Original Chapter one One Night

Bobbi squirmed in the seat. Her butt was already sore on the dusty, over-used seat. They had decided to sit in the very first seat to have a good view of the road. Abby had made this trip to Prince Rupert so often because the long drive went faster if she could watch their progress in the four hour drive. She’d learned that sitting in that first seat you could talk to the bus driver, and sometimes that was fun and made the time go even faster.
“How far are we now, Abby?” she asked.
“I think we’re about a third of the way. Are you already bored?”
The road ran parallel to the Skeena river and the bus ground its way down the highway, winding through the mountains, taking them toward the ocean.
Abby continued, “I can’t wait to see Gary. It’s been a whole week since we’ve been together. He’s a dreamboat, you’ll see. I’m glad you came finally. I know you think you’ll be a third wheel but I promise it’ll be fun. Gary’s bringing his friend Tom tonight so it will be like a double date.”
Bobby thought about that. It might not be too bad. Besides, a change of scenery might help. “I’m glad you talked me into coming. We can have fun if you don’t forget all about me as soon as you see Gary”.
She was tired of her hometown, sick of the guys she knew and getting bored with her job. She was so ready for something new in her life. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew she couldn’t’t stand it if things kept going the way they were.
“Don’t worry. The circus is in town. Maybe you’ll meet someone cute there. Or a ship might be in town, just think of all those cute sailors in there tight white pants and sailor tops. Hey Bobby, look at that guy in the third seat down, don’t be obvious! Doesn’t he look like Santa Claus?”

Bobby glanced back and sure enough, the man had white hair, a beet red face and sat with his hands across an enormous belly. On the bus floor at his feet was a lumpy black bag. Bobby nudged Abby on the shoulder and covered her mouth to muffle her laugh.

“He looks like he’s taking the bus home to the North Pole.”

“He looks like he lost Mrs. Claus somewhere along the way.”

“He looks like he’s been scamming drinks at the houses he left toys.”

One of them would look back, then look at each other and start laughing again. It didn’t take much to set them off. They had been close for so long. The first time they had really clicked had been at the annual family reunion when Abby was six and Bobby was five.

That day a contest was held for all the little cousins. Their aunt from Toronto had brought one beautiful doll, so it was decided by all the aunts to raffle it off. The enchanting face and beautiful clothes of the doll had never been seen in any of the dolls they had, and only one lucky girl walked away happy. Neither of them had won. They began to talk about how much they had wanted the doll. A strong bond formed between them. As time went on the relationship had it’s failures, and sometimes they would be mad at each other for awhile, but their friendship continued.

Now they both loved fashion, boys and fun. Abby wanted to get married and have babies. Bobby wanted to conquer the world.

The bus fumed its way through the clear air and towering trees, the mountains were a hazy blue in the atmosphere. The sun poured gold into the air with a promise of a gorgeous weekend. Bobby had just graduated from boarding school in June. It was July and she had been working for a month. Her boyfriend was gorgeous to look at but they had nothing in common. She couldn’t wait to move away to university, but she had to earn more money. Her mom was fed-up with her already. She didn’t like anyone of working age hanging around the house, because there were too many kids.

Bobby looked out at the river; its rushing, slightly muddy waters were still swollen from the spring runoff. She wondered if she would ever do anything really interesting. Her eye caught one lone eagle circling over the river, searching for the first of the ooligan run, and she felt like that eagle, searching, hoping for what would satisfy her hunger. The stench of diesel rose from the floorboards.

Abby leaned against her as the bus curved around a sharp turn. Her brown eyes flashd with excitement. She had done her hair and makeup to perfection. Her dark brunette hair was a perfect shoulder length flip. Her coral pants were the
in-color this year and the thin white top fit perfectly, looked expensive, and showed her figure to its best advantage. Abby had made the clothes herself. Along with her dark brown eyes, she had black eyelashes and winged black eyebrows.

Bobby looked at her own reflection in the window. She was not the picture of elegance that her cousin was. She loved cool clothes but didn’t have the money to get the stuff she liked. She had one nice outfit which she now wore, straight fitted black pants and a silky black and white zigzag print top.

“So Bobby, when we get to Chick’s we have to baby-sit for awhile right away because she has to work for four hours.” Abby’s tone of voice and her eyes conveyed ‘don’t give me a hard time about this we have to do it’.

Bobby groaned inside. This was the price of the weekend holiday. Abby had agreed to look after her sister’s children during the hours she had to work. Bobby hated baby-sitting. She had spent one long lonely summer looking after an infant eight hours a day five days a week. There had been nothing to do, not even any housework, to break the long hours of isolation. She was not one of those girls who just loved kids and found endless joy in playing with them. No one had ever played with her so she didn’t have any idea how to play with them. She had spent hours in the trees of the back yard playing ‘house’ or in the sandy hill at the side of the yard building towns in which she was everything, the fireman, the logger and the housewife. She had landscaped yards, built town halls and driven trucks along her streets, trucks she had stolen from her brothers.