The Reunion by Lyndon W. Bournon
THE REUNION
Joe and Vera were getting ready to take a trip. They were planning on driving from their home in Kemnay, Manitoba to London, Ontario. The journey would probably take three days, as the distance was around 2000 kilometres.
Joe and his wife Vera would share the driving, but they planned on only driving for ten hours or so each day. Although only in their forties, they certainly preferred to pace themselves rather than arrive somewhere exhausted.
Joe and Vera were both from Manitoba, and were both Metis. Joe’s features, however, showed more of the Cree side of his heritage than Vera’s, but both had dark hair, turning gray. Joe was close to six feet in height and weighed 220 pounds, which was a little more than he figured he should be. Vera, on the other hand, was just under five feet tall, but she, too was a little overweight.
They were going to London because they had recently discovered that Vera’s sister, who she hadn’t seen since they were both small, was living there. Vera and Wilma, her sister, had become separated after their mother died in a car accident. Their father had left the family not long after Wilma – who was the younger daughter – had been born. Both girls had been adopted by new parents, but unfortunately, not together. Vera’s new family raised her in Winnipeg and Wilma’s family lived in London.
Vera had not been able to trace her sister until Wilma answered an ad in the Globe and Mail. Vera had placed the ad on the advice of a family-tracing agency and the idea had paid off. Imagine the mixture of surprise and joy that Vera felt when she received a phone-call from Wilma!
The phone-call had come the previous Wednesday evening. Joe and Vera were sitting at home watching an old episode of Dallas when the phone rang.
“Whoever is phoning at this time?” said Joe.
“I’ll get it,” said Vera. “It’s probably a wrong number.”
But secretly, her heart was racing. Surely it wouldn’t be….
“Hello,” said Vera.
“Hello,” said the voice on the other end. “This is Wilma Tomkins. Who am I speaking to, please?”
For a moment, Vera hadn’t been able to speak. Finally, she managed to say, “This is Vera, your sister. Is that really you, Wilma?”
Both ladies had broken down in tears of joy. Joe had come running into the kitchen.
“Joe – it’s Wilma!” Vera had shouted. Joe had immediately rushed over to his wife and hugged her.
“I’m so happy for you,” he said. “I’ll go back in the other room while you ladies have a talk.
And they had talked, for over two hours. It had been thirty-four years, after all.
Now, a week later, Vera couldn’t believe they were finally on their way. This was going to be the best trip they had ever taken. They set off, and were soon passing under the railway bridge on their way into Brandon, where they needed to drop off a key to Joe’s friend George, who was going to check on the house while they were away.
THE REUNION – CHAPTER 2
Joe and Vera finally left Brandon around noon. They were on their way to London, Ontario to visit Vera’s sister Wilma. The sisters had not seen each other since they had been separately adopted after the death of their mother thirty-four years ago.
As they turned east onto the TransCanada, Joe said, “Not much traffic today, Hon.”
“That’s good,” said Vera. “I hate it when those big trucks keep whipping by one after another.”
By about 1:30 they were passing the Yellowhead intersection just west of Portage La Prairie. They decided to carry on for a bit before stopping for coffee. They eventually pulled in to Nick’s Restaurant at Headingley at 2:30.
“We haven’t had dinner yet,” said Vera. “I guess I’ll have something.”
They each had a burger and fries and a coffee. Joe paid and they went back out to the van – a green 1992 Dodge Caravan.
“Better get some gas,” Joe said.
They gassed up at Canadian Tire and continued down Portage Avenue to the downtown area of Winnipeg.
“I guess we could have taken the Perimeter highway,” said Vera, “but it’s nice to see downtown. We don’t come here often any more.”
As they passed Sherbrooke the traffic began to slow down. It looked like there was a problem ahead. About a hundred yards further down Portage, they could see people running. They seemed to be running towards the middle of the road.
By now, all traffic had come to a complete stop and there didn’t seem to be any cars coming from the other direction. Vera turned down the car radio. Now they could hear yelling. Joe and Vera got out.
“Come on!” said Vera. “Let’s see what’s happened. Maybe we can help.”
Vera was trained in First Aid and had assisted at several road accidents over the past few years. In a crisis, she was calm and able to take control.
They walked quickly down Portage, past half a dozen or so cars, which had stopped ahead of them. There was a small crowd gathered in the centre of the road. Some of the people were bent over a person lying on the ground.
“Can you hear me?” someone was shouting.
“Is anyone else here trained in First Aid?” Vera asked. No one answered. “You, Sir – go telephone for an ambulance, please,” Vera told a tall middle-aged man, “and you, Ma’am, please stay right here in case I need you to fetch something for me…”
It was amazing how quickly people seemed to gratefully accept that someone who knew what they were doing was taking charge of the situation. Joe, meanwhile, was doing his part, by making sure no one tried to drive round the blockage.
The injured person appeared to be a male aged about 25. Although he was breathing, he was not responding to questions. There was a lot of blood soaking he was not his shirt on the lower left side.
THE REUNION CHAPTER 3
The young man who had been injured on Portage Avenue opened his eyes.
“Where am I?” he said.
“You’re lying in the road on Portage Avenue,” said Vera. “Can you remember what happened?” The young man, who looked about nineteen, shook his head slowly and closed his eyes again.
“What’s your name?” Vera asked, knowing it was important to keep an injured person awake. The young man opened his eyes again.
“Roger,” he said quietly, “Roger Bates.”
Just then, the ambulance arrived. Vera quickly passed on what little information she had and then she and Joe walked back to the van.
“Did anyone say what had happened?” Vera asked.
“Sort of,” said Joe. “One guy told me that the young fellow was crossing the road and suddenly dropped down. Do you think he had a seizure, maybe?”
“I don’t know,” said Vera. “There was a lot of blood on his one side. Very strange.”
The traffic began to move. The ambulance was leaving. Before too long, Joe and Vera were heading east on the TransCanada outside Winnipeg. Their next stop would be Kenora, where they planned on having coffee, if not supper. Kenora, Ontario is an incredibly beautiful place at any time of the year and, although there is road that by-passes it, both Joe and Vera wanted to go into town.
At around seven o’ clock, they pulled up outside the Kenwood Hotel, which they knew had a decent restaurant. They got out of the van and went inside. They chose a table near the front window. A waitress came to the table. She was in her forties, with long, dark hair that was starting to turn grey. She was a little on the heavy side and about 5’4” tall. She smiled and said, “Hello, Joe – what are you doing in this part of the world?”
“D-Dolores!” Joe eventually managed to blurt out. “Why, I haven’t seen you in years!”
You’d better not have done, Vera thought to herself. Although she knew Joe loved her, she had never got used to the fact that for some reason women always seemed to like him a little too easily.
“This is my wife, Vera,” Joe said, trying to sound normal. His face, Vera noticed, was a little red.
“You’re married?” said the waitress incredulously, “Well, well, well! Congratulations! Can I get you both coffee?”
“Yes, we’d like coffee, wouldn’t we, Hon?” said Joe quickly.
“I’ll be right back,” said Dolores, brightly.
There was an awkward silence. Joe pretended to look out the window. Finally, Vera said, “So where do you know her from?” To Joe, the temperature seemed to have dropped about fifty degrees.
“Well, I, ah –” Joe began, but, fortunately, just at that moment Dolores arrived with the coffee. The phrase temporary stay of execution entered Joe’s head.
“So, where do you know this guy from?” Vera said, smiling.
“Hasn’t he told you?” said Dolores in a surprised way. “He’s my step-brother!”
Dolores moved away to serve some customers who had just come in. “I’ll be back in a minute!” she said, as she was leaving.
“How come you never told me you had a sister?” Vera said.
“Vera, I’m sorry, but you see I only found we were related about five years ago.”
“What’s that got to do with it?” asked Vera.
Joe sighed. He took a deep breath….
THE REUNION CHAPTER 4
By the time Joe had stumbled through his story, things didn’t look so good any more. Suddenly, the trip he and Vera were taking, which had seemed more like a mission than a vacation, looked liked becoming a miserable time. Joe knew from bitter experience that Vera’s ability to take someone else’s version of events at face value was limited, to say the least. Once she had made up her mind what the real story was, that was it. Joe had once been late returning from the supermarket and was unable to convince Vera that he hadn’t been spending time talking to the new girl at the check-out (who hadn’t even been working that day!). A friend of Joe’s, who had majored in Psychology, once said to Joe that women who have a hard time trusting had often had a bad experience early in life and Joe figured it was all tied up with her dad leaving and her mom getting killed. That didn’t mean it was easy to deal with, though. Especially when, in his heart of hearts Joe knew that, on this occasion, Vera would be less than human if she wasn’t at least a bit upset over what had happened several years earlier.
It had all started around the time Joe was looking at the possibility of taking a job in Dryden. Dryden is east of Kenora, well on the way to Thunder Bay. The job was in construction and was a fairly long-term project, so Joe and Vera had discussed whether he should take the position and they would move to Dryden. Vera wasn’t keen and she also was even less enthusiastic about the idea of Joe going ahead to begin the job and finding them a place to live. At the same time, Joe received notice that he was going to be laid off from his existing job and his desire to be working made him really force his opinion on Vera that he must take the job in Dryden. It would be all right, he had assured her.
But it hadn’t been all right. In the two weeks before Joe left, they had had one argument after another. When Joe left on a Sunday afternoon to drive to the hotel in Dryden where he’d booked a room, ready to start work the next day, Vera said, “Go – do what you want! And don’t come back!” She hadn’t meant it, of course; it was anger born of fear. But it had hurt Joe and he was feeling sorry for himself and he thought that he, too, had had enough. It felt good to be out on the highway, with a new beginning about to happen. It was a good job there were no kids, he thought, and the house could be sold or Vera could buy him out….
By the time Joe reached Kenora, it was supper-time. Joe was hungry and he stopped at The Kenricia for something to eat. The food tasted really good and the waitress was friendly and efficient. There weren’t many customers and she stopped and chatted for a while. They got on easily and, when Joe looked at his bill he saw that she had written, “Have a nice trip” and signed her name – Dolores – and below it had put, “705-887-9768”. Hmm, he thought. Joe was flattered, but he didn’t give the matter too much thought, other than to say, “Thanks,” as he paid his bill and to flash her a knowing smile, or what he thought might pass as one. He had an excellent memory for phone numbers, but he did think to write this one down in the back of his diary before he set off. Then his thoughts returned to the future in general and his new job in particular. He didn’t think about the waitress again, at least, not much, until he was relaxing in his room at The Victor Hotel in Dryden later that evening. Conflicting thoughts were battering the inside of his head, but he picked up the phone and dialled.
“Hello,” said the female voice on the other end.
“Hi,” said Joe.
“Hey – you made it ok!” Dolores said.
“You recognised my voice?” Joe said, surprised.
“Well….I was kinda hoping you might call,” Dolores said, in a playful voice.
“Well, here I am,” said Joe. “So, do you ever get to Dryden?”
“As a matter of fact, I do,” said Dolores. “My Aunt Vi lives there, and I’ve been to see her quite a few times. She’s my mom’s only sister and, since Mom passed away I’m the only one who visits. I was planning on going to see her next weekend.”
There was a pause. Finally, Joe said, “Well, maybe we could get together and have a beer.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Dolores.
adult upgrading
breadline shoes
story continued
David's poems
Send E-Mail to: lyndonbournon@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2002 lyndon waterman bournon. All Rights Reserved