The next day
started out well, but before long it turned into “one of those days!” I woke up, as I often did, with Josh curled
tightly around me. He was still dead to
the world and he looked so peaceful that I hated to wake him up. I reached down and gently shook his shoulder.
“Josh, it’s time
to get up,” I said.
“Mmmph,” was his
unintelligible reply.
“Come kiddo,
we’ve got to get a move on. We have a
lot of miles to cover today.”
He finally began
to stir. He untangled himself from me
and stretched out his arms before even opening his eyes. “Morning Dad,” he mumbled and then hugged me
tightly.
“Morning son,” I
replied and hugged him back and then ruffled his hair. We were both lying there being lazy, enjoying
the close physical contact when an enormous crash of thunder made us both just
about jump out of our skins.
“Holy shit that
was loud!” Josh exclaimed.
“No kidding,” I
replied and scrambled out of bed. I went
to the window and pulled back the curtains.
Josh moved in beside me and we both stood there gape mouthed. The sky was an angry dark gray colour and the
rain started coming down in sheets.
Brilliant lightning flashed across the sky every few seconds and the
rumble of thunder was nearly constant.
“Oh boy, that’s going to fun to drive through.”
“Maybe we should
stay here until it stops,” Josh said hesitantly.
“Tell you what,
we don’t have to check out of the motel until
“Sounds like a
plan, but I’ve got to drain the snake first,” Josh replied with a grin before
scurrying off to the bathroom.
I just laughed
and shook my head before following along behind him. After taking care of our business, we climbed
back onto my bed and switched on the TV.
“Tell you what,”
Josh said as he curled up against my side and rested his head on my
shoulder. “You can watch all the TV you
want, but I’m going back to sleep.”
“Go for it
kiddo. I need to have you well rested to
keep me alert. We have a very long day
ahead of us,” I replied.
“You should get
some more sleep too,” Josh said with a touch of concern in his voice.
“I’ll be ok
bud. If I sleep too much, I’ll just get
a headache.”
“You’re not
getting headaches again are you?”
“No, not like
before anyway. Just the occasional
migraine. Don’t worry Joshy, I’m fine.”
“You better be fine,”
Josh said in mock seriousness. “Promise
me that you’ll tell me if you start getting headaches like before.”
“I promise. Now, get some rest bud.”
“I will. I love you Dad,” Josh said warmly.
“I love you too,”
I replied, wrapping my arm around him, pulling him in close. Amazingly, despite the repeated boom of
thunder rolling overhead, Josh fell asleep within minutes. I turned on the TV and got to watch it for
about ten minutes before another massive flash of lightning knocked out the
power. With nothing else to do, I set
the alarm clock in my cell phone to wake us up at
A little over 90
minutes later, my cell phone began chirping away. It was, once again, time to get up. I carefully untangled myself from Josh and
went over to the window. The power was
still out in the motel and it was still pouring rain outside but it wasn’t
quite as bad. It was actually possible
to see through the rain so I decided it was time to get moving.
I went back over
to the bed and looked down at Josh. He
was still sleeping peacefully and I could hear the familiar sound of his soft
snoring. I reached down and gently
brushed my hand over his brow and ruffled his hair. I decided to let him sleep while I had a
quick shower.
Unfortunately,
there were no windows in the bathroom so all the light I had was whatever would
come in through the open bathroom door.
Other than having a hard time telling the difference between the bottle
of shampoo and the bottle of conditioner, it was surprisingly easy to shower in
the dark. I had just climbed out and was
about to turn off the taps when Josh made his way into the bathroom.
“My turn,” he
said in a surprisingly awake voice as he peeled off his briefs and climbed into
the shower.
“Shampoo’s on the
left and conditioner’s on the right,” I told him.
“Thanks,” Josh
replied with a chuckle. “How long’s the
power been out?”
“It went out just
after you fell asleep. I wound up
sleeping too,” I replied as I dried myself off and decided to skip trying to
shave in the dark. By the time I
finished brushing my teeth and flossing, Josh was climbing out of the shower.
“Where are we
going to get breakfast with no electricity?
Will restaurants be open?” Josh
asked as he toweled off.
“I’m not
sure. I’m not sure how wide an area is
blacked out. That’s one hell of a storm
out there so you never know.”
“It doesn’t look
as bad now,” Josh replied.
“I hope it gets
better still. This weather could really
slow us down. Tomorrow is pretty much a
rest and relaxation day in
“Good idea. I know exactly where they are too. They’re in the duffel bag on the floor of the
back seat,” Josh said after spitting out a mouthful of toothpaste. “I should call my mom today and see how she
is.”
“Good plan bud,”
I replied.
We both threw on
our clothes and packed up our gear. It
was still raining cats and dogs so I used the remote entry device on the Jeep
to unlock the doors and then made a mad dash to retrieve our rain gear. Thankfully the Jeep was parked right outside
the door and, despite the driving rain, I didn’t get all that wet in the
process.
Clad in our rain
gear, we exited the motel room, tossed our overnight bags in the back and
boarded the Jeep. The rain and the
howling wind made for a miserable day. It
was far colder than it should have been for June 27th and the
visibility was poor. I was thankful that
most others had decided to stay off the road.
The power
appeared to be out in most of the city of
“Cool,” Josh
replied enthusiastically. “I’ve really
wanted to try one of those.”
When most people
think about military combat rations, they usually picture something which can
only be called a pitiful excuse for food.
The reality, at least as far as Canadian Forces IMPs are concerned, is
quite the opposite. IMPs are actually
quite tasty and provide quite a bit of filling, high energy food. “Check with Bitchin Betty to see if there’s a
rest stop coming up on the highway and we’ll pull over and warm up a couple of
breakfast IMPs.”
“Sure Dad,” Josh
replied and went to work on querying the GPS to locate the nearest highway rest
stop.
The truth be
known, IMPs can be eaten cold and really aren’t that bad that way. Each IMP main course item in a foil “boil in
bag” pouch, a second foil pouch containing a desert item such as fruit along
with a chocolate bar, crackers or cookies, a side dish such as rice, noodles or
mashed potatoes (cereal in the case of a breakfast menu), powdered drink mix,
coffee, tea, various condiments, a book of matches, some napkins, a spoon and
some gum. My favorite breakfast meal
packs were the franks and beans and the sausage and hashbrowns. Before leaving for the trip, I had picked up
two cases of IMPs, one containing dinner/lunch menus and the other containing
breakfast menus.
“Ok, it looks
like there’s a picnic area just off the highway about 5 kilometers from here,”
Josh said. “I hope they have a picnic
shelter!”
“I hope so too,
otherwise we’ll end up firing up the camp stove and heating these things at the
back door of the Jeep. Thank God we have
good rain gear!”
The rain was not
letting up in the least. I had the
wipers running at full tilt and they were just barely keeping up. The wind was rocking the Jeep back and forth
and buffeting us around on the road. I
had the four-wheel-drive engaged and we were still occasionally
hydroplaning. Sure enough, a couple of
moments later, the GPS instructed me to take the exit off the highway. As we pulled into the rest area, we both
breathed a sigh of relief when we saw the large picnic shelter.
“Looks like we
get to stay dry,” Josh said with a laugh.
“Looks that way
kiddo.”
I parked the Jeep
right next to the shelter and we jumped out.
The rain was coming down so hard that we had to grab a table near the
center of the shelter to stay dry. I
opened the back door of the Jeep and hauled out the Coleman stove and a bottle
of propane while Josh dug out two breakfast IMPs.
“What’s in those
two, Josh?” I asked.
“They both say
they contain ‘Sausage and Hashbrowns’.”
“Oh good – that’s
the best breakfast meal,” I replied.
I fired up the
stove and filled a pot with water “We probably could have held this out in the
rain for a moment and saved a couple of bottles of water,” I remarked dryly.
“Rainwater might
not be good to drink,” Josh replied.
“It’s ok; these
IMPs are sealed in foil packs. You can
cook them in muddy water if you have to.”
I took one of the IMPs from Josh and tore open the bag. “Here’s how you eat these,” I said as I
emptied the contents onto the picnic table.
The foil packs containing the main course and the desert were packed in
cardboard boxes. I tore open the larger
cardboard box and removed the thick foil pouch containing the sausage and
hashbrowns. “Take out your main course
but don’t rip up the box – you’ll need it to hold the food when it comes out of
the hot water,” I instructed.
Josh followed
suit and removed his foil pack and we stuck both of them into the boiling
water. “These’ll be done in about 10
minutes,” I said. “If you want to eat
something now, eat your crackers or your fruit pack. You’ve got some peanut butter and jam in
little tubes.”
“It looks like
toothpaste!” Josh chuckled as he held up
a small yellow tube labeled ‘smooth peanut butter’. “How old is all this stuff anyway?” He asked.
“These are 1998
rations. They have a shelf-life of about
five years.”
“This is two year
old food?” Josh asked skeptically.
We chowed down on
our crackers and tore into our foil packs of sliced peaches. Just getting that small amount of food into
our bellies was enough to brighten the day a little bit. I could see that Josh was really enjoying his
meal. He even tore the fruit pack wide
open and licked out the inside to get all the juice!
I went back to
the Jeep and returned with four more bottles of water. I handed two to Josh. “Drink about half of that and then you can
mix the powdered orange juice crystals up with the rest.”
“Not quite as
good as fresh juice, but it’ll do,” Josh lamented.
By the time we
had our orange juice mixed up, the main course was ready. I used tongs to lift the foil packs out of
the boiling water and slid them back into their cardboard boxes. I handed one to Josh and kept the other for
myself.
“All you do is
tear the top off the foil pack and then dig it,” I told him as I showed him
exactly how it’s done. As soon as the
packs were opened, the delicious smell of sausage and potatoes wafted out. Josh, forgetting that this was indeed
two-year-old food, dug in like a starving man.
“Hey, this is
pretty good,” he said as he licked his lips and dug back in for another bite.
It wasn’t exactly
home cooked food but it was hot and it was filling and it gave us the boost
that we needed. As Josh continued to
eat, I dumped the pot of water and refilled the pot from two more bottles of
water. “This is to make some tea and
coffee.”
The sausage and
hashbrowns were gone in no time and we dug into our cookies as we waited for
the water to boil. As we waited we sat
on the picnic bench and watched as the storm continued to rage outside.
I was just
pouring the boiling water into a couple of camp mugs when my cell phone began
to ring. “Josh, mix up this coffee for
us while I get that.”
“Hello?” I said as I answered my phone.
“Tom, its
Susan. How are you boys doing? “
“Really well,
we’re having a blast. There’s a hell of
a rainstorm going on right now so we stopped at a highway rest stop for some
breakfast. How are things back in the
big smoke?”
“Ok, but I have
some bad news,” Susan said hesitantly.
“Uh oh, what’s
up?” I asked in a weary tone.
“You just got
served with a lawsuit,” Susan replied.
“A WHAT?” I shouted into the phone starting Josh who
immediate came over to me with a concerned look on his face.
“Josh’s aunt and
grandparents are suing you for wrongful death in the death of Joe Chambers,”
Susan said regretfully. “They are
seeking $1 million in damages.”
“You’ve got to be
kidding me. That’s madness! Wrongful death? The police ruled that it was a perfectly
justifiable killing,” I replied getting very angry, not with Susan but with
Josh’s father’s family.
“I know. It’s the stupidest thing I ever heard, but I
thought I had better let you know. What
are you going to do about it?” Susan
asked. “Are you going to come home?”
“Not on your
life. Those low-lifes are not going to
screw this trip up and I’m not going to be intimidated by them. We’re continuing on and I’m going to get Andy
on the case.” I might have looked calm
and serene on the outside but on the inside I was fuming. If Josh’s evil relatives had been there at
that moment, I would have cheerfully strangled all three of them.
“Dad, what’s
wrong?” Josh asked urgently. Of course,
if anyone on the planet could see what was truly on my mind at that moment, it
was Josh.
“It’s ok Josh,
I’ll fill you in on the details in a moment,” I said as calmly as I could.
“Thanks for
calling Susan, let me know if anything else happens. Andy will probably send someone over to pick
up the papers and get to work on the case.
I’ll let you know as soon as I know what’s going on. Anyway, thanks again for calling. Here’s Josh,” I said as I handed the phone to
Josh.
“Hi Mom. I miss you too. What’s wrong?
What’s going on?” He asked
urgently.
I saw the colour
drain from Josh’s face as Susan told him about the lawsuit.
“THEY CAN’T DO
THAT. UNCLE JOE WAS GOING TO KILL ALL OF
US AND THAT WOMAN TOO!” Josh yelled.
“I’m sorry. I’m not yelling at you. I just hate those people,” Josh continued in
a resigned tone. I could only hear his
half of the conversation but I could guess what was being said.
After telling
Susan about the trip so far, he said goodbye and hung up. I was sitting at the picnic table and I was
seething.
“Dad?” Josh said hesitantly as he came over and sat
down beside me. “Dad, are you ok?” He picked up a cup of coffee and handed it to
me and then wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“I’m ok Joshy,
I’m just furious.”
“I know, I can
tell. I hate them. They’re just greedy and they want to make
some money out of this. I’m sorry.” Josh said softly.
“You’re
sorry? Josh, you don’t have anything to
be sorry for,” I said incredulously.
“Yes I do. It’s all my fault. You wouldn’t know those people if it wasn’t
for me.”
“Josh don’t say
that. Don’t you dare say that. This has nothing to do with you and it isn’t
your fault. I’d put up with 100 people
like that if it meant being with you.
You aren’t like them.”
“I know, but this
all started because you were so nice to me.
Something bad is happening to you because of that,” Josh said with a
sniffle. “You don’t deserve to have
anything else bad happen to you.”
I put my cup of
coffee down and pulled Josh into a hug.
“Josh, that’s nonsense. First of
all this is happening because those people who USED to be your family are a
bunch of low-life sleaze balls. Second,
had I not been in your life and had I not been so nice to you, we wouldn’t be
right here right now and you’d still be stuck with dealing with those people
yourself. Third, this is a load of
nonsense and it will be thrown out by the judge without a second’s hesitation.”
Josh seemed to
brighten up a bit. “Andy will fix it,
eh?” He asked with a mischievous grin.
“Either Andy or a
lawyer that he recommends,” I replied.
I tried my best
to hide it from Josh, but this whole thing had gone and re-opened some of the
wounds left by the shooting. I found
myself once again having to confront the fact that I had killed a man and now,
to make matters worse, someone was claiming that I was wrong for doing it. I knew it was nonsense, but I felt a weight
return to my shoulders. As much as I
wanted to hide it from Josh, it took all of two minutes for him to figure it
out.
I was in the
process of stowing the camp stove when Josh grasped my arm and turned me to
face him. “This is making you think
about the shooting again, isn’t it?” He asked gently.
“Yeah, just when
I was beginning to think I was over it, those bastards go and dredge it all up
again,” I replied in a distant tone.
“Try not to let
it get to you. We’re having far too good
a time on this trip and we’re going to see Mark and Bryan in a couple of
weeks. What can I do to cheer you
up?” Josh asked earnestly.
I looked into
those striking eyes of his and gently touched his cheek. “Do what you normally do, Joshy. That’s all.
That’s all the help I ever really need,” I replied.
As Josh finished
cleaning up after our breakfast, I called
“You’ve got to be
fucking kidding me,” he exclaimed. “What
a rotten bunch of no-good bastards. I’ll
make some calls and get someone on this.
I’m telling you right now that this is a joke and that we’ll have no
trouble getting it thrown out. Not only
that, we can probably file a counter claim against them for abuse of process
and harassment. We might even be able to
get their lawyer in hot water for filing a frivolous lawsuit.”
I could tell that
Andy was as angry as I was. It was
almost as personal for him as it was for me.
Andy saw it as a threat against his ‘little brother’ and he wasn’t going
to stand for it. “Thanks bro, I figured
that much but hearing it from someone who knows what he’s doing makes it real,”
I replied.
“Don’t let it
worry you. Get on with your trip and
have a great time. We have plenty of
time to respond to this. I’ll call Susan
and arrange to have someone pickup the papers and I know just the lawyer to
handle the case. He’s a professor of
mine and he’s one of your biggest fans.
His sister was a convenience store clerk who was killed by an armed
robber. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d
take the case pro-bono. I suspect it’ll
be so clear cut that I could handle it myself, but I don’t want to take any
chances,” Andy said matter of factly.
“Maybe you can
take it and have this lawyer guide you.”
“I doubt that
he’d take second chair to a law student, but he’ll probably let me take second
chair to him,” Andy replied with a laugh.
We spoke for a
few more minutes before saying our goodbyes and hanging up.
“What did Andy
say?” Josh asked after he finished
re-loading the Jeep.
“Pretty much what
you said, bud. He said not to let it get
to me and not to worry. He’s on the
case.” I smiled wanly and ruffled Josh’s hair.
“Andy’s a good
guy and he really loves you,” Josh said firmly.
“He’ll take care of it. Let’s get
on with out trip and forget all about Aunt Janet and my grandparents,” Josh
said in a determined tone.
“He said that
too,” I replied with a grin.
“Smart guy,” Josh
said and flashed his heart-melting smile.
We got back into
the Jeep and resumed our trip. The
driving was tough and the visibility was worse than it was during a blizzard,
but we pushed on. I was a little quieter
than usual, but Josh did his best to keep my spirits up and to lighten the
mood. We drove on through the lunch hour
and ate some of the beef jerky, fruit and granola bars which we had brought
along for the trip. By the time we
reached Dryden at around
As we neared the
town of
After filling our bellies, we got back into
the Jeep and made the final push out of
“It’s amazing,
you know?” Josh asked.
“What’s
amazing?” I replied.
“Just how big
this country really is. I was looking at
the trip counter on the GPS and it took 23 hours of driving just to get from
home to the
The wonder was
evident in Josh’s voice. I also noticed
a slight crack in his voice as he spoke and it made me smile.
“What?” he asked.
“You didn’t hear
it?” I asked.
“Hear what?”
“Your voice, it’s
cracking a bit,” I replied. “It’s
another sign that you’re growing up.”
Josh beamed at
me. “Cool! I wonder what I’ll sound like when my voice
finishes changing.”
“Probably a lot
like you do now, only deeper. For a
while, as your voice changes, you never know how it’ll come out. It’ll come out in all sorts of weird ways.”
“That’ll be
embarrassing,” Josh said.
“Not at all
bud. All boys go through it. It’s just part of growing up.”
Approximately two
hours after leaving the visitor centre, we arrived in the city of
The GPS guided us
perfectly to the hotel and by the time we were checked into our room, we were
both practically zombies. Thankfully,
Josh was a little livelier than I was and he was able to carry our bags and
guide me to our room on the 12th floor.
Josh used the
keycard to unlock the door and let us into the room. “Lets get in the hot tub and I’ll give you a
massage,” Josh said.
“Sounds like a
plan kiddo,” I replied.
I turned on the
Jacuzzi as Josh deposited our overnight bags.
We both stripped right down and climbed into the warm, soothing
water. We both sat there and relished
the feeling of the bubbling hot water working magic on our tired bodies. I leaned back and closed my eyes.
“Don’t fall
asleep Dad, I don’t think I can lift you out,” Josh said with a chuckle. “Scoot forward,” Josh instructed.
I did as he
directed and he maneuvered himself in behind me and began to work his magic on
my neck and shoulders. “Oh man, I
haven’t felt this relaxed before in my life,” I said in a sleepy tone.
“I’m glad. Today was a tough day and it just get’s
easier from here on.”
“It sure
does. Just think, we’ll be in
We were going to
do such a tour, but what Josh didn’t know was that I had plotted with
Josh finished his
massage by giving me a firm hug. “Feel
better,” he asked.
“Much better,” I
replied. “Now it’s your turn. Switch places,” I told him.
Josh and I
reversed our positions and I did my best to give him as soothing and loving a
neck and shoulder rub as he had given me.
He felt like clay in my hands.
When I was done, he was as relaxed as I was and he leaned back into
me. I wrapped my arms around him leaned
my head on his shoulder. We sat that way
for another ten minutes.
“I guess we had
better get out before we shrivel up like prunes,” I said.
Josh giggled
sweetly. “Well look like those
We climbed out of
the hot tub, dried ourselves off and we both put on a clean pair of briefs
before stretching out on one of the spacious beds and turned on the TV. We spent the next couple of hours watching
“True Lies” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis. It was an entertaining action movie which we
both enjoyed. Suddenly Josh’s belly let
out a mighty rumble.
“I’m hungry
again,” Josh announced. “How about you?”
Surprisingly, I
actually was hungry once again. “Come to
think of it, I could eat again.”
Josh reached over
to the small night table and retrieved a room service menu. “Let’s order room-service, it’ll be my
treat,” Josh said.
“Ooh, in that
case, I’ll have the lobster and fillet mignon,” I said with a wink.
“You can if you
want,” Josh replied seriously.
“I was
kidding. Let’s have some nice finger
food. Wings or pizza would be nice.”
“They have
both. Let’s get a medium pizza, 30 wings
and some Cokes to drink.”
“Works for me
bud.”
The time in the
hot tub had both relaxed and rejuvenated us and we needed to refuel our
bodies. When our order was delivered
about 30 minutes later, it didn’t take us long to devour the pizza and the mess
of wings. Eating that spread of food had
the same effect as a sleeping pill and before long we were both yawning and
ready to hit the hay.
We knew that we
could sleep in the next day and we wanted to take every advantage of that
opportunity. The motel beds were large
and very comfortable and after we turned out the lights and shut off the TV,
Josh and I climbed into bed and cuddled up together. It didn’t take long for us both to drift off
into a deep peaceful sleep. Our trip had
reached its first major milestone. We
had made it out of
It was Josh’s
first trip outside of