Hold Fast (14 page)

You knows I didn't crack them off. All that was just flowing outa me. Not only that, but once I got started, it got easier and easier. Like I was a born liar. Well, I had to do something to keep the old fellow happy. He was firing questions left and right sir, like half the reason he picked us up was to get our life story.

He wasn't too bad of a fellow all around, I spose. It was just that he asked so many bloody questions. He had me kept going all the time trying to come up with answers. Then he says, “Your brother doesn't say much, does he?”

“Nah, he's got trouble with hes ears. He's practically deaf. He's in a bad state. You might gab on and on to en all day long and he won't give any heed to a word you says. Doctor says he might be completely deaf in three or four years. Not a thing they can do for en.” I winked at Curtis.

“God, that's too bad,” the old fellow says. And he says it so much like he means it, like it came right straight from his heart, that all of a sudden I figured I should never a told him that.

The strangest kind of feeling started to come over me. I started to get mad at myself and ashamed that I lied like a real son-of-a-bitch to the old fellow the way I done. And when I was doing it I was getting the biggest kinda kick out of it too. That made it worse. And I didn't just stop at
a few lies to answer his questions, I went on and on cracking off the big ones and him believing it like it was the gospel truth.

I tell you I didn't know what was getting into me.

Guilt like that might seem stupid. Probably I'd never lay eyes on the old fellow again. But here I was making him feel sorry for us when he might a had all kinds of trouble of his own. His wife might a been real sick or something, for god's sake. And for no reason atall, I gave him something else to get himself upset over. I felt guilty as hell. I never lied as bad as that before. And shit, it was starting to louse up everything on the very first day.

I was more than glad when he finally stopped the car and we got out. I said thank you, but I couldn't look him straight in the face. To top it all off, he told me to take real good care of my brother and then he took five dollars out of his wallet to give me so's I could get a good cap to cover Curtis's ears in case it got cold, he said.

The way he said it made me think of Aunt Flo. That's just like something Aunt Flo would do. And Aunt Flo is such a kind old person that I felt like a piece of dirt when buddy said it.

I told him no thank you very much sir but it is very nice of you. He'll be okay. And closed the door real quick.

See, I can certainly screw up things for myself. I made a vow then and there that if there was any more lies that I'd have to tell then they'd only be enough to get us off the hook. That was it. Not a word more.

Seeing as we got so far on the first ride, I thought maybe we wouldn't need to go back at it with the thumbs right
away, that we could probably spare a few minutes to get something to eat. By this time, where I had gone for so long without anything in my stomach, I was ready to tackle just about the first thing we came across in the way of food. We found a store and laid into the bars and drinks, and a bunch of the best-looking bananas I could ever a hoped to find. I loves bananas. I can eat bananas till the whites of my eyes turns yellow. By the time we made it back to the highway we had practically the whole works of them devoured.

“Curtis,” I said, “you got to do some talking this time, buddy.”

“I don't know what to say.”

“Well, say something. Anything. I don't care what it is. But don't just sit there like a dummy.”

“I'll try.”

God, some try all right. He might a said three words the whole time we was with the next guy that picked us up.

I didn't mind it too much just the same. Because it turned out that the fellow was a wildlife officer and we had her made for things to talk about. When he hauled over to the side of the road I could see four quarters and the head of a moose lying there in the back of the pickup. I figured the moose must a been poached or struck on the highway with a car or something. I couldn't figure what else it could be.

The fellow driving was in a uniform, but he was only a young fellow and he was a great one to have a chat with. We talked practically the whole way to Grand Falls. It turned out I was right — the moose was hit by a car.
Killed the moose and demolished the car. Bad way for a moose to go.

A fine year on moose, the fellow said. Lots of hunters got their moose this year. Then I remembered that this was the fall I was sposed to go with Dad when he went on his hunting trip. We would a had our moose too, cause Dad knew right where to go.

I've seen a good many moose other times when we've been driving along the highway. And I came up on one once in the woods when I was in setting slips, but I never been out and been there when one was shot. I thought for a while that I wouldn't want to be at it, because the moose is such a nice-looking animal when you sees one running through the woods. But I figured that if there's a lot of them on the go and the meat could be put to good use, then I wouldn't mind doing it. I snares rabbits and kills them. Sure it's the same thing.

When we got into Grand Falls, the fellow let us off there just after he turned down at the traffic lights. Even though it's the Trans-Canada, they still got traffic lights in the middle of it. Think they'd have an overpass or something seeing it's the Trans-Canada. We got out and I said thank you and that I certainly enjoyed the ride. Hope we'd be lucky enough to get another one like that.

“Good-bye,” Curtis said. That made it four words. I had to laugh at that fellow.

We took the knapsacks and put them on our backs and then we walked for maybe a mile and a half to get away from the stores and garages, and out to where it looked more like a highway.

It must a been half an hour this time before anyone
stopped to pick us up. Still we was making pretty good time. It was about two o'clock. Good time, that is, up till then. I was a bit scared all along that we wouldn't make it before dark to where I had it in mind to go. It was okay though, the way it worked out, because we ended up spending the night in Gander airport.

If you ever gets your hands on a map you'll see that Grand Falls and Gander are about sixty miles apart. One has a big newsprint mill (and a stink of sulfur) and the other is pretty well known for its airport. It gets a lot of overseas flights that stops for fuel, flying back and forth from Europe.

With any half-decent driver it shouldn't a took us more than an hour to make it to Gander from where we got picked up. But the thing was, we didn't have a half-decent driver. The third one to stop for us was a woman. The slowest kind. Not only that, but she was driving a Volkswagen beetle. Now, small cars like that is not exactly something that gets me excited, to put it mildly. If I had a choice between one of them and a bicycle, I'd have to think twice about the bicycle.

I shouldn't complain I spose. Because she did stop and buy us a load of grub. Just about ten bucks worth. See, when I let on that I didn't have all that much to eat since the day before, she just about had a canary. Old women are forever doing that to me, stuffing me with food. I guess it makes them feel good. Like a mother or something.

She stopped in at this Irving Restaurant on the highway and ordered up two big hot turkey sandwiches. And the biggest glasses of milk she could get. She sat across
from us then in the booth with a bowl of soup and watched us stuff our faces. Not saying we didn't make short work of the food, because we certainly did. Me especially. It was the first real meal I had since breakfast the day before. The old gut was just about caved in.

That really knocked me out that did. Her buying those big platefuls of grub for us and then having a measly little bowl of soup herself. For dessert then she lets us have a sundae each and orders us two pieces of pie besides. Lord dyin, I wouldn't want to see us if we was related to her. We'd be just like the pigs.

We walked outa the restaurant blowed right up to the two eyeballs. To tell the truth, I can't see why she done it. I mean, we might a looked pitiful, but we couldn't a looked that pitiful. Besides, she never seen us before in her life. I spose she's just one of those who makes a habit of going out of their way to do good turns for people. Lots still around like that.

I bet you anything she would a had us into her house for a cup of tea and a few buns if it had been home where she was headed. But she was on her way to Gander to catch a plane to England somewhere to see her daughter. As it was I had to tell her about ten times that the sister we had in Gander was sure to be home and that she really was expecting us.

She was going to drive us right to the door of the house till I told her I couldn't remember the street and what we always done was to go to the airport and phone our sister and she'd come and pick us up. It didn't sound so hot saying I didn't know the street after just telling her not five minutes before that we'd been there a thousand
times. I had to sorta slip over that fast. I made up this fake telephone number right quick like — 674-0891. Then she told me she was sure all Gander phone numbers began with 256.

Frig, you're not stun either. I was getting worse. Well, I said to her, I'll check it out in the phone book. Maybe that was the number of my uncle in Halifax. I spose to god she didn't know the Halifax numbers too.

What sorta convinced her was seeing me in the airport using the phone. From the line-up at the Air Canada counter she couldn't see that I didn't even put in any money. Thank god her plane was due to leave in half an hour. She would a had us mesmerized, making sure we was all right.

We had this big thank-you scene. Cripes, I thought for a minute she was going to kiss us both on the cheeks. I'm forever getting mixed up with these older mothers or aunts or something who wants to kiss me. That's the truth, I am. Natural beauty I spose.

As she was going in to get checked past the security guard and into the waiting room, I yelled out to her that I thought my sister was coming now and be sure to have a good time in England. I said that to make her feel good. For a laugh, I almost bawled out, “and dress warm,” like they always do to me when I goes anywhere. Only I didn't do it. I thought it might spoil things.

I got to stop right here and go back a bit. See, there's one little matter about our meeting up with this woman, Mrs. McKay, that I haven't got around to mentioning yet. It was pretty important to everything that happened afterwards.

I arranged it so that we could steal her car.

Okay, okay. That's a bit much as far as the cops is concerned. I knows that. Me being only fourteen and not having a licence. But what else could I do?

See, the whole way from Grand Falls all I could think about was — now sposing we do end up getting a ride right to the place where we wants to go. What is the fellow going to think of letting us off there? Plus, once word got out that we was missing, the first thing the fellow is going to do is report to the cops that he picked up two young fellows and let them off at such-and-such a place. Then the cops would be right there to grab us.

I kept thinking what the hell are we going to do to get over that problem. Then it came to me. If we had a car or a motorcycle or something we could drive it there ourselves and nobody'd have any trace at all of us to follow.

A car? The old woman's Volkswagen of course. The perfect situation. She gone to England for two weeks. She wouldn't have to know a thing about it. I likes to think we borrowed the car, not stole it atall.

Of course the problem was how to get the thing without her knowing. Well, the way I done it, it couldn't a worked out any better. See, she was in the airport, right, waiting to get herself checked in. I came back from the phone booth and told her that I got through to my sister and that she would be down in a little while, as soon as her husband came back from the grocery store. Then, with her still in line, I told her all of a sudden that I left my gloves in the car and could I please have the keys so I could run out and get them.

I really did leave my gloves in the car. Right under the
front seat where I stuffed them. So I ran back out just like the lightning after she dug the keys up out of her purse.

When I felt the ring of about ten keys in my hand, my mind kissed her fair and square on the lips. I thought maybe she'd have another set with one or two on the chain. And then I would never a been able to take one without her noticing it. I would a had to hot wire the car or something later on. But with all those keys she'd never miss one unless she took the trouble to look real close. That was a chance I figured I had to take.

Out at the car I found the right key to open the door, checked to make sure that it was the same one that fit the ignition, and then put it into my pocket. I took out my gloves. I left one door open too, just in case.

On my way back I stopped at the end of the airport building to see if I could see what she was doing before I went up to her with the keys. She was still at the counter. Perfect. I walked up fast, with the gloves sorta waving in the air a bit. Handed her the keys then as she was talking to the guy about her ticket. She shoved them in her purse without even blinking an eyelid.

She asked me later if I made sure the doors was locked. I didn't want to, but I had no choice, I had to lie.

I knows all this sounds like out and out stealing. Come right down to it and it was. But to me, like I said, it was almost like borrowing some fellow's bike. I only wanted it for a couple of days. It wouldn't get hurt. Nobody would know the difference.

When her flight finally left the ground, I was some relieved. I half expected her to come running back after she got checked past security, waving around a set of keys
and saying there was one missing. But she didn't. She got into the air and I never seen the woman again.