What Passes For Normal

Chapter 1

In the minutes before they hit a girl with their car, Teddy Aiken and his mother Neea were driving around the city trying to buy a pair of shoes.

They'd been to a strip mall out in Langford. Teddy had called a store there and been told that they had the specific runners he'd been looking for and, yes, they had his size. This was kind of a small miracle because these particular ones were back-ordered in every store Teddy had found online and he couldn't even get them from the manufacturer because they were, technically, last year's shoes.

Neea had agreed to leave work early, come and pick him up after his last class at Songhees College and drive him out there. When they got there, however, they found that the staff at the store had actually put aside a pair of nine-and-a-halfs for him and they didn't have size elevens or even eleven-and-a-halfs or ten-and-a-halfs, which maybe could have fit. They didn't give much of an explanation for the mix-up and were barely even apologetic for making them drive out there for nothing.

Neea had pointed optimistically at another style of runners on the wall of shoes. "These are pretty close, Ted!"

Teddy looked over at the shoes and grunted his disapproval. They'd left the store and walked to the car in silence. Then, as if to mock Teddy's sadness, rain had begun to fall from the grey sky above.

As his mother drove, Teddy sat in the passenger seat of their old Honda, feeling miserable. "How does someone hear 'eleven' and think 'nine-and-a-half'? How is that even possible?"

He pushed aside his disappointment and tried to find another store with his shoes in stock. He searched on his phone and made a few short calls until he got another lead.

"She said to try Foot Fetish," he said to Neea, quickly looking up the number as he spoke. Neea turned on the wipers as the rain got heavier.

"That place with the big foot?" she asked. "On Johnson Street?"

"Yeah, that one," he said, waiting for someone to answer.

"Hi. Um, I'm looking for a pair of Neo-Glide R12s in grey and green. Yeah, those... size eleven... Really? You're sure? OK... No, we're coming right now... Oh, OK. We're nearly there. Thanks!"

"They've got 'em!" he said, checking the time on his phone. "But they're closing in... God! Eleven minutes!"

• • • •

I turn away from P. L. and Ty into the downpour. Ty calls out to me from the sheltered doorway, saying, "I'll tell him you were looking for him!"

On the street, people are rushing along talking into their phones about how annoying the rain is, despite them being protected from it by their pricey umbrellas and outerwear. They swerve to avoid me, this small scary girl who can't be bothered with an umbrella glaring at them from under the hood of a drenched, over-sized thrift-store parka.

Also, I'm ploughing a path straight through them. I could go around them, dodge to one side or the other as I pass, but I'm just not in the mood.

Actually, I'm starting to freak out. We've been going with no sleep for, like, forty hours or more and I'm about to crash super hard, and Kodi picks now of all times to completely vanish? He was supposed to meet me at the parking lot on Fisgard. We were going to get pot-stickers. Gotta eat, he always says, even if you don't feel like it. After that we were supposed to go to Switch's for more meth. I couldn't really care less about the pot-stickers right now but I was there on time anyway and I ended up waiting an hour and finally gave up to go look for him. Why does he pull this shit?

Damn it, Kodi, where are you? Are you with Bryn?

• • • •

"Don't be too upset if this doesn't work out, OK?" said Neea, trying to prepare Teddy for disappointment. "Your other shoes will do fine until we can get the ones you want."