Chapter 24: Chapter 23

Teddy woke up at the sound of his mother talking in her bedroom across the hall. He looked at the clock by his bed.

4:47 am.

Who was she talking to so early in the morning? Darwin?

No. She was on the phone. She was speaking Finnish and she sounded worried. Family in Finland. Teddy crawled out of bed and put on his robe. He tapped lightly on his mother's door before opening it.

The lamp on the bedside table was on and Neea was sitting up in her bed, thick pillows against the headboard behind her. Teddy could hear the thin, muffled sound of his grandmother's voice from the phone. Neea motioned for Teddy to come closer and whispered loudly, "It's Mummi. Ukki is in the hospital."

"What happened?" Teddy whispered back.

"He fell..." Neea said. "Off the roof."

"What?"

Teddy remembered visits to his grandparents' place on a small lake north of Helsinki when he could barely keep up with the old man. A couple years into his seventies, tall Ukki with the bounding stride of a young man, going around the property cutting down a dying tree here, splitting and stacking firewood there, tending to the garden, fixing a fence, building a shed, going from one chore to the next for hours. It was hard to picture him in the hospital.

Teddy sat on the edge of his mother's bed. Now Neea seemed to be talking to a man. A doctor? Ukki himself? No, it was her brother, Teddy's uncle Matti.

"Hänellä oli aivohalvaus? Siis mitä?" said Neea, her tone rising anxiously. Teddy didn't understand what she'd said but he could tell it wasn't good. Her voice was quivering like she was about to cry but then she pushed aside her tears and sat up straight in bed. Neea had this ability to draw on some inner reserve of strength when things got really rough. This must be bad, thought Teddy, growing more concerned. Was Ukki going to die?

Neea looked at Teddy and put a reassuring hand on his forearm. Teddy was picking up the odd Finnish word and it sounded like Neea was making plans for something, possibly a trip to Finland? When she finally said goodbye she turned to him, took a deep breath, and said, "I have to go."

"When?" said Teddy.

"As soon as I can get a flight. The fall wasn't that bad—he landed on a slope and didn't break anything—but they say Ukki had some kind of attack, a stroke maybe, and that's why he fell."

"A stroke? That's really bad, isn't it?" Teddy said, worried.

"It's bad, yes, but some strokes aren't as bad as others. Ukki's seems to have been one of the less bad ones, but he could have more of them, and they could get worse. He needs to be careful. And I need to go home and make sure he's going to be OK. Also to make sure he stays off the roof!"

She'd be flying out of Victoria for a short hop to Vancouver, changing planes there for the very long flight to London, then waiting a few hours at Heathrow before catching another plane for the last leg to Helsinki. Between flying time and layovers it would be nearly nineteen hours. With all that travel time, and with the time difference, it meant she'd be taking off from Victoria in the early evening on Tuesday and landing in Helsinki late in the evening on Wednesday. She'd spend a night with friends there in the capital before getting a ride with Matti the following morning up to the house, which was about an hour from Helsinki. Her father was staying at a hospital in a nearby town.

That was the only thing Teddy hated about vacations to Finland: it took way too long to get there! Now, for the first time in his life, his mother was going to Finland without him.

As if things weren't complicated enough for Neea, her boss Peter called her as she was trying to pack. He was quite upset.

"I got jumped by a gang of thugs last night!"

"What are you talking about?" asked Neea, confused.

"I got beat up. A bunch of ruffians beat me up and left me in a parking lot!"

"Oh my God! Are you OK?"

"No, I'm not OK!" he said. "I have a concussion and a black eye... It's not a pretty picture."

"That's horrible," said Neea. "Who were these thugs? I didn't think this sort of thing happened in Victoria!"

"I have no idea. They came out of nowhere."

"Where did it happen?"

"Downtown. In the parking lot by the marina where I keep my boat."

"You were going to your boat last night?" Neea asked.

"Yes. Surely it's immaterial but, if you must know, I was drunk and in no shape to drive home so I was planning on sleeping on the boat. Quite responsible, don't you think? Instead I spent the night in a hospital!"

"Oh, I just hope you're OK."

"Stop saying that! I already told you I'm not OK! This is devastating, and I need you here. I need you at the office. I know you wanted a month and it's only been two weeks, but I really need you to come in."

"Peter..."

"This was an unforeseeable event, and I'm sorry if it isn't convenient for you, but it's imperative that you come back to work."

"Peter, I'm flying to Finland tomorrow. My father has had a stroke. I already bought the ticket."

"What? Finland? No, that isn't acceptable. Why didn't you check with me first? I'm your boss. You seem to forget that!"

"It's for a few days, perhaps a week. And I didn't tell you because I already told you I wouldn't be in the office for a month..."

"This is really unacceptable, Neea. Unprofessional. If this girl you're looking after is well enough that you can jet off to Finland, then you could have been working all this time. I'm very disappointed in you. And if your father is sick, you being there in Finland isn't going to change things one way or the other."

"Peter, I have to go. I'm sorry about what happened to you and I'm sorry about the timing, but I'm going. I'll come back to work soon, I promise."

"Don't be so sure," he said, and hung up.

• • • •

Neea's dad has apparently had some kind of stroke while fixing the roof on their house back in Finland. She's going to fly over there for a few days to make sure he's okay and take a little of the pressure off her Mom. Neea's really close to her parents, even though she chose to live about fifty million miles away.

But now instead of being worried about her dad she's worried about me—will I be okay while she's gone, or will I have some sudden relapse and go back on meth and back on the streets?

"I'm over the hump," I tell her, handing over my two corners of the bedsheet we're folding in the living room. "I don't think about it anymore, and I really don't want to live on the street again either, so you don't have to worry about that."

"It'll all be fine, Mom," Teddy assures her from the kitchen. "It's not like you're going to Antarctica. We can call you if there are any problems.

Neea's doubts seem to be easing. "You'll keep up the schedule?" she asks me.

"Promise," I say.

"And there's a visit with Dr. Rao next Thursday," she says to Teddy, now standing in the doorway between the kitchen and living room. "You'll take her there, right?"

"Of course," says Ted.

"It's good for Darwin to stay busy. I know you're in school all day but you'll do things with her in the evenings, yes? You can watch some movies, make some nice dinners, go do something with your friends..."

"Yes, Mom! Don't worry. I'll do stuff with Darwin!" insists Teddy.

Yay! Teddy's going to do stuff with me!

• • • •

They drove north out of Victoria, up the Patricia Bay Highway toward the airport, Teddy behind the wheel, Neea in the passenger seat and Darwin in back. It was grey but not raining. Along the highway, signs for gas stations and fast food slowly gave way to low-rise condos and houses and, eventually, to wide, rolling farms surrounded by low hills covered in dark stands of fir, hemlock and cedar. To the east, there were glimpses through the trees of islands out in the strait and a white-hulled ferry making its way between them. The Swartz Bay Ferry Terminal was just a few kilometres north of the airport and ferries headed out from there for smaller islands and for Vancouver on the mainland. The Canada-U.S. border was out there too, zig-zagging invisibly between islands, divvying up the San Juans on the American side and the Gulf Islands in Canada before taking a sharp turn at the forty-ninth parallel and heading due east in a straight line across the belly of the continent.

"Don't forget to water the plants!" Neea said for the third time today.

"Mom..." said Teddy with mock exasperation. He caught Darwin's eye in the rearview mirror and smiled.

"The yard will need raking again too," Neea was going on. "And with all the rain, you might have to cut the grass once more."

"I know, Mom. We covered all this."

"Oh, and I paid the Internet bill so if there are any problems it's not us, it's them. Call them! And eat lots of fruit and veggies, OK? Don't just say it, really do it!"

Darwin laughed. Teddy said, "OK Mom! Are you done? We're gonna be fine. You'll probably be back in a week or so anyway, right?"

"If all goes well, yes, but I can't make any promises. It all depends on Ukki's health."

At the departure drop-off area Neea was smiling but holding back tears. "I'll call tomorrow when I get to Helsinki."

Teddy and Darwin each gave Neea a long hug. She stood a moment smiling at the two of them before turning to go, suitcase in tow, through the automatic doors and into the airport. She stopped inside the doors and blew two kisses back to them before the doors closed.

• • • •

We're driving back to town from the airport, Teddy and me, and I'm thinking about sex.

Not, like, getting all hot and bothered, just thinking about it in a general way, like when you might think 'I like french fries' as opposed to 'oh my God I'd murder some fries right now'. It's a bit of a revelation though, given my general meth-addled state of mind, to be thinking about it all.

I've had sex with a grand total of two guys in my entire life. Pitiful, I know, but Ethan Kavanagh and Kodi Gretsch are it—both long-term situations with no sneaky stuff on the side. That pretty much makes me an old-fashioned, faithful, good-girl type, the type who puts commitment and principles above, you know, bodily urges. A sensible girl.

Teddy's being quiet as we drive and I'm cool with that. It used to kinda of freak me out how he can be this deep pool of brooding silence sometimes. I would always assume that he just didn't like me (and, let's be honest, at that time he really didn't), but after the night at the gallery it's been different. I think he likes me more and I think I understand him better. Now the silence doesn't bother me. I think he's comfortable being with me. He's just quiet sometimes.

But really, me, sensible? I lived on the street. I did meth and had loads of sex with a completely irresponsible and violently abusive drug addict. No way you could call any of that sensible. More like stupid verging on suicidal.

Teddy's a good driver. I can tell by his unfailing shoulder checks and properly signalled lane changes. Neea either taught him well herself or put him into a good driving school. Finns take driving seriously. Like really seriously. Neea was telling me about driver education there. It's totally next level. Don't judge Neea's driving skills by the fact that she drove into me. She's a great driver too, though maybe a little unsure of herself after that incident.

Do I even want to be the sensible one? I mean... maybe? My life to this point has been a wrestling match between that sensible side and the side that wants nothing to do with being good, being normal, doing what's expected. I obviously went pretty far down that path, but now that I'm turning away from my street-living, meth-experimenting adventure, maybe a little normal isn't such a bad thing?

But way more to the point, will Teddy and I have sex?

Maybe? Things are moving in that specific direction. Just T and me in that big ol' house, a week or so of quiet November evenings with nothing much to do after the dinner dishes are washed and put away except turn the furnace down and share our body heat. It's not hard to imagine how it might go.

But is that what I want?

Yup, I actually think it is.

You know, meth can make you randy as hell, but quitting meth cold turkey has the total opposite effect. I've loved sex right from my first awkward, nervous time with Ethan down in his basement on a smelly, squeaky old couch. Ethan's parents were sleeping right upstairs, but we were determined. I remember their dog, a Cocker Spaniel named Peaches, refused to leave us alone, not knowing what we were doing but not wanting to be left out of the fun. She sat there beside the couch, whimpering and sneezing, her cold, wet nose touching the bare skin of whichever of my limbs happened to come near her. Even that didn't ruin it for me.

So yeah, I love sex, but going off meth turned me into a sad, cranky nonsexual nothing, an angry sexless amoeba floating in the murky depths of self-pity. I was too busy being irritated by absolutely everything to even think about it, and really, it wasn't an issue cuz no sane person would have wanted me anyway. But then that night at the gallery and on the ride home, Teddy was so sweet and, yeah... there's definitely something about that boy, his smile, his wide shoulders and strong hands... anyway, I felt that spark, the urge, for the first time in eons.

So do I want to enter into another one of those long-term commitment deals like I had with Ethan and sort of had with Kodi?

Mmm, probably not.

Then does that mean I just want to get with Teddy and then break his little heart?

Probably... not?

• • • •

They drove in silence while Teddy tried to think of something to say. His mother was gone and it was just going to be him and Darwin in the house for a while. How would that go? After the art gallery night he felt like they were kind of connecting, but now would it get weird? He hoped not. Darwin finally broke the silence.

"Vanalman?" she said as they passed a big sign for the exit to Vanalman Avenue. "It's just 'anal man' with a 'V' in front of it. Did no one think of that?"

Teddy laughed, then gave a quiet sigh of relief. Clearly Darwin was pretty chill about this. He should try to be too.

"So, what do you feel like doing?" he asked. "For dinner, I mean."

"I think your mom bought the fixings for one of her pork chop extravaganzas," said Darwin. "Should we just do that?"

"Sure," said Teddy.

• • • •

A text comes in for Teddy and he hands me his phone to deal with while he drives. The text is from Jello.

"Weather says sunny tomorrow," I read out to Teddy. "Goodminton! Last game of the season! C. J. wants to see us play."

"Wow," said Teddy, shaking his head.

"What's 'goodminton'?" I ask, wondering if that's something I should have heard of.

"It's a game we made up. But I don't know...."

"You should play! Where do you do it? Can I watch?"

"In the park. But... it's pretty stupid."

"I love stupid stuff!"

"Hmm. Tell him 'maybe'."

I type the message, hit send and then ask, "So how do you play?"

"Well, it's based on badminton, but totally different. There's three players for one thing. We made it up with Byron, so we had to come up with a game that three could play..."

"So, like, two against one?"

"No, every man for himself!"

"So how does that work?"

"We have to rig up a pretty weird net to make three areas. The court is basically a circle cut into three."

"OK, but how do you play?"

"There's two birdies going at the same time, so it's totally chaotic. It's a little hard to describe, but there's a video I can show you. Byron's sister Grace shot it. You can see us in action!"

When we get back to the house on Rendall Street and Teddy's parking the Honda, he asks me what I'd think of skipping the pork chops tonight and going for a walk downtown where we can grab something to eat. It's actually pretty nice out for November and a walk sounds really good.

"And we can watch the goodminton video," Teddy says.

Almost like a date, I think, but do I really want to go downtown? Every time I do I get nervous about bumping into Kodi and the others. It's getting dark out though. Maybe we can be stealthy.

"Sounds great," I say.

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— D.B.