What Passes For Normal

Chapter 26

Teddy,

I'm really sorry but I have to leave. I feel so bad about bringing all this weird shit into your lives and the only point has been to help me. In return I've just caused you trouble. I'm going back to Kamloops for a while. I'll stay with my brother Kev. Can't face living with my Mom again but this will be a good compromise.

There's nothing I can say that would really tell you how thankful I am to you and Neea for all that you've done for me. I don't know how I could ever make it up to you, but I'm going to try, I promise. I'll be in touch soon.

Darwin

Teddy stared at the note. She really was gone. He felt numb. The note didn't say that she was leaving because of him, but he knew.

What should he do? How could he tell his mother? He said he'd look after Darwin! Could he somehow convince her to come back? If he could just call her he'd beg her to come back to Victoria! Why didn't she have a goddamn phone? Everyone has a phone! He remembered her saying something about Kodi throwing it in the ocean, the psycho. Neea had been planning to take her to get a new one, but it hadn't seemed like a big priority. It should have been!

So, how long before she got to Kamloops? Would she have taken the bus? How do you take a bus from Victoria to Kamloops anyway when you have a body of water in the way? If not a bus, what about a plane? Would she really have flown there? Look online. See if there are any direct flights... Teddy's head was spinning.

Yes, you could fly from Victoria to Kamloops with a stop in Vancouver, but it cost, like, five-hundred bucks! Darwin would never blow money like that. He checked buses. That was a little more complicated. You had to take one bus from Victoria onto the ferry at Swartz Bay, over to the mainland, then catch a Vancouver city bus and then either another bus or the Skytrain to take you downtown to the Vancouver bus terminal. From there you could get a bus to Kamloops. Complicated maybe, but that was the way she'd go because it was the cheapest option.

Should he go look for her at the bus station? He checked the schedule. The earliest bus to the Vancouver ferry would be leaving at 7:45 am. It was just after 6:00. He had time. He could get to the station and find her before she left!

• • • •

It's really cold so I'm pretty much mashed against the coffee shop front window to warm up, all the while staring down the poor guys inside who are just trying to get set up for the day. This place opens super-early and I'm going to sit down with a coffee and absolutely destroy one of those almond croissants I can see in the case. Dude finally lets me in right at the stroke of six, about two seconds away from me breaking down the door.

The croissant is really good, and so is the coffee, and I'm starting to feel a bit better about things. Considering everything that's happened—especially last night—going back to Kamloops is the right thing to do. My dad will be thrilled, and I should be able to keep my mom at enough of a distance to hang onto my own sanity. I'll get Kev and his wife to run interference for me. In a month or two I'll see how things are and then maybe come back to Victoria. Or go somewhere else, I don't know. There's lots of options. The only problem I can see is that if I don't somehow let Kodi and the guys know I'm leaving, they might keep harassing Neea and Teddy.

Maybe I'm colossally stupid, but as I finish my coffee I've pretty much decided that I need to talk to Kodi before I head out of town. I can catch a later bus. If I know what he's so mad about maybe I can fix it. At the very least, with me gone, he won't have a reason to bother Neea and Teddy anymore.

• • • •

His heart was racing as he got to the bus station entrance. Pushing open the door he saw that there were only a few people inside the station. He didn't see Darwin. He walked around, looking at everyone there, looking for her parka or backpack. Maybe she was in the washroom, or maybe she hadn't gotten there yet. Could she be waiting outside on the platform? He went out to look but the platform was empty. He went back in and sat down to wait.