Sarah retrieved the clothes she had been wearing yesterday from a chair in the corner and put them on slowly. Her head ached and the bright morning sunlight streaming through the bedroom window was only making things worse. She had noticed when she awoke that Christine wasn’t in the room and, listening carefully, she could hear her voice, and her cheerful laughter, coming from downstairs.

Sarah went downstairs. She could smell coffee and that distinctive aroma was something that could always get her moving in the morning, headache or not. It wasn’t just her head that was aching – her whole body seemed to hurt this morning.  This cold was really doing a number on her. Of course, she hadn’t done her immune system any favours by drinking so copiously with Christine on Friday night, but it was something that had been necessary, dammit! It’s not every day that you discover that your marriage is a sham.

Sarah pushed those negative thoughts back out of her mind as she entered the kitchen. Elke was bustling around the kitchen and the smells coming from the stovetop were heavenly to her growling stomach. Sarah was relieved to note that, despite her cold, she was starving.

Christine handed her a hot cup of black coffee as Sarah sat down at the table with her and Gerwin. She had a peculiar look on her face, which contrasted starkly with the cheerful laughter Sarah had just heard as she had been coming down the stairs.

“I think we should probably just head back to Thunder Bay today, Sarah. I doubt we have enough time today to really enjoy the spa, anyway.” Christine looked anxious to leave.

Sarah looked at Christine carefully over her coffee mug. The coffee was wonderfully soothing to her sore throat, but she was distracted by concern about what could have spooked her sister.

“Sure. It looks like the weather has cleared up nicely.” It was true – the sun was shining as brightly as ever and there wasn’t any hint of the fog that had so enveloped everything the day before.

Christine glanced over at Gerwin. “I was just asking Gerwin how long the construction had been going on around here. He said that this road has always been gravel.”

Sarah walked over to the window and just stared outside for a moment. She was positive that the road down to the border was paved all the way. Had they somehow turned off onto another road? That would explain the traffic, or lack thereof.

She turned to Gerwin, “Is this a side road off of the main highway to the border?”

He looked uncomfortable. “Might be. You should probably just drive straight back the way you came. I’m sure you’ll find your way.”

Sarah was sure he was lying, or at least not telling them about something. She just had no idea why on earth he would lie about the road. Before she could ask him about it, Elke came into the room, carrying a platter of eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes. Sarah ate quietly, thinking about all of the strange things she had noticed since they had met Gerwin and Elke. She silently debated with herself whether she should confront the couple, but decided against it, since they had provided such kind and undemanding hospitality. Once she had finished her breakfast she carried her plate into the kitchen and went upstairs to get her bag. Christine followed.

“Something weird is going on here,” Christine whispered to Sarah.

“I know … don’t worry about it. We’ll be out of here in a few minutes and then it’s not our problem.” They quickly tossed their few belongings back into their backpacks and, all packed and ready to go, the two women took deep breaths and went downstairs to say goodbye to their strange hosts. Elke had prepared sandwiches for them for the road.

“You didn’t have to do that. I’m sure we’ll be home before lunchtime,” Sarah protested.

“Never you mind. You never know when you might get a bit of hunger in your belly.”

As Sarah took the sandwiches from Elke, she suddenly felt herself enveloped in the woman’s large embrace.

“Be safe,” Elke whispered in her ear and then abruptly let her go and walked swiftly into the kitchen. Gerwin looked uncomfortable.

“Well, have a nice trip,” he said, not looking them in the eye, “Watch out for strangers.”

Sarah and Christine just looked at each other, mumbled their thanks for the hospitality and quickly walked outside to the car. The Grand Am looked the same as ever, if a bit more dusty than when they had left the city the day before. They tossed their overnight bags into the trunk and got in. Sarah noticed that the gas gauge was hovering just above the line reading E for empty.

“We’ll have to stop at the first gas station we see.”

As they drove off, in the same direction from which they had arrived the night before, Sarah looked back and saw Elke peeking out of the window with what looked like a worried expression on her face.

“What the heck was going on back there?” Sarah said out loud, more confused than ever.

The girls spent the next little while discussing the various things that had bothered them about the couple during their brief stay with them. Besides their seriously rustic living conditions, there was the fact that Gerwin and Elke had seemed so reluctant to discuss their past, and had seemed to be speaking in a different language the night before.

“Maybe they’re here illegally from another country,” suggested Christine with a shrug, “That would explain pretty much everything.”

“Except for the fact that they seemed even weirder just as we were leaving,” insisted Sarah.

She finally let out a slow sigh and decided to drop the subject. The odd couple was behind them now. It wasn’t really any of their business if Gerwin and Elke were in the country illegally. What was starting to concern her now was the fact that this dirt road wasn’t turning into a paved one and she didn’t see anyplace where they could have turned off of the main highway by accident in the fog. She also hadn’t seen any other houses since they left Gerwin and Elke’s cottage twenty-five kilometres back. Given that it was only about a sixty-kilometre drive from Thunder Bay to the border in the first place, they had come quite a distance without passing any traffic, houses, or heck, even a moose!

Sarah didn’t want to panic Christine, so she focussed on the road. To either side she saw only thick forest. In the distance she saw what might have been a big hill or a small mountain. It could have been Mount McKay, another one of Thunder Bay’s landmarks. If so, they must be coming around the back side of it, because Thunder Bay would be visible by now if they were at the front.  It looked vaguely familiar, but not enough so as to provide her with their current location.

It was at that moment that the car decided to sputter and stall. As the car rolled to a stop, Sarah swore under her breath. All she really wanted at that moment was to be back under some warm covers, nursing her cold – she would even have settled for the weirdness of Gerwin and Elke’s house if she could just get some rest. This road trip idea had turned into a complete disaster.

Christine looked worriedly over at Sarah. Sarah’s face was flushed, and not just from anger at the car. It was obvious to her that Sarah was at a breaking point – had been for the last few days, in fact. Somehow, luck was just not going their way at all. She put the back of her hand to Sarah’s forehead.

“Jesus, Sarah, you’re burning up. You shouldn’t have been driving. You should’ve told me, I would’ve driven.”

“Well, it’s too late now. This car isn’t going anywhere without some gas,” Sarah snapped irritably.

“How about you just lay here in the car and rest for a bit? Grab the emergency blanket and curl up in the back seat. I’ll take a walk and see if I can track someone down or maybe even find a gas station.”

Sarah felt guilty about letting her little sister go off by herself, but had to agree that she wasn’t in very good shape herself. She shrugged and let Christine lead her to the back seat and cover her with the emergency blanket. It wasn’t the most comfortable bed, but at this point she wasn’t in any position to complain. She just needed some rest. Sarah couldn’t remember having felt this sick in a long time.

Just before Christine started off, Sarah had a thought.

“Wait a minute,” she said, “I‘m such a dumb-ass. My cell phone is in the glove compartment. We should be close enough to the city for a signal now. Try that first, before walking out on your own.”

Christine retrieved the cell phone from the glove box and turned it on. Sarah had been keeping it off since Friday, just in case Paul had tried to call. There was no signal at all, not even a single bar. Christine tried it at various points around the car without any success. Finally, Sarah gave up and agreed to let Christine start walking down the road.

“Make sure you take the phone with you though.  Try it every so often to see if you hit a good spot with a signal.”

With that last piece of advice, Sarah lay across the back seat of the car, curled up under the blanket, and fell fast asleep.  She was snoring before Christine was even out of view of the car.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Sarah awoke, she was disoriented. There was darkness all around her and she was shivering in the cold. It took her a few moments to realize that she was still lying in the back seat of her car.  It was pitch black outside and the temperature in the car had dropped substantially without the sun shining on it. She must have been asleep for hours!

Where was Christine?!  She should have been back by now!

Sarah jumped up and struggled her way out of the car. It was even colder outside and the brisk air did a quick job of waking her up the rest of the way. She could barely see anything by the light of the quarter moon, so she returned to the car and retrieved her flashlight from the glove compartment. That was one of the few good things her father had taught her – always have full emergency supplies in your car at all times. She shone the flashlight down the dark empty road. There was no sign of Christine, or anyone else for that matter. How could she have let her little sister go off by herself? They really had no idea where they were and there could be all sorts of dangers out there. Come to think of it, the prison was located right on the side of the same highway that led to the border.

‘Good job Sarah, send your sister out to be raped or murdered!’ she silently berated herself.

She called Christine’s name out into the darkness for a few minutes before stopping herself, realizing that if there were any unsavoury characters out in the night, they’d be able to hear her too. She quickly got back into the car and locked all of the doors. She wrapped her blanket around herself tightly and thought carefully about what to do next. The car, in its current state, was pretty useless. It wouldn’t be moving anywhere anytime soon without some gas.

Suddenly, she had an idea. She scrambled over the front seat and tried the radio. There was nothing but static. Now that was strange.  Sarah knew for a fact that there was radio reception all the way from Thunder Bay to the border. There should still be something, even if they had turned off of the main road. Hmmm. The radio wasn’t going to help. What would? In frustration, Sarah put her head into her hands and slumped forward. The horn beeped momentarily into the night.

Maybe someone would hear the horn. It couldn’t hurt to try. Even if there were people lurking out there in the dark night, she had the doors locked. She beeped the horn again briefly – then again. Finally, she just laid into it and left it blasting into the darkness for several minutes, until she could hear the tone of the horn starting to change, becoming lower and slower, then she sat back into her seat and took a deep breath to stop herself from screaming out in frustration.

‘Oh boy,’ she thought, ‘I should be careful not to kill the battery. With the luck I’ve had over the last few days, Christine would come back with gas and then we wouldn’t even have the battery power to start the damn thing!’

Tears of frustration welled in her eyes. Why did everything have to be so hard lately? It seemed like her life had just turned to shit over the past week. It hadn’t even been a week. It had all started on Friday morning as she arrived at work.

 

    Her boss had immediately seen that she was ill and had given her a stern warning about coming into work sick. Normally, Sarah would be glad to go home and sleep through the weekend to get rid of her cold, but she had used up all of her sick days and didn’t have any vacation days left. That meant that she would have to take unpaid time off. That would certainly make her husband, Paul, unhappy.

    Paul had been off work for the last six months, having been laid off from a local lumber mill. Finding another job for him hadn’t been as easy as they had hoped. The job market in Thunder Bay had been suffering for the last decade, due to a lumber trade dispute that Canada had been in with the United States. Most of Thunder Bay’s job market was dependant on raw material industries, so now there were too many unemployed people and not enough jobs for them. 

    Money had been seriously tight for them recently and it was beginning to take a toll on her marriage. Taking an unpaid day off of work was something she couldn’t afford – financially or emotionally. Heading home, she dreaded the inevitable confrontation with Paul.

    Sarah had pulled into the driveway and gone quietly into the house. These days it was Paul’s habit to sleep late. If she woke him, he would be cranky and even less pleasant to deal with. 

    She had frozen as she entered the house. Through the door to the kitchen, she had been able to see a woman looking into her fridge. It was her neighbour, Judy.

 

Sarah was startled out of her remembrances by a knock on the window beside her.

 

 

Read Chapter 3 next Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 . . .

 

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