In the minutes before they hit a girl with their car, Teddy Aiken and his mother Neea were driving around the city trying to buy a pair of shoes.
They'd been to a strip mall out in Langford. Teddy had called a store there and been told that they had the specific runners he'd been looking for and, yes, they had his size. This was kind of a small miracle because these particular ones were back-ordered in every store Teddy had found online and he couldn't even get them from the manufacturer because they were, technically, last year's shoes.
Neea had agreed to leave work early, come and pick him up after his last class at Songhees College and drive him out there. When they got there, however, they found that the staff at the store had actually put aside a pair of nine-and-a-halfs for him and they didn't have size elevens or even eleven-and-a-halfs or ten-and-a-halfs, which maybe could have fit. They didn't give much of an explanation for the mix-up and were barely even apologetic for making them drive out there for nothing.
Neea had pointed optimistically at another style of runners on the wall of shoes. "These are pretty close, Ted!"
Teddy looked over at the shoes and grunted his disapproval. They'd left the store and walked to the car in silence. Then, as if to mock Teddy's sadness, rain had begun to fall from the grey sky above.
As his mother drove, Teddy sat in the passenger seat of their old Honda, feeling miserable. "How does someone hear 'eleven' and think 'nine-and-a-half'? How is that even possible?"
He pushed aside his disappointment and tried to find another store with his shoes in stock. He searched on his phone and made a few short calls until he got another lead.
"She said to try Foot Fetish," he said to Neea, quickly looking up the number as he spoke. Neea turned on the wipers as the rain got heavier.
"That place with the big foot?" she asked. "On Johnson Street?"
"Yeah, that one," he said, waiting for someone to answer.
"Hi. Um, I'm looking for a pair of Neo-Glide R12s in grey and green. Yeah, those... size eleven... Really? You're sure? OK... No, we're coming right now... Oh, OK. We're nearly there. Thanks!"
"They've got 'em!" he said, checking the time on his phone. "But they're closing in... God! Eleven minutes!"
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I turn away from P. L. and Ty into the downpour. Ty calls out to me from the sheltered doorway, saying, "I'll tell him you were looking for him!"
On the street, people are rushing along talking into their phones about how annoying the rain is, despite them being protected from it by their pricey umbrellas and outerwear. They swerve to avoid me, this small scary girl who can't be bothered with an umbrella glaring at them from under the hood of a drenched, over-sized thrift-store parka.
Also, I'm ploughing a path straight through them. I could go around them, dodge to one side or the other as I pass, but I'm just not in the mood.
Actually, I'm starting to freak out. We've been going with no sleep for, like, forty hours or more and I'm about to crash super hard, and Kodi picks now of all times to completely vanish? He was supposed to meet me at the parking lot on Fisgard. We were going to get pot-stickers. Gotta eat, he always says, even if you don't feel like it. After that we were supposed to go to Switch's for more meth. I couldn't really care less about the pot-stickers right now but I was there on time anyway and I ended up waiting an hour and finally gave up to go look for him. Why does he pull this shit?
Damn it, Kodi, where are you? Are you with Bryn?
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"Don't be too upset if this doesn't work out, OK?" said Neea, trying to prepare Teddy for disappointment. "Your other shoes will do fine until we can get the ones you want."
"Turn here!" said Teddy. "Johnson's one way, so cut over to Store Street then come up."
Turning onto Herald Street, Neea braked hard as a pedestrian stepped off the curb in front of them. "Oh! It says 'don't walk'! Don't they know we can't see them with all this rain?"
"Suicidal," said Teddy.
Neea was born and raised in Finland and, having learned to drive a car there in her teens, was sort of an expert due to Finland's famously thorough driver education. Teddy had his license and was a good driver too, but preferred to let his mother take the wheel when they were together to avoid her polite but constant driving tips. His basic Canadian driving lessons had left out a lot of the advanced training that you get in Finland so she was always trying to bring him up to the Finnish standard. It was annoying.
He checked the time again. Six minutes.
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The G.H. maybe?
The Gin Hole used to be our "secret place" back when we were first hanging out togetherâthe place where we could get away from everyone else on the street. You squeeze through some hedges over near a little lake in Beacon Hill Park and there's a space inside, like a room made of bushes with a low, prickly ceiling, totally concealed from view. The first time Kodi took me there the ground was littered with a bunch of empty bottlesâGordon's Gin. Kodi said someone had probably stolen a case of it. He laughed as we smoked a bowl. Meth is kid's stuff, he said. Gin's hardcore.
The rain is not letting up and it's soaking through my parka and hoodie underneath. I feel little streams of rainwater running down behind my ears and my shirt is wet and sticking to my shoulders. My jeans are pretty much drenched now too and I'm starting to shiver.
So is Kodi at the Gin Hole? Of course he isn't. We haven't gone there for weeks. Like with all our other sexy stuff, Kodi never wants to anymore. Still, it feels a lot better thinking he might be there right now waiting for me than thinking he's with another girl. The Gin Hole is maybe a fifteen minute walk from here. Not far, but it's pouring and the streets are clogging up with peopleâall the worker-bees coming out of their offices and heading to their monthly-permit parking and their Benzes and Beemers. I picture myself climbing up onto their umbrellas and stepping from one to the next all the way to the park.
What I would do if I wasn't such a complete idiot is go to my Aunt Yvonne's. Probably a cheque waiting there for me from Pat and Geoffrey and we could really use that cash. Plus I could throw my clothes in the dryer and read Yvonne's magazines while they dry. Who buys magazines these days? My Aunt Yvonne, that's who.
Then again, maybe Kodi took Bryn to the G.H... Bryn with her jet-black hair and hot red lips... Goddamn it, Kodi.
It makes no sense at all, I know, but I decide to head toward the Gin Hole.
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"If there's no parking in front I'll just stop and you can jump out, OK? I'll go around the block and find a place to wait."
"OK," said Teddy.
On Store Street, at the intersection with Johnson, Neea leaned forward to look past Teddy, made sure it was clear, then accelerated. From out of the flat greyness of the rainy evening, someone seemed to materialize right in front of them.
"Mom!" Teddy yelled, but before Neea could react, there was a sickening thud.
The person (he? she? a bundle of clothes? a dummy?) was thrown into the air and over the right front corner of the car. Neea stamped on the brakes, swearing in Finnish, "Perkele!"
"You hit someone!" shouted Teddy, but Neea was already springing from the car.
He frantically unbuckled his seat-belt to follow. Cars were stopping on the street, people on the sidewalk looked at them, wide-eyed and curious. And there, on the road, ten feet behind the car, people gathering around it... the body. Oh God, they killed someone.
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There are people staring down at me. Some of them are holding umbrellas over me, apparently trying to shelter me from the rain. A couple of others are taking pictures. Why the hell am I lying on the road? What just happened?
Oh right... the car. I'm such an idiot.
People are on their phones, saying, "... Johnson Street" "... a girl" "... ambulance," etc.
I start to sit up, but the umbrella people all tell me to stay where I am. "Don't get up!" they all say.
Fuck that, I'm thinking, I'll get up if I want to, but then it really hurts to move so I lie back down for a sec...
The umbrella holders aren't doing such a fantastic job because in between the dark, pointy circles of their umbrellas fat raindrops are coming straight down out of the grey sky and plopping right onto my face. Feels pretty nice actually.
OK, so I'm not dead. Probably not even seriously injured. I mentally do a little self-triage. Some painâleg, elbow... shoulder tooâbut not that bad.
My backpack! I raise my head to look around and see it next to me on the road and realize one strap is still looped around my arm. OK, good. Losing all my shit would suck.
"Are you OK?" a woman is asking me loudly, as if getting hit by a car makes you go deaf. The woman sounds angry for some reason and she keeps her phone pressed to her ear while she's talking to me.
"Are you the driver?" I ask her but she doesn't answer me, talking to her phone instead.
"I am," another woman says. "I'm the driver."
This one looks more upset than angry. She crouches down right next to me and starts talking really fast with some kind of accent.
"I'm so sorry... didn't even see you... the rain...." And on and on. There's a boy next to the woman. He's nodding at everything she says.
"Am I bleeding?" I ask, and they look me over.
"I don't see any blood," says the boy. He looks to be around my age, nineteen or so.
I don't want to be in the road anymore. Cops will be here soon and the cops and I don't get along too well these days. I force myself up into a sitting position. It hurts, but not as much as I expected.
"Actually, I really feel like getting out of here," I say.
"No!" the woman says, nearly in a panic. Then to the boy she half-whispers, "She's delirious."
She turns back to me and says, "An ambulance will come soon. You need to go to the hospital. We'll come with you, OK?"
"Um, that's really nice but, uh..." With some effort I get up to my feet and hoist my backpack up onto one shoulder. "Ow, shit... see, I'm fine! Not to worry. You guys can go."
The woman is looking at me like I'm completely nuts. She reaches for my backpack, trying to help I guess, but I pull it away with a sharp "No!"
Now she's grabbing my arm to steady me and the boy does the same on the other side making me feel like a total invalid.
"OK, but why don't you just sit over here on the sidewalk until the ambulance gets here?" the woman is saying, steering me off the road.
Then I realize that I could maybe use them to get away from here. I turn to her and say, "How about we just get in your car?"
The crowd of umbrella people has mostly moved on, satisfied that they've done their civic duty. We're standing awkwardly on the sidewalk now. I look at the boy. He's tall, quite a bit taller than his mother, if that's who she is.
"Please," I say to him quietly. "I don't want to talk to the police right now."
The rain has let up a little bit, but the three of us are still getting pretty soaked while we chit chat. The boy looks nervously at his mother and shrugs.
I turn back to the woman,"You owe me, right?" I say.
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Teddy and Neea looked at each other, unsure what to do. There was a prolonged honk from up the street. Cars were filing past, but Neea's Honda was slowing rush-hour traffic on Johnson Street.
"We'll take her to the hospital ourselves," Neea said to Teddy decisively. "You drive, Ted. I'll take care of her in the back."
Teddy got in and started the car while Neea helped the girl into the back seat. The girl winced as she bent her leg. Neea ran around to the other side, got in and closed her door. Teddy put the car in gear and started away.
"What about the police, Mom?" he said. "Won't they want to talk to us? Aren't we, like, leaving the scene of an accident?"
"We're taking her to the hospital, Ted. It's fine. I can talk to the police later."
Neea sounded so calm and controlled, Teddy thought. How does she do it? As he drove up Johnson, he anxiously scanned the cross-streets for signs of the police. His mom was such a mysteryâshe could freak out at the smallest things, and then go and be a hero like this when something major happened. He glanced back briefly in the rear-view mirror. Neea's full attention was on the girl, making sure she wasn't seriously hurt, talking to her in a quiet, soothing voice.
"We were going to get some shoes for my son," she was saying. "In a store back there, just up from where we..."
"Mom!" Teddy interrupted, "That's not important now."
"All right, Ted. Royal Jubilee is closest, right?"
"Yeah, that's where I'm going."
"My son's name is TedâTeddyâand I'm Neea."
"OK," said the girl.
They heard the wail of a siren getting closer. "That's your ambulance," Neea said to the girl.
"Guess so," said the girl.
"Will you tell us your name?" said Neea.
"Um, sure. Why not? It's Darwin."
"Hello Darwin," said Neea with a smile.
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â D.B.