining her and Leo for a normal family dinner. Maybe her prayers have been answered and he has even stopped doing those drugs that have caused them all so much grief. Wouldn't that be a blessing? And Leo's disposition has even improved these days.

Now if only Monica would come back home, she would be so content with everything. Victoria opens the door of the oven and admires her large roast of beef slowly cooking to perfection. As she closes the oven door and straightens up she is wondering if it is time to start boiling the potatoes soon. Just then she hears the front door slam, and seconds later Tony appears at the kitchen entrance. He is sporting a grin from ear to ear. Victoria is certainly very happy to see such a sight. "Well you seem to be very pleased with yourself. I take it the job is still going well."

Tony then does something Victoria can't remember him doing since he was an adorable, rambunctious three year old. He walks right up to her, grabs her lightly by both shoulders, and plants a firm kiss on her cheek. This is getting better and better! Now it's Victoria's turn to have a grin from ear to ear.

As Tony opens the fridge door to look for some Pepsi, he proudly declares, "Mom, not only do I think I have found my true calling, I just may have found the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with!"

Victoria sits down carefully at the kitchen table with her grin still firmly in place, and her eyes open wide, thoroughly enjoying her son coming alive for the first time in years. "I take it this girl is the older one at work that Samantha was telling me about."

Tony even poured his Pepsi this time into a large glass and sits opposite his beaming, attentive Mother, "Ya she's amazing, her name is Sophia. She's gorgeous, funny and real smart. And best of all I think she likes me to."

Victoria doesn't want to ruin this moment, but she can't help but ask, "Honey is she not a little too old for you?"

Tony puts his glass down after gulping down almost half his drink, "Ah mom, it's only by a few years. If it were the other way around, with me being 23 and her being 19 nobody would have a problem with it." He has another quick swig of the Pepsi and continues, "We had lunch together today and we spent the whole time talking about how corrupt the justice system is. She seems to care as little about money as I do. Wouldn't it be sweet if we both became lawyers and became crusaders against everything that stinks in our piece of crap legal system?"

Victoria's grin is only a little narrower, but her eyes are still wide, "My heavens! You are starting to sound like Monica with her quest to fight for animal rights. Whatever did I do to produce a couple of such young radicals. But that is very nice about this Sophia. I just hope you don't get your heart broken."

Chapter Fifteen

"Right on! Look pumpkin, the Little Bighorn has its own casino. What do you say we come back here after dinner and play some slots? We are on a lucky streak with this whole trip so far, so let's convert that good karma into some cold hard cash." With that, Pete flashes Issy his million-dollar smile beside him in the Mustang.

"Not a chance there buck-a-roo! After what you pulled last Christmas at our last little attempt at enjoying a fun, harmless night at a casino." Issy then deepens her voice, "I promise pumpkin, I won't spend anymore than forty bucks, Scout's honour." She returns to her normal voice, "Ya right! That forty quickly turned into three hundred and forty. I'm not living through that kind of grief again. And besides Pete, we're having more fun camping with Monica and Jeff than we've probably ever had any kind of fun before with another couple. These two are quickly becoming our best friends. It's doubtful we will start any big time charity with them, or anything like that but who knows? Let's just enjoy these last couple of days with them as best we can. And I am really jacked about hanging with them again after we all get settled."

Pete gives her one of his scrunched up silly faces pretending he's angry. "You win as usual pumpkin. I have to admit it is damn fine seeing you enjoying yourself so much. Hey I may even be able to manage to hold off smoking a joint tonight like you asked. And since we didn't get any beer I guess it

will be cool to hang around the campfire with a clear head and enjoy this camping stuff without any chemical enhancement. In fact, wouldn't it be awesome if we someday had a couple of our own little kids to join us. I got to admit that would be a whole lot more fun than just getting drunk or high again."

Issy unclips her seatbelt, twists towards Pete and climbs partly over the stick shift between them. With both knees on her seat, she braces herself with her left hand on Pete's seat behind his shoulder. With her other hand, she rubs Pete's inside of his thigh starting at the knee and sliding it up and into his crotch, and gently gives him a squeeze. At the same time, she nuzzles her nose below his ear and plants a succulent, lingering kiss on his neck. She then quickly retakes her position in her own seat and says, "I sure do love you, you beautiful sexy man. I tell you what. Let's make sure we spend one more night camping alone between Spokane and Seattle, when we have to leave our new friends. You save one last big joint for that night and we'll both get high together for the last time and then I will give you a night you won't soon forget."

Pete flashes her a big smile, "Ohh Baby! Now you are talking MY language!"

Our fearless, fun loving foursome, made real quick work of tracking down a Yamaha dealer and buying the proper gasket. After a pit stop at a grocery store heading out of Billings, they headed straight to the Little Bighorn so they could check out the site of the battleground where General George Custer and his troops met their demise in 1876 at the hands of a large band of very angry natives.

They pull into the Little Bighorn campground with the couple on the Yamaha leading the way for the couple in the Mustang. It was just coming up to three in the afternoon and the sky was clear, and the air warm. "How about we first set up our tents, then go check out some sights for a couple of hours. Then we come back her and while Pete is showing his mastery of my bike, you two beautiful ladies can get a fire going. You saw that I undercooked the potatoes in the foil in the fire last time so make sure you leave them in longer this time." Jeff is looking at Monica as he says this last part.

"Sounds like a plan," agrees Pete.

They have picked out a perfect looking campsite. One side of it has a nice even spot under a pine tree for the small tent, and on the opposite of the fire pit is another slightly larger, but equally level and shaded spot for the larger tent. The motorcycle is parked nearby in front of the car and they look like they belong together almost as much as the two young couples are starting to feel like they belong together.

Soon after, they are walking quietly with the men holding the hands of their respective mates. The Canadians lead the way as they approach the old tombstones that mark the burial sites of the doomed soldiers, a hundred and forty years ago. It is unclear what went wrong when the Seventh Cavalry was decimated on that fateful day in the summer of 1876. There is speculation that Custer's supporting forces nearby should have arrived before 268 soldiers were slaughtered, along with Custer by the Lakota, the Northern Cheyenne and the Arapaho.

"This really breaks my heart." Monica is in front of the stone indicating it is where all the horses were buried that died in the battle. The other three are respectively silent. Monica continues, "I can't even begin to imagine the pain and confusion they were feeling as they lay among the chaos, slowly bleeding to death from a bunch of Indian arrows stuck in their hides."

Issy is the first one to respond, "Ya well I bet most of the poor soldiers didn't have much choice either about being a part of this garbage evil slaughter campaign of trying to wipeout the Indians. It is so disgusting that dumbass humans have always had this constant need to murder each other in the name of some dumbass war."

Jeff looks wistfully over the fields with its grasses blowing in the wind. "It is so scary to imagine that day. Terror and pain and anger, all in such overwhelming quantities. I have never stood on a known battlefield before. And the truly horrifying thing is that this is a very insignificant one compared to the major ones all over Europe and Asia. I am in full agreement with you Issy, our human race are such unbelievable dumbasses when it comes to that insane thing called war. Whether it's in the name of religion, money, or land, it doesn't matter. It is still humans murdering other humans."

"Don't forget all the animals killed too." You don't have to be told who said that.

Especially Jeff, "Yes baby, of course I am sad for the animals, but I have told you, no matter how cute or smart they are, humans will always rank higher in importance with me."

"Hey guys, I have always believed that absolutely anything is possible. So let's dedicate our new charity to the ultimate goal of achieving nothing less than actual world peace itself. Now that would be about as frickin awesome as it could possibly get." And that of course came from Pete, as he is quickly establishing himself as the one always being the biggest thinker and most optimistic.

"Okay there big guy, one step at a time, and that is about seven billion steps ahead of us at the moment." Issy is keeping it grounded, as is her emerging role, on this new potent little team.

Monica puts her arms around Jeff and gives him a sweet kiss on his lips, "Kay guys what do you say we head back and make us a nice steak dinner and get the bike fixed. If we dwell on this shit much longer we'll start depressing ourselves and the whole point of this detour was to have some more fun."

Our fabulous foursome were soon back at the new campsite happily paired off, with the two women working on fixing a nice dinner, and the two men fixing the bike. To all four of them it was starting to feel like they had been an efficient little team for years. It was hard to believe that they had just met only a few days earlier. Pete had put on an Elton John CD as that was about the only artist that both he and Issy were both fans of. And Jeff is about as flexible as Monica is when it comes to music, he likes just about everything, except maybe jazz.

Pete has already managed to remove the carburetor. "See it's no big deal at all, you just have to make sure you are careful with shutting the gas off and trying to not spill too much that is left in the carb." Pete says this to Jeff, who is watching attentively. Pete dumps the little bit of gas that is in the carb into a small plastic margarine container. He then shows Jeff where a little crack had formed in the gasket to cause the leak. He continues the lesson, "then see? It is now just a matter of making sure both contact surfaces are clean. I would prefer a razor blade to do this but this blade from my utility knife works almost as well."

Jeff is impressed, "Thanks Pete, that really looks no more difficult than fixing a bicycle, I'm not sure why it intimidated me so much."

Pete's not sure either, and continues scraping the manifold's surface. "Okay done, see? Now they are nice and shiny smooth. Now I just put this new gasket on, bolt it back together, and it is good as new." Meanwhile the girls are only twenty-five feet away at the fire pit. They both had collected a bunch of dry twigs and small branches in the surrounding woods. They had bought a ten pound bag of logs earlier from the camp office. The first couple of logs had already caught fire nicely on top of the burning twigs. The twigs were started with only a couple of pieces of old newspaper lit by one flick of a Bic. "I had heard about cooking potatoes in the fire covered in tin foil, but my family just cooked everything on a camp stove when we were camping." Issy says this as she joins Monica sitting at the picnic table and grabs a potato.

Monica is already carefully wrapping a large potato with a sheet of foil, "Ya Jeff says it works best if you have lots of hot coals smoldering already, but it worked pretty good last time shortly after the fire was burning good. So we'll wait a little bit before we bury them in the fire."

The two separate operations proceed as planned and, as a result they soon all sit down to a very satisfying dinner. The girls like it that the boys seem to be enjoying themselves without having any beer to drink. As a big bonus, Pete was true to his word and didn't smoke any joints for the whole evening. The two guys are both gentlemen and do a good job cleaning up after they had finished eating. They then all go for a walk around the campground looking for a new set of sticks that could be used to roast the requisite marshmallows after dark. All four of them thoroughly enjoy seeing the many happy campers having some laughs at their own campsites. They all take particular delight in seeing the young children running around and laughing.

"Hey Monica, Pete was even saying that he loves the idea of camping someday with kids of our own. Wouldn't it be amazing if we got together every summer a couple of times with both of us having our own children running around having a blast." Issy gives Pete a quick yummy kiss on his lips as soon as she says this.

"That would be beyond amazing. That would be spectacular." And Monica gives Jeff his own yummy quick kiss after this little declaration.

Jeff is caught off guard with this new subject matter but has no objections, and just smiles to himself at the thought. They are soon gathered around the fire loading their sticks with marshmallows. Both girls have chosen single pointed sticks. Jeff has a stick that splits in a "Y", and Pete feels he has to outdo everyone, so has a three-pronged stick. Issy tried to tell him that he should figure out how to roast one marshmallow properly first without setting it on fire, before he attempts to roast a half dozen at a time, or whatever he has in mind tonight.

Monica points out the obvious, that he was probably intending to light the half dozen on fire and have a brightly lit torch going. But Pete's in a serious mood tonight, not consuming any booze or drugs will do that for a guy like our man Pete. And is soon holding three marshmallows carefully above the flame, giving a real attempt at proper mallow roasting technique. He then dives into a subject he has been starting to obsess about on his own. "I am serious about this charity guys. I am thinking there might really be a higher purpose to the four of us finding each other, and feeling so good together in such a short time. All our personalities are different, but we seem to just fit together as if it was meant to be. Anyway, I am a pretty obsessive guy, and I am prepared to jump in and get totally obsessed with this idea of an organization that tries to unite everyone we can, in every country in the world. If the rest of you can get almost as obsessed, the four of us just may be able to do something that has never been done before."

Jeff is also trying harder to roast his two marshmallows properly, "Ya Pete, I'm with you, as I told you I have been wanting to be an environmental activist since I was a kid and realized our human race is ultimately doomed unless something drastic changes. Last year I sent a long email to five hundred politicians in Canada and about two hundred media people. I was trying to convince them that the Ottawa Greenbelt that is a huge tract of land in our city that is supposed to be helping our environment is actually completely flawed and is doing much more harm than any good."

Monica is checking her single marshmallow's progress, "Ya I was so proud of him, he did a couple of interviews on the radio and spoke at a few meetings, but he only got a small amount of support as most people are so close minded and refuse to think different than the established way of doing things."

Issy is already picking at her first cooked marshmallow, "Yep you know what I think of most people, they are dumbasses! It isn't easy to get people to change their way of thinking, but I am starting to think that Pete just might be right, and maybe it's the four of us that can do it in a big way."

Pete is blowing at his marshmallows and is thinking they are starting to actually look tasty, "Way to go Jeffy boy! That is just the kind of activist shit I am talking about."

Monica is chewing on her own first marshmallow, "Okay guys I love the idea too. I can lead the animal division, without animals in the world life would suck for humans, even if it is just the animals that we eat."

Issy is careful in putting another marshmallow on her stick, "First thing we need is a good name, and since it is going to be truly international it has to be one that can easily translate to almost every language in the world yet describe its purpose in as few words as possible."

They all quietly mull over this important first step while they are all sitting on the ground around the fire roasting their marshmallows. Even Pete is still taking care to brown them properly, and he learns the reward. "Wow these are delicious, why didn't you tell me they taste so good?" He says in garbled tones with his mouth full of the hot creamy treat.

"Ya you silly dumbass that's about the only thing I said the last time while I was eating them. You were too busy playing and setting yours on fire." Issy laughs while chewing her own.

"I've got it!" Jeff announces with some gusto, right after he devours his own hot creamy treat. "My whole obsession with the environment is about the fact that we as a species have been around for tens of thousands of years, and we are just now starting a new millennium. It is obvious that it is doubtful mankind will even exist by the end of this millennium. How about Project3000 as a name? If we can make it into the next millennium we should be able to last forever"

They are all still staring into the fire in front of them. A burning log collapses with a thud. Countless sparks suddenly fly up into the dark quiet sky. Pete finishes watching the sparks fly harmlessly up into the infinite darkness. He resumes loading half a dozen marshmallows on his stick. Now that he knows that they are magically delicious he has a whole new motivation.

"Yep I like it!" Issy bellows. "It's perfect! Short and to the point, and I am sure the word project and the number 3000 are both easily translated into all of the mainstream languages."

Monica crawls the two feet over to Jeff, and locks lips with him for a few seconds, and then gives the chosen name unanimous approval, "then Project3000 it shall be!"

Chapter Sixteen

"Hey there sleepy heads, it's about time you got out of bed." Issy is looking up from the fire pit to poke fun at Jeff and Monica as they emerge from their tent, stretching and rubbing their eyes.

Monica comes up to the fire pit where Issy is trying to show Pete the Issy method of starting a camp fire. "Well good morning fellow campers. So Is, do you think Pete here, has a chance of learning how to be of any use at a campsite?" Monica jokingly jostles Pete's shoulder as she says this.

Pete straightens up, "Hey there my little Canadian girl, I actually tend to be a very slow learner at most things, but once I start to catch on to something that is of interest to me I learn it real good. I'm starting to get a real rush from this camping stuff, so don't you worry. By next year when we all camp together I will be the pro at all this, and make you guys all look like amateurs."

Monica laughs, "Ya sure, we'll see about that."

Issy stands up, stretching, as the fire starts to spread in the pit, "No Monica, he's right, Pete is like that. He didn't know hardly anything about fixing cars and engines before he started working on his Mustang. But he became obsessed about it, and slowly figured it all out real good. He could probably get his mechanic's license real easy now if he wanted to."

Jeff sits down beside Pete on top of the picnic table facing the fire, and jabs Pete's arm lightly with his elbow, "Except the cars these days are all run with computers, unlike your old classic."

Pete jumps off the picnic table in a flash, "Excellent point my wise Canadian friend. In fact, I have decided that my first priority to prepare for our new quest of having an impact on the world, is to learn everything there is to know about computers, and that crazy internet thing. It's obvious that to reach out to the world I have to become an expert on building websites."

Monica leaps into the action, "You can be our web master then, and me and Issy will become experts at social networking, it's all about Facebook and Twitter these days."

Issy puts the first big log on the fire and then looks at Monica, "Hey who knows what will be the next big thing? By the time, we are making some waves around the world we will probably have our very own social networking site. For all we know it might be bigger than all the others. We all have so much to learn if we are serious about having an impact everywhere."

Jeff's brain has been spinning and churning like the others, "And don't forget about China. We have to figure out a way to reach out to the people in China and North Korea, and all the other countries that have pathetic human rights records. Now that would have a real impact."

Issy is the practical one as usual, "Okay this is all real exciting, but how about we now just worry about having a good breakfast and getting our butts back on the road. We have the rest of our lives to figure out all this world changing stuff."

He pulls onto the interstate and quickly accelerates to a comfortable 65 miles an hour. Jeff then checks his mirror and is reassured with the now familiar sight of the Mustang keeping pace behind him. Jeff cannot believe how well this whole trip has gone. Sure, they had a little set back with Monica getting that speeding ticket, and he had a little scare yesterday with the gas leak, but overall the trip has gone amazing. He was excited about their future as he pulled out of Ottawa only seven short days ago. Seven days? Is that all it's been? It is hard to believe that so much has happened to them in such a short time. And now things look like they may get even more exciting for a long time to come. He looks forward at the horizon and loves the thought of what is straight in front of them. The Mountains! They should be entering the Rocky Mountains sometime this afternoon and that thought gives him an extra little shot of adrenaline. He had been fantasizing about the Rockies since he was thirteen and first started getting serious about downhill skiing. And this winter he will be skiing in them for the first time. Now that he is also into mountain biking he can't wait to buy a bike and do a whole lot of that as well. Of course, best of all, is that he will be doing both with Monica. He is so glad that she is getting more comfortable with this whole adventure. She hasn't even mentioned her damn cat for several days except of course when they were back at the Juniper campsite. He knows he has Issy to thank mostly for Monica's good humour.

They really fluked out meeting those two. He glances at the Mustang again in his mirror and smiles to himself. Yep damn lucky! And now this whole idea about this charity, what a thrill that would be. To finally have someone to help him and Monica make a real difference in the world is real nice. It's appropriate he thinks, that at The Little Big Horn, the only point of historical interest they have stopped at, the four of them started to discuss the details of something that just might cause the four of them to go down in history. He can't forget that little talk the girls were having about them all having children. Now that sure would be sweet! He and Monica are still way too young to start a family though. He knows Monica wants to finish university first. But maybe he should start thinking about saving up and buying her an engagement ring. Yep! Life was good, and it sure looked like it was only going to get better.

Behind him she was having mixed feelings. Monica is not so sure what to think. She was having more fun than she expected, that's for sure. It was a real blessing to have found Issy. Hopefully Jeff won't be too upset if she asks to ride with Issy and Pete in the car after they stop for lunch. She doesn't want to start hating Jeff's motorcycle but she really had no idea it would be so boring and uncomfortable being on the back of it for such long stretches. She sure is starting to really miss Juniper. She just knows that Juniper is probably getting depressed not getting the attention and affection that she was used to. Sure her mom is feeding her but she needs some of her loving. This trip has been incredible she has to admit, but maybe Christine and her mom are right.

There is still time to register for classes this fall, the university already accepted her so she's sure there are some classes that are open that she could sign up for. And now Tony is even going back to school. Her parents both have their Bachelor's degree so she sure as hell doesn't want to end up being the worst educated in the family. This charity idea does sound exciting. She really does want to make some kind of difference. But how much can she trust this Pete? His is a druggie after all; he sure can't be trusted to guide her future. And besides, she could still contribute to the charity from Ottawa. They will be relying on the internet to spread their message, and having someone back east and in Canada's capital city would be of some value. And she works so well with Christine, and she just knows Christine will want to be involved with such a cool big project. If it becomes a reality of course. Issy is super cool but it's not as if they are going to be living in the same city. If only she knew what to do. She'll try to not think about it too much till they get to B.C..

Hopefully things will be clearer to her when she sees what life is like living out there. If only she could convince Jeff to go back to Ottawa with her at the end of the summer. He is a great guy and has been super sweet to her the whole trip. Especially when she screwed up big time and got caught speeding. She is probably going to want a family with Jeff someday but she is way too young to be worrying about that yet. If only she had Juniper with her now. She could always count on snuggling with her cat to calm her down and help her make the right decisions.

Pete ejects the Lady Gaga CD again. Thank God that's over! She's a real smart girl, how can she stand that stuff? Oh well, to each his own, as he likes to say. Now for some real music, he inserts the Stones classic, Sympathy For The Devil. He turns it up a notch. Now that's music! He's starting to think that he's almost looking forward to finishing off his bag of weed. It's time to clear his head and get down to business. No more Mister Nice Guy. This Project3000 is going to take over his life. He knew he was meant for something special, and it looks like he may have finally found it. The whole big crazy world was going to hell in a hand basket. Everyone seems to be going off in different directions. Jeff is right, if things don't change in a hurry mankind is doomed. It's not global warming or climate change that will do us in. We can adjust to that, it will change things and for sure many different animals will become extinct because of it, despite sweet little Monica's efforts. But the human race would not perish, even if we had another Ice Age.

No. Its over-population and our grotesque over-consumption that will do us in. Hell global warming might even help ultimately as it will trim down the population for sure, especially in some kind of Ice Age. There is so much bullshit being fed to us. So discovering the truth about things is going to be an important part of the plan. Discovering the truth about scientific stuff like global warming, and even more important, the truth about political stuff will give him purpose. Take that bullshit of George W. Bush with his claim that he went into Iraq because of our "imminent danger from weapons of mass destruction." Ya right Georgie! It had nothing to with shit like your buddy Dick Cheney and Haliburton making tons of money. Yep greed, and over population are ten times more dangerous to us than any little change in the climate, and you combine the two in China alone and you have a disaster waiting to happen. You can't blame the average person in China or Africa for wanting the same standard of living as us in The States, but Holy Shit the Earth just can not sustain it. That's why this movement has to start now, and just maybe... Hell NO! Not maybe. We ARE the ones who are going to do it. He looks at his gorgeous pumpkin next to him, leaning back with her eyes closed.

Yep this trip for sure is the best thing that has ever happened to him. It is time to quit the silly drugs and get down to business. First step is to marry pumpkin, she is for the sure the most awesome girl on the planet. And she's with him only because he's obviously the most awesome guy. And these two Canadians are obviously pretty frickin awesome, in their own right.

Issy can't remember ever being happier in her life. She keeps her eyes closed and thinks how amazing everything is turning out. Heck she even likes this Rolling Stones album more than Pete knows. She's not too fussy for his Led Zepplin but The Rolling Stones are pretty cool. She just can't let Pete ever know that though or she would never get to listen to her own music again around him. Yep life is good. And they will soon be in Seattle and it will be nice to help out poor Uncle Mick. He has had such a tough life recently. He first loses Aunt Kay to leukemia, and only one year later his only child is brutally murdered. Issy is determined to do everything she can to make his life a little easier. Working in the hardware store sounds a little boring but she will obviously be some kind of manager, at least when Uncle Mick isn't there, and it should be fun to work with Pete. He sure is getting excited about this charity idea. Hey if it helps him forget about drugs she is all for it. Yep things are working out better than she could have hoped. If only Monica was going to be living closer to her. Oh well, she just bets that they will be taking turns jumping on a bus to visit each other. And thanks to the internet they will be chatting almost every day for sure.

Pete turns down his music, The Doors are now playing, "So pumpkin why didn't you ever suggest we go camping together before?"

"Camping!? Hey you silly dumbass, we never went anywhere. You spent all your time working on your car. I was lucky to get you to come out for a single evening just to catch a movie. So I didn't have a hope in hell getting you to go anywhere for two or three days at a time. But I love it that you want to do more of it now. We'll go camping any time we have a couple of days off and the weather looks decent. But you've got to understand Pete, that my priority for the next little while is to help Uncle Mick. The poor guy hasn't had any time off in months. But I am sure we'll be able to check out some awesome campgrounds around Seattle soon. Can you imagine setting the tent by the ocean? Now that would be awesome!"

Pete smiles as he nods his head, "Ya for sure, that would be really cool. And hiking and camping in the mountains, that would be frickin amazing."

Issy just nods her own head and looks forward smiling to herself. Pete reaches over and cranks up Jim Morrison singing one of his spooky cool songs. The sun is high in the clear blue sky, as the two young couples continue west on the Interstate heading to the their separate destinations, but their apparent merging destinies.

Jeff comes over a slight rise and catches his first glimpse of The Rocky Mountains in the distance. His heart speeds up just a touch and his eyes widen a little as well. Right Fucking On! We're almost there! He hopes they don't stop for lunch until the interstate is swallowed by those majestic beauties. He turns and shouts, "Baby look! There they are!"

Monica barely hears Jeff's shout above the wind. She looks up and she sees the mountain range. As soon as she lays her eyes on it stretching across the horizon, as if by magic she completely forgets about Ottawa, or school for the moment. The thought of skiing at a real ski resort for the first time steam rolls all other thoughts. OH YA! To take a gondola way up into the high altitude, then to be able to descend nonstop in miles of soft beautiful powder snow, now THAT would be heaven! She squeezes Jeff tight and suddenly feels much more confident about this whole adventure. She is so young, and university will still be there waiting next year. And a degree at a British Columbia school would be just as satisfying as any from an Ontario one. And Juniper will be joining them, so everything will then be as it should.

As they approach the waiting mountains Jeff gets more and more excited. The girls had made some sandwiches after breakfast back at the campground while the boys took down the tents. It was the thought of those, and his grumbling stomach that made Jeff decide to pull into a rest area before they reach the mountains. He compromises with himself that they will be amongst them very shortly and feeling full of energy to match the excitement that he anticipates he will be filled with.

He brings the bike to a halt next to an empty picnic table that is under a towering oak tree. There is only one other group at the rest area, a family with a few noisy, happy children and an even noisier dog. It will take a whole lot more than that to dampen Jeff's rising spirits. The four all settle around the table as Issy passes out the sandwiches. Jeff is chewing on his ham and cheese and quickly washes a few bites down with the Sprite they are sharing from a big bottle.

He then announces, "I can't believe that this whole trip is turning out so perfect."

Monica was hungry as well and is making quick work of her own ham and cheese, she pauses and says to Issy, "Aren't the mountains beautiful, I can't wait to be driving through them. I am stoked to go skiing in them this winter. Have you or Pete ever tried skiing?"

"No the closest I've ever been is tobogganing, and I don't think Pete has even tried that." Issy manages with her mouth full.

Pete is starting on his second ham and cheese sandwich, "No not at all, my parents didn't encourage much outdoor stuff, but I played hockey for a few years when I was a kid. I think that still qualifies as a winter sport, especially for you Canadians, your country is pretty obsessed with that."

"That's for sure, and we take particular pride when our men and women are both kicking your American asses in the Olympics and World Championships." Jeff says this, while starting on his own second sandwich.

Pete finishes his last bite, "Well that's about the only thing you come close to us in. So Jeffy boy what's the first campground in the mountains you have us heading for?"

Jeff had been studying his map and his notebook, "I am thinking we should stop near Anaconda, I love that name for a town. It's only a couple of hours away and right in the mountains."

"Sure, that sounds good, then just one more day til we are in Spokane and have to say our goodbyes." Pete says, then heads to the garbage can to toss his plastic wrappers.

Monica has been watching the little boys playing catch with a Frisbee with their yappy little Terrier. "Uhh.... speaking of that, would you mind Jeff if I go in the car for the afternoon, you'll have me to yourself soon enough?"

Jeff is still looking at his map, "I'll make you a deal, we should be entering the mountains in a half hour or so, and that is a huge deal to both of us. I really want to be with you when we do that. I need gas soon so how about we stop at the first station we see in the mountains to fill up and then you can go the rest of the way in the car."

"Oh, all right." Monica relents.

Pete's heading to the car, "Let's get going then."

Monica heads to the outhouse at the end of the rest area, "Wait, I have to go pee first."

Jeff sees that Issy is almost in the car, "You guys head out then, and we'll catch up. If not, we will see you at the first gas station you see after you hit the mountains."

Pete slams his door shut. "Sounds like a plan, see you guys soon."

Issy shouts to Monica, "Bye girl, see you in The Rockies!"

Monica waves from the entrance of the outhouse, "Bye Is!"

With a squeal of the Mustang's wide mag tires they are off. Jeff watches the Mustang pull back onto the Interstate and speed away. A couple minutes later Monica appears from the outhouse and heads his way. He gets off the picnic table to greet her. She stops halfway to toss the Frisbee that landed at her feet, back to the boys and laughs as the older boy tells her that it was a good throw for a girl. She laughs thanks, and comes up to Jeff and puts her arms around him. She gives him a passionate kiss.

"What was that for?" Jeff is wondering but not displeased.

"That's just to say how happy I am to be here with you."

"Baby I don't think I have ever been happier in my life. And the best thing about it is I just know it's going to keep getting better."

Monica heads to the bike that's waiting by itself in the parking lot, "We better get going."

"Ya no hurry, we'll catch up to them no problem, Pete drives that thing so slow. Besides its kinda nice to be by ourselves again." Jeff arrives with Monica at the bike. He grabs her and makes it clear he wants some more of those sweet lips of hers. She relents once again and they lock in a leisurely embrace. They finally let go of each other and put their helmets on. Jeff flips up his face shield and declares firmly, "Next stop The Rockies!"

Monica slaps him on the back, yells, "For sure!" And gets on the bike behind him.

Up ahead in the Mustang Pete has put his favourite CD on to celebrate the coming mountains, Led Zepplin IV. He looks at his smiling pumpkin, "It is so frickin cool how good this trip has gone. I wish it never had to end."

Issy nods in agreement, "We will make sure we do lots of travelling and camping from now on."

"Now that we are going to be on the west coast we should make sure we explore from Southern California to Northern British Columbia." Pete reaches over and rubs her thigh to accentuate this.

"Ya and hopefully Monica and Jeff come with us as much as possible." She grabs his hand and gives it a kiss.

"What the hell are these two doing in the middle of nowhere?" Pete indicates forward with his chin. Up ahead is two people hitchhiking on the shoulder.

Issy has, "No clue Pete." Pete sees it's two girls, one a tall black one, and the other a short white one, as he approaches, "Let's pick them up, it will add a little more spice to this adventure of ours."

"Ya I guess so."

Pete gears down, passes the hitchhikers, pulls over and stops. Pete and Issy turn around and watch the two girls run up the shoulder in their direction.

Chapter Seventeen

Issy jumps out and tilts the back of her seat forward so the new passengers can get in the back seat. She greets them with a big "Hi!" as they approach.

The tall black one gets in first and slides over behind Pete, after flashing a big smile to Issy, and saying hi back. The shorter one says, "Hey thanks for stopping," as she leans in and gets in behind Issy's seat.

Issy gets back in and Pete peels out and goes from zero to sixty as fast as his machine is capable. Pete glances back to check out his new passengers. The black girl is gorgeous. Glowing dark black skin and shiny hair in big curls. She could be the daughter of Janet or Latoya Jackson. The shorter white girl has light red hair in a boyish brush cut, lots of freckles, and she could pass for the granddaughter of Howdy Doody. They both have big warm smiles, so that is the most important part. Pete then tells them, "My name is Pete and this is Issy, where are you two heading?"

The short one speaks up, "Hi Pete, Issy, I am Anna and this here is Laquisha. Our car broke down back there and we were just heading to the next town to get a tow truck."

Pete looks at Anna in the rear-view mirror, "I didn't see your car back there, it must have broke down while we were in the rest area."

Anna agrees, "Ya it just happened, and we've been walking ever since, we really appreciate the ride though."

"This is a real sweet ride you have Pete." Laquisha says from behind Pete.

"Thanks, I like it, and you have a real pretty name."

Anna agrees again, "Ya my Queesh has a beautiful name, cuz she's a beautiful girl." Anna flashes Laquisha a generous smile, Laquisha smiles back demurely. Anna then proclaims, "I sure do like blonde hair though. Hey Queesh wasn't I just telling you the other day how much I like blonde hair?"

"Yes, Anna I believe you did."

Issy smiles proudly and runs her hand through Pete's shaggy blonde hair, "I love my Pete's hair too."

"Oh him, ya sure I guess, if ya go for that type. I was talkin' bout you sweet cheeks. Your hair is just so fine." Anna fondles a few strands of Issy's hair as she finishes this unexpected statement.

Pete and Issy exchange looks; they don't know quite what to think. There are a few seconds of awkward silence, broken by Anna, "I have me a great idea. How bout you let Queesh here sit up front and stretch her long legs, they are cramped back here. And Issy there can sit back here with me?"

Pete and Issy exchange a more concerned look this time. Pete glances at Anna in the mirror again, "No, Issy is staying up here, we're being nice enough to give you this ride. Don't you think?"

Anna pauses, and there is a longer, more awkward pause this time. Anna sighs and answers, "I don't think this is going to work Pete. Why don't ya pull over here and we all quit while we're ahead."

Pete couldn't agree more. He immediately puts his signal on and slows down. "Ya okay, I'm sorry it didn't work out."

The Mustang comes to a halt once again on the shoulder, while another of those awkward silences is ensuing. Issy jumps out and tilts the seat forward again. Anna climbs out and stands up. As Laquisha is sliding over to follow her out, Anna slams the back of the seat back and jumps in the front seat. She then slams the door, ripping it out of the hand of a startled Issy, now standing alone on the shoulder.

Pete is beyond startled, "What the hell do you think you are doing?"

Anna gives him her nastiest look. She reaches under her baggy hoodie and produces a small hand gun. "I'm taking your car Pete, and I suggest you get the fuck out now, because I am in a real bad mood all of a sudden."

Pete looks from the gun to Anna's sneer, and back to the gun. Then he gets the fuck out of his car.

Anna instantly climbs over the stick shift, flashes Pete, who is standing on the highway, a smart ass smile, slams the door and throws it in gear. The Mustang's mags squeal loudly as it races off and accelerates away. Pete moves off the highway and joins Issy on the shoulder. They are both speechless. Did that really happen? They are both in complete shock. Issy opens her arms in an offer to comfort her Pete. She knows the poor guy must be devastated. Pete wordlessly accepts the invitation and allows himself to be wrapped in her arms. He says nothing. She says soothingly, "I am so sorry Pete."

Pete finally recovers a little and starts looking on the bright side, as is always his way. "I'm just glad that frickin bitch didn't hurt you pumpkin." Issy squeezes him tight. Pete fully recovers. He lets go of her and looks back down the interstate towards the rest stop. "Jeff should be here soon."

Issy is thinking this would be a good time for Jeff to have a car. All four of them are not going on the bike. But Pete has a plan. "As soon as he gets here I am jumping on the back of the bike and we're going to chase that crazy bitch down. She's not keeping my car."

Issy doesn't like this plan. "You're going to leave me and Monica by ourselves? No Pete, she has a gun. I don't know what I'd do if you got shot."

Pete's adamant, "We'll just follow her, she doesn't know about the motorcycle behind us. You and Monica hitchhike to the next town ahead and wait for us at the police station. You can start the police report and we'll come find you. If a State cop shop is real close go there, otherwise stay at the local one until we get there. Just be real careful who you take a ride with." Pete sees Issy isn't so sure, "Please Issy, it's our only chance. I'm not giving up my car to that little fucking dyke that easy!"

Issy goes back to hugging Pete, "Okay dear, but please be careful."

"I will be fine pumpkin; this is just God's way of telling us that he isn't going to give us everything so easy."

Issy lets him go and manages a little smile, "Don't go finding religion on me now, that's the last thing I need."

Pete has regained his good humour, "Don't worry about that pumpkin, the four of us are going to start our own religion some day."

Issy's smile widens, "Ya sure, let's just survive today please."

"I think that's him coming now. Remember wait at the police station no matter how long we take. Explain it to Monica, we have to be quick about this if we hope to catch them."

"Fine but don't go near them, she has a gun." Issy had seen the gun through the window.

Pete starts waving his arms over his head back and forth as the bike races towards them. Jeff is in the fast lane and just realizes who it is waving as he is about to pass them. He moves to the inside lane and onto the shoulder. He almost gets rear ended by a Honda Civic that is blowing its horn. Pete and Issy run as fast as they can to meet them. They cover the quarter mile or so, and are out of breath as they come up to Jeff and Monica who are standing by the bike with looks of confusion.

Monica expresses that sentiment, "What happened? Where's the car?"

Pete tries to catch his breath, "I fucked up and picked up two chicks hitchhiking. They pulled a gun on me and stole it Jeff. She doesn't know about you, so let's me and you chase the bitch down and follow her til she stops for gas or something."

Jeff is still looking confused. Monica is even more confused, "What about me and Issy?"

Pete looks at Monica, "Issy will explain." He looks at Jeff, "Please, we have to hurry!"

Jeff shrugs his shoulders, "Ya okay let's go." Pete grabs Monica's helmet.

Monica pleads, "Be careful guys please!"

Pete is getting on the back of the bike and just gives the girls a thumbs up, and slaps Jeff on his side. Jeff checks to make sure the coast is clear and pops the clutch and guns the engine, and they are off!

Jeff's adrenaline is pumping. What the hell is happening? He sure didn't expect to enter the elusive Rockies like this, that's for sure. He pushes the bike to ninety miles an hour, he then backs off. He doesn't want to die! If they get pulled over now by a trooper that would be okay, as long as it was a decent cop. Let Pete go with the cop on the chase and Jeff could go back and be with the girls. But of course, there is no cop around when you need one. He settles for eighty-five miles an hour and weaves around the light traffic keeping his eyes peeled ahead for the Mustang.

Pete's on the back trying to calm down. What a frickin disaster! But he has the same thought as Jeff though, it's not worth dying for. So he is glad when the bike slowed again, it was getting a little scary. The frickin dyke car thieves had about a ten-minute head start. So, assuming they are going about sixty five miles an hour in the Mustang to not attract any attention, that will mean we're going twenty miles an hour faster...hmmm. Half hour! It would take over a half hour to catch up to them? Ah Shit! This might not work! Pete starts worrying about Issy and Monica, let's hope I didn't just fuck up even more with this little chase plan.

Issy has explained to Monica what is happening. They both reluctantly stick their thumbs out to start hitchhiking. You just have to know that it won't take long for two young fresh faced babes to get a ride. Sure enough, less than two minutes later an old Dodge Caravan passes them and pulls over, stopping up ahead. But just as the girls start to head there, another car, a Ford Taurus pulls up and stops much closer. The Caravan immediately leaves. The girls approach the Taurus. They look in and see two young guys about their own age, both with big smiles looking out at them. "Hi girls, c'mon in!" The boy in the passenger seat is leaning out the window.

Monica goes to open the rear door. But Issy motions for her to hold it. Issy checks the two guys out carefully, and then gives her assessment, "No thanks guys. I am sure you are nice enough, but a couple of girls can't be too careful these days. We'll pass, thanks."

"Well fuck you! Uptight bitches!" Is her reward, and the Taurus takes off angrily.

Three minutes later a big shiny BMW pulls up. This time Issy like what she sees, a middle-aged couple that looks harmless enough. The girls both get in the back seat.

Jeff is starting to kind of like the chase. A little adrenaline and excitement is good for the soul! He doesn't see any cops or Mustang, still though. This just might be futile. They've already passed two exits. They have no way of knowing if the Mustang pulled off the interstate already. He wonders how long it will take before Pete decides to call off the chase. But he's getting more comfortable cooking along at high speed, so he speeds up just a bit.

They had been going for about fifteen minutes now and the chase is then officially called off by the trooper they just flew by. He is pulling onto the Interstate in a hurry with his sirens screaming.

"And just what the hell do you think you were doing going so fast!?" The Montana State Trooper was not happy.

Jeff was standing on the shoulder holding his helmet. "I'm sorry sir but this is an emergency. My friend here just had his car stolen and we were trying to catch up to it."

Pete is beside Jeff holding Monica's helmet, "I asked him to do this officer, my car is up ahead, two girls were hitchhiking and had a gun and kicked me and my girlfriend out. Please sir we have to catch them!"

The trooper pauses, looking at the two anxious young men standing in front of him, "That is no reason to risk your lives, and the other people on the road. You were going eighty-nine miles an hour." The trooper pauses again, "I will radio in your car's description right now, and I am sure we will find it. I am sure as hell not about to go racing down the interstate, with no chance to catch up to it. Then you are getting a ticket for the speeding, you can't be taking the law into your own hands. You're lucky I'm not charging you with dangerous driving... Now first give me the plate and description of this stolen car."

"There they are!" Pete spots Monica and Issy entering the station. Both boys jump up to greet the girls. They had only been there for twenty minutes themselves, waiting in the lobby until one of the cops came out to write a full report on the carjacking. The couples are both hugging with obvious relief that they are all back together.

"Did you get your car?" Issy says as she is letting go of Pete.

"No a trooper pulled us over for speeding and he sent the information out on his radio, but no luck yet." Pete is quick to update them.

Jeff pulls his ticket out of his pocket, "Ya and guess what? I now have a much bigger ticket than you got, for my efforts." He's looking at Monica.

Pete looks at Jeff, "I told you I'd pay for it dude, so chill. You still have your bike."

They are in the Montana Highway Patrol Station in Butte Montana. And they are finally in The Rockies, but none of them thought they would arrive like this. Issy is rubbing Pete's back with one hand trying to console him, "So Pete what do you want to do now?"

"I'll tell you what I want to do, get stinking blasted drunk!" Pete sits back down and puts his head in his hands. Issy sits beside him and Jeff and Monica hover in front.

Issy takes control, "Okay this is what we do. We are going to walk around town for a bit trying to relax. If they don't find your car we will get a motel for the night. Tomorrow we check back here. If your car still hasn't shown up, we are taking a bus to Seattle." Issy sees that Pete still has his face buried in his hands. She looks up at Monica and Jeff. "You two can do what you please but I would obviously love it if you stayed with us tonight."

Pete peeks up from his hands, "Ya! Let's all get stinking drunk together!"

Chapter Eighteen

The two couples spent the next couple of hours walking around the town of Butte. They didn't do much talking for a change. Pete mostly said, "Fuck I hate those dykes!"

So the other three tried to keep quiet, knowing there wasn't anything they could say to make him feel better. Jeff and Monica loved the town though. How could they not? It was surrounded by the most beautiful scenery they have ever seen. Mountains! They had both been dreaming about them for so long and now they were finally in them. Ottawa was the furthest thing from their minds. Mountains! They are really in the mountains!

"Fuck! I really hate those dykes!"

Issy had enough, "Alright already Pete, forget about them. I am sure the dumbass bitches will ditch the car soon enough. Now that it's reported stolen it's going to be found. It's probably one of the only cars like that in the whole state so they won't want to keep it for long. So let's relax. Hey if it was Jeff who lost his bike I am sure you would spend the whole time telling him about all the good things to be thankful for. Biggest thing is it's the first time you've ever had a gun pointed at you, and guess what? You coulda died!"

"Okay pumpkin you're right. Let's head back and check with the cops one more time."

Twenty minutes later the frustrated foursome are back on the street with no new news about the Mustang. Issy looks to Jeff, "So we're getting a room I guess, you guys joining us I hope?"

Jeff sees that Monica is nodding yes at him, so he tells Issy, "Of course Issy, what are friends for? We wouldn't dare abandon you guys. I still have lots of money left, so let's have one last party together, since you're probably grabbing a bus tomorrow."

"Ya let's get us some real booze this time. I didn't think much of your Canadian beer but tonight I am drinking some good old Canadian Whisky!" Pete is sounding like his own cheerful self again.

Jeff liked the sound of that, "Ya let's all get sloshed for our last night together!"

Issy rolls her eyes at Monica, "It looks like we'll have our hands full tonight girl. Oh well it'll be nice to blow off some steam before we all begin our new lives."

Monica rolls her own eyes, "God help us!"

They find a motel only a half mile from the cop shop. The guys let the girls hang out in their room while they go track down some booze and food. Both girls decide a bath sounds real nice.

Both guys like the sound of Rye and Coke, with a little beer and a pizza, to go with it.

When Pete and Jeff get back to the motel room Monica was still in the bath, Issy had finished hers. Pete grabs a plastic cup that is on the dresser and pours himself a stiff drink and adds a, "Fuck I hate those dykes!"

Issy is drying her hair with a towel, "Enough already, have a couple of drinks, roll yourself a joint and try to forget about them stupid bitches. I know you love that car but even if you never see it again life goes on. And life is good and going to get better. Hell, you are going to have a large collection of cars someday."

"Haaa!" Pete howls, and hands Jeff his own stiff drink, "Ya got to love my pumpkin, she's always keeping me real. Ya baby! I am going to show them dykes, my next car will be even sweeter!"

Jeff sits on the edge of a bed and sips his drink, "Whoa! It's a bit strong. Give me another shot of Coke in it." He's holds the cup up to Pete.

"No way dude, it will put some hair on your skinny chest. We are here to par...tay!"

Issy is getting comfy on the other bed, "Slow down you two, let's get some food in us first. How about the same pizzas again, seeing as you didn't pick anything up? They went down real good last time."

About an hour later they had finished their pizzas and Pete was rolling a joint. He's sitting on the bed at Issy's feet, using the new pizza menu this time, to hold his weed. He looks at Issy, "Well pumpkin if we're taking a bus tomorrow that means this is our last night on the road. So you're going to have to help me finish off this bag. I still have about four joints left." He looks at Jeff and Monica sitting on their bed together, "Hey Monica, how about letting Jeff have some fun tonight? It's mine and Issy's last reefers ever, so I think it's only right my man Jeff here gets high with us. Because starting tomorrow the four of us are going to take on the world!"

Jeff is liking that idea, he gulps down some more of his most recent stiff drink and looks over at Monica. Monica is almost finished her first beer. "No way Pete, Jeff hasn't smoked in a long time, he's not about to start again now."

Jeff gulps the rest of his drink and gets up to make another. He looks back at Monica, "Would you like a drink of Rye and Coke baby?"

Monica surprises the other three, "Sure what the hell, but not a strong one."

Pete passes the lit joint to Issy, "Now that's the spirit Monica. This party has officially begun!"

As you can well imagine the scene now quickly deteriorates, or improves, depending on your perspective... In Pete's perspective, everything is going great, and getting better by the minute. In fact, despite all their current conflicting conditions, everything is fan-frickin-tastic!

_____________________________

Well I am finally done. My coat looks fabulous. It was so intelligent of The Great Sphinx to enable us cats to groom ourselves. It has taken me over an hour but I now look marvelous. It was so tiring being awake all last night fighting those uncontrollable urges that I don't understand in the least. I am so glad that is over. I do believe I will retire to my food chamber now and proceed to fill my cavernous stomach, I am famished. Oh no! What now? I don't feel so well. "Aakk!" Aakk... "Haacck!" Haacck!... "Aaackk!" Aaackk... "Gga" Gga... "Ptuu!" Ptuu! Ahh that's much better.

"Juniper! That is disgusting! At least you have the decency to spit your hairball on the kitchen floor instead of messing my living room carpet with it. I swear I won't be sad when I see the last of you." Victoria grabs a paper towel and scoops up the slimy hair ball and throws it in the trash.

Riiiiingg... "Hello... Yes, I will accept the charges." Victoria says into the phone.

"Hi sis!"

"David? What are you doing phoning me collect?"

"Well, I'm in jail actually. Those bastards at Children's Aid had me arrested for harassing them. They wouldn't answer any of my questions or investigate a single one of my complaints, so since I kept telling them my true feelings about what I thought of them they had me thrown in jail."

"You were calling them those foul names again, weren't you?"

"Well ya sis, they are fucking bitches."

"David, I am so glad mom isn't still alive to see you land in jail like some common criminal."

"Relax Victoria, it's no big deal, and I'm sure not going to back down now from trying to reform their piece of crap organization."

"Oh, Lord help me!" Victoria replies in disgust. Just then Tony comes into the kitchen. "Here it's your Uncle David." Victoria hands him the phone and promptly exits the kitchen.

"Uncle Dave? What's up?"

"Oh, hi Tony. You're not going to believe this but I'm in jail out on Innes Road. Those scum bags at Children's Aid had me arrested for harassing them."

Tony sits down, "You're kidding. What assholes!"

"Hey don't worry about me kid. This is only going to strengthen my resolve to make some real changes to this whole pathetic system. I'm nearly finished that book I told you about and I'm putting all this new shit in it. I am writing it out in pencil and will be mailing it to my buddy Moe. When it gets published those assholes at Children's Aid will regret doing all this shit to me big time!"

"That's the spirit Uncle Dave; you have the truth on your side. And I'm going to do everything I can to help you to change that evil Children's Aid. I work in a law office now and am going to be a lawyer someday."

"That would be awesome Tony, you should hear all the bullshit that I am learning about how fucking twisted this whole justice system is. From the cops to the judges they are all pretty useless, but they all just claim they are just doing their jobs. None of them are helping anyone except themselves to their big fat pay cheques. This whole thing seems to be one big multibillion dollar government make work program." Tony stands up, "Okay Uncle Dave I've got to go but you hang in there and keep me posted. We will win this war someday I promise."

"Okay kid thanks, I'll call back in a few days and let you know what's happening."

_____________________________

"Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater had an Issy and couldn't keep her." Monica does this little sing song while dancing around, taunting Pete standing beside her.

"Ha! I love eating my pumpkin!" Pete jumps on the bed and crawls on top of his pumpkin pretending to eat her all over.

Issy laughs out loud pushing him away, "Stop it, you're tickling me!"

Jeff is reclining on his bed. He gulps the rest of another drink. He gets up and grabs Monica, and swings her around. All four of them are laughing. Monica stops laughing, "I don't feel so good." The other three laugh louder.

Pete starts rolling another joint and looks at Jeff, "I think maybe your girl has had enough rye. You better get her a beer."

Monica flops down on the bed. "No, I think I better just lie down for a bit."

Jeff makes himself another stiff drink. He sits by Monica on the bed and rubs her back with the hand not holding his new drink, "Hey baby would you mind if I have a couple of puffs of this joint?"

Monica manages to mumble, "I don't care, just leave me alone."

Jeff looks at her and then looks at Pete and shrugs his shoulders. Pete gives him a triumphant smile and a thumbs up. Issy groans and puts her pillow over her head.

Jeff inhales deeply and is quickly overcome by a big head rush. He blows it out and rubs his face. "Wow. That fucked me up!"

Pete howls, "Haa! Atta boy Jeffy! Here have another one."

Jeff has another one.

A little while later Jeff is helping Pete and Issy smoke Pete's last, and biggest joint. Issy watches Pete finally toss the remainder of this one in the toilet. "Okay boys, that is it. We are all going to quit together once and for all." She declares, almost confidently.

Pete raises both arms in celebration, "Sure pumpkin sounds good to me." Jeff is rubbing his face once again, "Ya sure that works for me." Monica has no comment as she is snoring softly, oblivious to their little pact.

Jeff wakes up. His head is throbbing. He looks around. Pete and Issy are in the next bed sleeping soundly. Monica is nowhere in sight. He goes to the bathroom. She isn't there. He splashes water on his face, and relieves his bladder. He lies back down on the bed wondering where she went. He thinks about last night and wonders if he made a big mistake.

At this very moment, Monica is at a drug store buying some Extra Strength Tylenol. She has the worst headache of her life. She is soon in a gas station's washroom washing down three of the pills. Monica stares at her blood shot eyes in the mirror. What went wrong so fast? One day ago she was the happiest girl in the world. Now she doesn't know what the hell to think. She should have known that it would be drugs that burst her happy little bubble. She walks out onto the sidewalk and finds a bench to sit down on.

Wow it sure is beautiful here. She's so confused. She barely remembers what happened last night but she does know that she saw Jeff smoking drugs with Pete. She knows for sure it was because they all got drunk but that is no excuse. It's strange how meeting Issy and Pete was the best thing that happened to them on this trip, but also for sure the worst thing. Her pounding head seems to subside a little so she goes for a walk.

She soon comes to a coffee shop advertising an internet cafe. She checks her cash left in her pocket...seven dollars, forty cents. What the hell. She goes in and buys a coffee and a double chocolate donut and sits at one of the available computers. She looks around at the few other customers. Two guys who look like businessmen are each sitting by themselves with their coffees seriously studying the newspapers spread out in front of them. The only other table occupied has two girls close to Monica's age chatting about something very funny apparently.

Monica is the only one using one of the four available computers. She clicks on the Internet Explorer icon on the screen and goes right to Facebook. Christine's not on, and no message from her. Damn! She checks her email next. Only one is waiting and it's from her mom.

From: Victoria Martinelli,

To: Monica Martinelli,

Monica,

I pray that you are safe. I worry about you constantly. I miss you terribly. You father isn't mad at you anymore, and I know he worries about you and loves you very much. Your silly cat is eating properly finally but seems to miss you. She spends most of the day staring out the window waiting for you to come home. I am very excited that your brother has finally seemed to have found a purpose in life and likes his new job. I am so relieved he is going to school in the fall. Now my life would be perfect if you would come home and go to school as well. Your birthday is in two days and I am so upset we won't be together for it. Please let me know if I can ever help you in any way. I love you and miss you so much. Your Mom.

Monica started to cry softly as she started to read. She reads it one more time with her tears increasing. She gets up to grab a napkin. She sits down and blows her nose. She begins typing.

Dear Mommy, I am so glad that things are good at home. I miss all of you terribly. It's great to hear that Tony has finally smartened up. Don't worry I am safe and still having a real good time. We are in the mountains finally and they are even more beautiful than I imagined. I promise I will phone you as soon as we get to Jeff's cousin's farm. I think we'll be there in two days. I have made a really good friend with the American girl I told you about. You would really like her. She is smart and very sensible. I am sad we have to leave them soon to go to our separate destinations. I promise I still plan to go to university, probably next year. I will make you very proud someday. Give Juniper a big hug for me, I miss her terribly. Talk soon. Love Monica.

Monica closes out the internet, after checking back on Facebook and seeing that Christine is still not there. She has the last bite of her donut and last sip of her coffee and gets up to pay the small internet bill.

Back out on the sidewalk, she once again marvels at the incredible scenery of the surrounding mountains. She is so torn. She wants to stay, but she wants to go home. She slowly heads back to the motel. If she stays, she will be able to go skiing in the mountains this winter. Her ski equipment is back home of course and she would have to get it shipped out. She could use some new boots though, and has no way of paying for them yet. She will have her cat with her soon in British Columbia but who knows when she will get to see the rest of her family? And Christine? She loves Christine like a sister. Sure Issy is turning out to be a great friend but she's going to be hundreds of miles away. And Jeff? She loves him as much as ever but she can't stand the fact that he is a drug addict. They say once you are an addict you are always an addict. She will never be able to trust him in that way. If she goes home and goes to university she could always be with Jeff later after he goes through rehab or finally proves to her that he has finally put it behind him.

Sure he didn't smoke for more than a year until last night, or has he? And he now drinks more alcohol than ever. That means he's an alcoholic now too. What is a girl to do? She stops to watch a couple of small girls playing on a slide in a small playground. She wonders where the parents are. Small town life seems so much different than life in a city. If she goes home she can always come back out west later. Her biggest advantage still is that she knows she is so young. There is lots of time.

And what about this new exciting charity they are planning? If that does come about, which is doubtful, she can work on it just as easily back home as out here. This whole trip has been an eye-opening experience. She just knows no matter what she decides she is going to have an exciting eye opening life. But she must decide what to do right now. She heads back toward the room after waving bye to the happy little girls. They wave back and laugh and climb the slide for another carefree ride down. She doesn't know what to do.

Then a solution suddenly comes to her.

Chapter Nineteen

"Where have you been?" Jeff had answered the door as soon as Monica knocked.

"Relax. I went to buy us some Tylenol and had a coffee." Monica hands the Tylenol to Jeff.

Jeff takes it, and watches her pass him and go lie down, on the bed. "Well it took you long enough."

Without looking back at him, she says calmly, "Oh well, I figured you guys would be sleeping in, after all your drinking and smoking."

Jeff lies down beside her, "Hey you said it was okay for me to have some. And besides, Pete's finished his bag of weed and we're all quitting." He looks at Issy for reassurance, who is watching from her pillow a few feet away, "Right Issy?"

Issy looks at Monica, "Yep we all made a pact."

"Ya whatever." Monica turns away.

Pete gets out of bed, "Let's get out of here. I want to see if they found my car yet, but I kinda doubt it."

Issy sits up, "Let's all go to the police station together, we can leave our stuff here for now."

They are soon back in the lobby of the cop shop waiting for one of the officers. They don't have long to wait though as a very tall man with a neatly trimmed mustache comes out of an office, "Are one of you Peter Shearon?"

Pete stands up, "Yes officer."

"C'mon in here please."

The four all crowd into the officer's small office. "Good morning, my name is Detective Mike Kelly, and I have a few questions for you." The tall detective motions to the only chair on the other side of his desk.

Pete sits down, "Is it okay if my friends stay?"

Detective Kelly sits at his desk and smiles at the girls, "Ya sure but sorry I have no more chairs." He looks at Jeff, "In fact why don't you grab a few chairs from out there, this might take awhile."

Jeff and the girls all go out and grab a chair each. Pete waits until they are all sitting, then he asks the only question he has, "Did you find my car?"

Detective Kelly shuffles some papers on his desk, "Uhh... no. But what we did find is some interesting information on the two women who took your car."

Pete is dejected, but intrigued, "Shit! That's what I figured. What kind of information did you find?"

"It appears that these women are wanted in Arizona for a whole mess of crimes." The detective shows Pete two sheets of paper. Each sheet has one the car thief's picture up top. Pete looks at them with the other three peaking over his shoulders. "Are these the women?" Detective Kelly asks.

"Yes sir, that's them all right."

"Anna Keddy and Laquisha Sutton, are both wanted for a string of armed robberies, and the murder of a man down in Phoenix. You were dealing with a couple of desperate fugitives."

Pete looks at the detective wide eyed, then looks at each of his wide eyed, and speechless companions. "Holy Shit!" Is all he can think of saying.

Detective Kelly retrieves the two papers, "We've already alerted the authorities in Phoenix that the girls are on the loose up here. Every cop in Montana is now on the lookout for your car." He pauses and looks at each of his attentive listeners, "It's doubtful they will be wanting to keep your car though, as it doesn't exactly blend in. So I expect we'll find it abandoned very soon."

"I think we'll take a bus to Seattle today and I'll come back when you find it." Pete sees that Issy is still in agreement with this plan.

"That will be fine; we will phone you if we find it. What number can we reach you at?" Issy gives him Uncle Mick's phone number. "Okay I think that's all we need you for, you filled out a full report last night." The detective stands up and walks around his desk. "I hope you get your car back, and good luck in Seattle."

"Thanks officer." Pete shakes his hand and the four of them vacate the office.

Outside they are all excited about this new information about the fugitive lesbians. Except Monica. "Jeff." She says to him on the sidewalk.

Jeff hears the serious tone and looks in her big brown eyes. "Yes baby?"

"I decided this morning that if Pete and Issy are getting on a bus then I am too."

Jeff is dumbstruck. "What?"

"I just can't handle your drug addiction. I thought you were over it, but you obviously aren't. I miss my mom, I miss my cat, and I want to go home."

Jeff's world is quickly falling apart, "What are you talking about? We've come all this way."

Monica is adamant, "And we had lots of fun, but we're talking about the rest of our lives, and I just can't commit to someone I can't trust. I love you Jeff and maybe we'll get married someday. But right now, I have to worry about myself. If you really love me and want to spend the rest of your life with me, then you have to stay away from drugs. And I think that means you should quit alcohol too. Because as long as you're getting drunk it is obviously only a matter of time before you smoke your drugs. And I can't live with that uncertainty. I'm sorry."

Jeff's whole world was officially coming to an end. He has never been more confused or scared in his life. He stares blankly at Monica. Monica is defiant. He looks at Pete. Pete is confused. He looks at Issy. Issy is concerned. He looks back at Monica. "Could we talk in private about this at least?"

"Sure Jeff but my mind is made up."

Pete and Issy say nothing as Jeff and Monica walk up the sidewalk by themselves. After they've gone about thirty feet Jeff turns to Monica. "Please baby. I am sorry. Please give me another chance. We've come all this way, we can't split up now." He tries to grab her but she shrugs him off.

"You knew very well how I felt about the drugs, so whining and acting like a baby isn't going to change anything. Like I just said, I do love you, and I may even want to marry you someday. But I have to be sure that you're going to stay away from the drugs. I want a family of my own someday and I'm sure not having kids with a druggie. I'm going to quit drinking, for now anyway. If you want me as much as you say you do, then you're going to have to quit drinking too. That's the only chance you have to stay away from your drugs."

Jeff is getting more scared. She really means it! He tries to put his arms around her but she backs off, "No Jeff. No more hugs."

Jeff's mind is in turmoil. His subconscious suddenly chooses another strategy. "Fine if you don't want me, to hell with it. You think you're so special. Well you're not perfect either you know."

"No I'm not Jeff, you're right. But I am trying to do what is best for myself."

"Thanks for nothing!" Jeff heads back to Pete and Issy, who are patiently waiting. Monica quietly follows him. Jeff tries his best to regain his composure on the short way back. He stops in front of Pete. "Well it looks like I'm on my own from here. Can I ask a quick favour from you before I go?"

Pete tries to give a reassuring smile, "Sure buddy what's that?"

"Well you still owe me sixty-three dollars for the speeding ticket. I'm wondering if you could use some of that money to buy me another bottle of rye. I'm going to get fuckin ripped tonight."

"Jeff please don't." Monica touches his arm.

Jeff ignores her, and keeps looking at Pete, who responds, "Ya sure dude I can do that for you. I can't blame you for wanting to get wasted."

Issy turns to Monica, "A bus ticket back to Ottawa can't be cheap. You told me you were broke. Is Jeff buying it for you?"

Monica looks at Jeff with that question showing on her face. Jeff provides an answer, "Ya fat chance that's happening. You can hitchhike back for all I care."

Issy didn't want that answer, "Hey there Jeffy boy, you have to take some responsibility for this mess. Monica is only doing what she already told you she would do. You did smoke last night and she made it clear that she would leave if you did."

"Hey she said I could."

Issy doesn't buy it, "The poor girl was drunk and you should have known better."

Jeff hesitates and softens, "Fine, let's go see what it costs and I'll pay some of it. She can get her parents to wire her the rest. I know they'll be glad to do that."

Issy looks to Monica for her reaction. Monica states her approval, "Sure that sounds fair."

Suddenly our Fantastic Foursome don't feel so fantastic anymore.

They first head back to the motel room and pack their few belongings, and eat a little left over pizza. With very little conversation between them they head out to get through this unhappy day.

The guy at the front desk directs them to the local Greyhound Bus depot. Pete stops in a liquor store on the way for a quart of rye for his heartbroken friend. There is still a little beer and a few ounces of rye left over from last night. Pete figures he will need that to survive his own bus ride. The two bus tickets to Seattle cost sixty-five dollars each. And they are in luck as one is leaving in just over an hour. To get back to Ottawa Monica is told that it will cost her five hundred and seventy-two dollars. She'll have to transfer in Chicago. And her bus isn't scheduled to leave until six pm that evening. That's not so bad as she has to get a hold of her parents and get the money wired.

The lady at the bus station tells her she can get that done at the Walmart. Jeff doesn't want to stay any longer than he has to. "Okay I want to get the hell out of here. I sure as hell am not giving you six hundred dollars after you dumped my ass. I paid for this whole fucking trip up til now, don't forget. But since I am such a sucker for you, and love you a whole lot more than you obviously ever loved me, here's a hundred and fifty dollars to pay for whatever. I guess consider it an early birthday present. I can't believe you're pulling this shit the day before your birthday." With that, Jeff hands Monica one hundred and fifty American dollars. Pete had already given Jeff the money for the speeding ticket.

Monica takes it, "I'm sorry you're so hurt, maybe you'll understand someday that I am hurt too. I will mail you a letter to your cousin's farm. I really do love you Jeff. I wish you realized this wasn't an easy decision for me. And who knows? In the future maybe I'll come back, if I am sure that you want to stay clean and sober."

"As you would say, whatever!" Jeff turns to Pete, "It was really nice meeting you Pete." They shake hands. Jeff looks at Issy. "And thanks Issy, you guys were a lot of fun. If you want my cousin's phone number and address you can get it from her." He indicates Monica. Jeff sadly puts his helmet on, straddles his bike and gives a quick wave to the three standing there. And with a brief roar of his engine he takes off down the road.

Monica is holding her sleeping bag and has her school back pack with her clothes on her back. Pete is carrying a plastic bag with a few beer, the bottle of rye with a few ounces in it, and that is all. They lost everything else to the fugitive car thief lesbians. "I guess it's time to go phone my mom." Is all Monica can think of saying.

Victoria once again accepts the charges for a call in her kitchen. "Hi mommy it's me!"

"Monica? Thank heavens. It's so nice to finally hear your voice."

Monica can't help herself and starts to cry softly, "I miss you mommy. I am so sorry I hurt you."

"What's wrong dear? I thought you were having fun. Did something happen?"

"I'm okay mommy; I just decided that I want to come home."

There is silence for a few seconds, "I don't understand dear. Is Jeff bringing you home?"

"No mommy we had a big fight and I decided this was a mistake after all. I have to take a bus home. Jeff paid for part of it but I need you to wire me four hundred and fifty dollars so I can get the bus. I promise I will work hard to pay you back. I'm so sorry to let you down." Monica spoke fast through her tears before she lost her nerve.

"Where are you? Is Jeff with you?"

"I'm in a place called Butte Montana, and Jeff has already left for his cousin's. I'm with my American friends right now." Monica stopped herself before going on about the lesbian carjackers. She figured she had given her mom enough drama to digest for now.

"Fine, I will send you the money if you're promising to come back. Where should I send it?"

"Send it to the Walmart here in Butte. Check with a Walmart in Ottawa I am sure they will tell you how to send money here. I don't have to catch the bus for another seven hours, so I will phone you in exactly three hours so that we can make sure it will work."

"Okay dear that sounds fine. I will be so glad to have you back home. And I know your father will be thrilled too."

"Thanks mommy, could you put Juniper on the phone so I can tell her the good news."

"Fine dear, just a minute." Victoria puts the phone down, rolls her eyes and smiles to herself, and goes to fetch the cat.

This hallway is so very long. The red carpet stretching out far ahead of me is absolutely gorgeous. All these catservers that are standing at attention along the sides of the carpet are all dressed so strangely. And they all are staring at me. And cats! There are cats everywhere. All kinds of cats. I even see them up high in the balconies. This palace is truly magnificent. And...and what is THAT? I don't believe it! Finally I get to meet The Great Sphinx. Nocat is behind me. The Great Sphinx is waiting just for me it appears. I have so many questions to ask of her. She is even more majestic than the pictures that kittymommy showed me of that statue in Egypt. And I just knew that statue was wrong. The Great Sphinx doesn't have a catserver head, she has an humungous beautiful cat head. Those ridiculous catservers who carved the wrong head were playing some cruel joke. The Great Sphinx probably punished them horrifically. I wonder why I have been summoned here. I must be at the age where my great many questions will be finally answered. Oh The Great Sphinx is so grand and beautiful. She is staring right at me. I am getting so nervous. Okay I think I am supposed to bow down now. I hope this is low enough. Yes she looks pleased. She is waiting. I guess I am expected to speak, "Meooww!" Oh The Great Sphinx it is such an honour to... "Meeooww!?" What!? I'm in my own little palace again? "Meeeoooww!" Catserver what are you doing? How dare it wake me from my dream that was going to finally reveal to me all the secrets of the world? I'm not hungry, why is it bringing me to my food chamber? "Meow!" Thank you for putting me down. What? Oh it is that device with the very small catserver inside it. And yes I can hear it again. It must be asking for my help... See my paws can't open it. "Meeowww!" I can't help you! Catservers are such imbeciles. "Meooww!" See? My teeth can't penetrate this contraption either. I'm going back to my royal perch. I would like to get back to that dream now. That is an infinitely more important endeavour than dealing with these pathetic catservers.

"There, did you hear her? She seemed very excited to hear your voice."

"Yes, thanks mommy, I am sure Juniper will be so glad to see me in a couple of days when I get home."

"Okay dear I will get that money to you and please be sure to phone me back in three hours so we can confirm the information about the transfer."

"Bye mommy I love you lots."

"I love you too dear, talk to you soon."

Monica hangs up. She feels a little better now. She turns to Pete and Issy who are waiting, "Okay now what?"

"We might as well go hang out over in that little park and chill out for a bit. Our bus is pretty soon." Issy points to a bench under a tree across the street.

Jeff is on the interstate by himself heading west towards Spokane. He's keeping his speed at exactly sixty-five miles an hour. He is completely numb. All he can do is keep asking himself the same question over and over again. How can his life go from being totally awesome to totally shitty in a flash? And the only answer he can come up with is- fuck fuck FUCK! He has no idea what to do. He has no choice but to head to Tom's farm. Hell, Tom is expecting two new farm hands to show up...yesterday. He'll have to settle for one though...tomorrow. Jeff speeds up a bit, then remembers the big speeding ticket still in his pocket. It says he can mail in the fine, so that's what he'll do from British Columbia. He now wants to get the hell out of the States as soon as possible. But he also really wants to get totally drunk by himself at some campsite tonight. He'll make sure he's past Spokane at least so he won't have far to go tomorrow to the get to their destination. HA! That's a joke! The dumb bitch is heading back to Ottawa. He once again tries to figure out what went wrong. All Monica had to say last night is no don't smoke. Sure she was a little drunk, but so was he. And there's no more drugs for him to smoke anyway. What a dumb bitch! Why does he have to be so crazy about her? Fuck fuck FUCK!

A large Greyhound bus with Seattle written on the front pulls into the gate the three are now waiting at. Issy and Monica share a long hug. "I hate it that we're going in opposite directions, I'm going to email you every day." Monica says as she lets go of Issy.

"Hey there girl we'll be together again soon, I just know it. And the four of us are still going to start that charity together remember." Issy tries to be brave for Monica's sake.

"Ya she's right Monica, you just know that after Jeff stops feeling sorry for himself he's going to want to be involved in our charity. And we're spreading it across the whole wide world so it doesn't really matter much if we're only a couple thousand miles away from each other." Pete gives Monica's shoulder a little friendly jostle.

Monica gives Pete a big hug and even a little kiss on his cheek. She chuckles despite the tears that are starting to run down her face, "Who would have thought you would turn out to be so cool Pete? I've got to admit I thought you were a big jerk when we first met."

Pete gives a mock shocked expression. Issy laughs, "Yep that's my Pete for ya, he can come across as the biggest jerk sometimes, but inside he's the biggest sweetie you'll ever find." And then Pete gets another kiss on his opposite cheek, this time from his pumpkin.

Pete and Issy get on the bus waving to Monica. Issy says back to Monica, "You make sure you phone me the minute you get home."

Monica's smiling and waving, "For sure! I promise!" Monica keeps waving even as the door closes and she can't see them through the long row of large tinted windows. Not til the bus pulls out and disappears around a corner does Monica put her arm down.

She goes back to sit down on the same bench under a tree. A powerful wave comes over her. One that she has never experienced in her life before. Not this strong anyway. A Tidal Wave of Loneliness. She has never felt more alone in her life before. How unfair. Now she misses her mom, her cat, her boyfriend, her old friends, her new friends. Heck, she has to admit she even misses her dad and her brother as well. She sits quietly on the bench. Alone.

Chapter Twenty

The little boy kept hurting his sister. But every time the cute little girl complained to her dad, the dad either completely ignored her, or tried to tell her it was her own fault. The boy had the seat by the aisle and would lean over and was either poking or pinching his older sister. He looked to be about eight and she was maybe ten. They were sitting across from Pete and Issy and one row ahead. Pete was in the aisle seat, so though he didn't have a full view he saw enough to know what was going on. Other than that little distraction Pete was enjoying himself.

He had never been on a big bus like this before. This was much more comfortable than a school or city bus. He had heard people insult the idea of travelling by bus but he imagined that it wasn't much less comfortable than being on a plane. He sure hadn't been on one of those yet either. And he was getting a little buzz on as he was drinking a large rye and Coke out of a one litre plastic bottle. He's just got to keep reminding himself that he's going to get his car back soon.

"Ouch! Dad he did it again!"

Dad finally stood up, went to the seats behind his and looked down at his two kids, "Now stop it you two, you are embarrassing me. I swear this is the last time I am ever taking you anywhere." The father then, without another word, or waiting for any response from either of the children, sits back down. He continues to flirt with the young lady sitting beside him.

The little boy then slowly leans back, and looks right at Pete, giving him a dirty look he sticks his tongue out.

"That frickin kid is too much," He whispers to Issy.

"Ya well I sure hope you are going to be a better father than that jerk."

"Yes pumpkin I'm sure I will be, but it sure can't be easy being a parent sometimes."

"No it won't, but it will be real nice if we get the chance someday."

"You know I'd love that too. What do you say to us getting married next summer? That way we'll have time to first get settled properly in Seattle and move out of your uncle's house."

"Oh Pete I'd love to," Then Issy rewards him with a long delicious kiss.

Pete goes to take another swig of his drink but notices the kid glaring back at him. Pete smiles smugly and sticks his tongue out.

Jeff passes a sign that says that Spokane Washington is only fifty miles away. Finally he will then be heading north towards Canada. He had recently come up with a different answer than fuck fuck fuck. But it was not much better. It was now more like wah wah wah. He wasn't angry anymore, now he was just really really sad. At one point about an hour ago he even got off the highway and considered heading back east. He was going to prove to Monica just how much he loved her. He would ride beside her bus trying to figure out where she is sitting. He would follow the damn bus all the way back to Ottawa if he had to. But he knew that was a stupid idea.

No! He was going to B.C. as they had been planning for months. He's still going to go to a ski resort this winter too. He'll hook up with a real cute snow bunny. He then remembers how good Monica's ass looks in her ski pants. Damn! She's the only snow bunny he wants. Wah wah wah. Jeff fights back the tears he feels threatening to start and looks up again at the beautiful mountains all around him. My God he is glad he came here, he just hadn't thought it would be like this. He needed a drink, a really stiff drink! But it could wait a couple more hours. He wants to be closer to Canada. Tom's going to start worrying as they are behind schedule. He'll probably phone him when he finds a campground. Then he is cracking that bottle of rye and getting fucking hammered! Tomorrow he'll start all over again.

Working hard at the farm and enjoying the mountains will help him get his mind off of Monica. Ya that's bullshit! He'll just keep thinking how much better it would be with her there with him. He is glad he isn't driving a car and listening to the radio. Jeff remembers when his first girlfriend Terry broke off with him, he was only fourteen. Every song on the radio seemed to be about being in love or getting your heart broken. Man that made it even worse. Wah wah wah!

Finally! Three hours is up and Monica can phone home. She had spent the time wandering around Butte. Since she has the cash Jeff gave her she treated herself to a nice lunch at a decent restaurant. She then went into the Walmart to check to see if her money was sent. But it hadn't arrived yet. The said something about having to answer a security question to retrieve her money.

When she phones home this time someone else answered. "Hi Monica."

"Hi daddy." Uh oh!

"I am glad you have come to your senses finally. But I don't like how it's costing me so much money. I phoned and found out it costs $572 for a bus ticket from there to here. Your mother says that Jeff had paid you for part of it. He should be paying more than $100 don't you think?"

Monica reminds herself to remain calm, "Daddy he gave me a hundred and fifty dollars, but I figured I would need some money for food, since it takes more than two days on the bus to get there. I promise daddy I will work hard to pay you back. I will be a good girl you will see. You promised to pay for tuition for university and I will get a part time job."

Leo lets out an audible sigh, "Fine I guess, it will be a blessing to have that bum of a boyfriend across the country. I sent the money to where you said about twenty minutes ago. We will discuss it when you get home. And your mother is excited to have a little birthday party for you when you get here."

He is not a bum! "Thank you daddy I would really like that. I'm so sorry for getting you and mommy so upset."

"That's fine just get on that bus and we'll see you in a couple of days."

"Okay daddy bye I love you...Oh wait! I need an answer to a security question to get the money."

"The answer is Tony, you can figure out what the question is."

"Kay daddy bye."

"Bye." Monica sighs with relief as she hangs up. Her dad didn't seem so mad. It will probably be a different story when she gets home though.

She checks the time and sees she still has over three hours to go before her bus comes. Oh well! She'll head to get her money and then more wandering around town she figures.

Jeff drives through Spokane without stopping. This is where he and Monica were going to say good bye to Pete and Issy. What a fucking mess it is now. On one hand it felt fantastic to be heading back to Canada, but on the other hand it felt just plain awful. He knew he now had only 250 miles to go. So he could get there tonight if he chose to but to hell with that. He's going to find a campsite in another hour or so and light a big ass fire and get completely bombed. He even kept the Tylenol Monica gave him so he can wake up tomorrow, pop a handful of those and arrive at Tom's farm at a decent hour ready to take on his new life.

He still can't believe how beautiful the mountains are. He can't wait to try some mountain biking in them. And the skiing is going to be awesome. How can Monica come to the mountains and then turn around and go back? If only he didn't smoke last night. He didn't even really enjoy it, he was too drunk to appreciate the buzz. Fuck he's such a dummy! Maybe she's right, maybe he should give up drinking. So that's the new plan. He'll get shit faced tonight and tomorrow he's going to start totally fresh. He's going to find lots of new natural highs.

He looks up at the towering mountains all around him again. Ya! And this is the place to do it. And he then realizes that tomorrow is the perfect day to do it, Monica's eighteenth birthday. How perfect! Ya, he's actually starting to feel better. It was his fault after all, she did warn him, and he fucked up. He'll make tomorrow his first real sober day. That's it! He's going to prove to her how much he loves her, and that he'll do whatever he can to get her back. It then dawns on him. What if she goes to university in Ottawa this fall? He's crazy about her, but he's not crazy enough to wait four whole years for her to finish her degree before she comes back out west. Should he go back to Ottawa then? He studies the mountainside once more. No way. This is where he belongs. And she belongs here too, with him.

He has to convince her to come back before she starts school. He's got to convince her to go to school at the University of British Columbia. That's in Vancouver he's pretty sure. Hey! And then they would be real close to Pete and Issy in Seattle. Ya, that the next obvious step in the plan. Hell, maybe even Jeff will go to study there too. Nah, probably not. But that is where they will build their great charity. From Vancouver and Seattle they will branch out to the world. They would have good access to big bad China from there. Ya! The plan is taking shape.

Monica feels the bulge in her front pocket. She's never had near this much money in her possession before. Her dad came through with sending the $470 dollars and she still has a hundred and forty from Jeff. She goes into the store wishing she could spend all six hundred bucks on some cool stuff instead of a stupid bus ticket and food. But she figures she deserves to buy herself a couple of little souvenirs before she heads home. She had already walked all over the downtown core of Butte and finally found a little store that looked perfect for picking out a few souvenirs.

She first picks out a few postcards. All featuring pictures of the mountains of course. It will be fun to see if they get to Ottawa before she does. She's going to mail one to Christine, one to her mom, and one to Juniper. Juniper's has a fierce but beautiful mountain lion on it. She then slowly checks out the various t-shirts that they have on display. She doesn't see any that appeal to her though. She is planning to buy some groceries to take on the bus with her. That will make the bus ride more bearable, and it will be much more comfortable than on the back of the bike. The trip back won't be the same without Jeff though. Why did he have to smoke? Did she really tell him it was okay? That shouldn't really matter anyway, he knew she was drunk.

Damn! She wishes he wasn't a drug addict. And they do say that once you are a drug addict you are always a drug addict. But it is only marijuana. But it is against the law still. She is so confused. She tries to concentrate on finding a t-shirt amongst the silly ones that she sees. She better get something special for Christine. And they should have something fun for her cat, a toy mouse or something. She goes deeper into the store looking. Looking for something.

Jeff pulls into the campground off the highway. He figures he is only about an hour from the Canadian border. That will leave about a three or four hour ride to finish the whole trip tomorrow. He still can't believe that Monica isn't with him. Fuck life sure wasn't fair sometimes.

First thing he does when he gets to his campsite is crack open the bottle of rye that Pete bought for him. He grabs one of the little plastic cups that came with his little camp cook set and fills it almost half way with the rye. He tops up the rest from the bottle of Coke he had just bought before he arrived at the campground. He is determined to get drunk before he even thinks about setting up the tent or building any fire. Or doing another damn thing.

Thank god for alcohol. Ugh! This stuff is gross without much mix. He chokes down a few sips and then adds some more mix. He had bought a big bag of Dorito chips and a large Coffee Crisp with the Coke. Yep that's all he needs to get through the night. To hell with eating properly, that would only interfere with his main goal of getting completely bombed.

As he's pouring his second drink he wonders if Monica is on her bus yet. Why did she have to go back? She could have at least come to the farm with him. Fucking chicks! You can't live with them, you can't live without them. Or is that shoot them? Ya now he's starting to feel better.

He gets up off the picnic table and starts unpacking his stuff. He tosses the tent towards the spot where he's planning to set it up. Okay that's enough work for now. Just about time for another drink. He gulps the rest and pours another one. He opens his bag of Doritos.

Who needs chicks when you've got a full bottle of rye and a big bag of Doritos? Yep this is the life. He grabs the big bar of Coffee Crisp and tears it open. He takes a big bite and then raises his cup and raises it in a toast to himself. He gulps half the drink down with a grimace. Damn, now all that is missing is a big joint. He smiles and shakes his head amused at himself.

He figures he better set the tent up before it starts to get dark, and before he gets too wazzooed to do much of anything. With another quick swig, he grabs a handful of chips and staggers to his tent. He sits down on the ground and pulls the contents out of the little tent bag. He reminds himself that it's the last time that he's going to be camping for awhile. Shit! He forgot to phone Tom. Oh well he'll get there when he gets there. To hell with everyone!

He gets up and goes over and grabs his drink and drains it with his head tilted back. With another handful of chips, he surveys his site. He looks at the fire pit. Damn, it will be a lonely fire tonight he figures. It sure was fun with the four of them.

Jeff finally manages to put the tent up. He tosses his sleeping bag in it and zips it up. He goes back to drinking. He thinks about what to do next. That's easy. He drinks some more.

He takes a big bite of the chocolate bar and saviors the sweet crunchy snack. He decides he might as well get a fire going. Luckily there are a few nice looking logs left over in the pit by the last occupants of the site. He goes in search of some branches in the forest for some kindling. He doesn't go very far from his site while doing this though, as every time he finds two or three little branches he brings them back and throws them in the pit. Then grabs his little cup, for a quick sip, before heading back into the surrounding woods. He has built up a fairly large pile of kindling and decides it's time to light the fire.

But first he sits back down and makes himself another drink. He opens up his chips and spills several of the Doritos onto the ground beside the picnic bench. In his haste and sloppiness to retrieve them his elbow knocks his freshly poured drink over. Ah shit!

He grabs the bottle and admires the fact that he still has over half of it left. He had better not spill that though. While pouring the replacement drink he hears something behind him. He looks back and just six feet away two glowing green eyes are looking back at him. His heart leaps a bit, not expecting this new visitor at dusk. The owner of the green eyes pauses only a couple of seconds and then continues his approach. Jeff spins around carefully and says, "Hey there little buddy."

The fat raccoon stops and stares back at Jeff. Jeff grabs a chip and tosses it softly in front of the raccoon. The striped little bandit twitches his whiskers looking at Jeff and then down at the offered chip. He pauses only another second before grabbing it with its tiny hands. He sits back on his haunches and nibbles at the chip, but continues to watch Jeff. Jeff chuckles a little and has a big gulp of his fresh drink. He then grabs a few more chips. "I'm glad you came along, I was getting lonely." He tosses another chip in his new little buddy's direction. Just then another pair of glowing green eyes appears from the left side. This raccoon doesn't hesitate, and rushes to grab the new chip on the ground. The first raccoon snarls viciously. The second raccoon snarls back. Jeff backs up and sits on top of the table. "C'mon guys, there's no need to fight, I have lots more chips to share."

Jeff instead grabs the chocolate bar and breaks a piece off. He throws the piece at the second raccoon. It bounces off his thick hide with a light thud. The raccoon stops snarling and glares at Jeff. He then snatches the chocolate and scampers into the woods. The first raccoon scampers after him. Jeff just stares and shakes his head. He finishes his drink with a couple of little chugs.

It's getting dark so he better get the fire going before his furry little friends come back. And he doesn't want to give them all his chips and chocolate as it's the only thing he has to eat. He keeps the fire small as he only has the three logs to burn. He figures he will let the first one burn right down before he adds another. And he keeps plenty of his kindling branches on the side in reserve. Jeff sits back up on the top of the picnic table so he isn't surprised by the return of the raccoons. He doesn't mind sharing a bit of his food with them but doesn't like the idea of their sharp little teeth digging into his toes.

He sits by himself staring into the fire. He steadily consumes more rye, Coke, chips and chocolate bar, necessarily in that order. The raccoons never return, they must have found more interesting campsites to raid. Jeff misses them, he is lonely. The junk food is finished by the time the third log is burning down. He looks at how much rye is left. Not much. He pours himself one last drink. He looks at it. He promises the cup that it's the last drink he is having in a very long time. Maybe ever. He's desperate to do important things in his life. He knows he can't do them unless he stays clean and sober.

Most of all he knows he has to win Monica back. He wants that more than anything. He drains his drink down his throat. He pours the remaining few ounces of rye onto the fire. The flames roar high briefly to accentuate his promise to himself. He watches the flames die down soon after. He stands up and weaving slightly, he undoes the fly of his pants. He then releases a long stream of urine into the dying fire. It hisses and sizzles. He staggers slowly to his lonely, waiting sleeping bag.

Chapter Twenty-One

He awakes the next morning. He's not hung over though. He's still a little drunk. Beer never does that, the hard stuff usually does, if you drink enough of it anyway. Jeff lies in his sleeping bag. Correction, one leg is in the bag, the rest of his body is on the plastic floor of the tent beside the sleeping bag. He straightens the bag out and stretches out on top of it. He can hear the crackle of a fire nearby and the clanging of some dishes. He then hears the laughter of some campers. The campground is starting another summer's day. It's a pleasant little buzz he's got going. So he is almost in a good mood.

Unfortunately, it accompanies a very empty grumbling stomach. He's hungry and he has nothing to eat. At least he's pretty sure there are no chips or chocolate bar left. He tries to remember if he has any booze left. Nope. He vaguely remembers pouring out the rest of it on the fire. The only other time he had ever seen booze poured on a fire like that was when he was a Boy Scout on a big group camping trip and one of the Scout leaders poured the rest of his liquor onto the fire to impress his young troops before breakfast. Back to the task at hand, it is the last day of his epic journey. It should have been the most exciting day. But instead of course it is the very worst. Oh well, he'll get to Tom's place and take it from there.

He wonders how long it will take Monica to get back to Ottawa. Maybe he'll write her a long letter. Maybe he won't. All he knows is right now he wants to eat. Better get packed and hit the road. Thankfully there is a promising looking restaurant less than a mile after he leaves the campground. He orders steak and eggs. He figures he deserves to treat himself. The waitress serving him is a super cute little blonde. Jeff wonders if she is flirting with him or is just treating him the same way she treats all her paying customers. He can never tell the difference. Hell, does any guy ever understand any girl? Probably not.

He sips his coffee trying not to be too obvious as he checks out her sweet ass while she is leaning over the table across from him to clear some dishes. Ya he'll survive. There's plenty of fish in the sea as they say. But... unfortunately his buzz is fading fast and he's starting to feel sorry for himself again. Damn! Why do emotions always get in the way? Wendy (according to her name tag) flashes her friendly smile at him as she tells him to enjoy his food as she drops the plate in front of him. Sure he's interested in Wendy (her sweet ass anyway) but right now he's much more interested in the steaming steak and eggs. He digs in. Damn it's going down good.

Wendy refills his coffee with another one of those friendly smiles. Or is it a flirtatious one? What the hell's the difference? Oh well, no sense worrying about that right now. It is another beautiful day out. Jeff see's from the clock on the wall that it is ten a.m.. He figures it shouldn't take him more than another four hours to get to Tom's place. He knows Tom won't mind that he's a day or two late, but he hopes he's not too upset. He's only getting one worker in the deal. He can probably hire a local person if he has to. Jeff finishes every morsel on his plate. He drains his coffee. He heads to the cash register where Wendy is just saying bye and have a terrific day to an elderly couple. Jeff hands her fifteen dollars. She rings it in the cash and hands him his change. Jeff says, "No you keep the change, you gave great service to go with the great food."

She beams a bright smile, "Well thank you that is so kind. You have yourself a terrific day."

Jeff smiles as warmly as he's capable, "Ya thanks, you too!" He heads to the door carrying his helmet. He hits the highway with very mixed feelings. He feels good, a little light headed but has a full and settled stomach. It's so cool to be riding in the mountains and be almost back in Canada. But he's still in an almost complete state of shock that he has lost his passenger. It sure is nice though to be finally off the big highways. Motorcycles are meant to be leaned into high speed curves, not just pointed straight and fighting off the urge to fall asleep from the monotony. It will be so cool to be touring all over British Columbia on his days off for the rest of the summer. If only his baby was going to be doing it with him. Ahhh fuck fuck fuck.

The Canadian border is right in front of him finally. Well he sure had an interesting week of adventure in the big old United States of America. He made a couple of real nice friends in Pete and Issy. And he lost his damn girlfriend. He pulls up to the waiting Canadian border guard. This guard was short with glasses and a real serious look on his face. Showing him his passport Jeff says, "It sure is nice to be getting back to Canada where I belong."

The guard doesn't even attempt a smile. He looks over Jeff, then his bike very suspiciously. "Are you bringing back anything to declare?"

"No sir, not one thing."

The guard looks like he doesn't believe him, but hands the passport back, "Very good, have a nice day."

Jeff puts his helmet on, kicks it in gear, pops the clutch, and enters British Columbia. He says out loud to the wind, "Ya, you too asshole!" Jeff feels a sudden sense of elation. He did it! He's in British Columbia. As far as he's concerned he just may never leave.

He's felt it was his destiny now for years, ever since he first fell in love with the Gatineau Hills outside of Ottawa. He had then looked in awe to the real mountains of Canada. And he's finally here! Ya! To hell with Monica. He wants a girl that wants him. And if she thinks she can do better, well Fuck Her! He'll show her, he'll become rich and famous and have a totally bodacious babe for a wife.

Jeff looks up again at the towering mountain peaks for the millionth time. He smiles sadly and says to himself. Ya right! If only it were that easy. Who does he think he's kidding? He's totally crazy about Monica. She's the only babe he ever wants.

Our journey is almost done. It began with Jeff, so it must end with Jeff.

His confusion and depression of the last twenty-four hours is beginning to lift. This time when he looks up at the surrounding peaks he notices a hawk is hovering high above. Or is it an eagle? He has no idea. He wants to know. There is so much that Jeff wants to learn. He is getting this strong sensation that he has finally come home. This is where he belongs, amongst the mountains and the forests. He cannot believe how beautiful the forest is.

As the highway winds its way through the surrounding trees and mountains Jeff's mind goes back to the start of this life changing journey that began only one week ago. He remembers the feeling of intense exultation as they were first leaving Ottawa. He just knew from there that he had set a course that he was never going back on. Ah but that sure wasn't how his partner felt. No, Monica had been unsure of things right from the beginning. It just goes to show that you can only control yourself. No matter how close you feel to the next person they will always have their own mind to make up.

But after that first little hiccup at the phone booth on that first morning things started to really gel. That first dinner they had, then making love in the tent after. The feeling of ecstasy and freedom he had that first night was unbelievable. If only he could maintain that feeling forever. But of course he can't. Life is supposed to be full of ups and downs. If you were never down you would never have any appreciation for when you're up. Jeff then thinks about his emotions going through Sault Ste. Marie, the birthplace of his father. He glances to the sky above. He wonders if his dad is up there looking down on him, sharing this moment with him. No probably not, but it's a nice thought nonetheless. Then it was the apprehension of entering the States. The bit of fear he had turned out to be unwarranted. The States welcomed them both with open arms. Thanks mostly of course to Pete and Issy.

He didn't get their contact info in Seattle but he knows Monica has it. He's for sure going to give them a call. Sure, it was Pete's weed that got him in trouble but he only has himself to blame. Besides for Monica, he had no real close friends. That was the same with Pete, he's pretty sure. Close friends are really hard to find, one's worth keeping anyway. And Jeff decided he wanted to keep them. Yep he's going to visit Seattle real soon.

Then there's Monica. He'll never forget how scared the poor girl was when she got that speeding ticket. He laughs at that one. Then there was Pete acting like the hero trying to rescue them, only to get shit by the trooper. He laughs again. What about the horses and buffalo. He bets that was the highlight of the trip for his baby. Thank God there is still such natural beauty in the world. How could any zoo ever replicate that scene, or experience? He just knows the four of them will remember that glorious day for the rest of their lives.

And then there is this idea of the world changing charity that they were talking about starting. Jeff clenches his teeth in determination. That just might have been the main purpose of this trip. To bring together the four people who are going to change this world. Not so much change it, as preserve it. Jeff just knows it will all be destroyed if things continue along this path of reckless growth and consumption. Hell, everyone knows that, how could they not? That of course make him think of the emotions that he had in the battlefield at The Little Bighorn. How is it possible that this amazing thing called the human race can still be so intent on destroying each other? Can they not see that there can only be one conclusion if that mentality doesn't stop? How can we be so smart, yet so stupid, or dumbasses as Issy would say. Damn she is as sensible as she is gorgeous. And Monica is right that we would be taking most, if not all the amazing and innocent animals with us. That brings him back to Monica.

Monica. She is the most incredible and beautiful person he has ever even heard of. Not physical beauty, sure she's gorgeous. But there's lots of gorgeous girls out there. Even some more gorgeous than her, though don't tell her he said that. He smiles again. Yes he's totally infatuated with her. What a dummy for letting her down. Poor girl, she must be so sad heading home on that bus all alone. She's probably crying right this minute.

That decides it then. He has no choice but to win her back. They belong together and they are going to be together. It's her birthday today, he keeps forgetting that. Shit! Poor girl is spending her eighteenth birthday on the bus alone. He's going to make all of this up to her eventually. He just has to figure out how. He crosses a bridge over a small river. My God this place is beautiful! No wonder that is the province's slogan, Beautiful British Columbia. He just knows he can convince Monica to come back here. She belongs in the mountains and the wilderness even more than he does.

Jeff passes a sign that says Penticton 35 Kilometers Kelowna 45 Kilometers. It is the most beautiful sign he has ever seen. It was at this very moment that something quite wonderful happens. Jeff has a revelation that will change his life forever. It is very simple yet extremely powerful. Dreams Do Come True Ever since he was ten years old and started really thinking about his place on this Planet Earth Jeff has told himself over and over again that absolutely anything is possible. Now as an adult he finally understands what that means.

It had been his dream for many years to come here to British Columbia, and for the past year he has been obsessed about it. Now he's finally here and he just knows this is where he is meant to be. Sure, Monica isn't with him, but that was all his own fault. He had full control of that and he blew it. He knows she belongs with him here and he knows that she will come back to him. Nothing can stop him from getting what he wants. As long as he works towards it, and more importantly, is smart about it, there is nothing he cannot do. Nothing he cannot achieve.

Monica made it easy for him. If he gives up drugs he can have her, simple as that. But there is much more than that he can also have. Along with dreams, he believes in fate. And it was definitely fate that brought them together with Pete and Issy. Jeff just knows that the four of them will accomplish amazing things. The dream Pete was talking about of them ultimately achieving world peace sounds preposterous and juvenile. Yet why not? If they want it bad enough, work hard towards it, and are SMART about it, then it CAN happen. All they have to do is inspire more and more and MORE people to feel the same way and it WILL happen.

The highway climbs up the side of a mountain. He comes up and over the mountain pass and is suddenly greeted by the sight of his destination.

And it is a glorious sight!

Stretched out below him is the most beautiful valley there could ever be. Between two straight lines of high mountain peaks is an oasis of green. He descends toward this lush strip of farm land thinking that this must be what people mean when they think of Paradise, Shangri-La, or Heaven. How else could he describe it?

He passes the town of Penticton and goes along the shore of Lake Okanagan. He smiles as he thinks about Monica's friend Christine wanting to find the mythical Ogo Pogo. Okay some dreams are not meant to be realized. He laughs at his joke. Turning onto Tom's road his excitement level increases. By the time he finds the mail box with Tom's address on it he wants to pee his pants with joy. Instead he yells into his helmet, "Ya Motherfucker You Did It!"

Driving up the dirt lane past the rows of apple trees Jeff thinks of a man who recently died. He also had a dream to change the world. Steve Jobs used his experience at a commune in an apple orchard as the inspiration behind the name of his little computer company. Jeff pulls up in front of the small two story house and shuts the bike off with a flourish. He gets off and removes his helmet. Just then he notices Tom coming around the side of the house.

"Jeff you're finally here lad! It's good to see you." Tom wipes his hand on his jeans and sticks it out.

Jeff takes the hand and gives it a hardy shake, "Hey Tom! Sorry I'm late; I love the looks of this place."

Tom smiles, "Uh, where's Monica? What happened?"

Jeff indicates Monica's empty helmet hanging off the side of the bike, "Well she decided to head back to Ottawa..." He wasn't sure what else to say.

Tom keeps smiling, pats Jeff on the back and points to the shack a hundred feet past the house, "Well that's okay. Why don't you go check out your new home and unpack a bit and meet me back here in a half hour. I'll make us some lunch and you can tell me all about it."

"That sounds great!" Jeff puts the helmet back on, but doesn't do up the strap for the short drive to the shack.

Walking up to the front door he is looking at a little motorcycle sitting beside it. He bends down for a closer look. It's about eight inches high and fourteen inches long, and it's practically a replica of his bike. The black plastic gas tank even has Yamaha written on the side. It doesn't have the luggage rack and it has two exhaust pipes instead of one but Jeff is amazed that otherwise it is an uncanny resemblance of his bike.

Shaking his head in wonder he opens the door.

Jeff is startled to see what looks like a female leaning over the bed. She straightens up and looks at him with a huge smile on her face. She immediately runs to him. And into his arms. He's in shock once again as he embraces her. He has a ton to say, yet none to say. So he just squeezes her tight.

Monica lifts her head from his shoulder with tears streaming down her cheeks. "Hi Jeff did I surprise you?"

Jeff steps back to look at her, "But how?"

She pulls him to the bed and gets him to sit beside her, "Well I changed my mind and caught a bus here instead. Do you like the little bike outside that I got for you?"

"You got that?"

"Ya I was in Butte. I was about to buy my ticket back to Ottawa but first went shopping for a couple of souvenirs. I went to the back of the store and there it was. There were plastic car models in boxes, and kites hanging from the ceiling, but sitting right on the back counter in the middle was your bike." Jeff was silent holding her hands looking with amazement at his dream girl. She continues, "Right then I knew it was a sign. A sign that I could not ignore. I belong with you Jeff, I love you so much." Jeff can only stare, but his mind is happily racing. So she continues some more, "So I bought it of course. And I lucked out on the buses. I caught one to Spokane and was able to catch one from there at about midnight that came right here to Kelowna. I phoned your cousin this morning and he came and got me, and here I am."

Jeff snaps out of it, "My God I love you!" He then gives her the longest and sweetest kiss that either of them could ever remember.

Monica bounces up and down on her bum on the bed, "And guess what? I just got off the phone with Issy and they found Pete's car. It's banged up a little from a fender bender or something, but it's going to be fine. And it even sounds like most of their stuff is still in the trunk. The lesbians are missing but who cares? Isn't that great?"

Jeff has a smile frozen on his face, "That is good news." They enjoy another kiss. Jeff touches her chin softly with his fingers, "Monica?"

"Yes Jeff?"

"Happy Birthday Baby."

THE END

Dear Reader, If you have read my book and enjoyed it I would be happy to hear from you. I am now writing the second novel with these same four main characters. I hope to make it an ongoing series and with some encouragement from yourself it has a better chance of happening. If you would like to email me at "peterscott3000@yahoo.ca" I would be happy to send you an excerpt of the upcoming novel. Thanks, Peter Westaway

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