What Passes For Normal

Chapter 27

"You brought Jenga?" said Teddy, leaning against his mother's old Honda as Jello came down the driveway of his house carrying an overstuffed backpack, two plastic grocery bags and a Jenga box.

"I like Jenga!" said Jello defensively.

He threw everything into the open hatch of the car and got into the back seat as Teddy closed the hatch. C. J. was sitting in the front passenger seat looking at her phone.

"It says the Coquihalla is clear all the way to Kamloops and there's no snow in the forecast. Traffic will be rough through Delta and Surrey. Probably pretty heavy until we get past Chilliwack."

"We're stopping for coffee, right?" said Jello.

It was ten after six on a Thursday morning. They were going to catch the 7:00 a.m. ferry from Swartz Bay to Tsawwassen, south of Vancouver, then bypass the big city as much as possible before heading up the Coquihalla Highway to Kamloops. Expected travel time was about six hours, getting them to Kamloops not too long after noon if all went well. That would give them, hopefully, enough time to find Darwin and convince her to come back to Victoria with them before they had to turn around and head back. The last ferry back from Tsawwassen was at 9:00 p.m. so they'd have to leave Kamloops before 4:00 to safely catch it and get home. Teddy figured they could always crash at his dad's place in North Vancouver if they were too late for the ferry.

Teddy pulled away from Jello's house wondering what kind of insanity he was getting himself into. He'd spoken to Neea first thing in the morning and she'd given him an update on his grandfather's condition. Ukki was doing surprisingly well and was impatient to get back home.

"Actually he's driving the nurses and doctors a little bit crazy," Neea had said, laughing. "And he's completely sure he's going to be all better before for ice-fishing season is over!"

It was good to hear her sounding happy again. With all her news from Finland she hadn't asked many questions about Darwin, accepting Teddy's vague answers enough that he hadn't been forced to stretch the truth too much. As far as Neea knew, Darwin was still at their house and everything was just fine. Teddy was determined to make it the truth.

"How do I plug my phone into this thing?" C. J. asked, looking at the car's stereo.

"You can't," said Teddy. "It's just a radio and CD player. Old school."

"What? But I crafted the perfect playlist!"

"Uh, my Mom has some CDs in the glove compartment. I think there's some Coldplay."

"No," she said.

From a pocket in her backpack C. J. pulled out a black cylindrical thing with wires attached. She shoved it into the car's cigarette lighter and plugged a wire into her phone, then turned on the car's FM radio and dialled in a specific frequency. She hit play on her phone and the first chiming guitar chords from her playlist poured out of the speakers.

"Voilà!" she said. "I am the goddess of tech."

The line-up of cars at the ferry terminal at Swartz Bay was huge, but the lady in the ticket booth said that they would most likely get on the 7:00 sailing. If they didn't, it would be an hour wait for the next ferry, which could mess up their entire plan. Teddy pulled the Honda into place at the end of a long row of cars. They had time to grab coffees in the ferry terminal but came right back to the car to anxiously wait.

After watching hundreds of other cars board the big, white ferry, and being convinced they weren't going to make it, it was finally their turn. Teddy followed the car ahead up the ramp. "Oh god, never driven onto a ferry before!" he said nervously. The ferry was one of the huge ones, holding hundreds of cars and more than a thousand passengers. It would be packed full today.